Be Careful FW: Be Practical

[Guest guest]

 

Dina-Anukampana Dasa [dina (AT) cyberway (DOT) com.sg]

Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 12:46 PM

To: mr x

Subject: RE: Be Practical

 

Dear prabhu

 

Pamho agtsp

 

Pls forgive me, but I feel it is very important that I shd not be silent.

Prabhu, just think how my friends who are followers of the Jain religion

and will view Krishna consciousness if they see what is written below.

(continued below)

 

 

 

 

mr x

Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 10:02 AM

Subject: Be Practical

 

Haribol!!

 

You are one of 'two' persons on a malfunctioning airplane with only one

parachute. How would you react?

 

MayaVadi: Jump without the Parachute and you will become one with the Wind

 

BrahmaVadi: Jumping with or without the Parachute is all one and the same.

 

Buddist: Use a vaccum cleaner to make Void the Parachute before u jump

 

Jain: Tear the Parachute. Take it and tie up your nose better so that u

don't kill these 'elevated' souls.

 

Yogi: Nethi Nethi Parachute.

 

Ghyani: Before the Crash I need to study whether the Parachute will take me

up or down. If I leave by piercing a hole in the Parachute I'll get

elevattion, so better to make a number of holes in the Parachute.

 

Devotee: Simply use the Parachute in Krsna's service. Write in Big 'Krsna'

and Jump.

 

Your Servant

 

mr X.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

(continued from above)

 

Are not jains and yogis also entitled to the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and

Sriman Mahaprabhu? But if they read the above they will immediately hate

Srila Prabhupada and the entire Hare krishna mission, for we are

inisignificant, but we are representing the mission to the whole world

everyone who meets us, for all who meet you identify you as 'a hare krishna

devotee'.

 

I beg you, let us obey Srila Prabhupad's order and NOT preach until we reach

at least Madhyama or uttama platform. Until then let us simply distribute

books and learn the transcendental art of how to associate with devotees

(mahaprabhu defined devotee as one who has uttered 'krsna' once in his life)

by discriminating. We must learn to beg mercy from those who are factually

more advanced than us, we must learn how to identify and make friendship

with those on the same platform, and we must learn how to give more mercy to

others.

 

And if we are unable to discrimate factually (not based on political

pushings of persons with vested interest who may happen to be holding seats

of power in a religious institution such as iskcon), then mahaprahu's

injunction is that we are to treat Every Single Vaishnava we meet as we wd

our Guru and Immediately give up anything, "whatever it may be, even our

guru" if it obstructs our advancement of bhakti, and Spontaneously accept

anything, whatever it maybe, that advances our bhakti. Then taking shelter

in the instructions of Srila Rupa Goswami up till the time we have been

found and saved by Sri Guru, we shd carefully avoid all ten offences as

delineated clearly by Thakur Bhaktivinode in sri harinama cintamani.

 

Pls consider, there are many jainas out there who may be more advanced than

you or I but are just awaiting the fortune of contact with a vaishnava to

again revive their devotional practices, and when they do start, immediately

they will be our superiors. Are we not killing ourselves? This is called

fanaticism, and happens bec. there is a leaning too much towards knowledge

in the beginning of our spiritual life, as srila prabhupada says in Gita as

it is, and this therefore leads us to behave impersonally. So we think we

are vaishnava but we become impersonalist.

 

I am very fallen for sure, but pls save srila prabhupad's mission's name, if

not your own soul. I beg you to consult HH Radhanath Maharaj on my above

advice before you accept or reject it for it may be faulty. On behalf of HH

Srila Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami Sripad Maharaj, I am working closely with

the Inter Religious Organization and Hindu Endowments Board to try and bring

out more inter-religious tolerance in Singapore, and they have given their

main reason for banning Hare krishna devotees from all official hindu

activities in singapore as being our tactless condemnation of other faiths,

which can lead to riots, as singapore experienced as recently as 1964 (when

I lost my own uncle) and 1967. So I beg you to realize that we do not have

the same level of purity that Srila prabhupada and Srila Rupa Goswami

had/have. When they condemn it is with such purity that the hearer's ego is

removed, whereas when we imitate and chastise or condemn, it comes out as

mocking or ridicule and agitates the heart of the hearers because it is

filtered by our own false egos before reaching them.

 

Preaching in Singapore requires that we understand the truth in the opinion

of the authorities and correct ourselves. And, most of all, dear prabhu,

even if we must joke about others, let it not be in black and white, and

esp. not in e-mail format.

 

An elderly 'yogi' once taught me a 'golden rule' for reducing our false ego.

He said "A joke is always made at someone's expense and that is born of our

own false ego, so we shd decide to abandon cutting jokes unnecessarily."

Maybe there is some truth in it - not to say we can't have a funny sense of

humour, as Srila Prabhupada had, but if you read vol. 2 of the Lilamrta, you

will see Srila Prabhupada was always very careful never to hurt or

disrespect anyone, even those who had different philosophies, like Dr

Mishra. He never compromised philosophically, but he never hurt anyone. I

don't know how to express this better, but please consider my appeal as

having been made in the cause of the greater good of ultimately freely

preaching the un-tainted message of Mahaprabhu Without Discrimination to one

and all.

 

Your humble servant always

In service of sri guru and sri gauranga

 

 

dina