Inquiries into the Absolute: Digest 23

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Digest 23, January 24 2002

 

Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

 

Srimad Bhagavatam

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Q.1) The events in Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 1, Ch.12, refer to Arjuna going to

Dwaraka to bring back all of Lord Krishna's wives after Lord Krishna's

departure. It is said that Arjuna's weapon did not work. Why was Arjuna not

able to protect the queens? Why were the wives who were great devotees of

Krishna abducted during this attack?

 

Answer:

This incident is explained in a later chapter wherein both of these questions

are specifically answered in detail within the purports, as well as by Srila

Prabhupada in SB 1.15.20-21. In short, it was a wonderful pastime of the Lord

where the Lord Himself came in disguise to abduct the queens. Simultaneously

the pastime illustrates clearly that Arjuna's strength and prowess was solely

due to Lord Krishna's presence with him; Arjuna had no independent power.

 

Q.2) Who was Yudhisthira in his previous birth? I am trying to reconcile why he

had gambling tendencies.

 

Answer:

Yudhisthira Maharaja is an eternal associate of the Supreme Lord, and a pure

devotee. His participation in the gambling match was not based on any tendency

for material sense-gratification on his part; rather, Mahabharata describes

how, after deep consideration and being bound by religious obligations, he

unwillingly agreed to the proposal for gambling. According to ksatriya codes, a

ksatriya cannot refuse when challenged in a competition, for a battle or a game

of dice. Besides, Yudhisthira Maharaja was personally invited by the elderly

king Dhritarashtra, for 'a friendly match' and he could not refuse the King and

was duty bound to comply with the invitation. On these grounds he agreed,

although he was deeply unhappy to do so.

 

Krishna

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Q.3) If Buddha and Krishna are the same Person then why is there a

contradiction in Their teachings? While Buddha preached non-violence, why does

Krishna justify anger and violence?

I have seen that over time, some of the teachings of Buddha have been modified

to suit the times. Could the same have happened to Krishna's teachings also?

[The questioner is a Buddhist in London who recently discovered Krishna in

ISKCON, has started chanting and developed a lot of faith in Krishna]

 

Answer

[Please also refer to the question on the purpose of Lord Buddha's advent,

Digest 22] Lord Buddha is described as an empowered incarnation of the Original

Personality of Godhead, meaning that Lord Buddha manifested the specific

potency to curb unnecessary violence and misuse of scriptures during His

advent. His teachings were not the absolute conclusions of transcendental

knowledge; rather, they were 'upadharma', or sub-religious principles meant to

elevate the consciousness of the people for that time, place and circumstance.

 

As far as Bhagavad-gita is concerned, these teachings describe the ultimate

conclusions of spiritual knowledge. By careful study, one can understand that

what Krishna is calling for is the highest degree of surrender to His will.

Krishna does encourage Arjuna's fighting and killing. But He is not encouraging

mundane anger and violence. In fact, throughout the Bhagavad-gita in many

places, He describes the divine qualities of a saintly person or His devotee as

being non-violent, equal and kind to all, not causing agony to anyone etc. Yet,

finally He urges Arjuna to fight and to kill the miscreants 'as His

instrument'. The apparent contradiction is resolved in the understanding that

even anger or violence can be used in surrender to the plan of the Lord, and

such surrender is superior to so-called non-violence independent of the Lord's

plans. Lord Krishna appeared to protect religious principles, and when all

other measures to do so were

not yielded to by the Kauravas, only then was protecting religious principles

by military strength deployed.

 

Thus the differences in teaching between Lord Krsna and Buddha are due to the

difference in the time, place, circumstance and the audience for whom the

teachings were intended.

 

When the teachings of the Supreme Lord or great saintly teachers are received

through the system of parampara, or disciplic succession, the teachings are

passed on AS IT IS by the members of the disciplic succession faithfully,

without any modification, addition, deletion or interpretation. An empowered

acarya, (who is authorized by his spiritual master, who is in turn authorized

by his guru and so on) may sometimes make some adjustments according to time,

place and circumstance, but such adjustments are made in details of

application, never in the fundamental principles.

 

Surely the teachings of Lord Krishna have been badly misinterpreted and

misrepresented over the ages, but if one takes care to approach a bona-fide

member of the disciplic succession, such as Srila Prabhupada, the founder

acarya of ISKCON, one can receive the exact teachings of Krishna intact, as He

spoke them 5000 years ago.

 

Spiritual World

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Q.4) What exactly is the spiritual world?

 

Answer

The spiritual world lies beyond the material creation that we know of. To

explain by negation, it is that place where there are no dualities of the

material world such as happiness and distress, pain and pleasure, love and

hatred etc. It is free from all inebriety of the material world such as birth,

death, disease, old age, poverty, greed, competition, strife and loss. Stating

positively, it is the kingdom of God, inhabited by those pure souls who are

eternal, full of knowledge and bliss, who live in harmony with and in pure love

for the Personality of Godhead, thereby enjoying unlimited happiness in

relation with Him. There are innumerable spiritual planets as described in the

scriptures where the residents exchange various types of loving relationships

with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

 

Q.5) Brahma Samhita Text 29 describes the nature of the Goloka Vrindavana,

which is said to contain millions of desire trees with spiritual gems. Why do

we need desire trees there, if we go there only when we become sarvopadhi

vinirmuktam or anyabhilashita sunyam? Why is there mention of gems to indicate

the greatness of the place - is opulence greater than tranquility and purity?

 

Answer:

As you have stated, the eligible inhabitants of Goloka Vrindavana are free from

all material designations and material desires (anyabhilasita sunyam etc.)

Nevertheless, they are not "devoid of desires"; rather they have 'spiritual'

desires, because it is the symptom of life or symptom of spirit soul to desire.

The desires of the pure devotees are entirely related to the loving service and

the pleasure of Lord Sri Krishna, and all their desires to serve the Lord

immediately become reality in the spiritual world, the land full of desire

trees.

 

As far as the spiritual gems are concerned, why should the abode of the Lord

not be opulent? After all, Krishna is the source of all opulence. God's glory

is not one-sided, it is all-encompassing.

 

Because of our experiences in the material world, many of us tend to have a

limited conception

or expectation of the spiritual world. However, the spiritual world is not only

full of tranquility, beauty and love, it is also full of opulence, knowledge

and inconceivable powers. Of course, in the material world it is difficult to

find humility and love and compassion in the same place as great wealth, fame

or beauty. However, in the spiritual world, such opulences serve as impetuses

to increase one's adoration of and devotion to the Personality of Godhead, not

as hindrance or distraction from the ultimate object of love, Krishna.

 

Vegetarianism

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Q.6) Some people consider eggs to be vegetarian. I had a discussion with one

such person who kept claiming that eggs are nothing but protein and

carbohydrates. Could you give me some quotes from Prabhupada's books or

scientific reasoning that defeats this proposition?

 

Answer

People now-a-days consider even fetuses to be 'non-living'! Following such a

line of thought, time may come when one might even consider one's own child as

just 'protein and carbohydrates' and can therefore be killed and eaten! This is

the horrific and pathetic state of affairs in Kali yuga, owing to the neglect

of culture of spiritual knowledge and mass education of materialistic science.

In such a context, where there is no understanding of the soul or of the need

for spiritual cultivation, arguments on vegetarianism cannot accomplish much.

 

Our standards are based on the simple authority of the scriptures, as

Prabhupada repeatedly says: human beings are meant to eat fruits, grains,

vegetables and milk. These are in the mode of goodness and help us in spiritual

advancement, and all other kinds of food are to be avoided.

 

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----- Festivals over the next week ------

Jan 24 2002, Thursday Ekadasi Putrada (Break fast 08:34-10:40) (Fast)

Jan 25 2002, Friday Appearance Sri Jagadisa Pandita

Jan 28 2002, Monday Sri Krsna Pusya abhiseka

 

*** NOTE: All times are for Washington D.C, USA, EST ***

For festival information for your city please go to http://www.iskcondc.org and

click on 'Calendar'

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