Inquiries into the Absolute, Digest 8

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Hare Krishna !!

 

Digest 8, June 7, 2001

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Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

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Please email your questions to mail (AT) iskcondc (DOT) org. Questions of general

interest will be posted in the digest for the benefit of others. Specific

questions will be answered individually.

 

Preaching

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Q 8.1) One of the nama aparadhas (offenses against the holy name) is to

preach to a non believer. Would you please elaborate on this. It's

confusing me as devotees many times preach to a non believer.

 

Ans.

Preaching to a non-believer is in itself not an offense. The ninth offense

to the Holy Name is stated as follows: 'To instruct a faithless person

about the glories of the Holy Name'. The offense is, therefore, in

disclosing very confidential truths about the nature of devotional service

to someone who hasn't yet developed faith in spiritual existence. On the

other hand, one could very well help such persons come to the point of

faith, by addressing their basic misconceptions about spiritual life,

provided they are innocent and open-minded. Srila Prabhupada often

demonstrated this and won over so many scientists and philosophers. If one

is totally envious of Krishna or of devotees, however, then the injunction

is that their intimate association should be avoided.

 

Q 8.2) What are the essential training that a person should undergo before

he can preach?

 

Ans.

We had discussed in a previous question, that anyone could preach by

simply repeating faithfully what he or she has heard from a bona fide

devotee. However, for a more systematic preaching effort in representing

the Krishna consciousness philosophy, minimally one should have thoroughly

studied, and be conversant with four main books written by Srila

Prabhupada, under the guidance of devotees: Bhagavad Gita, Sri Isopanisad,

Nectar of Instruction, and Nectar of Devotion. Srimad Bhagavatam Canto One

also contains our essential Gaudiya vaisnava teachings, and should also be

studied very carefully. Practicing the rules and regulations of

devotional life strictly, accepting a qualified spiritual master, and

working under his shelter and guidance makes one further eligible to

effectively represent the message of disciplic succession.

 

Q 8.3) Srila Prabhupada said that unless one is empowered, he cannot

preach, could you kindly explain?

 

Ans.

Knowledge of Krishna, devotional service to Him, the Holy Name - all of

these belong to the spiritual region and cannot be accessed by our mundane

efforts. What then to speak of being instrumental in awakening these in

the hearts of others, through one's material influence? One must be

invested with spiritual 'shakti', through the mercy of Krishna and His

representative, and then one can preach Their message.

 

 

Forms of God

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Q 8.4) When someone says God is Nirakar (formless) and when they say that

God has suddenly became man and after that slowly the men denegerated. How

to express that God is like us with a spiritual body, that men and women

are His creation and not that He has Himself become men and women. Please

explain briefly.

 

Ans.

Krishna resolves all doubts about His nature in the Bhagavad-gita where He

says that the idea that He was impersonal before and has later assumed

this form as Krishna, is incorrect. (Bg 7.24) The form of the Supreme Lord

is called sac-cid-ananda vigraha, which means that His form (vigraha) is

eternal and has not come into being at some point in time. The term

Nirakar (formless) only negates the idea that His form is within the scope

of our mundane conception. As far as the living entities are concerned,

both human beings as well as other species, Krishna says that He is our

Father, and He is the supreme creator. (Cf. Bg 14.4) Another way to

explain this is if we were 'God' at some point of time, then please

consider: why did we degrade? Why is that we are suffering, and covered by

illusion? This would mean that illusion is greater than God! Why is that

we cannot just remember that we are supreme and immediately resolve all

problems? Bhagavad-gita teaches that our true identity is that we are

fragmental parts and parcels of God (Bg 15.7). We are His dependents,

equal to Him in quality but not in quantity.

 

Q 8.5) Some people say that God became man when He wished to, and later

the generations degraded, until now where the present situation prevails.

My question is, has God created man as His eternal servant, to enjoy

Himself with human beings, or did He become man/woman by his will. Why

should he create human beings?

 

Ans.

There are some assumptions that I would like to clarify in this question.

First, there is a distinction between the living entity (spirit soul) and

the species 'human being'. The soul is eternal, an eternal servant of God.

But man is not eternal. By man, we mean the human body. Vedic

literatures explain that the soul, being eternal, was never created, and

is meant to enjoy in service to God, in the spiritual world. God has

created the material world and the various species of life here (i.e. the

different forms of body). The conditioned soul accepts a body in the

material world, evolving through different species of life. In the human

body the soul gets the special facility to understand his real nature and

his relationship with God, and thus go back to the spiritual world.

 

Spiritual World

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Q 8.6) It is said that all souls are originally with Lord Krishna. Then

how we came back to this earth? What is the assurance that the soul would

go back to Godhead if the person performs bhakti towards Him.

 

Ans.

Bhagavad-gita describes the cause of our coming to the material world as

desire and hatred (iccha-dvesa) (Cf. Bg 7.27). In the spiritual world no

one has any desire, save and except to serve the Supreme Personality of

Godhead. When one somehow develops the unceremonious desire to enjoy

separately from the Supreme Lord and become lord oneself, such a soul

comes to the material world to be an illusory master of this illusory

world. The assurance of going back to Godhead is that the Supreme Lord

Himself has given His word. He promises that one who perfects the

performance of bhakti yoga will certainly go back to His abode. (Cf. Bg

18.65, Bg 8.7)

 

Q 8.7) It is said that when we reach the spiritual world we get a

spiritual body. What is the nature of the spiritual body? Is it the same

as our soul?

 

Ans.

Spiritual body and soul are synonymous. The nature of the spiritual body

is sac-cid-ananda vigraha, full of eternity, bliss and knowledge.

 

Q 8.8) Krishna says that once we go back to the spiritual world, we will

never fall again. Does that mean we will never again be a victim of maya,

ego or free will? Also in addition to Krishna loka there are many other

lokas presided by expansions of Krishna. Is there an hierarchy in falling

down or going back?

 

Ans.

The statement about one not having to return from the spiritual world

means that one is no longer bound by sinful reactions nor even has any

remaining scent of material desires, which force one to take another

material body (in contrast to one who has reached up to the Brahma loka,

who will also have to fall down when their pious credits are finished.)

Krishna gives His promise of personal protection, i.e. once one regains

his position in The spiritual world, He will protect one from returning to

this material realm. However, being marginal, the living entity always

has freewill, either to use or misuse. This is just like saying that a

prisoner who has sincerely and thoroughly reformed his character is

terminated of his prison sentence, and being reformed he is not likely to

come back to the prison again. However, he can still exercise his freewill

to act, as he likes. To say the same thing differently, if freewill is

taken away from us, that amounts to becoming inert particles instead of

being conscious entities! As far as the different spiritual planets are

concerned, they are all of the same spiritual quality, except in the

difference of the mood of the devotion to the Lord exhibited by the differ

ent devotees, either in awe and reverence or in intimate love.

 

Q 8.9) It is said that Lord Krishna descends himself in every day of

Brahma. But its already said he performs nitya lila in Golokha Vrindavan.

How is this possible... Is it something like expanding into as many forms

as his consorts in Dwaraka?

 

Ans:

Yes, it is a fact that Krishna can manifest forms that are simultaneously

performing the same functions, or different functions. There is no limit

in Krishna's ability to expand Himself and exhibit His lilas.

 

Srimad Bhagavatam

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Q 8.10) How does one reconcile to the ‘strange’ behavior of Lord

Rsabhadeva (he used to walk around naked, lay in his stool and urine etc.)

to Sri Krishna’s injunction in the Bhagavad Gita (3.21) stating that as

great men do, general masses follow. Lord Rsabhadeva was a great king, an

ideal upholder of dharma, yet why did he then set such a bewildering

example?

 

Ans.

Lord Rsabhadeva was an incarnation of the Supreme Lord and He exhibited

the symptoms of one who has reached the paramahamsa stage, where one is

completely beyond all bodily conception. The condition of his final lila

was that of an avadhuta, or one who totally neglected his external body

and all social conventions; by mundane standards, it appears to the world

that an avadhuta is a madman. These pastimes can be appreciated by us,

but are certainly not to be imitated. Our duty, rather, is to simply

follow the instructions of the acaryas and become gradually purified.

 

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