No Material Qualifications Are Needed to Serve Krsna!

[Guest guest]

Dear devotees, here's Sept.99 issue of Krishnasoft newsletter. ys, Vir.

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NO MATERIAL QUALIFICATIONS ARE NEEDED TO SERVE KRSNA!

 

Welcome to the KrishnaSoft's Electronic Newsletter.

This is the September 1999 issue entitled: "No Material Qualifications Are

Needed to Serve Krsna!".

WEB: http://www.krishnasoft.com; EMAIL: krishna (AT) krishnasoft (DOT) com or

vdayal (AT) castle (DOT) net

 

This newsletter now goes to over 1100 people who either have an interest in

Vedic science and/or spiritually entertaining multimedia technology.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

(1) No Material Qualifications Are Needed to Serve Krsna!

(2) Vedic Astronomy Simulation

(3) Feedback: Miscellaneous

(4) Editorial Policy and Product List

 

 

1. NO MATERIAL QUALIFICATIONS ARE NEEDED TO SERVE KRSNA!

 

[The following is the tenth of a series of articles to present to the

benefits of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. The multimedia Krsna CDROM published by

Krishnasoft presents the summary of the 10th Canto with parts from the 5th

Canto of this great spiritual masterpiece.]

 

In the August 1999 issue, we discussed how devotional service is never

lost and is the ultimate goal of life. It's also important to note that one

need not be well-educated or have some big qualifications to engage in

devotional service:

 

"The Personality of Godhead may not be present before one's eyes, but if one

is sincere in wanting such guidance the Lord will send a bona fide person who

can guide one properly back home, back to Godhead. THERE IS NO NEED OF

MATERIAL QUALIFICATIONS for making progress on the path of spiritual

realization. In the material world, when one accepts some particular type of

service, he is required to possess some particular type of qualification also.

Without this one is unfit for such service. But in

the devotional service of the Lord the only qualification required is

surrender. Surrendering oneself is in one's own hand. If one likes, he can

surrender immediately, without delay, and that begins his spiritual

life. The bona fide representative of God is as good as God Himself. Or, in

other words, the loving representative of the Lord is more kind and more easy

to approach. A sinful soul cannot approach the Lord directly, but such a

sinful man can very easily approach a pure devotee of the Lord. And if one

agrees to put himself under the guidance of such a devotee of the Lord, he can

also understand the science of God and can also become like the transcendental

pure devotee of the Lord and thus get his liberation back to Godhead, back

home for eternal happiness." (Bhag. 2.7.46)

 

The main point is to receive our devotional service from the disciplic

succession or from Lord Krsna and become fixed in this service. Some people,

who are puffed up due to wealth, knowledge, education, beauty, etc., judge

others by their material skills. But Lord Krsna and His devotees do not judge

people by material results. The material skills or material position may or

may not be present.

 

"Sri Ramananda Raya was a self-realized soul, although outwardly he belonged

to a caste lower than the brahmana in social status... Still, Sri Caitanya

Mahaprabhu accepted him as a liberated soul on the strength of the high order

of his realization of transcendental knowledge... The Lord's ONLY CRITERION

was the standard of devotional service of the particular person. He was not

concerned with the outward dress of a man; He was concerned only with the

inner soul and its activities." (Bhag. Intro)

 

Once a south Indian brahmana was ordered by his spiritual master to read the

Bhagavad-gita although he was illiterate. So he just carried out the order of

his spiritual master without wasting time getting a formal education. And

Lord Krsna made up for his lack of education and the brahmana attained the

ultimate goal of studying all the scriptures. Although some people may think

that a person who is well-educated has a better shot at understanding

spiritual life and the scriptures, this example proves that the only thing

required is surrender to the instructions of Lord Krsna as received through

the bona-fide spiritual master:

 

"If one has unflinching faith in the Supreme Lord and the spiritual master,

the essence of all Vedic knowledge is revealed to him." (Bhag. 5.1.6)

 

So knowledge is also automatically attained by engaging in devotional service.

There is no separate endeavor needed for acquiring knowledge. Whatever

knowledge or material assets one already has one can use in Lord Krsna's

service but no new material assets are needed to serve Lord Krsna. In fact,

desiring high education and material assets usually makes one proud and

impedes one's spiritual progress:

 

"My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who are

materially exhausted. One who is on the path of [material] progress, trying

to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education

and bodily beauty, cannot approach You with sincere feeling." (Bhag. 1.8.26)

 

"It is said in the sastras that by once uttering the holy name of the Lord,

the sinner gets rid of a quantity of sins that he is unable to commit. Such

is the power of uttering the holy name of the Lord. There is not the least

exaggeration in this statement. Actually, the Lord's holy name has such

powerful potency. But there is a QUALITY to such utterances also. It depends

on the quality of feeling. A helpless man can feelingly utter the holy name

of the Lord, whereas a man who utters the same holy name in great material

satisfaction cannot be so sincere." (Bhag. 1.8.26)

 

Lord Krsna is more interested in the quality of one's devotional service or

love and devotion rather than the quantity or the material results:

 

"The almighty God is thus conquered only loving service and nothing else."

(Bhag. 1.8.45)

 

Lord Krsna is self-sufficient; He does not need anything to be done:

 

"The Supreme Lord Krsna is described herein as atmarama. He is

self-sufficient, and there is no need for Him to seek happiness from anything

beyond Himself. He is self-sufficient because His very transcendental

existence is total bliss. He is eternally existent; He is all-cognizant and

all-blissful. Therefore, any presentation, HOWEVER VALUABLE it may be, is not

needed by Him. But still, because He is the well-wisher for one and all, He

accepts from everyone everything that is offered to Him in pure devotional

service. It is not that He is in want for such things, because the things are

themselves generated from His energy." (Bhag. 1.11.5)

 

For example, Duryodhana made a large feast to offer to Lord Krsna but he had

ulterior motives rather than that of serving Lord Krsna. So Lord Krsna took a

simple meal with Vidura instead. Similarly, He accepted the chipped rice of

the brahmana Sudama, although it was not up to the standard of what a person

of the royal order would accept. Since the pure devotee's interests are one

with Lord Krsna, a pure devotee also accepts the devotional service of the

person rather than the material results. For example, Srila Prabhupada

published earlier editions of his books with 'mistakes'. So he accepted the

devotional service of the editors although there was room for improving the

service. But he never hired people and paid them to make professional

versions of his books because the results are not as important as the

devotion. When one refuses to perform his devotional service unless he is

paid, it means the devotional service is not as important to him as the money:

 

"Foolish people think that devotional service is flattering the Lord to get

special mercy. Factually the pure devotees who are engaged in transcendental

loving service of the Lord are not a mercantile community. A mercantile house

renders service to someone in exchange for values. The pure devotee does not

render service unto the Lord for such exchange, and therefore the full mercy

of the Lord is open for him." (Bhag. 1.8.29)

 

The devotees just render their service without expecting or planning out any

results. The results are dependent on Krsna's mercy. If the results come in

the form of temples, man-power, money, etc., the devotees use the results for

glorifying Lord Krsna even more. The devotees recognize a voluntary simple

offering of a flower by another devotee as higher quality of devotional

service than dozens of salary-dependent 'devotees' making noise about their

professional offerings or big temples:

 

"This simplicity of acceptance of the Lord's authority is more effective than

showy insincere religious fervor." (Bhag. 1.8.20)

 

"One should not engage paid brahmanas to worship the Deity. If one does not

personally worship the Deity but engages paid servants instead, he is

considered lazy, and his worship of the Deity is called artificial." (Bhag.

7.5.23-24)

 

Some people misquote Srila Prabhupada and try to make him seem mundane by

stating he wanted high professionality and big results regardless of devotion,

but this is complete rubish. A pure devotee is always in agreement with the

Supreme Lord Sri Krsna. Srila Prabhupada accepted EVERYONE'S devotional

service-- big results or small results or no results-- provided it was

ACTUALLY devotional service and not someone's concocted ideas being

artificially labeled as "devotional service". He only encouraged them to

improve their devotional service but NEVER to give it up. For example, Lord

Rama accepted the devotional service even of an insignificant spider in

helping build a bridge to Lanka. The spider had no big material

qualifications nor big results. In fact, it was actually INTERFERING AND

COMPETING with Hanuman's attempts. But it's better to have two living

entities engaged in devotional service than one, because the results are all

dependent on Lord Krsna and the MAIN PURPOSE OF THE MATERIAL WORLD IS TO

ENGAGE AS MANY LIVING ENTITIES AS POSSIBLE IN DEVOTIONAL SERVICE AND TAKE THEM

BACK TO GODHEAD!

 

Actually, when we go visit a temple (spiritual place) or read a spiritual

book, the whole idea behind it is to expose the person to the devotional

service of Lord Krsna in as pure a form as possible. Purity is the force.

Because Lord Krsna is all-attractive and His devotional service are

nondifferent from Himself, the person will automatically be attracted by the

bhakti of the place, person, or the book:

 

"By intense service of the Lord, one can experience the presence of the Lord

transcendentally. Therefore seeing the Lord means being engaged in His

service because His service and His person are identical." (Bhag. 1.6.22)

 

Therefore, even touching Srila Prabhupada's books is purifying what to speak

of reading them; this is because of the intense devotion that went into the

books. One should judge things by the quality of devotion behind the work

rather than the superficial appearances else one will be misled and wind up

associating with material things or material people in the name of "devotional

service" or "sadhu-sanga". Some of the acaryas had no big material

qualifications or material results but this does not take anything away from

their pure devotional service to Lord Krsna. The purpose of life is to engage

in pure devotional service so one should only accept the association of those

who are engaged in devotional service without expectation of any remuneration,

name, fame, etc. That is, they are acting only on the order of their

spiritual master which is the same as the order of Lord Krsna. Please read

the Srimad-Bhagavatam and distinguish between the real diamonds and the fake

ones. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY CHEAP IMITATIONS OR IMITATORS! DEVOTIONAL QUALITY

IS EVERYTHING IN SERVING KRSNA!

 

 

2. VEDIC ASTRONOMY SIMULATION

 

The multimedia Krsna CDROM contains a "Tour the Vedic Universe" section

based on the Fifth Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. We will here give the

locations of some of the major features of the universe that you can fly to

using this simulation. To fly around the universe, you should set the speed

by the up and down arrow keys or GUI buttons. To accelerate faster, use the

"warp" button and to instantly stop, click on the speed value itself.

 

The universe is divided into fourteen planetary systems and the earth

falls into the seventh one (counting from the top-- Brahmaloka). This seventh

planetary system is called Bhuurloka. At the center of this planetary system

is Mount Meru which is the starting point of the simulation. As you fly

through this planetary system away from Mount Meru, the radial distance is

given at the bottom in yojanas from Mount Meru. There are 8 miles in one

yojana. Jambudvipa ends at a radial distance of 50,000 yojanas. Here is a

list of oceans and islands with their maximum radial distance in yojanas:

 

Jambudvipa island-- 50,000

Salt Water Ocean-- 150,000

Plaksadvipa island-- 350,000

Sugarcane Ocean-- 550,000

Saalmalidvipa island-- 950,000

Surasagara [Liquor] Ocean-- 1,350,000

Kusadvipa island-- 2,150,000

Clarified Butter [Ghee] Ocean-- 2,950,000

Krauncadvipa island-- 4,550,000

Milk Ocean-- 6,150,000

Sakadvipa island-- 9,350,000

Churned Yogurt Ocean-- 12,550,000

Puskaradvipa island-- 18,950,000

Clear Water Ocean-- 25,350,000

 

The way to read the above numbers is illustrated by the following example:

Puskaradvipa island ends at 18,950,000 yojanas from Mount Meru and begins at

12,550,000 yojanas from Mount Meru where the Yogurt ocean ends. The sun is

located in the middle of this island (15,750,000 yojanas from Mount Meru).

Beyond these seven islands and oceans, there is the 'Inhabited Land', Golden

Land, Aloka-vars.a, and then the seven layers of the universe.

 

Vertically, you can set the pitch angle to 90 degrees or -90 degrees to fly to

the features in other planetary systems. The fourteen planetary systems from

the highest point in the universe to the lowest with their minimum altitudes

in yojanas from Bhuurloka (earth plane):

 

Satyaloka: 233,900,000

Tapoloka: 113,900,000

Janaloka: 33,900,000

Maharloka: 13,900,000

[Features in Svarloka:

Dhruvaloka (3,900,000)

Seven Stars (2,600,000)

Saturn (1,500,000)

Jupiter (1,300,000)

Mars (1,100,000)

Mercury (900,000)

Venus (700,000)

group of stars (500,000)

moon (300,000) ]

Svarloka: 300,000

Bhuvarloka: 100,000

Bhuurloka: [Jambuudviipa]: 0

Atala: -70,000

Vitala: -75,000*

Sutala: -80,000*

Talaatala: -85,000*

Mahaatala: -90,000*

Rasaatala: -95,000*

Paataalaloka: -100,000*

 

The ones marked with the asterisk are approximate distances. Below Patalaloka

are Narakaloka and the Garbhodaka Ocean.

 

 

3. FEEDBACK: MISCELLANEOUS

 

[Here's some feedback from various issues:]

 

> Another point is discliplic sucession in BG. There are not that many names

 

>for

>5000 years or whatever the time frame, and I was told that some of those

>Gurus lived for a thousand or more years and some may still be alive. Itsn't

>that a big leap of faith seeing as there is no record of anyone living that

>long that has been verifyed.

 

If you go by empirical evidence, what evidence is there of any AGE? How does

one prove that someone lived for 75 years? It's all faith in the record

keeper. I have more faith in the Bhagavatam than the record-keeper.

 

> What Krishna and his associates do when He is personally present is one

>thing, however Krishna treaches us to be merciful to all living entities. Who

 

>can say that Krishna did not give us the alternative to burdening the

>animals, such and hitting the ox or overmilking the cow, or riding the horse,

 

>therefore giving us a more merciful alternative. The people who were killed

>at Kuruksetra, went back to Godhead and even demoms killed by Krishna get

>liberation, that is one thing, our practical modern day life is another...

 

Yes, we must be merciful to all living entities. But what is the greater

mercy for the ox: to not use it at all or to use it in Krsna's service in the

field? Just like we should not kill carrots either, but by offering them in

Krsna's service and then eating them, we are helping the carrots as well as

ourselves. Better than inaction is to do one's prescribed duties. Using ox

in the field is not forbidden in the sastras.

 

>Hare Krsna....

> PAMHO. All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga. Recently I purchased

>the Bhagavad-gita and Krsna Book CD's. One of the best purchased I've

>ever made!

>Both for my children, and me....we all transcendentally enjoy it. Is

>there a way to go directly from the inner part of the Universe to the

>Spiritual World, warping through the coverings?

 

The only way to get out of the material universe converings is to meet a pure

devotee (Narada Muni in this case) by whose mercy your spaceship and yourself

inherit the ability to cross the layers of the universe at superwarp speed (it

takes about 5 minutes). You can find Narada Muni in Puskaradvipa. So just

travel straight until you see Puskaradvipa (island). It's 12,500,000 yojanas

radial distance from earth. Once you get there, hit the "Land Here" button.

After this, you need to come back to earth (radial distance = 0) and set the

pitch angle to 90 degrees and fly straight up and fly through the universe

converings.

 

>Well, the way you market yourself on the net, everyone would think you folks

were

>BIGTIME! Keep up the good work!

 

We are BIGTIME! One Gita CD cannot be equaled by 10 million karmi books. So

we have already surpassed Barnes and Nobles. Take care.

 

Thanks for the complement.

 

 

4. EDITORIAL POLICY AND PRODUCT LIST

 

Krishna Software Inc. is dedicated to help people become peaceful and happy

via spiritual science presented using modern multimedia technology. Our

editorial policy as well as our mission is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam

(10.2.37 Purport):

 

"One should engage in practical service to the Lord. In our Krsna

consciousness movement, *ALL* our activities are concentrated upon

distributing Krsna literature. This is very important. One may approach any

person and induce him to read Krsna literature so that in the future he also

may become a devotee.... By fully concentrating on distributing books for

Krsna, one is fully absorbed in Krsna."

 

Our newsletters are geared to show you the benefits of the instructions

contained in the transcendental books of Srila Prabhupada so you can judge for

yourself the value of these books and obtain them in book or CDROM format.

 

Krishna Software Inc. has produced some multimedia CDROMs and all the details

of these CDROMs can be found at our website http://www.krishnasoft.com. Here

is our current list of products:

 

(a) Multimedia Bhagavad-gita As It Is CD: Lord Krsna's eternal instructions to

Arjuna and the rest of the world about Isvara (Supreme Lord), jiva (the soul),

karma (activities), kala (time), and prakrti (nature). This is a 30-hour

audio-visual CDROM. Also available on CD-R in Hindi version.

 

(b) Multimedia Krsna CD w/Vedic Astronomy game: This is a 51-hour

audio-visual presentation of the Krsna book and a Vedic Astronomy game based

on the Fifth Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. All on a single CDROM. Free

sample demo downloadable.

 

© Multilingual Word Processor CD [version 4.00]: Type in diacritics, Hindi,

Sanskrit, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, and Assamese without knowing the

alphabet. This is for those who want to write articles using multiple

languages. Free demo downloadable.

 

All of the above software was tested on various Intel 486 and Pentium

processors running Windows 3.1, Windows '95, Windows '98, and Windows NT

(client and server).

 

Latest pricing and ordering information is at our web site:

http://www.krishnasoft.com. The website now has a SECURE ORDERING setup.

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End of Newsletter- written and edited by KSI staff; © 1998-1999 Krishna

Software Inc.

Our staff consists of: Hari Rama Dasa, Rajni Dayal, Virender Dayal and a few

part-time volunteers.

 

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All glories to Lord Sri Krsna and His transcendental potencies! All glories

to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the literary incarnation of Lord Sri Krsna!