some asrama-related texts...

[Guest guest]

Pamho. AgtSP.

 

I would like to share the following passages with you, which I came

across lately, while doing my service (I am working with Guru-Maharaja's

lectures, etc. at the moment). Keeping in mind that such a conference

exists, I have been putting aside the topic-related passages. Mostly,

these are kind of asrama-situation issues.

 

Hoping agaist hope that you may also share something some time. :-)

 

Your servant,

Dikpala das

 

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2-Sep-95, Bg.3.23, Zurich, Switzerland.

 

BRAHMACARI OR GRIHASTHA?

 

Question: [indistinct]

 

HARIKESA SWAMI: Therefore, if one is too much attached to the ladies,

then one should get married and find out the hard way. [laughter] I am

not, I am not trying to say anything bad about getting married, it is

just... [laughter] Or maybe I am. [laughter] But everybody is laughing

because they know it is true. [laughs] Better to be honest than to be a

great pretender. Of course, that does not mean if you are actually a

good brahmacari, but the mind is thinking about these things, that does

not mean you should run off and get married. Rather, you should try to

calm down the mind and remain a good brahmacari and continue with

devotional service in that way. But if despite all endeavors, one simply

cannot control the mind, and must have association with the opposite sex,

then grhastha-asrama is the answer. I am not sure what the question is,

but... [laughter] [laughs] That was a joke. [laughter]

 

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>From Q&A COM conference

 

IS IT ONE'S KARMA WHETHER ONE WILL GET MARRIED OR NOT?

 

Question (Ramesvara dasa, 27-Sep-95): One devotee here has said that if

it's your karma to get married in this lifetime - that's it - whether

you're a devotee or not, that's your karma and it's going to happen. And

that's the criterion for whether one gets married or not: his karma.

 

Can't one change such karma by engaging in devotional service and taking

shelter of the holy name?

 

Answer (Harikesa Swami, 5-Oct-95): Certainly, material things such as

whether you will get married or not, are generally controlled by the

karma of the person. In the material realm, this is an absolute

principle. However, when one is a devotee, his karma is changed by his

surrender to Krsna. It is a fact that the karma of a devotee is reduced

and also sometimes completely changed by the desire of the devotee and

the Lord. So it could be said that it is up to your spiritual desires and

the degree and method of how you surrender to Krsna that determines this

asrama situation.

 

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31-Jan-87, Bg.2.8, New Radha-kunda, Sweden.

 

CONNECTION BETWEEN ONE'S VARNA AND ASRAMA

 

Question: [indistinct] ...varna deternimes one's asrama. We have heard

that unless one is a brahmana, he should get married.

 

HARIKESA SWAMI: No, it is not that we say it like that. We say that

the... that if you are naturally situated in a certain varna, that

implies a certain asrama, but we never said that if you are not a

brahmana, you have to get married. But naturally speaking, it will be

more conducive to your spiritual advancement in the long run. There are

ways to say things and there are ways to say things. [laughs] Right? So

we don't like when you take things which are a little bit subtle, and

smash them into a bottle: "Aaa-a! You are not a brahmana, get in there,

a-a-a! Put that dhoti on! Here, white, a-a-a! [shouts agrily, and then

imitates a sound of a whip] [laughter] shiuuu! One just gets like horror

visions of what varnasrama can turn into [laughter] o-o-oh, a-a-a-h,

guides with whips tshshshsh... Get into that asram! Into that, quick!

tshtshtsh... Oh. Ha-ha-ha. [laughs sarcastically] [laughter]

 

One has to maintain some subtlety, give a little freedom for people to

wake up themselves. Ultimately everybody does.

 

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5-Nov-95, Bg.2.58, St.Petersburg, Russia.

 

MARRIAGE: FALLDOWN OR NOT?

 

Devotee: [indistinct] [dik - if I remember correctly the question was:

Why do advanced senior devotees get married? Can it be considered to be a

falldown?]

 

HARIKESA SWAMI: Huh, it is not that getting married means you fall down.

That is a misconception. If you are a brahmacari, you can certainly get

married. There is no problem, even if you are a preacher, because

sometimes the devotee feels that he needs to associate with a lady in

order to strengthen himself in his spiritual life, especially to improve

his preaching. Because ordinarily he may have to preach to so many women

all the time, which is inappropriate for a brahmacari. So therefore,

sometimes, to increase the preaching, a preacher may desire to get

married. It is not a falldown. It is only a falldown when you utilize

household life in order to satisfy your senses, then it is a falldown. So

that is to be avoided. But I think, if you are talking about a truly

advanced devotee who has a taste for preaching, he will not fall down

into sense gratification. I don't think so. But even if he does by chance

fall down momentarily, because of his, of the mercy he has received due

to the preaching, he will pick himself up and correct himself very

quickly.

 

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7-Nov-95, Bg.2.60, Moscow, Russia.

 

ATTAINMENT OF HIGHER TASTE

 

Devotee: [indistinct] [is it true that arfiticial repression of the

senses without higher taste can make a person sick? - dik]

 

HARIKESA SWAMI: Yes, if you are repressing artificially, as Krsna says in

the Bhagavad-gita, what can artificial repression accomplish? If you are

not really on the platform of sense control and you are artificially

repressing the senses all the time, you don't have the higher taste and

you don't have enough determination to go to the goal despite all of the

problems that come due to repression, then you will probably get sick, or

something terrible will happen. That is a fact. Therefore, we request

our devotees to come to the higher taste and we try to engage them in

that way that they may attain the higher taste, so that they are not

repressing artificially and they don't get unnecessarily disturbed or

sick.

 

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>From Q&A COM conference

 

JITENDRIYA

 

Question (Ramesvara dasa, 25-Aug-95): Last night I read in Srimad-

Bhagavatam 5.1.18p: "Before entering household life, a student is fully

trained to become jitendriya, a conqueror of the senses. Such a mature

student is allowed to become a householder... and the same question

comes to my mind every time I read this point:

 

Why would one want to become a householder if he is a conqueror of the

senses? And conversely, if one is allowed to become a householder only

when he is jitendriya, we wouldn't have very many householders!

 

Answer (Harikesa Swami, 26-Aug-95): I think that this means that one is

trained to be a brahmacari and not to have sex. When one is a householder

he should have sex only for production of Krsna conscious children. To do

this, one has to be jitendriya. Otherwise one will break the principles

with the wife, as some do nowadays. Therefore one needs training.

 

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>From Q&A COM conference

 

THE GREATEST SIN

 

Question (Mukhya-devi dasi, 25-Jul-95): Is it true that illicit sex life

is the most sinful activity there is? If it is true, what are the reasons

for this statement, i.e. why is illicit sex more sinful and harmful than

meat-eating or murder?

 

Answer (Harikesa Swami, 25-Jul-95): Prabhupada meant that illicit sex

destroys all good qualities of the living entity. If you murder someone,

you are easily purified simply by being killed by the authorities in

retribution. But nothing purifies illicit sex except much suffering for

many lives, and even that doesn't work most of the time. Factually,

unless one is highly advanced in devotional life, he cannot overcome the

desire for illicit sex.

 

Sex is meant to allow a soul to enter into a body in the womb of the

mother. When you stop that, such as in the contraception of modern age,

you are preventing that soul from taking birth. That is worse than

murder.

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The end.