Kripamoya Posted June 28, 2006 Report Share Posted June 28, 2006 I remember reading once a letter from Srila Prabhupada to a disciple where he says that most of his disciples were Indians in their previous life. Does anyone with a full Vedabase or letter archive know of this letter from Srila Prabhupada and can they post it on the forum? I definitely feel that I was an Indian in my last life and even have had some flashes of being a poor beggar man in India in a previous life. I dreamed once that I was a poor beggar man on the side of the the road in India and Srila Prabhupada, as a householder, tossed a coin in my begging bowl. I figured I had to come back in this life and pay him back with interest. Lucky me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 I believe I was an Indian in a past life (maybe many) too. They say the strongest sense of memory is linked with smell. Well, anytime I watch something about India or Hinduism, I am overwhelmed with the Temple smells of India, even though I have yet to visit India in this lifetime. Maybe one day I will have picture memories to go along with the smells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kripamoya Posted June 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Indian? been there - done that. Many Indians took birth in the USA to serve Srila Prabhupada in establishing his movement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Last year in Kartik time I was in Vrindavn. I was doing parikrama. I was in nandgaon, Govardhan, barsana etc. I met so many people so many brejwaasi. They are so fortunate that they took birth in vrindavan but they do not realise that. I am in in Indian body and I could hear what they were talking. They were just looking for money money money . They were lamenting that these foreigners have lakhs of rupees . Why they do not have thousand at least. So they do not realise what is the actual thing they have. Every morning we have Tulsi puja . We sing " .. Kripa kori koro tare Vrindavan vasi " . If lord really hears it and give my next birth in vrindavan , I will probably forget my good fortune. I will again lament money money money , so then again next birth in rich country .. What a cycle.. YS, DD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekozuki Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 I remember having past life memories of being in India during Rama's time. I had these memories before I became Hindu also. In fact, I've had a lot of memories of being in places that are not historically known. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanatan Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 This speculating about past lives is fun...if you analyze the present you get clues to the past. At most, I was a European in India for occupational reasons and perhaps took an interest in Vedic philosophy and was intrigued by sadhus, etc., picking up a drop of causeless mercy along the way. I certainly wasn't a godbrother or godnephew of Srila Prabhupada come west to meet up with him again...way too many material attachments, bad habits, etc; spiritual life has always been too much of a struggle to have been in any sustained elevated state of consciousness in a past life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Hare Krishna! Very interesting topic... may be i was a dog in my previous life somewhere in India because i get angry and shout most often.... anyways....when i first read the Bhagavad Gita as it is...it was my first book of any type written by Srila Prabhupada and so i was introduced to Krishna Con, ISKCON and SP through BG as it is....and believe me when i was reading.. i was not reading as if i was learning....i was reading as if i was acknowledging (shaking my head) as everything as true and that it all made sense and that i found the last piece of the puzzle. Nothing in the book was news to me...it just reconfirmed my hypothesis (which i had before). Before......i was an atheist with a hypothesis. The hypothesis was..." there is one supreme God and there is one book which says it all and there is one person who wrote this book"....but i did not know who this God or book or this person was....i looked for sometime but could not find the answer and then i stopped looking and turned into an atheist thinking any religion that does not fit my hypothesis is not worth a religion or philosophy and ignored everything.....end result- transformed into an atheist.....then i stumbled upon SP's BG as it is and my hyposthesis got proved and i was the happiest man on earth. Srila Prabhupada has said he lives in his books through his instructions....believe me when i say this.....i realised this statement the first time i read BG book..i felt he was sitting right next to me and embracing me all along...very nice feeling. Anyways....back to the subject........if i was acknowledging and if i had an hypothesis even without any introduction to KC...i figure i would have read one of SP books sometime in past life...or just see it or just browse it....not sure which nationality...... although.......i am crazy for Italian food (especially pizza) and tomotoes (main ingredient of Italian food). I like any food with lots of tomatoes......so based on that.......guessing born somewhere in Italy or may be the US because US does have a lot of pizzas. May be thats why i got the opportunity to travel from India to US and currently live in the US. and the dog....i am guessing the birth before the previous...i would have been a dog.... Haribol! anand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Hare Krishna! Very interesting topic... may be i was a dog in my previous life somewhere in India because i get angry and shout most often.... and the dog....i am guessing the birth before the previous...i would have been a dog.... Haribol! anand Dog, are you faithful to your master? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Hare Krishna! To the previous post........May be you are right.....may be i was a dog and was faithful.... Haribol! anand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Hare Krishna, I have no idea what and where i was in my last life. All i know now that i got human form of life now and i have to purposefully utilize it for the purpose it is given to me. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhava dasa Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Does anyone with a full Vedabase or letter archive know of this letter from Srila Prabhupada and can they post it on the forum? Regarding your above question, I have looked it up in my (full) Vedabase, and find no such statement. Hare Krsna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Hare Krishna,I have no idea what and where i was in my last life. All i know now that i got human form of life now and i have to purposefully utilize it for the purpose it is given to me. Thanks yes, because a past life memory can give us proof that reincarnation is real rather than an after-death "theory". Beliefs without personal experience are not as powerful. Those who have actually had past life memories, do not question whether reincarnation is real, while others just speculate but aren't sure if it's real or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 If one doesn't have a faith in shastra no matter how many proofs or personal experiences one have that's not going to help. So the most important point here is to have or develop faith in shastra. Hare Krishna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Hare Krishna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shambu Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 I remember reading once a letter from Srila Prabhupada to a disciple where he says that most of his disciples were Indians in their previous life. Does anyone with a full Vedabase or letter archive know of this letter from Srila Prabhupada and can they post it on the forum? I cannot imagine that Prabhupada would have said that, with all due respect. I do remember a quote from Prabhupada where he said many of his disciples could be DeMiGoDs, descended from the higher planets to assist him. Believe it or not. Anyone with full Vedabase could look that up? In particular I don't believe that Prabhupada said most of his disciples were Indians in their previous lives, because he always tried to stress the universal nature of KC ("We are not Indians, Americans, male, female - we are spirit souls", these things he stressed time and time again). Of course India is Punya Bhumi, the pious land. But he also stated his disciples (except for a few "demigods") didn't have any pious credits from previous lives. "I created your sukrti" was also one of his sayings.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 If one doesn't have a faith in shastra no matter how many proofs or personal experiences one have that's not going to help. So the most important point here is to have or develop faith in shastra. Hare Krishna One only develops true attunement with scriptures, as they realize they are true and not just rhetoric. The rishis did not want people to believe them with blind faith. The Upanishads describe how we can reach the same realizations that the ancient sages did. They do not tell us to have blind faith, and not ask questions. That's the very few reason most do not even believe in reincarnation, cause they never seek out answers to the deep metaphysical mysteries. If we didn't ask questions, many of us would still be fundamentalist Christian- sheeple, ignorantly believing whatever we are told from the sunday pulpit, because we don't have the depth to seek out answers for ourselves. Many westerners who converted to an eastern tradition, have done so, because of their belief in reincarnation and the fact that the eastern traditions expound on man's predicament on the wheel of Samsara, and how to get off of it.. The eastern traditions give us practical methods to realize the mysteries of being. One of those is meditation. Self-realization is a result of meditation. When one takes to meditation, they begin to remember more and of their past lives; as the scry their personal askashic records. Our past lives are part of what has brought us to where we are today. They are not unimportant to some of us. This would be like telling someone who has amnesia, that it doesn't matter who they are, and they shouldn't try to remember their previous existence before they lost their memories. Just like finding out the memories that have been blanked to the conscious awareness of an amnesia victim would be very important to them, so is it important to those of us who have past-life amnesia, and can't even remember if we have had a past life. Our childhood memories are precious to us, because they are a part of our history in this life. The same can be said about our past life memories, which are a part of the history of our soul. They our personal and dear to many of us. And no one needs a lecture as to why these memories should not be important to us. If you don't care about your past life memories, that's your business. If others of us do, that's our business. Please understand why this is a topic of interest to some of us. This is a forum on Hinduism/Vedism, if we can't talk about reincarnation and past lives here, where can we? Most of the world doesn't even believe in reincarnation but we do. So we should be able to discuss this topic here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theist Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 TRANSLATION SB 6.1.47 Just as springtime in the present indicates the nature of springtimes in the past and future, so this life of happiness, distress or a mixture of both gives evidence concerning the religious and irreligious activities of one's past and future lives. PURPORT Our past and future are not very difficult to understand, for time is under the contamination of the three modes of material nature. As soon as spring arrives, the usual exhibition of various types of fruits and flowers automatically becomes manifest, and therefore we may conclude that spring in the past was adorned with similar fruits and flowers and will be so adorned in the future also. Our repetition of birth and death is taking place within time, and according to the influence of the modes of nature, we are receiving various types of bodies and being subjected to various conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 If we didn't ask questions, many of us would still be fundamentalist Christian- sheeple, ignorantly believing whatever we are told from the sunday pulpit, because we don't have the depth to seek out answers for ourselves. How many here were ever fundamentalist Christians? I was brought up Methodist, went to a Presbyterian church until, in 6th grade Sunday school, they told us how bad Catholics were (that soured me really fast). When I was a little older, I started going to an Episcpalian church because lots of cute girls went there and because the minister was really ecumenical. And isn't this statement kind of circular (if we didn't ask questions, we'd be X because we're too dumb to ask questions)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 8, 2006 Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 Can anyone tell me what relations are like between the Baps Swaminarayan group and the Maninagar (swaminarayan Gadi) groups?? do they respect each other??? Did the key figures in each sect such as Muktajivan swami and Shastriji/yogiji ever meet??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devarsirat Posted July 9, 2006 Report Share Posted July 9, 2006 Most likely a yogy who did not finished in his last life, his spiritual life was not destroyed like a cloud in the wind and so he got a new opportunity in this life.On the other hand why not the first time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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