Inquiries Into the Absolute: Digest 186, Pseudo Incarnations

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Digest 186, September 20th, 2006. Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami

Maharaja

You are welcome to send in your questions to His Holiness Romapada Swami at

iskcondc with the word "Question" included in the subject line.

 

Pseudo Incarnations

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480) I was watching Good Morning America and they did a story on a man that

claims to be Jesus [Jesus is son of God, according to the Bible]. The question

is that when such individuals claim to be God [sic] what kind of bad karma will

he get for saying he is God, what kind of punishment will this man have to

endure for committing this act? I don't know why but this has been bothering me

because I can't understand why people follow and believe in such people. When

they should know that there is only one God, Krishna, why is it that people

will believe anything that they are told?

 

Answer: Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur summed up this material world as

a society of cheaters and cheated. There are many people in this world who want

to be cheated, who want to settle for something cheap that pleases their senses

and are not serious about purity or truth. So Krishna arranges for a big

cheater to mislead them. There have been many such persons in history and the

cheaters are themselves in turn cheated and have to meet their end; even at the

time of Krishna's pastimes on this planet, there were some persons like

Paundraka who claimed to be God and had his own set of followers for some time,

but finally Krishna annihilated him. (Krsna book Ch 66)

 

It can be seen that the blind followers of such cheaters are generally very

much interested in wanting to enjoy sense gratification through the medium of

religious or spiritual life, rather than a sincere desire to know and serve the

Supreme. This constitutes a cheating mentality on their part - to enjoy the

material world in the name of God but without actually surrendering to God;

thus they themselves are cheated, although they may otherwise seem innocent and

even serious and dedicated in their following. Often it can be observed that

such followers are desperate for some quick material gain or relief from

suffering, so much so that they would readily accept anyone or anything that

promises them such illusory benefits, and Krishna sanctions their desire to

follow such illusory goals. Krishna or God, however, can be understood only by

those who approach Him with genuine attitude of service and devotion. As

Krishna says in BG 7.25, He reserves the right to not reveal Himself to those

who do not have such a di

sposition.

 

Krishna also explains different types of faith in BG Ch 17, in response to a

question that Arjuna asks similar to your question. (See BG 17.1-4) According

to the modes of nature acquired by a person, one evolves a particular type of

faith. Those who are in the modes of passion and ignorance will worship demons,

spirits or select a powerful man to be God, whereas those who are in the mode

of goodness tend to worship different higher demigods. By following scriptural

directions, those in the mode of goodness have a better opportunity to accept

the association a devotee, take up devotional service and gradually rise to the

point of understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

 

>From the above discussion, it is evident that one should be minimally in the

mode of goodness and free from sinful desires, and genuinely seeking to know

the Absolute Truth, in order to understand Krishna. However, even if one may

not be so qualified, if one is fortunate to come in contact with a pure devotee

or his teachings and accepts his direction, one can immediately understand

Krishna, and under the guidance of the devotees one can become fully purified

of all misconceptions.

 

This gives a clue how we can respond when we see or hear about such misleading

pseudo-incarnations or so-called spiritual processes/groups. The solution lies

in educating people and disseminating real transcendental knowledge. Rather

than feel disturbed or agitated, we can understand the true nature of this

material world and develop compassion for these souls who are unfortunate and

embarrassed by their own material desires due to their ignorance of Krishna. Of

course a devotee, being para-duhkha-duhkhi, does feel some disturbance to see

so many innocent people being cheated, but he takes it as an impetus to strive

to disseminate this unadulterated knowledge found in Bhagavad-Gita, carefully

preserved and handed down to us through many generations in disciplic

succession.

 

This is what Srila Prabhupada did to fight the many pseudo-gurus and

organizations prevalent during his time. He worked tirelessly to translate the

Vaisnava literatures and traveled incessantly to teach and personally train the

devotees in the actual science of God- realization. But for his sacrifices, we

would not have access to this scientific knowledge about Krishna. So you can

also strive to become his able representative and transmit this knowledge, not

only by speaking about it but more importantly by being a living example of

these teachings, such that those who come in contact with you will naturally

appreciate and accept these teachings. When people are educated in the right

knowledge and culture, then they cannot be cheated.

 

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Past Questions and Answers: All previous digests with responses to about 480

questions can be accessed at http://www.romapadaswami.com/Inquiries/

 

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Brief biography of His Holiness Romapada Swami:

http://www.romapadaswami.com/bio.html

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Digest 185 included here due to failed delivery last week

Digest 185, September 13th, 2006. Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami

Maharaja

You are welcome to send in your questions to His Holiness Romapada Swami at

iskcondc with the word "Question" included in the subject line.

 

Collective Karma

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Question 478. What do the scriptures including the Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad

Bhagavatam have to say about "collective karma"? Our individual karma is

generated by our own intentional and unintentional actions but what about the

actions we perform as part of a group or as a society? Does responsibility get

assigned to each one of us? Particularly, in the context of the planetary

environment, we have collectively made impacts on the earth and are now seeing

the consequences.

 

Answer: As member of any community, the actions of the individual members have

a collective impact on the rest of the community. Even within a family, we can

readily see that an action of one member affects the lives of other family

members just by virtue of their connection to each other, and similarly our

individual karmas impact each other also.

 

We see this principle demonstrated in the Mahabharata - for the transgressions

by Duryodhana and a few of his cohorts against the Pandavas and their chaste

wife, the entire dynasty of Kuru had to pay the price for having stood by him

and failed to check his sinful actions.

 

Vedic social organization or Varnashrama is designed in such a way that by

executing one's own prescribed duties nicely, each member of society

automatically contributes positively to the overall welfare of the society, not

only human beings but even the animals, plants, environment, demigods and

forefathers! Conversely when a member of the society deviates from his/her

duties, it creates negative impact. In the modern paradigm of scientific

research, we are discovering that it is impossible to test or predict what

impact our actions might have down the road, and no one knows what they are

supposed to do or not do.

 

Contrastingly, those who execute their duties under proper guidance in the

Vedic society, even if they themselves may not be learned or far-sighted enough

to understand the consequences and they may also not be on the platform of pure

devotion, they can still be confident that their actions are not detrimental

but uplifting to all sections of society, simply because they are acting under

the infallible direction of scriptures. Therefore, each person simply had to

execute their own prescribed duty conscientiously.

 

As far as assigning karmic reaction, although each person is responsible for

his/her own action, much greater responsibility is placed upon the leaders of

the society. The king or executive head, parents, teachers, husband and highly

educated members of the society (brahmanas) are natural leaders because their

actions and decisions guide and affect the lives of their dependents. Whatever

great persons do, common people follow. (BG 3.21) Thus the head of state (or

head of family or community) has great responsibility to set the right example

and also to guide, facilitate and ensure that their dependents are properly

engaged in their respective duties and do not get implicated in bad karma.

 

According to Vedic social codes, the king has to bear one-sixth of the

collective karma of his citizens! (Cf. SB 4.20.14

http://vedabase.net/sb/4/20/14/en) We can see that it is quite a serious

responsibility and therefore it was required that these leading members be

conversant with standard scriptural codes and be guided by saintly persons.

 

Conversely, a citizen benefits from the piety of the King, and the King

benefits from the pious activities of the citizen.

 

"Prthu Maharaja continued: Therefore, my dear citizens, for the welfare of your

king after his death, you should execute your duties properly in terms of your

positions of varna and asrama and should always think of the Supreme

Personality of Godhead within your hearts. By doing so, you will protect your

own interests, and you will bestow mercy upon your king for his welfare after

death." (SB 4.21.25)

 

Regarding a King's duty to spiritually elevate his citizens: "If a king

neglects to give such instructions and is simply satisfied with levying taxes,

then those who share in the collection—namely, all the government servants and

the head of the state—are liable to share in the impious activities of the

general masses. The laws of nature are very subtle. For example, if one eats in

a place which is very sinful, he shares in the resultant reaction of the sinful

activities performed there."

 

Similarly, it is warned that parents who beget children without discharging

their responsibility to train them spiritually will have to bear responsibility

for the karma of the children as well. The spiritual master also has to take on

the sinful reactions of his disciples. (SB 5.5.18)

 

Certainly, we are all individually fully responsible for our own actions due to

our freewill, but those who are in such leading roles are held greatly

accountable also. Individually it is our responsibility to choose as far as

possible the right type of association and leadership which will not implicate

us in further sins. There are examples within scripture of subordinates

rejecting the king, spiritual master, father or husband under dire

circumstances when such authority was leading them down the wrong path. (This,

of course, should be done only with great caution and superior guidance and not

whimsically.)

 

There are also very instructive examples found in the Caitanya-caritamrita, in

this case not just of sinful reactions but the much more serious consequence of

offending great saintly devotees. (Please see Caitanya Caritamrita Antya Lila

3.147-164, 3.191-212; http://vedabase.net/cc/antya/3/en )

 

Both these incidents illustrate how when an advanced devotee of the Lord is

insulted it has such serious repercussions that for one man's fault the entire

village or country can become afflicted. In the case of Ramachandra Khan, his

entire village suffered as a consequence of his offense to Haridas Thakur and

Lord Nityananda. Contrastingly, in the case of Gopala Cakravarti who also

insulted Haridas Thakur, he was immediately dismissed and rejected by all the

members of the assembly who knew of the grave danger in insulting saintly

persons, and thus they were not implicated.

 

"Wherever an advanced devotee is insulted, for one man’s fault the entire town

or place is afflicted." Cc Antya 3.164.

 

Question 479. That leads to my second related question: If there is collective

karma, how can one free oneself from the results of such karma?

 

Answer: The process of getting relief from karma is the same - to surrender

unto the Supreme Lord and to live in harmony with His instructions by being

guided by His bona fide representatives and scriptures. We can also set a good

example from whatever position we may be in and honestly discharge our

responsibility towards our family members, friends and those that we may have

some influence upon to guide their actions on the right path. As mentioned

before, one should carefully avoid participating in or contributing to directly

irreligious/sinful activities as far as possible.

 

By taking steps towards leading such a pure life in service to the Lord and by

taking up chanting of His Holy Names, one can become immune to all types of

sinful reactions - Krishna promises to deliver such a surrendered soul. We can

practically see that those who take shelter of the divine energy of the Lord

can remain completely protected and transcendental even in the midst of great

confusions and upheavals in the rest of the society around us; not only they

remain unaffected but they can also extend great shelter to so many others

around them.