Question about Krsna consciousness

[heidy]

In buddhism, you can delay your liberation from this material planet and body to help guide or save other souls...can u do the same in Krsna consciousness?

thank you..

 

 

Hare Krsna

[Amlesh]

In Krishna Consciousness, the very meaning of Liberation is service to others [Lokasamgraha].

 

The dearest of Devotee of Sri Ram, Sri Hanuman didn't return to Vaikunth even after Ram lila was completed on earth. He said, he'll be here till Ram Naam will be chanted.

[indulekhadasi]

Of course Hanuman is also situated in the Ayodhya of the spiritual world, so it is not like he is missing anything.

But I like what you have to say Amlesh prabhu. It is true.

[bhaktajan]

 

In buddhism, you can delay your liberation from this material planet and body to help guide or save other souls...can u do the same in Krsna consciousness? thank you.. Hare Krsna

 

SB 3.25.32 Purport: . . . Bhakti, the inclination to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is in a transcendental position far better than mukti, or liberation. Thus bhakti is the stage after liberation. Unless one is liberated one cannot engage the senses in the service of the Lord.

When the senses are engaged either in material activities of sense gratification or in the activities of the Vedic injunctions, there is some motive, but when the same senses are engaged in the service of the Lord and there is no motive, that is called animittä and is the natural inclination of the mind.

The conclusion is that when the mind, without being deviated either by Vedic injunctions or by material activities, is fully engaged in Kåñëa consciousness, or devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is far better than the most aspired-for liberation from material entanglement.

SB 3.25.39-40 Purport: . . . For a devotee there is no concern for this life or the next life because in any life he does not desire elevation in material prosperity or a high-grade or low-grade life. He prays to the Lord, “My dear Lord, it does not matter where I am born, but let me be born, even as an ant, in the house of a devotee.”

A pure devotee does not pray to the Lord for liberation from this material bondage. Actually, the pure devotee never thinks that he is fit for liberation. Considering his past life and his mischievous activities, he thinks that he is fit to be sent to the lowest region of hell. If in this life I am trying to become a devotee, this does not mean that in my many past lives I was one-hundred-percent pious. That is not possible.

A devotee, therefore, is always conscious of his real position. Only by his full surrender to the Lord, by the Lord’s grace, are his sufferings made shorter. As stated in Bhagavad-gétä, “Surrender unto Me, and I will give you protection from all kinds of sinful reaction.” That is His mercy. But this does not mean that one who has surrendered to the lotus feet of the Lord has committed no misdeeds in his past life.

A devotee always prays, “For my misdeeds, may I be born again and again, but my only prayer is that I may not forget Your service.” The devotee has that much mental strength, and he prays to the Lord: “May I be born again and again, but let me be born in the home of Your pure devotee so that I may again get a chance to develop myself.”

SB 4.8.61 Purport: . . . The path of apavarga, or liberation, begins from the stage called mokña. ln this verse the word vimuktaye, “for liberation,” is especially mentioned. If one wants to he happy within this material world, he may aspire to go to the different material planetary systems where there is a higher standard of sense gratification, but real mokña, or liberation, is performed without any such desire.

This is explained in the Bhakti-rasämåta-sindhu by the term anyäbhiläñitä-çünyam [Madhya 19.167], “without desire for material sense gratification.” For persons who are still inclined to enjoy material life in different stages or on different planets, the stage of liberation in bhakti-yoga is not recommended.

Only persons who are completely free from the contamination of sense gratification can execute bhakti-yoga, or the process of devotional service, very purely. The activities on the path of apavarga up to the stages of dharma, artha and käma are meant for sense gratification, but when one comes to the stage of mokña, the impersonalist liberation, the practitioner wants to merge into the existence of the Supreme. But that is also sense gratification.

When one goes above the stage of liberation, however, he at once becomes one of the associates of the Lord to render transcendental loving service. That is technically called vimukti. For this specific vimukti liberation, Närada Muni recommends that one directly engage himself in devotional service.

SB 4.12.9 Purport: . . . A Vaiñëava is not interested in asking any benediction from the demigods, nor is he interested in asking benedictions from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is said in the Bhägavatam that liberation can be offered by the Supreme Person, but even if a pure devotee is offered liberation by the Supreme Lord, he refuses to accept it.

Dhruva Mahäräja did not ask Kuvera for transference to the spiritual world, which is called liberation; he simply asked that wherever he would remain—whether in the spiritual or material world—he would always remember the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

SB 11.20.30 Purport: . . . Advanced devotional service automatically awards one liberation from material bondage, as confirmed by Lord Kapila: jarayaty äçu yä koçaà nigérëam analo yathä. “Bhakti, devotional service, dissolves the subtle body of the living entity without separate effort, just as fire in the stomach digests all that we eat.” (Bhäg. 3.25.33) Çréla Prabhupäda states in his purport to this verse, “A devotee does not have to try separately to attain liberation.

That very service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the process of liberation, because to engage oneself in the service of the Lord is to liberate oneself from material entanglement. Çré Bilvamaìgala Öhäkura explained this position very nicely. He said, ‘If I have unflinching devotion unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, then mukti, or liberation, serves me as my maidservant. Mukti the maidservant is always ready to do whatever I ask.’ For a devotee, liberation is no problem at all. Liberation takes place without separate endeavor.”

Sri Chaitanya-caritamrta, Ädi 4.204:

"Furthermore, pure devotees never forsake the loving service of Lord Kåñëa to aspire for their own personal pleasure through the five kinds of liberation."

 

 

 

PURPORT

 

 

A pure devotee of Kåñëa who loves Him exclusively will flatly refuse to accept any sort of liberation, beginning from merging with the body of the Lord and extending to the other varieties of liberation, such as equality of form, opulence or abode and the opulence of living near the Lord.

Sri Chaitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 8.19 Purport:. . . in bhakti-yoga there is a relationship established between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the devotee. Such a relationship is established in the transcendental mellows known as däsya, sakhya, vätsalya and mädhurya.

If a devotee wants simple liberation, he gets it very easily from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as confirmed by Bilvamaìgala Öhäkura. Muktiù svayaà mukulitäïjali sevate ’smän: for a devotee, mukti is not very important because mukti is always standing on his doorstep waiting to serve him in some way.

A devotee, therefore, must be attracted by the behavior of the inhabitants of Våndävana, who live in a relationship with Kåñëa. The land, water, cows, trees and flowers serve Kåñëa in çänta-rasa, His servants serve Him in däsya-rasa, and His cowherd friends serve Him in sakhya-rasa. Similarly, the elder gopés and gopas serve Kåñëa as father and mother, uncle and other relatives, and the young gopés, the cowherd girls, serve Kåñëa in conjugal love.

. . . Vaiñëavas never accept säyujya-mukti, although sometimes they accept the other forms of liberation, namely särüpya, sälokya, sämépya and särñöi. A pure devotee, however, does not accept any kind of mukti. He wants only to serve Kåñëa in a transcendental relationship. This is the perfectional stage of spiritual life. Mäyävädé philosophers desire to merge into the existence of the Brahman effulgence, although this aspect of liberation is always neglected by devotees.

Çréla Prabodhänanda Sarasvaté Öhäkura, describing this kind of mukti, which is called kaivalya, or becoming one with the Supreme, has said, kaivalyaà narakäyate: “Becoming one with the Supreme is as good as going to hell.” Therefore the ideal of Mäyäväda philosophy, becoming one with the Supreme, is hellish for a devotee; he never accepts it. Mäyävädé philosophers do not know that even if they merge into the effulgence of the Supreme, this will not give them ultimate rest.

An individual soul cannot live in the Brahman effulgence in a state of inactivity; after some time, he must desire to be active. However, since he is not aware of his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and therefore has no spiritual activity, he must come down for further activities in this material world. This is confirmed in Çrémad-Bhägavatam (10.2.32):

 

 

 

äruhya kåcchreëa paraà padaà tataù

 

 

 

 

patanty adho ’nädåta-yuñmad-aìghrayaù

 

 

 

 

 

Because Mäyävädé philosophers have no information regarding the transcendental service of the Lord, even after attaining liberation from material activities and merging into the Brahman effulgence, they must come down again to this material world to open hospitals or schools or perform similar philanthropic activities.

Sri Chaitanya-caritamrta, Madya-lila 1.43 Purport:. . . through love of Godhead, one becomes perfectly liberated and attains the highest goal of life. A distinction is made between the liberated condition of a personalist and that of an impersonalist, and there is a discussion of liberation during one’s lifetime as distinguished from liberation from material bondage. Of all kinds of liberation, liberation in loving service to the Lord is described as the most exalted, and meeting the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face is shown to be the highest perfection of life. Immediate liberation is contrasted with liberation by a gradual process.

Both realization of Brahman and meeting with the Supreme Personality of Godhead are described as liberation within one’s lifetime, but meeting with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, both internally and externally, is shown to be superexcellent, above the transcendental realization of the Brahman effulgence.

There is a comparative study of liberation as sälokya, sämépya and särüpya. Sämépya is better than sälokya. Devotional service is considered to be liberation with greater facilities, and there is a discussion of how to obtain it.

There are also discussions of the transcendental state one achieves after attaining the devotional platform, which is the exact position of love of Godhead; the marginal symptoms of transcendental love, and how it is awakened; the distinction between so-called love and transcendental love on the platform of love of Godhead; and different types of humors and mellows enjoyed in relishing the lusty affairs of the gopés, which are different from mundane affairs, which in turn are symbolical representations of pure love for Kåñëa.

There are also discussions of bhakti mixed with philosophical speculation, the superexcellence of the love of the gopés, the difference between opulent devotional service and loving devotional service, the exalted position of the residents of Gokula, the progressively exalted position of the friends of Kåñëa, the gopas and the gopés in parental love with Kåñëa, and finally the superexcellence of the love of the gopés and that of Çrématé Rädhäräëé.

There is also a discussion of how spiritual feelings can be present when one simply imitates them and of how such mellows are far superior to the ordinary mellows of mundane love, and there are descriptions of different ecstasies, the awakening of ecstasy, transcendental qualities, the distinction of dhérodätta, the utmost attractiveness of conjugal love, the ecstatic features, the permanent ecstatic features, the mellows divided in five transcendental features of direct loving service, and indirect loving service, considered in seven divisions.

Finally there is a discussion of overlapping of different rasas, and there are discussions of çänta (neutrality), servitorship, taking shelter, parental love, conjugal love, direct transcendental enjoyment and enjoyment in separation, previous attraction and the glories of Çrématé Rädhäräëé.

Sri Chaitanya-caritamrta, Madya-lila 6.268: “A pure devotee does not like even to hear about säyujya-mukti, which inspires him with fear and hatred. Indeed, the pure devotee would rather go to hell than merge into the effulgence of the Lord.”

 

 

 

PURPORT

 

 

Çréla Prabodhänanda Sarasvaté has sung, kaivalyaà narakäyate. The impersonalist’s conception of becoming one with the effulgence of the Lord is exactly like hell. Therefore, of the five types of liberation, the first four (sälokya, sämépya, särüpya and särñöi) are not so undesirable because they can be avenues of service to the Lord.

Nonetheless, a pure devotee of Lord Kåñëa rejects even these types of liberation; he aspires only to serve Kåñëa birth after birth. He is not very interested in stopping the repetition of birth, for he simply desires to serve the Lord, even in hellish circumstances.

Consequently the pure devotee hates and fears säyujya-mukti, merging into the effulgence of the Lord. This merging is due to an offense committed against the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and therefore it is not at all desirable for a pure devotee.