Guest guest Posted November 7, 2005 Report Share Posted November 7, 2005 Hare Krishna, We are not meant to suffer any longer in the cycle of birth and death. Krishna is eternally emanating us from His divine personality for the purpose of enjoying a sweet, loving unique relationship with each and every one of us. If we ignore Him and continue foolishly diverting our energy to serving our temporary material bodies and the temporary material bodies of our loved ones, this is truly the greatest possible waste of time. No matter how nicely we may serve these material bodies they will all perish either today, tomorrow, or the next day. So why should we pour all of our energy into such a poor investment, which is sure and certain to be a complete failure? An intelligent person considers the temporary nature of this material and searches to see if there is something lasting and permanent which is more worthy of his time and energy.The first step in realizing the permanent, transcendental reality is that we have to become prideless. This is very nicely described by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada as follows in his purport to the Bhagavad-gita 15.5,”The first qualification is that one should not be deluded by pride. Because the conditioned soul is puffed up, thinking himself the lord of material nature, it is very difficult for him to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should know by the cultivation of real knowledge that he is not lord of material nature ; the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Lord. When one is free from delusion caused by pride, he can begin the process of surrender. For one who is always expecting some honor in this material world, it is not possible to surrender to the Supreme Person. Pride is due to illusion, for although one comes here, stays for a brief time and then goes away, he has the foolish notion that he is the lord of the world. He thus makes all things complicated, and he is always in trouble. The whole world moves under this impression. People are considering the land, this earth, to belong to human society, and they have divided the land under the false impression that they are the proprietors. One has to get out of this false notion that human society is the proprietor of this world. When one is freed from such a false notion, he becomes free from all the false associations caused by familial, social and national affections. These faulty associations bind one to this material world. After this stage, one has to develop spiritual knowledge. One has to cultivate knowledge of what is actually his own and what is actually not his own. And when one has an understanding of things as they are, he becomes free from all dual conceptions such as happiness and distress, pleasure and pain. He becomes full in knowledge ; then it is possible for him to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has showed us practically what is the means of surrender. He engaged His entire life in chanting Hare Krishna and propagating it for the welfare of all.So this is what we also must do. We must surrender unto the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna and engage in executing those activities that are favorable for awakening our enlightened consciousness and in avoiding those activities that keep us in the illusory state of conditioned consciousness. For this purpose he will instruct to strictly following the items listed below :1. No illicit sex .2. No beef eating . 3. No intoxication .4. No gambling. 5. No gossiping or fault finding. 6. Chant at least 16 rounds of Hare Krishna mantra every day on chanting beads 7. Eat Krishna prasadam (food that has been first offered to Lord Krishna).8. Regularly study authorized scriptures such as Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. 9. Apply Krishna’s instructions in day to day activities. There is no question of being fully surrendered until we place ourselves under the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna and start acting in accordance with His instructions. When we are fully absorbed in following whatever instructions he gives us, our dormant love of Krishna will gradually be awakened . We will know that we are advancing by the appearance of the following three symptoms:1. We will develop feelings of love for Lord Krishna. 2. We will be able to directly experience Him face-to-face, eye-to-eye. 3. And we will lose our taste for all forms of evil deeds.Seriously now adopt the path of Krishna-bhakti , and we can assure you that your life will be simply wonderful.Sankarshan Das Adhikari QUESTION AND ANSWER Question -1 Vegetarians Are Also Committing Atrocities Dear Adhikariji! Namaste!You recently stated as follows,"Every day in hundreds of thousands of slaughterhouses and abortion clinics throughout the world the greatest atrocities are being committed against our family members, our four-legged and unborn brothers and sisters. Because they are in a weak position relative to the doctors and butchers, they cannot take any action to defend themselves, and are thus mercilessly slaughtered."I have a question. We (vegetarians) too are committing atrocities by slaughtering plants for our food. Just because plants do not have CNS (central nervous system) like us, it doesn't mean that they don't feel pain ; they may have alternative mechanism for experiencing extreme pain when they are killed. You conveniently chose not to look into this possibility. The law of the nature I think is, every living being strives to continue living. We are denying the plants their right to live. You chose to draw the line at your comfort level, and call everyone above it slaughterers. That is hypocrisy. Comments?Satya --------- Krishnatarians Are Freed From All Sin My Dear Satya,Please accept my blessings. You are correct that vegetarians are similarly engaged in the violence of slaughtering plants for food. Whether someone kills a rich man or a poor man, they are still guilty of murder. This is why foods must first be offered to the Lord Krishna before eating. Otherwise, even if we are eating vegetarian food, we are eating sin. Since we require some kind of eatables for our subsistence Krishna has authorized us to take fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and grains, provided we offer them to Him first. Krishna states in the Gita that this offering of the foods removes all sin. He only allows this for vegetarian foods.For you to state that we are drawing a line to suit our comfort level shows that you are grossly misunderstanding our position. We are simply following the instructions of Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Authority, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Krishna has told us to take vegetarian foodstuffs and offer them to Him and then partake of the remnants of the offering. Such plants that give up their lives according to this system ordained by Krishna are especially blessed in their evolutionary progression upwards through the 8,400,000 species of life to gradually achieve the human form.If you want to take proper advantage of those who are advanced in transcendental knowledge, the Vedic scriptures instruct that you should approach in a mood of humble submission to clarify what you may not understand. Approaching a learned person in a challenging mood will not benefit you. Of course, a true devotee of Krishna does not claim to be such a person advanced in knowledge as he considers himself to be a humble servant of the devotees. Kindly respect such a devotee’s wisdom and you will be amazed at the enlightened wisdom that will arise like a brilliant sun within your heart. Your eternal well-wisher,Sankarshan Das Adhikari FareChase - Search multiple travel sites in one click. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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