Beyond this Miserable World .

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Hare Krishna, Everywhere in this material world we can see from the looks of the faces of the people how miserable they are. Even though when we ask people how they are doing they will say that they are fine, their faces cannot hide the disturbances that are going on in their minds. This current state of affairs of the human society is stupid and unnecessary because constitutionally every living being is unlimitedly happy. It is only due his mistakenly thinking himself to be the material body that he is subjected to so many varieties of miserable situations. The material miseries are of three varieties : Miseries caused by the mind and body. Miseries caused by other living beings . Miseries caused by natural disasters. At any given time we are always being afflicted by at least one of these miseries. Therefore it would behoove us to seek out persons who can train us how to regain our original constitutional nature beyond all the above threefold miseries. It is miserable. Why? Everyone there is born, gets sick, gets old, and then dies, just like everywhere else in the material world. This point is confirmed by Lord Sri Krishna as follows : a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino 'rjuna mam upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate ( From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again.) Bhagavad-gita 8.16 In the presence of Krishna's devotees the influence of the material miseries mentioned above become conspicuous by its absence. Even if that influence is present, its impact on the consciousness becomes reduced proportionately to the point of nil, depending on one's level of advancement in Krishna-bhakti . Yesterday , a man asked us , "What is your religion?" I explained to him, "Know who you are, and be who are." I then explained what that means, that we are servants of God and the purpose of our existence is to love God. Then he expressed his disapproval of a God who would cause a tsunami to kill so many

people. I told him that God did not create the tsunami, that we created the tsunami by the ‘karma’ of our improper activities. He did not accept this principle of ‘karma’ as valid because he preferred to blame God or negate His existence. But when I told him that Newton's law of motion (Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.) applies on many levels, he could not say anything. Later on after we were checked in I saw him again in the waiting area. He smiled and waved . Even a person with an atheistic temperament can be positively affected a by strong, intelligent, compassionate presentation of Krishna’s philosophy. Question – (Correlation

Between Christianity and Vaisnavism ) 1.How should the Vaisnavas celebrate Janmastami ?. 2. Is it possible to be a Christian to be a Vaisnava ?. 3. Can a Vaisnava worship only Lord Krishna ?. 4.What about the position of Srila Prabhupada, who said the Guru is the same as God? Hare Krishna, Bhakta Reese Answer – (Jesus Christ Is a Vaisnava ) On Janmastami devotees of Lord Sri Krishna will hear and chant the glories of the Lord all day long and will fast all day up until midnight at which time a feast and arati are offered to the Lord. After the arati the devotees will break their feast by honoring Janmastami prasadam. A true Christian must necessarily be a Vaisnava because (as confirmed by Srila Prabhupada) Christ is a Vaisnava. The heavenly Father that He prayed to is revealed in the Bhagavad-gita as Lord Sri Krishna . Srila Prabhupada explains, "A Vaisnava is unhappy to see the suffering of others. Therefore, Jesus Christ agreed to be crucified -- to free others from their suffering. But his followers are so unfaithful that they have decided, 'Let Christ suffer for us, and we'll go on committing sin.' They love Christ so much that they think, 'My dear Christ, we are very weak. We cannot give up our sinful activities. So you please suffer for us.'" Jesus Christ presented himself as the Son of God, one in purpose with his Father but a different person than his Father. We follow his teaching, but do not concoct some idea that He is God, the Father. He would never approved of being described as being God, the Father. We cannot separate the conception of Krishna from the conception of God because Krishna Himself is God, the original father, the Supreme Person. We can in one sense say that Jesus Christ acted as a Spiritual Master for

delivering the fallen, conditioned souls as the situation warranted . This does mean he was one and the one and same as Lord Krishna the Supreme Personality of Godhead . It means that he as a Spiritual Master was simultaneously one with and different from the Lord . Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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