Only Krsna Consciousness Can Enhance KCPart 2 of 2

[Guest guest]

More on Christianity - Part 2 of 2Only Krsna Consciousness Can Enhance Krsna Consciousness.bySwami B.G. NarasinghaView online with graphics:

http://www.gosai.com/krishna-talk/62-more-on-christianity.htmlQuestion:

I have been personally present when my Gurudeva spoke appreciatively of

Christianity, and he did not do that just to be polite or for preaching

purposes.Answer: Yes, that may be the fact [the romanticized

ideal is laudable], but according to Sarasvati Thakura and also

according to Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Christianity is not something that

is desirable for a Gaudiya Vaisnava. Bhaktivinoda Thakura considers

that some men of small intelligence gave birth to a very wild idea and

that this is not acceptable to intelligent men. " Some

philosophers say that because of the first living entity's sin, all the

other living entities are imprisoned in the material world. Later,

punishing Himself for their sins, God delivers the living entities. " " Deliberating

on the virtues and faults of this world, some moralistic monotheists

concluded that the material world is not a place of pure happiness.

Indeed, the sufferings outweigh the pleasures. They claim that the

material world is a prison to punish the living entities. If there is

punishment, then there must be a crime. If there were no crime, then

why would there be any punishment? What crime did the living entities

commit? Unable to properly answer this question, some men of small

intelligence gave birth to a very wild idea. God created the first man

and placed him in a pleasant garden with his wife. Then God forbade the

man to taste the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Following the evil

counsel of a wicked being [a snake], the first man and woman tasted the

fruit of the tree of knowledge, thus disobeying God's command. In this

way they fell from that garden into the material world filled with

sufferings. Because of their offense, all other living entities are

offenders from the moment of their birth. Not seeing any other way to

remove this offense, God Himself took birth in a humanlike form, took

on His own shoulders the sins of His followers, and then died [was

crucified]. All who follow Him easily attain liberation, and all who do

not follow Him fall into an eternal Hell. In this way God assumes a

humanlike form, punishes Himself, and thus liberates the living

entities. An intelligent person cannot make sense of any of this! "

(Tattva-viveka)One may also note that since many western

devotees in contemporary times came from Christian cultures, that our

acaryas sometimes were generous in their statements about Christianity.

But at the same time we may also note that they were very outspoken and

direct about any concoctions within their own Indian traditions. Thus,

it is for those of us from Christian cultures to speak out about

Christian concoction as our acaryas have done in speaking out against

Hindu concoctions.Question: I have some appreciation for the

Christian monk Thomas Keating. For me he has many saintly qualities. I

genuinely feel I am not mistaking 'being nice' for saintliness here. It

is about displaying the qualities of saintliness as we know them from

our Vaisnava scriptures: tolerance, humility, devotion to God. He may

not have the philosophical understanding of the Vaisnava conception,

but he displays certain qualities of a devotee to a much higher extent

then so many followers of krsna-bhakti that I know.Answer: I

have never met Thomas Keating but I have met several Vaisnava

paramahamsas so I also have some idea about saintly qualities. As per

my understanding, one may have 'saintly qualities' to some extent but

without proper knowledge one is not actually a saint. If a person has

no proper knowledge of the soul or of God then such a person is a

neophyte [kanistha] and it is not possible for the neophytes to have

'saintly qualities' - that would be a contradictionThomas

Keating in your opinion may have saintly qualities, but in fact so do

many atheists such as the Dalai Lama or even Amrta Ma for that matter.

Mahatma Gandhi was also considered a saint [a saint among politicians,

but a politician among saints]. These personalities that I mention may

have tolerance, humility and so-called devotion to God but the question

is, to which God?Of course, the Dalai Lama says there is no

God. Amrta Ma and others like Sai Baba say they are God, and all

Christians [Thomas Keating included] say that Jesus is God or that the

God of Abraham is God. The fact is that all the above are mistaken.

Jesus is not God nor did he say he was and the God of the Old

Testament, the God of Abraham, was a pagan God [one of many] in early

Judaism - not the monotheistic God that he is made out to be today. So

without knowing who God is - then all the so-called saintly qualities

one may have simply fall short of the mark.Even if one blindly

accepts that everything that Jesus taught is true still it does not

compare to even a drop of the great ocean of Krsna Consciousness.

Sarasvati Thakura put it this way: " The highest morality taught by the

noble Jesus does not come even near the principles of amorous love

enshrined in the devotees of Krsna. " (Srila Sarasvati Thakura -

Interview with Prof. Suthers)In addition to the above it is

also a fact that India has produced thousands of sadhus over the past

2,000 years, having saintly character and many of them as great as or

greater than the alleged Jesus - particularly since the time of Sri

Caitanya Mahaprabhu. As for the Vaisnava literatures [produced by the

saints of India] that deal with the Absolute Truth and the ultimate

goal of love of God - the Christian world has nothing to even slightly

compare.In the opinion of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, these

so-called Christian priests [monks] are comparable to the Putana demon.

Christianity amounts to soul killing because it pats everyone on the

back and tells everyone to just believe in Jesus, to be happy in this

material world and then go to heaven to enjoy when they die - because

Jesus died for their sins. There is nothing spiritual in such a

conception. Christianity, when taken to task, has no spiritual

knowledge or proper conception of Reality.Question: I have been

reading some writings of Christian mystics and some articles by Thomas

Keating, and they convey a certain degree of realization that goes much

beyond what most people know of Christianity. They also seem to have

developed good techniques for meditation, that have helped me in my own

japa. I think more devotees could benefit from a better system for

nama-japa since, for the great majority of devotees, it doesn't get

very far beyond the level of chanting with a totally distracted mind.Answer:

The Christian mystics and others that you speak of were at best trying

to reach God by the ascending process whereas what Bhagavata devotee

have to offer and what is given by your guru and the sadhus is coming

down to us unadulterated and full of transcendental nectar - descending

in parampara. Those given to the ascending process can never know Krsna

nor do their processes actually enhance Krsna Consciousness. Only Krsna

Consciousness can enhance Krsna Consciousness.Since receiving

your email I have also read some of the articles of Thomas Keating and

in none of them did I find any spiritual knowledge that even remotely

approaches the beginning chapters of Bhagavad-gita. Keating often

refers to parables and stories from the Bible and tries to squeeze out

some truth - but alas he only comes up with some sentiment and an

occasional sub-religious principle. In none of his articles did I find

any information about the soul or who God is. Religion without proper

knowledge is sentiment and knowledge without religion is speculation.As

for the 'good techniques for meditation' developed by Christians and

the writings of Christian mystics, one should question from where these

techniques and writings have come? Are they 'God sent' or simply the

product of mental interpretations? I am highly doubtful that such

techniques have any real applicability to Krsna Consciousness. Rather,

I am of the opinion that such interests develop from our own anarthas

and lack of faith.If one is interested in 'techniques' to

improve one's Krsna conscious sadhana, then our recommendation is that

one should study the books of the six Gosvamis and their bona-fide

representatives.External techniques are actually of no use in

Gaudiya Vaisnavism. Gaudiya Vaisnavism is built on three spiritual

principles; sraddha, saranagati and seva [faith, surrender, and

service]. If one is having trouble controlling the mind while chanting

or developing the qualities of a Vaisnava then one should question

one's own sincerity. A wandering mind is due to anarthas and aparadhas

and not because of a lack in technique.We may say that people

like Thomas Keating are sincere and have many good qualities, but what

lies within, only God [Krsna] knows. Krsna directs the wanderings of

all living beings throughout the universe and when a soul is sincere he

directs that soul to the lotus feet of a bona-fide guru. So are we to

assume that even though Mahaprabhu has come, Bhaktivinoda Thakura has

come, Sarasvati Thakura has come, Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada has

come, Sridhara Maharaja has come, Bhakti Pramoda Puri Maharaja has come

and many other Vaisnavas [all teaching and leaving their books behind

to guide us] that Krsna has just overlooked the sincerity and qualities

of gentlemen like Thomas Keating - leaving them to fare for themselves

in the shadow of the cross? Or could it be that beneath a veil of

saintly qualities they remain envious of the Personality of Godhead and

lack the sukrti, due to their bad karma from previous lives, to

recognize and accept Krsna Consciousness? If that is the case, then we

should learn from their mistakes and not from their literature.A

staunch disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta by the name of Sadananda Prabhu was

of the opinion that, " If a religion doesn't even have a clear concept

of what the individual atma is, what to speak of God, it is not worth

the name 'religion' at all. " Sadananda Prabhu is also on record

as having said to another Vaisnava that, " If he didn't like the

razor-sharp distinctions in bhakti, he could return to his old

mysticism. " " Mysticism, " he said, " appears only where bhakti is not

present. " [Note: Sadananda Prabhu was the first person from a

Judeo-Christian background [Germany, 1933] to embrace Gaudiya

Vaisnavism and become a disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

He was a strong preacher and as is evident from the above quotes, he

gave up completely any sentimental attachments for Christianity.]Question:

People have an aversion to fundamentalism. Hardly anybody goes to

Church here anymore, the old way just doesn't work anymore. So in order

for me to effectively preach Vaisnavism, an appreciative view of the

aspects of Christianity that are also present in our tradition is only

helpful.Answer: Yes, many people have an aversion to

fundamentalism as you have mentioned but not all. There are over 50

million Christians in America who are hardcore fundamentalists [and

they have the guns]! That's a lot of people. These fundamentalist

Christians, given the political authority, would imprison you and every

other Hare Krsna devotee in the world. In fact, wherever the

fundamentalist Christians, Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox

Christians have the clout they use that to interfere with the spreading

of Krsna Consciousness. Russia, Serbia, Germany, USA and even India are

places where this has recently occurred. Real Christianity is a

religion of fundamentalism and fanaticism. It is not a religion of love

or even of peace as the propaganda tells us. Throughout history

whenever there has been a Christian theocracy, there has been

repression, torture and death brought upon the people. Even Martin

Luther, who stood up against the oppression of the Catholic Church,

after coming to power himself brought about his own brand of repression

and sanctioned the burning of thousands of so-called witches and

heretics. In England, when the Protestants came to power, they

persecuted the Catholics and when the Catholics came to power they

persecuted the Protestants. Thousands of innocent people died! In

Ireland this fight is still going on for the past couple of centuries.Then

there are the Muslim fundamentalists and they number in the many

millions also. So to say that there is no market in this world for

fundamentalism is not accurate. Fundamentalism may also be a good thing

- it depends on what type of fundamentalism we are talking about.Krsna

Consciousness is purified fundamentalism. The Absolute Truth [Krsna] is

the fundamental basis of Reality. To speak this conception directly

[frankly and straightforward] and to point out that the cheating

religions of the world are the principle cause of suffering may not be

appreciated by the liberal left, but compromising the truth and

becoming duplicitous is not the solution - it only serves to perpetuate

the delusions of ignorance that Christianity has spread around the

world for more than 2,000 years.People should be informed that

Christianity is a man-made religion and that because of such it has no

real value for spiritual advancement. Preaching means philosophical war

against ignorance. Truth will set us free!http://kanaiyyadesh.wordpress.com/