maya

[flyontop]

Hare Krsna

If you fall in love or lets say, like someone of the oposite sex, is it the "maya" that has blinded you or can someone really love or like someone along with loving GOD?

Hare Krsna

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna.

 

It's very difficult to love God 100% if you have a partner, as your mind will always be on the partner and not God.

 

As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, anything that the mind focuses on can take away the intelligence and thus you will fall down.

 

But it's not easy to stay single either. So you have to have a partner but keep in mind that ultimately unless you are extremely lucky, he/she will drag away your love for God to her/he.

 

If both the partners are serious devotees then ok, but if the partner is not a devotee, then you have to choose between Krishna and him/her. You can't have both.

 

So get a partner to satisfy your senses, but just make sure it's a devotee.

[Guest guest]

IV-v-1: Now Yajnavalkya had two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani. Of these Maitreyi used to discuss Brahman, (while) Katyayani had then only an essentially feminine outlook. One day Yajnavalkya, with a view to embracing life –

IV-v-2: ‘O Maitreyi, my dear’, said Yajnavalkya, ‘I am going to renounce this life for monasticism. Allow me to finish between you and Katyayani’.

IV-v-3: Thereupon Maitreyi said, ‘Sir, if indeed this whole earth full of wealth be mine, shall I be immortal through that, or not ?’ ‘No’, replied Yajnavalkya, ‘your life will be just like that of people who possess plenty of things, but there is no hope of immortality through wealth.’

IV-v-4: Then Maitreyi said, ‘What shall I do with that which will not make me immortal ? Tell me, sir, of that alone which you know (to be the only means of immortality).’

IV-v-5: Yajnavalkya said, ‘My dear, you have been my beloved (even before), and you have magnified what is after my heart. If you wish, my dear, I will explain it to you. As I explain it, meditate (upon its meaning).

 

IV-v-6: He said: ‘It is not for the sake of the husband, my dear, that he is loved, but for one’s own sake that he is loved. It is not for the sake of the wife, my dear, that she is loved, but for one’s own sake that she is loved. It is not for the sake of the sons, my dear, that they are loved, but for one’s own sake that they are loved. It is not for the sake of wealth, my dear, that it is loved, but for one’s own sake that it is loved......It is not for the sake of beings, my dear, that they are loved, but for one’s own sake that they are loved. It is not for the sake of all, my dear, that all is loved, but for one’s own sake that it is loved. The Self, my dear Maitreyi, should be realised – should be heard of, reflected on and meditated upon. When the Self, my dear, is realised by being heard of, reflected on and meditated upon, all this is known.

 

 

 

 

IV-iii-21: That is his form – beyond desires, free from evils and fearless. As a man, fully embraced by his beloved wife, does not know anything at all, either external or internal, so does this infinite being (self), fully embraced by the Supreme Self, not know anything at all, either external or internal. That is his form – in which all objects of desire have been attained and are but the self, and which is free from desire and devoid of grief.

[Guest guest]

"Srila Prabhupada on Wives"

Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya 20.164-173

New York, December 13, 1966

 

Krsna expanded Himself as many Krsnas. That is called vaibhava expansion in Vrndavana, and another expansion was made by Krsna at Dvaraka when He was grown up and He was obliged to marry sixteen thousand wives. The administrators, the royal family, the royal class, are allowed to marry more than one wife. This is not allowed for any other class. Because they were rich, the royal kingly order, they had sufficient means to maintain many wives with the same comforts. So they were allowed. Others such as the poor brahmanas were not allowed. So Krsna's father had sixteen wives, and one of the wives' name was Devaki, and Krsna happened to be her son. Otherwise, Krsna's father, Vasudeva, had sixteen wives. So Krsna similarly had eight wives. But He received a prayer application, from sixteen thousand girls who were kidnapped by a demon named Narakasura. And they sent the application to Krsna, "Please save us." So Krsna is always responsive to His devotees, and so He went to save the girls. He killed Narakasura and rescued all sixteen thousand girls.

 

Now those sixteen thousand girls prayed to Krsna that "We were kidnapped." They were all king's daughters. They were also all princesses. "But because we were kidnapped, nobody will marry us." That is the system. Once a girl goes out of the home, it is very difficult for her to be married in society. Still that system is going on in India. Unmarried young girls cannot go out unless she is married. If she goes out and if she passes some night with another boy, then she no more has place in the society. So those girls prayed to Krsna, "Because we were kidnapped by Narakasura from our father's custody, nobody will marry us. So You become our husband. Otherwise there is no other way." So they appealed, they cried, and Krsna accepted: "Yes. I will accept you all as My wives." Therefore He brought those sixteen thousand girls. But what kind of husband was Krishna? He is God, not an ordinary husband. So He constructed sixteen thousand palaces for all the wives all were equally well decorated. It is described that the palaces did not require any external light. They were all bedecked with jewels. And in sixteen thousand forms He used to live with each wife. That is God.

 

So somebody may question "How can he have sixteen thousand wives? He was very lusty." This shows a poor fund of knowledge. Or they will dismiss history as simply a story. Krsna is neither lusty nor is this just a story. He is Supreme, full in Himself. He did not require even one wife. We require the association of a wife or a girl because we feel the need, but if God is in need, then He is not God. He must be full. But just because His devotees wanted Him as their husband, He played the part of a perfect husband. That is the position. No husband can expand himself in many ways. Suppose one has got many girlfriends. He can go to one girlfriend, but not to many. Another point is that [bg. 18.61] "The Lord is situated in everyone's heart." So if the girls prayed to God, "You become our husband," God can come out of the heart and become her husband. What is the difficulty for God? So forget sixteen thousand, if He had married sixteen million wives, still it would be insufficient, because He is everywhere. This is called vaibhava-vilasa, inconceivable expansion. Lord Caitanya is presenting the real, factual features of Krsna's essence.

 

So, some of the yogis who are highly qualified and advanced can survive without breathing. There was a Rishi by the name of Saubhari Muni, who was in meditation and trance within the water. Because of the trance, there was no need to breathe, so there was no difficulty remaining in the water. The only reason we cannot stay in water is because of the difficulty of breathing within water. So he was in trance and he was a great yogi. He was meditating within the water, but somehow or other, he was agitated by sex desire, by seeing fish have sexual intercourse. The sex desire is so strong that even such a yogi who could meditate within the water was also agitated by sex desire. So he came out of the water and went to the king and told him, "You give me your daughter as my wife." He was a great rishi, but because he had just come out of the water, his features were very ugly. So the king became perplexed: "Oh, how will my daughter select such a nasty body for my son-in-law?" Because he was a yogi, he could understand the King's thoughts, so he thought "all right". He snapped his fingers and suddenly became very nice-looking. Because yogis can do anything, they can adopt very nice bodily features. Then the king tried to avoid him, and told him, "Well, sir, my condition is that I have eight daughters. So I can only offer my daughters to one who can become eight people at least." He wanted to see how much of a yogi he was. The yogi thus bifurcated himself at once into eight forms. So here it is stated that each form was in oneness, identical. Just like in a photograph you can expand yourself millions of times, but they are not actually expansions. So similarly, the yogi Saubhari Rishi, expanded into eight, but they were not actual expansions. It was merely a show, just like a photograph. But in comparison, Krsna actually expanded into different houses, in different features, and with different dealings. That is mentioned in the Bhagavata Purana.