SiddhasvarupanandaTV

[Gauracandra]

8/11/01

This week’s episode was about why people set various false finish lines. What is our motivation in doing so? The example given was the Honolulu Marathon in which thousands of people run for 26 miles. They endure so much pain just to cross the finish line. Most participants will not even come close to winning this race. So why do they endure the pain? It is because they wish to feel a sense of accomplishment for having disciplined their bodies and mind for one day out of the year. It gives them a sense of self-worth. Siddhasvarupananda mentioned how when we discipline our bodies and mind it is actually a great feeling. But most people only want to do it one day out of the year. After 1 day of discipline they then indulge themselves in drinking and partying after the race. Most people would prefer to diet 3 days of the week, if it means they can gorge themselves the other 4 days. So we set these false goals to feel that we have accomplished something, and then revert back to our regular tendencies, rather than taking a balanced approach. We have this fear that we will look back on life and see that we have accomplished nothing. So this one day out of the year that we ran a race makes us feel we have done something that gives us some self-worth. But what happens when we are 80 years old and can no longer run that marathon? Do we lose our sense of self-worth? Siddhasvarupananda says we should not set up these false goals. Why a 1 day sprint? Why not discipline ourselves for 365 days, 70 years, towards a real goal – that of escaping from this cycle of birth and death. There is nothing wrong with disciplining the body and mind (even for only a day) through exercise, but we should not invest our self-worth in such activities. Rather we should actively work to establish our relationship with God. This relationship is eternal and far more satisfying than these false finish lines we set up for ourselves.

 

The program was very nice (as usual). I hope I have done a fair job presenting his views and I hope you have enjoyed this summary of the program.

 

Gauracandra

 

[amanpeter]

Rather we should actively work to establish our relationship with God. This

relationship is eternal and far more satisfying than these false finish lines we set up for ourselves.

`Eternal` relationship means it always was and will continue forever, regardless. In a personal sense, relationships require the spontaneous expression of emotions, without fear or intimidation. Otherwise intimacy cannot exist.

 

The following is from a lecture given by Sri Narayana Maharaja which I received through Hari-katha Email, entitled `Secrets of Bhakti`. I'll try to post the entire talk on the Newsletter thread in this forum.

 

*********************************************

 

Ramananda Raya then came to jnana-sunya bhakti:

 

jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva

jivanti san-mukharitam bhavadiya-vartam

sthane sthitah sruti-gatam tanu-van-manobhir

ye prayaso 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyam

(Madhya 8.67)

 

What is the meaning of this sloka? There are two kinds of jnana,

knowledge. The first states that we are brahma: "Sarvam khalv

idam brahma", "Aham brahmasmi", "So ham", and so on. What is

this? It is nonsense. Krsna can say, "So'ham","I am that

brahma", but no jiva can ever say it. We are brahma-jatiya, but

not brahma. We are all eternal, infinitesimal parts and parcels

of that brahma. We are not full brahma. Those who speak in this

false way are called brahma-jnanis.

 

Those who possess the second kind of jnana are called

jnani-bhaktas, and they are personalities like Prahlada

Maharaja, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana,

Bhisma Pitamaha, and Sukadeva Gosvami in the first part of his

life.

 

Two terms are used here: jnani and jnani-bhakta. Jnanis are

offenders at the lotus feet of Krsna. They don't accept His

form, qualities, or potencies, and therefore they are offenders.

On the other hand, jnani-bhaktas are accepted as devotees.

Jnani-bhaktas are very good. They are always thinking, "The

supreme Lord Krsna can create millions upon millions of

universes in a moment, and He can also destroy them. He is

therefore Lord of Lords. He has so much opulence and so many

attributes." Jnani-bhaktas think, "I should serve my Lord so I

can achieve something from Him. He is self-satisfied, He is

full, He has no thirst, no appetite, and no fatigue; so how can

I serve Him?" They only pray, as Prahlada prayed. He could not

serve his Lord.

 

For this reason we don't fully follow these jnani-bhaktas. The

pure bhakta forgets that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of

Godhead, and we want to

follow them.

 

To make a platform, first we should know that Krsna is the

supreme Godhead, and we are parts and parcels of that Krsna. We

are His eternal servants.

 

However, if you want Vraja-prema, then you will also have to

forget this. You will only need to know that He is

Yasoda-nandana and Nanda-nandana, that He is the friend of

Sudama and Subala, that He is the beloved of all the gopis, and

that He especially serves the gopis. He cannot repay these

gopis,

He wants to take the dust of the gopis' lotus feet, and He wants

to serve them. At that time He becomes Radha-Kanta, Madana

Mohana, Syamasundara, and

Radha-Ramana.

 

No one in Vraja-mandala will accept Krsna as Parabrahma, and

even Krsna forgets this. He can take the prasadam remnants of

Nanda Baba, He can carry

the sandals of Nanda Baba on His head and, dancing and calling

out, "Tey, tey", He will very happily come to Nanda Baba. As a

baby, He cannot turn

over on His side. He can create so many universes, but in Vraja

He has no power to change sides and therefore Yasoda will come

and quickly turn Him

over. He cannot eat anything by Himself; rather Mother Yasoda

and Nanda Baba will support and nourish Him. Sometimes He will

be defeated by Sridama. He

can kill Kamsa, Jarasandha, and all other demons, but when He

comes to Sridama and fights with him, Sridama can defeat Him in

a moment. And, when He is defeated, He will be very happy. He

will even be defeated by the gopis. He wanted to wrestle with

the gopis, and at once, in a moment, the gopis defeated him and

He became so very happy.

 

In this way there is so much difference between jnani-bhaktas

who worship Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and

these classes of Vraja-bhaktas. In this sloka, jnane prayasam

udapasya, that jnana is

offensive which says that Krsna is nirguna, avyakta, anadi, and

asesa, that He has no shape, no attributes, no power, and no

qualities. Krsna does have shape, beauty, all qualities and all

kinds of opulence, but we can never realize this with our

mundane eyes.

 

Srila Jiva Gosvami has written a commentary on this sloka. In

that commentary he says that if you want to serve Krsna and you

want to please Him the most, like the gopis of Vraja, then try

to do pranama from far away to this jnana that Krsna is the

Supreme Personality of Godhead. You will have to forget it. If

you do not forget it, you cannot love Krsna very much. You will

have to forget it.

 

First we must understand that Krsna is the Supreme Personality

of Godhead, just as Srila Swami Maharaja explained in His Gita

and all other books. However, he also wanted to tell this fact:

"Try to forget it".

 

Krsna was controlled by the gopis, Mother Yasoda, Nanda Baba and

Sridama Sakha, but especially by the gopis. He accepted this

truth and told them: Na paraye 'ham niravadya-samyujam (S.B.

10.32.22). "I cannot repay all you gopis. You have left

everything for Me. You have left your husbands, fathers,

mothers, fathers-in-law and everything else, and you have been

one-pointed to Me. I cannot give up My father, My mother, or any

gopi. I cannot be one-pointed like you. If I am one-pointed to

any single gopi, like Radhika, then I will be indebted to all

others because you are all one-pointed. I cannot even forget a

neophyte devotee who is chanting Hare Krsna. I cannot neglect

anyone. I will have to reciprocate with everyone: Ye yatha mam

prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham (BG. 4.11)". What is the

meaning?

 

[Devotee:] Everyone, as they surrender to Me, I reward them

accordingly.

 

[srila Narayana Maharaja:] He's bound to do so, and therefore He

cannot be one-pointed like the gopis. Always remember this. It

is therefore said here that if you want to have a high-class

love and affection like the Vrajabasis, you'll have to forget

that Krsna is Bhagavan.

 

How can you forget? Without the mercy of the gopis you cannot be

like them, and you especially need the causeless mercy of Sri

Nityananda Prabhu, Sri Svarupa Damodara, Sri Rupa Gosvami, Sri

Sanatana Gosvami, Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, and Sri Raya

Ramananda. Without their mercy you cannot know Krsna and

Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

 

Raya Ramananda therefore proposed:

 

jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva

jivanti san-mukharitam bhavadiya-vartam

 

Have a special kind of greed to hear the pastimes of Krsna, and

hear with the eagerness of Pariksit Maharaja who heard for only

seven days. He had no

time to follow the other processes; he only heard. What became

of him? He went to Goloka Vrndavana, with the mood of the gopis

whom he followed. In his Sri Brhat Bhagavatamrtam Srila Sanatana

Gosvami relates in brief the essence of all that Pariksit

Maharaja heard from Sukadeva Gosvami and then told his mother.

 

Pariksit Maharaja told her, "Although Krsna is like your

grandfather or grandfather-in-law, you should not see Him in

this way. See Him as your most beloved." Generally a son cannot

speak to his mother like this. Kunti also has this mood, as does

Draupadi, but they never disclosed it, otherwise

foolish, ignorant persons would have laughed. Pariksit Maharaja

is telling his mother, "Mother, don't think that He is the

Supreme Personality of

Godhead or your grandfather or grandfather-in-law. Always think

of Him as your most beloved, the preyasi of the gopis." Srila

Sanatana Gosvami has revealed this.

 

You should hear all these sweet and powerful pastimes of Krsna.

They are like Krsna. If you are very attached to hearing

hari-katha with love and

affection, then Krsna Himself, in the form of this hari-katha,

will enter your hearts and purify everything. These kathas will

show you all the

pastimes of Krsna in your hearts. They will manifest there.

 

[This message has been edited by amanpeter (edited 08-11-2001).]

[Maitreya]

Thanks Gauracandra,

 

What channel please?Probably doesn' play in Berkeley but its worth looking for.

 

MC

[Gauracandra]

Its a public access channel. There are all sorts around the country, so it may very well be on in Berkeley, but at a different time. The way I found it was one day channel surfing and stumbling across this guy talking. I had only seen 1 picture before of Siddhaswarupananda and so wasn't real familiar with him. So I started listening and thinking "This guy is pretty good, he's making a lot of sense". But they never gave his name. It was only by piecing bits and pieces of info together that I figured out who he was. His programs tend to be more topical than esoteric. He has an interesting style.

 

Gauracandra

[BDas]

Siddha's program is on at 4 PM every Wednesday in SF. It is carried on the public access channel called cityvisions. Siddhas people have done a good job getting their message on these free channels. Almost every city has these channels and Siddha is on many of them.

 

ITV or some other media group should also take advantage of these free access TV channels.

[Ajay Shah]

': SiddhasvarupanandaTV '

 

Is this dude a siddha bhakta? if not, do not watch his stupid tv show.

[Maitreya]

He is so watch and tape it.

[mahak]

He operates on the premise that Love of God is a personal and free choice, so any who want to cast aspersions will not be force fed anything.

 

Some may say he is this or that but only those who hear from him will be able to make sound decision as to whether his teachings are valid, and then only after checking the teachings in accordance with the criteria of guru-shastra-sadhu.

 

I have heard the teachuings of this person for well over twenty-five years and have yet to see anything that counters the teachings of his Guru Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada, the authorized shastra, the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ, or the past sadhus and acaryas.

 

So, if you ask me if he is a perfect bhakta (siddha bhakta), I say he is, in the sense that he delivers, "intact", what he has been kindly given by Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga.

 

So go ahead and watch the show, but your decision will be to be a bee landing on honey or a fly gravitating toward foul things, any other adverse commentary without citing evidence of malfeasance is seen by the sane as nonsense party spirit and dangerous envy toward one who is actively spreading this movement on behalf of Guru and Gauranga. (not to mention a very old and worn out controversy).

 

Hare Krsna, mahaksadasa

 

Haribol, ys, mahaksadasa

[BDas]

Dear Ajay Shah,

 

In your last post you seemed to propose that unless one is a siddha bhakta he should not promote Krishna consciousness.

 

Actually there is anther way to consider this. That is the devotee should have faith that by promoting Krishna consciousness with heart and soul that gradually he will become a siddha bhakta.

 

This idea is far from stupid. Rather it is the basis of the sankirtan movement of Mahaprabhu. That movement includes all types of people who are trying to promote Krishna Consciousness in various ways.

 

Hare Bol, BDas

[Gauracandra]

8/18/01 The Illusion of Material Enjoyment

 

Siddhaswarupananda started off this program by quoting Bhagavad-Gita 8:16:

 

“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.”

 

He then pointed to a dichotomy between materialists and spiritualists. Materialists think that spiritualists simply put themselves in misery through austerities. But one who is a spiritualist sees that this world is already full of misery. While one seeks pleasures of the body, the other seeks to find happiness in meditation and contemplation on God. One is external happiness through the manipulation of matter, while the other is internal happiness by uniting with God.

 

He pointed out that actually God is the supreme enjoyer. The idea of a muscle bound God, with a white beard, who is always angry was simply the mental concoction of Michelangelo. God is the supreme enjoyer, and he enjoys various different relationships with all of His devotees.

 

But when we are in illusion we seek happiness in this world. Factually, we get a little happiness that keeps us going through our daily struggle for existence. To enjoy this world we need a material body and it is through this body that we experience happiness and its corollary pain. Pain comes with the pleasure. Because a materialist gets happiness from the body, there develops fear about the maintenance of the body. That is “If I get old, I won’t be able to enjoy anymore”. But these aren’t pleasant thoughts.

 

He noted how if you watch the news, basically it is just documenting other people’s pain (someone died, another is starving, a war is going on somewhere, another person has A.I.D.S.) and then to end the broadcast they give us a nice human interest story. Nice, light, and fluffy. To make us feel so much better.

 

Next, he turned to a devotee who was in a wheel chair and asked him what is the reaction people have when they first meet him. The man said basically people either give pity or are glad its not them in that situation. Why do people act in such an awkward manner when meeting someone in a wheel chair? Its because the machine has been broken. It takes us out of our moment of fun. Someone else’s handicap gets in the way of our fun. It breaks the enjoying mood because we think it could happen to us. He also mentioned that this is why society tends to isolate old people away from the others. Because old people are a constant reminder that we are going to die and this hampers our enjoying mood. This enjoying mood is based on illusion. The illusion that you are the enjoyer. The entire civilization in based on lulling people into this illusion that you are this body.

 

Ultimately he points out that you are 1) spirit soul and 2) the eternal servant of God. He says that spiritualists are not pessimists they are simply realists. We will die and this body with all of its attachments will pass on as well. But a true spiritualist knows that he is not this body. The body may die but that the soul lives on, and that we will be reunited with God in an eternal loving relationship.

 

End of summary

 

Gauracandra

 

 

[mahak]

Haribol, Gaurachandra and others. You have brought up this topic, and I decided to watch an old VCR of Sriman Siddhaswarupananda's earlier lectures this last weekend, and was greatly impressed. Not that He was delivering anything new, this 1985 VCR had been seen hundreds of times, but not for many years, yet the ideas presented were fresh, the delivery was entertaining, and the benefit was surely mine.

 

The subject of the 30 minute lecture and 30 minute Q&A session is "Placing one's love on the Supreme Person", and covered the wide range of loves that "happen" to all of us. The lecture focuses on the fact that loves of the names and forms of this world will end in frustration because the situation always changes, either by disturbance or by the greatest disturbance of them all, leaving of the body of either the lover or the beloved. This makes this kind of love a deeep source of misery and binds one to the world of misery.

 

The alternative was given to place one's love on the Supreme Lord. Great emphasis was given to the dual "greatest commandment" of Lord Jesus Christ, that we unreservedly give love, heart, body, mind, and entire being, to God and thus we "automatically give love to our fellow being to the extent that we love our own selves. This prioritizing of our natural loving propensity does not leave us empty, loving no one except an imagination of an unknown God figure, rather gives new meaning to the actual love we continue to give to those we are in contact with, family, friends, countrymen, etc. With Love of God as the center, the love we can express with these other beings is thus purified to remove all the miserable consequence of leaving God out of the equasion...

 

Any, great lecture, and I offer humble thanks for the one starting this topic for inspiring me to unfold the treasures gathering dust in my attic.

 

A teacher of the "TRUTH" is not topical, what he teaches is true at all times, as it was in 1985, as it is in 2001, as it will be 100 years from now.

 

Bdas makes a great point that is often cited by the great teachers of Vaisnavism, and this was also cited in the humble presentation of Sriman Siddhaswarupananda that I just revisited. He stated that he has the ability to speak, and to present lectures in a way that interests the listeners. He uses this ability in the service of Krsna to try to spread the mission of Krsna Consciousness. This is not done in an over lording way, as he clearly states in context that this "service" is beneficial to his very own advancement in Krsna Consciousness, as it is the service given to him by His spiritual master.

 

The best part of his lectures, especially the older ones (I cannot comment on the newer ones that I have not yet seen), is the way he carries himself, not as a great leader, but as a very humble and gentle person.

 

Again, thanks to the writers here for reminding me of the glorious position of the one who singlehandedly inspired me to become a devotee way back in 1970, and who keeps inspiring me to this day.

 

For anyone who cannot access his show, his nice commentary on Sri Isopanisad, "18 Pearls of Vedic Wisdom" can be accessed here. Hare Krsna, ys, mahaksadasa

 

 

[Gauracandra]

I agree. The episode I related above for 8/18/01 was produced in 1999. I have also seen shows that are from 1985 or so (you can tell by the context of the discussions) and in every episode the same tone is there. The philosophy is the same. He does have an entertaining way of presenting his ideas. I don't know if his lectures are "spur of the moment", but everything comes together fairly well, and he certainly doesn't have note cards. You kind of get the sense he is just talking very naturally. Sometimes joking, sometimes being serious. A few times I thought his joking went a little overboard (a little risque) but that just makes it his style - like he isn't trying to be some scholar. He rarely quotes sanskrit, but his conclusions from what I have seen (I've been watching the last few months) have always been spot on.

 

Gauracandra

[mahak]

Haribol, Gaurachandra. If I were to tell you who I regarded as the most genuinely funny person I have ever met, Sriman Siddhaswarupananda would top the list. He is expert on taking the edge off any situation. And he may go from this levity to the seriousness of the dread of what we are all facing at the drop of a hat, but the entire emotional range of how this Krsna Consciousness reaches the very depths of the self is always communicated quite well.

 

I became unaffiliated 22 years ago, and had the fortune of meeting folks who I could talk to without fear of reprisal. Though not affiliated with his mission in any way, I was very interested in keeping up with his teachings by purchasing his audio lectures and even a couple of VCRs. Because these friends wanted to know more and more about what I was into, I started to share these tapes with them, and by these tapes alone, many became devotees, adopted the chanting process, became quite interested in Srila Prabhupada's writings, etc. I directly witnessed his effect to those without previous experiance with ISKCON or Srila Prabhupada's affiliated disciples. This effect made me come to accept Siddhaswarupananda as a preceptor, even more so than when I had direct association with him. I had made grievous mistakes while in his ashrama, and deliberately tried to discredit his mission (as many have done for many years), but upon coning to my senses years later, I asked him to view my offenses as insignificant blunders of infancy. His acceptance of my apology was unlike anything I have ever experianced, and thus, without getting overly sentimental, showed rare and selfless Vaisnava Character only hoped for by this writer if I refrain from stupid behavior for a few hundred more lifetimes.

 

Sometimes we get complacent in our self-assessment of our devotional lives. A good way to snap out of this dangerous pride is to view how the newly exposed folks are accepting the teachings of the vaisnava with sincere and rapt attention. This was my inspiration and I owe any attraction to Krsna to this alone.

 

Some may scoff, but I also witnessed this character in Srila Prabhupada as well. He was thanking his disciples for taking to this movement, and he became quite choked up, crying profusely, thanking them for allowing him to perform devotional service. The main symptom of a spiritual master is that he firmly believes that his disciple is more devoted than himself, that his inspiration for serving the Lord comes from the disciple.

 

Hare Krsna, ys, mahaksadasa

[Gauracandra]

8/25/01

 

Many people experience great sadness and great pain because they believe they are very ugly. In this episode Siddhasvarupananda discusses the so called problem of ugliness.

 

To start of, first he knocks away the idea of relative ugliness. For the sake of the discussion he is not going to get into the whole “its all relative” argument. The source of these anxieties is that people identify with their body. If their body is ugly they think “I am ugly”.

 

Now all sorts of people in the world are giving false solutions to this anxiety. He reads from an advice column in a newspaper in which a 17 year old girl says that no one will date her because she is ugly. She says she has a lot of love to give, but no boys will respond to her unless she is willing to become sexually permissive. There are two items of advice given to her by the advice columnist. First, she should externally change her features through a new hairstyle, plastic surgery, proper use of make up etc…. and second, she must believe in her mind that she is beautiful. If she thinks she is beautiful she will be.

 

Next, Siddhasvarupananda showed a clip from the movie “The Elephant Man”. This is based on a true story of a man who was severely deformed. In this clip, an Opera singer gives the Elephant Man the book ‘Romeo & Juliet’. Over time he begins to fantasize that he is in fact beautiful and thinks of himself as Romeo. But ultimately he is forced to look in a mirror and see his disfigurement. He screams at the site of his physical ugliness.

 

The point of the clip is that there is a person who’s body is ugly. But you are not this body. So the ugliness is not you. However, rather than telling him this truth, they try to put him into a fantasy world that is false. He is Romeo, the dashing lover. Pretending is not the answer. The objective reality is there, his false self-esteem did not help. This fantasy is simply a form of cheating a person. It is not a solution.

 

It is very important to see the fallacy in this kind of “solution”. The first step is to understand that you are spirit soul temporarily in this body.

 

Trying to rearrange your face will not help. When old age comes it will simply fall apart anyways. Then you will think “I went through all these troubles and now my body is old and falling apart”. So you will be in even more anxiety. What will you do? Live in the illusion that you are 20 when you are 80? Some old people do this. They wear the clothes and makeup of young people thinking they can fool themselves that they are young and hip.

 

The young girl was thinking “But if I don’t have a beautiful body then no one will love me?” But what kind of love is that any ways? She should be thankful that all these jerks aren’t trying to exploit her. It isn’t love they want. Its conditional love. If you have a nice face then I’ll pretend to love you. If you have a nice body then I’ll exploit your body.

 

What she is longing for (as we all do) is for someone to love us as we are. There are girls who experience the exact opposite. They are beautiful, but say the same thing “People only want my body, but I want someone to love me as I am”. So this love based on the body is conditional.

 

We are looking for someone to love us unconditionally. Real religion is to realize and experience God’s unconditional love. God loves us unconditionally. If a person wants to experience the real beauty, they have to experience their soul and their soul in love with God. Make God your beloved.

 

[Gauracandra]

9/1/01

 

This week’s episode started off as a continuation of last week’s episode. The first 10 minutes or so focused on why we are so much attached to our false identification with this body. To some degree we all experience a sense of body consciousness. We become self-conscious of how others perceive us.

 

Such identification is often very difficult during the teenage years in high school. The entire media is set up to make people feel this sense of inadequacy. We all want friends, and in high school those who are popular tend to be the most attractive. But such friendship is based solely on bodily identification. Everyone decides that they want to hang out with the beautiful people. But by so doing you only make yourself appear relatively more ugly One should actually try to hang out with less attractive people and by so doing you will appear relatively more beautiful [this was said in a joking manner to show the silliness of such bodily identification].

 

Then the program moved away from the discussion of why we identify with our body. Ultimately we do so because we want true love and friendship. But such love can only be experienced on the platform of the soul. Everyone is looking for this love, and the source of this love is God.

 

But there is a process to rekindle this love for God. The process is called Sadhana-Bhakti or Bhakti-yoga. There are specific activities one can engage in like hearing and chanting God’s names, associating with those who are trying to serve God.

 

How do I develop my spiritual consciousness? First begin by hearing. Listen to scripture and take this into your heart. Meditate upon what you hear and read from the spiritual teachers and the scriptures. From hearing and contemplation will come understanding.

 

Regular hearing is important. Try to set up your life in such a manner that you can engage in hearing. Hearing also means to hear the names of God. This includes chanting and singing the names of God. It is very simple, anyone can do it. It is free and no one can stop you from engaging in such activities. You can do it when you are alone, or you can sing to God with your family in the evenings. But it should be done on a regular basis. Gradually you will be able to dovetail your life to be centered around God.

 

The last 10 minutes of the program was the chanting of:

 

Haribol Nitai-Gaur

Nitai-Gaur Haribol

 

This went on as a type of sankirtan music video. In the background were various images, from nature shots, to surfers in Hawaii, to devotees dancing in Sankirtan. The program ended with this televised Kirtan of chanting the names of the Lord.

 

Gauracandra

[Gauracandra]

There was no episode today. Usually when that happens it gets bumped to the next day. If so I'll provide my usual simple summary of it.

 

Gauracandra

[Gauracandra]

I’m finally getting around to writing up the summary from last weeks episode. I took notes, but its been a few days so I’m sure I missed a few points.

 

This weeks episode was about how people are constantly seeking the perfect relationship. We are all searching for this. But very often we enter into relationships under misconceptions about who we are “in love with”. Over time we become disillusioned. At first we think “If I love him I will be happy.” But soon we realize that this person won’t be able to live up to our expectations. Sometimes this will take the form of divorce. But even with solid relationships that have lasted for 40 years, eventually one partner will die. What shall we do when the person we have committed so much of our life to leaves us?

 

How can we change our relationship to avoid such misconceptions? First, we must be honest with one another. We must admit our own limitations. Next, we should center our lives around God, who is the perfect person to have a perfect relationship with.

 

An audience member questions that if we admit our own fallibility, won’t our partner leave us, if God is the alternative? Siddhaswarupananda makes a humorous comment that “This man is jealous of God.”

 

He says that just because the person you are relating to is not the Supreme Person, does not mean you can’t have a loving relationship with them. If you center your relationship around God, then both parties will be made stronger. Encourage one another in spiritual life. Such relationships will be one of mutual spiritual support. Over time the love based on lust will transform into spiritual love. A relationship based on lust is one that is draining on both partners. One focused on God, based on spiritual support gives energy to both parties.

 

It is never good to act in illusion. Thus the first step to a successful relationship is to be honest, to admit that we are not the perfect person. We do not need to worry that by focusing the relationship on God, that we will lose the relationships we currently have. If she loves God, then she will be able to love you. The nature of her love will change. It will be much more comfortable. You will be relieved of a huge burden as you will no longer have to pretend to be the perfect person. And when your wife is ready to pass on you will understand that your relationship to her, which is spiritual and in service to God, will continue in eternity. You can simply chant in her ears and help her on her next journey. Spiritual relationships are very wonderful.

[Gauracandra]

9/22/01

Psychic powers, mystic powers, if you had them would you be happy? Some groups seek to sell you these techniques claiming that you will be happy. Come pay me money and I will teach you how to levitate, read people’s minds, bend a spoon, or pull ashes out of the air. Supposing for a minute that they could actually teach this, would it make you happy?

 

Go and ask the fly is it happy. It can levitate. It can fly all over the place. Siddhaswarupananda then specifically focused in on the Tmers. He said these people are lying to people claiming that they can levitate. They will hop up and down on their butts. But if you ask them to actually levitate they cannot do this. He says to imagine that a person has been hoping on their butts for 7-8 years. A new person comes to their group and wants to learn the technique. “Well Charlie here can jump 18 inches off the ground”. He is joking at this moment that “Yes, this person is much more spiritually advanced than the new person”.

 

And what about reading a person’s mind. Here he references a group called The Sylvia Mind Control movement. He says what is so great about reading a person’s mind. We already know everyone wants food, sex, money.

 

All these people are lying to you. The fact is you will likely never develop these powers anyways. His simple message is “They are liars”.

 

An audience member asks “But won’t learning these powers make us happy?”. Siddhaswarupananda says certainly it will bring you some happiness. Sex has pleasure. Eating a pizza has pleasure. Certainly if you could levitate it would bring you some happiness. But this happiness is related to the material nature and so will not be permanent. The happiness you derive from your body will not be permanent. These manipulations of subtle material existence will not make you happy because you are spirit. Because you are spiritual you will never be happy with this. It is a lie. No material happiness will satisfy you, it will simply give you some temporary pleasure.

 

So you will spend your whole life trying to develop these powers. Most will never gain any powers because they are not true mystics. And even if you do when you die it is all finished.

 

Another person asks that he always figured that people who have these mystic abilities must be more spiritually advanced. Siddhaswarupananda rejects this. They may be manipulating another layer of matter, but it is still in the world of matter. It has nothing to do with true spirituality. You will see various Christian Faith Healers who claim to heal people. So what? You can go to a doctor and get medicine and surgery. Does this mean every doctor who can cure you is spiritually advanced? No, they can work within the material environment in ways many who do not have this knowledge cannot. But it doesn’t make them spiritually advanced.

 

So when is the Maharishi going to levitate? He is the leader. Everyone “knows” he can but no one has ever seen it. We all laugh because it is ridiculous. But there are many fools in the world that will pay to learn this. A balloon doesn’t even have consciousness and it can float.

 

A man asks if there is any danger is seeking to develop these powers. He answer this as follows: What is spiritual life? What is the goal? If you know what the goal is then you will know what the dangers are.

 

The danger is that these powers will increase your illusion of Lordship. You are going to think that you are God. And this will be detrimental to true spiritual life, reuniting in a loving relationship with God. There is only one way to have God as described by Lord Caitanya and that is by “feeling lower than the straw in the street”. The greatest danger is that you will lose sight of your true position as a servant of God.

 

All these groups never talk about God. But if you miss the opportunity in this human form of life, all these powers will end at death. It doesn’t matter what powers you have. A stronger power, the power of material nature, will kick you out. So you need to develop your love of God. Become a lover of God because this will bring you permanent happiness.

[Gauracandra]

Just wanted to mention that I missed this weekend's broadcast due to another spiritual activity. And yes, I am one of those fools who actually doesn't know how to program his VCR I lost the instruction manual, and its been several years since I have done it. Now, it just doesn't work, no matter how much speculation I engage in

 

Gauracandra

[valaya]

Originally posted by Gauracandra:

Just wanted to mention that I missed this weekend's broadcast due to another spiritual activity. And yes, I am one of those fools who actually doesn't know how to program his VCR I lost the instruction manual, and its been several years since I have done it. Now, it just doesn't work, no matter how much speculation I engage in

 

Gauracandra

Try phoning the manufacturer of VCR or go to a store that sells the same make. Also, repair shop may help.

 

 

[Gauracandra]

10/6/01

 

Today’s topic is ‘Progress’. Many people think they are wasting their life if they are not getting ahead. But what is ahead?

 

Siddhaswarupananda starts off this discussion with a story of a football player nicknamed ‘wrong-way Corrigan’. Once this football player was in the middle of a very important game. During one of the plays he managed to catch the ball and started running towards the goal. He ran full speed as the crowd shouted towards him. Finally he crossed the goal line and cheered since he had won the game. But it turns out he was running in the wrong direction. The entire crowd was screaming for him to stop but he thought they were cheering him on. So because he did not know the right direction to head in he lost even despite all his efforts.

 

The point being that there is no value in pursuing a goal if we are running in the wrong direction. In today’s society, whether it is socialist or capitalist, practically every person sees the goal of life as accumulating as many things as will increase our sense pleasure. This generally means trying to accumulate economic wealth, or fame.

 

Often times when men turn in their 40s or 50s they have a mid-life crisis. They begin to wonder if they have achieved all they could have or if what they have achieved already has any true value. Many have spent so much of their life trying to ‘succeed’ but still they find their life empty. But they feel they can’t change. They’ve run through more than 50% of their life. They’ve invested so much, that to turn around would be to lose all that they have strived for. They have moved so far in one direction that they don’t want to think that they might have to start over.

 

Our whole society is geared to putting people on this path. But is this the right path? Individual progress is measured by how many things we have. So we find ourselves on one end or the other of being either envious of our neighbors (for having more than we do) or of looking down on others (for having less than we have).

 

But there is no value in this game of collection. We will gather more and more, and when we die it will all be gone. None of our wealth will matter nor will our reputation. Imagine you are in a contest where you may fill up as much merchandise from a store as you can in 75 minutes (years). You fill up your basket with so much stuff, and then when your 75 minutes are up, you head for the door. Then the store clerk takes away all of your stuff that you’ve spent so much time trying to collect.

 

Everyone is in this contest. No one gets to take it with them. This is the contest of material life: who can collect the most stuff before it is taken away from them. This is the theater of the absurd.

 

The idea of progress is based on a goal. But what is a real goal? In the next episode we will discuss what is the real goal of life – understanding our true identity as a servant of God.