Bonafide Disciplic Succession

[Gauracandra]

This week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program was my worst case of transcribing. Basically the program was about disciplic succession and was a back and forth question and answer between a Philippino lady and Srila Siddhaswarupananda. Her accent and the rapid fire back and forth basically made it very difficult to transcribe the lecture.

 

In summary: the questions revolved around what is a bonafide disciplic succession. The lady claimed that the Catholic church had a bonafide disciplic succession to which Srila Siddhaswarupananda said they did not. They stopped being bonafide when they started selling tickets to get into heaven (to which the Philippino audience erupted with clapping). He pointed out that some of his God brothers accept this notion of ecclesiastical gurus. That is occupying a chair makes you a guru. But one is not elected to be a servant of God. The seat is not empowered, the individual is or isn’t. The lady said that the Catholic church operates differently than his disciplic succession. She said that even if some members are corrupt that the Holy Ghost intervenes and reestablishes the truth in the lives of the Catholic members. The lecture was basically a back and forth between this lady and Srila Siddhasvarupananda. My notes are mostly garbled as I was trying to keep track of who said what, when. Sorry, I'll do better next time around.

 

The End.

 

Like I said, not the best example of my transcribing skills /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[theist]

Well we forgive you this time ji. Actually just that one point of the chair not being empowered by rather the person carries such import.

 

The way i think of the Catholic system is that some vote on who gets to be Pope, and then when that person is sitting on the big chair what he speaks isto considered The Word. I guess when he gets up and walks around he is on his own.

 

BTW what are the call letters of that SF station that carries these lectures. My satelite co. may provide it for us East Bayers.

[Gauracandra]

This week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program is a continuation of a Question & Answer session to a Philippino audience.

 

Audience Member: We were taught in Catholic school that we are a body with a soul. We learned that Jesus died and then ascended after three days. So we need our body to be resurrected like Jesus. What is your explanation behind it?

 

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: Jesus never died. First we must define what is death. If you ask ten different Christians you will get ten different answers. Do you mean Jesus ceased to exist? Do you mean a clinical death, with a cessation of bodily functions? He simply left his body temporarily, went into samadhi, and then returned to take up his body again.

 

These people who teach attachment to this body use Jesus as an excuse to remain attached. If there is something in scripture that even gives a little space that you can live forever in your body, they’ll take it and make that the center of their philosophy. They want to take up their physical bodies even after it has decomposed. Their minds are set on earthly things, therefore they are in illusion.

 

Here are some interesting verses to consider:

 

“Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

 

(For we walk by faith, not by sight)

 

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” II Corinthians 5: 6-8

 

And here is another:

 

“I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) such a one caught up to the third heaven.

 

And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth).” II Corinthians 12:2-3

 

Audience Member: I have three short questions that are related if you can answer them. In my present role in my existence shouldn’t I be aware of my sins… if I continue to exist [from past lives] why am I not aware?

 

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: In the first place there is no need for you to remember. Your whole life would be overwhelmed with an awareness of your past sins. It is an arrangement by God. You don’t even remember the good things from your past life. Do you remember your birth? No. Because it is so painful to you. God arranges that you can forget. There are some places called “Birthing clinics” that claim to help you regress to past lives for $500 per lifetime. But there are so many lives. All day long you will be feeling sorry about this and that. This is not a method for purification. You are already paying for it by your present miseries. Don’t be concerned with the past, but rather use the present to create your future. You already have this body. There is nothing you can do about the past. What you should be concerned with is not engaging in new sinful activities.

 

A person should understand that while we are bound by our destiny, we simultaneously create a new destiny. How do I create my future? I create it based on my activities now, based on the nature of my consciousness. The past will be like a fan that has been unplugged. It will continue to spin for a while. If I sin I will experience negative karma, if I do good I will experience positive karma. In either event I will need to take on a new body.

 

The science of Bhakti-yoga is that you can live and not create good or bad karma. You do all activities not for yourself but surrender it to God. Service to God results in no karmic reactions. When there are no more reactions, then we no longer have to take on a new body. Simply center your life on developing love for God. This is the art and science of transcending the wheel of birth and death.

 

On a practical level you must work to arrange your physical activities in the service of God. What you do with your time, money, words, body, mind, and entire being should all be centered on God. We should seriously apply this to our lives. In this short amount of time we can’t tell you everything. But in essence you sing the names of God, like “Gopala Govinda Rama Madana Mohana” or “Hare Krsna Hare Rama”. There are other processes like how to eat without sin. The details you can learn at the Science of Identity Institute. My students apply it in their lives. Not that you must give up everything. Gradually you become fixed up. The demon of today, the saint of tomorrow.