How do devotees put Krsna in Christmas ?

[krsna]

k

 

Son of Krsna /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[gHari]

I found some Spiritual Sky incense in a local dollar store; two packs for a buck!! Everybody got some, even me. The one I gave my ex-wife showed both Sri Sri Radha and Krsna, and the one for her partner was frankincense flavoured. Perhaps my son will tell me if it went over well. It might be accepted; even my wife seemed impressed listening to Vrindavan Mellows while riding in my car for half an hour.

 

I cannot think of Jesus without Krsna, so for me Krsna is always in Christmas like smoke is in fire.

 

[theist]

 

How do devotees put Krsna in Christmas ?

 

 

Devptees don't put Krsna intp Christmas. He is already there. They learn to recognize Krsna in Christ. One and different.

 

Sometimes I have noticed devotees trying to mask over Christ with Krsna. Trying to pretend Krsna was Christ or something. One GBC fellow made a joke that he would replace Christ in the manger with Krsna. That struck my as offensive.

 

Krsna is pleased when His devotees are honored.

 

What did He say in the Gita about recognizing His appearnce and disappearance?

[krsna]

F YOU DEDICATE YOUR LIFE TO THE SERVICE OF KRSNA, DON'T YOU THINK THAT LORD JESUS CHRIST WILL BE PLEASED?

 

 

...I am very glad to learn that you are feeling very strongly for Jesus Christ. You have already mentioned the exemplary character of Lord Jesus Christ that he sacrificed everything for God. This example should be taken. The process should be to follow the example, not to imitate the exact activities. For example, Lord Jesus Christ wanted to preach amongst some persons who were practically against the principle of accepting God as the Supreme, and the result was that these people crucified him. At the present moment, the world situation is more dangerous than before. People have become actually Godless. So if you follow the footsteps of Lord Jesus Christ to preach God-consciousness against Godlessness and dedicate your life in that way, that will be the real purpose of following Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus Christ revealed that he was the son of God, and Krishna revealed that He is God Himself, the Supreme Father of all living entities. So if you dedicate your life to the service of Krishna, the Supreme Father, don't you think that Lord Jesus Christ will be pleased with this?

 

At the present moment we have to preach in an enlightened society. So Krishna Consciousness has got inexhaustible treasurehouse of philosophy, logic and science to convince people about God-consciousness. So if you are actually serious about following the footsteps of Lord Jesus Christ, you should take advantage of the great philosophical background of this Krishna Consciousness Movement and make people God-conscious, dedicating your life. One should try to make progress. One should not try to remain satisfied at a point which awaits further advancement. For example, the Commandment says ``Thou shalt not kill''. This means one should be non-violent. This is a good principle, but in the actual field, for want of sufficient knowledge, even this Commandment is being misinterpreted and misused. In the Bhagavad-gita you will find there are 20 items for advancing in knowledge. Perhaps you have read in the 13th Chapter. Out of the 20 items, this non-violence items is one. But devotional service is so potent, that if one is engaged in devotional service to Krishna, automatically all good qualifications are there. Thus, from the practical point of view you can see the distinction between our disciples and any other group of religious faith. We do not indulge in illicit sex-life, which includes not to covet with another's wife or daughter; We do not eat meat, and that means automatically we are non-violent. We do not indulge in intoxication, and that means we are sane in considering things in their true perspective. So you have got advantage of reading our many books for advancement of knowledge. The best thing will be for you to engage your time more in Sankirtana Party and reading our Krishna Consciousness literature... I know you are a sincere, so try to understand everything very clearly. (Letter from Srila Prabhupada 12/8/69)

 

O best of the great personalities, I am not at all afraid of material existence, for wherever I stay I am fully absorbed in thoughts of Your glories and activities. My concern is only for the fools and rascals who are making elaborate plans for material happiness and maintaining their families, societies and countries. I am simply concerned with love for them....I do not wish to be liberated alone, leaving aside all these poor fools and rascals. I know that without Krsna consciousness, without taking shelter of Your lotus feet, one cannot be happy. Therefore I wish to bring them back to shelter at Your lotus feet. (Prahlada Maharaja- SB 7:9:43-44)

 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare

[krsna]

"THE BEST SERVICE TO OUR BROTHER IS TO AWAKEN HIS KRSNA CONSCIOUSNESS"

 

It is so kind of you that you are interested in the publication of Srimad-Bhagavatam for the good of the entire human society. May Krishna bless you for your magnanimous philanthropy for the human society. There are many philanthropists and humanitarianists, but the best philanthropist is he who can award the people in general Krishna Consciousness. Actually the sufferings of the whole world or the entire universe in the material condition, is due to lack of Krishna Consciousness. Therefore, the best service to our brother is to awaken Krishna Consciousness. Your judgment is that because you think that you cannot take part in the translation work, therefore, you have decided to contribute for its publication. This dictation from within your heart from Krishna is quite in order. For serving the Lord, we require to sacrifice our life, our wealth, our intelligence, and our words. One can serve the Lord with these four possessions; if not, with three, if not, then with two or even one, and that is sufficient to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I wish that you can utilize your best talents in business organization and the result utilize for Krishna's satisfaction. That is on the absolute platform. To make the idea more clear, if I am translating Srimad-Bhagavatam, and if you are contributing for its publication and helping for its distribution, this means there is no difference between your service and my service. In the absolute platform there is no such distinction. And service is always on the absolute platform. One has to make the best use of his talent for the service of Krishna. That is wanted.

 

I am pleased also that Bhavananda, Palika Dasi and Prabhavati Dasi are all working so sincerely and steadfastly to promote this Sankirtana Movement, and surely Caitanya Mahaprabhu will bestow His full blessings upon all of you. This is a qualification of activities in Krishna Consciousness that if one renders even a small amount of sincere devotional service, Krishna becomes obliged to elevate such person; and what to speak of one whose entire life and soul has been dedicated to Krishna's service. So continue to push on as you are now doing and as far as possible distribute our books and magazines. Now that our press is ready in Boston, we have more than one dozen books which are ready to be printed, so with your help I wish to overflood the marketplaces with our literatures. Now people are reading all kinds of nonsense books, and thus their reading capacity is helping to pave their way through the circles of birth and death. If they will simply take to reading this transcendental literature we are presenting, the same reading capacity will elevate them to the highest perfection of spiritual life. So this is a very important task we are doing, and all of you push forward in Colorado with increased enthusiasm. (Letters from Srila Prabhupada 6/7/68, 11/6/69)

 

The innumerable, glorious followers of Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu brought a constant flood to the desertlike hearts of the unfortunate with an inundation of ecstatic love. All glories to Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahäprabhu, the most merciful incarnation! All glories to Lord Nityänanda, whose heart is always compassionate! (Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami- CC Antya-lila 9:1,2)

 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare

[Guest guest]

there was a big feast at our temple /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[theist]

Guest, what temple? What was the program like? Please tell us about it.

[Guest guest]

We also had feast in our temple. We had all night kirtan that commenced at 7pm and lasted until 10 am the next morning. We have the Kirtan and Dance Therapy once every two months. This is the all nite kirtan program which includes midnite snack prasad and breakfast feast. So we coincided this with xmas. The devotees also wanted to increase some spiritual activity to counteract all of the sinful activities that the non devotees engage in at this time of the year. The program was ecstatic!!! The xmas class was on the following verse and purport ...translation and purport was by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

 

"My dear Lord, let me suffer perpetually in a hellish condition, accepting all the sinful reactions of all living entities. Please finish their diseased material life."

PURPORT

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura gives the following commentary on this verse. In the Western countries, Christians believe that Lord Jesus Christ, their spiritual master, appeared in order to eradicate all the sins of his disciples. To this end, Lord Jesus Christ appeared and disappeared. Here, however, we find Sri Vasudeva Datta Thakura and Srila Haridasa Thakura to be many millions of times more advanced even when compared with Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ relieved only his followers from all sinful reactions, but Vasudeva Datta is here prepared to accept the sins of everyone in the universe. So the comparative position of Vasudeva Datta is millions of times better than that of Lord Jesus Christ. A Vaisnava is so liberal that he is prepared to risk everything to rescue the conditioned souls from material existence. Srila Vasudeva Datta Thakura is universal love itself, for he was willing to sacrifice everything and fully engage in the service of the Supreme Lord.

Srila Vasudeva Datta knew very well that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was the original Personality of Godhead, Transcendence itself, above the material conception of illusion and maya. Lord Jesus Christ certainly finished the sinful reactions of his followers by his mercy, but that does not mean he completely delivered them from the pangs of material existence. A person may be relieved from sins once, but it is a practice among Christians to confess sins and yet commit them again. By getting freed from sins and again engaging in them, one cannot attain freedom from the pangs of material existence. A diseased person may go to a physician for relief, but after he leaves the hospital he may again be infected due to his unclean habits. Thus material existence continues. Srila Vasudeva Datta wanted to completely relieve the conditioned souls from material existence so that they would no longer have an opportunity to commit sinful acts. This is the significant difference between Srila Vasudeva Datta and Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great offense to receive pardon for sins and then commit the same sins again. Such an offense is more dangerous than the sinful activity itself. Vasudeva Datta was so liberal that he requested Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to transfer all offensive activity upon him so the conditioned souls would be purified and go back home, back to Godhead. This prayer was certainly without duplicity.

Vasudeva Datta's example is unique not only within this world but within the universe. It is beyond the conception of fruitive actors or the speculation of mundane philosophers. Due to being illusioned by the external energy and due to a poor fund of knowledge, people tend to envy one another. Because of this they are entangled in fruitive activity, and they try to escape this fruitive activity by mental speculation. Consequently neither karmis nor jnanis are purified. In the words of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura, they are kukarmis and kujnanis -- bad fruitive actors and bad speculators. The Mayavadis and karmis should therefore turn their attention to the magnanimous Vasudeva Datta, who wanted to suffer for others in a hellish condition. No one should consider Vasudeva Datta a mundane philanthropist or welfare worker. Nor was he interested in merging into the Brahman effulgence or in gaining material honor or reputation. He was far, far above philanthropists, philosophers and fruitive actors. He was the most exalted personality to ever show mercy to the conditioned souls. This is not an exaggeration of his transcendental qualities. It is perfectly true. Actually, there cannot be any comparison to Vasudeva Datta. As the perfect Vaisnava, he was para-duhkha-duhkhi, very much aggrieved to see others suffer. The entire world is purified simply by the appearance of such a great devotee. Indeed, by his transcendental presence the whole world is glorified and all conditioned souls are also glorified. As Narottama dasa Thakura confirms, Vasudeva Datta is the ideal devotee of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu:

gaurangera sangi-gane, nitya-siddha kari' mane,

se yaya vrajendrasuta-pasa

One who executes Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission must be considered eternally liberated. He is a transcendental person and does not belong to this material world. Such a devotee, engaging in the deliverance of the total population, is as magnanimous as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself.

namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te

krsnaya krsna-caitanya-namne gaura-tvise namah

[Cc. Madhya 19.53]

Such a personality factually represents Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu because his heart is always filled with compassion for all conditioned souls."Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila 15.164

 

 

 

 

[theist]

I see, an xmas celebration.