Re: Offender chanting Hare Krishna

Dear Vaisnavas,

      Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna! Please accept my respectful obeisances! I just want to make a few points about the discussion going on. I was moved by Bhaktatommy's experience on how he came to devotion. We should realise how fortunate we are.

       Different devotees have posted up very nice experiences and realisations as part of this thread. But there are a few places where certain unwanted tendencies are beginning to creep in. I have asked many questions to the readers and I humbly request all of you to consider them once and judge.

      1. The same doubt can manifest itself in many ways again and again, thanks to logic, can it not? I have a feeling that this is becoming repetitive even though it gets cleared every time. So far that's what I see. A fundamental doubt is persisting despite repeated discussion.

      2. Logical study of scriptures is useless. Speculation is a colossal waste of time and energy.  A topic is being made increasingly and unnecessarily confusing by presenting the same doubt in more complicated ways

      3. Analysing scriptural words with speculative logic and thinking that's all in all is simply too incomplete. Scratching the surface, but not knowing much. Devotional service is understanding and practice, not hypothesis and speculation.

     4. Past offences getting burnt is all done when one chants Nityananda Gauranga just once. Unlimited sins and offenses in unlimited births are destroyed. Then why are you still offending? The offensive propensity is the root cause, the offences are only secondary. Haven't we noticed that most of the time we commit offences only because we want to? Propensity works only when we allow it to.

      5. A devotee chanting Nityananda Gauranga must never say "Something else forcing me to offend...". This is only passing the buck on to other things. Its just trying to say, "Its not my fault." The Padma Purana injunction is perfectly correct as nearly all offenses are committed because we want to. The temptations are due to the offensive mentality, but it is WE who decide. Accepting our own mistake is the first step to humility.  There is no one else to blame.

     6. Why is the speculation persisting in spite of repeated scriptural advice to avoid it? Let me state here that the tendency to ask all sorts of trick questions is just a subconscious desire to challenge the power of the mantrarajas.

      7. The so called 'intellectual' tendency flies in the face of geniune humility. As long as we remain full of ourselves in our own petty little speculation and logic, we don't give room for the Lord to enter.

      8. We think that if we know the cause we can find the cure, my friends. But you yourself admitted that knowing the cause doesn't make a difference in our fallen situation. But when we already have the cure, why move heaven and earth to find the cause? Are we interested in the cure or the cause? Are we aware of how complicated the web of reactions is?

      9. Knowing very well that certain things are too complicated for the mind and intelligence,  there is still speculation. Is it necessary? Why try to speculate on something that can't be understood by speculation? What are we going to do by untangling the web of actions and reactions, which is infintely complicated? 

      10.  The cure for stopping and burning all offenses is dedicated chanting and CHANTING and service. No amount of speculative study can ever tell you how to get rid of them. You already know the answer, but you're searching for the key knowing its in your hand. Why? Are you indulging in arguments with your own mind? Its quite common for many thinkers...isn't it?

      11. Better to live in the present and see what can be done to improve our chanting and our service. The past is now gone. Its enough to have learnt one's lesson and look ahead. I say this because a friend argued with me, "Unless we discuss our past, how will we serve the Lord?" But what will happen is that we only keep wondering "Why, what if, where, how, maybe, i think,....." and forget the Lord!!!

Before we ask a question, let us first think whether it will help myself and others in our devotional service and bring us closer to the Lord. Let us ask ourselves, "What am I going to do knowing this. Will it make a difference?"

It is not correct to use the devotees as a book, or the guru as an encyclopedia to satisfy our mind. As long as we remain full of ourselves in our own petty little speculation and logic, we don't give room for the Lord to enter into our life and we delay our progress more and more. Don't be preoccupied by imaginary doubts that aren't there. It will take you away from the Lord. Quit the speculation and you will find a whole new life awaiting you.

From my experiences,

Srinath

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