Monday, April 21, 2008
Re: acceptance and equal vision
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krsna
Wonderfull thread! Thanks for sharing and enlightening!
Igor
nitaai mora jivana
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Re: acceptance and equal vision
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!
Dear Nava, please accept my humble obeisances.
What a beautiful affirmation to give up all control and to allow the Lord to dance on your tongue. Indeed, when we are full of ourselves how can we make space for the Lord? Only when we step aside (give up control) we allow the Lord to fully to enter our being. The beautiful news in your case is that you have already seen everything in its spiritual identity (referring to your last beautiful video). That absolute beautiful divine vision is already within your potential. You do not have to seek for it anymore. Now it is only a matter of seeing it more frequently so that its influence starts to saturate your life and the lives of those you are in contact with. When you keep walking the path of Bhakti this will surely happen. Thank you for sharing your innermost feelings including your insecurities. This kind of honesty can help generations of aspiring devotees and I bow humbly at your lotus feet for your jewel like contributions.
Your servant,
Hadai Nityananda dasa
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!
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Firing Blank Mantras
The Search For Sri Krsna
Reality The Beautiful
Through His holy name
sound transcendental
preached and practiced by Sri Caitanyadeva
who is none other than Radha and Govinda combined
and propagated by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura
by
His Divine Grace Bhakti Raksaka Srila Sridhara Deva Goswami
Founder Acarya of the Sri Caitanya Saraswat Math
Firing Blank Mantras
Krsna will appear of His own accord. He will descend upon your tongue, and then your tongue will be able to chant the name of Krsna. A gun that has no bullet, but only a blank, may make some sound, but no bullet is actually fired. Similarly, chanting the name of Krsna without an attitude of service produces sound, but that is only tongue deep. It is like firing a gun with blanks instead of bullets. Our chanting of the holy name of Krsna must be surcharged with a serving temperament, the tendency to satisfy Krsna.
Otherwise the sound we produce is bogus. It is only an imitation, or a permutation. The holy name cannot be experienced by our senses. It is supramental and trans�cendental. An ordinary sound of this mundane world cannot be the name of Krsna. Our ear cannot even hear the name if that mediator, the serving attitude, is not there. The earnestness to satisfy Krsna's will must med�iate between Krsna and the ear, through the mind. Then only will Krsna's name enter our ear and reveal to us His form, qualities, and pastimes. The holy name is not phys�ical, it is aprakrta, transcendental, supramundane. Only through our service attitude will it come down to this mundane world.
Our guru maharaja laid the highest stress on developing a serving attitude. Otherwise it is all bogus, all imitation. And people will say, "Oh, there is no Krsna there. These men are hypocrites. They are only dancing and making noise, they are not surcharged with a serving spirit." Only through service can we directly come in contact with Krsna. The real point is to practice how to attain the spirit of service, vaisnava seva. The Vaisnava is doing service, and we must imbibe from him the methods of attaining this serving attitude.
Under the order of a devotee we must practice to give ourselves. Self abnegation and self dedication are neces�sary. And that positive thing we will receive from a devotee. If children are given pen and paper in the begin�ning, it will not be fruitful, so a stone is given, and on the earth they practice writing. So, in the beginning, we must try to practice how we can develop a serving at�titude, dedicating habit. It is our innate wealth, and that is our solace.
If we try to develop a serving attitude, the pure de�votee will help us. It is said that if one is miserly, he should at least give some trash in charity to anyone. One says to a miser, "At least give some trash to others and practice your hand to give." So, the serving spirit is a high thing. We must practice to give ourselves in the service of Krsna.
We must not be afraid that we are not attaining the highest form of service in namabhajan, the worship of the holy name. We should not think, "Why have I been asked to sweep the temple? Any ordinary man can do this." We must not be afraid of that. It is necessary for us to acquire a service attitude. Self giving, selflessness, and self forgetfulness are required. It is said that Socrates is an example of self forgetfulness and Jesus Christ is an example of self sacrifice. And for what purpose? For the cause of the Supreme. And for that we must have a positive connection with a devotee. Under his order we will connect with the plane of service. Our energy may go to the transcendental plane only by his grace or media�tion. So, our guru maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, laid ninety percent stress on de�veloping a service attitude for preaching, and that should be our aim, whatever our position may be.
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Re: Question about a Book
Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!
Dandavats and obeissances.
I would like to comment that this reply is in no way trying to take the place of the answer that is meant for Swami Gaurangapada give, I just wanted to share what I felt.
Personally I don't think the consciousness of car makers are going to be transferred to the person anywhere near as much as the consciousness of a Mayavada through reading his book or listening to him, especially when you can blast devotional kirtans in your car. I guess you wouldn't be affected by a Mayavada if you only spoke the holy names loudly and didn't let him get a word in. One actually needs a car and other such things in today's world. We surely don't need to read or listen to Mayavada philosophy for any reason as it is not even close to being necessary.
I think Mayavada association is the most dangerous of all, much more dangerous than even a regular foolish materialist. A materialist doesn't really make too much of an endeavor to minimize the form of God like a Mayavada does, who actually makes an effort. Of course we can be contaminated by any material association, through books, etc. That is why we should only do when absolutely necessary and have our mind focused on Nitai Gaura and the Vaisnavas at the same time. Just look as how Srila Swami Gaurangapada went to college and he remained like a lotus. This just takes a level of intelligence and fortitude.
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna
Jagannatha Gauranga dasa
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Re: Question about a Book
Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!
Thank You Hadai for Your interesting point.
In my humble opinion, when it comes to reading non-vaishnava books, there is a considerable distinction between common mundane books of materialistic minded people (including scientific literature) and the literature of the so-called spiritualists who willingly and knowingly deny the existence of an Eternal Personal God.
In the first case, the authors are quite innocent, just ignorant about everything and their scientific contribution (like psychology You mentioned) can be used by devotees for service purposes. Of course their words are saturated with materialistic conception of life, but that does not endanger our faith and bhakti creeper so much, if we have good association and strong spiritual practice. We are able to use their knowledge without being affected.
In the case of impersonal spiritualists (like Mayavadis) there is a great danger for our bhakti creeper and faith, because their intention is more or less to directly or indirectly deny or minimize the Personal Form of the Lord. They appear to be on our side, when it comes to renunciation of the materialistic life, but they can allure us with a specific kind of spiritual feeling which is diametrically opposed to ours and which is being subtly transmitted via their writings. Their words can infect us with their mentality and weaken our faith in bhakti. It must not necessarily be the case every time, but the above-mentioned danger is always there.
Yours humbly,
Matus
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Re: acceptance and equal vision
Thx, Hadai and dear devotees,
I have been working on acceptance and control issues over the last month or so. By God's grace I have seen within me a need for maturity in this area.
Accepting others in their spiritual identity as you say, and allowing Krsna to be the controller, is what I would like to cultivate.
Its an internal work that needs to be done to have harmonious relations with others, and the environment.
And necessary for me to learn to be a good servant oneday. And a good friend to all.
This is my meditation today while accepting the Holy Name and releasing it, on the tongue:
"accept the Holy Name on the tongue - release control of the environment to Krsna"
"accept the environment is in Krsna's hands - release the control of the Holy Name vibration on the tongue and let Krsna dance"
In the last few days I went through some very poor health and suffering, and the Lord released me by his grace, granting mef these small realizations.
And why I suffer. Also one accepting person, without words helped me see.
y.s. Nava Gauranga dasa.
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Re: Question about a Book
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!
Dear Swamiji and devotees, please accept my humble obeisances.
The above is a very interesting reply. I agree that when we know up forehand that the author of a book is mayavadi, atheist, or simply against the Lord that we should rather not take any interest whatever he or she writes. Everything that the mayavadis present and can present is already an integral (tiny) part of the whole of the vaisnava philosophy.
A few things come to my mind when you say that we have to read (for our material career) the necessary books for acquiring knowledge. Often these books are written by pure materialists and as you said their actual monistic and offensive thoughts about the personal form of the Lord shines through in their sentences and affect us in a subtle way. The question is can we really separate this �material knowledge� from our �spiritual knowledge?� Are they not very interwoven with each other? Damodara is talking about the practical application of knowledge. What if a car is not designed and developed by a pure Vaisnava with the intention �to spread Krishna consciousness throughout the world�, but by a materialist who doesn�t believe in the holy form of the Lord, or even in the existence of the Lord, and has just the intention to sell as many cars as possible for his own sense gratification? Does this make the utilization of the car for devotional purposes worthless? Or is the internet for that sake worthless? Materialism and �bad intention� from others is fully interwoven into our daily existence and our spiritual life. On the subtle level all the nonsense that is spoken by billions of people through their cell phones crosses our atmosphere constantly even when we are at sleep. We simply cannot avoid the influence. The only thing left is that we learn how to protect our Bhakti creeper from all those influences and the best way is that we surrender all our thoughts and actions and our total being to the Lord. The question is can we really protect ourselves against maya? Only the Lord can protect us from that. We are fully dependant on Him to begin with.
In order �to know the enemy� Srila Prabhupada went even so far that (while flying) he debated in the role of a mayavadi philosopher and the devotees were the defending vaisnavas and visa versa. Sometimes Srila Prabhupada defeated vaisnava arguments with mayavadi philosophy just to show the devotees what they were up to. Of course he then defeated those arguments again with vaisnava philosophy. Again, I totally agree that when it comes to spiritual acquirement we should only read vaisnava literature to receive understanding because it has the right intention. However to find out about somebody�s reputation we have to read something about what they have written. Let�s say you have never heard of a philosopher called �Schelling�, you don�t know his reputation but you read the back cover of his book and it seems interesting. To find out what he really is about we have to read at least some of his work.
In my earlier answer I referred to the psychology of communication. There is a wealth of practical information there about how to communicate more efficient including techniques with which we can see if somebody is sincere or even lying. Some of it is developed by some psychologists and they had nothing spiritual in mind when they developed the techniques. However the techniques are extremely effective when it comes to core-communication. You know within a minute if somebody is sincere interested in your preaching or that they are just polite. When I have to choose to spent my time let�s say with one out of three people at a given moment, I rather spent my time with him or her who is the sincerely interested.
Yes it would be terrible when we would be influenced in such a way that we would lose our Bhakti. The dangers are luring all around us and maya will not wait one second when we show a weak spot. She will enter, exploit and destroy. Our Bhakti creeper is never safe even not when it has grown to a full grown mighty tree. Still a mad elephant can come and destroy everything we have been given. But to stick our head in the sand and not knowing what the enemies� tactics are is also not an option except when we would choose to live in a cave totally oblivious to human society.
Coming back to the practical application of knowledge: I do not think that driving a car from A to B with the intention to deliver the message of Lord Nityananda and Lord Gauranga is roughly disturbed by the fact that the design and production of the car, the road and the traffic lights are created by many non-devotees. As a matter in fact I trust that everybody drives on the right side of the road (in this country) so my undertaking is not suicidal. I understand that there is quite a difference between spiritual advice and driving a car but where exactly do we draw the line? Are both not interwoven into the daily reality as we experience it? Is knowing and confronting your enemy not better than running away from him? In an article on this forum of a few days ago we could see how knowledgeable Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura was of so many different philosophers and their philosophies. How could he have categorized and disposed them so perfectly without understanding them first? Of course we can never compare our conditioned minds to a pure devotee as Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura. But in my humble opinion we can use the practical applications of mundane knowledge for the benefit of inducing the entire planet with Nityananda Gauranga Naam. And ultimately we have to ask ourselves the question: Do we please the Lord with our actions? And when we don�t know the answer we should beg the Lord for His guidance because we can�t do anything without His blessings.
These are some of the thoughts of an insignificant fool.
Hadai Nityananda dasa
Nityananda Gauranga Her Krishna!
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Re: Question about a Book
Dear Damodara Svarupa dasa, Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Jaya Shri Guru Parampara! Pranams! 
Thank you for your question. The author of the book in question is unfortunately the toughest monist and Mayavadi. They do not believe in Bhakti Yoga and are extremely offensive to Bhakti, Naama, Deity Worship and worshiping any form of God because they believe that every soul is God. It is painful for me to even think about the hardcore monistic philosophy professed by them. All the points which you have mentioned in your post above can be learnt and understood in their pure form from Bhagavad Gita As It Is and our Acharyas' Commentaries and from other practical books in the NITAAI Veda.
For our material career, one can and has to read books from any and all authors necessary for acquiring material knowledge. But for spiritual knowledge, I would personally advise to read books only written by Vaishnavas and those who accept that they are not God themselves even if their flowery language is very attractive to us otherwise their subtle mentality of monism will slowly creep into our hearts and will form a very difficult obstacle to attain Pure Bhakti. And the highest reading matter are the holy books composed by the Gaudiya Acharyas. For the safety and security of our spiritual quest, before reading any book, I would suggest that one tries to first find out if the author is a bonafide Vaishnava and then one can surely read the literature composed by him or her. The words of monists and mental speculators may sound very rosy, practical, useful and relevant to us but one will have to subtly accept their full package even if unknowingly or unwillingly.
If one reads their books, then certainly one may become subtly influenced by their actual monistic and offensive thoughts about the personal form of the Lord (which they try to hide it very carefully behind the curtain of their "attractive" words), since their offensive consciousness would be very subtly presented in their writings. We will not even know that we are taking in such ideas while reading their practical views about life but in the end we will stand to become subtly affected by these writings by non-devotee monists. Their words may even help us in some way practically but at what cost. We don't want to displease Lord Gaura Krishna at any cost or in any way otherwise our ultimate goal of Prema Bhakti goes further away from us.
Bhagavad Gita Ch 2 Verse 42
ya idam pushpitam vacam / pravadanty avipacita
veda-vada-ratah partha / nanyad ast ati vadina
This verse proves that one may easily use even the Vedas and their verses and present some basic truths in a flowery language in order to captivate the minds of the people, slowly but surely ultimately towards their own materialistic, atheistic or monistic philosophy. And when one starts to respect such an author's practical words, then when we read his or her anti-bhakti words, one will not be able to reject those and one will end up being subtle affected by them. I have seen many such cases myself where devotees who practiced Bhakti for many years and considered themselves advanced and immune to this, have permanently given up Bhakti and in some cases even gone against Bhakti by becoming gradually influenced by such kind of authors.
First we may think that we are reading to get some useful tips but later we may gradually begin to get influenced by other "views" of such authors which are presented subtly. This is the reason why Lord Gaura refused to see Mahabhagavata Shrila Mukunda for going to hear from monists etc. and Shrila Svarupa Damodara Goswami strictly chastised even the Mahabhagavata devotee Shrila Bhagavana Acharya for trying to request that Lord Gaura hear the compositions of a monist poet. His composition was so "attractive" that even many of the other Associates of Lord Gaura fell for it and applauded it. But when Shrila Svarupa Damodara Goswami pointed out the offensive and Mayavadic anamolies in the composition, then everyone's eyes opened to the fact. So one may think that one is taking only the gold from dirt and one may think that one is expert in doing it, but one will not even know when the dirt will take control of us and diminish the Bhakti in our hearts. This is more risky that what we can ever imagine. Shrila Prabhupada writes in the purport that even a Mahabhagavata's mind may change by hearing (or reading) such explanations. Then, how much careful we should in comparison.
So the deciding factor is not only what is written in such books but it is very important to check first the ultimate goal and consciousness of the author of the book which will and does subtly percolate and permeate throughout all the sentences in that book.
I have addressed your question philosophically to assist in all further inquiries on this matter by others in the future and is not directed towards any specific individual.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if have any further questions.
Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.
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