A case in preaching

Dear Vaisnavas,

    Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna! This is one fine example of the innumerable varieties of people we face while preaching and how its a difficult matter to get the message through in some argumentative cases.

    Letter written by a devotee from the forum to a person inquiring about Krishna Consciousness,

Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!!
>
>    lol take your time, pal. Its always a pleasure to chat with you. Im
> sorry, I wasn't able to make it this Sunday. I'll try to make it next week but its all Krishna's doing. Only if
> he wishes, can I attend the wonderful congregational chanting of His holy names.
>
>    Regarding that mail. It was just to show how even the Church is being
> influenced by speculative theories like Darwin's. Actually only the last
> note is important. Krishna designed this world imperfectly on purpose. The
> eternal spirutual and blissful worlds of Vaikuntha are the soul's original
> home. So how did we come into this material forest of misery? If you read
> the first paragraph of the email I sent you on the structure of the
> universe, it would have been said that we souls once desired to lord. That
> is we deviated from our normal constitutional position of being a servant of
> Lord Gaura Krishna. And hence we fell down. We were given this material
> world were we lord over the five elements. However sice our eternal postion
> is a servant, we cannot be happy by taking this artificial position of
> trying to be the controller of things around us. Krishna is the Supreme
> Controller and we are His servants. One who has realised this is said to
> have realised the summum bonum of the Vedas.
>
>   And the process of Hari nama kirtan or singing of the Krishna's holy name is
> the only way to go out of this material world. So we can have another
> doubt...whats the guarantee that we will not fall again? This assurance has
> been given by the Supreme Lord Himself in the Bhagavat Gita. Krishna says to
> Arjuna-" one who attains me, O Arjuna, will never return to this material
> world."  So we can happily chant the Holy names of Nityananda, Gauranga and
> Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Raama Hare Raama
> Raama Raama Hare Hare and end our miseries completely by submerging into the
> never ending ocean of ecstasy, bliss and complete happiness.
>
>    I also, please request you read the Bhagavat Gita As It Is. It is available
> at the ISKCON. I can lend you my copy if you wish. But please read it. It is
> the most important scripture spoken directly by the Lord Himself. But I also
> warn you not to buy any Bhagavat Gita. Nowadays, there are so many false
> versions of the Bhagavat Gita. I ve seen a lot of them. They leave the
> complete essence and the commentator puts forward his views rather then
> potraying what Krishna said. That is why the Bhagavat Gita sold by the
> ISKCON is named as Bhagavat Gita As It is. The book is presented in the
> original fashion from an authorised Vaishnava Sampradaya.
>
> Very happy to have your association!!!
>
> May Nitaai's mercy be on you!!
>
> Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!!
>
> Your servant,

Reply written by the other party:

    Ah, but that doesn't really make sense. If 'Krishna made this world
imperfect on purpose," then the world is totally perfect. All of
Creation is Him and His creation, therefore it can be nothing less
than perfect. It is only our ego minds which prefer to experience only
certain aspects of His creation that can possibly call things
imperfect. Imperfect is only in the mind. Imperfect is what the mind
doesn't like. But He has created everything, so whether our ego, our
minds, like it or not, all is perfect. Once you realize this, then
earth is no place of suffering at all. God has created us out of Love.
God is Love. We are His beloved children. When a child asks his father
for bread, will any father give him a stone? when a child asks for
fish will any father give him a serpent. Surely not, a father will
give with love what the child asks and needs. If our earthly fathers
love us this much, imagine how much our Heavenly Father loves us! Why
would our Father ever want us to suffer!? No father wants this for his
children. Surely  this world is not meant to be a place of suffering.
It is His beautiful creation, and it is all pervaded by Mothers Loving
energy, or Shakti. This world is Divine, just as the Infinite
Dimensions are Divine.

So why should we want to go out of this world, by chanting His name,
or any other method?' even if you go out of the world, you cannot go
outside of Him. He is infinite everything. So why go anywhere at all.
Nothing needs to be transcended, but only remembered. God is with us
and within us, and all things always. It can be no other way. God is
the creator and sum total of all things. He is the life breath within
all too. So why would we ever have to ignore, or transcend Him as he
appears to us on Earth, through Earth, as all the experiences and
objects of Earth? God needs not to be realized nor transcended, only
remembered! When we remember He is all things, then we experience Him
as all things. Even these words and these thoughts now, and the moving
of my fingers, and the warm ,milk and tea in my stomach now, they
cannot be anything but Him. When we REMEMBER this, then where is the
search, where is the striving, where is the transcending? we are
already there. the only thing that seems imperfect is our minds, and
our minds remembrance of Him. But even that is Perfect, because that,
us, is his creation. If we want to experience Him, and His Bliss, all
we have to do is remember him and his love, and experience him in all
things. It's only a matter of getting our minds to remember that.
Chanting His names, is one way of stimulating the mind through
heartfelt devotion to fall back in love with God. As we chant his
names, we experience God Love.

I remember someone at ISKCON once told me, 'it is said that chanting
the mantra is the means, as well as the end.' It is true. When you
bask in His love, you are fully aware and conscious of His love. what
else can anyone ask but the Love of his Mother and Father. It is
nothing but Love.

When we remember that Love and stay connected to it, whether it is
connecting through prayer, mantra, meditation, dance, song, or any
action or inaction- when we stay in remembrance of His Love, we are
God conscious. Surely that is the means, the way, the goal, and the
Love. It is Peace, it is Love, It is Joy, It turns to Bliss, and it is
complete Happiness.

Amen, Hare Krishna! =)

         Dear Vaisnavas, this correspondence was forwarded to me sometime back and I was asked to reply to this as there was something ok and something very much Not Ok about this. By the grace of guru and the Lord, I got some insight while writing and I would like to share them in the next post which has my reply to it. There is something very wrong in this reply that looks right but is not right.

Daaso'smi,
Srinath

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Re: Multiple Questions

Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krsna!

Dear Prabhu please accept my simple obiesances.

I am very similar to you in this regard, I love animals and nature very much. A verse comes to mind from Srila Bhaktivinoda's Sri Krsna Samhita. He says all these things are a painting of God. When I see a beautiful sunset, warm summer rain, and the wonderful birds in the sky I know in my Krsna consciousness that all this beauty is a reflection of Supreme Divine Beauty - and I know by faith and intuition that the essence of all beauty is a Divine Person. I love that understanding of Srila Thakura!

Material attachment is very different than Krsna consciousness. Attachment places the individual as the centre-piece, and in due course suffering. Krsna consciousness places God as the all in all...

To be honest Prabhu, I feel deeply that the world now desperately needs deep appreciation for nature, not neglect.If we neglect the grace and gift of God the rivers become unclean etc, and all that has been considered sacred and holy for milleniums becomes a rubbish dump. We must never negate, but instead use our God given intelligence to see Sri Krsna's presence in all things. A living temple of Divine Consciousness, and our position of devotion and service. 'If one offers me a leaf or water in love I accept it!'

That is what I feel in my heart. I hope this helps.

aspiring simplicity...Nava.

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Re: Multiple Questions

Dear Param Rushi Das,

      Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances! Maybe this question could be moved to a new thread.

      The story of Bharata Maharaja is something we all have to understand as it shows how maya often manipulates us through sympathy and making us 'feel good' or thinking that we are doing something good when actually we are not. At first he simply saved the deer, took care of it for a while and let it go, but it kept coming back to him and diverted his mind from Krishna to itself. So eventually he could no longer meditate on the Lord, but only on the deer and because of that he had to be reborn as one. Simply feeding cows or birds won't bring you in an animal body on its own, but if our minds get attached to them and we end up placing our love in them, we run the risk of thinking about them at the moment of death and getting such bodies in our next life. What we think at death is usually that which has made the strongest impressions on the mind.

       While we are passionate about many things in life, we should see whether those things are really necessary in our material life or will they help us in our devotional life or the spiritual life of others. If neither, then we are really only wasting time trying to satisfy the emotional side of our mind.

       First of all, ask yourself why you are so eager to feed birds and animals. If you're attached to them, then be careful!  If you really love the cows and birds, then do something spiritual for them. If you want to give them something, why don't you give them some bits of prasada along with regular feed? That will purify them spiritually so that if they have a next life, they will be born as human beings with the opportunity to get devotional service. Not only that you may also go about chanting Nityananda! or Gauranga! or Hare Krishna! loud enough for them to hear so that the holy name can get into their ears. The names of Nitai Gaura are so merciful that simply hearing them will do for those who are unable to chant, including the lower species. Give it a try and see. Ramanujacharya gave spiritual bodies to fishes in a pond by giving them Visnu prasada and Sivananda Sena had a dog reach Goloka by his association.

      However we must be very careful not let it take over our mind and make us attached to them on the bodily platform. Our job is to elevate others and not get pulled down by them. We may think that we are responsible for them and without us how may the animals or birds survive without us and we are being cruel if we can't feed a cow everyday or that we are doing something very good and noble...etc etc...but really that's maya's instigation. But unfortunately this is by far the easiest thing to fall for.

      You know, the animal bodies are where the living entities are simply spending out their karmic activities and their lives are much more in the hands of fate unlike we humans, who have some freedom to choose our destinies. It is almost completely impossible for one living entity to interfere in the karmic reactions of another living entity and it is futile to try and do so through material means. It is impossible to interfere in their fate by any means other than spiritual potency.

       Feeding cows may be quite difficult in your country where grass isn't available, etc. So I wouldn't waste time and energy trying to get something done with a lot of difficulty and that too which isn't necessary. I don't think the US is a country where cows are let loose on the roads and forced to eat anything they can get. On the contrary I have yet to see a skinny cow not on a farm in your country.

       Chanting the name of the Lord is better than opening millions of charitable organizations, hospitals, etc...is a statement of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati.

Your servant,
Srinath

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