I had been to chennai recently for the pandal program of ISKCON. One of my friends came there to meet me, but he was not ready to come to the ISKCON program. I put my arguments why he should attend the program. And he put his arguments why he should not attend the program. In due course of the "Cofee-Tofee" discussion, he asked a question "What you got by becoming a Hare Krishna?"
This made me think. And I got a good topic for my blog...
Here are few answers. I think this topic is a blog that will keep coming in part 2,3,4... till I stop blogging or till my life ends.
1. Got access to the unlimited vedic knowledge through Srila Prabhupada’s books.
2. Chanting Hare Krishna removed the bodily concept of life in which I had a strong hold
3. Elevated my consciousness to a platform which I had never imagined
4. Got access to varieties of prasadam :P I had never imagined.
5. Got access to a wonderful bunch of people (devotees) in my life. I just love to stay with them. Never had the satisfaction level so high.
6. Showed me the goal of my life otherwise just hankering around eating,mating,sleeping and defending.
7. Reminded me of Who is Krishna?
8. Got access to the unlimited Sankirtan stories – how Krishna helps sincere souls all around the world to get in touch with Prabhupada.
9. Got access to people who dedicated their lives for Krishna consciousness without bothering their personal comforts
10. Learnt how miserable is material life
11. Learnt that even after learning the miseries of material existence, how I am still attached to it.
12. Learning how maya can trick me in different ways
13. Learning that how to carefully handle peoples’ and devotees’ feelings. More and better concerned with feelings rather than the monetary value associated with people
14. Learnt how intoxication, meat eating, gambling, illict sex makes one forget Krishna and even Krishna becomes more and more inaccessible to people who are indulged in these sinful activities.
15. Learnt who real guru is and who is bogus.
16. Learnt that though I have devotees around me, neither I am nor they are liberated souls. There should be disagreements.
17. Learnt that it is better to have my work simple, so that more efforts can be put in Krishna consciousness.
18. Learnt that it is not our strength to have our consciousness UP. Requires Krishna’s blessings. Requires our prayers.
19. Learnt how people are looking after Krishna, but they don’t realize they are looking after Krishna. Or even if we provide Krishna, they have so many of misgivings of their hearts which prevents them to take Krishna consciousness. Requires HEAVY Kirtans !!
20. Much more… But both you and I may feel bored. Will continue on this topic after some more blogs…
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Here's my answers for some Valid points :
ReplyDelete1. Got access to the unlimited vedic knowledge through Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Even if you become a historian, you would have these knowledge.
2. Chanting Hare Krishna removed the bodily concept of life in which I had a strong hold
You do not believe in what exists and believe in what does not and for which you do not have proof?
6. Showed me the goal of my life otherwise just hankering around eating,mating,sleeping and defending.
Can you show some proof in someone reaching their goal. Did anyone show some results?
14. Learnt how intoxication, meat eating, gambling, illict sex makes one forget Krishna and even Krishna becomes more and more inaccessible to people who are indulged in these sinful activities.
By nature, we are carnivores. what can you say about this?
Historians will never learn the Truth completely. Just like if you got to a medical library and read all the books, will you be qualified as a doctor or will you be able to do proper surgeries? Unless a person trains you on the techniques and details, you will never become a doctor and you should be recognized by a university also.
ReplyDeleteSame thing is applied here also.just by studying the vedas through mental speculation, you may not reach the conclusion of devotional service to The Supreme Lord.
So many interpretations of Gita is there in the market, but none can be recognized as bonafide because no one is giving the conclusion what Krishna gave and what Arjuna accepted. Simply their own ideas and thoughts pushed into Gita.
For your second doubt regarding goal of life.
There are unlimited devotees in the past and present also. I am giving only one instance here. Just one...http://www.travelingmonk.com/492/a-blessing-in-disguise
Unlimited devotees are there..Go through this article and if you are convinced a bit, go through other articles in the website as well.
Human are not carnivores. The intestine of herbivores are more in comparison with human when compared with carnivores. Carnivores have a shorter intestines to throw away the flesh (flesh starts decaying faster) out of its system soon. This is not the only reason. There are other reasons as well. I shall write a separate blog for this topic. We will discuss this there.
And we are not after simply being vegetarians.We will eat whatever Krishna accepts. Krishna accepts only vegetarian food (Gita - 9.26). So we honor the offered food as Prasadam.
Partha, I appreciate, if you have a holistic view on this, instead of just blaming all others, who are non-followers of HareKrishna.
ReplyDeleteJust leave the scientific/ historic / or biological perspective.
If you view this from the level of knowledge - reasoning and logic, which all humans possess, which animals don't, you can easily try to get answers for most of the queries.
And one more thing, normally for any event, there can be two possibilities - true or false, on/off, 1/0,good/bad...
ReplyDeleteI cannot always be right at what I'm saying/thinking/viewing. At this moment, I'm agreeing that I might be even WRONG and I'm still ready to analyze the things in a different way to find the truth. This level of acceptance and flexibility will make any researcher (be in scicence/life/art) to explore the unknown facts and adds clarity to what he does.
Just ask your heart, whether you will be able to say this - I might be even, wrong in thinking in the perspective of HareKrishna.
Most of the strong religious Practitioners, who blindly follow what is told & followed by millions, will not have this level of flexibility and acceptance of if it might be wrong. This stops their intuition.
Say, for instance, all Islamic/Hindu/Christian followers are right and strong in their own values; all followers of NITHYANANDHA swami are still strong in what they believe and follow. Can you deny this? All followers of Sharuk Khan/ Vijay / Rajni are still strongly believing in what millions of like-minded believed.
Everyone is right in their ACTIONs of BELIEVING but all of their ACTIONs of SEARCHING TRUTH can NOT be always true.
All colors have different wavelength and all are accepted as differnt forms of light. White is believed to contain all colors in it. But, again, if there is no term called - DARK, how come we call it WHITE. My point is we can't fix any particular approach is the origin of all others and this can be the only way of realizing the truth/wisdom.
Every sect/approach has got its own pros & cons. It's a sense of freedom that followers of Harekrisna are following the way. At the same time, its a sense of freedom that non-followers continue their own way/approach.
Hi Ganesh,
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking your time to read and reply this. Can you point out, where I have blamed the non-believers. And never I have said all non-hare krishnas are wrong like a crazy fanatic person?If there is any sentence, let me know. I can read it again and clarify.
May be it is that I have mentioned, Krishna, it looks like a sectarian Name. But it is not. Krishna means all-attractive One, Just like Allah means the all powerful One. There are different Holy Names refering to different features of God. We can openly accept the genuine religions of the world. Srila Prabhupada has said, Jesus Christ is our spiritual master. Jesus has sacrificed his whole life for spreading God consciousness.
But on the other hand, we cannot accept worship of any Tom dick and harry. In vedic system, everything quoted or followed has to be supported by the Guru-Sadhu-Sastra check. Guru - Sadhu -Sastra check means Your spiritual master words, teaching of previous bonafide acaryas and Scripture. We cannot imagine and follow some mental concotion like the fans of so many heroes you have mentioned.
I am not trying to say that I am correct and you are wrong. As the topic of the blog says, this is just to share my realizations of what I got after becoming a devotee.
ReplyDeleteBut at least humanbeings should not give up the urge to understand about What is God? What is the goal of my life? why I am suffering in this world? why bad things happen to good people?
In the current crazy consumer based society alll the intricate feelings of human is lost in the rat race for money,job,games, name,fame, media,violence, etc.people don't have time at all to think about their lives.
My idea is life is not just about eating,sleeping,mating and defending. There is a higher dimension to life. no one is taught about that in general unless by temples , churches or other forms of worships of the bygone ages.