Author Archives: Chaitanya Charan das

Is parents wanting their children to become Krishna conscious a sign of dependence, independence or interdependence?
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Gita 01.01 The Gita’s first word dharma conveys its essential, universal theme
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Dhritarastra speaks these first words of the Bhagavad-gita, and while speaking this, it is significant that the first content of the Gita is dharma. As will be later revealed, the Bhagavad-gita is a book about dharma. It is primarily a question about the right course of action. The specific question that Arjuna asks is, “prichami tvam dharma samudha cetaha, I ask you about dharma because my consciousness is bewildered at this stage. Please guide me.” Prior to using this words Krishna, Arjuna has used the word dharma repeatedly in the first chapter of the Bhagavat-gita. He has talked about Kula dharma, and how that has to be protected. The word dharma will come repeatedly in Gita, and if we consider the Gita as a part of the Mahabharat, then the Mahabharat is also a search for Dharma. It is trying to explain what is dharma and how one can know what is dharma. In the Mahabharat, even the demons did not want to openly violate dharma at least initially, because they know that dharma has power, and they want to use that power for their own purposes.

Let’s look at some of the meanings of the word dharma which will be relevant over here for us. One meaning could be that: we normally translate dharma as religion which is actually an over-simplification of the point of distortion. That is because the word religion has acquired certain connotations in terms of certain rules given by someone, but that’s not all that this is about. The Bhagavatam uses the word dharma, and there are multiple understandings to it. But definitely it is not the understanding that it is just some religion that some people are following. At a fundamental level dharma comes from the root “dhri”, which means to sustain. So, “dharma” is that which “sustains” or “maintains, or that which enables things to be what they are, and ensures that things stay in their position. This would imply that when we discuss dharma – If at all it can be translated, we could call it as a “sacred law” or the “innate order” of things. So, dhrama is the innate order of things within the universe which human beings are meant to harmonize with, and also it is the innate order in the universe which society and government has to harmonize with through its laws and customs. It is also the innate harmony of our own beings by which we can be who we are or who we are meant to be. Thus, we can be who we essentially are. Such harmony is what we are all seeking in this world, and we need to try our best to achieve it, because ultimately – many people for example, nowadays, in the age of individualism, say, “Be who you are. Don’t try to imitate others, don’t force yourselves to become like something else. Don’t become a xerox copy of someone else.” Sometimes such individualism can become obnoxious and Narcism, and it […]

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Why can some people readily accept Krishna’s supremacy and some can’t?
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Transcription :

Transcriber: Dr Suresh Gupta

Edited by: Sharan Shetty

Question: Why can some people readily accept Krishna’s supremacy, and some can’t?

Answer: There are three broad categories of people when it comes to practicing religion: (i) nominal religionists (ii) emotional religionists (iii) rational and emotional religionists.
Nominal religionists are the ones who worship a particular devata because they are born in a particular family or due to a particular situation. There is a religious instinct which is present in everyone and that religious instinct gets expressed according to circumstances. For nominal religionists, that religious instinct neither has an intellectual foundation nor a strong emotional connection, mainly because it is circumstantial. However, later if such people get an intellectual conviction or some emotional experience, then such people are quite open to change. For them religious instinct was there but was circumstantially directed towards a particular devata. There was no personal investment of their own consciousness in that particular object. If they hear the scriptural explanation of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition about how Krishna is God, how Krishna is the source of all gods, then they accept it.

People approach religion for different reasons. Some come due to a sense of cultural belonging. They experience a feeling of connection when they perform aarti with others, see people dress in a traditional way, watch them execute acts of devotion which they have seen their ancestors do. Some may go just to connect with others socially. There are also psychological factors since some people visit a temple simply because they feel good.

The other extreme is where people have a very strong emotional connect with a particular form of worship like worshipping a demigod, or some baba etc. If such people are told that Krishna is God, it shakes the very basis of their connection because they are very much emotionally invested. It is only when they also connect emotionally with some devotee or with something within Krishna bhakti that they may be inspired to change.

A third category is of those who have both emotional and rational connection. Such people are not only emotionally connected with the particular form of worship, but they also have a rational philosophical understanding about it. In such cases, if somebody rationally presents the philosophy to them, they may take it up and change what they are doing. In such cases, the preacher should be sensitive enough and should not hurt them emotionally by blaspheming their present belief or practice.

Srila Prabhupada used to approach people by appreciating them no matter at what stage they were and would connect them to the process of Krishna bhakti. The gap between their present belief and Krishna consciousness can be bridged if our presentation does not strongly challenge their existing belief. Generally, nobody from a broad Hindu tradition will object to that Krishna is God. However, the difficulty arises when they are unable to fathom the higher philosophy about Krishna being the Supreme Personality of Godhead and all the demigods being subordinate to him. That […]

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Why did Vidura not instruct Dhritrashtra to apologize to the Pandavas and to thereby become offense-free for practicing bhakti?
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What is the destination of those who obey their authorities and fight in unfair wars such as Vietnam – will their obedience elevate them to heaven?
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Which path of yoga burns our karma to what extent?
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Transcription

Question: Which path of yoga burns our karma to what extent?

Answer:
The word karma itself has multiple meanings. Karma can refer to the actions that we do, karma can refer to the reactions that we get, karma can refer to the system of action-reaction, karma can also refer simply to action (we cannot live without doing some karma). When you are talking about self- purification, liberation, the law, the system of action-reaction will always be there. We are always accountable for our actions. So that doesn’t change for anyone. However, we must consider the actions that we do and the reactions that we get for that.

Bhakti Vinod Thakur says that the prarabdha karma doesn’t change because it is associated with our body. By our past karma, we have got a particular body. If Krishna takes away the prarabdha karma, the whole body will also go away. We will not be able to live at all. That body may have some good or bad karma associated with it, depending on how healthy, sickly, good looking, not so good looking, how intelligent, not so intelligent the body is.

Generally, the prarabdha karma stays with us. If you consider the other processes, the Bhagavatam also uses the word called karmashaya. Karmashaya is the impressions within us which impel us to certain actions. Ashaya for karma are the impressions that impel us towards karma. So, essentially purification is different from regulation. Regulation means I stop doing something wrong. Purification means I stop desiring to do that wrong. The desire itself within me goes away.

Any kind of yoga practice requires certain amount of regulation. Without that we cannot be practicing yoga itself. Some amount of discipline needs to be accepted, like some amount of giving up of anti-spiritual activities or immoral activities will be there. Of course, you can do yoga even when you are doing that karma, but that’s not a proper practice of yoga.

If you consider the verse 4.36-37, Krishna talks about,

yathaidhāṁsi samiddho ’gnir bhasma-sāt kurute ’rjuna
jñānāgniḥ sarva-karmāṇi bhasma-sāt kurute tathā.

There he is talking about how just as a fire burns wood to ashes similarly, knowledge (jnana) will burn all reactions of karma (sarva-karmāṇi).

What that means essentially is that you’ll move towards freedom from karmic reactions. You’ll not be bound by karma. How exactly will this happen and what is this jnana? We have to understand that words have different meanings in different contexts. Jnana is not reserved only to jnana-yoga. Jnana is basically knowledge. And bhakti also requires jnana (sambhanda-jnana, for example, in bhakti). The knowledge of our relationship with Krishna. The jnana Krishna has talked about earlier in the previous verse 4.35 he says that knowledge is

yaj jñātvā na punar moham evaṁ yāsyasi pāṇḍava
yena bhūtāny aśeṣāṇi drakṣyasy ātmany atho mayi.

If you get this knowledge Arjuna, then you will not fall into illusion again and you will see all living beings as spiritual and as in Me, as Mine. So, this is […]

What is wrong with ancestors falling from higher planets to earth, as only from earth they can be liberated?
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Gita applied – Chapter 14 – The knowledge of the modes to balance self-discipline and self-discovery [Bhagavad-gita]
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[Scripture study class at ISKCON, Sydney, Australia]
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Isn’t it useless to share spirituality with people who have no spiritual interest?
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Transcription :

Transcriber: Dr Suresh Gupta

Edited by: Sharan Shetty

Question: Isn’t it useless to share spirituality with people who have no spiritual interest?

Answer: There are three broad categories: (i) deep seekers of spirituality (ii) open to spirituality (iii) not interested in spirituality.

Let us discuss first category, where people are seriously looking for spirituality. There are some senior disciples of Srila Prabhupada who actually left their home in search for God and travelled across the world. They were very seriously seeking God. However, most of us may not have gone out searching for God. At least I did not, rather God’s devotees came searching for me.
In the second category, there are large number of people who do not think they are searching for spirituality simply because they do not know, what is spirituality. These people may have particular conception about spirituality and based on that they may feel that spirituality is not for them especially in today’s world. These people may be open to spirituality but at the moment they are not interested because they do not really know about spirituality.

The third category of people are just not interested in spirituality.

Number of people is very small in the first category, reasonable in second category, but huge in the third category. Therefore, with respect to the third category, all we can do is we give them some agyaat sukriti (unknowingly acquired spiritual credits). We can do this by giving them some prasad or spiritual books which they can keep with them and probably read. This way we can help start their spiritual journey with some baby steps. If we push them too much, they will be alienated.

We cannot push people too much if they are not interested. We can only open the doors for them which lead to spirituality. However, sometimes what happens is, we open the doors and if they refuse to come in then we bang the door in their face saying, “You are a materialist, you will go to hell and suffer”. We should not do this.
At the end of our interaction, if the person does not become interested in bhakti, he should at least feel that he met a nice person. Such appreciation itself is also good for them. Thus, for most people in third category even if we just give them a positive perception of Krishna bhakti, that is also good enough.

For those in the second category, His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Maharaj in one of his lectures has said that the beauty of a preacher is in finding out what the obstacles between a soul and Krishna are and how to remove those obstacles. It is not just about giving a lecture or plainly asking people to come to the temple but maturely addressing the barriers coming in their way of bhakti. It could be due to cultural reasons that they do not feel comfortable with some bhakti practices. It could also be due to some intellectual misconceptions. Or due to some practical […]

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Don’t we need to look at people’s group identity, as when interacting with people from other organizations?
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