CONTENTS:
- QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: How do we know when we fighting for dharma and when we fighting for sense gratification?
A: Nice question. First of all, in this age of Kali Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has forbidden fighting and that is why Mahaprabhu did not come with any weapon. In other incarnations Krishna comes with some weapon or other but in this age of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu didn’t bring any weapon. The only weapon He brought was love and with love He conquered all the demons and all the demoniac propensities. Krishna comes with a weapon to kill demons but in this age, Krishna did not come with a weapon. Why? Because in this age if we get into a fight there will be no end to it, therefore in this age there is no question of fighting. Whether dharma or adharma it doesn’t matter. No fight because all fights lead to very unpleasant situations. Rather in this age if there is an enemy you try to win him over. Actually, you fight to win right? When you win than your mission is successful. In this age we are not going to win by fighting but we win with love.
Q: In the leela Krishna manifests Himself as the cowherd boys and calves when they were taken away by Brahma, were the boys and calves svamsas or vibhinnamsas and what happened to the two sets of calves and boys?
A: They are actually svamsas. Vibhinnamsas are jivas. For everyone’s understanding Krishna expands Himself in two ways: 1. Svamsa and 2. Vibhinnamsa Svamsa is when Krishna expands and that expansion is Krishna Himself. Like when Krishna becomes Baladeva, Krishna expands Himself into Baladeva. Is there any difference between Krishna and Baladeva? No. The next expansions are Vaasudeva, Sankarshan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. Is there any difference between Krishna and Them? No. Then Krishna expands into Narayana. Is there any difference between Krishna and Narayana? No. Then Krishna expands Himself into Supersoul. Is there any difference between Krishna and Supresoul? No. So these expansions are known as svamsas.
Now vibhinnamsas are the parts and parcels. They are Krishna’s expansions but qualitatively they are the same but quantitavely they are minute. We are vibhinnamsas or jivas and the question was when Krishna expanded Himself as the calves and boys were they svamsas or vibhinnamsas? The answer is they are svamsas not vibhinnamsas. The next question was what happened to the other set of calves and boys that were there? Krishna expanded Himself in order to accomplish a mission. When Brahma stole the cowherd boys and calves then Krishna expanded Himself into that many calves and boys. So, the question is what happened to that set when the calves and cowherd boys were brought back? The set that came out of Krishna’s body as expansions went back to Krishna.
Q: Please kindly explain how one can deal with time wasting and procrastination in regards to always being engaged in hearing and chanting?
A: Very difficult question. We have to deal with a ruthless discipline and strong willpower and that’s the only way we can deal with it. No procrastination. No wasting time. Actually, it is one of the symptoms of spiritual advancement that is no time gets wasted. A devotee becomes very concerned that not a single moment is wasted. Every single moment is used in Krishna Consciousness and as you mentioned hearing and chanting.
Q: Does the Supersoul guide an aspiring devotee to find his place in the world as far as work and an appropriate partner or relationship in order to progress in Krishna Consciousness is concerned? Does that depend solely on one’s karma?
A: Well, when one takes to Krishna Consciousness then yes Krishna as the Supersoul or Chaitya Guru or spiritual master guides them. When at a neophyte stage we do not know which, one is the mind and which one is the Supersoul, it becomes very difficult to figure out. For example, you became a new bhakta and joined the movement and someone from within tells you, “Well you have rendered so much service today so just goes and enjoy a movie. Now the question arises whether this is Supersoul or mind? Maybe it’s the Supersoul who knows I don’t know.” The best way is to verify it with some advanced devotee. If you have some doubt whether its mind or Supersoul go and ask the devotee, “Prabhu I think my Supersoul is telling me to go and watch a movie today.” See what the devotee tells you and listen to him because he has better communication with Supersoul than you do (laughter). That is why you need a spiritual master because we do not know whether it is coming from our Supersoul or our mind. Therefore, we need to ask the devotees, we need to ask the spiritual master what I should do. Whatever instruction he gives that should be followed because that is the real voice of the Supersoul.
Q: We know that Radha is Krishna’s eternal consort and Rukmini is His wife. Please explain these two relationships.
A: Good question. Original Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krishna of Vrindavan and the pleasure potency or personification of the pleasure potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Srimati Radharani. When Krishna expands His pleasure potency and their expansions also expand. When Krishna expands as Vaasudeva in Dwarika then these personified pleasure potencies also expand from Vrindavan and those expansions. When Krishna becomes Vaasudeva then Radharani becomes Satyabhama and Candravali becomes Rukmini. The question is in Dwarika Rukmini is the most prominent of all and Satyabhama is in the background. Why is that? It’s because in Vrindavan emotion is prominent therefore in Vrindavan Radharani is prominent. In Dwarika intelligence becomes prominent and emotions are in the background so Candravali became prominent there as Rukmini.
Thank you for these questions. Thank you very much for being good devotees and now become even better devotees. Better devotees mean always considering how to please Krishna? How can I serve Krishna? What can I do for the expansion of the Krishna Consciousness movement? We have to always consider that.
As it was announced we are going to show a DVD. My recent involvement in a place called Ujjain which is right in the centre of India, it is the navel of the universe. It is a very wonderful place. Recently I got involved there and spent a lot of time there for the last six months to develop this project. Anyway, I do not want to take too much time speaking about it when we are just about to show the DVD.I have some gifts for some devotees. As you all know that recently I completed the Abhay Charan project. Originally, I wanted to complete the project in two years but it took me about eight years to complete because when I embarked on the project it was a 108-episode biography of Srila Prabhupada which was being casted in the Indian National Television channel at the time. I thought it would be completed in two years because I didn’t know how much time it actually takes to make movies. When I got involved, I realized that trying to rush it was affecting the quality of our production so I decided to go off the air and take the time to complete the project and now this project is completed and is being presented as an 18 DVD set. I want to express my gratitude to those who helped me. Some of you have helped me immensely in this project. Thank you all very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
Prabhupada although he started this movement without any assets whatsoever Srila Prabhupada became the wealthiest person in this world not with material wealth but with his spiritual potency and that attracted everyone.
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
If you follow Srila Prabhupada’s instructions very sincerely accepting, Him as your Siksha Guru, then Your spiritual perfection is guaranteed.
(The content of this E-magazine is based on a lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami entitled “What is Abhay Charan and how we did it”)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)