Our thinking does not change the laws of nature!!

Pariksit Maharaja says here, "It is not that if I say there is no God then there will be no God or I will not be responsible for what I do." That is the atheistic theory. Atheists do not want God, because they are always sinful--if they thought that there were God, then they would be forced to shudder at the thought of punishment. Therefore they deny the existence of God. That is their process. They think that if they do not accept God then there is no punishment and they can do whatever they like.

When rabbits are being attacked by bigger animals, they close their eyes and think, "I am not going to be killed." But they are killed anyway. Similarly, we may deny the existence of God and the law of God, but still God and His law are there. In the high court you may say, "I don't care for the law of the government," but you will be forced to accept the government law. If you deny the state law, then you will be put into prison and be caused to suffer. Similarly, you may foolishly decry the existence of God--"There is no God" or "I am God"--but nevertheless you are responsible for all your actions, both good and bad.
There are two kinds of activities--good and bad. If you act nicely and perform pious activities, then you get good fortune, and if you act sinfully, then you have to suffer. Therefore Sukadeva Gosvami says:

tasmat puraivasv iha papa-niskrtau yateta mrtyor a vipadyatatmana
dosasya drstva guru-lagha vam yatha bhisak cikitseta rujam nidana-vit (SB. 6.1.8)

There are different kinds of atonement. If you commit some sin and counteract it by something else, that is atonement. There are examples of this in the Christian Bible. Sukadeva Gosvami says, "You should know that you are responsible, and according to the gravity of sinful life, you should accept some type of atonement as described in the sastras, the scriptures."


Actually, just as when one is diseased he must go to a doctor and pay doctor bills as a form of atonement, according to the Vedic way of
life there is a class of brahmanas to whom one should go for the prescribed atonement according to the sins one commits.
Sukadeva Gosvami says that one has to execute the prescribed atonement according to the gravity of one's sinful life. He continues the example: dosasya drstva guru-lagha vam yatha bhisak cikitseta rujam nidana-vit. When you consult a physician, he prescribes an inexpensive medicine or a costly medicine, according to the gravity of the disease. If you simply have a headache, he may prescribe an aspirin, but if you have something very severe, he immediately prescribes a surgical operation that will cost a thousand dollars. Similarly, sinful life is a diseased condition, so one must follow the prescribed cure to become healthy.

Acceptance of the chain of birth and death is a diseased condition of the soul. The soul has no birth and death and no disease, because it is spirit. Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita (2.20): najayate, the soul has no birth, and mriyate, it has no death. Nityah sasvato 'yam purano/ na hanyate hanyamane sarire. The soul is eternal and everlasting. It is not lost with the dissolution of this body. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire. Na hanyate means that it is not killed or destroyed, even after the destruction of this body.

The missing point of modern civilization is that there is no educational system to instruct people on what happens after death. Thus we have the most defective education, because without this knowledge of what happens after death, one dies like an animal. The animal does not know that he is going to have another body; he has no such knowledge.
Human life is not meant for becoming an animal.

One should not simply be interested in eating, sleeping, sex life, and defense. You may have a very nice arrangement for eating, or many nice buildings for sleeping, or a very good arrangement for sex life, or a very good defense force to protect you, but that does not mean that you are a human being. That type of civilization is animal life. Animals are also interested in eating, sleeping, and sex life, and according to their own methods they defend also. Where, then, is the distinction between human life and animal life if you simply engage in these four principles of bodily nature?

The distinction is made when a human being is inquisitive--"Why have I been put into this miserable condition? ls there any remedy for it? ls there any perpetual, eternal life? I do not want to die. I want to live very happily and peacefully. Is there a chance of this? What is that method? What is that science?" When these inquiries are there and steps are taken to answer these questions, that is human civilization; otherwise it is doggish civilization, animal civilization.

Animals are satisfied if they can eat, sleep, have some sex life, and have some defense. Actually there is no defense, because no one can protect himself from the hands of cruel death. Hiranyakasipu, for instance, wanted to live forever, and so he underwent severe austerities. So-called scientists are now saying that we shall stop death by scientific methods. This is also another crazy utterance. That is not possible. You may make great advancement in scientific knowledge, but there is no scientific solution to these four problems--birth, death, old age, and disease.

Excerpt from Science Of Self Realization by Srila Prabhupada

Our thinking does not change the laws of nature!!

KKSblog.com - Shaped by the desires of the Vaisnavas

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• Shaped by the desires of the Vaisnavas
• A matter of the heart
• London Ratha Yatra
• Berlin and Leipzig
• Diminishing The Sinful Disposition
• Now online: "Gita changes" for chapter six

Shaped by the desires of the Vaisnavas Posted: 15 Jun 2011 03:00 PM PDT (Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, May 2011) We have to be ready to be changed by the Vaisnavas, by the directions of the Vaisnavas.  We have to be ready to give up our own ways, our own ideas, and so on.  We have to become soft. It is said that as one is advancing in spiritual life, gradually the heart softens.  At first it is like a rock. "I am what I am and who is going to tell me anything!  I am here surrendering to Krsna and that's it!  I am not going to listen to anybody, except, okay, the temple president, but that's about it!" Hard!  But gradually, you must become softer.  The heart melts, it is explained.  Gradually one becomes pliable and one becomes like clay or like dough.  It becomes possible for us to be shaped by the desires of someone else.  We had a plan and they'll ask you to do just the opposite, and we'll say, "Yeah, sure!"  And there goes our plan! That kind of flexibility is possible – that we can just give ourselves to the needs and desires of others.  That is Vaishnava.

A matter of the heart Posted: 15 Jun 2011 02:53 PM PDT (Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, May 2011) When I speak about different levels of commitment to different levels of authorities, then I'm speaking about a matter of the heart. When it comes to our spiritual master, we must give our heart, and we must try, we must try cent percent. Although we will not make it, we must have a desire, and we must have that kind of commitment in our heart. With others, we may maintain a certain inner privacy, and yet co-operate in the social context.

London Ratha Yatra Posted: 15 Jun 2011 11:18 AM PDT The two hour procession of the London Ratha Yatra made its way from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square with hundreds of devotees pulling three chariots and chanting the Holy Names in ecstasy. Although the Ratha Yatra was on Nirjala Ekadasi, it turned out to be Jala Ekadasi because there was typical English rain. But it was much more than just water, as Maharaja said, it rained the inconceivable mercy of Their Lordships Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subadhra. Enjoy the pictures! If you cannot vie the slide show below, please visit flickr.

Berlin and Leipzig Posted: 15 Jun 2011 11:04 AM PDT Maharaja's tour through Germany continued from Weimar to the small preaching temple in Leipzig. Here he stayed for approximately four days and apart from giving daily morning and evening classes, he continued to write his book. After Leipzig, he traveled to Berlin to give the Saturday feast lecture. It was a mellow program and the lecture focused on "how we treat temporary situations as permanent ones". After the program it was an early night as the next morning we were on our way to London to attend the famous Ratha Yatra! If you cannot view the slide show below, please visit flickr.

Diminishing The Sinful Disposition Posted: 15 Jun 2011 05:00 AM PDT (Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2005) It is a fact that the previous sinful reactions can create a sinful disposition in the heart, and bring out a strong impulse to engage in a certain activity. One can check it with the intellect. But its true that everyone of us is caught up in our previous karma. You see that is the sinfulness in us – just like anything. So we are conditioned already, and if we are not at all tabula rasa or blank personality. We already have a whole load of hand baggage with us from our last life that will come out throughout, and that is the so called subconscious. The subconscious is nothing but impressions from our last life, and just as Freud was saying that: "The subconscious is a very powerful force in the individuals!" And that is true – it is simply the leftover remnants from the last life that push us. So that is understood here in this circle. Even if the tendency is there, then one can check it and in this way one can also by self control and by getting some moral knowledge – lift himself above this sinful disposition, but one cannot change it in that way. It will still be there, but one can control it, and this is what you see in the world – you see many people who are either good religious people and they are good citizens, but then they are caught in some compromising situation, and it's all over. It's a wide spread and its all over the papers. This is the result of such compulsive behaviour, due to previous reactions stored in the sinful disposition. So it maybe difficult for someone to give it up, even by knowledge, intelligence and by the attempt to control. But if you take to the process of bhakti – devotional service, then it immediately diminishes the sinful disposition… not completely but it begins to diminish it. So in bhakti we also have to control ourselves by the intellect through knowledge. But simultaneously we are breaking down the sinful disposition and with time….. you just change and it's gone…it just disappears. No other process can offer you a means to make the sinful disposition disappear – it can only give you knowledge and techniques to control it: "Sit and do breathing exercises and cool down…control your mind. Stay calm and just keep it under control. Go in that quiet room again and look at your triangle. And if you keep on doing it long enough then stay calm with self control then you can do it. Go and meditate….stay cool." So that's just exercise to control the mind, but it doesn't change the heart!

Now online: "Gita changes" for chapter six Posted: 13 Jun 2011 07:12 AM PDT BBT press release Why so few revisions for this chapter? And why the change for the title? See for yourself in the annotated scans for chapter six, now online at www.BBTedit.com/changes. You'll see all the revisions done for the purports, along with explanatory notes. And for nearly all the changes you'll see images from the earliest manuscripts in the BBT's files. read more

KKSblog.com - Shaped by the desires of the Vaisnavas-Must read!

Being desirous of Sense enjoyment,they say that there is nothing more than this.

Consider again and again d following
d right time
d right friends
d right place
d right means of income
d right ways of spending
and from whom u derive power!

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Yours
Dinesh

Words of wisdom-Canakya Pandit

Any devotee who has developed genuine love for Krishna can also
explain the truth about Krishna because Krishna helps such sincere
devotee seated in his heart.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
In his conversations, Delhi, 20th September, 1967

--
Yours
Dinesh

Krsna says,I give the intelligence by which My devotee can come to me