Krsna never has a bad day!

The terrorists who attacked the two World Trade Center Towers in New York City on September Eleventh are said to have been trained from childhood about their destination. They had been convinced that dying by killing “the enemy” would land them in a Paradise with access to many beautiful women and unlimited intoxication.

Part of these “Thoughts for Today” is to remind us of our mission. The principle of using material things in the devotional service of the Lord and thereby purifying them has not only been underscored by Rupa Gosvami but is expounded in the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam. Bhagavad-gita As It Is (3.9) and Srimad Bhagavatam (1.15.34) both establish this principle.

The three ‘gods,’ Brahma, Siva and Visnu, are known respectively in today’s Hinduistic studies as the creator, destroyer and Maintainer. Why is the Maintainer more important? Well here’s one reason. Any builder or contractor will tell us that the cost to maintain a building for one year is on the average ten per cent of the building cost. That means that in ten years you will have paid twice the cost of the initial construction. After twenty years you will have paid three times the cost of the original building of the structure, and after thirty years, the costs will amount to four times the cost of creation. This means that after thirty years maintenance costs will amount to three times the initial cost of putting up the building. Maintenance is what I call “the Visnu Factor.” The greater ‘value’ then of the building is in its maintenance. Ergo, the maintainer of a thing is ‘greater” than the creation of a thing, Q.E.D.

In Chapter 3 of Part II of Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrta, in the Dig Darsani of Sanatana Goswami, the reason for the appearance of Sankaracarya is given: Lord Krsna says to Lord Siva, ‘ “By concocting your own doctrines, turn the general populace against Me.” Because Sri Krsna wanted to keep His pure devotional service confidential, He requested Lord Siva to create this confusion. But Vaisnavas whose only serious ambition in life is to achieve the blissful rasa of worshiping Krsna reject impersonal liberation. Gopa-kumara, Lord Siva advises, should reject it also, like any obstacle to his practice of bhagavad-bhakti.’ In the Sri Tattva Sandharbha of Jiva Goswami, Sankara’s mission for the Lord is detailed as follows: “…the people were not prepared to hear seriously about the personality of the Supreme Lord, His transcendental, eternal, blissful form, or His variegated abode. They would have simply blasphemed these teachings, and then they would have been left with no way to purify their hearts. So the first task in bridging the wide gap between voidism and personalism was to reawaken people’s faith in the vedas. It was for this purpose that Sankaracarya introduced Advaita-vada, a version of monism in between voidism and personalism.”

But there is an effulgence that doesn’t depend on the sun, and that is Krishna Himself. Call it a halo or whatever, it is Krishna’s light. In Bhagavad-gita As It Is, He says that His “supreme abode is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity.”

On the spiritual path, we encounter followers and imitators, and find it can be difficult to distinguish between the two. To follow in the footprints as in “mahajano yena gata sa pantha” is one, thing, imitation is another. Srila Prabhupada once put it this way: “Those who are authorities, if you follow the authorities, then you understand. Dharmasya tattva nihita guhyam. It is very difficult to understand what is religion, what is the process of religion. People are very much puzzled. But if we follow the great personalities… They are also mentioned in the sastras. Svayambhu, Sambhu, Manu, Kumara, Kapila, Manu. So if we follow their footsteps… Just like Arjuna. That, that is, really we understand. “If Arjuna has understood like this, so let me understand like that.” That’s all. Simple thing.” (London 17 August 1973, Bhagavad-gita 2.11). And in his Will, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura writes, “Many people mistake ‘imitation’ to be ‘following.’ These two words ‘imitation’ and ‘following’ are not the same. To play the role of Narada in a play is ‘imitation’ but to follow the path of devotion, according to Narada Muni is ‘following.'”

As Vaisnavas it’s important to know that something called ID Theory or IDT (Intelligent Design Theory) has come to the notice of Darwinists and neo-Darwinists, and is generally construed to be a pseudo-scientific manifestation of ‘creationism.’ But Ph.D. researchers and professors have been careful to avoid creationist and dogmatic jargon. They have even set up research institutes proposing that the Darwin theory of evolution is not rigorously scientific, that it can’t be ‘proven,’ in the way that other theories can. Most IDT advocates are careful not to mention the word God. But IDT worries some scientists. In fact the CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal), a rationalist-empiricist-reductionism group has written official papers to refute IDT. This is an indication that IDT is being gradually being recognized as an optional answer to the question of “how did we get here?”

We’re taught that all stars are suns, and that the moon is a satellite of the earth. But Srila Prabhupada talks about the moon and stars in a different perspective, e.g., “Just like in the sky, there is one moon only and there are millions of stars. They’re useless. What is the value of the millions of stars? But one moon, oh, dissipate the whole darkness of night.” (From a New York lecture on November 29, 1973)

Hindustan Times Friday, April 26, 2002 Meditations/ Mukunda Goswami Faith and reason meet in the Gita ONCE UPON a time (namely on September 21, 1995) deities in India, England and other parts of the world were videotaped (and broadcasted) drinking huge quantities of milk. Evidence like this is considered ‘hard proof’ in most law courts. Yet, despite these recorded images, the incidents were scorned in some circles as sleight of hand. Critics sought to expose myths of inexplicable happenings. CNN used the Calcutta Rationalist Society (CRS) as one example of a local organization that suspected fraud. The CRS spokesperson, seen by millions of viewers worldwide, described how porous effigies, with invisible tubes beneath them, ‘explained’ the magic we saw. Hardcore rationalists are prone to denounce all faith claims and spiritual convictions, whether based on ancient teachings or blind and thoughtless. And there are religionists who disdain all technical innovations, such as in-vitro fertilization, stem-cell research, genetic modification, and even medical science. In this way, faith and reason are often seemingly at odds, but the facts even things out. Acceptance of the unknown, the uncharted and the unexplored is at work in every phase of our existence. We have faith in such things as automobiles, or numbering system, and our professors of math and science. Every step we take, every ride in automobile or airplane, each time we cross a bridge – we have faith we won’t fall. In the learning process, that which we hear form parents and teachers is taken as true. But how to believe in that which we do not see, taste, touch, smell or feel? One answer to this questions is to examine what we do every day. We believe that air, electricity, reasoning, the mind, and many other things truly exist, although we know of them only by their symptoms, or by what we have read or been told. There is no empirical proof of their existence. Also, 200 years of intensive global scholarship has yielded no academic censorship as to where the ‘Indo-Aryan homeland’ is located. And so it is with God. Since the time of the Enlightenment, or at least since the mid-1700’s, the human mind, in its most advanced stages, has been considered the crowing achievement of this world .But the source of that mind is all too often ignored. One of the most respected theological discourses in the word, the Bhagavad Gita, takes the form of a dialogue in which the student, Arjuna, is in the end, encouraged by his teacher, Sri Krishna, to make an informed, rational decision. Whatever need there is for basic faith, Bhagavad Gita provides common ground where the rationalist and the rishi can agree. The write is an emritus member of the ISKCON Governing Body Commission)