Hare Krishna All,
Pamho!
I came across some article on internet which says all gods are equal like shiva ,vishnu and bramha.
It also says that vedas are true knowledge and all other commentaries made by acharyas are to simply
make people understand the supremacy of the lord. It also says the following.
- God is one and has no form, so in order to worship him people take their favourite form.
- Only gaudiya vaishnavas claim krishna to be supreme and doesnt consider krishna to be an
incarnation of vishnu.
3. Apart from Gaudiya vaishnava books no where you find about chaitanya mahaprabhu as incarnation of god.
4. Lord shiva is not demi god but he is also the supreme god.
5. No vedas or Puranas said Maha Mantra or any mantra is the greatest or best one and other mantras like gayatri mantra are equally powerful.
6. It also says why would loving god who is not Monopolist or Dictator seeks pleasure by ordering his creation to worship him otherwise they will not be liberated.
similar to the above there are many other points which create confusion. I sometimes feel love for
god is important and it would have been good if everyone follow one path. Devotees of shiva argue that shiva is supreme and quote references and same with krishna devotees. Personally I get easily connected to Lord Shiva and Rama. What is the truth and who knows it and whom to believe???
your servant
Aakash
Replies
According to all scriptures in the mode of pure goodness ; Lord Sri Krishna is the ultimate. The greatest scripture is Srimad Bhagavatham that testifies it
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email me at ajsteinberg123@gmail.com I would be more then happy to have this discussion with you. Opinions differ in some places here, absolutely no judgement meant by it. But we could have a very effective communication via my email. Much love brother. I like your reply umang. Well, free yourself and bring forth your light. And then find out whos personality you are. For I have always been content in my own Image. :)
Adam
shiva,krishna and ram are not different ......whenever I bow before shiva I believe it is for my same lord -the supreme godhead krishna!!!!!!!a/c to vedas.......there is nothing truth except the parmatma then why so confusion between shiva,rama and krishna........if we r honest in our devotion even to shiva or durga......ultimately we will knowing the truth 100%!just need unbiased and pure devotion with selfless love for god.........there has been rivalries going on b/w various sects from last 1500 yrs at least....but u know the more u get involved in these debates and discussions (mostly r biased and lack of any self-experience having just some dry quotes)..............please don't be confused due to these sects worship the almighty krishna (or ram or shiva as one) !EKO BRAHMA DWITIYO NASTI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra4scHZ5c3E
Listen what Srila Prahupad said about Lord Chaitanya maha prabhu...Your doubt will be clear..
Hare Krishna,
Wow. Thanks a lot for that link Kamlesh Prabhu. That's excellent work done to create these PDFs. Really informative.
But it does raise couple of questions in my mind. Kindly enlighten me on these-
1) I have read that Lord Shiva has 83% of the powers of Krishna in full whereas Brahma has 78% in full. So is that Lord Sadasiva having 83%? If yes, then I have also read that the internal potency expansions of Krishna like Balarama, Vasudeva etc are equal to Krishna in their powers i.e. they contain almost 100% of Krishna's powers. So from this chart, which indicates that Sadasiva is an expansion of Balarama, shouldn't Sadasiva also have 100% powers? Is there a contradiction somewhere or have I missed something?
2) Is there an earth in each universe? Earth being the only karma bhoomi, I would expect each universe to have an earth.
Many thanks
Sanjiv
Also another question-
3) If someone asks me where in the vedas these are described (for example the Creation Chart) in such detail, what do I say? Where can I find such details like the Creation Chart in the scriptures?
Simply put, we're all free to choose the path to God. Some paths are easy and quick (bhakti yoga), other paths are hard and long (worshiping demigods for material pleasure), but we have the option to choose which path we want to go along since ULTIMATELY all paths lead to God.
The 6 statements from whatever article you mentioned are IMHO simply foolish and not an attempt to even try understanding the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy and to an even greater extent, understand God.
For example, the first statement clearly states that God is one and has no form. However, the last statement says that God is loving. So how can something formless understand what love is to be considered a "loving god"? Of course we are talking about an article by some scholar (hopefully), and in this very second, I (from a neutral standpoint), am questioning the definition of God based on those two standpoints.
This also brings up another point - if God can be loving, why can God not have a form? Heck, if God is all powerful, why would God not have form. And this brings up even another question - why is God a he? Statement 1 defined God as one and without a form, yet somehow this formless God is a male?
That should take care of 1 & 6.
On to 2)
"isvarah paramah krsnah" these are the first words in the Brahma Samhita -- the realization of Brahma. Think about this for a second. Lord Brahma is born in the material plane, yet he gets the knowledge (after many millions of years of meditation) from the Gayatri that comes from Krsna's flute. Krsna lives in Goloka, which is in the spiritual plane. So there has to be a reason why Brahma said Krsna's name.
3) Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the secret form of God.
4) No one in Gaudiya Vaishnavism states that Lord Shiva is a demigod (Srila Prabhupada did, however, it was only to eliminate the possible confusion of new westerners that may have arisen due to two Gods (think of polytheism). Lord Shiva is God, not the Supreme Personality of Godhead, except without all 64 opulences that only Krsna has. He has more than Lord Brahma, but less than Lord Vishnu, who has less than Krsna.
5) To each his own, but there are numerous references in various scriptures out there stating that the Mahamantra is the supreme mantra of this age of Kali.
The point is - there are a lot of people who claim to have knowledge and as such spread such false information. If you have faith in a specific form of God, go for it. In Gaudiya Vaishnavism, we don't differentiate between Rama-Bhaktas and Krishna Bhaktas. Just as Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so too is Lord Rama. But this is deep knowledge that can only be learned if you study Srila Prabhupada's books.
To answer your last question - believe those who show signs of a pure devotee. I don't know much about identifying people, but Srila Prabhupada made a huge impact in my life, even though I was born 20 years after he left this material world.
Hare Krishna and please accept my humble pranaamas
There were couple of statements made by Radhe prabhu which has prompted me to respond.
1) Prabhu, you say "since ULTIMATELY all paths lead to God"
This was definitely not what Krishna said in Bhagavad Gita and also Swami Prabhupada used to be very particular in opposing such statements as this is a Mayavadi statement and is most dangerous. Please read the following texts from Bhagavad Gita - 7.20, 7.23 which says "Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet."
And of course 18.66.
Also please read the following from Srila Prabhupada and search for "Do all paths lead to the same end?"
http://prabhupadabooks.com/ssr/1/what_is_krsna_consciousness
2) Lord Shiva is certainly a demigod. All others other than the supreme god Krishna and his incarnations (coming from his internal potency) are demigods. Please see this link http://vedabase.net/bg/4/12/en1
But Sri Ram is not a demigod. He is the supreme god himself, Krishna's avatar coming from his internal potency. So there is a difference between Shiva and Rama.
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
You are requested to browse through the website www.gaudiyahistory.com in details. Most of your questions will be answered there. There is no compulsion on anyone to follow the path of gaudiya vaishnavism. Please do so only when you are completely convinced about it or have reasonable faith that this is the right path for you.
Haribol,
Your humble servant,
Rashmi