Hare Krishna devotees,
PAMHO,
Why life is full of restrictions in Krishna consiousness? does vegetables like onion and garlic
effect our bhakti, Why we consider ourself different from society? I guess most of the devotees
are feeling the same, It is said that we have freewill and on the otherhand actually dont have it,
for eveything we have to think and do, It is like we are living to just pass this life.To understand
many concepts in KC either the person should be more intelligent or completely ignorant, Please
help me before i go into frustation.
thank yuou
Replies
"Sense Gratification and revival of God Concsiousness cannot go parallel."
Either you choose to serve your own senses or the senses of the Supreme Lord-Sri Syamasundara. Choice is yours.
We (devotees) are different from society in the sense we don't prefer to indulge in sinful activities like them. Its simply that we don't gel nicely with them. Isn't it? Would you prefer to sit with one who is drinking liquor? Would a meat eater discourage you to eat meat, when he himself is eating? Any "chemistry"?
Association is best taken with like-minded people. And you won't find any well wisher greater than the devotees, for they are our best and the ever well wisher.
But it also doesn't mean to say that we become completely aloof from non-devotees. We respect them and associate as much as is required (to the point). Thats all.
Hare Krishna
SP says that KC is very practical process. We can increase the love to Krishna by loving his devotees. In the material world, when we share something we have, the quantity we have reduce. Like say I have 10 apples and i give away 5 of them, I will have only 5 more remaining. But love is something which will increase by distributing. Krishna loves those who loves his devotees. So, Krishna will give us more love towards Himself when we do this.
Regarding your question about sense gratification, as far we are in this body having senses, we need to gratify them. But with what we need to gratify matters a lot. We need to learn this art of sense gratification in KC from great king devotees like Ambrish maharaj and Kulashakera. They would use their eyes to see the beautiful form of Lord in deities in temple, nose to smell the flowers offered to Lord, tongue to taste the prasadam of Lord, ears to hear the glories, pastimes, names or lord. In this way we should engage all our senses in service of Lord.
Hare Krishna.
hare krsna
pahmo
the purpose of life is to be krsna conscious in order to awaken the dormant love of god there are rules and regulations
to come to the pure stage we have to follow the great souls mahjans not imitate them
we want sense gratification but krsna says in bhagvad gita the senses has to be controlled
even though the roads are well built there is chance of accident
similarly in krsna conscious there are do s and not
we want to enjoy enjoy but we cant
whatever enjaoyment is temporary body is also temporary has to become old disease and die
krsna is the enjoyer the proprietor of all sacrifices so we have to dovetail our activites for his pleasure
all our activities are meant for his pleasure our life should be molded in such a way
material contamination is strongh we have to practice chanting hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare ceto darpanha
Hare Krsna,
His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has given explanations in several books which should help
answer your questions and clear any doubts. Some quotes from these books are given to try to answer the questions.
From the Srimad Bhagavatam, 4th Canto:
"Regulations are meant for human beings, not for animals. The traffic regulations on the street, telling people to keep to the right or the left, are meant for human beings, not for animals. If an animal violates such a law, he is never punished, but a human being is punished. The Vedas are not meant for the animals, but for the understanding of human society. A person who indiscriminately violates the rules and regulations given by the Vedas is liable to be punished. One should therefore not enjoy his senses according to his lusty desires, but should restrict
himself according to the regulative principles given in the Vedas."
"As far as our ISKCON movement is concerned, we simply ask that one observe the four prohibitive rules, chant sixteen rounds and, instead of indulging in luxurious eating for the tongue, simply accept prasada offered to the Lord."
"Because demoniac people want to be cheated, so many cheaters are present to cheat them. At the present moment in this age of Kali-yuga, the entire human society has become an assembly of cheaters and cheated.
For this reason the Vedic scriptures have given us the proper directions for sense gratification. Everyone is inclined in this age to eat meat and fish, drink liquor and indulge in sex life, but according to the Vedic injunctions, sex is allowed only in marriage, meat-eating is allowed only when the animal is killed and offered before the goddess Kali, and
intoxication is allowed only in a restricted way. In this verse the word niyamyate indicates that all these things--namely animal-killing, intoxication and sex--should be regulated."
"A person in the mode of ignorance commits many sinful activities. In the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Srila Rupa Gosvami explains that a man becomes sinful out of ignorance only. The resultant effect of sinful life
is suffering. Those who are not in knowledge, who commit violations of the standard laws, are subject to be punished under criminal laws. Similarly, the laws of nature are very stringent. If a child touches fire without knowing the effect, he must be burned, even though he is only a child. If a child violates the law of nature, there is no compassion.
Only through ignorance does a person violate the laws of nature, and when he comes to knowledge he does not commit any more sinful acts."
"No one wants to sit down and meditate. Why should we? We're meant for positive activity, for recreation, for pleasure. In Krsna Consciousness, our recreation is dancing and chanting, and when we get tired, we take prasada.
Is dancing difficult? We don't charge anything for dancing in the temple. If you go to a ballroom, you have to pay to enter, but we do not charge. It is natural to enjoy music and dancing and palatable foods."
"In Vaikuntha, the spiritual world, there is no anxiety. Vaikuntha means "freedom from anxiety", and in Vaikuntha the liberated souls are always dancing, chanting and taking prasada. There are no factories, hard work and technical institutions."
There are also on youtube some interesting video lectures by Divine Grace, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada that will help to understand more and better how to serve Krsna and remain close to him.
Hari Bol,
Please read the article about Why no Onion and Garlic in KC
http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/profiles/blogs/why-onion-and-garlic-is
Thanks for such nice questions.
I liked your question "Why we consider ourself different from society? ", and I would like to put my thought
on this. I personally think if we have such a notion that we are different from society, it is a wrong notion.
No one is different from anyone, one can not develop oneself without pushing up the whole humanity with him.
Similarly if anyone go downwards he/she takes the whole humanity with him downward. We all are connected.
If we try to go away from society and wish our own salvation, I think, it goes against the teaching of Sri Krsihna.
If we look at the divine life Lord Krishna, we see whole of his life is very busy with the problems of humanity and
he is super expert to solve all kind of problem, spiritual to material/practical, he did not spent his life in forest without
coming contact with humanity. I feel we have to take full of Lord Krishna and not part of it. Then we will see that. time and again. he is advising us to take care of our neighbourhood, our society.
regards,
Saptarshi
You are very right Saptarshi prabu but what can a Soul like myself being krishna conscious do to the society which has 100 's of different views ,opposes every thing we / i speak has no common opinions to serve krishna or as him being the supreme god. No matter how much ever knowledge we acquire we cannot pass it to all as there are people bigger in age than us we have to keep quiet when they say something . and these days some swamy or other keeps on giving various lectures connecting to various demi gods .
IF we Really have to follow in the footsteps of Lord krishna We have to do it through the media do it say 3 to 4 times in the day in various channels
Free will is there always that is the reason why you are allowed to ask this question in the first place. If Krishna did not wanted to give us the free will, he could have controlled you to not ask this question itself. HH Radhanath Swami maharaj says 'Real Independence is to declare dependence on Krishna'. So, there is every thing for u to do sense gratification but Krishna says leave all those and just think of me, chant my names, offer me bhoga and eat my prasad, etc... and we volunterly take up doing this things.
When you start the process of Bhakthi to Krishna, we need to make sure to increase the activities that help us come closer to Krishna and decrease the things that make us go away form Krishna. Onion and Garlic as Peter Pr mentioned is tamasic meaning in the mode of ignorance. Krishna does not accept the food in this mode. So we can not offer it and hence we do not prefer to eat also. Other reason why Onion and Garlic is prohibited for devotees is because of its property to agitate the sex urge. This has been proved by Science also. If we eat onion and Garlic, then we are tempted more and it is difficult to control the illicit sex which is one of the 4 regulative principle. There are a lot of more information about onion and garlic, I will try to put it in a blog soon.
The current society is running a rat race. All are running towards hell and no one knows about it. By the causeless mercy of Guru and Krishna, we have come in contact of the devotees who made us realize about the situation and have taken a U turn towards Krishna and running against the world. This may appear weird or sometimes stupid or fanatic, but only when you continue it you will taste the bliss in it. No matter what you do people will criticize. If some one is fat, they tease him to be fat, if some one is thin, they tease him also to be thin, if some one is wealthy, they envy them, and so on... So the point is, the society never respects any one who is different from "NORMAL". And their definition of being normal is to do nonsense. So you have a choice to do, stay and enjoy the bliss or join them and do the so called enjoyment. The choice is yours.
Hare Krishna.
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