Atheist now believes in reincarnation
Lecture by Sri Amitasana Dasa
Srimad Bhagavatam – 2.8.1
rajovaca
brahmana codito brahman
gunakhyane 'gunasya ca
yasmai yasmai yatha praha
narado deva-darsanah
TRANSLATION
King Parikshit inquired from Sukadeva Gosvami: How did Narada Muni, whose hearers are as fortunate as those instructed by Lord Brahma, explain the transcendental qualities of the Lord, who is without material qualities, and before whom did he speak?
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Krishna instructed this knowledge to Lord Brahma who in turn instructed to Narada, there were many who heard from Brahma. All the hearers are getting the good fortune of unadulterated transcendental knowledge, which Krishna Himself spoke to Brahma. To give a crude example, just like when we put a letter in a post box it willreach the addressee in some days’ time. We cannot even conceive how many hands, what all places that letter will go through before it finally reaches the hand of the recipient. Probably it will change some fifteen twenty hands, but whatever message we wrote in that letter, without any change it gets delivered.
Same is the case with the messages received in the bonafide disciplic succession. The transcendental knowledge is distributed to the world by this descending process. We are equally fortunate as those who heard from Narada Muni because the message is coming in bonafide parampara and Prabhupada has presented it as it is without any adulteration.
Prabhupada in one lecture says that before he went to the US, there were about six hundred fifty editions of the Bhagavad gita in the market. And in each of these editions, the authors have given their own twist to what Krishna is trying to say to Arjuna. For example, Mahatma Gandhi was advocating non violence, his Bhagavad gita somehow communicated the message that ahimsa is important, which is not the true meaning. Krishna is trying to say that the soul is eternal and we should not shirk from that duty, the body is temporary for one who is born is sure to die. In our unavoidable discharge of duty we should not hesitate even if killing is involved.
The simple message of Krishna is – Surrender to Me, be My devotee. After speaking the whole Gita, Krishna says – sarva guhyatamam bhuyah srnu me paramam vacah – now hear from Me, My highest instruction is – man mana – think of Me, bhav mad bhakto – become My devotee. After reading Prabhupada’s Gita, millions of souls all over the world did what Krishna is expecting us to do. That is to surrender to Him, to follow His instructions. Mad yaji – worship Him, many thousands of temples all over the world have installed the Deities, in their homes they have pictures of Krishna and they are worshipping Him. Mam namaskaru – offering obeisances to Krishna, it is all because of Prabhupada’s pure message.
Prabhupada in a letter writes – regarding your request for deliverance from the clutches of maya please be rest assured of being delivered. You are all in the clutches ofmaya, we all are aspiring for deliverance, we all are trying to be Krishna conscious, to come out of maya and it is a lifelong project. Now why we should be having that confidence? Because, we have captured the strong chain of disciplic succession coming from the highest platform – Krishna. Krishna is saying - surrender to Me, Prabhupada is saying - surrender to Krishna.
All of us have taken innumerable births, but we don’t remember. Many people ask, is reincarnation a fact? The soul is eternal, never dying - dehino 'smin yatha dehe. The basis for that is, each one of us has taken many, many lives, soul is eternal, based on the karma of previous life, we get the present bodies. There is something calledhypnotic regression. There are many psychiatrists who cure people for depression and other mental ailments. Sometimes they are not able to figure out why a person is behaving in a particular way. For example there is a book which is very famous now, it is called – Many lives many masters, written by a psychiatrist Brian Weiss. His book talks about a case study of a lady called Katherine.
She came to this doctor who started treating her by giving medicines, counseling, etc. The problem with her was recurring nightmares. This book describes in detail about what she went through, and one day because he had some idea of hypnosis; where a person is made to go into a very calm stage through some instructions and then make the person remember some experiences which are stored in the sub conscious mind.
Many times in the dreams we see something which we may not have consciously seen in our present life. But vivid pictures are stored in our sub conscious mind. That is how a person will have different kinds of phobias which stay with him. Under hypnotism, this lady started recollecting in detail about her past life experience that had a direct bearing on what she was experiencing today.
Bhagavad gita says gross body and subtle body. When we die we leave the gross body, and the subtle body, mind, intelligence and false ego continues. This doctor explains how he was an atheist, not believing in reincarnation. Then he goes on to say that how we all have past lives. Past life
Prabhupada, in one of the lectures says – When we were children, so many things we would have done, we may not remember, but our parents can remember. So we all have taken many lives, just as Krishna is telling Arjuna, both Me and you, many many births have passed and I can remember all of them. Therefore the Lord is described as aguna. He descended five thousand years back and enacted various pastimes just to invite us to come back, and these pastimes are recorded for us to read, to get into that rasa and then desire to go back to Krishna, to the spiritual world, our original home. He has no material quality but He has transcendental qualities, - janma karma ca me divyam –His name, form, attributes, pastimes are transcendental, because they are not in the material domain.
Prabhupada explains that when we offer food to Krishna with love and devotion, it is not that He simply glances and it becomes prasadam. He eats everything. That means if you offer two rasagullas, He will eat those two rasagullas, digest it, and for you, He will put identically those two rasagullas. That is why those rasagullas are different from the rasagullas that you offered. It is transcendental, it is spiritual and that is why when we eat that, we become spiritualized.
(The above transcripts have been edited for better readability. However they have not been verified and confirmed by the original speaker.)
Sri Amitasana Dasa is a full-time missionary with ISKCON since 1992. He is presently the Governing Body Commissioner - ISKCON Bangalore Group of Temples and Vice President, ISKCON Sri Radha Krishna Temple, Bangalore.
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