Bhagavad-gītā for Everyone

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Сообщение Jayanti » 23 мар 2021, 05:51

Chapter 15. The Yoga of the Supreme Person

TEXT 1

The Blessed Lord said: There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas.

PURPORT of A.C. Bhaktisiddhānta Swami Prabhupāda:

After the discussion of the importance of bhakti-yoga, one may question, "What about the Vedas?" It is explained in this chapter that the purpose of Vedic study is to understand Kṛṣṇa. Therefore one who is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, who is engaged in devotional service, already knows the Vedas.

The entanglement of this material world is compared here to a banyan tree. For one who is engaged in fruitive activities, there is no end to the banyan tree. He wanders from one branch to another, to another, to another. The tree of this material world has no end, and for one who is attached to this tree, there is no possibility of liberation. The Vedic hymns, meant for elevating oneself, are called the leaves of this tree. This tree's roots grow upward because they begin from where Brahmā is located, the topmost planet of this universe. If one can understand this indestructible tree of illusion, then one can get out of it.

This process of extrication should be understood. In the previous chapters it has been explained that there are many processes by which to get out of the material entanglement. And, up to the Thirteenth Chapter, we have seen that devotional service to the Supreme Lord is the best way. Now, the basic principle of devotional service is detachment from material activities and attachment to the transcendental service of the Lord. The process of breaking attachment to the material world is discussed in the beginning of this chapter. The root of this material existence grows upward. This means that it begins from the total material substance, from the topmost planet of the universe. From there, the whole universe is expanded, with so many branches, representing the various planetary systems. The fruits represent the results of the living entities' activities, namely, religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation.

Now, there is no ready experience in this world of a tree situated with its branches down and its roots upward, but there is such a thing. That tree can be found beside a reservoir of water. We can see that the trees on the bank reflect upon the water with their branches down and roots up. In other words, the tree of this material world is only a reflection of the real tree of the spiritual world. This reflection of the spiritual world is situated on desire, just as the tree's reflection is situated on water. Desire is the cause of things' being situated in this reflected material light. One who wants to get out of this material existence must know this tree thoroughly through analytical study. Then he can cut off his relationship with it.

This tree, being the reflection of the real tree, is an exact replica. Everything is there in the spiritual world. The impersonalists take Brahmā to be the root of this material tree, and from the root, according to sāṅkhya philosophy, come prakṛti, puruṣa, then the three guṇas, then the five gross elements (pañca-mahābhūta), then the ten senses (daśendriya), mind, etc. In this way they divide up the whole material world. If Brahmā is the center of all manifestations, then this material world is a manifestation of the center by 180 degrees, and the other 180 degrees constitute the spiritual world. The material world is the perverted reflection, so the spiritual world must have the same variegatedness, but in reality. The prakṛti is the external energy of the Supreme Lord, and the puruṣa is the Supreme Lord Himself, and that is explained in Bhagavad-gītā. Since this manifestation is material, it is temporary. A reflection is temporary, for it is sometimes seen and sometimes not seen. But the origin from whence the reflection is reflected is eternal. The material reflection of the real tree has to be cut off. When it is said that a person knows the Vedas, it is assumed that he knows how to cut off attachment to this material world. If one knows that process, he actually knows the Vedas. One who is attracted by the ritualistic formulas of the Vedas is attracted by the beautiful green leaves of the tree. He does not exactly know the purpose of the Vedas. The purpose of the Vedas, as disclosed by the Personality of Godhead Himself, is to cut down this reflected tree and attain the real tree of the spiritual world.

PURPORT
As for dividing the world into two halves of 180 degrees. This can be understood that the spiritual world is located 180 degrees up from Brahma, and the world of matter - 180 degrees down. Here a general description of spirit and matter is given, so both worlds are conventionally represented in equal parts, although in reality the world of matter is smaller.

TEXT 2

The branches of this tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three modes of material nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This tree also has roots going down, and these are bound to the fruitive actions of human society.

PURPORT of A.C. Bhaktisiddhānta Swami Prabhupāda:

The description of the banyan tree is further explained here. Its branches are spread in all directions. In the lower parts, there are variegated manifestations of living entities, such as human beings, animals, horses, cows, dogs, cats, etc. These are situated on the lower parts of the branches, whereas on the upper parts are higher forms of living entities: the demigods, Gandharvas (fairies), and many other higher species of life. As a tree is nourished by water, so this tree is nourished by the three modes of material nature. Sometimes we find that a tract of land is barren for want of sufficient water, and sometimes a tract is very green; similarly, where the modes of material nature are proportionately greater in quantity, the different species of life are manifested in that proportion.

The twigs of the tree are considered to be the sense objects. By development of the different modes of nature, we develop different senses, and, by the senses, we enjoy different varieties of sense objects. The source of the senses - the ears, the nose, eyes, etc. - is considered to be the upper twigs, tuned to the enjoyment of different sense objects. The leaves are sound, form, touch-the sense objects. The roots, which are subsidiary, are the by-products of different varieties of suffering and sense enjoyment. Thus we develop attachment and aversion. The tendencies toward piety and impiety are considered to be the secondary roots, spreading in all directions. The real root is from Brahmaloka, and the other roots are in the human planetary systems. After one enjoys the results of virtuous activities in the upper planetary systems, he comes down to this earth and renews his karma or fruitive activities for promotion. This planet of human beings is considered the field of activities.

PURPORT
The tree of the material world grows from above and is a partial reflection of the diversity of the spiritual world. The trunk of the tree is the total material energy, the main branches are the three gunas of nature and also their main combinations (Śrīla Prabhupāda in his purpor considers the gunas as water that nourishes the tree, but this option is also acceptable, since the structure of the universe as a whole reflects the spread of the three gunas). On the main branches appear smaller branches or twigs - these are objects of the senses; leaves grow on the twigs - this is sound, shape, touch (the main types of sense objects), or leaves can be understood as the senses themselves with the help of which the objects of the senses are perceived. The tree forms the objects of the senses, the senses themselves and the sense organs - ears, nose, eyes and others. Since the senses and sense objects are related, we describe them as twigs and leaves on these twigs.

From the point of view of the soul located in the material world, first comes his senses which perceive the objects of the senses, but in the description of the tree everything goes in the opposite order, according to how everything happens in the process of creation. At first, the world forms all the elements and basic principles, so first of all they are described as the root and large branches of a tree, and in the end, individual senses are described as leaves, because this is the last stage of creation. From below (or from within the material world) it seems to us that we are the center of creation and perception, but from the point of view of the creation of the world, we are just the last thing that appears as a result of creation. Matter envelops the soul, simultaneously covers him with the senses, the corresponding sense organs and provides objects for the senses, but all these are created starting with the gunas, then the objects of the senses, and only after the conditioned soul enters who uses the senses and perceives the objects of the senses.

The senses are described as leaves, the objects of the senses are described as twigs (or shoots) or also as leaves, because they are created together and connected to each other, just as the twigs and leaves growing on the same tree are connected. The connection between senses and the objects of senses is also shown in the fact that senses in some sense acquire the properties of the objects of senses, therefore it turns out that sometimes objects of senses are described as leaves, just as the senses themselves are described as leaves.

All these comparisons are good because they allow a deeper understanding of the described phenomena. It may seem that the description of the material world as a tree is primitive, but such a comparison allows us to show many rather complicated principles. For example, if the gunas are water that nourishes the tree, then the tree of the material world itself is a derivative of the gunas, just as an ordinary tree is a derivative of water. Or objects of senses and senses are described as leaves. This illustrates that the senses themselves, when they perceive objects, reflect these objects and in this sense take the form of these objects. The mind reflects objects and in this sense becomes nondifferent from them.

Roots are described as going up, but there are also roots going down. That is, all creation begins from above, the main root is from above, but there are roots going down: these are the roots that bind and fall the soul down, they are called secondary (since they appear after the roots of the general creation and are second in importance after them). The main secondary roots are piety and sinfulness - this is the basic criterion for the position of the soul on the tree of the material world. Auxiliary roots are products of suffering and pleasure.

Thus, three types of roots are described: the first type is the main root from which the whole world arises; then secondary roots are piety and sinfulness, which determine the position of the soul on the tree of this world; and the third type is auxiliary roots - these are activities and their fruits that bring happiness and suffering. Also in the previous verse, the leaves are described as Vedic hymns. This means that the Vedas should become the main thing that a person perceives and that the Vedas are the perfection of any activity within matter, but the third meaning is the fascination with the external fruits of the Vedas, in which case the leaves are described as ordinary objects of the senses. The Vedas are generally considered here as a secondary religious knowledge, and further in the chapter God Himself will be described, who is the goal of spiritual life.

TEXT 3-4

The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this world. No one can understand where it ends, where it begins, or where its foundation is. But with determination one must cut down this tree with the weapon of detachment. So doing, one must seek that place from which, having once gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything has begun and in whom everything is abiding since time immemorial.

PURPORT

As long as a person is under the influence of matter, he cannot fully understand the material world or the tree of this world. Scientists study this universe, but they do not know where the beginning of the universe is, nor where its end is. Scientists create various hypotheses, but they are not able to understand the universe or even one planet Earth. If a person, for example, is in a forest, then he sees individual trees, but cannot see the entire forest. Have lost in the woods, a person can climb the tallest tree and, if the forest is small, see which way to go to get out of it. Similarly, while we are under the control of māyā, we cannot understand its structure. Therefore, knowledge in the highest sense is not a study of the tree of this world, but an escape from under the influence of matter. The more a person gets out of the influence of the material world, the better he understand its structure.

Everything within matter has a cause, therefore, the material world itself has a cause, an original cause. The nature of this cause can be understood by observing the manifestations of the external world: everything is filled with qualities, forms, and various manifestations of senses and intelligence, respectively, forms, qualities, senses, mind, and intelligence are also present in the primary cause. Materialists say that senses, mind, intelligence are derived from a certain combination of atoms, and senses, mind, intelligence do not exist as such. But even if we accept this version, even in this case it is obvious that the atoms were able to combine and manifest senses, mind, and intelligence in themselves, since such possibility was originally laid down.

People can imitate the processes of thinking by creating a computer, but this possibility is also present inside matter. Or a person studies the chemical properties of various substances, but these properties have already been given, so he first studies and only then, in accordance with the properties, can combine substances in different proportions, achieving different results. People study ready-made nature and laws, people themselves cannot create these things. Man cannot create even a speck of dust and no one can break even one law.

People create airplanes and fly by overcoming the force of gravity, but if the structure of material elements did not allow the creation of an airplane, or if people did not have mental functions, they would not be able to create and overcome anything. Therefore, the emergence of various forms of life, the emergence of senses, mind, and intelligence - all of these are initially laid down and present in the original cause. Modern pseudoscientists say life arose by accident, however, if everything within the world is based on the laws, the existence of laws refutes the possibility of any accident. Even if we assume that matter, mixing and somehow structuring, created life, then this property of matter was in the original cause of the world.

The so-called scientists can say to this that these properties may have been in the original cause, but the original cause cannot have intelligence. In that case, where does people get their intelligence from? They say the cause of the world is dead matter, which has formed itself into cells, bodies, and into intelligence, however, if there were no properties within matter that ensure such development, then how would this development happen? Even if we assume that everything “formed” by itself, then the possibility of such a forming was provided initially, otherwise nothing would have developed and the world would have been a “mess” of atoms. If the atoms suddenly formed themselves, then their original properties provided such possibility?

If a scientist cannot understand such elementary things, then all his diplomas and scientific titles should be taken away from him and he should be declared a fraud and a parasite of science. If initially atoms did not have the ability to evolve, then how would this happen? For some reason, over millions of years of evolution, dogs have never learned to write books, but in the human form of life, people reproduce themselves with ready-made capabilities for developed speech and writing. The variability of the species is within strict limits - this is a scientific fact - and for millions of years, the dogs did not become people, but even if we assume that a man arose as a result of evolution, this possibility of evolution was initially implied, otherwise how would it have happened?

The material world has a precise structure and immutable laws, therefore, the reason for such laws exists initially within all matter. We see laws that do not change billions of years, respectively, matter inside itself has some kind of property or some kind of principle that supports all laws in constant and unchangeable form. Materialists say that the permanent qualities of matter exist by themselves, but in any case, it is necessary to recognize the fact that matter has a precise structure at all and any levels from atomic to cosmic. All and any elements of matter are subject to universal laws, among which there is no concept of randomness. From this follows the obvious conclusion that matter originally contained all the properties for the development of bodies, mind, and intelligence. If a man cannot understand such facts, then he have moved not far from animals. If, somewhere understanding this, a person still denies these uncomplicated truths, it means he is just a rascal.

Everyone should declare the war on the fraudulent theory of evolution. How, with 2-5 billion believers on the planet, can this theory of crazy people take any place in society? There are laws everywhere, there is no randomness anywhere, all chemical reactions occur according to strict laws. Even if we assume that the molecules themselves formed from the atoms (which is even theoretically impossible), then the properties of the atoms were originally such that they formed into molecules and then into the body. This means that nature originally implied the possibility of the appearance of the bodies, mind, and intelligence. If there was originally a possibility of the appearance of life in nature, then how can we say that life arose by accident?

The theory of evolution is just absurd. Any thing in the world is destroyed. Create a car, build a house - and it will begin to destroy. The whole universe is being destroyed, this is an objective fact. If any phenomenon around us degrades, then how can we talk about evolution? Everyone's body appears, grows, ages, and disappears - this is a universal law. Any phenomenon, any fact speaks of the temporality of the universe. The temporary universe creates temporary bodies and the whole universe, having appeared, then gradually collapses. The eternal universe would create eternal bodies, which is obvious. Entropy, chaos grows in the universe, or chaos grows in our body until the body becomes completely unusable. Chaos increases everywhere, but fraudulent scientists say that everything has evolved by itself. This is just absurd, such people have no education and no mental abilities. They say that the bodies die, but new bodies are born in their place. Similarly, the universe is constantly die and then reborn. This knowledge is billions of years old.

Any body within the material world perishes, because this is the general quality of the whole world. If all the bodies and phenomena that we see ultimately perish or degenerate, then the entire universe has the same quality of temporality. When will this worldwide lie about evolution be completely rejected? Atheists have made an ignorant faith out of religion, and all so-called faithful people listen to this lie about evolution without saying anything in response. We need preachers who will destroy the idea of evolution; we do not need believers who are piously baptized and like evolution.

In Christianity, atheists (including religious atheists) have created an image of the believer – a downtrodden being who goes to the temple. According to their version, one can only believe in God without proof, and one should to believe in one's soul, in the temple or in the cemetery. But devotees should go all over the world with a preaching, to all the cities, and explain to everyone that God exists and the idea of evolution is a blatant deception and a lie.

As long as people think that life has arisen by itself and that everything is developing and not degrading now, what kind of well-being in society can we talk about? Now machines are developing and people are degrading. The idea of evolution is at the origin of the growth of universal lawlessness around the world. The fact that people create machines and there is a development of machines is not the result of evolution, but the result of the activity of the mind and intelligence of people and the use of the original capabilities inherent in nature. If a child has been trained and given cubes, and he builds a house out of these cubes, then this is primarily the merit of those who trained him and gave him cubes, and not the child himself (since the child alone cannot fully develop). Therefore, the ability to create machines and the emergence of mind and intelligence are inherent in nature from the very beginning, and are not the result of the activities of people themselves or the result of accident.

Now scientists say that everything appeared by itself and matter is a testing ground for any experiments, and so-called believers listen to all this open-mouthed. Scientists take ready-made atoms, ready-made cells and bodies for their experiments, also their minds and intelligence are not created by themselves, therefore, the fruit they receive does not belong to them. If an ancient man took a stick and dug a hole, of cause he may consider it his own invention, but neither the stick, nor the soil, nor his body and mind were created by him. The very idea of a hole was already ingrained in his mind - for example, many other life forms would not have the idea of digging holes because they lack such mental abilities.

Even if we assume that life appeared in the process of evolution, then all the properties of atoms and the future abilities of people still had to be laid down in the universe initially, otherwise they would not have come from anywhere. The possibility of creating machines and mechanisms is in the very structure of the universe, and is not created by people. People take this or that physical effect and use it for their own needs, realizing the inherent possibility of this. They grow crops in the same way: on ready-made land, using the inherent opportunity and the inherent methods of plant reproduction. Therefore, no one in the world has the right to declare that something belongs to him.

All the discoveries of scientists and the very life of scientists were able to happen due to the fact that the possibility for this was provided to scientists from the very beginning, but not obtained by them themselves. Studying the various laws and consequences of these laws, studying the properties of matter, scientists must admit that they are only manipulate ready-made properties and laws and that they have no right to speak of the creation of something as their own merit, since both such a so-called scientists and the material with which they works appeared only due to the original properties of the universe and did not arise by themselves.

The scientist conducts purposeful activity, because the universe was created purposefully. A scientist can create something, because the whole universe and he himself are created, and did not arise by accident. All scientists are very purposeful in their work, and for some reason they do not say that their inventions or mechanisms will arise by themselves. Nothing arises by itself in the world, the laws stands above everything and scientists painstakingly study these laws in order to apply them to dominate nature. All science is aimed at dominance – people want to fly like birds, swim like fish, change their bodies as they please, and want to live as long as possible. The Bhagavad-gītā and other world scriptures confirm the purposeful creation of the universe. The scriptures say that the material world was created for those who want to live without God and imitate God in everything, trying to gain power over everything that exists. This is exactly what we see every day and everywhere.

Therefore, all those who call themselves faithful should preach widely against the idea of evolution, justifying its impossibility in all ways. Also, every faithful must explain and prove with reasoned arguments that none of the scientists has the right to either material or intellectual property. When a scientist creates at least one milligram of matter from scratch, then he can say "this is mine", but they take the ready-made matter, so none of them have the right to any kind of property.

Scientists take ready-made cells and spoil them, they create viruses, add chemicals in people's food and conduct nuclear explosions. Scientists today are the number one rascals in the world and getting the modern science looking respectable again should begin with the fight against the theory of evolution and with the destruction of the theory of evolution, since this theory is absolutely not scientific and contradicts elementary logic and facts. It was this theory that gave birth to all world lawlessness, including in politics, in the state, in personal life, and in the modern world, the theory of evolution, spreading, destroys all life on earth.

TEXT 5

One who is free from illusion, false prestige, and false association, who understands the eternal, who is done with material lust and is freed from the duality of happiness and distress, and who knows how to surrender unto the Supreme Person, attains to that eternal kingdom.

PURPORT

The desire to put oneself first is the reason for being born in the world of matter. As long as a person wants to be great, he will be born and die, because the material world is the only place where one can fulfill the desire for one's own greatness. The desire for greatness gives rise to pride – self-exaltation over others or self-admiration. A person is proud of his country, family, or car, which ultimately means self-exaltation as the best. Until a person gets rid of the desire for prestige, he cannot get out of the material world, so God speaks about the need for lack of pride.

But lack of pride is not some artificial humility, lack of pride is an understanding of the supreme position of God, the development of knowledge, and preaching. What does "not proud" mean? This is the one who preaches from person to person despite possible problems and insults in his address. The lack of pride is mostly not a prayer in the temple, but a preaching on the streets and in public places. Usually believers understand humility only as meek behavior, but humility is much more extensive. Arjuna did not want to fight, for personal reasons, however, according to the will of God, he entered the battle – this is true humility. What does God want from us? The development of knowledge and enlightenment of people, by and large, nothing else is required.

It is also necessary to understand that the pride of people within religion is the same materialistic pride as everywhere else. When a person is proud of his religious position, his religion, his guru, his true or false development – all these are also forms of materialistic pride. If a person develops spiritually, he understands that he is still imperfect, such a person does not have pride, because he is absorbed in the practice of spiritual life and preaching. Even having achieved significant success, he sees that there is a lot of work ahead.

In fact, we have not yet achieved any significant progress – Śrīla Prabhupāda has started this movement, and we cannot even really support it. If one becomes a successful preacher, a sannyāsī or a guru, no one should not be proud, otherwise one will fall down or will not develop spiritually. We must further educate preachers, continue paramparā, and not be proud of our titles or status. One way or another, until a person focuses on knowledge and on preaching, his entire spiritual life will be defiled. We cannot "become good", we can engage ourselves in activities dedicated to God - this is the key to all spiritual qualities.

Freedom from illusion means understanding that matter will never make us happy. Everyone's life can end at any moment, but even if a person continues to live, no position within matter will make him happy. People often want to achieve success in material development first and then take up religion, or religious people want to have financial and other success, but all such attempts to achieve happiness are doomed. Until one understands that the entire material world is meaningless from beginning to end, one is still in illusion.

As long as we are conditioned, one way or another we will fall under the influence of various desires, but at least we should not have ideas of our personal domination in the world of matter. Since māyā always is always changing or being destroyed, then everyone who is attached to it will inevitably suffer, it is not even a matter of suffering, but of wasting time trying to get settled here thoroughly. A devotee should arrange his life without too much complication, and devote the rest of his time and energy to the development of knowledge and preaching - this is the best position. Ideally, it is better to renounce everything at all, but if renunciation makes life too difficult, then it is not necessary. Renunciation is good when it simplifies life, when it is natural, and when it strengthens the preaching, otherwise it is unnecessary.

To avoid false association means preaching, in which case all unnecessary will go away. The absence of false association means that the focus in a devotee's life is on God, and everything else is secondary. We must live simply and practically, without setting super-goals, without neglecting the family, if there is one. Materialists always want to see themselves at the top of the world - either they do their best to earn a family and try to make it ideal, then, in a fit of false renunciation, they want to leave the family and become a great sannyāsī; such kind of tendency is not good.

It is necessary to live calmly, practically; self-realization and spiritual experience are important, and not some external things. Freedom from false association comes naturally when a devotee develops and preaches. At first, we think there is something important in matter, but over time all values ​​change naturally and the devotee loses interest in things that are not related to God and preaching. On the one hand, we lose interest in everything material, on the other hand, because we preach everywhere, we know all the phenomena and aspects of material life. The emphasis changes - we still remain surrounded by material phenomena, but our approach to them changes.

Every devotee should at least cognize Eternity, or Brahman. If a devotee does not realize Eternity and has not embodied it in himself, then he does something wrong. Brahman realization is the first step in devotional service, so everyone should understand what Brahman is, at least in theory to begin with.

To done with lust on your own is very difficult. All kinds of desires of the sensual life are lust. Lust is not only the desire for the opposite sex or wealth, it is all kinds of sensual life, and it is difficult to avoid such things. A person cannot get rid of lust simply by avoiding the material objects that attract him or by accepting renunciation; such desires can only be gradually replaced or displaced by the development of knowledge, spiritual practice, and preaching.

Men are attracted by beautiful girls when see them on the streets, but when, for example, we offer beautiful girls the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda, lust gradually disappears, because a higher, spiritual nature begins to manifest. Once upon a time the prospect of big money or positions excite us, but now against the background of spiritual life, all this looks more and more insignificant. People draw some pictures of future prosperity in their minds and follow such a dream, however, even if they achieve something, they still remain dissatisfied.

Since the fulfillment of desires does not bring tangible happiness, the materialists never stop in their plans and never become satisfied. Then they say that the eternal pursuit of the fulfillment of desires is a manifestation of the diversity of life, but such a run, like a squirrel in a wheel, is obviously stupid. By and large, we do not need anything from life, we just preach to all these people.

In the beginning, a devotee is attached to all kinds of material prosperity. Having taken the path of spiritual life, he outwardly denies this, proves to others that this is illusory and unimportant, but inwardly he still wants money, fame, women and everything else. Such things are natural in the beginning, we cannot be cleansed instantly, but logical proofs - albeit weak, but help. If a person is sincere and develops knowledge, all such attachments will go away over time, but if a person is not sincere, then, outwardly denying materialistic happiness, inwardly a person will remain attached to such happiness and this kind of religiosity will take distorted or ugly forms.

Basically, it is impossible to somehow seriously purify oneself without preaching. Believers or devotees who do not preach from person to person or preach only because they are in a religious position (such as a priest, sannyāsī, guru, or professional lecturer) where preaching is part of their job or image, they are all hypocritical to varying degrees when talking about morality and the like. Only a selfless preacher can become a moral person and only when he began to realize God, in another case, everyone desires material dominance to varying degrees and is not free from lust.

Having elevated to the level of Brahman, a person understands the relativity of all concepts and the meaninglessness of all material life. Then the devotee elevates even higher and accepts the positive principles of spiritual life, namlely, studying the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda, chanting the names of God, and preaching. By preaching to many people in different situations year after year, the devotee strengthens his spiritual position and he is less and less affected by happiness and unhappiness. He sees that everything changes in the world, but the truth is always unchangeable. The most important thing that a preacher can cultivate in himself is freedom from being judged by others, freedom from both fame and blame - this is the greatest gift that anyone can make to himself.

As time goes by, the devotee sees the path of spiritual life more and more clearly, theory becomes practice. First we see spiritual life in general, then more and more details appear. We advise others the same things that we apply ourselves; and then the realization of Brahman, the greatness of God and other provisions of spiritual knowledge become a fact. Thus, throughout life, a devotee attains more and more God-realization and always increases it. Whether we return to the spiritual world in this life or not, there is no alternative to spiritual development, and also all other types of happiness are not of great value in themselves. Therefore, realizing the illusory nature of the material world and the reality of spiritual life, a devotee firmly follows this path, not turning anywhere.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 27 мар 2021, 09:18

TEXT 6

That abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by electricity. One who reaches it never returns to this material world.

PURPORT

The material world is mostly in darkness, which is the result of the dominance of ignorance in it. Matter gives birth to living beings and after a while kills them. Unlike the material world, the spiritual world is filled with light and life. Having returned to the spiritual world, the soul never dies or suffers anymore, since suffering does not exist in the eternal nature. Materialists say that all this is inventions and fairy tales, but why then darkness dominates in the universe, although everyone is drawn to the light? Why does everyone grow old and die if they want to be young and live as long as possible? Dozens of proofs of the existence of spiritual life can be cited, but it is even better if a person takes up spiritual practice and makes sure of everything himself.

God and the spiritual world are absolute, they are not some material things that can be far from us or close to us. God is absolute, all-pervading and all-attractive. The beauty of all living beings is only a faint reflection of His beauty, a reflection of the highest qualities and qualities of the spiritual world. The realization of Brahman, or Eternity, is absolute, this fact is not at the level of ideas or beliefs. Brahman, the spirit, is global, it permeates the whole world; it is the nature of the eternal soul and everyone can understand this on himself. However, even higher is God whose qualities are not only eternal, but also infinite. Whatever we see within the material world is a some reflection of spiritual forms. Plants, birds, fish, animals and other creatures are all there in the spiritual world in their eternally beautiful attractive form. Even within the material world, we see a huge variety of forms and types of life, but in the spiritual world the variety is even greater, it is unlimited.

If a person still cannot understand spiritual science, then he can hope for liberation and direct his consciousness to the spiritual world. Everyone wants happiness and everyone wants to perceive qualities, then everyone should learn to perceive spiritual qualities. People constantly set themselves some illusory goals, for example, to become rich or to find a beautiful wife, but it is better to set a spiritual goal. Material life is temporary; everything will eventually be destroyed in this world. You can not renounce anything, but accept a spiritual goal, or you can accept such a goal by sacrificing everything - well, what is of value in matter at all? Whatever material things a person may sacrifice, all this is scanty and illusory.

Without knowledge, a person will not be able to significantly devote himself to God - people are selfish and do something in religion often keeping in mind their own interests. Some pray to God because they suffer, others go to religion because they want to dominate. People fill their consciousness with anything but not the development of spiritual knowledge (in fact, have no real interest in God). Māyā kills them over and over again, but most of them never wake up.

We have to reach the spiritual world where everything is eternal, where everything shines with beauty, and where there is eternal happiness. If this is not real, why then is everyone looking everywhere in matter for this very thing? Everyone is looking for happiness, looking for relationships, eternal love, which means it must exist. Therefore, having logically understood the existence of God, then a person must accept spiritual practice. As one gain more and more spiritual experience, the next step is to start preaching as much as one can, and by expanding it, make preaching the essence of one's life. It is not necessary to achieve any great results in preaching, it is only important to do this constantly and unselfishly, otherwise the person will remain mostly in ignorance.

After returning to the spiritual world, the soul will never fall back into matter again, because he has the experience of living here. Those who have never been in the world of matter can fall down, but this applies to an insignificant number of living beings who live in the spiritual world, therefore the scripture says that the soul never falls down from eternal existence. It is necessary to understand this point correctly: if the scripture said that those who are in the spiritual world can fall down at any moment, it would create a picture of instability of spiritual life, which is not true. The spiritual world is stable and no one falls down from there. Souls live forever in the spiritual world and none of them falls down, but falling down happens as an exception to this rule.

Therefore, the scripture states two points: 1. Souls never fall down from spiritual existence. 2. Sometimes the soul falls down into the world of matter. These two statements create an objective picture, according to which almost all souls in the spiritual world live eternally and happily, but there are isolated cases of falling down. Since the spiritual world is eternal and unlimited, only a tiny fraction of a percent of souls fall down into the world of matter. The spiritual world has no limits, so in matter there is only some percentage tending to zero of all souls, however, after returning from the material world, the soul never falls down again, because he had experienced life inside matter.

TEXT 7

The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.

PURPORT

Each soul is a part of God and is initially with God, but since the main quality of God is domination, then in a scanty percentage of souls this quality can also begin to dominate (become the main one), and in this case the soul enters the material world in order to fulfill his desire dominate.

God needs neither the world of matter, nor what is happening here, nor the presence of the soul in matter. God creates the material world, but He Himself is not interested in any way in its existence, and God does not participate in the activities of souls, neutrally supporting the material universe. The soul cannot dominate, however, when he has such a tendency, God agrees to create a material world where the soul receives the fruits of his own actions.

The soul is eternally with God, being His derivative, but wanting to dominate, he falls down under the influence of an illusion, where he begins to consider himself independent of God and loses the perception of God. Although the soul is still always related with God and is an eternal part of Him, yet in a conditioned state, the soul does not understand this, considering himself free and independent of God. The senses, mind, and intelligence of the soul are a partial reflection or an extension of the senses, mind, and intelligence of God, but since the conditioned soul's main desire is to live outside of God, then these essentially absolute senses - the absolute desire for personal happiness - firmly bind the soul to the world of matter.

The soul's desire to experience happiness in the world of matter gives rise to endless problems. The eternal soul, being in the temporary world, experiences constant anxiety and, despite all kinds of efforts, still suffers defeat. God can solve all kinds of problems, but by wanting to dominate and be independent, the soul himself creates the situation in which he finds himself. The struggle with senses comes from the desire of the soul to fulfill his desires, which is difficult to accomplish. The desire for material well-being, the desire for recognition of others, envy, fear, hatred, happiness, and grief constantly attack the conditioned soul, who is sometimes influenced by such feelings, sometimes resist them. But even when he takes the path of spiritual life, feelings are an obstacle for him in spiritual development. When a person decides to devote his life to God, it turns out that there are many temptations and difficulties in such a process. The struggle with the senses on the path of material existence is completely fruitless, but the struggle with the senses on the spiritual path, despite all the difficulties, gradually begins to give spiritual fruit.

Since the center of the senses is the mind, spiritual life begins with studying the scripture and chanting the mantra. Scripture study is necessary to understand various aspects of spiritual life and mantra is an attempt to directly control the mind. When the mind is focused on something, it becomes peaceful, but concentration on the spiritual sound gradually spiritualizes it. Any type of meditation, or faith, calms a person and partially uplifts, but the chanting of a spiritual sound can gradually elevate a person to the spiritual realm. Chanting the mantra purifies and the person can realize himself as a soul and begin to realize God who is both present in the spiritual world and in the world of matter. The turning point is when a person can realize the reality of God and understand His qualities. When a devotee realizes what God is like, the next stage is to deepen that realization.

God is eternal and awareness of Him is also eternal, but this realization can be manifested in different degrees, with different intensity. The process of God-realization is already on a pure and clear path, when a devotee sees a direct correlation between his efforts and the degree of connection with God. Having come to such a serene consciousness, it is still necessary to continue to make efforts on the spiritual path, deepening the connection with God in all situations. A devotee in such consciousness also clearly realizes the eternal happiness of connection with God, which is the real basis of renunciation. When a devotee experiences the happiness of spiritual advancement, he no longer needs material ingredients, such as excess material possessions and fame. The devotee finds that he is not bound by anything in the world of matter and that, in fact, he has no attachments and no duties other than to preach the spiritual message.

The stage of liberation may also be accompanied by ordinary life, but the point is that such ordinary life and ordinary duties no longer have much influence on the devotee. We may be worried about something or continue to be in some kinds of attachments, but from year to year all these bonds of māyā fall off more and more. Ultimately, some problems, dangers, old age, and the approach of death make the spiritual life only more perfect and the devotee gets a high chance to reach the spiritual world.

Spiritual life contains many different nuances and we have described only the simplest and most accessible, but to understand the developed spiritual life, which has much higher goals than liberation, one can consistently study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and then Caitanya-caritāmṛta. The main obstacle on the spiritual path is distraction on matter and on material relations. As long as a person wants too much in matter, this will distract him and he will not be able to penetrate into the spiritual realm by studying the scripture or chanting the mantra only superficially. Although in theory a devotee can achieve success by worshiping the Deity, studying the scripture, and chanting the mantra, in practice, as a rule, it will be quite difficult to do this without preaching. The worship of the Deity in the temple or at home, the study of the scripture, and the chanting the mantra, therefore, can be called a preliminary practice, and a more advanced stage of spiritual life is correct preaching from person to person, or reaching the level of madhyama.

As far as the guru is concerned, the idea is that a more experienced devotee should teach beginners, especially in the area of ​​person-to-person preaching. Such a mentor may be called a dīkṣā-guru or a śikṣā-guru, but since at present only one external cult is made out of the position of guru, it is better to be a guru or a teacher without having any titles and not formally acting as a guru. The education of the people is important, not titles and rituals. Śrīla Prabhupāda's success in the West caused a sensation all over the world and people began to strive for the titles of sannyāsī or guru for the sake of prestige or thinking that in this way one could become a spiritual master. Of course, such imitation cannot make anyone a guru. To become a guru, one must carefully follow the spiritual science, the method of preaching, and first achieve at least an initial spiritual self-realization, which will make a person neutral to fame, infamy, money, comfort, and danger, as described in the fifth text of this chapter.

TEXT 8

The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas.

PURPORT

Being in the material world, the soul fulfills his desires, performs actions, shapes his future. The general tendency of the soul's desires and actions forms his next birth, so ideas about the world and a person's inclinations are transferred from life to life. If a person is excessively attached to himself, then at the time of death he is seized with a strong fear, which negates all his developed human attachments and leads him to lower forms of life. In the modern world, people, having no enough knowledge, leave the body mainly in such a consciousness and go to the lower forms of life or to hell.

Hell is not something evil and unjust - just those who have committed sinful deeds must atone for them. If a person is a murderer, then it is quite fair for him to receive punishment. In modern society, the law and religion work less and less, so society is becoming more criminal and dangerous. So many sins are committed, so it is not surprising that most people go to animal forms or to hell; it is quite justifiably. Someone say there is no hell, but modern life itself begins to resemble hellish life, when some madman suddenly begins to kill people or countries wage wars, killing hundreds of thousands and millions in them.

Family, good relations, and the law are being destroyed in the world, so all countries are increasingly filled with problems. Instead of an actual preaching, priests conduct marriage ceremonies, conduct services that are of no interest to anyone, or give lectures about family life. There is more and more selfishness in people. When a person neglects his surroundings, considers himself superior to others, it is enough to even slightly touch him, so that he immediately flares up with anger. Without following religion, people will increasingly commit violence against each other, which is a consequence of irreligiosity and natural punishment.

By constantly preaching, devotees should behave carefully, trying not to act as masters, if only because it is dangerous. In USSR times, people were more humble, but the state was dangerous, then pseudo-gurus became dangerous, nowadays all people are becoming dangerous, because now almost everyone is covered by an epidemic of earnings, selfishness, personal domination, and general dissatisfaction. Nowadays everyone thinks of himself as a great person and an expert in everything - this is the result of the lack of religion.

Every state has become under the threat of revolution, anarchy and destruction, since now all states are filled with egoists seeking personal domination. Some small problems are already enough for such egoists to unite and begin to overthrow the government, plunging everything into ever greater anarchy. People in power want domination and money, those who are the low level are obsessed with the same desires, so no matter how much power changes, the situation will not change; real religion is needed and real spiritual education is needed. People who do not have power envy those in power and consider themselves cheated and deprived, but when they come to power, such people do the same thing as the previous ones: fill their pockets with money while there is such an opportunity. As a result of such tricks, a person builds a cottage for himself, where he lives in fear of losing his money as a result of global financial fraud, in fear of being robbed or killed, but at the same time boasts that he has become an elite.

The world will facing hard and even more terrible times, so all devotees should engage in preaching, even at the risk of themselves. Having no great possessions and no pretensions to dominion, fame, and power, the devotee is in a stronger and safer position; this is also true renunciation. To change the world, we need not money and temples, we need to educate people, explain to them the main points of life from a practical point of view. If a devotee is practically God-conscious, then he practically gives up desires for material prosperity and devotes all his energies to preaching. When there are more preachers, they will form a non-formal society. Preaching naturally creates society, gives impetus to communication, scripture discussion and chanting, but everyone also must continue to preach individually, on their own, receive individual blessings and achieve liberation.

States and official religions no longer perform the functions of spiritual enlightenment, so God explains to us that it is necessary to create a system of preaching and enlightenment outside of religious institutions and the state. The real modern religion is a system of preachers connected with each other by communication in which basically there are no ranks and no property. Such a preaching system is mobile, efficient and the most stable, unlike temples and religious nomenclature. Śrīla Prabhupāda began preaching with nothing and it spread all over the world, similarly any preacher who preaches anywhere in the world can receive the blessings of God. It makes no difference whether to preach in New York, London or Moscow, the situation is about the same everywhere. When a preacher gain some qualification, God will give him even greater opportunities.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's example and our practical experience show that it is not difficult for God to give the whole world to a devotee. But if a devotee is not qualified, he will wallow in money, personal fame, power and ruin himself. In addition to steadfastness, we need qualifications to really teach, because having received seven billion people who only want to eat, drink, copulate, defend themselves, and crave personal domination by all means, what are we going to do with them? As long as people do not realize God, they will use their powers for personal domination, including within religion, and only after realizing God, a person calms down and ceases to striving for such things.

So the solution is not to register everyone as Christians or Hare Kṛṣṇas, but in the realization of God. You can practically see that the nominal adherence to any religion in general does not solve any problems either individually or in society. People seem to practice outwardly, but without taking over the senses and without developing the intelligence, they fall into blind cultism or envy the whole world and continue to remain at the material level.

As for preachers, their personal spiritual experience, experience of spiritual growth, and experience of preaching from person to person is needed. If a preacher can create at least one devotee, that is already a success, and if he can create two real devotees, then the movement will double every 10-30 years.

Let's say the movement will double every 10 years, so in 200 years it will be a million people, in 300 years it will be a billion people, and in 400 years it will be a trillion people. What will happen even further, I do not even presume to count. So, everything depends on quality: one devotee who can create two real devotees, who in turn can create two more, and so on, will simply make this earth enrich with spiritual life. This is God's plan. And not to recruit 10-1000 so-called disciples who, like their "gurus", do not know and cannot do anything except the general theory; who only improve their lives, families, and earn money; and of whom eventually not even one will remain, because they are just 1000 materialistic sectarians.

TEXT 9

The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, tongue, and nose and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects.

PURPORT

The soul is constantly changing bodies and even while he is in one body, this body is constantly changing. The body is actually constantly being renewed, regenerating, yet various problems in the body gradually accumulate and it grows old and dies. Both our body and any thing in the universe, and the universe itself - everything lives, going through the following stages: appearance, existence, dwindling, and death. The materialists say, "We will all die, but why think about it?" - and then they want to avoid death with all their might. While a person is young, he thinks that old age and death do not concern him. He looks at old people as a different kind of life, and in fact considers himself eternally young. If a person falls ill with a serious or fatal illness, it seems to him that the whole world is collapsing, although illness or death is inevitable. A young or even mature person usually feels that the problems of death are very far away from him, and there are many important things or entertainment around.

But the problem is not even that there is death, the problem is that it is eternal death. The body collapses, the soul enters a new body, which eventually collapses again, and this happens endlessly. There are a huge number of life forms around us - plants, insects, birds, fish, animals, other animals, the whole universe is filled with life; where did the souls in these bodies come from? They are migrating from one body to another perpetually.

Materialists believe that life forms foremed themselves from atoms and established their own reproduction, and the diversity of life arose as a result of resistance to the elements of nature, but the less complex the organism is, the higher its survival rate. Grass and weeds grow everywhere, but cultural plants need much more conditions for growth. The lower the form of life, the more fertile and unpretentious it is, and the more complex the organism or the created mechanism, the more factors for its destruction. Now a lot of forms and species of life have been destroyed, while at the same time some bacteria, in fact, are unkillable. Materialists say that a human is the most tenacious, but in the event of cataclysms, it is the most developed forms of life that die first, while the lower forms may even receive an incentive for growth. The whole evolution theory is built on a completely untenable idea, and the consequence of evolution could only be a simplification, not a complication of bodies.

People cannot independently create their own kind, but use a completely ready-made mechanism of the body for this purpose. Materialists believe that everything arose by itself, although even a simple cell has a complex structure. When creating machines and technology, they use the mind and purposeful actions, but about their own body, which is much more complex, they say that it arose by itself. Scientists clone bodies (which will eventually upset the genetic balance and lead to even more problems), and they do it using ready-made cells, since even one cell has a great potency of life.

Scientists clone bodies, purposefully changing the mechanisms of cells, but at the same time they say that life appeared by accident. If we see some kind of complex machine, we understand that it did not arise by itself but someone constructed it, while materialists, seeing the most complex cells and bodies, say that they formed themselves.
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Jayanti
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TEXT 10

The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this.

PURPORT

Kṛṣṇa says that when a person is stupid and uneducated, he does not understand that everyone is a soul, that the soul, or consciousness, enters the body, but those who have been trained see or understand this. We can see through knowledge, logic, indirect signs, evidence, and direct vision. Any person can realize himself as a soul and endlessly deepen this spiritual perception. Souls are active and, entering various bodies, fill them with life. Plants, insects, birds, fish, animals, and people are all full of activity not at the expense of the body, but at the expense of the energy of the soul. The body as such is inert and constantly disintegrating. The soul receives one body, when this body is destroyed, the soul passes into another body.

For example, mystical yogīs may not breathe for a week, month or year, while they still live. How can a man live without breathing? But materialists do not accept any arguments, so they can be called cheaters. Anyone who is truly a man of science will at least assume that the body can move by the soul. An objective man considers all the options, he studies the phenomenon from different sides, from different points of view. If there are facts of superconsciousness, how can they be denied? Therefore, anyone who unambiguously denies the existence of a soul is either a fool or a cheater. Anyone can take spiritual methods and with the help of logic and spiritual development, which is scientifically sound, achieve the perception of the soul.

The problem is not even that the soul is difficult to achieve, the problem is that people do not want it. Atheists do not want this, dishonestly rejecting any arguments about the soul; most believers also do not want this either, because of materialism they prefer to perform mechanical rituals and consider themselves and their church, their community, or their guru above everything in the world. Therefore, one must leave the level of stupidity and realize oneself as a soul, which is quite accessible with the help of spiritual practice. Maybe we will not show our spiritual qualities to the full extent, but to realize ourselves as a soul, at least to some extent, is quite accessible to everyone.

TEXT 11

The endeavoring transcendentalist, who is situated in self-realization, can see all this clearly. But those who are not situated in self-realization cannot see what is taking place, though they may try to.
PURPORT

Those who follow spiritual practice see or realize their spiritual nature and the spiritual nature of all living beings. But at first it can be difficult for a man to understand, he sometimes feels doubts, then formally recognizing the nature of the soul, he may still not be self-realized.

In the beginning, a person may be overly fanatical and begin to neglect his body, family, society, and the outside world or, conversely, be overly liberal and try to combine spiritual life with developed sensuality, both of which are extreme and a consequence of the lack of intelligence. People can feel a spiritual uplift, and in any religion there is such an uplift, then they apply it to anything - to their church, to rituals, to their guru and so on, but often not to the development of spiritual knowledge. Sometimes, feeling spiritually uplifted, a person begins to falsely consider himself the messiah, God, or some kind of spiritual character.

We have to understand ourself as a soul as such, without inventing our false greatness or the greatness of the church, guru and the like. Spiritual science is a large and complex subject and it is necessary to gradually cognize it, stage by stage, to cognize its various categories, and not project an impersonal uplift (a feeling of general happiness) onto everything. The general uplift is the result of concentrating our attention on ourselves as souls or the result of a general perception of God, while developing spiritually, the individual realizes his atomicity and the greatness of God.

The neophyte often does the opposite: realizing the soul or some aspects of God, he inflates his own greatness. This approach is possible at the beginning, but then it needs to be reformed. A person should not exalt himself, however, it is also wrong to belittle himself too much. It is necessary to start preaching without exalting oneself; this is the correct position. Also, those who reach God directly should not consider themselves great. Almost any idea of ​​ones own greatness is always false, but those who are really great, they do not think about such things and do not consider themselves great, but are busy enlightening people.

TEXT 12

The splendor of the sun, which dissipates the darkness of this whole world, comes from Me. And the splendor of the moon and the splendor of fire are also from Me.

PURPOR

After describing the soul, Kṛṣṇa goes on to describe Himself as the source of the whole world. The original Sun is the source of everything in the universe, also only thanks to the Sun we can see and different types of fire exist. Realized oneself as a soul, one must understand that there is a source of the soul or a dazzlingly shining God. God shines like the Sun, but God's splendor reveals His enchanting beauty. Sometimes a devotee cannot see God because of the dazzling splendor, which is why there is this mantra: "...please remove the effulgence of Your transcendental rays so that I can see Your form of bliss" (Śrī Īśopaniṣad, 16).

But it is not always necessary to rush to see everything, also all descriptions of God are given for meditation. If some of them seem unattractive, you can take others. Descriptions and metaphors may be different, but God is transcendental, and in a sense, none of the descriptions of God accurately and completely convey His appearance. The description directs the person as a whole, yet even by meditating on only one effulgence emanating from God, a devotee can see Him. In general, we do not engage in meditation, because in some ways this is a primitive approach, but by realizing the beauty and power of God who is like the Sun, the devotee is certainly elevated.

One can see the Sun, the Moon, or the light of fire as manifestations of God. One can also see any phenomena as manifestations of God. This method aligns the mind, makes a person more brahminical. When the mind is aligned, then through self-realization as a soul, through a vision or a mental representation of God (when such meditation is intensified), a devotee can begin to come into contact with spiritual reality.

Each of us is a soul, this is a practical fact. First, the personality attains consciousness of himself as a soul, then he develops an understanding of the greatness of God, which is represented both within the material world and in spiritual existence. If we see the greatness of nature, the greatness of the cosmos, then who is the source of this greatness? Even if we assume that the world arose from an exploded point, then this point contained such greatness, isn't it? This point contained greatness, mind, intelligence, and beauty in a concentrated form and then manifested all this in an expanded form, isn't it? The exploded point contained all the laws, all the atoms, and all the harmony of the world we see; this is right, isn't it?

This is not an explosion of a point, it is a seed of the universe that did not explode but began to grow. If the universe is expanding, this does not mean at all that it has exploded, the universe is growing, blooming with many Suns, many universes and worlds. As one molecule is harmoniously arranged, so is the entire universe harmoniously arranged. In any case, if we see beauty and greatness everywhere, then there must be a source of such greatness. By realizing oneself as a soul and meditating, seeing the greatness of the universe and nature, or thinking about them and the greatness of God, a person can gradually reach Him, because He is the source of this and other universes.

TEXT 13

I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit. I become the moon and thereby supply the juice of life to all vegetables.

PURPORT

Planets, atoms, our bodies, and any substances remain as they are, thanks to the universal laws or the universal law. Why do some substances have one form and others another? Atoms are held in their orbits for billions of years, substances have specific forms, there are various types of life and human bodies, all this takes place due to the fact that order, or law, is established in the universe. If at the beginning of the existence of the universe there was an explosion, or a chaotic spread of matter, then we would observe such chaos everywhere. But if every atom, every cell have a complex stable structure, how can we say that they came from an explosion? If there are things around us that are more complex than a clock or a computer, how can we say that they are the result of an explosion?

Scientists say that there was an explosion and then the atoms themselves formed into ordered structures, but in fact everything in the universe is the opposite: everything turns from an ordered structure into disordered, that is, chaos increases. If the universe were to evolve, then there would be an increase in order, not chaos, but we see the opposite process.

At the time of the appearance of the universe, entropy was minimal and then it began to grow, and when it will reach its peak, the death of the universe will come. Every body, whether organic or inorganic, exists exactly according to the same principle. The totality of temporary, therefore imperfect, bodies cannot exist indefinitely. No matter how many organisms reproduce themselves, this is a fundamentally finite process (and the fact of entropy growth confirms this). The energy of matter is eternal, it does not disappear anywhere, but structurally everything is destroyed. The beginning of the universe was due to the impulse put into it by God, then this impulse, embodied in matter, or in ignorance, gradually fades away.

The impulse, or soul, is eternal, but the forms of the material world are temporary, they envelop the soul, while they themselves are destroyed. The sun is powerful, but it loses its energy every secoand when the energy of all suns exhausted and matter is maximally decomposed, this universe will be destroyed, all material elements will enter pradhāna again, and after a certain time the universe will be created again.

Plant life depends on the sunlight, but also on the moonlight. Now this is already common knowledge, and many gardeners look at the lunar calendar in order to plant at the optimal time for maximum harvest. People practically see the influence of the Moon, but they cannot understand how plants life is controlled by the Moon, because from a primitive point of view, the moonlight should not determine the growth of plants. Modern pseudo-scientists also believe that the Moon appeared by chance and accidentally stood in antiphase to the Sun; the probability of such an accident actually tends to zero.

There are many stars and planets in the universe. Scientists say that stars and planets formed by the gravitational contraction of a gas-dust cloud. But if at the moment of the appearance of the universe there was an "explosion" (that is, a very rapid uncontrolled expansion of matter and not some sequential structural development), then only a homogeneous gas-dust expansion of matter could result. And then, if the force of gravity contracted matter, then the planets and stars (or rather cosmic bodies) would be created about the same size, at the same distances distances from each other, having the same structure.

Scientists say to this that there is gravitational instability, the source of which are: 1. The presence of massive stars. 2. Significant size and mass of the molecular cloud (a molecular cloud is a type of interstellar cloud). But an explosion, or the burst of energy from some center, would obviously create a homogeneous environment or a homogeneous structure as a result, where neither the first nor the second position could be realized. If the universe came from an explosion, then all totality of structure of the universe should be fairly homogeneous, without any "clouds". It is obvious that scientists cheat in their theories, not at all reconciling them even with the simplest facts.

Next. Scientists must explain how the Sun appeared. It is obvious that a mythical gas-dust cloud cannot form and burn in one place, and form a non-burning planet in another place. Also, for example, our Sun appeared much later than the emergence of the universe, so it is impossible to explain its appearance as a result of the direct extension of the explosion energy, and the theories that much later some cloud itself formed into a "planet" and caught fire look quite fantastic. That is, scientists will just verbiage, trying to fit the real picture of the world to their fantasies. Some scientists write some formulas and draw some conclusions, then other scientists will come and write other formulas or on the basis of the existing ones they will say the exact opposite.

Scientists create their numerous a theory detached from life, where they introduce invented concepts and then pour such “scientific” terms left and right. To understand the terms they invented, one must learn from such pseudoscientists, where they will inspire the student with the truth of their specific approach, despite the obvious inconsistencies. Scientists introduce their own terms and create confusing theories that ultimately contradict the usual facts. Being engaged in such verbiage, they get money for it and are reputed to be great people and authorities. Since none of their theories about the origin of the universe is confirmed, they have fun creating more and more fairy-tale essays about how the universe appeared.

As for the explosion and singularity, then, for example, Hawking writes: "The results we have obtained support the idea that the universe began a finite time ago. However the actual point of creation, the singularity, is outside the scope of presently known laws of physics." Other sources explain this statement: "For example, density and temperature cannot be simultaneously infinite, since at infinite density the measure of chaos tends to zero, which cannot be combined with infinite temperature."

“The problem of the existence of a cosmological singularity is one of the most serious problems of physical cosmology. The thing is none of our information about what happened after the Big Bang can give us any information about what happened before that." In fact, this is an admission that scientists have no information about what this "exploded point" is and what happened to it, and all their arguments about this are nothing more than just fantasies on the topic.

After the Big Bang theory which is primitive and obviously untenable, scientists have created the superstring theory, in which the universe is represented as "...a collection of vibrating strands of energy - strings. They are the foundation of nature." No more, no less - they discovered the basis of nature as a collection of strings. It would be funny if it was not considered a science. They say that this concept is strictly mathematical, that is, quite accurate, and they hope that it will bring together all the four interactions of gross matter known to them.

Strings or superstrings, according to them, are the basis of nature and even come in different types: closed and open, but someone might as well just say the universe consists of supercubes and superzeros, and in the same way continue to get money by doing verbiage and theorizing. However, this is not the end of the story. After the creation of superstring theory in the 1970s, in 1984 this theory expanded to 5 concepts (I, IIA, IIB, HO, HE), and in 1995 a “bold solution” was found - M-theory, in which as the base object already uses the so-called "brane" - a multidimensional membrane, although "strings" are also used in it.

Next, here is what the scientists themselves write: “As a result, instead of one, ten to the five hundredth power (one with 500 zeros) of solutions arose. For some physicists, this has caused a crisis, while others have accepted the anthropic principle that explains the properties of the universe by our presence in it."

In other words, normal people realized that all their theories are just fictions and there is an infinite number of theories to “substantiate” the existence of the universe with “strings”, “cubes”, or atoms, each of which will be wrong. It is impossible to substantiate the existence of intelligence by an explosion or by forming of atoms; in general, most of the higher mental activity and many natural phenomena are not rational but irrational, while they can have the highest beauty and advantages.

Some scientists “others have adopted the anthropic principle that explains the properties of the universe by our presence in it” - this means that they have come to the conclusion that the universe exists because we exist in it or, alternatively, think about it. “Observers are necessary to bring the Universe into being” (the anthropic principle of participation, formulated by John Wheeler). If we continue such a solipsistic idea further, it turns out that when a person thinks about the universe, it appears, and when there is no person, there is no universe, in other words, the philosophy of madmen. The madman thinks that when he dies, the whole universe will disappear after him.

Therefore, look closely at modern scientists. These are mostly either careerists who earn money, or just crazy who eventually destroy life on Earth with their activities. For example, if a man do experiments on a running engine, the engine can explode. But that is exactly what these rascal scientists do with nature. They are constantly experimenting with the chemical properties of a substance, then with the physical properties, then with genes, and so on, eventually breaking natural mechanisms and leading all of humanity to disaster.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 03 апр 2021, 23:06

TEXT 14

I am the fire of digestion in every living body, and I am the air of life, outgoing and incoming, by which I digest the four kinds of foodstuff.

PURPORT

We eat food and have no control over what happens next. How food is digested, how nutrients enter the blood, how and which way they are delivered to various organs - none of this is controlled by a person himself. Almost the whole body is not under our control, we have only a small "dashboard" in the form of arms, legs, eyes, ears, and so on, with which we control a fairly limited set of functions.

Scientists say that all bodies appeared by themselves, but how did it happen for about the same period of time a human child is born and develops, initially capable of intelligent activity, while animals give birth to a cub that is not capable of this? If people appeared as a result of evolution, then each of the animal forms would also evolve, since all forms of life were in equal conditions. Monkeys, rabbits, and butterflies would also simultaneously evolve in their lineage to the level of humans or take transitional forms, showing more and more intelligence. But we see that developed species of life and undeveloped ones exist simultaneously for millions of years (mostly without changing), while human child develops many intelligent abilities in 3-5 years, but this does not happen with monkeys and other animals.

In just 15-20 years, the human becomes developed in many ways. Scientists say that the development of the intelligence took billions of years, but in fact, a child appears from the fusion of two cells within nine months. Why does it not take billions of years in this case? God or Lord Brahma created all kinds of life in stages but quickly enough, He did not need to grow them for billions of years, just as modern children develop in a short period of time.

People do no control either digestion or the birth of children, they do not control almost anything in their bodies, on Earth, or even in the universe. People observe ready-made processes and try to "improve" them. For example, they invented antibiotics, but bacteria mutate and there are already diseases that cannot be cured with any antibiotics. Scientists already seem to have defeated many diseases, but new viruses are emerging, taking over the entire globe.

Scientists have invented plastic and now this plastic accumulates everywhere, decomposing badly and further poisoning everything around. The problem of plastic and garbage has become a global problem. Scientists have invented synthetic clothing and mass-produce a lot of things that then pollute the environment, and such clothing are much worse than clothing made of natural fibers. Scientists have invented chemical fertilizers - and the spread of cancer is only growing, because people eat chemical-poisoned food. Scientists have invented chemical additives that mimic different tastes, and have invented many other things, but almost everything they invent, based on the mechanistic theory of the origin of the world, only hastens the death of humans and all living things.

Chemistry, in fact, is absolutely useless, although at a superficial glance it may seem that it makes life more comfortable and better. The nuclear industry, the burning of gasoline and oil - all these leads to disaster, but even if people already understand this, they will not stop. Modern science is good only to kill more. Scientists say that in the future they will clone organs, as a result, it will be another murderous experiments. Not knowing the structure of nature and not knowing God, modern scientists bring only chaos and problems everywhere, but having imposed on society the opinion that in the past human were monkeys, they present themselves as smart and improving life.

Although the Bhagavad-gītā has been in existence for at least five thousand years, no one has written anything better, and yet they say they are developing. Unfortunately, there are many people who will understand what is said here when there will be nothing to eat, drink, when their loved ones die or a nuclear war will begin. But now they have cars and they drive back and forth, being under nuclear weapons and considering themselves very smart and developed.

TEXT 15

I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.

PURPORT

God is the source of senses, mind, and intelligence. The soul is a part of God and his senses, mind, and intelligence are a small copy of His boundless senses and intelligence. When a soul falls down into the material world, his senses, mind, and intelligence are covered with material elements, but still, in their essence, they remain spiritual. When person accepts the process of spiritual practice, the senses, mind, and intelligence begin to be purified. But in any case, the senses of any soul exist, since they are an extension of the senses of God.

It is like one power plant provides electricity for many houses. Similarly, God expands souls from Himself, and they are all automatically endowed with His qualities. Therefore, the soul, being an eternal part of the infinite God, has his own microscopic senses, mind, and intelligence. In the highest sense, we need to reach God and become under His control, then the atomic soul will cognize Him more and more and will also be able to preach a good sermon. Neither the soul nor God needs anything in the world of matter. First we need to become self-realiz, then become God-realized, and then continue to preaching already possessing a mature intelligence.

Any true scripture gives information about God. Although the Vedas consist of many sections and describe many goals, but the final goal of the Vedas is the knowledge of God. Since people of our time are not developed and cannot understand the aphorisms of Vedānta, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was compiled as a commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra. Those who have studied Bhagavad-gītā and apply it in their lives, who also practically use the methods and knowledge obtained from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, can go even further and study our commentary on Caitanya-caritāmṛta, which describes even higher goals of spiritual development.

All these scriptures, although outwardly compiled by Vyāsa and Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, are actually compiled by God through Vyāsa and Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja as His representatives. God is also present in our consciousness, but as long as a person is conditioned, he does not understand this. To purify ourself, we must develop knowledge, apply it in our life, renounce the fruits of labor, start preaching, then over time, higher levels of spiritual understanding or direct perception may become available to us.

God is in the heart, or in our consciousness, and knows everyone. To attain Him, one must gradually apply all one's understanding and all one's sincerity. Sincerity and feelings alone are not enough, the development of knowledge and practice is also necessary. The attainment, or realization, of God is a gradual, systematic, and multi-year process by which a devotee must translate the knowledge of the scriptures into his own life. Basically, it is expressed externally as a preaching process, since all other material and spiritual activities are less important.

Material activities are generally unimportant (although they may and sometimes even need to be performed), and temple worship is ineffective now and at all times it was not the main method of spiritual elevation. Modern religion is the development of knowledge, discussion, and preaching. It is necessary to create a world school of teaching people through preachers. This school may basically lack buildings, diplomas, and salaries, but it must be formed by preachers from themselves as a system of communication, and such a network of preachers must permeate the structure of the entire human society, reform and maintain it. This is sampradāya in its essence, in its pure form.

TEXT 16

There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every entity is called infallible.

PURPORT

All those who live in the spiritual world is infallible, but we should understand that this does not make the soul omniscient and omnipotent. The soul is atomic both in the world of matter and in the world of spirit, but in the spiritual world he is connected with God and blissful. The soul living in the spiritual world is perfect in the sense that he is connected with God, but being an atomic particle, the soul is always limited.

Being in the spiritual world, the soul, for example, can know everything he wants, but the soul cannot realize the entire spiritual world at the same time, because it is unlimited. There are also many complex phenomena in the spiritual world, because God is infinite and His power, qualities, and possibilities are also infinite. To understand some things, the soul needs to learn and elevate even more. The spiritual world is full of dynamics, including dynamics in training. The higher spiritual realms are presented as a training process, because it will be impossible to understand the higher manifestations of God without training.

The spiritual world also has gradation: first there are planets where God is represented in greatness, above them there are planets where close relationships with God are possible, and even higher is the planet where souls undergo eternal training (this increases the soul's pleasure potency even more). Therefore, although everyone in the spiritual world is eternal and eternally perfect, such perfection is also manifested as the eternal training of the soul in the cognition of the infinite God. The spiritual world is free and every soul can take any position in it. Some are attracted by the greatness of God, others are attracted by a close relationship with God, and still others try to cognize the higher manifestations of God through the learning process.

The soul is limited, but in the spiritual world he is infallible because he is connected with God. The soul cannot be infallible by himself. The soul is infallible and unerring when he is connected with God, but when the soul departs from God and falls down into the world of matter, these qualities, or connection with God, gradually disappear and the soul becomes subject to errors and delusions. Souls also receive temporary bodies, which, in fact, are the embodiment of the mistakes and delusions of souls. The gross body, material senses, and mind are all the embodiment of delusions and the source of delusions, but getting out of the influence of the material body, the soul restores connection with God and, accordingly, restores infallibility; this process is called yoga.

Someone might say if the soul is infallible in the spiritual world, then how does he fall down from there? But the spiritual world is absolute and if the soul wants dominion, it begins to fulfill this desire. The ability to separate from God is also a manifestation of God's omnipotence and His supreme and eternal perfection. If the soul did not have the opportunity to get out of the control of God, then the concepts of the soul'd individuality, freedom, and love would disappear. Some believe that God creates souls within matter where they perfect themselves and then enter the spiritual world. But the soul is eternally perfect and eternally a part of God, matter (the energy of God surpassing the soul) only covers the eternal perfection of the soul. The soul originated from God and is eternally a part of Him, therefore the idea of ​​"creation" of the soul inside matter is meaningless.

For example, a child is born from a mother and he somehow perceives the mother, being in the womb, at the time of birth and so on. It is absurd to say that the child was born somewhere far from the mother, without the presence of the mother and never perceived her. Similarly, it is absurd to say that God creates souls within matter, thus sending them into the world of sufferings for some kind of "perfection". It is also worth considering that most souls in the material world will never be liberated, and therefore they are called nitya-baddha. The soul of his own free will can fall down into matter and in the same way, he of his own free will can leave matter or remain inside it forever.

Although God and the spiritual world exist, yet the vast majority of fallen souls have no interest in this. Materialists say that God creates souls within matter for perfection, then why a huge number of people have no interest in God? These souls came here to dominate, not to improve spiritually, so they constantly strive to dominate and do not want anything else. Materialists say that the spiritual world is so beautiful that the soul cannot fall down from there. But, if the spiritual world is so beautiful, why so many living entities do not strive to go there? Apparently, the answer is that māyā, matter, is also quite beautiful for them, and Kṛṣṇa also says this in the Bhagavad-gītā.

The idea that God creates souls within matter is analogous to the idea of ​​evolution. The gross materialists think that bodies, passing through evolution, develop intelligence; materialists from religion similarly think that the soul evolves within matter to develop spiritual qualities or rasa. But the soul's relationship with God is eternal. God is absolute and the soul, as a part of Him, is eternally perfect, but the soul can fall under the influence of spiritual illusion (yogamāyā) or material illusion (mahāmāyā). The answer is that the soul is atomic and if the desire for domination awakens in the soul, he can eventually enter under the cover of material illusion, where he begins to follow the scenario of the illusion, considering it a reality. Spiritual "development" in this case is simply a way out of the illusion, and the soul himself is eternal, which also means his immutability.

TEXT 17

Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, the Lord Himself, who has entered into these worlds and is maintaining them.

PURPORT

God is the source of souls and He also maintains all material worlds or universes. By and large, there is only one God, all souls and the material world are His derivatives, therefore in their highest essence they are also He. God expands Himself in His personal expansions, but all of them are also He Himself. Since God is omnipotent, He can appear in many forms, while remaining one person. For example, a man can be in one role in the family, in another role at work, and in a third role with friends, in the same way God be in different roles, however, since He is omnipotent, this happens simultaneously. This is not a multitude of Gods, this is one person; it is necessary to understand this moment. Being omnipotent, God also expands Himself into many separate expansions - souls - each of which has his own personal consciousness and his own personal desires.

Souls are like children of God and He is pleased to take care of them and fulfill their desires. Just as parents are happy to take care of children, so God is happy to take care of everyone and give everyone unlimited opportunities, because God Himself is unlimited. Nevertheless, an insignificant part of souls wants to show complete independence from God, in which case they go to the material world, where they live on their own and create their own destiny and living conditions by their own actions. The soul basically cannot live outside of God, but God, being omnipotent, creates the world of matter, which is made by Him in such a way that souls have the impression of a separate life from God and the impression that they create something in the world of matter themselves.

This is similar to how a child is given a constructor and he can create something by collecting parts. Of course, this example is very simplified, because in the material world, both the bodies of souls and everything that surrounds them are created by God. In fact, the soul cannot act in matter, it only seems that the soul controls the body and that he performs some actions with the help of the body. In fact, the soul does not control either the body or the actions of the body, but he simply identifies himself with a specific, already acting body. The totality of bodies within the material world acts in accordance with the structure of the world and souls, being in different bodies, are there as passengers, but they think they themselves control everything.

Then the question may arise: if the bodies were not created by souls and the entire totality of bodies acts according to a higher plane, then what is the responsibility of the soul? The responsibility lies in the fact that the soul receives this or that body due to his personal desires and previous actions (the choice between knowing God and being irreligious). Bodies are not created and moved by souls, but what body the soul goes to is already the result of his own activity. The soul transmigrates from body to body being inside matter - this is the result of the desires and actions of the soul, and not the result of the structure of the world. The world presents itself as a set of bodies, and the soul by virtue of his own desires and actions, gets into a specific body.

For example, a personality wants to dominate and enters the material world as Brahma. In ruling the universe, Brahma may make a mistake, fail to take into account someone's desires, or commit some injustice. If Brahma, even by accident, infringed on someone's interests and someone suffered, thus, Brahma, according to the law of cause and effect, will have to atone for this mistake and he will receive a body in which he will have to suffer for some time. Brahma did not want to receive a lower body, but he became the ruler of the universe and headed all the souls within the universe, so if he acted unfairly to someone, then he will have to be responsible for it by receiving a lower body. If, while located in such a body, Brahma makes a mistake again or gets carried away by matter, he can get a body of even lower quality. So the soul can fall from the highest position anywhere. Having committed injustice, violence or developing attachment to matter, the soul can fall lower and lower, down to animal forms.

All those who are in animal forms, they simply acted wrong or unrighteous in the past and received a body in which consciousness is manifested to a small extent. Therefore, the position of the soul within matter is determined by the desires and actions of the soul himself. Freedom is a choice between matter and spirit.

For example, the soul is located in the human body. His future is determined from beginning to end and he only thinks that he manage something, not really managing anything. At the same time, the soul enjoys the actions of the body under the control of material nature or suffers from them, because he identifies himself with this particular body. Nevertheless, being in such a situation, the soul can change his fate by accepting the path of spiritual life. The life of the soul in the human body is completely determined (predetermined), but if the soul accepts the path of spiritual life, the determination or conditioning, respectively, subsides. This is the freedom of the soul.

For example, a person received a specific body with a specific mind, education, and inclinations. A specific body located is in a specific environment, and it is already known in advance what actions it will perform and what consequences it will receive for these actions. Body A in environment B will receive result C, and body D in environment E will receive result F. Thus, the soul transmigrating from one body to another, each time considering himself the body in which he is located, and enjoying this identification or suffering from it. Having received a specific material body, the soul gets into a cycle of changing bodies, which is completely determined or predetermined, but the choice towards the development of spiritual knowledge or actions performed in accordance with the scriptures can change the determination for the better. Having done about half of good (directed towards God) and bad actions, the soul receives a human body, where he again has a choice between the path to liberation and ordinary life - the continuation of the change of bodies.

Thus, all types of bodies inside matter are interconnected and the soul goes in them along a clear predetermined path, changing one body to another. The bodies and all their interactions were created by God, but the soul accepts one or another body in accordance with his desires and actions. Simply put, a fallen soul goes through all kinds of bodies on different trajectories, and all this happens endlessly. When the soul comes in contact with religion, the soul rises higher, up to the heavenly planets, but being carried away by materialism, he falls down again. It is important to understand that it is not God who causes the fall of the soul down and the change of bodies, but the soul himself. God always makes it possible to get out of the cycle of to become self-realized and God-realized, bodies by establishing religion in society. Religion means to be self-realized and God conscious, and not just some rituals, dogmas, and sets of rules.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 03 апр 2021, 23:27

TEXT 18

Because I am transcendental, beyond both the fallible and the infallible, and because I am the greatest, I am celebrated both in the world and in the Vedas as that Supreme Person.

PURPORT

God is superior to both the conditioned souls and the liberated ones, and to understand God in His highest forms, training is necessary. To understand that God is great is the beginning of spiritual understanding, but it is necessary to study in order to understand how His supreme greatness, His supreme beauty, and His supreme feelings are manifested. Ultimately, in order to know God, a connection with Him, an activities under His control are needed. The spiritual master (present physically or in the form of books) introduces us into such spiritual activities through the preaching process: that is, the spiritual master introduces the disciple by preaching to him, and the disciple learns also by preaching from person to person. The spiritual master introduces us to God and gives us a connection with God, always staying close and helping us (helping directly, for example, with some advices, or helping us as a manifestation of reason). Thus, with the help of the spiritual master, the person reaches God and comes under His control.

God is the supreme and absolute source of everything. Everyone and everything is His expansion, He eternally dominates everything and rules over all the worlds. God is the eternal supreme and immeasurable owner of everything, therefore all who realize Him offer Him glory. God does not depend on such glorification, but dominance over all is His constitutional position. In the highest sense, God does not seek to dominate anyone, yet He is eternal dominant.

Showing His greatness, He bestows on the soul any of His riches, the riches of the spiritual world. However, we can also have a close relationship with Him in various roles. By and large, God is not interested in any ordinary superiority, He is not like ordinary souls who want to show others their high position or who seek glory. God is not really affected by glorifications, but when they are sincere and when the devotee further develops knowledge, then God favors those who glorify Him.

Ordinary people want to dominate, they seek recognition, wealth, they seek to show theirt influence and power. But God is eternally in the highest position, everything is subordinate to Him, and He can do everything. In that sense, He does not need to prove it to anyone. God has absolute power and influence, so He does not depend on either glory or blame. Glorifying God is not an expression of some kind of servility or forced dependence, it is not. This expression of admiration for Him, these feelings arising from His splendor - this is the true perception of God. Now, in separation from God, we impose some of our conditioned, not too sublime ideas on this sphere, but having reached God, the soul is absorbed by His infinite beauty and power. The beauty and power of God created all the worlds, and the soul experiences the highest happiness seeing Him directly in front of him.

Now we just do not understand that His highest position is the real basis of our natural happiness. Now God seems distant to us, and His dominance seems to us to be a manifestation of some external principle: there is a God who dominates, and we are subordinate, although we also want to dominate in our souls. This is not true. There is a God who dominates, and He dominates in such a way that it overturns all our stereotyped ideas about Him, the happiness from His dominance is such that we simply forget ourselves. It is so attractive, it absorbs the soul in a stream of happiness from perceiving the qualities of God. This is the true vision of God and His real glory.

Therefore, there is no ordinary selfishness that God says about his own glory. The liberated souls glorify Him from the feelings of their overwhelming attachment to Him, and He always and eternally remains the supreme personality, surrounded by an infinite amount of riches and opulences. He is unsurpassed in beauty, power, and in His capabilities, He is also the highest, perfect intelligence. He is the supreme authority and the ultimate refuge for everyone, in whom the soul finds eternal happiness and eternal love.

TEXT 19

Whoever knows Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without doubting, is to be understood as the knower of everything, and he therefore engages himself in full devotional service, O son of Bharata.

PURPORT

Kṛṣṇa says here that one can recognize Him and rise in such knowledge beyond any doubt. In the material world, there are no things and phenomena that can not be doubted, but spiritual knowledge is absolutely and radically different from ordinary knowledge. When a person has realized himself as a soul, he directly perceives it, so what doubts can there be? Ordinary people think that knowledge of the soul is like ordinary knowledge or speculative idea, but the soul is eternal and the realization of eternity is beyond any kind of duality. Eternity encompasses and permeates everything, this is a specific spiritual energy, not the eternity of any object. The soul is a part of eternity and this can be perceived, known directly. Such knowledge is higher than the nature of the dual, limited mind, it is higher than ordinary senses, it is knowledge of the universal basis of everything that exists.

Further, the person can reach God who is also beyond matter. The scripture explains the structure of the world, we can see all this and apply this knowledge; the scripture also explains about the soul and God - they are also available for perception. Of course, it is not so easy to reach God, but if you gradually devote your life to Him, it becomes possible. Having attained God and increasing spiritual knowledge and spiritual perception, a person will see the world how it really is. Basically, the main thing we need to know about the world of matter is its temporality. Realizing himself as the eternal soul and realizing the attraction of God, a devotee understands the temporality of all material nature. However, spiritual knowledge is not limited to knowledge of the temporality of the material world. Since God is the creator of everything, a devotee who has attained God can know all matters, even if he has not studied them too much.

"If you understand the Supreme Lord, then you understand everything. You haven't got to study differently different subject matters. Just like we sometimes talk of science, of astronomy, economics, politics. We talk sometimes. But we are not going to, or we didn't study all the subject matter separately. But in course of our studying Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we know something of everything" (lecture on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.5.22-34, Los Angeles, May 27, 1972).

When a devotee comes out of the influence of matter and becomes connected with God, he can understand any things and phenomena how it truly is, that means, by knowing God, a person knows everything that exists. People think that religion is some sectarian activities that deny the rest of life, but knowledge of God gives an understanding of all aspects of life, therefore a devotee has knowledge on issues and can talk on any topics. We also preach to all categories of people, and in the form of preaching we can participate in all kinds of activities, except for those that are obviously sinful or directed against people and humanity. A devotee can use any topic in preaching, he can also act or work anywhere and see every phenomenon connected with God or direct it to God.

For example, modern science is destructive, and people are stupefied by the media and other methods, but we can use the media, computers and other technology to preach. A devotee can understand many things and he goes everywhere to enlight people. It is necessary for every religious person to gain knowledge and understanding in order to change the image of religion in society, to raise it from the level of some church or sect, or from the level of blind faith and rituals, to the level of knowledge.

Religion is a spiritual university, not a church for ignorant believers. Instead of faith, religion must rely on knowledge, as it is said, for example, in the first commandment of Christ. A knowledgeable person perceives God in His various guises and thus always preaches. This is the devotional service of Godhead described in this text. To offer God some kind of parphernalia or worship Him in the temple is an initial, preliminary principle, but the main service to God is to enlighten people and follow spiritual science in this way.

TEXT 20

This is the most confidential part of the Vedic scriptures, O sinless one, and it is disclosed now by Me. Whoever understands this will become wise, and his endeavors will know perfection.

PURPORT

People follow the Vedas for the sake of wealth, health, well-being, creating good families, or to achieve heaven and other pleasures, but the realization of the greatness of God is much higher than such things. The most confidential knowledge is expressed in text 18 of this chapter: "Because I am transcendental, beyond both the fallible and the infallible, and because I am the greatest, I am celebrated both in the world and in the Vedas as that Supreme Person."

Having realized God, the devotee develops an understanding of everything happens within matter and becomes happy of God realization. God realization will not make a person rich, will not give him some special family, and may not even improve his health in any way, although spiritual self-realization can solve many problemsby elevating a person. Having realized God, the devotee will understand the essence of everything and also he will gradually get out of the influence of the material energy - this is important. People spend so much time to achieve material well-being and then they still lose everything either during life or at the moment of death.

One famous show business star fell ill with a deadly disease, it shocked her. Then she was treated and, despite many difficulties, was cured, but death will come for her again. Until a person realized God, he will never be truly happy, or even if he has avoided a deadly disease, he will not solve the very problem of death. People try to avoid death, but they do not solve either the problem of death or the problem of the next life.

The same applies to love: people love each other, then they die - and part forever. We do not remember any of all our past fathers, mothers, and children, and almost a hundred percent will never meet them again. What is the value of such love? Of course, we need to love close people, help them, but a reasonable person should be aware of what is the most important in his life.

Therefore, the Vedas in the highest sense are aimed only at the realization of God, everything else is only preliminary stages. We have little time to do preliminary things or try to achieve well-being in matter, it is better to immediately put God at the center of our lives, develop knowledge, and preach as we can. As for the preaching, it is not so important what its result will be, it is only important to conscientiously and unselfishly fulfill the instructions of God - this is exactly the best result.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 10 апр 2021, 15:02

Chapter 16. The Divine and Demoniac Natures

TEXTS 1-3

The Blessed Lord said: Fearlessness, purification of one's existence, cultivation of spiritual knowledge, charity, self-control, performance of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, austerity and simplicity; nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom from anger; renunciation, tranquility, aversion to faultfinding, compassion and freedom from covetousness; gentleness, modesty and steady determination; vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, freedom from envy and the passion for honor - these transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature.

PURPORT

When a person realizes God, he naturally becomes fearless. Fearlessness here is not quite synonymous with courage, such fearlessness is not volitional effort, but the result of the realization of the higher nature full of happiness. When a devotee becomes God-realized, he is less affected by external events or even dangers, and ultimately even death does not frighten him so much. Devotee does not see any special need to make any effort for his own sake, but in preaching - in the most fundamental things - he fights spontaneously, defends the truth without fear in the case of any difficulties. If we are absorbed in God, then both when the mind is in a calm state and when we participate in the battle, we do not feel fear and sometimes danger only adds excitement and strength.

Purification of one's existence means that devotees try to chant 16 rounds of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, read Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, and follow the four regulative principles, but it would be wrong to reduce all purity to external purity and external rules. Rūpa Goswāmī writes that following the principles for the sake of the principles is as bad as not following the principles. We see many examples when some people follow the principles out of selfishness, desire for fame, and for some other similar reasons, while others, on the contrary, do not follow anything, considering following the principles fanaticism or obsolete. Both of these categories of people follow the principles incorrectly, because the main principle is God-realization and the four regulating principles can help us in this. If a person does not develop the God consciousness, if he does not have a stable spiritual uplift, and if he does not preach, then his adherence to the principles will eventually be false. The principles should strengthen and support spiritual development, and not become some kind of external rule which, out of envy and our own inner reluctance to follow it, we try to impose on everyone else.

Śrīla Prabhupāda nicely writes in his purport on the last verse of the previous chapter:

"The word anagha, by which Arjuna is addressed, is significant. Anagha, O sinless one, means that unless one is free from all sinful reactions, it is very difficult to understand Kṛṣṇa. One has to become free from all contamination, all sinful activities; then he can understand. But devotional service is so pure and potent that once one is engaged in devotional service he automatically comes to the stage of sinlessness."

An impure person cannot know God, but those who truly serve Him sincerely are basically pure. The principles should always help us to realize God and should not become an end in itself, because this would also be a violation of the principles.

Having a certain spiritual knowledge and understanding, we should always improve it. First, a person learns everything theoretically, then he applies what he understood in his life and sees the practical effect of this. When a devotee realized himself as a soul, he goes even higher and begins to realize the greatness of God. But even after reaching the highest aspects of spiritual life, it is necessary to continue cultivation. The consciousness of the self as a soul can always be deepened, the realization of the greatness of God, the rasa of Kṛṣṇa-līlā, the connection with Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu – all these are perfected endlessly. At no stage of life does a devotee consider himself perfect or proud of himself. A bona fide devotee, even if he is liberated, believes that he is still not spiritually developed enough and continues his cultivation process.

Charity and philanthropy mainly take place in the form of preaching, all other forms of charity, in fact, are unimportant and ineffective. There are rich and poor, healthy and sick in the world, but without God-realization they are all doomed to endless births and deaths. Therefore, the preacher is always looking for new forms and methods of preaching the spiritual life, which is the highest type of mercy. Distribution prasādam is also a method of charity and philanthropy, but if it does not lead to direct preaching to people, then it is not so important.

Also, nowadays it is not worth to donate money to numerous gurus and sannyāsīs, many of whom are actually false gurus and false sannyāsīs; such a donation most often is in the mode of ignorance. Innocent people bring money to such pseudo-preachers, considering them to be spiritual persons, and they live on a grand scale, violating the principles. If a sannyāsī or guru has no special property (and you have personally convinced of this) and the guru/sannyāsī takes money only for modest food and travel fare, then a donation is a help to him; in all other cases, both givers of money and materialistic recipients of money will only worsen their spiritual situation.

Often, false gurus and false sannyāsīs arrange to raise money for the construction of temples, but if you cannot personally track the fate of your money, you should be wary to donate to such rascals. Now the temples are not so important, we may not build them (or build only by distributing Śrīla Prabhupāda's books); it is better to preach from person to person.

It is also often announced to collect donations for the publication of some magazines, the protection of cows, and the like - all these are just forms of fraud. Even if such magazines are published, it is still a cheating, because the "publishers" will pocket some of your money. If the magazine is published, then it sold be sold and so there will be money for a new edition. They may say that they gift magazines, but we do not follow the idea of ​​distributing books or magazines by gifting them. Books and magazines must be sold, not given away, otherwise they will end up in the trash. The fact the books are sold and not given away is somewhat important for the preacher, because only when people understand the value of the book they will agree to buy it.

Self-control, or mastery of the senses, means to regularly study Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and preach from person to person. Without following these three principles, it will be very difficult to control oneself. The age of Kali is increasing and people are no longer able to restrain their senses, even knowing what is good and what is bad. Śrīla Prabhupāda, commenting on this verse, writes:

"Although householder has a wife, he should not use his senses for sex life unnecessarily. There are restrictions for the householders even in sex life, which should only be engaged in for the propagation of children. If he does not require children, he should not enjoy sex life with his wife."

But without engaging their senses in preaching, almost no one is willing or able to follow such rules, or people follow it, inwardly envying those who do not follow. One of the forms of sectarianism is to follow some kind of religious rules and restrictions, feeling jealous of materialists living on a grand scale, criticizing materialism based on envy, and trying to propagate religious rules based on envy. When Śrīla Prabhupāda was present, the devotees actively preached and were inspired, they mainly tried to follow the principles based on spiritual uplift, but now the following of the principles is getting weaker, because the senses are practically not engaged in preaching, and if the senses are not engaged, they will not stand still.

Temple worship, keeping a daily routine, and other similar principles weakly engage the senses of people, but preaching is always a dynamic action where senses are drawn into the process. When we think about how to preach, have a lot of communication in connection with preaching, while preaching, we experience happiness, difficulties, dangers, glory and criticism - all the senses and the mind gradually become fully occupied. Even when a devotee wants a sensual life, if he is seriously engaged in preaching, the preaching is so engrossing or keeping busy that he forgets about such desires.

Preaching should go from person to person: after talking to one, we go to the next one. Modern gurus and sannyāsīs, sitting on āsanas and giving general lectures, for the most part cannot control sexual desire and, violating the principles, make their way to hell. Preaching from person to person, one can feel such a richness of life that no women will affect either a sannyāsī or an ordinary family man. After all, if the personality fails to control the sexual impulse, then the preaching process itself can help the devotee to elevate or in some cases even bring him liberation (but this does not apply to the sannyāsīs and gurus who are obliged to observe everything and always).

The main sacrifice we perform is chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and preaching based on the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Some Vedic sacrifices, various kinds of yajñas are ineffective now, and there is no special need for them. Sometimes people find some kind of "sacred rite" and try to perform it in order to obtain certain benefits, but all these sacred rites, even performed correctly, do not have such power as the holy name and preaching. As a result, one must realize God and not try to achieve any well-being. Although it is said that it is in the age of Kali that spiritual development proceeds through the holy name, but in fact this situation has been in all ages and all types of rites and sacrifices have always been secondary. But the advantage of the age of Kali also lies in the fact that all these rites have lost their power.

We do not study the Vedas as such, we study the three commentaries of Śrīla Prabhupāda: on the Bhagavad-gītā, on the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and on the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. These three books are enough. Sometimes there are some discussions on the Vedas, then we can look at the relevant literature, but even in this case we need to approach carefully, because it is not clear what the quality of its translation. We are faced with the fact that even fairly well-known works, such as, for example, Brahma-saṁhitā and others, are poorly translated from English, let alone translations from Sanskrit.

Therefore, any translation of the Vedas can be viewed with doubt. As for the understanding of the Vedas and discussing the Vedas, if a person has realized Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān, this is sufficient for any discussions, both with the use of the scriptures and without the use of the scriptures. In fact, in many cases it is easier to discuss spiritual science without scripture, on the basis of logic and the fact of the existence of Eternity, the greatness of God, various rasas, and so on.

Mostly people study the scriptures without understanding their meaning and ultimate goal. They get confused about definitions or want to use scripture to assert their superiority. Over time, one should become experienced in order to understand the situation of people, their motives and learn to convey to them the meaning of spiritual knowledge, and not engage with them in figuring out the meanings of Sanskrit words. There are three main goals or three main stages: Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān - and if a devotee has realized them, then he knows the ultimate goal of the Vedas and all the nuances associated with it.

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments on all the qualities listed in this verse from the point of view of Varṇāśrama; we give a simpler commentary for today's application. Śrīla Prabhupāda has been commenting for millennia, He also takes into account many different categories of people, but we write mainly for those who decide to move forward quickly, without exchanging their lives for varṇāśrama and other institutions. Therefore, our main austerity is preaching, and our simplicity is to study the three commentaries of Śrīla Prabhupāda and preach without complicating our life with any other ideas. When a person preaches, he automatically learns himself. Preaching is a universal process, and by and large God is not interested in anything other than our exaltation and subsequent preaching.

The age of Kali is increasing, so the only nonviolence is preaching again. Even if a person does not eat meat, he communicates with people who do it, he is in a system that kills people and animals by millions. Any modern state develops industry, wages wars, supports destructive medicine, an increasing number of people form a demonic, or criminal, mentality. Therefore, being in the midst of all this chaos of violence, it is possible to preserve real purity only by preaching. It does not matter if the preaching has an external effect or not, but when a person preaches to everyone, he will be really protected. To try to withdraw from material life and just chant a mantra, live in a temple or in dhāma is not a good idea.

Millions of people, not to mention animals, die from technocracy and materialism in the today's world. However, the source of destruction is the consciousness of people, they created this worldwide chaos and brought violence to a huge scale. In addition to physical death, people also perish spiritually without having spiritual knowledge, therefore everyone should become a preacher and preach spiritual life, and not only external principles. Until a person realizes God, all and any commandments and principles will not give the proper effect. Perhaps few people will understand us or follow us, but it is important that we preach ourselves. When we ourselves are elevated through preaching, then others will also accept spiritual life, but it takes years and decades of such preaching to elevate ourselves.

In fact, those who do not take the preaching seriously have little chance not only of liberation, but even some acceptable purity. Lord Caitanya ordered everyone to study and preach and those who do not obey this order will mostly be born within matter again. As for the rasas of Kṛṣṇa-līlā, they are mainly achieved not by living in Vṛndāvana, but by preaching on the streets of your city. As long as a person is concerned only with his own spiritual happiness and liberation, living in Vṛndāvana or taking care of himself, his mentality does not correspond to the mood of spontaneous devotion and thus he can hardly be able to realize God.

Truthfulness means that a person must realize Brahman and the greatness of God. As long as one does not realize God, he will be conditioned and, accordingly, devoid of truthfulness. Until we realized God, many things we say are lies to varying degrees. If a person does not realize God, this means he is selfish, otherwise why does he not develop spiritually? The selfish person cannot be truthful, and also he does not know the truth. If we do not develop spiritually, we will only have to regret it, but there is a way out - these are the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda: we can read the books of a pure devotee, tell others what we have understood from them and what is close to us, and distribute these books on the streets of cities, which can eventually purify us and make us truthful.

A devotee does not get angry when any offenses or similar things happen to him. But anger at materialistic believers, impersonalists, atheists and others for their materialism is quite natural and even beneficial for them. Now there are also many offenders of Śrīla Prabhupāda who hide behind His name to earn money and their own prestige; sometimes it is quite good to criticize such people. Therefore, anger, when it does not come from personal selfish motives, is acceptable in some cases. In general, of course, it is better to avoid anger and we patiently preach to all types of people, but sometimes difficult situations are spontaneously solved with the help of anger.

The problem with anger and other manifestations is that people are mostly selfish in one way or another. Even talking to others about God and trying to become devotees, the majority of people remain self-interested (seeking external or internal well-being). It seems that a person defends his religion, God, or a spiritual master, but often all this is dictated by material interests, so anger on this basis is unacceptable. However, those who do not really act in their own interests will not be defiled by anything.

Renunciation means to know God and put spiritual science at the center of your life. God has no interests in the material world other than enlightening people and helping them to return to the spiritual world. God's Kingdom and His possibilities are endless and He will easily take care of everyone. Therefore, renunciation should mainly be expressed in the development of knowledge and preaching, the other types of renunciation are not so important.

Tranquility comes when we know that God is behind everything in the world and when we act in His interests. Having no personal goals and ambitions, a person will be calm, and realizing God, he will eventually become tranquil. But until a person is engaged in the development of knowledge and preaching, it will be difficult for him to understand where God is and where māyā is. In the highest sense, God is behind everything, but nevertheless there is also māyā, the separated energy. The material world is simultaneously connected with God and separated from Him, therefore it is necessary to develop the mind in order to distinguish where is divine and where is not.

The boundary of the separation of spirit and matter can be realized at different levels, at first we make a general, gross division, but as the experience of a devotee grows, the division becomes more subtle. The distinction between spirit and matter is one of the main indicators of a preacher's development. Therefore, one must start with an understanding of common things and then such an understanding or vision will be improved. Without the preacher's intelligence and personal experience, his preaching is primitive, and in some ways it may even be false. The main function of the guru is just to give the disciple intelligence, but modern gurus, as a rule, do not teach anyone, only giving general lectures and enjoying worshiping themselves and money. Therefore, if the guru cannot help, then you need to develop your intelligence yourself, this will give God consciousness in any situations and, accordingly, tranquility. Intelligence is very important, therefore Kṛṣṇa says that for those who really serve Him, He gives intelligence.

As regards the aversion to faultfinding, looking for flaws or criticism, Śrīla Prabhupāda writes the following:

“Apaiśunam means that one should not find fault with others or correct them unnecessarily. Of course to call a thief a thief is not faultfinding, but to call an honest person a thief is very much offensive for one who is making advancement in spiritual life."

Faultfinding is a common quality of all materialists in religion. When a person wants to dominate others, one of the ways that can be used to do this is to make comments to others or criticize others. Some devotees may do something wrong, but it is one thing to correct them for the sake of spiritual development and quite another thing to correct them in order to show ourselves higher. When a person is dissatisfied or when he is an egoist, the desire to control others burns in him. True devotees do not like such materialists, and they ignore such comments and criticisms.

The opposite quality is to accept everyone in a row without distinguishing people and considering everyone as divine, Vaiṣṇava, pure devotee; if a person takes materialists for Vaiṣṇavas, he will degrade. Criticism is ignorance and dangerous, but false humility is no less dangerous when rascals and false gurus are accepted as leaders. In the age of Kali, there is a frequent situation when a person accepts some guru or a devotee as an authority and then it turns out that this authority is vicious, and the person feels very disappointed or even quit his spiritual practice.

The idea is instilled in thevsects that one should consider everyone elevated, never criticize anyone, always serve everyone, bring money, and especially never criticize the leaders - gurus and sannyāsīs. When a person is duped by the danger of any criticism, he loses his reason; such an approach leads to the fact that people lose their bearings and even common sense. Duped, they are willing to accept anyone as a spiritual person, and thus they can follow the rogues who earn money from them. Modern people have little intelligence, so one part is busy with criticism and the other part blindly accepts rascals as great authorities. This is an example of two extremes: criticism and false humility.

False humility is no less dangerous and can lead a person to hell, just like criticism of true authorities. The point is that if a person does not develop spiritually, but only nominally follows external religiosity, both criticism and false humility will lead him in the wrong direction. Having no interest in spiritual life, in spiritual philosophy, a person will remain in ignorance, while it is not so important whether he criticizes or outwardly humble, both will ultimately be false. Materialists do not want to understand spiritual science, so one part of them criticizes everyone in a row, the other part bows to false authorities, but the final result will be the same for both of them. Critics consider themselves great, sectarians who bow to false authorities consider themselves great, and the result of these two types of "greatness" will most often be the same.

Therefore, to say about some bad qualities of spiritual or non-spiritual persons does not mean to find fault with them. False gurus intimidate everyone, saying that if a person speaks badly about them, then he will commit an offense (aparādha) and lose his spiritual life, but if the guru is a rascal or materialist, then there is nothing wrong with saying about it. The scripture is given for the purpose so that we figure out where the truth is and where the lie is, and not accept everything as the truth.

The other extreme is when people spend whole days discussing someone's shortcomings or pointing out a false guru. We can say that some guru or other person is dishonest, but we should not do it all the time. Criticism should not take center stage, even if we know for sure that someone is a deceiver. Basically, everyone here is deceiving to varying degrees, including ourselves, so we need to focus on the preaching of spiritual knowledge and not on the true or false shortcomings. We cannot develop spiritually by thinking about other people's shortcomings. We sometimes point out the shortcomings, but mainly we talk about spiritual science and preach to the world of matter, and do not sit in some sect and do not fight with sects.

True compassion arises when we realize God. Religious people sometimes imitate some kind of compassion, helping the sick or preaching to people in order to increase their church or out of religious selfishness, but true compassion will come when we realize God and really see how unhappy people are here. Until we realize God, we follow Śrīla Prabhupāda's order and preach constantly. Although we do not yet know God, we already have some kind of spiritual uplift and we feel compassion for people who waste their time inside matter.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, explaining certain points of scripture, enduring criticism, and trying to enlighten people again. Compassion can be expressed in various actions - in the manifestation of perseverance, forbearance, kindness, anger, and other qualities.

Until a devotee does not realize God, he will be greedy or covetous in one way or another, he will want to increase his wealth, prestige and other material possessions. There is greed in every person - the desire to own property and increase one's influence, buredirect to redirect this desire into a spiritual channel and develop greed in a spiritual way. Ordinary people count money and we count mantra circles. Ordinary people want as much sense gratification as possible, but we feel the satisfaction of more and more renunciation, more and more independence from matter. Ordinary people want to increase personal expansion, we think about the expansion of spiritual knowledge. Therefore, all qualities can be fulfilled in a spiritual way, even such seemingly negative ones as greed.

Devotees are kind and easily concede when it comes to themselves, but we do not concede in the truth. For example, if a person cannot yet understand some aspects of spiritual knowledge, we lenient to this and accept his position, although it may be far from perfect. But in response to the direct preaching of Māyāvāda and materialism, we will not concede and immediately enter into polemics. Which position, soft or hard, we take in each particular case depends on the intelligence and spiritual experience of the interlocutor, and the purpose of such communication is to give people spiritual understanding or to improve their spiritual position and not to prove our personal correctness or demonstrate our superiority.

Gentleness and modesty means that we understand everything ultimately belongs to God and depends on Him. Our body, property, mind and intelligence should ideally be under the control of God. In practice, this means that a devotee lives in one way or another and dedicate himself to preaching. Body and property are less important, but mind, intelligence, and senses are important and ideally they should be gradually connected with God through scripture. When a devotee's senses, mind, and intelligence are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness (in the realization of qualitative oneness with God and difference from Him) and the devotee acts in such consciousness, this is the highest perfection. It is very difficult to come to this position, but it is possible if you follow the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda.

A devotee is constantly engaged in preaching and self-improvement, so he has nothing to be proud of. At the beginning, we ascribe to ourselves some achievements, but over time, as we get to know God more and more, we become happier from contact with Him than from our achievements.

Determination and vigor arise when a person is absorbed in a particular activity. Our goal is to preach spiritual life and enlighten people, and by constantly thinking about how to achieve this goal, the devotee becomes determined and vigorous. In general, preaching does not always involve any great renunciation, but when something hinders the devotee on this path, he can decisively drop the obstacle (internal or external). Preaching can also be complicated, so everyone will have to become more determined to preach.

Since a devotee has almost no interest in matter, he can easily forgive others and be lenient. Being intensely engaged in preaching and feeling satisfied, devotees quickly forget grievances and insults. Ordinary people can remember grievances for years and, in fact, suffer from it; devotees are dynamic and happy, therefore they easily forgive others.

Fortitude means that in spite of difficulties or even failures, the devotee continues to practice the spiritual life. Fortitude is important at all stages of spiritual life, both at the beginning and at the highest levels when a devotee feels the mood of separation from God. Fortitude is also important in preaching, and we should be intelligent, competent, fortitude and fight to the end, regardless of any defeats. Fortitude means that a person follows his duty, regardless of various obstacles and problems. Having achieved the mood of separation from God, the devotee must develop infinite fortitude, which will raise him to the highest rasa of spiritual life.

As far as cleanliness is concerned, the main thing that is important is inner cleanliness - self-realization and God-realization. When a person realizes himself and God, he is pure; until we come to this level, we are contaminated. External cleanliness matters, but not as fundamental as internal cleanliness. Also, the concept of cleanliness includes a correct understanding of the main philosophical categories. If a person misunderstands spiritual philosophy, he will be wrongly disposed and may begin to deviate in spiritual development.

It is difficult to free from envy, but it is possible when a devotee is spiritually elevated. The higher a person elevates in his spiritual development, the less he envy others. We may envy others' wealth, fame, influence, good families, comfort, and so on. Such envious of materialists is somehow eliminated in the process of preaching, but especially the envy of equals on the path of spiritual life is very heavy. When someone who is our equal or someone we consider inferior to ourselves begins to surpass us spiritually, gains greater fame, more admirers or disciples, then, despite of any persuasion of ourselves, envy may wake up in us. We do not envy any high authorities, but when equal devotees develop and any of them begin to dominate, it will be difficult not to become envious of them. Envy is a difficult quality and unless we are established in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it will be difficult to avoid it. Envy is the cause of the fall down of the soul, so in this list it is the penultimate one, and liberation from envy occurs already on the threshold of the spiritual world.

Finally, the last quality is freedom from the passion for honor. The liberated soul is free from both envy and the passion for honor. This does not happen through some kind of artificial control of oneself, but by knowing God, the person is so happy or satisfied that he does not envy anyone and no longer seeks personal honor. Whether such a devotee is glorified or insulted, it does not matter to him, because he lives by other values, among which his personal honor does not occupy a special place.

In general, we need to avoid personal honor and just teach people. It is better to be without honor, but an experienced, intelligent person than a glorified fool. God can put us at the head of everyone on this planet, but ultimately we care about His mission, not our position. Honor is only an extra burden for a pure devotee, yet he can carry it at the will of God. In the material world, by and large, there is no true honor, glory, and almost all honoring from people is always false in one way or another, but such honoring can be used to direct people to God. Envy and the desire for honor are linked. First, the soul envies God (His glory and everything else), then he comes to the material world, where he is already trying to achieve his own glory. The basis of life within matter is the desire for one's own glory, one's own honor; this is the main material contamination, therefore it is listed last.

The list of spiritual qualities begins with positive ones, with fearlessness, and ends with an indication of the absence of negative ones, in particular, the absence of envy and the absence of striving for honor. But all spiritual qualities arise from absorption in spiritual science, God, and preaching. Fearlessness is the result of being absorbed in spiritual science and God, the absence of envy and striving for honor, in the same way, is the result of being absorbed in spiritual science and God.

Each of us is eternal consciousness and for happiness we do not need material property, sensual exchange, and recognition of people. Through a misunderstanding, the soul seeks happiness among temporary forms, not realizing that all kinds of forms are in himself and that there, in consciousness, there is also the highest form - the form of God, the source of all these forms.

Perception, information, creativity, beauty, and power - all these in the true form is in consciousness, or in the spiritual world. The spiritual world is reflected in gross matter, where gross material elements are the main thing for us now. For a layman, the main thing is gross elements, for a philosopher and a creative person, subtle elements are more important - concepts, the beauty of sounds, pictures or poetry. Everything is turned upside down in the material world: the lowest is considered the most valuable, and vice versa, the sublime is not valued. Primitive materialists value gross elements - they value money, an apartment, a car, travelings, and the like. More sophisticated materialists enjoy philosophy, yoga, music, and painting.

The soul does not need gross elements for happiness. The more we are connected with them, the more we suffer, because the elements related to gross matter, paradoxically, are the most unstable among all material elements. The subtle elements are much more stable and more important than the gross ones; the subtle elements - senses, mind, and intelligence - bring much more happiness than the gross ones. But we need to rise above the gross elements (including our own body), without giving them much importance, and further rise even higher, above the subtle elements, above the play of forms, sounds, and various philosophies. Beyond the subtle elements extends the boundless Brahman which has no beginning and no end, and beyond the effulgence of Brahman, the eternal Truth, there is the kingdom of God, where all types of life already exist eternally in their original form.

People want to enjoy sound, touch, taste, smell, and various forms - all these in its pure form is there in the spiritual world, therefore, the soul can eternally enjoy all kinds of riches, creativity, and love. There is no need to embody all these forms in gross matter, nevertheless, God creates the material world for those who want to live outside of Him. Although the materialists say gross matter and the manipulation of it are important, none of them will be happy in this way. Whatever kinds of gross matter they try to enjoy, as a result, such pleasure is perceived by them as a reflection in their minds. Thus, the happiness of materialists is based on the reflection of the gross material elements in their senses and mind.

Among the materialists there are also impersonalists - those who understand the relativity of all kinds of material perceptions and ideas, but deny the spiritual qualities and God as a Personality. Thus, there are two categories of materialists: the first, gross materialists who want to embody everything in matter and "setting foot in the threshold of their house", filled with happiness; the second, denying material qualities and happiness based on them, believe that the Supreme Truth is impersonal. Both the first and the second have one thing in common: the denial of God to varying degrees.

Gross materialists sometimes become outwardly religious, but since they have material well-being as their actual goal, their religiosity is nominal and in most cases does not give spiritual fruit, does not even give liberation. Modern impersonalists, speaking of the relativity of everything, live exactly like religious materialists, with the same goals, so by and large there is not much difference between these two categories.

It is necessary to understand the eternity of the soul, understand the essence of spiritual perception, engage in preaching as the main activity of the soul and thus realize God who is behind everything. Soul's attempts to dominate, in any form, are always deplorable and a sensible person should begin to develop spiritual knowledge at least on such a basis. God does not take away from anyone his “precious material possessions” molded from various types of earth, then why not to start develop knowledge about Him? All this cacophony of the modern world will still not make anyone happy.

Being on a small planet in the middle of a huge universe, humanity imagines itself to be the pinnacle of creation, people decided that they would become happy through the development of science and various improvements in the environment, eventually destroying everything around and going to destruction themselves. Therefore, it is not necessary to consider modern development as a measure of everything, it is not necessary to consider everything that is being done now as significant, it is necessary to elevate higher through the study of spiritual science. Even if the entire humanity boldly walks into the underworld, rejecting any reasonable arguments, and religions are filled with ignorance and rogues in the role of priests and gurus, a devotee may not go along with all of them, he can act independently and independently reach the spiritual world. This path is always open for all and for everyone.
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Сообщение Jayanti » 10 апр 2021, 15:48

TEXT 4

Arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, harshness and ignorance - these qualities belong to those of demonic nature, O son of Pṛthā.

PURPORT

It is very remarkable that Śrīla Prabhupāda's description of demons begins with the demons in religion: “In this verse, the royal road to hell is described. The demoniac want to make a show of religion and advancement in spiritual science, although they do not follow the principles." The demons in religion are the most dangerous phenomenon, so the description of demons begins with them. Nowadays demons do not know that they are demoniac and do not think that they are demoniac, they consider themselves exalted. Also, when a modern demon comes into religion, he does not do it for the sake of its destruction, he seeks the truth like everyone else. But the difference between a devotee and a demon is that the demon wants personal honor and personal power in religion. The demon gets two-for-one in religion: he gets honor, power, and money and destroys religion along the way. The destruction of religion is the introduction of wrong concepts into it, profiting from religion, and discrediting religion, which the demons successfully do. Considering themselves above all, demons do not hesitate to change the foundations of religion, and every demon considers himself the chosen by God, although, as a rule, such a demon goes to hell at the end of his life.

The demons can be attracted by religion because in religion they have the opportunity to dominate and gain honor. The demon never wants to be on the sidelines, he always wants to be superior than others. The demon internally always knows that he is above all, “knowledge” always lives in his soul that he is superior to all others. Therefore, there are always many demons in religion and especially in positions, also in the modern world, most of the gurus and sannyāsīs are demons. When there is an opportunity to dominate, demons can be very active and persistent, and unlike ordinary people, demons have no doubts about their chosenness and their lofty destiny. Therefore, the demon can change the scriptures in any direction without hesitation and can also commit sins of all kinds, believing that God will forgive him or even, despite his sins, God approves of him, because he "performs a great mission of preaching."

The demon always in his mind thinks himself at the top, and in perspective sees himself at the top of the whole world. The demon is ready for any austerities for the sake of his future domination. He is ready to observe sexual abstinence, he is ready to risk himself, he is ready to feign humility, study the scriptures, chant the mantra, but his goal is his personal domination. As a result of any activity, the demon always has only his personal superiority. Demons do not care who to recognize; they recognize both God and the devil, as long as they dominate and as long as they become superior to everyone. The demons can praise Christ or Allah, they can praise Śrīla Prabhupāda, Kṛṣṇa, or Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. The demons, as a rule, have a sharp mind, they can know well and quote the scriptures, attract people, even lead quite well, but their goal is always mainly his personal domination.

If the demon dominates, he can act tirelessly; he is always active when it promises him some benefit. Since there are so many demons in the Age of Kali, Lord Caitanya established the method of saṅkīrtana, or the method of preaching from person to person and chanting the names of God together. Lord Caitanya Himself did not establish any external organization and most often preached alone, setting an example for us. When there are more devotees, then some hierarchy is possible, but generally it should not be very noticeable against the background of communication and preaching. The main method of the present time, the time of the age of Kali, is to study and distribute Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. Śrīla Prabhupāda created the society for the publication and distribution books, and not for any other purpose. Physical chanting, temple worship, and the like are also less important in this sense.

Many of the disciple leaders who surrounded Śrīla Prabhupāda were materialists and some were demons, but His purpose was to publish and distribute books, which was successfully accomplished. The demons thought that by poisoning Śrīla Prabhupāda, they would occupy the highest position in ISKCON and thus gain great fame and honor, but the truth about them is becoming more widely known, and all those who participated in the poisoning will receive the maximum punishment after death. Śrīla Prabhupāda, as an uttama-adhikārī, used all these able-bodied demons to fulfill his mission and humbly accepted death without even trying to protect himself, but the goal was achieved: the books were widely distributed. Thus, we should continue to publish and distribute Śrīla Prabhupāda's books and not try to form another church of our own greatness or the greatness of some materialistic gurus.

The question may arise: who are we ourselves? Everyone has both divine and demonic nature. Most people are at this junction and which nature wins depends on ourselves. However, it ought to keep in mind that, having received money and power, the majority most likely show demoniac qualities. Getting rid of demonism in general is not easy, it is possible mainly only if one preach from person to person. Some external humility does not play a special role in all this - until a person begins to realize God, the danger of egoism and demonism will always hang over him.

The difference between a demon and a devotee is that the devotee gradually yields and still surrenders himself to God, and the demon will always be obsessed with the idea of ​​personal dominance under the guise of religiosity. Anyone can get rid of demonism if they selflessly, persistently, carefully and intelligently devotes themselves to the development of knowledge and preaching from person to person, but all the rest will remain in this life kanistha-adhikārīs or demons, and it does not matter whether they behave rudely or courteously. The devotee is always looking for the essence and the demon is always looking for personal domination. The devotee discusses the essence and preaches, but the demon always wants to rise above all others.

TEXT 5

The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demonic qualities make for bondage. Do not worry, O son of Pāṇḍu, for you are born with the divine qualities.

PURPORT

If a devotee is told that he is liberated, he will not believe it even if he is truly liberated, but if a demon is told that he is liberated, he will immediately think that he has always felt it. Since Arjuna is a devotee and an eternally liberated soul, when he heard about the demons, he immediately became concerned that he was not a demon himself, to which Kṛṣṇa replied: “Do not worry, O son of Pāṇḍu, for you are born with the divine qualities."

There are many divine qualities, but the list of demoniac qualities is short. Demonism manifests itself in pride (a sense of one's own greatness) and in vanity (a desire for personal glory), and all other demoniac qualities arise already as derivatives of these two. When a person is proud of himself, then arrogance and passion for honor will arise in one way or another. When a person is attached to himself, to his honor, in the case of insults against him or opposition to him, anger arises, then rudeness, cruelty or violence, and it ends with an even greater immersion in ignorance. The demons can outwardly behave themselves gently, they can be aesthetes, be somewhat refined, but when a person is attached to himself, the emergence of anger is inevitable, it is only a matter of time. Among the demons, there are those who dominate openly and directly, and there are those who seek to dominate through tricks, subterfuges, flattery, and the like.

If religion presupposes, for example, humility, demons will behave very humble. Moreover, they will try to reach a position where they are recognized as the most humble. If religion presupposes asceticism, then the demon will strive to become the most ascetic and to get people to recognize him as a great ascetic. The demons are always purposeful, a real demon is never slack, he is focused and goal-oriented. Devotees also have purposefulness, but the demon's goal is himself, and the devotee's goal is God. If religion presupposes compassion, the demon will behave like the most compassionate, and if religion presupposes war and battle, then the demon will be the best at war and battle.

There are many such demons in this world, each of which competes with other demons and wants to become the best of the demons. But since religion is a rather specific topic, the demons in it will behave according to the rules, if necessary, carefully hiding their anger and desire for domination. For example, if dominance is condemned in religion, then the demon can arrange a situation when everyone persuades him to take this or that position, or being in particular position, he will periodically create situations in which he will show his "detachment" to honor, money, etc. Sometimes some demon walks for tens of years in the same jacket to demonstrate renunciation, while collecting and spending millions of rubles on his needs.

Most modern religious leaders are materialists whose only goal is personal honor, money, and domination. Modern sannyāsīs and gurus in positions generally do not live in temples and violate principles. Maybe later this will change, but now 90% of sannyāsīs and gurus do not follow the principles; this applies to ISKCON and the Gauḍīya Math, and others (as of 2020). Perhaps when these organizations shut down or when they lose their money, real sannyāsīs will appear, but now the situation is basically like that. An ordinary person who violates some principles, may even be liberated in some cases, but a sannyāsī or a guru who violate the principles 100% go to hell, this is not even discussed. No sannyāsīs and gurus who violate the principles will not be saved by building temples or preaching of any scale; they may have thousands of disciples here, but then they will go to hell. The violation of sannyāsa will not be forgiven to anyone or such a sannyāsī must immediately give up his title - this is the only way out for him. Similarly, a guru who does not follow the principles must immediately give up the title of guru.

Religious demons can show humility, rasa achievement, and more. They can behave as they want, but since their goal is personal domination, sooner or later this will manifest itself, as their anger will manifest itself too. Since the goal of such demons is personal domination, many modern sannyāsīs and gurus did not hesitate to commit crimes for the sake of their positions. The top leaders conspired against Śrīla Prabhupāda and poisoned Him. They were Tamal, Jayapatākā, Bhakticāru (he was taken because of his knowledge of Hindi) and Bhavānanda, but all the other members of GBC, including Satsvarūpa, knew about it. Everyone knew about the poisoning except Harikeśa who had been Śrīla Prabhupāda's private secretary for a while, and they were afraid to fill him in. Harikeśa also opposed the first decision of GBC to divide the world into zones and appoint all that days members of GBC as gurus; there is a document about this. Satsvarūpa who had knowing about the poisoning of Śrīla Prabhupāda, actually went mad, but for complicity he will be punished. Moreover, modern ISKCON denies the poisoning of Śrīla Prabhupāda, thus all modern gurus have become complicit in the poisoning, with varying degrees of responsibility.

However, even later, having already taken up the positions of gurus, many of these people forbade any criticism of themselves, in some cases they even killed those they disliked. The first of these was Kīrtanānanda who received 20 years in prison for fraud, but the murders he committed were not proven. Bhagavān, Rameśvara and all the other leaders from the first GBC also fell down, some fell down clearly, others are still hiding their falls down. The very GBC is completely corrupt and criminalized now and it has not performed almost any functions of the real GBC for a long time. All these gurus and members of the GBC want only money and personal honor, so the top of ISKCON degraded first (as happened in the past with the Gauḍīya Math, as a result of which it broke up).

ISKCON as a movement is certainly not associated with all of these leaders, ISKCON is Śrīla Prabhupāda's books and external organization is not so important. God said to distribute books because neither organizations nor temple worship are effective in the age of Kali. Even the physical chanting of God's names is not as effective as preaching and distributing books. The demons, no matter who they present themselves and no matter how they behave outwardly, will always be constrained by their desire for domination and ultimately suffer defeat. It is impossible to deceive God, so everyone who tries to use religion for some sordid purposes will be punished. We need to develop spiritual understanding, preach, avoid unnecessary fame, power, and develop a worldwide network of preachers. True ISKCON is a worldwide preaching network based on the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda.

TEXT 6

O son of Pṛthā, in this world there are two kinds of created beings. One is called the divine and the other demonic. I have already explained to you at length the divine qualities. Now hear from Me of the demoniac.

PURPORT

The entire Bhagavad-gītā is devoted to the divine qualities and God, but Kṛṣṇa almost entirely devoted one chapter to the demons. The difference between the devotees and demons is that the devotees follow the scriptures, but the demons do not, and the purpose of the scriptures is to know God. Therefore, among those who try to follow the scripture, there are also two categories of people: the first is those who try to know God, the second is those who want to achieve personal dominance, or demons. Not everyone who tries to follow the scripture and religion are divine persons, because the scripture can also be used for selfish purposes.

The purpose of religion is to know God, to preach, and to return to God. The devotees do not attach much importance to external things, but the goal of demons is dominance in the world of matter, including through religion. As we have already said, now basically all people of a mixed nature and are under the influence of materialism and demonism, however, as souls, they also have some kind of inclination towards spiritual life. We can look at humanity as materialistic and demonic people or as spiritual souls - both views are generally correct.

When a person accepts the process of devotional service, it does not automatically make this person divine. Accepting the process of devotional service is just the general beginning of spiritual life. A person can be outwardly humble or benevolent, but under the influence of money, power, women, and fame everything can change and he can show not the best qualities. It is one thing when we are insulted and we, in fact, we can do nothing in response, and it is quite another thing when we have the opportunity to respond. It is one thing when we are unknown and quite another thing when our fame spread far and wide.

The bottom line is that all leaders should direct the attention of others to preaching and book distribution, not to themselves. The focus of spiritual life should be on God and Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, not on relationships between each other or glorification of gurus and leaders. People who are not engaged in preaching are very prone to false glorification and gossip. First, they glorify some leaders, considering them and themselves great, then in case of any problems they scold them. But everyone should be engaged in preaching, and not looking for "divine leaders" who would lead the religious idlers. The divine leader will engage everyone in preaching like Śrīla Prabhupāda, rather than organizing paid lectures and building temples to collect donations and show the Deities to materialists.

TEXT 7

Those who are demoniac do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done. Neither cleanliness nor proper behavior nor truth is found in them.

PURPORT

Generally, all who ultimately reject religion (the knowledge of God) belong to demoniac personalities, but even among those who have accepted religion, there are demons. There are general religious precepts that are known to everyone, but neophytes and demons do not know how to properly use such precepts. The pount is that the fulfillment of the precepts and the study of spiritual philosophy should be aimed at realizing God, and not at personal dominance. In the beginning, everyone has a tendency to dominate, which can either increase or decline over time. Therefore, we need to direct our senses, mind, and intelligence to God in order to avoid the tendency to personal domination and the tendency to experience happiness from such domination.

The difference between devotees and demons is that demons never achieve cleanliness, proper behavior, or truthfulness. Cleanliness is the God-realization, and lack of cleanliness is selfishness. The scripture and spiritual life can only be understood over time if a person really understands the scripture and does not try to adapt it to himself. We all come unclean, but by studying the scripture, following its instructions and preaching, a person can gradually become cleansed. The demons, however, will always understand the scripture as it is beneficial for them or as it is convenient for them - this is a manifestation of the lack of cleanliness.

Proper behavior means to devote oneself to the understanding of spiritual science and God, not to oneself, but materialists and demons always put themselves at the center of everything. Also, when a person is unclean, truthfulness is impossible for him. The truth is we are insignificant and dependent on our own, but demons, speaking in words about humility, always want to dominate.

In fact, demons punish themselves: the lack of knowledge of God and the desire for domination make their whole life stressful and devoid of real happiness. Demons are wretched, therefore they value the recognition of people and money for its weight in gold. Anyone can realize the spiritual nature and become eternally free and happy, but materialists and demons climb into the middle of māyā in order to suffer endlessly. Having suffered enough, they then become impersonalists, rejecting material qualities and at the same time declaring themselves to be all existence or God.

The hierarchy of demons begins with lower and primitive people who are like animals and ends with great poets, philosophers, and impersonalists. The demons can be clearly aggressive and cruel, but there are demons who outwardly look quite peaceful and who are considered the leaders of humanity, geniuses, reformers, and simply religious and well-bred people. For example, modern scientists externally may look clean, well-mannered, and truthful, but if we take their inner essence, they have no any cleanliness and etc. Modern science kills people by millions, animals by billions, it destroys and pollutes the environment at a tremendous rate. Scientists have created an image of knowledgeable people, unbiased champions of progress, objectively looking at what is happening around them, but most of them are demons who seek only their own dominance and destroy the world.

The same goes for religious leaders who may outwardly look clean and respectable, however, not knowing God and acting mainly in the key of personal interests and their own greatness, they are also demons. The preaching of such leaders, no matter what they talk about, is always materialism, but those who realize God lose interest in money, fame, and the like. A devotee leader can elevate his disciples to the level of God consciousness; a demon leader only seeks recognition and money. The values ​of demons are wealth, power, and honor, therefore, when they acquire such things, they consider themselves perfect and standing on the right path.
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Jayanti
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Сообщение Jayanti » 11 апр 2021, 14:20

TEXT 8

They say that this world is unreal, that there is no foundation and that there is no God in control. It is produced of sex desire, and has no cause other than lust.

PURPORT

Demons deny the existence of good and evil, saying that the concepts of good and evil are relative and therefore good and evil do not exist. All demons are essentially materialists and impersonalists, whatever they may appear to be. Materialists say that life formed itself out of atoms as a result of evolution. Although entropy, or chaos, is growing in the universe, that is, the universe is actually collapsing, like any body inside it, the demons say that everything is developing and that in the future they will conquer the entire universe.

The idea of ​​demons is that, as they evolve, they will achieve absolute dominance and become immortal. The demoniac philosophers say that everything depends on the consciousness of a person: when we are aware of the world - it exists, and when we are not aware - it disappears. Or the demons say that the world arose out of nothing, out of emptiness, and having once arisen, now it will exist forever. The demons believe that the existence of God is impossible, that God is invented by weak people, that religion exists only to control the masses, and the scriptures were composed by ordinary people.

The demons within religion consider their religion to be the best and most perfect, and themselves as the most religious and exalted. Within religion, demons gravitate towards faith, impersonalism, or they build logical schemes that are far from the real spiritual life. Sometimes, while formally accepting the Personality of Godhead, demons cultivate only a general impersonal uplift and deify mostly themselves. The goal of demons is their personal or universal prosperity, world peace, but on the way to such peace, they are sometimes ready to kill anyone. Demons always build a perfect society, eventually putting themselves at the head of everything - as the most intelligent and striving for perfection of people. According to the demons, truth as such does not exist, but there is only the eternal pursuit of knowledge and the eternal progress of mankind.

Demons are always pleased with themselves, they are dynamic, active, they believe that the world is eternal and the essence of life is eternal movement and change. Essentially, demons idolize this world and themselves within it, or they idolize themselves as gurus, mentors, priests, potential saints, and great teachers. The demon sees himself as wise, fair, and even when he cheats right and left, the demon still considers himself to be an extremely honest and principled person.

Whatever bad the demon does, he always justify himself; the demon rarely has his own fault, the environment or some circumstances are always to blame. The demon is always practical, and every step he takes implies benefits, either moral or material. If some activity promises glory to a demon, he is ready to sacrifice himself, and the true dream of every demon is eternal world glory.

Demons can be ascetic and focused in a pursuit for leadership, and also demons do not believe that there can be something reprehensible in the world. All the demon's friends must be great, influential people, and demons also like to do charity work, feeling their superiority, condescension to others and their own greatness. Although the world consists mostly of innocent people, but presently under the influence of demons, most people demonstrate precisely demoniac qualities. The base demons are ready to enjoy in any way, but the exalted demons have great respect for themselves and their sensual life must correspond to their "high status."

Also, homosexuality is a demoniac quality; presently the demons are systematically promoting homosexuality so that there are more opportunities for homosexuals in the world. The demons want to make homosexuality a universal, common phenomenon for all, so that every homosexual is proud of himself, therefore they call public processions of homosexuals Pride Parade. Demons want to destroy all traditional beliefs about religion, family, and morality. Demons want to destroy the concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, low and high in order to carry out any type of activity without restriction. They want complete sexual, moral and ethics freedom. If a demon follows any religion and any rules, then the whole world must follow these rules, and the demon will lead everything or be the best of all the following.

The ideal world of the demon is the world of his freedom, where he has sexual relations without restrictions. Demons consider people who have some kind of moral standards to be wretched, ignorant, and undeveloped. The dream of demons is complete cosmopolitanism, where there are no traditions and norms. Demons always consider themselves the chosen ones, the highest caste of humanity, the leaders of ordinary people. They believe that they have the right to decide who lives and who dies, demons can not hesitate to destroy people by the millions for the sake of their "higher goal".

If a person is a demon, he always considers himself superior to others, in religion such people believe that they have reached the highest enlightenment. Although demons usually do not rise beyond the realization of the impersonal aspect, they consider such achievement to be the highest and themselves - enlightened by the most secret and confidential knowledge. In the depths of his soul, the demon always has the idea of ​​his superiority and his incomparable uniqueness.

Please note that God quite accurately described the demons five thousand years ago and all this knowledge is relevant to this day.

TEXT 9

Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.

PURPORT

The demons' goal is eternal enjoyment of matter and their leadership. Having rejected or made nominal religion, putting money and pleasure first, the entire modern world is filled with violence at all levels. The desire to continuously enjoy leads to the fact that people become more and more selfish and irritated. The demons came up with the idea of ​​evolution to convince everyone that there was only barbarism in the past and religion is the remnants of the past barbarism. The demons say that God cannot be a personality, because any form is matter and form cannot be infinite, unlike the impersonal aspect. If the demon accepts God as a personality, then he considers himself almost the right hand of God and the chosen one. Although a demon may be totally sinful, he still considers himself sensible and pure.

The demons have clear minds and generally almost no doubts. Fools and demons are alike, because their determination to "establish justice" and to put themselves above the whole world runs ahead of their every thought. The demon wants to be perfect in everything, but when he is not perfect in something, he still sees himself as perfect. The essence of the demon is exalted selfishness, which can be expressed in any way. If a demon is a leader, then he considers and shows himself to be the best leader, if a demon is a priest, he considers himself a perfect priest. If the community of demons have a feast, then the demon have a lot of fun there, and if the demon has become a religious person, then he is emphatically "pure and exalted."

If the demon is a butcher, he organizes the killing of animals, making it a mass production; if the demon has become a guru, then he talks about rasas, portrays unearthly love, humility, or anything that can somehow elevate him in the eyes of other people. The demons do not care where they make money, from meat or religion, they do not care about everything except their income and their own honor. He make money on meat and then he pretend to be a rich and influential person, or he make money on religion and then he do the same. It is necessary to understand that the center of the demon's life is himself and everything else is only a means to achieve his goals, including religion.

It is also necessary to understand that nominal religiosity does not bear fruit. A person can chant mantra circles, visit a temple, or tirelessly quote the scripture, but when the center of his life is himself, his money, and his honor, then neither chanting, nor quoting, nor other actions can give him spiritual fruit. Spiritual life is universal and intended for everyone, yet demons, if they use the scripture and religion for personal purposes, will only degrade and no external achievements will compensate for their egoism. The goal of religion is God and until a person understands this, the fulfillment of external rules and formal knowledge of the scripture will not give any meaningful fruit.

Modern civilization creates a huge amount of unnecessary things. They create hundreds of types of handbags, cars, and other goods. All these things, after serving for several years, are sent to the trash, polluting the environment. Also, civilization is pumping oil at an ever-increasing rate, burning it in huge quantities. All that disrupts the climate, which is why in the next hundred years, the loss of crops will begin and will increase. People will start to starve and there will also be a shortage of water, which will lead to a lot of violence and wars. At the end of scientific progress, everyone will be covered by a nuclear war, in which more than half of the Earth's population will die. All this is the result of demoniac culture - the desire for a rich and free life, entertainment, personal and world domination, and the result of demoniac science.

TEXT 10

The demoniac, taking shelter of insatiable lust, pride and false prestige, and being thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent.

PURPORT

Lust is not only a sexual desire, this is a desire for all kinds of sense gratification. The demons are always purposeful - in scientific research, in production, in the conduct of various affairs. The demons want unlimited expansion, they want to take over the entire Earth, then other planets and the entire cosmos. If the demoniac is a businessman and is engaged in production, he wants his production and sales of his goods to cover the whole world and he would become the most influential businessman in the world.

In religion, demons want their religion to be the best and considered the most exalted, their church to be a universal church, money to flow into their society, and they would build huge temples, and all these would confirm their greatness. The demons always want to dominate, so if sannyāsa or guru status brings honor and money, the demon wants to become a sannyāsī or guru. To be such a guru is, in fact, the dream of every demon - not to work anywhere, have a lot of money, and always be in the role of a glorified mentor and leader.

Presently most gurus are such demons who just bathe in attention, have money from people and want it to go on forever. The demoniac guru values ​​himself and his body very much, they try to maintain their health as best as possible and for as long as possible, and in public they behave in such a way that they are always on top in the eyes of others. The demon always calculates what will bring him honor and how much honor it will bring; when such plans for gaining honor are not fulfilled, he feels hatred for everyone who does not recognize his greatness or criticize him.

Presently all people are demoniac to varying degrees. There are those who seem to look humble, but this is because they simply do not have the opportunity to express and show themselves. Therefore, almost any person who gets to a big position ultimately behaves like an inveterate demon. The demons who occupied high positions in Śrīla Prabhupāda's movement have not yet understand that God will not allow them to enjoy in the role of gurus and that it is necessary to organize the distribution of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, observe the principles, and live in the temples among people. The punishment for such rascals is sometimes quite demonstrative, so that no one has any desire to become a leader or guru for the sake of honor, money, and their own greatness.

After becoming a guru, demons become intoxicated by their position and lose touch with reality. When a demon is glorified, he really begins to believe that he is exalted. Such demons believe that their position and money are given to them by God Himself, because every demon sees himself as perfect, no matter how base he is. When a person is dead stupid, he believes that he knows everything better than anyone, that he is above everyone else, and that he rightfully receives people's attention and money from them. Although each of these demoniac gurus is usually quite sinful, but being on the rise from a sense of personal glory, he thinks that his own sinfulness does not play any role against the background of the heyday of his "great preaching". Every demon always considers himself to be the best expert in everything, and when a demon does not know something, he thinks that these types of knowledge are simply unimportant and unworthy of him.

The essence of the demon is that he considers himself above everyone and better than everyone, and if others do not think so, then in the demon's opinion, they just have not yet figured out what he really is. Even if the demon feels that his affairs are bad, that he is fallen and so on, just give him power and money and this seemingly modest person will appear before everyone in all his “greatness”. The demonic gurus take money and power, but they are attacked from below by the same demoniac disciples or laymen who foolishly envy such rascals, aiming at their place or envying their fame. The war between the demons never stops and at any level.

In today's ISKCON, materialistic gurus have divided spheres of influence and, inwardly envious of each other, outwardly try to portray cooperation. Modern guruism has nothing to do with real ISKCON where every guru must actually teach and personally distribute Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. Most of these materialistic gurus, taking advantage of Śrīla Prabhupāda's fame and property, only want to get money and honor as a result, but māyā will throw them out of this position and they will all be punished later.

Demons in religion are the most dangerous type of demons. Now they have almost completely replaced the goals and methods of ISKCON (the same situation is in other religions), but the age of Kali is good because no external religiosity is valid at this time. Also, in the age of Kali, no formal organization can survive and only training, preaching from person to person and distributing Śrīla Prabhupāda's books will always be an effective method.

If people are not trained, everything will fall apart and come to a dead end, because without being at the spiritual level, a person will somehow distort spiritual knowledge and will be unstable. Preaching the spiritual life is a complex activity and it is a war against materialism and demonism. If a person is not trained, if he is not at least self-realized, he has little chance to survive in this war or he will distort the scripture and set false goals for himself.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's preaching is uttama preaching, it is not an entertaining preaching for the enjoyment of the public, it cannot be popular with fools and sahajiyās. Śrīla Prabhupāda's books are aimed at creating pure devotion; the mass distribution of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books is a search for potential pure devotees. Maybe there are 10 such devotees, but we need to distribute 10 million books to find these 10 people. Also, since the present civilization can be finished at any time, paper books need to be published. Books should always be published and distributed, no electronic medium will ever replace physical books. We need eternal distributors of books and knowledge; we do not need demon gurus who are busy with their personal domination.

It does not really matter what happens to modern ISKCON or to modern temples. The basis of religion now is books and preaching, bṛhad-mṛdaṅga, preaching the philosophy and practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

TEXT 11-12

They believe that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no end to their anxiety. Being bound by hundreds and thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification.

PURPORT

Sense gratification means that people believe that everything is created for their happiness. Such a person, for example, having breakfast, enjoys eating some pie or drinks healthy juice with a couple of low-calorie cookies, then he turns on the TV with pleasure and watches the news or a concert, or reads new messages on social networks, then he is happy to go with his family to nature, where he sunbathes, drinks alcohol, and in the evening he enjoys meeting with friends and they discuss something. Of course, in order to enjoy, it is necessary to work; work is a reluctant necessity for everyone, but the meaning of human life for such people is enjoyment. Some enjoy food and sensual life, others enjoy literature, music, or scientific research. Work can also be a pleasure when, for example, a person develops his business with passion.

To all that, the materialists say: "So life is meant for happiness, for development, for communication and joy." We are not against joy, but this kind of joy is the lowest type of joy. Then the materialists say: "All your religions are darkness, the Middle Ages, you deprive people of full life and happiness." However, a devotee lives a full life, he does all the same as ordinary people, just a little differently. The devotee also eats, but he first offers food to God; the devotee also watches the news and learns something new, but he watches it for the purpose of preaching; the devotee also goes somewhere, but he goes out to preach.

It would seem that ordinary people do everything for their own happiness - they buy the food they want, go wherever they want, have sexual relations when they want, but satisfaction as a result of all this never comes. A devotee does not do it for himself, but becomes satisfied. The materialists say that they are happy, but in order to play the role of master and enjoyer, they have to work much more than in a simple life. They say that they are happy, only for some reason they constantly come up with something - something else to do, something else to get. When a person is happy, he does not change the type of activity. For example, we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. It brings eternal happiness, so we do not change it.

The next point is the happiness of materialists is temporary, their life will be over, but they still will not solve the most important problems. Where did this whole world come from and what is the purpose of man? Only by having fun and multiplying, no one solves any major problems. The materialists say: "You also do not solve any problems and you have invented God." In response to this, we have tens and hundreds of arguments, but only after entering in discussion, the materialists escape from it, because they have nothing to say. However, discussions with materialists become even easier over time, since many of them no longer understand even elementary logic and listen like sheep without understanding a single proof. If we have senses, mind and intelligence, does our source also contain them?

Devotees seek God, they seek the truth and they follow the truth - this is the difference between devotees and materialists. Materialists do their best to be happy by inventing many activities and creating many things, while the devotees are happy without even a tenth of what the materialists have. Materialists give all their energies to happiness and entertainment, we give our energies to preaching and knowledge. Materialists say that your happiness is just self-hypnosis, to which we answer that there is knowledge about the world which is quite objective. The realization of God and the soul is quite scientific.

If one scientist looks through a microscope and sees a bacterium there, then a second scientist looks through a microscope and also sees a bacterium there, then the bacteria objectively exists. If one person realizes himself as a soul and the other gets the same experience, then this realization is objective and, therefore, true. If millions of people have had the same experience for at least 5000 thousand years, is that true? If we all see a universe filled with forms, structure, feelings, mind and intelligence, can this be called the truth?

But materialists and demons do not want to admit all that; they have their own plan in life - this is a plan of happiness due to the manipulation of matter. They want to use matter in various ways and become the eternal lords and rulers of everything. Their plan is to rule the whole world, achieve unprecedented harvests, create unprecedented weapons, conquer the Moon, Mars, all diseases, establish all types of industries, conquer the entire universe and so live here happily ever after or live here forever and happily. They believe that there is no God, that everything came from an explosion, atoms, and bacteria "grew" to the size of humans; although there is no evidence to proof such miracles, they do not pay attention to this, because their goal is supremacy and domination.

Materialists also want to establish social life in religion. They want to create a perfect society, perfect families, perfect nutrition, and although this is more pious and connected with God, the essence of such desires is still materialism. Demons are never interested in God, they are always interested only in themselves - their life "here and now" or some great future of mankind. Even the idea of ​​liberation in their performance is the same thing: they want freedom and happiness, but do not understand that true freedom and true happiness are possible only through the realization of God.

God is all that exists, it is impossible to be happy outside of Him. There is no life outside of Him anywhere in the world, because He is everything. The crazy soul sees God as a rival or as imperfect, and even though he already knows something about God, he is still absorbed in his plans, he still wants material fruits and material prosperity. Such a soul wants everything of his own - his house, his family, his religion, and then an illusion is created, in which the souls believe that they can create something themselves.

When a materialist or a religious materialist bet on matter, they fall under the influence of fear and anxiety. It does not matter what kind of matter the soul is attached to, any of them is temporary. But there is an important point: direct renunciation of matter does not mean realizing God. Materialists, of course, like this idea, because they do not want to renounce anything, but the point here is that one need to use matter not for oneself, but for God. When a person takes matter ostensibly for God, but in reality his goal is not God, but matter itself, then fears and anxieties follow him. A devotee can use anything for God, but "for God" means one is attached to God, not to māyā. When something is done for God, then there is no attachment to money, position, or the like. A God-conscious devotee is not influenced by money, organization, lack of organization, recognition, or anything else.

This is the difference between demons and devotees: a devotee is attached to God (to the development of spiritual understanding) and acts conscientiously in accordance with the scripture, without using the scripture for personal benefit. The demon always uses the scripture as he wants or as he pleases. Using the scripture for his own benefit, the demon will never know the truth, because the truth is revealed only by a conscientious and honest understanding of the scripture and following it. This is not even related to righteousness; a person may be sinful in some way, but when he understands: "I am sinful here and there" - this is honest. It is necessary to understand everything honestly and not to use the scripture for selfish interests or for the sake of self-justification. But all these issues are solved mainly by preaching from person to person, because in the spiritual life there are dozens and hundreds of different nuances and it will be difficult or even impossible to understand them without preaching.

When a person has set personal happiness in matter as his goal, when he seeks the pleasant and avoid unpleasant, when he wants to have more and more property, then his troubles will be endless. The more property a person has, the bigger his ambitions, desire for fame, money, sexual or other pleasures, the more he will ultimately suffer. It does not matter in general whether a person is religious or not – if he is attached to matter, he will suffer. Materialists are simply rip out of this life by death. The materialist is torn out from here – from his body, his house, his family, and his attachments - and thrown on further in accordance with his fate. Death for a materialist is a catastrophe in which he loses everything at once, but before such a materialist dies, he will suffer from his attachments. Materialists suffer all their lives - working at job, trying to set up families, building houses, and endlessly earning money - and eventually they are uprooted from it all and thrown away somewhere else.

Therefore materialists do not want to think about death - because they are doomed. All of them are doomed to eternal death and they do not want to think about it under any guise. They can joke about death, bravado, but when death comes, they feel horror and lose everything at once. Everything that was created with such difficulty is lost in an instant. When does this moment come? Death can come to everyone at any moment. Therefore, materialists do not want to think about death or talk about the problem of death, they are annoyed by religion or they follow some religion only nominally, they are annoyed by God, they want to have fun and not think about death, and therefore a bad fate awaits them.

On the other hand, some materialists, frightened by suffering and death, reduce all religion only to the fear of death and think only about death, which is also materialism. Anxiety and fear arise from attachments: some materialists do not want to hear about God, because they are attached to material pleasures and are doomed to death and the collapse of all their plans, while all that other materialists do is talk about death and go to the cemetery, because they are also entangled in attachments and the resulting fear.

Fear, lust, anger, and a lot of problems - all this arise from attachments, and whether a person is outwardly religious or not does not play a big role. If there are attachments, then there will be problems; and getting rid of attachments, we repeat again, is the development of knowledge, preaching, and attachment to God. The absence of attachments is not the result of the absence of matter, it is attachment to God and self-realization. If a religious person under the label "I use everything in the service of God" has a rich house, a car, several apartments and lives luxuriously for himself, then he condemns himself to suffering. Besides suffering, such a foolish karmī-believer also cannot realize God.

A God-conscious person does not suffer either by having property or not having it, but the main problem of owning property is not property as such or even future suffering from property, but the fact that attachment to property creates an obstacle to God-realization. It is exactly the same situation with recognition, power, honor and so on – when a person is attached to honor, he will suffer and also God-realization will be hidden for him by such desires. However, the lack of property can also be used for selfish purposes, showing oneself as a renouncer and so on. The bottom line is that as long as a person is occupied with himself in any form, he will suffer and it will be difficult for him to realize God.

Materialists and demons in their affections are completely finished - they will be born and die forever, and no matter how much they say that eternal suffering and death are a myth, death will destroy all their plans. We see millions and billions of living entities everywhere; where did they come from? Everything around us is teeming with life. The materialists say that it is the atoms that have formed themselves and run around us now, but this is not possible according to the laws that we know. These are eternally conditioned souls that eternally migrate from one body form to another. The materialists say, "It's okay, I'll be an animal, it's not bad either," but if you call him an animal now, he will be offended, then why to talk about the birth in such a body? Birth and death are bad and no one likes it, do not cheat. Some people commit suicide, but then they are born again; suicide does not change anything. A person suffers and thinks: "I'm suffering so much, I'm tired of living, I'm going to kill myself," but when he commits suicide, he is immediately born again or walks around as a ghost, suffering even more.

The only real problem in the material world is eternal death or eternal birth and death, but demons do not want to think about it. Stupid people do not want to think about birth and death and somehow try to solve this problem. Everyone is mortal, everyone will leave the body, what will happen then? The materialists say, "No one knows this, nobody ever comes back from there." But how do they not come back? Where did you come from here? The scriptures describe the migration of souls in detail, and there is an experience when people remember past lives, and there is our experience when we see these soul migrations.

As for birth and death, as for property - everyone should understand all written above for himself, to figure out everything for himself and follow spiritual practice himself, consciously and voluntarily. When a person follows himself, consciously, he himself gets the spiritual fruit. One should understand these things and apply them in one's life, thereby protecting oneself; one should strive to realize God and not follow the rules for the sake of the rules or follow the rules mechanically. It is important to engage the senses and mind. When the senses are engaged, the person will be satisfied; the main process of engaging the senses is, of course, preaching.
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Jayanti
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Сообщение Jayanti » 18 апр 2021, 18:45

TEXT 13-15

The demoniac person thinks: "So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him; and my other enemy will also be killed. I am the lord of everything, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am. I shall perform sacrifices, I shall give some charity, and thus I shall rejoice." In this way, such persons are deluded by ignorance.

PURPORT

The basis of demonism is the desire for endless expansion and to occupy the highest position in society, country, world or in the entire universe. If a demon makes money, he always needs more money; such demons say: "There is no such thing as a lot of money." No matter how rich the demon is, he will never stop, because of the huge lust. Just as demons want an infinite amount of money, they want an infinite expansion in any sphere – an infinite expansion of power, an infinite expansion of honor, fame and so on. The goal of any demon is to dominate over all, the highest domination, ultimate domination, and eventually take the place of God. Demons with the help of scientific inventions want to surpass the laws of nature and gain power over the whole world. People lived much better in the past than in the modern world, but the demons say that the past is darkness, that real life began only a few hundred years ago, and although the demons destroy all the living things with great speed now, they call it the progress and development of humanity.

Demons want to have control over all people and control over the entire world and the universe. The mentality of the demon is that he considers himself better than everyone, his family is better than other families, his nation is higher than other nations, his country is higher than other countries, his religion is higher than other religions, and the demons consider humanity to be the only intelligent form of life or even if they agree that there are some intelligent forms of life, then the demons want to gain knowledge through them for further domination or become higher than them.

Whoever the demon is and whatever he owns, he considers himself successful and wants to expand his success all the time. An ordinary person lives and just maintains his existence, but the demon always wants personal expansion. An ordinary people communicate, support themselves and their families, but the demon is always restless, he always wants to beat everyone, everyone around the demon is his potential enemies and rivals. The demon enters into some kind of partnership only to later rise even higher, and when a great profit or power opens before the demon, he will stop at nothing.

If a demon comes to a religion, he wants to take a higher position within the religion. Demons may have good abilities, they are always purposeful and active, which is why demons often dominate in religion, unlike ordinary people who are not so motivated, not so active and less confident. But the demons are always confident, purposefulness makes them strong; they see any situation only as a scheme in which they eventually have to take a leading position. The demon never sees anyone as his equal, but if someone is clearly superior to the demon, then the demon is filled with reverence and can even learn from him, then to surpass his teacher and later, at best, condescendingly pat him on the shoulder.

Demons can be cruel or sentimental, they can be anything, but the bottom line is that their goal is personal supremacy and domination. In the pursuit of such domination, demons do not have any rules and regulations. Every demon inwardly considers himself the best of all and acts according to the principles: "Good and evil are relative concepts, and by and large there is neither good nor evil, but only my necessity", "All means are good", "I am religious enough, God will forgive me". Ordinary people just live, ordinary people are naive, but the demon always builds his personal empire, which in the future should become a world empire led by him. The demon can own a lot or not own anything, but he always sees himself the highest of all and the best of all. The demon a priori considers himself the smartest and wisest of all, and even if the demon is at the very bottom of the social ladder, inside himself he is convinced that this is temporary and later he will manifest himself and everyone will see him in the blaze of his greatness and glory.

Since there are many such demons now and the whole civilization is imbued with the spirit of demonism and materialistic expansion, the whole society and all states are filled with conflicts at all levels. Demons raise people so that everyone be self-confident and considers himself the center of the world; demons raise selfish and efficient slaves for their empire. Demons teach people the same things what they themselves really are. The demon, for example, tells everyone: "I have achieved success, I am rich, influential and famous. Now, each of you must work hard in my company and then later any of you can become as rich and famous as I am." So demons get a lot of efficient slaves; and nowadays the whole world is permeated with the spirit of demonism, when people do not work for the benefit of others, but see everyone as a means of personal enrichment and personal glory.

In fact, there is nothing to do and there is no happiness in the material world, so the demons constantly come up with some new activities to somehow diversify the local existence. Having exhausted all types of activities, they eventually drink alcohol to cheer they up, having an unlimited number of women, they become homosexuals. Ultimately, food, sex, and various forms of entertainment do not bring happiness to materialists, and the main type of happiness for demons is gaining power over others and fame. If the possibilities of getting pleasure from food, sex life, and the like are sufficiently limited, then the struggle for money, power, and fame is limitless and the demons are consumed by it. As a result, after a long struggle, many torments, fears, an endless pursuit of the ghostly greatness and domination, the demon dies or perishes in battles with demons like himself.

Each demon considers himself worthy of the highest glory, considers himself the best leader and knowledgeable. Put almost any person on the throne, glorify him how good and smart he is, and he will immediately blossom and begin to "speak the truth". We see this from year to year in spiritual organizations when a person, having learned five sentences, suddenly reveals himself as a spiritual leader, and if there are still some who listen to him, his happiness grows day by day. In fact, the main part of the leaders of modern ISKCON is a set of such people who have learned something from Śrīla Prabhupāda's books and tell it to others with a little improvisation.

It is necessary to preach and it is good and needed, but it is bad when such a preaching is made only for the sake of a sense of one's glory, one's false greatness, or out of a desire to entertain the public. Basically, such lectures and guruism became not a training, but a pastime, so the whole system of preaching began to degrade. A lecture is when a devotee says something that is close to him in spiritual knowledge, something that he has realized, and each lecture should be a call to preach and distribute books. If people do not distribute Śrīla Prabhupāda's books after the lecture, then the lecture is zero; this is the criterion for any lectures. No matter how many disciples a guru has, no matter how famous he is, if Śrīla Prabhupāda's books are not distributed, then his activities are useless.

The purpose of lectures or any other spiritual training is self-realization, God-realization, and preaching by disciples. The guru should not create disciples as such, the guru should create gurus or madhyama preachers. The guru is not glorious for the number of nominal disciples that he "initiates" by giving initiations right and left and not knowing any of them, he is glorious only for mature disciples. Does the guru have mature disciple-preachers? Then he is glorious.

Modern churches recruit millions of people; all these people call themselves Christians or something else and almost all of them are ordinary materialists who perform a couple of rites, but live for themselves. Such a situation should not be allowed in the Lord Caitanya movement. The guru should initiate mainly only those who intend to practice and preach seriously. The mercy of the world consists in carefully fulfilling the duties of a spiritual master and concentrating the movement, rather than dispersing it into another karmic church of "Vaiṣṇavism". One must understand the purpose of spiritual life and the purpose of Lord Caitanya; everyone ultimately can be engaged in preaching in one way or another – this is the duty of a spiritual master.

In connection with all of the above, the question may arise: but what about the devotees and demigods who also make their expansion, can also have wealth and glory? The difference between demons and demigods is that the demigods are guided by the scripture or the instructions of God and take power not for their own sake, but for the sake of preaching and ruling the world by orders from above.

The demigods are also strong, persistent, and purposeful, but the basis of their strength is knowledge of God and the fulfillment of His orders. There are few selfish motives in the activities of the demigods, and therefore they really rule the world, unlike the demons. The less egoistic a person is, the higher his position in the hierarchy of the universe or in devotional service. Outwardly, it may seem that a devotee is motivated by something, but when a person's activity comes from his knowledge and attachment to God, there is no and can no longer be selfishness.

The answer is God knows everything and knows everyone. When a person is not really motivated by materialism, then God supports him and gives him real power. Everyone should understand that this is a perfect, error-free system, such a system does not and cannot fail. We all need to enter the spiritual system and begin to develop in this direction, to become under the control of God and not to be under the control of demons, our ego, and other attachments. Both demigods and humans can be unclean, but when they essentially go in the right direction, when they can really figure out where the truth is, where the lie is, when they are intelligent, then they will be given more and more protection.

For example, some holy kings and rulers of the past owned enormous wealth, but we have to understand that the kingdom as such did not attract them, they were attracted by God, so if necessary, they received wealth and power. When a person is motivated by wealth, power and honor, he is doomed to fall and suffer, there is no chance that he will resist in such a position. None of the great kings, great leaders are attached to wealth and honor as such, this is impossible, otherwise they would have lost all their strength and all knowledge. Personal domination and knowledge of God are not combined in any way; they are opposite things. If a person dominates, he will degrade, he will fall, but when a saintly king or a devotee, ācārya, dominates, that means only one thing: he is attached to God without any attachment to his external position. He takes such a position at the will of God, however, even if he loses all external superiority, the inner strength, the power of such a leader and his knowledge will remain unshaken.

Everyone should clearly understand that God knows everyone and the whole world is under His control. We just think that this place is run by someone else. No one in the world controls anything except God and the demigods, and God gives everyone what they deserve in an precise and perfect way. But then we need to understand: what does God want from us, what are His plans? Maybe He wants to conquer some country? Or maybe He needs gold and jewelry? Let's say a secret: He is not even interested in the glory of all these materialistic churches, but He is interested in the enlightenment of people, the spiritual development of people; this is the value. Therefore, those who are spiritually developed are engaged in only one thing: preaching and enlightening people; this is the only real value.

Whatever a devotee does - whether he establishes a religious state, varṇāśrama, fights or makes peace - all this will ultimately be aimed at enlightening the people. Materialists think there is a need to establish a society of friendship and love combined with material prosperity, but the goal of spiritual life is God realization. In general, the formula is as follows: one should ignore all material needs as far as it is possible, and direct all life force to consciousness, to God realization. We are the souls, we are not connected with either gross or subtle matter, we use all of it only for preaching, but in a certain sense there is no need for matter as such.

For example, in the modern situation, the whole world, the whole human life is crammed with technology: people look through technology and listen through technology, so we preach through technology. The demons say that technology is their invention and since you deny progress, you have no moral right to use it. We can answer to this that the emergence of technology was the result of purposeful research and the activity of the mind not created by humans, and that when such a happy time comes and computers begin to be created by themselves, evolutionarily, then we will refuse to use them.

TEXT 16

Thus perplexed by various anxieties and bound by a network of illusions, one becomes too strongly attached to sense enjoyment and falls down into hell.

PURPORT of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda:

The demoniac man knows no limit to his desire to acquire money. That is unlimited. He only thinks how much assessment he has just now and schemes to engage that stock of wealth farther and farther. For that reason, he does not hesitate to act in any sinful way and so deals in the black market for illegal gratification. He is enamoured by the possessions he has already, such as land, family, house and bank balance, and he is always planning to improve them. He believes in his own strength, and he does not know that whatever he is gaining is due to his past good deeds. He is given an opportunity to accumulate such things, but he has no conception of past causes. He simply thinks that all his mass of wealth is due to his own endeavor. A demoniac person believes in the strength of his personal work, not in the law of karma. According to the law of karma, a man takes his birth in a high family, or becomes rich, or very well educated, or very beautiful because of good work in the past. The demoniac thinks that all these things are accidental and due to the strength of his personal ability. He does not sense any arrangement behind all the varieties of people, beauty, and education. Anyone who comes into competition with such a demoniac man is his enemy. There are many demoniac people, and each is enemy to the others. This enmity becomes more and more deep - between persons, then between families, then between societies, and at last between nations. Therefore there is constant strife, war and enmity all over the world.

Each demoniac person thinks that he can live at the sacrifice of all others. Generally, a demoniac person thinks of himself as the Supreme God, and a demoniac preacher tells his followers: "Why are you seeking God elsewhere? You are all yourselves God! Whatever you like, you can do. Don't believe in God. Throw away God. God is dead." These are the demoniac's preachings.

Although the demoniac person sees others equally rich and influential, or even more so, he thinks that no one is richer than him and that no one is more influential than him. As far as promotion to the higher planetary system is concerned, he does not believe in performing yajñas or sacrifices. Demons think that they will manufacture their own process of yajña and prepare some machine, by which they will be able to reach any higher planet. The best example of such a demoniac man was Rāvaṇa. He offered a program to the people by which he would prepare a staircase so that anyone could reach the heavenly planets without performing sacrifices, such as are prescribed in the Vedas. Similarly, in the present age such demoniac men are striving to reach the higher planetary systems by mechanical arrangement. These are examples of bewilderment. The result is that, without their knowledge, they are gliding toward hell. Here the Sanskrit word mohajāla is very significant. Jāla means net; like fishes caught in a net, they have no way to come out.

TEXT 17

Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, they sometimes perform sacrifices in name only without following any rules or regulations.

PURPORT

Demons can behave defiantly or humbly, but they are always self-confident because they consider only themselves as authority. Modern education and upbringing has become filled with demonism and people consider themselves authorities in everything. Various discussions and disputes often become impossible, because most people have lost their logic and common sense while considering themselves right. Education, science, art are more likely to become means of self-aggrandizing rather than realms of knowledge and creativity as such.

Demons say that since everything is relative, for example, why should any daub not be considered as creativity? The demoniac artist paints ugly pictures and then the stupid admirers look at them trying to find a special esoteric meaning. Often art is replaced by the big name, and mass art has also appeared when everyone and everybody aspires to become a "star". It is not creativity itself that is perceived as a value in such "art", but creativity as a way to gain fame and honor.

Chaos also reigns in science - when evolution is everywhere professed beyond all logic, which is actually impossible; or when so-called scientists invent various theories that are not based on any practical experience. A scientist who has made a name for himself can talk any nonsense and people print and retell this nonsense as the truth. Everyone is brought up as an authority nowadays, as someone who knows the truth unconditionally. Having come to religion, such "authorities" immediately, almost instantly, behave as experts of God and bearers of special knowledge. The more stupid and demonic a person is, the faster he tends to take the position of leader and authority. The situation is similar in all spheres of management.

Religions become filled with this kind of "authorities", so people mostly avoid religious communities, which is generally justified. As far as the church is concerned, the demons formalized all the churches and reduced them to the level of faith and rites. Although religion is a complex and multifaceted subject that requires study, the demons have introduced the idea that religion is a blind, unproven faith, but science is accurate and irreproachable. In fact, there is not a single proven truth in science, because it is impossible to prove something using relative concepts or to prove something using conventional symbols such as numbers and formulas. Religion describes eternal and unchangeable things, religion is based on logic, on universal laws. Therefore, in fact, it is science that is dogmatic and unproven faith, while true religion is quite clear and logical. But the demons turned everything upside down and ordinary people, receiving the "miracles" of demonic science and technology, consider demons and scientists to be absolute authorities.

Religious demons proclaim their church and faith the most holy and dream of themselves in the ranks of the victors at the Last Judgment. Although demons violate the precepts of religion, this does not bother them. This is one of the most incomprehensible phenomena - when the most fallen beings simultaneously consider themselves the most exalted. For example, a homosexual guru does not doubt his position as a guru at all, he also somehow believes that he will reach the spiritual world. This is one of the mysteries that is difficult to solve: how do such people, for example, being homosexuals or pedophiles, consider themselves spiritual leaders? Continuously earning money from religion, violating principles, somehow such people consider themselves gurus, sannyāsīs or exalted people.

Anyone can be sinful, but they can follow the scriptures, become religious, and begin the process of purification. When such a person does not abuse religion, he will develop. However, only a demon can become a sannyāsī or a dīkṣā-guru violating the principles. Perhaps, at first, the conscience bothers such demons, however, after hearing the praises of the crowd and receiving money, the demon cannot resist and continues to be a guru and sannyāsī, knowing well about his sinfulness. Even under the fear of punishment, for example, under the fear to be put in jail, demons cannot part with their money and their religious positions. Apparently, the demons firmly believe that they are very pleasing to God and that everything they do under the influence of the desire for domination is truly spiritual activities, and they themselves are truly religious people, covered with spiritual glory.

Therefore, no matter how much you give teachings to demon, he will still remain with his thoughts about his own greatness and with his plans for glory and money. The picture of the world of the demon and all fools is built on the basis of themselves, on the basis of themselves as the highest value. Every demon accepts his thoughts and senses as the obvious truth, and as a result, all religious demons think that they are the most close to God. Since the mind of the demons is based only on their egoism, then reading the scriptures, they see everything as confirmation of their own rightness. Demons always focus on their own side, so demons who read the Bhagavad-gītā or other scripture find dozens of confirmations of their personal position in it. The demon has no doubt that he is pleasing to God, and that because he accumulates money and personal honor, a great future awaits him.

Of course, demons can also gradually develop within religion, but demons in positions of power are dangerous, and since it is very difficult to protect religion from demons in the modern world, the organization and the church as an institution are abolished in the spiritual movement. The Lord Caitanya movement is a movement of intelligent preachers who learn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. In such a system of saṅkīrtana, or preaching, organization sometimes arises, sometimes disappears, it is not fundamentally. As chaos is growing everywhere in the world, including in religion, the spiritual life and the holy name are presented to us as the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda.

"Books are the basis, preaching is the essence." Please note: the basis is not a guru or an organization, but books. When the demon has already become a guru, he says that by learning from books, a person will not develop and that for development it is necessary to accept him as a spiritual master, and in the case when the demon has not yet become a guru, he says that no gurus are needed, books are enough. This is a good example of how demons always think and preach pursuing selfish goals, constantly deceiving themselves and others. So even if demons are sent to hell, they do not understand it.

TEXT 18

Bewildered by false ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demon becomes envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in his own body and in the bodies of others, and blasphemes against the real religion.

PURPORT of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda:

A demoniac person, being always against God's supremacy, does not like to believe in the scriptures. He is envious of both the scriptures and of the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is caused by his so-called prestige and his accumulation of wealth and strength. He does not know that the present life is a preparation for the next life. Not knowing this, he is actually envious of his own self, as well as of others. He commits violence on other bodies and on his own. He does not care for the supreme control of the Personality of Godhead because he has no knowledge. Being envious of the scriptures and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he puts forward false arguments against the existence of God and refutes the scriptural authority. He thinks himself independant and powerful in every action. He thinks that since no one can equal him in strength, power, or in wealth, he can act in any way and no one can stop him. If he has an enemy who might check the advancement of his sensual activities, he makes plans to cut him down by his own power.

PURPORT
Śrīla Prabhupāda describes the most obvious demons who deny God in principle and cannot even hear of the possible existence of God. But there are also demons who, while formally recognizing God, actually always act against Him. The more materialistic a person is, the more he confronts God, regardless of his external religiosity. The more materialistic a person is, the less he knows about God too - these are interrelated things. We all come in a situation where our life is 99% dedicated to ourselves and only 1% we want to devote to God. People who believe they have dedicated almost everything to God, most likely have not yet dedicated almost anything to God, so demons are at the forefront of those who consider themselves spiritual people.

Perhaps, it is not an easy task to determine who takes what position, but the solution to this problem exists and it lies in the development of knowledge and preaching from person to person. Maybe we are devotees, maybe we are demons (and most likely we are a combination of both, because demonism is present in almost everyone now), in any case, we should study and engage in preaching. Demonism is a serious contamination, but devotional service, bhāgavata-mārga, is such a powerful process that it can gradually elevate even a demon to the level of the spiritual world and end all his ordeals and claims to glory within matter.
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Jayanti
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Сообщение Jayanti » 21 апр 2021, 20:53

TEXT 19

Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life.

PURPORT

God gives everyone the opportunity for spiritual development and liberation. Those who have received such an opportunity - received knowledge, spiritual practice, sometimes received a religious position - but nevertheless continue to pursue selfish goals, do not show inner honesty and etc., they can be punished and in some cases are cast into the lower, demoniac types of life. God is absolutely just, also the Supersoul and the material world make it possible for everyone to do as he wants, but if a person, having come to religion and outwardly leading a religious life, continues to persistently use religion for selfish purposes (actually acting against God), then he may be punished or lose the possibility of liberation.

Beginners have some idealistic ideas about religion; it seems to them that no matter what a person does, but by chanting the holy name, he will be liberated - this is far from the case. If a person is innocent and tries to develop spiritually, then, of course, certain sins can be redeemed or overcome over time, but if a person is malicious or uses religion for selfish purposes, in this case he can receive punishment. One should be careful not to use religion for personal goals. Even an innocent soul under the influence of money, power, and honor, can manifest demoniac qualities and later receive punishment.

Those who earn money from religion for the sake of a luxurious life, power, and honor can receive punishment in the form of new births. Those who commit some kind of physical violence, serious violations of principles and serious distortion of spiritual philosophy can go to hell. Those who are always malicious and always pursue only personal goals, committing large-scale violence - physical, moral violence or distorting the scriptures - can fall into demoniac or hellish life forms forever. In theory, a soul who goes to hell redeems his sins and comes out from there, but in practice, a soul can commit sins over and over again, even while in hell, and therefore never get out of there. If the infernal punishment does not correct the soul and he persists in his malice in spite of everything, then the soul will remain in hell forever.

The soul can be eternally conditioned in two ways. The first way is the usual conditioning when the soul receives various bodies throughout the universe without going beyond matter, but has some chance to meet religion and achieve liberation. The second way is when the soul is malevolent and therefore born mainly among demoniac entities, in which case the probability of liberation becomes very small or liberation becomes impossible at all. The words "eternal hell" are often used to describe the entire material world, in Sanskrit it is nitya-baddha, "eternal conditioning". Most of the souls who live in matter will remain eternally conditioned, but some of the souls can be liberated, and then they pass from the category of nitya-baddha to the category of nitya-siddha.

The question may arise: how is it that the soul is eternally conditioned, but becomes eternally liberated? By spiritually developing, the soul passes from one eternal category to another eternal category. The name of the souls nitya-baddha or "eternally conditioned", indicates that the vast majority of souls will never get liberation, because they do not want it. The soul is transcendental, and wanting to dominate the world of matter, most of the souls do not even think about God and liberation. The soul is eternal and he can remain eternally in māyā, migrating from one body to another. Also, since God is immeasurable, the number of such souls is also immeasurable and cannot be counted.

But among the eternally conditioned souls, there are those who have already come into contact with religion and have shown mainly demoniac qualities, in whom religion only increases the desire for domination, such souls may lose the chance of liberation forever, falling into demoniac forms of life. This is what God is talking about here, because those who are completely non-religious have no chance to elevate at all. There are those who still want to get out of matter, then, despite their desire to dominate, the exit from matter can occur over time, but those who only want to dominate, lose the chance of liberation, sinking ever lower and eventually falling down to the bottom of the universe. There are developed demoniac forms and there are undeveloped ones, there is hell and below hell there is darkness, where the soul is almost completely deprived of any signs of life. Those who are malicious gradually fall into that darkness, burying themselves in it completely.

Therefore, everyone should beware of domination in religion, earnings on religion, and having received a religious position, one should fulfill one's duties responsibly, following with all one's heart, with all one's mind. It is also necessary to understand that God's punishment is not an arbitrary act, but the consequences of fulfilling the soul's desire to dominate or an attempt to correct the soul.

There may be difficult situations in life when devotees have to use force, for example, or when it is not clear what is right and what is wrong. All these situations and problems can be resolved only by honestly studying and following the scripture. When a devotee faithfully follows the scripture, the truth will become more and more clear over time. When the demons study the scripture, it is clear to them as day that they are right in everything; when the devotees study the scripture, they see the Truth itself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as clear as day.

TEXT 20

Attaining repeated birth amongst the species of demoniac life, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence.

PURPORT

Those who are demoniac fall down ever lower, reaching disgusting life forms. At the bottom of the universe, there are many planets where lives snakes, worms, and other similar forms that eat each other. There is almost no light at the bottom of the universe, there is darkness all around, and in this darkness there are snakes or worms that eat each other. Below is hell, and even below hell is total darkness where souls no longer show any signs of life, shackled by their endless sins committed over an infinite period of time.

The actions of people can give rise to almost unlimited consequences, therefore falling down to the bottom of the universe, the soul can continue to sink down lower and lower there. For example, a demon killed a holy person, as a result thousands of people did not receive spiritual knowledge, and these thousands, in turn, did not elevate the next thousands, and so on. Thus, the demon has caused an infinite negative reaction and, having already fallen down into a lower state, he can continue to fall down further indefinitely.

In fact, the demons do not care about all of that, because they believe that it will no longer be them when they are born again, or that since they will not be aware of anything or will not remember the past, there is no loss. The demons care about everything that happens here and now, and they do not care about things will happen after death. Therefore, fate at the same way, without regret, sends them to hell or even below, where they completely lose all their abilities and perish in eternal, gathering darkness. Seeing their fate, ordinary people are shuddered, but the demons do not care; it is important for the demons to fulfill their plans right now and what will happen then, they do not care.

Demons often bravado, saying that they do not mind to be born a dog or go to hell. A normal person is afraid of hell, but demons and those who have fallen under their influence can even worship hell and hellish creatures. Such people idolize the dark forces, considering them perfect, and consider God to be the head of demonism or an impersonal being. In religion, the demons are confident that they preach the truth and after death will be raised to heaven or to the spiritual world. Ordinary, non-demoniac people, on the contrary, do not have such confidence. They are always a little suspicious, worried about their future fate, and sometimes get confused in determining where the truth and where the lie. The solution is to continue practicing and studying the scriptures. Even the begginer uttama, or those who have just begun to see the spiritual world, will not always be able to accurately determine the position of the various souls, because this is not an easy question.

Therefore, when a person meets religion, it is a turning point in his life. We preach religion to everyone, but how a person uses this knowledge depends on himself. Everyone should understand that external religiosity is not the key criterion for true religiosity. The adoption of external religiosity, the external attributes of religion, chanting the holy name, following the principles, holding a religious position, sannyāsa, the position of guru, worship in the temple themselves do not in indicate the spiritual development of a person. All these things can be done by anyone, both a devotee and a demon; everything is determined by the inner orientation of a person, the motives for his actions.

Motives and desires define everyone as a person. We all come to religion with impure motives and a desire for material benefits, power, and honor, but we must learn and act in such a way as to gradually purify ourselves; it is necessary to cultivate preaching and devotion to God, and not to organize a cult of ourselves. The process of developing spiritual life, spiritual understanding is a gradual, long-term process, so we must carefully approach it, having the basis of preaching from person to person. Most believers are innocent souls, and even though they are somewhat sinful, they have every chance of being liberated. Demons are rare, but they are very persistent and stubborn, therefore they often dominate everyone. In any case, God knows well who is who, and we need to develop knowledge, devotion, and selfless preaching and gradually devote our entire lives to this.

TEXT 21

There are three gates leading to this hell-lust, anger, and greed. Every sane man should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul.

PURPORT

The desire to enjoy and dominate creates anger and greed. A person wants to enjoy food, women, expensive things - this is the initial level of desires; and above is the desire for power, honor and all forms of domination over others. Not getting satisfaction from money, women, power and honor, a person wants to have more and more of them, including being within a religion. If material things were satisfying to the soul, then the soul would attain to them and calm down, but receiving money, women, power and honor, materialists only become more and more inflamed with the desire to increase the amount and scale of their possessions. This fact indicates that none of them achieve happiness in this way.

Therefore, every devotee should stop at some acceptable minimum of money, belongings, etc. and engage in preaching. If a devotee has the goal of increasing money and the like, he (or anyone else) will never achieve this goal and will never be satisfied. He will not preach too, because he will be absorbed in his own affairs, or he will preach selfishly for the sake of money, honor and the like. We must stop, we must stop endlessly increasing property, comfort and so on, otherwise the possibility of liberation will be postponed for an ever longer period. No problems of matter by themselves are solvable; everything is solved only by the development of knowledge and preaching.

If someone gets a religious position, then the higher the position, the less rights one has for money and the like. An ordinary person has the right to some personal life, some personal money, maybe some liberties and deviations, but, for example, a guru has no longer the right to any liberties. If an ordinary devotee violates, for example, the fourth principle, it can be considered as an unfavorable, sinful offense, but if a sannyāsī violates the fourth principle (the prohibition of sexual life outside of marriage), he will definitely go to hell. This is the difference in responsibility between an ordinary devotee, guru or sannyāsī.

The higher the position of a devotee, the greater his responsibility, and there may be more blessings and more punishments. The higher our position, the more people are led by us and the greater the reaction both for good preaching and for discrediting religion; this is the answer. Therefore, every sane person should avoid excessive striving for sensual life, comfort, entertainment, and one should be especially careful with power and honor. Money, women, power and honor can ruin anyone at any stage of life; they can ruin even a person who is on a spiritual level, not even to mention ordinary people. We must always remember this and preach in all situations. In general, it is not even the defilements themselves are terrible, but the tendency of the individual to dominate others and to personal honor; the scripture warns everyone that all these are very dangerous things.

Everything that is done for selfish purposes will bind a person, but everything that is dedicated to God will liberate him. Anger arising out of selfishness will defile the personality, but anger based on spiritual feelings will purify as well as brahminical uplift and spiritual emotions. The problem is that, as a rule, it is not easy to determine where spiritual anger is and where it is not. People tend to interpret the scriptures in their own interests, and in the same way they can pass off non-spiritual anger as spiritual, ordinary lust as spiritual one, and so on. A person can be convinced that his anger, his actions are done for God, but this does not mean that everything is so. Therefore, the basic rule is to avoid lust, greed, and anger.

Also, everyone should become self-realized. If we want to understand where the truth is and where the lie is, then we need to realize ourselves - this will be the beginning of knowing of the real truth. Truth is never on the level of the mind, it is above the mind. We start from the level of the mind, above is the intelligence, but the truth is even higher. By realizing himself, a devotee can begin to see and act more objectively and clear. Cleanliness means that a devotee studies the scriptures in the right perspective, manifests intelligence, then he becomes self-realized and, accordingly, material motives disappear; and even higher is God and devotional service to Him, which is already immaterial. Devotional service to God can also take place in a mixed state, when the pure motives or actions of a person are mixed with this or that self-interests, and then they can be purified.

Most religious people are at the stage where the general impersonal uplift is mixed with materialism; such a stage can last indefinitely if one focuses on matter and material motives. An ordinary standard believer or novice devotee is an inspired materialist who is somewhat inspired by the spiritual life, but he is no less inspired by his material activities, often thinking that they are also spiritual. Such materialists consider this approach to be the perfection of religion, and if they do not make an effort to change their materialistic consciousness, their practice of devotion may last for tens, hundreds, and thousands of births, depending on the orientation of these souls. Similarly, one can perform devotional service by constantly mixing it with the desire for wealth, money, women, power, and honor. And this can also significantly hinder progress on the spiritual path.

Spiritual leaders who focus on themselves are in exactly the same position as ordinary materialists, and without teaching people, but only attracting them with themselves and entertaining them, acting all the time "in a high role", they may also be born and die for a long time in order to understand the true values. The point is that whatever a devotee possesses and whatever he wants, the emphasis should be shifted to the development of spiritual knowledge. If a person does not do this, does it to a small extent or nominally, he can remain in the world of matter for a long time due to the fact that such are his interests.

"Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." If a leader's goal is personal well-being and personal honor as renounced, humble, principled, wise, honor as a guru or some other kind of honor, not to mention when his goal is money and the like, then he will be born again. The situation is much easier for ordinary devotees than for leaders, but the general principle is the same.
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