20180726 Evening Darśana Question and Answer Session

Nama Om…

Mukha…

I am just coming from the hospital after a quick procedure and normally I would give a Caitanya book class but it is a bit difficult for me tonight. So I hope to do it tomorrow night. Tonight we will have questions and answers. Lord Caitanya, He appeared during the lunar eclipse and normally people say lunar eclipse is inauspicious but during the regular times people would not chant but in an eclipse they were up to their waist in Ganges water and they were chanting Govinda! Haribol! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! In this way so many people were chanting even the Mohammadans, they mimicked the Hindus, oh, see how they are chanting Hare Krishna are Hare Krishna Ha Ha! Hare Krishna! Somehow everybody was chanting. Srivas Thakur said today is supposed to be inauspicious but today everybody is chanting the holy name, so today is the most auspicious. I hear that tomorrow is also a lunar eclipse. So we can remember Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu how He appeared during the lunar eclipse and how the whole world was chanting Haribol! Haribol! Jai! So anyone has any questions?

Question: My mum asked me one question that since we are now worshipping Lord Krishna, does it mean that we should completely stop worship of the demigods? Example, there are so many temples in India. So one day when everyone will chant Hare Krishna and they will stop all demigod worship in all the temples, so is this the faith that Lord Caitanya wants? I was not able to answer her.

Guru maharaj: You see we worship according to who they are. We don’t say everybody is God. We say Shiva is the greatest of all Vaishnavas. We worship Krishna and prasadam we offer to Shiva, Durga, Ganesh, Karthikeya. Karthikeya is the general of the devas. And Ganesh is known as Vishwaksena in the spiritual world. Durga is Krishna’s apara prakriti and Shiva is the devotee of Krishna. But he has more power than we do. So we do worship the devas and devis as who they are. We don’t say that everyone is God and we offer Krishna, Vishnu, arati, bhoga and prasadam we offer to the devas and devis. Where are you coming from? (Mathuradesh the devotee said). You visited Tirupati? So Tirupati Balaji is also known as Srinivasa or Govinda and Padmavati is a jiva. She was known as Vedavati previously and she was desirous to have Vishnu as her husband. She took all the austerities and became a chaaya Sita. So Sita said that she can marry You. So Lakshmi agreed that You can marry her but the Lord said that in this lila I am eka patni vrata. So in the kali yuga He came as Srinivasa and He married Padmavati. At first Lakshmi was angry but when she realized that she was Vedavati who was tortured by Ravana on her behalf, she was happy. So Lord Caitanya, He went to every temple, Vishnu temple as well as devas and He chanted Hare Krishna in all the temples. We don’t want to close the temples, rather we worship them as devotees and get their blessings. 

Question: I was wanting to know the importance of shraddha especially in later stages of bhakti, how important shraddha is?

Guru maharaj: Shraddha or shraadha? Shraddha. Our process is dependent upon our faith. If we have faith in the Lord and His representatives, then the path of bhakti is very easy. If one lacks faith, he will be committing many offenses. So we should be having faith. By reading Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and accepting these as the words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we should have faith. Rupa Goswami describes the first stage of bhakti is faith. 

Question: Regarding in terms of following our system or Sanatana dharma which is very much, I am talking in terms of Kerala, there are other religions, Christians and Muslims, they over power Sanatana dharma. So their preaching is overpowering and people are deviating from Bhagavad Gita etc. What is the solution? When we do also there are obstacles in preaching. How can we develop our Bhagavad Gita culture to the people who really need it? What is your advice on that?

Guru maharaj: In every religion there is some description of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But nothing like the explanation given in the Srimad Bhagavatam. Generally, if people ask what does Lord look like, it is a mystery. What does He do? It is a mystery. You may ask so many questions and they say, mystery, mystery, mystery! We have the answers, we know what Krishna looks like, what Krishna does and although in one sense Prabhupad said that Christians and Mohammadans are also a type of Sanatan dharma because they believe in one God. So we are vaishnavas, we believe in one Supreme Being. So in that way we have something in common. Lord Jesus said, love God. That was the first commandment. So that practice that produces love of Godhead, we will be very happy with that. Most of the people they do not cultivate love of Godhead. I was flying from Kerala with one Brother, he was a Christian religious worker. He told me he was paid certain amount and that is why he works and then he told me he didn’t believe in God. He thought the second commandment was better treat your neighbors as you treat yourself. So he was a Christina priest and he didn’t believe in God. He believed that the second commandment was the best thing. So we don’t expect large numbers. What we are giving is the most precious thing and that is the mercy of Lord Caitanya. So by our outreach programs we are bringing in many people to serve the Lord in devotional service. Naturally the Hindus, since they are based on the Vedas, it is easy to preach to them. But I have given some sermons to the Christians and they are quite favorable, it depends what denomination, Roman catholics, they are more open. The Baptists little tougher. But if you explain what Jesus said from our point of view, they are very grateful. We want that all the people chant the holy name. That is the real aspect of Sanatana dharma. So we should have some of the leaders of the Sanatana dharma camp. It is said that statistics showed that less conversion was going on West Bengal because I think our programs there are quite successful. I have disciples who are Christian nuns, who are Christians. In fact, I have disciples who are Mohammadans but we don’t say that anyone has to change their religion. They just have to add chanting the holy name Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!

Question: Sometime devotees taste the bhoga before offering to the Lord to check whether the taste is ok. Is that accepted?

Guru maharaj: In offering bhoga, we are not supposed to taste beforehand. In the Nectar of Devotion, there was one devotee who heard that he can offer the Lord mental worship. Every day he would offer bhoga every day and do puja to his deities mentally. Then one day he wanted to see the sweet rice whether it was too hot. So he put his finger and ahhh. He saw the finger was burnt. But he was worshipping mentally. So the deities also are a type of avatar of the Lord. And in the Ramayana, it is said they didn’t know whether Lord Rama was crying or sweating. So the Lord has these pastimes. As Saakshi Gopal He walked from Vrndavan to Orissa. So the Lord He can do many lilas in His deity form. 

Last question.

Question: If it is appropriate could you speak a few words about “Transcendental Blessings” Facebook page. It helps to promote page among your Facebook followers. Ysd, Srishakti dd

Guru maharaj: We have a page “Transcendental Blessings”. It is anonymous. There all different religions are referred to. Sometime we discuss different aspects like holy name, how each religion said something glorifying the holy name. So like that different topics and we have that interfaith page where we quote different spiritual texts and how they may support some common points. So sometimes we have the blessings given like Ganges, sometimes each type of blessing that each spiritual practice offers, we quote and naturally there is more blessings in the Vedic culture. People come to the conclusion that there is only one God and He has unlimited names, unlimited pastimes and so you can see the “Transcendental Blessings” page and see whether it is successful or not. Someone gave me Jagannath Puri’s toothbrush. Those are like transcendental blessings, (toothbrush).