20181031 Evening Darśana Question and Answer Session

Nama Om…

Jaya Radha Krishna Radha Krishna Radhe

Jai Jagannath Jai Jagannath, Jai Baladeva Jai Subhadra

The dieties in Chennai are Nitai Gaur, Radha Krishna Lalita Vishakha and Jagannath Baladev Subhadra

The archa vigraha is considered one of the incarnations of the Lord. 

Mukham karoti vacalam..

When we have a deity made of a gem or stone, or a deity made of ashta dhaatu eight metals, or a deity of wood, a deity with its colored painted, a clay pot, so there are different types of deities and the shaaligram shilas makes itself available to be worshipped by someone who does not have any material positions. By offering some Tulasi shila and water the shaaligram shila is satisfied. So it is quite common that temples have shaaligram shilas. The shaaligram shilas come from a sacred river in Nepal. Many people walk up to the Damodar kunda where the shaaligrams come from. Sometimes devotees reach down and pick up a stone and think that is a shaaligram shila. There are certain markings like chakras, belts, bands. If one knows the meanings of these markings, then they can ascertain the shaaligrams are representing which deity. In Mayapur Nrsimhadev has a necklace of 200 shaaligram shilas. And a tray with I don’t know how many but more than 12 shaaligram shilas.  12 shilas or more become a Kshetra. And it has an influence over a large area. Krishna makes Himself available by just by offering Him a leaf, a flower, water, or a piece of fruit. If it is offered with devotion and love, then He accepts it. I was hearing a class this morning when Prabhupad said that Putana had come to poison Krishna by putting poison on her breasts. But Krishna sucked her breath and sucked out the life air out. Since she wanted to kill Him, he reciprocated and killed her. But because He had sucked her breast, He said she is My mother. So he elevated her to the spiritual world as one of his mothers. So how merciful is Krishna? She was a serial killer, she killed countless babies, but she offered her breast to Krishna and thought if I had a child I would like one like this. So He also reciprocated with that desire and gave her a positon as one of His mothers. Hence we say Hey Krishna karuna Sindhu, ocean of mercy! Even if there is a small bit of devotion He reciprocates. That is why we are encouraging that people should take to worshipping Krishna. Lord Caitanya had predicted prithvi the aache jotho nagar aadi graam, sarvatra prachaar hoibe mora naam. He did not specifically say that ALL the people in every town and village will be Krishna conscious but He did say that in every town and village there will be people who will chant and preach His message. Prabhupad had told us that even if one hundredth of the people were Krishna conscious that would affect the whole society. What we should do is to encourage everyone to participate in this naam yagna, the sacrifice to chant the holy name. Here in India I see in advertisements that singing and dancing are very popular. So our process is singing and dancing – sing the Hare Krishna maha mantra and dance. So what is difficult? In this way, people’s lives can become sublime. By chanting and dancing to Krishna’s maha mantra is a totally different experience. So Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda would take the sankirtan party and they would chant and get hundreds and thousands of people to join in.  I am seeing in the international news that people are putting on demonstrations. But Prabhupad revealed that Lord Caitanya was the first person who did a public demonstration for the right cause. That was because the Chand Kazi had said that no more chanting. Lord Caitanya, no one can stop us from chanting the holy name. Hundred and thousands of people gathered at the house of LC and marched towards the hous of Chand Kazi. So we should be confident to chant the holy names. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare…. LC said that in every town and village will be His name preached and there will be favorable people in very town and village who will be waiting form someone to come to give them the HK mantra. So be the person who will be giving out this HK m P will be very pleased. Any questions?

Question: Jagatkirti dd Can we offer chocolate that contains caffiend to the deity?

Caffeine is not something we can offer to the deity. So coffee tea anything which caffeine we cannot offer. Chocolate does not normally contain caffeine. Something you can research. We usually ofer carob to the deities. Some people take some things as medicines and this helps some people to cure their particular medical problem. Any other question?

Question: Hare Krishna guru maharaj, many times when I meet non devotees they keep questioning why we drink the milk of mother cow considering that the milk is another form of her blood. How should I answer that?   Punyashri Balai DD

Guru maharaj: The Vedas tell us that we can take the milk, yogurt, ghee and cheese from the cow. These are processed through four stomachs of the cow and  are given through the udder. So there is a difference between that and the blood. Just like we take milk from our mother, that is a transformation of the blood but it is still not the same as taking the blood of the mother. To conceive a child  the sperm is  also a transformation of the blood but that is necessary to have a child and the shaastra condones that. So we take milk products and we offer it the deities and we take the prasadam and the cow is also blessed  and we are also blessed accepting the sacrament from the deities.

Question: Sometimes when we take practice of KC sometimes our families are not favorable. We try to ignore them and we try to ignore them Sevapadma dd

Guru maharaj: It is not possible to give an answer that you can apply across the board because everybody has different parents and they have certain relationship with their parents. Some may already be grown and have their own children so it is reasonable that the parents don’t like what they are doing. Prabhupad was saying that cooperation comes from communication. So you can tell your parents that I do half hour of mantra meditation, so is there anything you would like to tell me before I go for it? You can be upfront about it, you don’t have to hide anything. The president elect in Brazil said something derogatory about the gay situation in Brazil. That is also not so reasonable. But The chanting the names of God are recommended by all scriptures whether the Bible, the Quran or the Bhagavad Gita. What is the harm if you tell them? If they don’t like to do it, it is not that you are telling them to do it, it is just that you are just telling them you are doing it.

Question: GM, PAMHO. If one is not second initiated and gets shaaligram shila as a gift, can they worship the shila? Nandapriya Nivedita dd

Guru maharaj: This question was asked to me before. I have one disciple who has left his body and he had said that it said somewhere in the shaastra that one can worship the shaaligram even if he or she is not initiated, but he never showed that particular quote to me. The system in Iskcon when one is second initiated usually if one is a devotee for more than a year they can get second initiated. I mean if they are first initiated for more than a year. Maybe some of our pandits can research the quote to see what is the there. That is what I can say now. Of course there is a saying that emergency knows no rules. But if there is an emergency and no one else then you can worship. But if there is someone who has shilas and is second initiated, you can loan it to him and then you can get second initiated and then take it back.