Question: Since the devotees are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, the yuga-dharma, are we required to perform the śrāddha ceremony for our parents and forefathers?
Author: Devotee
Date: 2024-02-14
Jayapatākā Swami: If your forefathers are sannyāsīs, then you don’t.
Or if they are fully realized.
Otherwise, putra or putrī can save their forefathers from hellish condition.
Of course, if you go to back to Godhead, then you deliver your forefathers and descendants.
But what is the problem for doing the piṇḍī or the śrāddha?
If you do it properly that means you are worshiping Kṛṣṇa.
But you should not offer nonveg or doing anything like worship the devas.
You should do the kṛṣṇa-prasāda offering to your forefathers,
offer the proper piṇḍī.
One devotee of Lord Caitanya, Govinda Ghoṣa, he was told by Lord Caitanya to take gṛhastha-āśrama.
So he got a wife
and he got a son,
but somehow they both died.
Then, he was very disturbed.
The Deity asked, “Why are you disturbed?”
“You told me to become a gṛhastha,” he said, “I had a wife and a son and both died.
So I was not qualified to become a sannyāsī.
But then my wife, my son, all died, who will offer me śrāddha?”
Kṛṣṇa said, “I am your son.”
He said, “You are not that kind of son!”
Then the Deity said, “Alright call the village leaders.”
And he called the village leaders
and the Deity spoke,
“On My devotee, Govinda Ghoṣa’s disappearance day, I want to perform śrāddha ceremony every year.”
I went there and saw the Deity come and perform the śrāddha ceremony for His devotee.
If it is good enough for Kṛṣṇa, why not for us?
Anyway, we do Kṛṣṇa-pūjā.
Category: [Karma]
Related Questions
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2022-12-07
If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa,
you surrender to Kṛṣṇa,
Kṛṣṇa says mokṣya,
that He’ll protect you from all the sins.
sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
‘Sarva-pāpebhyo’,
all pāpa He’ll protect you from.
There’s no other way to get free from your sin except for taking shelter of the Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Even if you do pious activity that doesn’t get rid of the sin.
Only by serving Kṛṣṇa you’d be get free from all the sin
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2022-08-26
This is a very interesting question.
Now selling books is an economic issue that you are giving some money for the book.
If you use the money for your own sense gratification, but then selling the books,
well, some kind of reciprocation may be there. If you give out a book freely then,
the person takes the book and throws it, you are responsible.
If the person bought the book and then he throws it or whatever he does,
that is not your responsibility, that is his, he has bought the book.
So at the same time, like devotees if they are working under some system
like the management tells them, you deposit the money, you can take so much per cent
or if are working under a system authorized by the temple,
and then it is considered that they are working for Kṛṣṇa and then Kṛṣṇa takes the responsibility.
So if the saṅkīrtana devotees have some agreement with the temple,
so as such they should not be responsible. They are considered to be working directly under Kṛṣṇa.
Of course, if they just try to buy and sell,
because they are selling the books it is not so much an issue of karma, I mean as I mentioned earlier,
at the same time something may be there. Because they are doing on their own behalf.
But if they are doing on behalf of the temple
and the temple says you can draw your maintenance or take some percent
then it is considered working under Kṛṣṇa directly. So if they are working for themselves i.e. buying and selling,
then it is a issue that we have to look into.
Generally selling things is not bring karma; any way it shouldn’t be a problem.
If you are working for Kṛṣṇa, you are doing it as a devotional service, so it is not an issue at all.
If you are doing it for your own for making money it is not also an issue because
selling things usually does not attract karma; except the karma
if it is some meat or drug or [such thing], then obviously there is karma.
But for selling books there is no karma. So that is transcendental books,
rather they will get the good reaction. So I don’t see in either case as a karma
except if you give out books free and you don’t know [inaudible word] the people,
if they misuse the book, then you may have to accept some karma.
On the other hand, if they… Just like Prabhupāda was saying that
we shouldn’t give out japa mālās for free. We should… Some ladies, some people
in India, like to give out japa mālā. But in doing so, as a guru, we give to our disciples;
we are taking their karma anyway. So if someone gives out japa-mālā and they
commit some offense on that mālā, then you have to take the karma.
So we get some token little donation, something sell it for even one cent or
it doesn’t matter. Just in fact they took for some price and then
then we are not responsible for their karma. In the same way Prabhupāda said
if you give a tulasī seed there is no karma.
Whether they plant the seed and then.... But if you give a plant
and they mistreat the [tulasī] plant, then you are responsible.
So, I don’t know if you particularly ask about books except if the book is given free,
I heard that question. So, I don’t think you have to worry about karma
rather you are doing it as a service to Kṛṣṇa, this is Lord Caitanya’s order,
so you carrying out His order. Why would you be responsible for their karma?
It is Lord Caitanya’s order. In the same way we chant also Pañca-tattva mantra
before we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. So, you are working on behalf of Lord Caitanya.
He said to distribute the teaching of Kṛṣṇa, so that is what you are doing?
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2022-08-27
If you are not a pure devotee, Mahārāja’s opinion is that you become gṛhastha by previous karma.
Some people may have sannyāsa karma.
But that doesn’t mean that they will be a devotee of Kṛṣṇa.
They maybe have a sannyāsī tendency.
But somebody fully surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, even though their karma may be to get married,
they can also be transcendental. They can remain as a sannyāsī.
Or someone may have a sannyāsa-yoga, they should be
sannyāsī but if they are ordered that you have to get married, they might also take that up.
They can do anything for Kṛṣṇa.
So, by karma there is some tendencies.
Certainly, that’s what the astrologers, they look so.
Like for instance someone mentioned Madhva, they understand that they looked at the chart,
who has got the sannyāsa-yoga, they pick those people to be sannyāsīs.
So already got that karmic tendency.
We don’t have that type of predisposition.
We don’t take the astrologer with chart to giving someone sannyāsa.
We see whether someone has that… is able to absorb themself in a renounced way
for some period of time.
So, the point is that devotional service can change your karma.
Devotional service can adjust things by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy.
He is the Karma-dātā; He is the one who is giving the karma-phala.
So, He can change someone’s karma.
Sometime astrologer looks at the chart, how did you get there, how did you become a devotee?
According to your chart you should be a real bhogī.
One day a devotee said I don’t understand how I became a devotee.
My whole life I’m simply into sense gratification.
And Prabhupāda said, I made your good fortune for you.
So, by some blessing of a great devotee, one can also change their situation.
So, we have certain amount of freewill
and we can decide in which way we should perform devotional service
after studying so many factors.
Questioner: Anonymous
Date: 2022-07-29
Jayapatākā Swami: The accumulated karma reactions which are there have to be completely nullified before one can go back to Godhead.
So long as one has sinful reactions he has to suffer, so long as he has pious activities he has to enjoy.
Suffering and enjoying materially are both causes for staying in this material world.
So, when one surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, if one can completely surrender - thought, word and deed everything to Kṛṣṇa, then of course, Kṛṣṇa can immediately take up all the reactions.
But generally, when one surrenders to Kṛṣṇa, but the momentum the desires have yet to be purified.
So, Kṛṣṇa takes charge of that living entity and as he is performing his devotional service, as he is chanting,
the accumulating sins, sinful reactions from the unlimited births are being destroyed.
It is said that while one is chanting, clapping hands with his smiling at the Deity, that as he is clapping his hands, just as in the rice paddy field,
sometimes the sparrows are coming down and eating the rice; then we have to clap our hands to scare them away and you see thousands of birds, they fly out,
just like that if you are clapping and chanting, dancing and laughing or smiling in kīrtana, as you’re clapping, like this thousands and thousands of sinful reactions are flying away.
So, in this way, so many karma reactions are being at every moment we’re performing devotional service, they are being lifted;
but because we may be harboring so many attachments in spite of formally surrendering to Kṛṣṇa he has taken charge of our lives at the time of initiation and surrender.
But due to so many attachments and so many māyās, reactions are not the momentum is still there on those reactions.
So, Kṛṣṇa allows us to enjoy or suffer tokens.
Just like a person, he may be enjoying what appears to be a karma of being very wealthy or very powerful;
Kṛṣṇa may allow him to maintain that because He promises, “I preserve whatever you have and what you lack I give.”
In other words, if a person has something good on his side, Kṛṣṇa doesn’t say, “I have to smash it down.”
He maintains it; because when one is pure, he is all good.
Pious activities, is because it is intended for material sense gratification; it is not pure goodness.
It is materially contaminated goodness, but a devotee is all goodness, pure goodness.
So, Kṛṣṇa protects what good qualities are there and He gives what is lacking;
so there may be so many sinful reactions pending - we may have committed a murder, we may have done so many different things -
eating meat, taking intoxication, illicit sex in so many different births;
so, the reactions for that should come, you see, directly but instead Kṛṣṇa gives a token.
Prabhupāda once cut His finger and blood came.
He said that in a previous birth you see I may have chopped a man’s head off and for that now I am giving one drop of blood.
A token is given to remind us that how fallen we were, to remind us how we have to be humble and submissive to Kṛṣṇa;
because our tendency is become independent, to become very proud, intoxicated by our material situations
and so when Kṛṣṇa He gives dose out of little bit out of our karma to us in a reduced infinitesimal token manner to just put us in our place, to remind us and purify.
We get purified by suffering.
This is the actual fact.
People say that “No! people are hungry, they will never chant God’s name; you have to fill everyone’s belly then they will chant.”
But we find that where there people bellies are more full then they don’t like to chant so much.
You go in the village, there are poor people, they all very gladly chant.
But if you go onto a very, you see, wealthy society, they, “What do I need.
I already got my money, I have got everything I need; when I get old may be at that time I will chant God’s name; now I have to go on increasing my wealth.”
When there is great financial difficulty, everyone is praying to God and then when He gives them, “Alright!
You get wealth”; they become wealthy; then they forget.
Then they think “Oh, economic development is enough; I don’t need any more God”.
And then He takes everything away, and then again, they say they are in a position; that is what happens.
After the coming of Kali-yuga, all the… India was the richest place in the world.
America was discovered simply because Columbus was trying to find India to get the short route,
to get all the wealth, gold and the silks and the masālas; it was the wealthiest place in the world.
But, due to Kali-yuga, all the Hindu kings, they gradually became, you see, intoxicated and brahminical culture went down.
Gradually by birth, caste consciousness became established in a rampant exploitation.
As a result of this, then so many foreign conquestors came and gradually India fell to the foreigners and fell under Mughal rule, then under British rule.
You see.
Now there is a so-called independence, but you can say that it’s under a foreign political system, because the systems which are being used are not the original systems of Vedic culture; they are mental concoctions.
So, the difficulty is where?
That if someone becomes too proud then he is forced to, you see, have everything taken away by Kṛṣṇa as a special mercy.
Then he can think that, “Why I am suffering?
Oh! I must remember Kṛṣṇa.”
Otherwise, when one is in his hay day, he has no time for Kṛṣṇa.
That is the general thing.
The demigods, they forget about Kṛṣṇa often, you see.
And when they… not often but sometimes, when they forget then the asuras come and defeat them. Kṛṣṇa puts…
Then they go to Viṣṇu and pray, “Please help us.”
So, if Kṛṣṇa did not have asuras to fight with demigods, they would forget in their enjoyment.
So, in this material world there is always this conflict, and it has a sublime purpose to bring the people back to Kṛṣṇa.
But in spiritual sky where everyone is surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, there is no conflict, Vaikuṇṭha.
So, the more we depend on Kṛṣṇa, the more He takes charge of our lives and the more we try to make our own alternative arrangements, you see,
beyond maintaining—we have two things (we have to maintain our body and we have to be Kṛṣṇa conscious).
So, beyond maintaining our body, if we try to increase unnecessarily our material entanglement,
then, you see, to that extent Kṛṣṇa, He will not give His mercy or He will give His mercy by then giving one a good blast of misery to wake up that what am I doing?
This is a terrible position I am in! Kṛṣṇa, help me! Kṛṣṇa, help me! Someone may know what reaction will come.
What severity the reaction will take, that is, that regulator is held by Kṛṣṇa.
Devotee gets a token - finished! Non-devotee - full blast!
And the devotee is not accumulating new karma.
So as the karma is going on, as the reactions is being expended, it is finished.
And gradually the load is getting lighter and lighter, and one is getting closer and closer to Kṛṣṇa; more attracted to Kṛṣṇa; more spontaneously devoted to Kṛṣṇa.
While the non-devotee, every karmic reaction creates more reactions, he becomes more and more weighted down with unlimited accumulation until finally he falls down and goes back into the lowest species of life.
Category: [Karma]
How to understand that we are facing our own karma or it is Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement in our life. Is it true that when we start doing bhakti our karma diminishes and we act according to Kṛṣṇa’s will and arrangement. But for that we have to be a pure devotee even a sādhaka’s karma diminishes completely when they start bhakti. Then again why we face difficulties?
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2022-12-02
Jayapatākā Swami: You see if you are 25% surrendered
then Kṛṣṇa protects you 25%,
if you are 50% then 50%.
If you are 100% then He will fully protect you.
Like Prahlāda Mahārāja
he was fully protected by the Lord.
But maybe we want some material sense gratification,
and we also want to do some service.
So finally, Kṛṣṇa will protect us some and māyā will control the other.
We should think that we are suffering much less than we should be
by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy.
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2023-09-02
Jayapatākā Swami: There was a sage when he was a little boy he was playing with an insect
and he took a grass and poked the insect, and the insect was very fearful.
So then, later on he was arrested by the king’s men
because in his āśrama they said that a thief had taken shelter.
So the police in those days they had instant justice.
So he was actually sentenced to death.
They tied him up on a stick and there were soldiers with spears.
They were holding their spears up, and then the king sent a message, don’t kill the sage.
He sent a message.
The sage he was so powerful, he asked Yamarāja, why did I have to go through this great tribulation?
Yamarāja said when you were a little child you caused fear on an insect.
He said I did not know anything, I was a kid!
This is a foolish punishment.
I curse you to become a śūdra.
So from this day on the parents have to take the karma of children until the age of 5.
So the parents should be careful, not to let the kids play with insects and stuff.
So, this is just to show that even if you don’t know something is sinful, you may still have to take the karma.
Just like, when we walk on the sidewalk you may crush ants and different insects,
that is why it says we should do some form of sacrifice.
When you are driving a car, naturally you are going to kill a lot of bugs.
So in the Kali-yuga, the sacrifice is chanting the holy name.
We chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, we circumambulate Tulasī Devī, we do all these things.
Category: [Karma]
Questioner: Kushal, Kṛṣṇa-kathā deśa (10 years old)
Date: 2022-01-05
Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t see the correlation between a good king and the Paramātmā.
Everybody has Paramātmā in their hearts.
But we are doing sinful acts
against the advice of the Paramātmā.
That is why we are suffering.
Our suffering may be due to something that we have done in the past hundred births.
We don’t remember
but Supersoul does.
So He will allow us to suffer if we deserve it.
And we offer the Lord a lamp in Kārtika so like that then
it says we can be freed from mountains of bad karma.
So people who are doing good karma, people who are doing bad karma, they have Paramātmā in their hearts.
But those who do the good karma, they get good results.
Those who do bad karma, they get bad results.
Category: [Karma]
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2023-07-07
Jayapatākā Swami: Nothing can disturb your Kṛṣṇa consciousness
if you don’t let it.
And we may get free from all our sinful actions.
But then if we again commit more,
then that is a new situation.
So not only should we get freed from the previous ones,
but we should also avoid making new sinful reactions.
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2023-09-01
Jayapatākā Swami: You see, there is karma, vikarma and akarma.
This is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Karma is good works which can elevate you,
give you good birth, money, good looks education,
but it doesn’t lead you back to Godhead.
Maybe you can take birth in the heavenly planets
and have a long life.
But once your karma runs out, then you come down.
If you do vikarma or sinful karma, then you get absence of these things.
No good looks, no good education, no good family, no wealth,
and various problems – legal problems, health problems.
Usually, people do some karma and some vikarma.
So they get some happiness and some distress
on the material platform.
The secret, you asked a very good question, how do we stop karma?
But even if do karma we have to take another birth to reap the results.
Karma means good results and vikarma means bad results,
but all material.
So we want to do akarma.
We want to do if you do service to Kṛṣṇa, then no result is produced.
No karma.
Of course, Kṛṣṇa may give one some material benefits.
But the real thing is that Kṛṣṇa takes one back to Him.
At the end of this life, we go back to Kṛṣṇa.
And if you read the glories of different Ekādaśīs fasts,
sometimes Kṛṣṇa gives some material benefits,
but in the end it says, devotees go back to Godhead.
So doing spiritual activities, activities offered to Kṛṣṇa, that is the best in the world.
It takes one back to Kṛṣṇa, to the spiritual world.
So while living in this world, we have least problems and go back to Kṛṣṇa.
But if we are very attached to material happiness, sometimes Kṛṣṇa gives some mercy,
so we see the relative difference.
Actually, He wants devotes to be happy in material life.
But if they are attached and think, oh! I like to stay here,it is a good place!
That is not good. Ha!
Because if you stay here, naturally we get disease, old age and death,
and then rebirth
and start over.
So we do akarma.
We do devotional service.
And by that we directly get Kṛṣṇa’s mercy.
Category: [Karma]
Questioner: Anon
Date: 2022-08-02
Jayapatākā Swami: The guru takes responsibility for their karma.
And depending upon how the disciple surrenders then that karma is either taken away directly by Kṛṣṇa withdrawing it,
or by giving the disciple some tokens, to help the disciple to come to the proper frame of mind, which will allow all the karma to be removed.
The total responsibility is taken away by the spiritual master, and therefore the karma is not given to the disciple at face value.
But some momentum from the previous uh… from the previous activities is there, some desires are there.
And also, even after taking initiation sometimes devotees, they are also performing sinful activities against their oath, so for various reasons the person is put into difficulty.
One time, Srila Prabhupāda cut his finger, and one drop of blood came out.
He said that, “I should have had my head cut off, but instead Kṛṣṇa has just given me this token, just to remind me and I was released from such a big sinful reaction.”
So, once we surrender to the spiritual master then we’re under the care of Kṛṣṇa; once we take initiation.
But then we have to also practically practice devotional service and then more and more for relieve from all these reactions.
Just after initiation, we come into what is called the clearing stage where all these reactions are cleared away.
It is not that just immediately everything is gone, unless we can immediately completely fix our mind, every thought word and deed completely, without any material attachment,
we can completely absorb ourselves in the service of guru, then we are completely free.
But just after initiation, it is not that people suddenly forget their parents and forget their everything material.
They may get a different, may become more detached, they may become, still there may be some slight attachments there.
So how to get free from those?
Whatever attachments we have those are linked with reactions.
As detached as we become that is as free as we become from the reactions.
These two things are told today.
The 3 modes are there and their reactions, these are linked.
As we have attachments within the 3 modes of nature those attachments are linked with reactions.
As we get rid of the reactions of fruitive activities, we get rid of these attachments also.
Just like a person is very attached to getting a $1,000,000.
Once they get $1,000,000 they are not so attached any more, then either they want $2,000,000 or they want something else.
Just like in Hong Kong, in Japan, people they get very attached to material things.
They want to get a brand-new tape recorder.
They get the tape recorder.
After a while they get tired of the it, they just throw.
A perfectly good tape recorder, they throw it away in the garbage.
Just fed up, that’s the mood they are in.
They just throw it away.
You can find good tape recorders lying in the garbage, you see.
When you get the thing, that means that now your desire is fulfilled.
That is one way of getting your material fruitive action is you get what you want.
That’s one, that’s called the reaction for pious activities.
That also makes you detached, in some cases.
You get tired of it, you want something else.
And another way of getting rid of attachment is by suffering.
When that thing you want causes some pain you become detached.
So, both these reactions, pain as well as pleasure the devotee becomes detached to.
Because now, both of them simply cause material attachment.
They want spiritual ecstasy, spiritual bliss.
So, already the plug has been pulled out, you are not creating any more karmas, you’ve been freed.
And Kṛṣṇa promises that, “According to how you surrender that is how you will be rewarded.”
So, already you are free from any direct reaction of karma.
If any karma is given it means that you still have some attachments, and this is to help you become more and more advanced.
And you are only getting a small token of what you deserve.
Category: [Material Sufferings], [Karma], [Guru (Spiritual Master) / Guru Disciple Relationship], [Dīkṣā (Initiation)]
Questioner: Anonymous
Date: 2022-07-29
Jayapatākā Swami: Surrender to Kṛṣṇa is not a function of karma.
If it were a function of karma, then why Kṛṣṇa would offer to Arjuna the choice - either you fight or you don’t fight; but I say fight;
that means that there is a choice; living entity has minute independence.
If they were just simply “Everything done by destiny”, then there is no question of pāpa and puṇya; there is no question of sin and pious activity.
Where is the question of sin?
Why there will we be suffering if everything is done by destiny?
How we are able to succeed or fail, how we are able to suffer or enjoy in our activity, that is regulated by our previous activity.
You see, people are competing; why one is able to succeed?
That ability to succeed, so-called success that means increases enjoyment that is due to how much he has performed pious activities in the past.
If someone is born a king, born in a wealthy family; śrī, sūta, janma, aiśvarya - śrī, sūta, janma and aiśvarya -
beauty, learning, good birth, and wealth - these things are the products of pious activities and lack of these things is the product of sinful activity.
So even material life human being has got the responsibility to choose what to do, what not to do.
According to what he does, that creates, you see, new situations.
But basically, because this material world is so powerful that due to association, we are conditioned to choose in a certain way;
but somehow or another by association with a sādhu, by association with a devotee or by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy if we get the opportunity to choose to serve Kṛṣṇa or not to serve Kṛṣṇa,
you see, that choice has to be made; it is not a matter of destiny.
That the choice to be given to us, that may be the destiny, but we have to... what choice we will make, that has up to our own individual.
Some people are not at all destined to meet with such a good fortune.
But particularly because a devotee goes out of his way to give him good fortune, even when a person has no good fortune he benefits;
somehow or another, whether we are fortunate or whether we are unfortunate, if we get the shelter of Kṛṣṇa, that is our real fortune.
In this material world, one does not have to try for happiness, or just like we don’t have to try for misery, it is coming automatically.
But the śāstra saying if you want to get spiritual emancipation, if you want to get Kṛṣṇa consciousness you must try for it.
athāto brahmā jijñāsā -
One must inquire into the truth because that does not come by destiny; that has to come only by individual effort.
It is like we are wrapped up in this big wheel of karma; we have to try to get out of it.
The only attempt is try to get to Kṛṣṇa, you see, otherwise we are in the wheel.
Kṛṣṇa is outside of the wheel.
Therefore, the results of destiny are within, you see, this karma-cakra.
Unless one gets the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, he cannot get out of it.
If a person is given that opportunity, he does not take the choice, does not take this opportunity,
it is simply understood he is most bewildered, he has lost his intelligence, and no one knows what is their destiny.
If a person is destined to be given the choice to go to Kṛṣṇa, and he gets that choice and he refuses and gives the excuse,
“No when Kṛṣṇa grabs me by my ear, I will come.
If I am forced to, then I will do.”
That means he does not want Kṛṣṇa; he was given the choice, he is rejected.
Therefore, he is forced to suffer.
It is not that Kṛṣṇa is going to drag one, you see; there has to be a little desire.
One has the choice to accept or reject.
If we accept Kṛṣṇa, we get His shelter, if we reject Kṛṣṇa, we get the shelter of His illusory energy, Mahāmāyā
and we are wrapped up in that destiny of that unlimited wheel of karma.
So, we can choose our master.
We can have Kṛṣṇa who is eternal, youthful beauty, who is the compassionate, kind Lord, to personally take charge of our life,
or we can have His agent Māyā, the prison-keeper take care of us; we can choose our master.
Category: [Karma]
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2023-10-25
Jayapatākā Swami: The spiritual master has to accept your karma
and Lord Caitanya’s mercy is such that past karma can be mitigated.
And how He wants to do that is up to Him.
But after you have taken initiation, if you are again breaking the principles or do illicit activities,
then you are responsible for that.
Guru is also responsible.
So one should cease to do any sinful activities after taking initiation.
And if one suffers, we take it that Kṛṣṇa is directly giving mercy,
so that we can directly experience how the material world is a place of suffering.
Questioner: Rādhikā Premabhakti devī dāsī
Date: 2022-09-02
So, we take it as Kṛṣṇa’s mercy because He doesn’t let anything happen without His permission.
Nothing!
For devotees, they see that their karma is settled at a reduced rate.
Actually, this material world is always problematic.
This material world is duḥkhālaya.
This is already stated by Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā.
If you think that this material world is problematic,
that should be an inspiration for you to go back to the spiritual world.
Why do you want to stay in the material world, life after life?
Why don’t you see that this material world is problematic?
And you should try to be Kṛṣṇa conscious?
You have such a nice name.
Rādhikā Premabhakti!
I want that prema-bhakti of Rādhikā!
So we see that this material world is a horrible place, but we try to make best use of a bad bargain.
That is why it is very important that husband and wife, both are devotees.
And they try to become very dear to Kṛṣṇa.
Category: [Day-to-day Life], [Karma], [Material Sufferings], [Mercy], [Sādhanā / Philosophical questions]
Questioner: Acintya Nitāi dāsa
Date: 2022-10-17
Jayapatākā Swami: Well, Śrīla Prabhupāda would scold the devotees in Calcutta,
for placing a dark blue velvet curtain,
which attracted many mosquitos,
and then devotees would kill the mosquitos.
Śrīla Prabhupāda would say, you are attracting them and then killing them.
So, you should put some other curtain,
which would not attract so many mosquitos.
So, if a mosquito is biting us, we may kill it in self-defense,
but we should avoid just killing mosquitos.
Śrīla Prabhupāda would have the dhuna or the frankincense burn in his room and the windows open, and the mosquitos would fly out.
Haridāsa Ṭhākura said that if we loudly chant, then insects and plants would reap the benefit, by hearing the holy name.
There was someone, they took in regression to his previous life,
and he said in his previous life he was a butterfly.
He went into some place, where there was a statue and there was a fruit in front of the statue.
He landed on the fruit
to eat the fruit,
and someone came out and killed him.
In the next life he was a human being,
a devotee,
so in this case, it seemed that he was eating the fruit offering offered to a Deity of Kṛṣṇa,
we don’t know Kṛṣṇa’s Deity or someone else.
- Anarthās
- - Apasampradāya
- - Bad association
- - Māyā
- - Māyāvāda / Impersonalism
- - Sinful activities
- Aparādha (Offenses)
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- Day-to-day Life
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- - Lust
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- Festivals
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- - Onion and Garlic
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- Vigraha Āradhana (Deity Worship)
- - Home Deity Worship
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- Vratās (Austerities)
- - Bhīṣma-Pañcaka-vratā
- - Ekādaśī-vratā
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- Women
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- Yet To Categories
- Youth