Quote from the True charm and power of Vedanta
Raja yoga
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On other and practical grounds we see that the
theory of eternal progressing is untenable for destruction is the goal of
everything earthly. All our struggle and hopes and fears and joys, what will
they lead to? We shall al lend in death Nothing is so certain as this. Where then
is this motion in a straight line-this infinite progression? It is only going
out to a distance, and coming back to the centre from which it started. See
how, from nebulae, the sun, moon and stars re produced, then they dissolve and
go back to nebulae. The same is being done everywhere. The plant takes material
form the earth dissolves and gives it back. every from in this world is taken
out of surrounding atoms and goes back to these atoms. It cannot be that the
same law acts differently in different places. Law is uniform. Nothing is more
certain then that. If this is the law of nature it also applies in thought. Thought
will dissolve and go back to its origin. Whether we will it or not we shall
have to return to our origin which is called God, or Absolute We all came from
God and we are all bound to go back to God . Call that by any name you like God
Absolute or Natue the fact remains the same. From whom all this universe comes
out in whom all that is born lives , and to whom ll returns” This is one fact
that is certain . Nature works on the same plan; what is being works out in one
sphere is repeated in million spheres . what you see with the planets the same
will it be with this earth, with men
And with all. The huge wave is a mighty
compound of small waves, it may be of millions the life of the whole world is a
compound of millions of little lives and the death of the whole world is the compound
of the death of these millions of little beings.
Krishna Never Gets Old
There are some differences between Krishna and ourselves. Yesterday we saw
that Krishna and Arjuna are both born around the same time but Krishna could
remember everything He had done in all his previous ‘births’ but Arjuna could
not. Actually we have trouble remembering even exactly what we did just a few
hours ago. If I ask you what you were doing at exactly this time yesterday it
may be difficult for you to answer immediately. You would have to dredge your
memory to recall exactly what you were doing at the same time yesterday. So
this is a very important difference between Krishna and us. Krishna is
all-cogniscient, He knows everything: past, present and the future–but we have
trouble even recalling exactly what we did yesterday and still foolish men
claim to be god. One should not me mislead by such meaningless claims.
There is a saying in the Vedic literature, atmavan manyate jagat:
“What I am thinking the whole world is thinking.” It describes the fact that we
have the tendency to think others are like ourselves. If I am a very honest man
I tend to think others are honest, if I am a criminal I will presume that
others are criminals. In reality there are varieties of mentalities and
according to our association with the three modes of material nature: goodness,
passion and ignorance we develop different types of consciousness.
When we think of Krishna or God we have the tendency to think He is like us.
Because we experience things in a particular way we think Krishna will be the
same. We see everyone is born, everyone gets old and everyone dies but in the Bhagavad Gita
Krishna says:
“Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and
although I am the Lord of all sentient beings, I still appear in every
millennium in My original transcendental form.” (Bg. 4.6)
It is very easy to misunderstand Krishna. Krishna appears to take birth from
Devaki in Kamsa’s prison house and He goes to Vrindavan as a baby and grows up
to become a young man. He goes through His childhood and boyhood and becomes a
young man. This is all very familiar to us because we also take birth and and
go through childhood then experience adolescence and become an adult. So it
appears that we share all these things with Krishna, but we get old and
according to Krishna: “My transcendental body never deteriorates.” Krishna
never gets old because old-age is a sign that the body is deteriorating and His
transcendental body never deteriorates.
Krishna also says in this verse that He appears in His original
transcendental form. He does not change His body as the common living entities
change from one body to another. We have one type of body in our present birth
but we will have a different body in our next birth. In the material world the
living entity has no fixed body but transmigrates from one body to another.
Krishna however does not change from one body to another like us. Whenever
Krishna appears He does so in the same original body by His internal potency.
In other words Krishna appears in this material world in His original eternal
form with two hands holding a flute. Krishna appears exactly in His eternal body
uncontaminated by the material world.
Although Krishna appears in the same transcendental body and is the Lord of
the universe, it still seems that He takes birth like us however despite the
fact that He grows from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth
astonishingly enough He never ages beyond youth. At the time of the battle of
Kuruksettra Krishna had many grandchildren so He was quite old by material
calculations but when we see a picture of Krishna driving Arjuna’s chariot He
still looks like a young man twenty or twenty-five years old. We never see a
picture of Krishna in old-age because He never grows old like us although He is
the oldest person in the whole creation: past, present and future. Neither
Krishna’s body or His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes.
From this we can understand that in spite of Krishna being in the material
world, He is the same unborn form of eternal bliss and knowledge, changeless in
His transcendental body and intelligence. Krishna’s appearance and disappearance
are like the sun’s rising, moving before us and then disappearing from our
eyesight. When the sun is out of sight we think that the sun is set, and when
the sun is before our eyes we think that the sun is on the horizon. Actually
the sun is not moving or changing. The sun is always in its fixed position but
because of our defective, insufficient senses we calculate the appearance and
disappearance of the sun in the sky.
The Vedas also confirm that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is unborn, yet He still
appears to take His birth in multi-manifestations. So although Krishna appears
to be taking His birth He is still not changing His body. Actually even
Krishna’s so-called birth is very different from our birth, He does not take
birth in the ordinary way rather He appears before His mother Devaki as
Narayana grown up and complete with beautiful clothing and ornaments with the
six kinds of opulences in full. Upon seeing Krishna in this opulent form of
Narayan Devaki was concerned that Kamsa is looking for Krishna to kill Him and
now Krishna has appeared in this gorgeous Narayan feature full of all
opulences. She was afraid that Kamsa would immediately recognize Krishna and
try to kill Him. So out of concern for Krishna Devaki prayed to Him, requesting
Him to take the form of a baby. So Krishna accepted this prayer from His mother
and transformed Himself into a baby.
So although externally there seems to be some similarity between Krishna’s
appearance and activities and our birth and activities on a closer
investigation it will be found that actually Krishna’s birth and activities are
completely different from our birth and activities. There is another very
interesting statement by Krishna on this point in the Gita:
“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities
does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world,
but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.” (Bg. 4.9)
Therefore simply understanding Krishna’s appearance and activities is so
powerful that one who understand the appearance and activities of Krishna is
liberated, he does not have to take birth in the material world again and when
he leaves the current material body he goes to Krishna, back home, back to Godhead. So I think
it will be quite valuable for us if we spend a little time contemplating the
appearance and the activities of Krishna and if we can try and understand how
they are different from our birth and activities.
But, if He exists?
I drive joy There was a doctor in Benaras who
spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this,
his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was
wasting ten precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into
believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am
wasting ten minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your
entire lifetime. I prefer to waste ten minutes rather than a lifetime. Why
should you grudge me the 10 minutes joy that I derive 4m.
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