Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in the 21st Century

(On Criticism of the Pure Devotee)

by bhakta Eric Johanson

yanra citte krsna-prema karaye udaya
tanra vakya, kriya, mudra vijneha na bujhaya
“Even the most learned man cannot understand the words, activities and symptoms of a person situated in love of Godhead.” Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya-lila 23.39

The Bona Fide Spiritual Master

In order to understand what is beyond our sense observation and realize the absolute truth we require to come in contact with a person who is already intimately familiar with them. Such a person is called a spiritual master:

om ajnana-timirandhasya
jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena
tasmai sri-gurave namah
“I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who, with the torchlight of knowledge, has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance.” Gautamiya-tantra

The pure devotee spiritual master has already realized and never departs from the absolute truth:

tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet
samit-panih srotriyam brahma-nistham
“In order to learn the transcendental science, one must approach the bona fide spiritual master in disciplic succession, who is fixed in the Absolute Truth.” Mundaka Upanisad 1.2.12

This spiritual realization and knowledge is what characterizes the God-realized guru. Such an enlightened person is free from the material conception of life with its desire to lord it over and is able to give this knowledge and conviction to others:

tasmad gurur prapadyeta
jijnasuh sreya uttamam
sabde pare ca nisnatam
brahmany upasamasrayam
“Any person who seriously desires to achieve real happiness must seek out a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of this spiritual master is that he must have realized the conclusion of the scriptures by deliberation and be able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, are to be understood as bona fide spiritual masters.” Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.3.21 Continue reading

This entry was posted on August 30, 2015. 7 Comments

What Is Knowledge?

by bhakta Eric Johanson

A spiritually centered discussion of a recent phenomenon like climate change draws on both the teachings of previous self-realized souls and the empirical observations and conclusions of modern scientists. Depending on the pre-conceptions of the reader, many may be inclined to emphasize one type of knowledge to the exclusion of the other and thus fall short of objectivity on this topic. People of faith often disregard or minimize anything outside the words of their particular scriptures or teachers, sometimes convinced that scientists’ observations and theories are a secular plot to undermine their legitimacy.

On the other hand what could be called materialistic science bases its conclusions solely on what can be measured or experienced with our five human senses – hearing, sight, smell, touch and taste. Even though it is known that things like light and sound exist on wavelengths beyond human perception, these are merely extensions of the phenomena we physically experience. Even the study of such a recent and invisible subject as dark matter is based on its ability to bend the light waves that are perceivable to our senses.

For something to become part of the scientific body of knowledge it must be what is called falsifiable, a concept popularized by philosopher Karl Popper. This doesn’t mean that what modern science accepts is necessarily wrong, but that further research could potentially disprove (falsify) or further elaborate on it.

Sense observation or direct perception is also a type of evidence accepted in Vedic culture, what to speak of most others.

srutih pratyaksam aitihyam
anumanam catustayam
pramanesv anavasthanad
vikalpat sa virajyate
Vedic literature, direct perception, history and hypothesis are the four kinds of evidential proofs. Everyone should stick to these principles for the realization of the Absolute Truth. Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.19.17 Continue reading

This entry was posted on January 19, 2015. 1 Comment

Non-Sectarian Vaishnava Dharma by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

From the introduction of Sri Krishna SamhitaSrilaBhaktivinode (1880)

Translation from Bengali by Bhumipati Dasa. Edited and published by Pundarika Vidyanidhi dasa.

(Although not related to climate change, this subject is a foundational principle of the website – editor)

. . . The people of India and other countries can be divided into two categories, the asslike and the swanlike. Among these two, the asslike are in the majority. The swanlike are in the minority. Swanlike people abstract the purport of the scriptures for their own advancement and thus benefit themselves. . . . Continue reading

This entry was posted on October 11, 2014. 2 Comments

Krishna Consciousness and Climate Change

by bhakta Eric Johanson

Jaya-gopala: What is meant by madness?   Prabhupada: Just as don’t you see all these people of the world, they are mad? What they are doing? They whole day the cars going on this side, that side. What is the aim of life? They’re mad. Simply wasting petroleum, that’s all. What they’re doing? Huh? Suppose a cat and dog goes this side and that side, yow, yow, yow, and he goes some motorcars. What is the difference? There is no difference because the aim of the life is the same. Therefore they are mad. That is explained. Nunam pramattah kurute vikarma yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti [SB 5.5.4]. Nunam pramattah, pramattah means mad. Prakrsta rupena mata, sufficiently mad. And why? Kurute vikarma. They’re acting which they should not act. They’re acting in a way in which they should not have done. So what is the aim of their acting? Indriya-pritaya, simply for sense gratification. That’s all……So Rsabhadeva says, na sadhu manye, ‘This is not good.’ Na sadhu manye yato atmano ‘yam asann api klesada asa dehah. These madmen do not know that this is the cause of getting this miserable material body. The sufferings of humanity is due to this material body and the cause of vikarma, acting for sense gratification. So this life is meant for acting for liberation, but they are acting for sense gratification. Therefore they are mad. They do not know the aim of life. — Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.27-38 — Los Angeles, December 11, 1968 (our emphases) Unless otherwise cited, quotes are from the lectures, conversations and books of Srila Prabhupada.

The world is suffering, and the changing climate has already given many indications that it will only cause such suffering to increase. Although there are certainly a few skeptics, the vast majority of scientists who have studied the phenomena agree that our increasing temperature is the result of humanity’s burning fossil fuels for several centuries.

A Simple Overview of Climate Change

Perhaps the most common misunderstanding about climate change is that it is a type of air pollution. Climate change is caused by invisible greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the most common of which are completely non-toxic. The greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone. These are gases that absorb and emit radiation within the also-invisible thermal infrared range, energy that makes up about half of what reaches the earth from the sun. What is called air pollution, such as urban smog and power plant emissions, may also contain significant amounts of greenhouse gases but has any number of additional visible particulates and other harmful materials that in and of themselves can make people sick.

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This entry was posted on May 14, 2014. 9 Comments