Letters to the editor

Hare Krishna Maharaj,

Please accept my humble obeisnaces, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.

To night I was on my work related issues and I have some free time (as I was kept on hold, waiting for others to finish their work) and I went to "jayarama.us" archives and when I'm reading (Vedic Vs Myth and optical illusion document), somehow I got  this question.

What is the ultimate goal of this life, "Knowing the truth" or "feeling the truth". What is the purpose of reading all these Sastra's, is it to gradually to raise to the level of "feeling". Knowing the truth or having the knowledge makes the "heart to respond instead mind".

Or serving the Lord, knowing that, he is Supreme or anything else beyond it, in this yoga.

Please pardon my ignorance in regards to the above question Maharaj. I'm trying to make a habbit of the reading the sastras on a regular basis, some how some days, I feel more motivated and some days more like just reading. How do I make the mind go beyond the lines.

Your humble servant

-Srinivasa from Richmond, VA

       HpS - ASA -  AGTSP!    paoho   Is so, so nice to hear from you.  More, more.  We have letters of recomendation for your inititation and for your good spouse and we will deal them more officially when we get to USA after June 1st.  Now we are in the last week of this four month traveling sankirtan!     We are in Spain and Monday we go for the education symposium in Belgium.

Your questions are very good.  Usually, in these industrialized societies we take "knowing" as what Prabhupada calls, "Jnana".  There is very nice essay on this in the Foreward to the Isopanisad, "What is Veda?"   Please read it.    Modern guys, science, is Rational Empiricism. That is Pratyaksa and Anumana as you read the Isopanisad essay.  We see - I know, I see it.   And we speculate - algebra, grammar, logic, on that perception.

    Feeling for modern man is usually feelings that relate to the body, stomach, etc.   When we talk about feelings in the heart it is coming to the fundamental feelings of the Vrajavasis for Krsna.  These dont relate t the body.  This is the ulitmate goal. In the beginning our heart is clouded so we "feel" in the heart through our intelligence, Buddhi, contemplation.  Its very close to the soul.

      So, the answer is, that the jnana, rational understanding that Sastra gives, is to help us get off the gross level of Karma, senses, work without understanding.   It is useful.  We need it.  This is jnana, knowing.  But the goal is feeling.  Not feeling in the stomach, but feeling in the heart.  And to start that will mostly be dhyana, meditation, contemplation. We will be able to read Prabhupada's books with attention. We don't have to understand so much.  We are there with them.

Is a little clearer?   Read the Essay at the start of the Isopanisad!

Respected Guru Maharaj,

Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances at your feet. All glories to Srila Prabhpuada.

Saw a post on Cartesian Dualism and Descartes: http://www.hps.monkeywarrior.com/node/3009 I have introductory level understanding of this through course era MOOC :-)

Basically Descartes thinks Mind and Body are made of different things. He thinks body is material and mind is made of immaterial stuff that doesn't occupy space (I suspect that he may have thought that mind and soul are the same thing). He was challenged by his disciple Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia through 'the problem of causation'. Her argument is that only physical things can move physical stuff therefore only physical stuff exists. I have some hand outs and slides of this that I can send you if you like.

Your servant

Srinivasacarya das

             HpS - AgtSP.  paoho.   Please send what you have.  For us Manas and Buddhi don't occupy gross space either, no?   Space is the first of the gross five elements and mind and intelligence can exist before the manifestation of gross elements. For example, chemistry is a different "body" of knowledge from physics but neither exists in gross space.  Where is Microsoft word, no?   It is an idea.  The soul becomes entangled in bodies of material ideas.

Hare krsna maharaj, pamho,agtsp

can you elaborate when you said "We have to train people how to have the right attitude. Once you have that, the thoughts and acts and possessions will follow." -- how to get this right attitude.

      HpS -   AGTSP  paoho.  Look at the last part of Introduction to NOI.   This phrase is there.  Then we have BG 10.10-11.    We get the attitude especially during the Brahma-muhurta.  That is the time to get good Buddhi, attitude.  Then after breakfast good plans, manas....         If we contemplate the Gurvastakam duing B.Muhurta. Sing it loudly, know what the words mean,  then that gives us a good attitude for chanting HK / HR  kirtan. which we should try to let massage our heart.

how do you maintain your health at such advanced age & such hectic travelling schedule.

      hps -  Ha!   Ha!    Ha!   (Ray)     We don´t.    We have to adjust.   But the regular Sadhana keeps us healthy.

at this moment we think we have both problem with our subtle and gross body in unexpected way, hence we asked you the above question.

regards,flying horse
 

        HpS  -  Thank you so much.   Flying Horse can mean the mind!    Is so nice to hear from you!!   Your baby will be just like you!

hare krsna maharaj, agtsp,pamho

Referring to your querry in http://hps.monkeywarrior.com/n<wbr>ode/3009</wbr>. the source is [ https://class.coursera.org/psy-001/class/index ] & [ https://class.coursera.org/intropsych-001/class/index ]
we are happy that you will be reducing your travel and writing books. The way I see if pysch can be explained from sankhya/sb perspective it will be great break through for seeker of truth in university thorugh inductive research in some sense. We also  understand that individually we need to disturb you less with our mental problems and some how contribute to sankirtana in positive.

people like you are very rare. we were just scanning thorugh contribution of Donald T Campbell  [http://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?q=donald+t+campbell&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5] we understand that he was very BIG dude. it also means Bachelor Huber was also big dude. and when such dude accepts ACBSP as life time teacher, then ACBSP must be even greater than Donald T Campbell. so academically speaking a book from you will make great contribution to mankind.

regards,
flying horse

<wbr>

<wbr></wbr>

<wbr></wbr>

<wbr></wbr>

<wbr></wbr>

     tom brown - agtsp...  we are using gundica das´computer now.  it seems to connect o.k.   maybe the network is designed for apple computers????????   hpswami is kind of an embecile but he is trying to find his position then the Big Dude can use him to Infinite utility.    any interesting things you come accross will be helpful so much.

PAMHO/AGTSP
Dear Maharaja, 

I've been thinking about you lately (feeling like you have my a very positive impact on my young spiritual life) and I also have some possibly trivial questions for you... in any case I'll go for it!

What is the signifigance and/or meaning of the white bead bag? I've been told by disciples of BV Narayana Maharaja that it is an important symbol of a gaudiya vaisnava in the line of Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada. Any thoughts or illuminations?

              HpS - AGTSP.   paoho.  I've heard that we should only use white bead bags because Tulsi is a lady and so She should not be kept in a Safron colored bead bag.  But the source of this comment is not at ALL clear.   I've heard many things from the disciple so Swami ABC but then investigating them they are not at all substantiated by Swami ABC.   I fall prey to the same Urban Myth syndrome so how can I criticise others, but I hope to eliminate it.

Also, looking at inumerable pictures of Prabhupada I practically speaking NEVER see a white bead-bag. If it appears white his dhoti also appears white.   So, ISKCON B'cari and Sannyasi standard is safron as far as I can understan.

Some time ago you mentioned in a reply to one of my questions that you are involved in translating Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada's "Anuvrtti" commentary of Upadesamrta, any news on that? I'm really curious!

            HpS - No, we were never translating it. Other projects with Upadesamrta contemplated but nothing happening with anyone now.  All our current stuff is mentioned here on the Blog is DTC, Hot Topics, Itenarary.

Also, I have read BV Narayana Maharaja's tranlsations of the previous commentaries and have found them to be very beautiful and illuminating! But what do you think of BR Sridhara Maharaja's commentary?

               HpS - Just read the first one and it was quite nice.   Trying to read the rest.

Okay thank you for your time! Much love and respect to you dear Maharaja :)

your servant, Gaura-lila Dasa (Rtadhvaja Swami)

        HpS - ASA -  Sri Sri Radha Kala-chandji Ki Jai.    You had university programs going, no?    How are those.

The idea is there that, sure, we live in this world where everything around us is perceived as physical, as material, but we are something else.

We have a spiritual element to us that makes us distinct. Now, this distinction is really relevant in the scientific context for the following reason.

Things that are physical, things that are material, we assume that the
interactions, the behaviors those things show must follow what we call natural
laws. And in fact, science is the pursuit of those natural laws.

The idea that through careful observation and systematic manipulation, we can
figure out what those laws are. Things like gravity, you know, and, and
various other laws. and that in so doing, we'll gain a really good understanding of this physical world around us.

And so, we studied Physics, we studied Chemistry, we studied Biology Astronomy, etc. all of those are studies of the physical world around us.
But, of course, if we do not perceive ourselves as physical beings, if we
perceive ourselves as spiritual beings, then what we're implying there is that
our behavior does not follow such constrained natural laws.

And if it doesn't, well then, it doesn't makes sense to study it scientifically.

So really, psychology would never be born unless we started to think of ourselves
in different ways and that process really began with Rene Descartes and here's a
story of Rene Descartes that I really like. the idea is that he was walking through a park in, in, in France, and as a typical French park, it had statues and it had
flowers.

Up ahead he saw a statue of, of Diana, goddess of the hunt, beautiful statue.
So, he started to approach to get a better look at her, but as he came closer
out from behind the bushes came Neptune, barring a trident and blocking his path.
A statue of Neptune, I should say, and that's what was, you know, really so
impressive, the statue moved as if with intention. Now, how did it move?
Well, this was the time when hydraulics was just being understood and used.
And so, literally, Rene Descartes had stepped on a pressure plate which forced
some sort of liquid through a tube and ultimately that force was used to move
the statue on some relatively, relatively frictionless set of, you know, rails or
something like that. That's how the motion actually happened.
But in Rene's mind, it was a really profound experience for the following
reason. He knew that statue was inanimate, he knew it was made of material, you know, physical material, and yet it behaved as  though it was alive.
That is, it was animate and had intentions.
It looked like the statue was trying to block his path.
So, Rene suddenly started looking at other things, like animals and humans,
and asking whether maybe their behavior was analogous to that statue.
Maybe they you really were physical beings as well and may be their behavior
did reflect something like hydro, hydraulics, some physical process that
made them look animate.
Ultimately, Rene concluded that that was the case for animals, he felt they were
fully machine-like, fully mechanical. But humans, he thought were a little
different. Humans, he thought, had a dual nature. And we now call this notion, Cartesian Dualism.
So, he thought, yes, humans are partly machine.

                HpS - AGTSP   paoho.   We had to do some editing to make the article inteligible  and even still there is re-redundancy of certain words.  Why is that???  Yet, is very interesting.  Thank you, very interesting!   We will look for Descartes biography on Britannica.  More!