Hare Krishna Gurumaharaj. Please accept my humble obeisances. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I am writing from Nueva Vrajamandala, now it is quite cold and my throat is not in very good condition but apparently we survived.
I keep doing my daily services and trying to maintain a rhythm of study of Srimad Bhagavatham, Sanskrit and Irish flute (tin whistle).
I am writing to tell you about different topics about which I have been reflecting lately and about which I would like to know your feelings, thoughts and opinions.
Euthanasia.
I have been reflecting about euthanasia, at first it always seemed to me an option that from the karmic point of view is not very recommendable since we could consider it a kind of suicide, but lately I have been trying to understand the subject under a point of more "human" view.
Let's suppose different cases.
1-A person who is without any serious health suffers a very serious accident and is hospitalized in critical condition and unconsciousness. After many treatments, operations and medicines, the patient manages to recover his conscience and finds himself in a totally new situation that he has not chosen. His body has been completely useless. He cannot move any of his extremities and constantly depends of other people for any type of activity to develop (eating, going to the bathroom, changing clothes). Under this situation this person expresses that if he had been able to choose he would have preferred to have died in the accident.
2-An old man takes several pills and is subjected to different medical check-ups. Thanks to these medicines and the advances of science, he has been able to live 5 more years in a very dignified way. Full capacity for discernment, respectable physical autonomy, etc ... In one of the medical check-ups he discover that he has principles of dementia and Alzheimer's which are going to be manifested gradually, finally there comes a time where he has a mind lof a child or baby. The old man says that if is possible he would like to die in a way where he is fully aware of what is happening before dying in a state of dementia and unconsciousness.
In both cases we must assume that naturally the person in the first case would have died as a result of the accident and in the second case the old man would have died due to previous illnesses 5 years ago.
Do you think that if the people who express under these circumstances the desire to euthanize is acceptable, or on the contrary, it is not advisable? If you are in a situation similar to the first or second cases, what do you think you would do?
HpS - Chant Hare Krsna. It is a big topic and devotees have dealt with it. Basically I think that it is not recomended. Stick to your Karma and let Krsna decide. Srila Prabhupada was preaching with no material strenght at the end. Alzheimers cannot touch the deep inteligence of a devotee. Then there is individual situation. Sati was O.K. for ladies. Suicide by stopping to take food and water was O.K. for Raghunatha Das Goswami and Srinivasa Acharya, no? In separation from Krsna.
Reason and faith
In all the writings of different religions we find accounts of events that took place long ago and that seem impossible to us in our current era (mystical powers, life of thousands of years, inexplicable climatic phenomena, kings that govern the whole world for millenniums). The way of interpreting these events can be very different depending on who the reader is. A practitioner of a certain religion will not have the same approach of a person who studies a particular religious movement in a scientific way.
While to take the fact that is told in the scriptures a believer makes an act of faith and takes the writing itself as the ultimate authority, a person who investigates from an academic level religious narrative will seek different references (historical, literary, archaeological, etc. .), to check if thes story is completely true, if it has a real part and another is invented, or even that it turns out to be false.
Of course this is something that affects all religions and not finding a certain test does not mean that something has not happened in the past. I don’t see the history or archaeology studies as enemies of religions, in fact I believe that if we use correctly they can contribute a lot to our understanding of religious phenomena.
When we are studying SP books we find in his comments that his interpretation and understanding of the scriptures is literalistic, he doesn’t have doubts about what is described in the different texts, he doesn’t give the possibility to interpret it in a different way.
But when I read about the battles of millions of men, kings who have ruled the world for thousands of years (if I remember correctly even during times when we have received records of different civilizations, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Vedic culture, etc.) it is very difficult for me, in my rational / speculative / material point of view, to accept such stories as 100% literal.
From the spiritual point of view this does not affect me excessively because what really attracts me in a very strong way is the teachings and instructions that we find in the sastras. These teachings to be put into practice and meditate on them I have been able to realize that my material suffering decreases, I can focus more strongly on serving Krishna and help me to be much happier and positive in life. Therefore something that happens or does not happen in the material plane under my perspective is something that does not affect the essence.
I accept Srila Prabhupada as the person who has the ability to free us from the material world and bring us back to Krishna, I feel happy when I do something that I think is useful for preaching. But the feeling that I have while im reading SP comments is that I have a dilemma between faith and reason and this makes me feel quite uncomfortable, because I feel that I do not fully share his point of view on a certain topic and that makes me feel that I am not fully following his instructions.
Have you ever had a dilemma between faith and reason while reading S.P books? How did you solve it? What should I do to avoid being offensive towards S.P? Why is there fear of the idea of myth within religions as an instrument to explain the multiple human experiences? Do you think that all the narrations that are described in our scriptures really happened as they are described in the sastras or do you think that the idea of myth can be accommodated?
I feel that repressing the doubts that arise is not the right way to advance spiritually. I think that in a certain aspect it is our duty as humans to question things and have freedom of thought.
Srila Prabhupada and Sanskrit.
More I read Srila Prabhupada's books, more I admire the great work he did to make all this literature accessible to the Western world. A little reflection that I do on this subject is that perhaps for a materialist who studies Sanskrit philology the translations of S.P does not seem correct in their entirety. From my point of view, I think that even if for the philologist is not correct, for us that we seek a spiritual and Vaishnava understanding in these writings, they are perfect, because they establish Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that is our goal.
Surely the translation of another sampradaya about the Bhagavad Gita or S.B is different, but I think we should continue our study under the understanding of Srila Prabhupada.
What is your opinion about the translations and Sanskrit meanings that S.P gives us?
HpS - In BG 4.34 purport Srila Prabhupada says that "Blind faith is condemned". Not just undesireable, condemned. Looking at the statements of the Bhagavatam, which in some instances declare themselves to be allegory, and carbon dating, having studies quantum mechanisa at U.C. Berkeley et al. I can see that the physical statements of the SB can be quite correct. It is a big topic. can't type it all out here, but basically we say that the universe is going through cycles like your heart, the days the years etc.
So in previous ages things were different, just like New York in December and New York in June. Thousands of bacteria in you garbage. Why not thousands of people in Dvapara Yuga. Look at carbon dating in the Britannica and tell us if you see faults with the proceess.
O.K. Gotta go to Gaura arati, no.
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Thank you for your time and constant inspiration.
Your servant Mantri Rama Das.