asa(e) Yoga Ladder, Time of Death

[4/14/2023 9:15 AM] Sri Radha-ananda Das: Hare Krishna Maharaja Pamho

Very nice to hear from you. I will definitely look at your bulletin. Getting older and older. Greatest problem I am faced with is to remember krishna as the clock is ticking!!

Hari Bol

[4/14/2023 4:50 PM] HpS/ASA : https://vedabase.io/en/library/iso/17/

Even if we forget Krsna, He will remind us, no?

Sri Radha-ananda Das: That depends Maharaj. He reminded Ajamil. But not Bhishma pita mahama. Bhisma a great devotee and a highly intellectual!!

One h

as to realise one self on the devotion and service he is rendering. That’s my understanding. I may be wrong and I hope I am wrong! Thanks for the thoughts to share 

With regards

HpS - ASA --- "SB 1.9 Text 30: Thereupon that man who spoke on different subjects with thousands of meanings, and who fought on thousands of battlefields and protected thousands of men, stopped speaking and, being completely freed from all bondage, withdrew his mind from everything else and fixed his wide-open eyes upon the original Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who stood before him, four-handed, dressed in yellow garments that glittered and shined."

I think Srila Prabhupada even amplifies it more in the Purport, that Krsna manifested Bhismadeva's Istadevata form, and stood right in front of him as he was leaving his body.

We try 100% to do our service taking no help from Krsna.

Yet Krsna's foremost quality is not Satya, but Daya, so He tries 100% from His side.

Our effort is to try to remember him, but also, even more primary, to take advantage of His efforts to remind us. Look for His mercy and then be humble and

GRAB IT.

asa[e] - guru-tattva, diksa and vartmana-pradarshika guru

Hare Krishna Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I hope you're well in your service to Srila Prabhupada. From where i see it, it seems that you are. My respectful obeisances unto you!

I'm writing to you after reading the recent Kapi Dhvaja. Have missed some so i'm not fully up to date but it seems there are changes happening. With a mixture of sobriety and relief i took notion of the new list of disciples, which has shortened. My name is missing. This was to be expected, judging from an earlier conversation where you told me that you no longer could serve as diksha guru because i didn't keep my part of the contract. It's the first time i ever heard such a thing within ISKCON, but it makes sense in a way and i can respect that.

I must say that i don't feel bad about it. Sad perhaps that things didn't work out as i envisioned them earlier. My resolve wasn't strong enough to maintain strict sadhana throughout my life. I came to ISKCON from past life connection to Hare Krishna somehow, and dove deep into it when trouble in my life overwhelmed me and i saw no other way out. After some years of living the Hare Krishna life i became your disciple. It made sense at the time and i managed to keep up for some years. I had two children and was living a kind of brahmacari life while being a grihasta. For many years i've tried to avoid wordly duties and fled in ISKCON.

I come from a family with not such good parental relations. I got involved in drugabuse and sexual addiction in my teens and this has been a thread throughout my life. Becoming a devotee helped a lot, but it didn't root out everything as i thought it would. I had high hopes from reading Srila Prabhupada's books, but i see things in a different perspective now. I don't hold any grudges to him. I guess i only took some of his points and not others.

So in my life after a few years of being your disciple, at some point i realized that if i wanted to keep my marriage alive and be a decent father, i needed to step up my worldly life. I hardly had an education, i had been a taxi driver for most of my life. It doesn't pay the bills, and my wife had the same. She is a twice initiated devotee from Russia living in the Netherlands, doesn't speak the language, and is too headstrong to take up a menial immigrant job. So it was on my plate. Krishna helped a lot. But i didn't keep up my initiating vows. Yes, i've always stayed connected to ISKCON. I do some service.

So now i read the new list. Next month in May it is ten years since my initiation. I hardly knew you, Maharaja! You see, i look a lot like my father, both inside and out. And like my uncles and aunts from his side as well. When i saw you the first time, you looked like the best of them, and this is how i connected to you. The wisest of this particular family of the universal form. Most spiritually evolved one of them as well. Unfortunately, i was not mature enough to open my heart and build the relationship which is so deeply needed for a 'contract' to stay alive. This had happened before; i couldn't remain in Radhadesh because i didn't connect to someone senior deep enough to share what's inside and help me overcome the hurdles.

But things are going well in my service to my family. Its hard work for small successes. Destiny made me a father. We weren't married and i hardly knew the lady. But i'm making the best of it. I didn't maintain my spiritual life like i did when i was living in an ashram. It never was my strength, it was the association and the temple program. Hare Krishna. My wife was already kind of out of it, and so am i now. But i pray to Krishna that i may not forget him, and that when the time is right, i can get back into it like never before. Perhaps later in life, when the kids are grown up (now 7 and 10).

HpS - You may not be my disciple as Diksa guru. That's important. It's like being religiously married to your wife. You should be, no? We should find a bona fide priest, and perform the rituals. They are rituals but not without meaning.

I don't know why the above turned black. Amusing.

Read this? Then try to get back to the Diksa level. Everything we try to do such as family, nation, humanity, will all be easier if we can be formally connected to Krsna.

Of course, there is informal relations too. If you want to advance in Krsna conscious and we are some inspiration to you in our actions and preaching. Then you are also our disciple. Vatmana pradarshika guru.

Really Srila Prabhupada is you guru in every sense and we are appreciating each other in roles in his institution.

Personally I often think about the incredible help you gave us in airports, temples, ashramas. We owe you so much debt.

Last month His Holiness Kadamba Kanana Swami left the planet. His passing was beautiful. It touched me more than i had expected. I always had a kind of tense and uneasy relationship with him. I see people, devotees, having good relationships and i want that too. I'm learning to be more vulnerable (don't want to say humble yet) and practicing to establish better relations. Perhaps you would be so kind as to bless me to find a suitable spiritual teacher when the time is right.

HpS - Why just one! Time is the external manifestation of the Paramatma. He is our Guru in the heart. We know when we are not being sincere enough, and we know that He knows. We also know that we are trying our best and He knows, even when other people neglect us.

I had wanted to come to Spain earlier this year when you were there. It would have been a risky trip financially. Yes, i could have trusted in Krishna, get out of my comfort zone. But i didn't. The reason for coming was to tell you this all personally. At least now i told you in writing.

Thank you Maharaja for picking me up and initiating me into Srila Prabhupada's family. It was very generous of you. I will keep the name, devotees know me and call me as such. But i know deeper what transpires here between us, and that's private. It makes me sad. I'm not sure how it all works on a spiritual level, but i guess i'll find out.

Your servant,

Raghava Pandita dasa

HpS - Read the above. Part of the Contract, as listed also above, is that people we initiate should at least once a year report to us. If Srila Prabhupada asks us, "Do you know if the people you are initiating are following their vows?", and we have to say, "No", then we think he will not be pleased.

Diksa guru is very practical.

Siksa guru can be more informal.

We must have both.

Because you did not make an Annual Formal Report, then Formally we are not acting as Diksa guru.

Is O.K.?

It is kind of German, no?

Our paternal grandfather was Austrian.

Make the statement right now: Srila Prabhupada, I will work to chant the Holy Names and follow the four principles to the standard that you set?

We would be super honored to help you come to that standard!!

asa[e] - yoga ladder, guru, sadhu, sastra

Hare Krishna Gurudeva

Please accept my obeisances

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I thought that this was something very intimate in the spiritual life and that it should not be revealed openly to other people, but following your instruction, I am now making the contents of the letter public.

I want to reveal my mind regarding a situation that has been happening to me for a few weeks. Today, April 1, 2023, I am writing this letter to you again.

On several occasions in the past I have tried to have a mystical connection to be able to make decisions in my life. On one occasion I asked questions in my mind and felt the answer in different parts of my body, but I found that it was not something reliable. I also paid attention to what was happening around me to have answers, but that can eventually turn into paranoia.

Before and after meeting the devotees I have practiced different methods of meditation, and recently I tried to meditate and have an answer within. And indeed I had an answer, either positive or negative.

As the days passed, I began to have answers in meditation that seemed contradictory, and the question arose in me: Could it be my false ego?

After that experience I tried to connect with who I really am, the soul, momentarily freeing myself from the false ego, and at the same time visualizing you: Hanumatpresaka Swami, Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krishna Caitanya (his feet), as an altar in the heart or in consciousness.

When I began to meditate and receive an answer, either positive or negative from this altar in my heart. The contradictory answers stopped and such a great clarity and peace came within me that I felt happy and surprised at the same time.

I have realized that I need to go into a state of deep meditation to have a clear answer, otherwise the false ego gets mixed up in the communication.

I have been able to organize my life better, have peace and be able to make decisions that are difficult to make due to my indecision and insecurity.

However, I come to you to confirm this communication in the heart. This may be my speculation or something similar, even more so for a mental patient like me.

Is this real Gurudeva or should I avoid doing it?

Thank you very much Gurudeva

Your Servant

Piyari Mohan das

PS: After receiving your response to the previous letter on this topic, this fact of communication in the heart began to be contradictory and finally stopped working.

Anyway, if this is not real, it has helped me to realize the implementation of intelligence, and make decisions through it.

Thank you Gurudeva.

HpS - AGTSP. Thank you so much for these comments and questions. Honestly, as far as we know, they are so useful for many people. Some are in a very similar situation as you and may not present it, and for others it is a chance to understand people of different mentalities than themselves.

Our Yoga is "sublime". That means it works directly on the root connection, directly from our current situation. We can be inclined to Tama and Raja guna in a body like Jayananda Das, a Sudra or woman or a child or a dog... but that does not matter. Krsna incarnates in a gross form like the Rathayatra cart or bread and potatoes, and we can do Yoga straight from the heart through that incarnation.

Our stuggles with building or assembling the Rathyatra cart touch our heart.

Yes, the mind and intellect, manas and buddhi, must become purified, but no direct effort is needed. If you see the light house and try to go towards it, automatically you negotiate all the obstacles in the path.

O.K.?

Maybe you are influenced by Tama and Sattva guna, so you can do very inspired art, but then sometimes very gross physical desires are activated in a very artistic way.

So, you must learn how to engage your body, words and mind in Krsna's service. Direct experiments with Yoga might be a natural part of your work, just as Anandamaya Devi Dasi or Jaya-prema Devi Dasi in their letters might be involved with children and mothers or aunts.

It is Visvannatha cakra Varti, as we remember, who says that whatever realization we have, we should check it with Guru, Sadhu and Sastra.

So, you may be in contact with the Paramatma, Deities on your gross or subtle altars, but then you check that with Guru... we are acting as Diksa guru, Siksa guru and Srila Prabhupada is your Siksa guru and Founder-Acharya (Samstapaka-acharya) Siksa and Diksa guru. He gives tons of information in his books, by his examples,

Sadhus --- There are the examples and preaching of the previous Acharyas through him, and our godbrothers in ISKCON.

Sastra - Does your inspiration agree with Srila Prabhupada's books.

If the answer is yes, yes, yes, then you can have trust in the details you get by inspiration. All of us must become Gosvamis. All of us just develop connection with Prabhupada in our intelligence. After that we can become completely pure devotees.

If there are very fine, necessary details to discuss, that you cannot solve by detailed discussion with other devotees, then we can communicate quickly about these details in more confidential communications.

asa(e) - Ontology, Yoga-ladder - Fall down from Vaikuntha.

PAMHO AGTSP!!

HK Maharaj!! how are you??

HpS - Many people ask us this question, no? Guess the best answer is, "Like Arjuna in the battle of Kurukstra". Shot full of arrows, not giving up returning the fight. Trying to accomplish Krsna's goals in the Sankirtan battle.

well here I'm writing you again, this time I'm having a doubt about Prabhupada statements which I would like to please ask you about.

Here are the verses which arose the questions:

So here I found this two statements.

Bhagavatam 3.16.26: "The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world, or Vaikuṇṭha planet, for it is the eternal abode. But sometimes, as the Lord desires, devotees come into this material world as preachers or as atheists. In each case we must understand that there is a plan of the Lord. Lord Buddha, for example, was an incarnation, yet he preached atheism: “There is no God.” But actually there was a plan behind this, as explained in the Bhāgavatam."

Bhagavatam 7.1.35: "Therefore it is to be understood that when Jaya and Vijaya descended to this material world, they came because there was something to be done for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Otherwise it is a fact that no one falls from Vaikuṇṭha."

And here I found this other one which seems opposite:

Transcript of a Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavatam Class on verse 1.8.23

https://vedabase.io/en/library/transcripts/741003sbmay/?query=fall+spiritual#bb296536

"The... We fall down, we, because we are very small, spiritual spark, and Kṛṣṇa is the whole fire. And the fire and the spiritual..., fire, sparks from the fire, their quality---the same = they can burn. As the big fire can burn, similarly, the small spark, if it falls down on your cloth, that portion, it will immediately burn. It will become back..., black. So the quality is the same. But when it falls down, its burning quality becomes extinguished. We have got practical experience. Burning quality becomes extinguished. So when we fall down from the spiritual world---we come to the material world---our spiritual quality becomes extinguished. That we have to revive. That we have to revive."

So I've heard in a class you gave here in Argentina that when a soul resides in Goloka Vrindavan and wants to forget about Krishna might descend to a less perfect loka, and you were describing, and please correct me if I'm wrong, how a soul might descend gradually from Goloka to Vaikuntha, then to the marginal position and finally to the material world.

So could you please tell how this knowledge can be combined?

Thank you very much again and please forgive if there was any offense in my letter,

Federico

HpS - AgtSP. It is a big topic, but as I understand, the basic principle is that no one has an accidental fall down from the spiritual world. Yet we always have free will, other wise we are slaves of pain or slaves of pleasure and then there us no question of giving our love to Krsna.

We become afraid of that, BG 4.10, because it is an absolute responsibility, but it is also a fantastic gift. We can actually give Krsna our free love!

This is one of the most compelling purports that I know: https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/5/8/26/

We cannot have an accidental falldown from Vaikuntha or even Bhava, but we can use our free will and be offensive, not sinful, and fall down. The question, "Why did we do it?' has no meaning. "Why" means what caused us to do it. We have free will even though small, of the same character as Krsna (frightening), so when we chose to do it. It happens.

Same idea is right there in NOI: https://vedabase.io/en/library/noi/6/#bb5968

Yet the good news is that even though we put ourselves under the jurisdiction of the merciless but just judge, maya, the merciful Mother, Radha, is always looking for some way to get us out of this mess even though we don't want to.

Yet, we should help Her, no? Helps?

ASA-e -- Yoga Ladder, False Ciriticsm

Dear Maharaj,

PAMHO AGTSP!

I have been contemplating on SP’s instruction to Yamuna Mataji to share so that it doesn’t cause envy, psychotic enemies, insecurity and thus obstacles in service (show-stealer, receiving ‘more’ mercy, getting more attention from teachers, stealing husband from his guru and parents and illicit gf). I am seriously baffled by how such wonderful people can become so insecure by someone as insignificant as me!? I really try to stay low, dim down. I guess I can take it as a compliment that they see so much potential in me. However it leads to a lot of obstacles in service as well. Trying to learn ways to preempt these feelings in other’s hearts and promote friendship. Not ruffle their feathers, but also not disrespect myself (which sometimes is the expectation). I try to share whatever I have to dissolve it, but it doesn’t always work. Ive been contemplating how to better respond to such situations 🙏.

HpS/ASA - AgtSP. Paoho. In The Forest of Material Enjoyment, Canto Five, we remember there is the example of the cricket. He is making noise so that one cannot even sleep properly, but no matter how hard we look we cannot find him.

Is explained that this represents character assasination, false criticism, to which everyone in the material world is object and the source of which cannot be discovered.

Eg, "S(He)It eats fruit in bed!"

We ask a friend where they heard that and they cannot tell us. "It is going around"

I get criticized in so many aspects: HpS is a ritvic, closet Christian, mental speculator, has had his problems with woman etc.

Everyone will have.

It is a an irritation built in by God to keep us from becoming happy in this nasty place.

So, in one aspect, when it happens, we just say, "THANK YOU, KRSNA! Got the message, gonna pick the pace again".

Usually, that is the only response we make to these false criticisms, but if the critic is a disernible entity and we can make some simple adjustment then we do it.

Other wise, The Witch, (Black one, not white one) will always come up with more and more problems so that we cannot focus on doing our service to the best of our ability and then letting Krsna and Balarama see to the results!

🦍 🦍🐒 🦧 Hare Krsna! Hare Rama!!!

O.K.?

YAS

Yajnaseni DD

Hare Krsna beloved Gurudeva AGTSP PAMHO:

I hope this meets You in very good health and happy

So sorry for not writing before. I AM very entangled in My material life. I will see your very goodself on March 5th. I humbly beg for your blessings for My trip

I finished the translation of my part waves of devotion. The whole document is in revision.

Besides, I humbly request to have the opportunity to talk to You

Looking forward to seeing You

Your eternal servant

CMDD

HpS - Well, we saw you on March 5th. It is now March 9th. We were very glad to hear that "Waves of Devotion" is translated. We can see to publication and distribution now. Guess we should talk to Visual Services, ArtDas about formating, including graphs etc.

We did not have much chance to talk, but a little. It is so nice to hear that your sister is successful in here professional carreer and Ulyses is about to set of on his Odyssey with a happy face.

We helped him toward a human, Vaisnava birth.

Did you meet any interesting people on your trip?