Welcome to the KrishnaSoft's Electronic Newsletter.
This is the January 2002 issue entitled: "No One Can Check Lord Krsna's Plan!"
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Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
This newsletter goes to over 1100 people who either have an interest in Vedic science and/or spiritually entertaining multimedia technology.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
(1) No One Can Check Lord Krsna's Plan!
(2) Bhagavatam Can Only be Realized in Devotional Service!
(3) Editorial Policy and Product List
1. NO ONE CAN CHECK LORD KRSNA'S PLAN!
We explained in the November 2001 newsletter "Lord Krsna Runs the Whole Show!" how Lord Krsna controls material nature. Since He controls material nature whatever He plans in regards to the material world cannot be prevented by anyone else:
"Devahuti is saying, "Although You personally are not doing anything, Your determination is absolute. There is no question of Your fulfilling Your will with the help of anyone else besides Yourself. You are, in the end, the Supreme Soul and the supreme controller. Your will, therefore, cannot be checked by anyone else." The Supreme Lord can check others' plans. As it is said, "Man proposes and God disposes." But when the Supreme Personality of Godhead proposes, that desire is under no one else's control. He is absolute. We are ultimately dependent on Him to fulfill our desires, but we cannot say that God's desires are also dependent. That is His inconceivable power. That which may be inconceivable for ordinary living entities is easily done by Him. And in spite of His being unlimited, He has subjected Himself to being known from the authoritative scriptures like the Vedic literatures. As it is said, sabda-mulatvat: He can be known through the sabda-brahma, or Vedic literature." (Bhag. 3.33.3)
The material world is created by Lord Krsna to rectify the conditioned souls so they can revive their devotional service and go back to Godhead.
"In each creation, the living entities are given a chance to close their business as conditioned souls. When they misuse this opportunity and do not go back home, back to Godhead, Lord Sankarsana becomes angry. The eleven Rudras, expansions of Lord Siva, come out of Lord Sankarsana's eyebrows due to His angry mood, and all of them together devastate the entire creation." (Bhag. 5.25.3)
"When the living entities desire to enjoy themselves, they develop a consciousness of duality and come to hate the service of the Lord. In this way the living entities fall into the material world.... The natural position of the living entity is to serve the Lord in a transcendental loving attitude. When the living entity wants to become Krsna Himself or imitate Krsna, he falls down into the material world." (Bhag. 4.28.53)
"The original home of the living entity and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the spiritual world. In the spiritual world both the Lord and the living entities live together very peacefully. Since the living entity remains engaged in the service of the Lord, they both share a blissful life in the spiritual world. However, when the living entity wants to enjoy himself, he falls down into the material world." (Bhag. 4.28.54)
"The process of Krsna consciousness, by which one always thinks of Krsna, is the transcendental process by which one can revert to his original, spiritual existence." (Bhag. 4.29.75)
"The Lord is ever increasingly merciful upon the fallen souls of this material world. The whole cosmic manifestation is a chance for all to improve themselves in devotional service to the Lord, and everyone is meant for that purpose." (Bhag. 3.9.25)
"The Supreme Lord is the seer of all worlds, both material and transcendental. In other words, the Supreme Lord is the ultimate beneficiary and enjoyer of all worlds, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (5.29). The spiritual world is the manifestation of His internal potency, and the material world is the manifestation of His external potency. The living entities are also His marginal potency, and by their own choice they can live in either the transcendental or material worlds. The material world is not a fit place for living entities because they are spiritually one with the Lord and in the material world the living entities become conditioned by the laws of the material world. The Lord wants all living entities, who are His parts and parcels, to live with Him in the transcendental world, and for enlightening conditioned souls in the material world, all the Vedas and the revealed scriptures are there-- expressly to recall the conditioned souls back home, back to Godhead." (Bhag. 2.2.14)
"Every state and its administrators, regardless of the nature of the administration-- monarchy or democracy, oligarchy or dictatorship or autocracy-- have the prime responsibility to lead the citizens toward God realization... The whole creation of material existence is made for this purpose, just to give a chance to the fallen souls who rebelled against the will of the Supreme Father and thus became conditioned by material nature. The force of material nature gradually leads one to a hellish condition of perpetual pains and miseries." (Bhag. 2.7.22)
Since the purpose of the material existence is God realization, no one can check this plan of the Supreme Lord and prevent someone from his service to God. There have been many people like Kamsa who tried to check this ultimate purpose of the material world and they all failed:
"The Krsna consciousness movement is spreading like wildfire all over the world, and it will go on doing so. Men who are like Kamsa are very much afraid of the movement's progress and acceptance by the younger generation, but as Krsna could not be killed by Kamsa, this movement cannot be checked by men of Kamsa's class. The movement will go on increasing more and more, provided the leaders of the movement remain firmly Krsna conscious by following the regulative principles and the primary activities of chanting the Hare Krsna mantra regularly." (Bhag. 10.2.20)
"The child prays that it is better to remain within the womb of darkness and be constantly absorbed in Krsna consciousness than to get out and again fall a victim to the illusory energy. The illusory energy acts within the abdomen as well as outside the abdomen, but the trick is that one should remain Krsna conscious, and then the effect of such a horrible condition cannot act unfavorably upon him... It may be questioned herein how the child can be fully Krsna conscious within the womb of the mother without any paraphernalia with which to execute Krsna consciousness. It is not necessary to arrange for paraphernalia to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu. The child wants to remain within the abdomen of its mother and at the same time wants to become free from the clutches of maya. One does not need any material arrangement to cultivate Krsna consciousness. One can cultivate Krsna consciousness anywhere and everywhere, provided he can always think of Krsna. The maha-mantra, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, can be chanted even within the abdomen of one's mother. One can chant while sleeping, while working, while imprisoned in the womb or while outside. This Krsna consciousness cannot be checked in any circumstance. The conclusion of the child's prayer is: "Let me remain in this condition; although it is very miserable, it is better not to fall a victim to maya again by going outside." (Bhag. 3.31.21)
Note in the above quote that there is no material arrangement needed to cultivate Krsna consciousness. The Supreme Lord Krsna being the owner and creater of everything to begin with is not in need of anything. His plan will be executed regardless of what anyone does, but the devotees serve as instruments in carrying out His plan.
"The Supreme Lord Krsna is described herein as atmarama. He is self-sufficient, and there is no need for Him to seek happiness from anything beyond Himself. He is self-sufficient because His very transcendental existence is total bliss. He is eternally existent; He is all-cognizant and all-blissful. Therefore, any presentation, HOWEVER VALUABLE it may be, is not needed by Him. But still, because He is the well-wisher for one and all, He accepts from everyone everything that is offered to Him in pure devotional service. It is not that He is in want for such things, because the things are themselves generated from His energy." (Bhag. 1.11.5)
"Everyone should know in clear consciousness that one is, in the execution of all activities, an instrument. A conditioned soul is instrumental in the hands of the external energy, guna-mayi maya, or the illusory energy of the Lord, and in the liberated stage the living entity is instrumental to the will of the Personality of Godhead directly. To be instrumental to the direct will of the Lord is the natural constitutional position of the living entity, whereas to be an instrument in the hands of the illusory energy of the Lord is material bondage for the living entity." (Bhag. 2.9.29)
2. BHAGAVATAM CAN ONLY BE REALIZED IN DEVOTIONAL SERVICE!
In previous newsletters, we explained how the Vedic scriptures have to be realized in devotional service. This devotional service must be received from a spiritual source:
"It is stated in Bhagavad-gita that no one is barred from rendering service to the Lord . Whether one is a woman or a laborer or a merchant, if he engages himself in the devotional service of the Lord he is promoted to the highest perfectional state and goes back home, back to Godhead . The devotional service most suitable for different types of devotees is determined and FIXED BY THE *MERCY* OF THE SPIRITUAL MASTER." (Bhag. 3.25.28)
"The Personality of Godhead said: Knowledge about Me as described in the scriptures is VERY CONFIDENTIAL, AND IT HAS TO BE REALIZED IN CONJUNCTION WITH DEVOTIONAL SERVICE. The necessary paraphernalia for that process is being explained by Me. You may take it up carefully." (Bhag. 2.9.31)
"There is no difference between the Lord and sound vibration coming from Him, even though He is not personally present. The best way of understanding is to accept such divine instruction, and Brahma, the prime spiritual master of everyone, is the living example of this process of receiving transcendental knowledge. The potency of transcendental sound is never minimized because the vibrator is apparently absent. Therefore Srimad-Bhagavatam or Bhagavad-gita or any revealed scripture in the world is never to be accepted as an ordinary mundane sound without transcendental potency." (Bhag. 2.9.8)
"The Lord's order descends in disciplic succession through the bona fide spiritual master, and thus execution of the order of the bona fide spiritual master is factual control of the senses. Such execution of penance in full faith and sincerity made Brahmaji so powerful that he became the creator of the universe. And because he was able to attain such power, he is called the best amongst all the tapasvis." (Bhag. 2.9.8)
"The devotee Bhagavata is a direct representative of Bhagavan, the Personality of Godhead. So by pleasing the devotee Bhagavata one can receive the benefit of the book Bhagavata. Human reason fails to understand how by serving the devotee Bhagavata or the book Bhagavata one gets gradual promotion on the path of devotion. But actually these are facts explained by Srila Naradadeva, who happened to be a maidservant's son in his previous life. The maidservant was engaged in the menial service of the sages, and thus he also came into contact with them. And simply by associating with them and accepting the remnants of foodstuff left by the sages, the son of the maidservant got the chance to become the great devotee and personality Srila Naradadeva. These are the miraculous effects of the association of Bhagavatas. And to understand these effects practically, it should be noted that by such sincere association of the Bhagavatas one is sure to receive transcendental knowledge very easily, with the result that he becomes fixed in the devotional service of the Lord. The more progress is made in devotional service under the guidance of the Bhagavatas, the more one becomes fixed in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. The messages of the book Bhagavata, therefore, have to be received from the devotee Bhagavata, and the combination of these two Bhagavatas will help the neophyte devotee to make progress on and on." (Bhag. 1.2.18)
Note that one can make progress in devotional service via the book Bhagavata and/or the devotee Bhagavata, but the messages of the book Bhagavata need to be received from the devotee Bhagavata. To some this may seem like the devotee Bhagavata is always needed for neophyte devotees in order to become more and more fixed in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, but that's not what is being stated. It is also possible to obtain the book Bhagavata and receive a divine instruction from the spiritual master to read it without literally having to receive each of the messages of the Bhagavata from the devotee Bhagavata.
3. EDITORIAL POLICY AND PRODUCT LIST
"One should engage in practical service to the Lord. In our Krsna consciousness movement, *ALL* our activities are concentrated upon distributing Krsna literature. This is very important. One may approach any person and induce him to read Krsna literature so that in the future he also may become a devotee.... By fully concentrating on distributing books for Krsna, one is fully absorbed in Krsna."
Our newsletters are geared to show you the benefits of the instructions contained in the transcendental books of Srila Prabhupada so you can judge for yourself the value of these books and obtain them in book or CDROM format. We also have video demos of the Gita CDROM and Bhagavatam CDROM available for those without computers or those who want to get a glimpse into what is on the CDROM.
Krishna Software Inc. has produced some multimedia CDROMs and all the details and reviews of these CDROMs can be found at our website http://www.krishnasoft.com. Here is our current list of products:
(a) Multimedia Bhagavad-gita As It Is CD: Lord Krsna's eternal instructions to Arjuna and the rest of the world about Isvara (Supreme Lord), jiva (the soul), karma (activities), kala (time), and prakrti (nature). This is a 30-hour audio-visual CDROM. Also available with Hindi translations.
(b) Multimedia Srimad-Bhagavatam CD: An encyclopedia on the science of Krsna consciousness. This CDROM deals in detail with bhakti-yoga and covers various subjects-- the creation of the universe, Vedic astronomy, transmigration, birth-death, etc. This is about 35 hours of audio-visual presentations.
(c) Multimedia Krsna CD w/Vedic Astronomy: This is a 51-hour audio-visual presentation of the Krsna book and a Vedic Astronomy simulation based on the Srimad-Bhagavatam. All on a single CDROM. Free sample demo downloadable from our website.
(d) Multilingual Word Processor CD [version 4.00]: Type in diacritics, Hindi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, and Assamese without knowing the alphabet. This is for those who want to write articles using multiple languages. Free demo downloadable from our website.
All of the above software was tested on various Intel 486 and Pentium processors running Windows 3.1, Windows '95, Windows '98, Windows Me, and Windows NT (client and server).
Latest information and secure ordering is available at our web site: http://www.krishnasoft.com. Any upgrades can be downloaded from this website as well.
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End of Newsletter- written and edited by KSI staff; (c) 1998-2002 Krishna Software Inc.
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All glories to Lord Sri Krsna and His transcendental potencies! All glories to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the literary incarnation of Lord Sri Krsna!