Spiritual FAQs

Q. If everything in our life is fated, then why we must pray to GOD?

A. We pray to, and glorify God because He is deserving of it. Here in the material world we have forgotten God because we want to take His place as the enjoyer, controller and owner. When we realize our mistake, by the mercy of His devotees, then naturally we will want to pray to Him to ask His forgiveness for our offenses and for strength not to again forget Him.

So we do have some individual free will, to turn to God or to turn away from Him. That free will is not interfered with by God, even if He may know how we will use it, He still gives us the right to choose.

Q. How can I stop sinful thoughts occuring in my mind?

A. You can stop sinful thoughts by loudly chanting the Holy Name of God, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Also it is useful to engage the mind with ideas of how to benefit people instead of ideas of how to exploit them. The best benefit you can offer anyone is to engage them somehow in Krishna’s service.

Q. Can not initiated devotees have salagram sila at home? Is it favorable? What are the consequences?

A. The worship of salagram sila at home is possible for brahman initiated devotees but the standard is very high. Srila Prabhupada generally recommended that we worship Gaura Nitai as they are most merciful and thus suitable for us fallen souls of the Kali Yuga.

Q. How to overcome depression and stress?

A. Srila Prabhupada was once asked if we his disciples were hippies… he responded by saying, “No we are happys” Yes this Bhakti Yoga is the best process for reviving our original joyful nature. Ananda maya byasat, means our nature is full of bliss. The direct means of connecting to this nature is by chanting Hare Krishna. I personally find that chanting in the kirtan with as many devotees as possible is the best way of getting out of depression. Of course chanting on our beads is also blissful.

Serving the devotees and the Lord, remembering the devotees and the Lord, praying to them any of the nine processes of devotion can lift us out of our material consciousness or ignorance. Studying Srila Prabhupada’s books carefully and associating with his followers one will gradually become enlivened in one’s constitutional position of happiness.

Q. I’m a Krishna conscious person, and I regularly chant the maha-mantra and read Bhagavad-gita. For the last two years I have been suffering from certain mental and physical problems. Whatever I do, nothing goes right. It’s said in the Bhagavad-gita that the suffering one gets is due to one’s past sinful activities. Is it possible to know these sinful activities?

Is there any way to see the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna with my own eyes and to thus solve my problems? – Karan Makar,Rajkot, Gujarat, India

Q. You are doing the best thing by regularly chanting the maha-mantra and reading Bhagavad-gita. It is not necessary, or even possible, to know exactly what sins have caused our current suffering.

In the strictest sense, all activities other than devotional service to Krishna are sinful, and they result in our having to take another material body in the next life. And as long as we have a material body, we will suffer. That’s certain, as Krishna tells us in the Gita. He says that the body is dukhalayam: sure to give us misery. So we shouldn’t worry about specific past sins but resolve to try to engage fully in devotional service to Lord Krishna.

As for seeing Krishna with your eyes, that is possible when your eyes are purified by unadulterated love for Krishna. In other words, you can see Krishna when you have nothing to ask from Him. So don’t try to see Krishna just to solve your problems. Try to qualify yourself to see Krishna, and your problems will disappear.

Q. Tthe Srimad-Bhagavatam, Third Canto, Chapter 30, verses 19–31, explains the plight of the sinful soul after death, after it leaves the material body on earth. The dreadful account can’t be true, because the soul cannot reap the fruit of his actions, bad or good, until he gets a material body again. The subtle soul will never suffer any hardship, as explained in Bhagavad-gita2.22–25.

Whereas the Bhagavatam describes the punishment of the sinful person in hell, the Gita states that after leaving the material body, the soul gets another material body. I find a lot of variance between the two books. Please elucidate the correct position. Both cannot be right. – Raghunath Dhar,Dallas, Texas

A. Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, present the same teachings in essence, but the Bhagavatam elaborates points discussed briefly in the Gita. The Gita (7.4) explains that besides the gross material body, the soul also inhabits a subtle material body, made up of the mind, intelligence, and false ego. It is this subtle body that undergoes punishment in the hellish planets. While it is true, as the Gita says, that the soul goes on to another body, it is also true, as the Bhagavatam says, that the sinful soul first of all undergoes punishment in hellish planets. Because the suffering takes place on a subtle plane, the time duration seems very long, when in fact it is brief. (Researchers tell us that although episodes in dreams seem to last a long time, they are actually very short.)

We can understand how the subtle body feels pain by considering what happens in our dreams. During the day we identify with our gross, physical body, and at night we identify with our subtle body, in dreams. When we dream, the experience seems real. If something harms us in a dream, we “feel” it. We might, for example, wake up screaming because of pain or fright. This is an indication of how the subtle body is punished in the hellish planets.

Q. How do you determine if Krishna is satisfied. The test is performed by way of your spiritual master: If your spiritual master is satisfied, then Krishna is. What if I am not initiated yet and don’t have a spiritual master? Who do I look to, to see if I’m satisfying Krishna? – Asita Albert,Fort Kent, Maine

A. To accept initiation from a spiritual master is required for steady progress in spiritual life. But if you accept Srila Prabhupada’s teachings even before initiation (as well as after), then he is also your spiritual master—technically called siksha-guru, or instructing guru. By following his instructions, as received through his books, disciples, and grand-disciples, you undoubtedly satisfy him, and Krishna is satisfied.

Q. When one accepts a spiritual master, it is said that the relationship is eternal. However, if one is not able to go back to Godhead in one lifetime, then how can he accept another guru in the next life? Or does the same guru have to come back to fulfill his duty?

A. The concept of ‘guru-tattva’ is inconceivable and most difficult to understand. In principle, as Srila Prabhupada explains in his famous Vyasa-puja address, the Guru is one; guru cannot be two. (Cf. Science of Self Realization pp. 70-71) The Original spiritual master is Lord Balarama or Lord Nityananda and He appears in infinite forms to instruct us. This of course does not de-personalize or minimize the value of the empowered devotee of the Lord who plays the part of a spiritual master. This fundamental spiritual principle is difficult to understand with mundane logic, but with this understanding we can simply accept that one’s relationship with his spiritual master is eternal.

Q. I had taken shelter from a spiritual master and he from his pure lips mentioned, “I can initiate you anytime,” and later confirmed that he will be initiating me in the coming initiation function. However, later by Krishna’s mercy the spiritual master left his body. As I have already accepted him as my spiritual master, is it still necessary for me to get initiated from a different spiritual master. Isn’t the promise from the spiritual master indicative that I am already his initiated disciple?

A. The confirmation of the spiritual master most certainly affirms his acceptance of you as his disciple, and so also have you accepted him as your spiritual master in your heart. However, although what happened is unfortunate, according to the teachings of our scriptures and previous acaryas, we learn that the formal diksa ceremony is an essential and vital event or milestone in spiritual life for a devotee. Initiation or acceptance and taking shelter of a spiritual master is essentially a matter of the heart; however, the formal ceremony of initiation and formal acceptance of a spiritual master is not unimportant either.

It is through the diksa ceremony that a devotee is formally connected to the guru-parampara and ultimately to Krishna. Therefore the scriptural recommendation is that one must accept the formal diksa initiation from a bona fide spiritual master through whom one is connected to the parampara. Taking initiation from another spiritual master will not hamper your feelings of devotion and gratitude to the other spiritual master, nor will it nullify that acceptance of the heart; rather the shelter and guidance of your diksa-guru should only support and strengthen your connection with the former relationship.

Q. When one thinks he has found a bona fide spiritual master and later it proves to be wrong, would it be appropriate to say that initially, or in the first place, the judgment of the disciple was wrong and thus he never got a bonafide spiritual master?

A. That may be a possibility. There are some instances when one does accept a bona fide spiritual master but later on that spiritual master may fall away from the strict standards. Narahari Sarkar, one very saintly follower of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, has written one text which describes the latter of these two situations. In either case, the aspiring devotee should just go forward on his spiritual journey, with greater wisdom, and accept the shelter of one who is a bona fide spiritual master. When one is fully sincere to attain spiritual perfection, then Krishna will bring the devotee to His bona fide representative.