Tag Archives: karma

Suffering of Devotees

Karma, , ,

On 16th Aug 2006, there was a bomb blast in ISKCON temple  at Manipur. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that I always protect my devotee. Then why such incident happened with devotees? Why do devotees suffer more than the common people? This will certainly lower the faith of devotees.

Krishna always protects His devotees. Highly advanced devotee like Prahlada maharaj, pandavs also suffered. So what is it exactly? Krishna protects devotee’s spiritual life without fail. He takes care that they continue in spiritual life and ultimately reach spiritual world. In some cases He may not protect his devotee’s body. The devotees are becoming dear to Krishna and He wants them to get free from sinful reactions quickly. So sometimes He quickens their suffering so that they come back to spiritual world quickly.
If we have performed sinful activities before becoming devotee still we should be ready to suffer our reactions. If Sri Krishna wants He may excuse some of the reactions. A devotee patiently suffers his sinful reactions and eagerly waits for Lord’s mercy to make him pure devotee all the while performing sadhana bhakti. There is no question of lessening the faith. It is because of my actions I am suffering. In fact Sri Krishna is reducing the reactions and is giving me what is best.

janma karma ca me divyam

Krishna, , ,

I read in the Srimad Bhagavatam that Lord Krishna is the creator of everything that exists including demigods. Here also it is explained how he creates everything. However can you please explain me that how did God come into existence. I know that He always existed before but yet there should be a time when he also got into creation.

It is explained in Katha Upanishad,“nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam….” which means that there are two eternals, one is the living entity and the other is Supreme Lord.

In the material world we do not have experience of any object which does not have origin. Every object in the material world has beginning, middle and an end. However spiritual objects are opposite to material objects in the sense that they do not have beginning and an end. They exist eternally. Therefore when we explain God has no beginning that means we can not put a particular date at which He came into existence.

By definition He is the beginning of everything, “ishvarah paramah krishnah, sac-cid-ananda vigrahah, anadir adir govindah, sarva karana karanam”. He is the cause of all causes. If He had some cause, then that cause would have been the superior to Him.

Because He is unlimited, naturally Krishna’s birth and activities are difficult for us limited beings to understand. The great saint Queen Kunti praises Lord Krishna in this way: Of course it is bewildering, O soul of the universe, that You work, though You are inactive, and that You take birth, though You are the vital force and the unborn.

Burning the Bad Karma

Karma,

Many people have the idea that bad karma can be reduced or removed through meditation, worship, samskara, or sacrifice. How can we really burn all our bad karma?

The Vedic scriptures describe that devotional service to the Lord destroys the results of previous sins, in other words, bad karma. The effectiveness of the process depends on its purity. For example, pure chanting of the holy names of the Lord destroys all sinful reactions. But the chanting is usually not pure in the beginning. When one begins the practice of devotional service, it is said to be like unplugging a fan. The fan will still turn for some time. So in the stage of devotional practice, the reactions will continue, but as we become more and more purified by devotional service, eventually we become free of all reactions and enjoy the bliss of full spiritual life. And even in the stage of practice, Lord Krishna adjusts the karma so that His aspiring devotees get just what they need to progress steadily toward Him.

But one precaution is very important and that is committing sinful activities on the strength of the holy name because this is an offense to Holy name. If one continues to perform sinful activities thinking that he will be freed of sins by chanting Hare Krishna then it is an offense to the Holy name. So one should be very careful in this regard that whatever sins had been committed in the past we do not have any control over them but now onward when we start taking the shelter of Holy name we should not commit further sins.

Disease and Material Life

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The materially absorbed conditioned soul can be cured by Krishna consciousness as set forth here in the Gita. This process is generally known as yajna, or activities (sacrifices) simply meant for the satisfaction of Vishnu, or Krishna. The more the activities of the material world are performed in Krishna consciousness, or for Vishnu only, the more the atmosphere becomes spiritualized by complete absorption. The word brahma (Brahman) means “spiritual.” The Lord is spiritual, and the rays of His transcendental body are called brahmajyoti, His spiritual effulgence. Everything that exists is situated in that brahmajyoti, but when the jyoti is covered by illusion (maya) or sense gratification, it is called material. This material veil can be removed at once by Krishna consciousness; thus the offering for the sake of Krishna consciousness, the consuming agent of such an offering or contribution, the process of consumption, the contributor, and the result are — all combined together — Brahman, or the Absolute Truth. The Absolute Truth covered by maya is called matter. Matter dovetailed for the cause of the Absolute Truth regains its spiritual quality. Krishna consciousness is the process of converting the illusory consciousness into Brahman, or the Supreme

Demons and Doubts

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In Vedic literature the living entity is called jivatma and Brahman, but he is never called Parabrahman. The living entity (jivatma) takes different positions — sometimes he merges into the dark material nature and identifies himself with matter, and sometimes he identifies himself with the superior, spiritual nature. Therefore he is called the Supreme Lord’s marginal energy. According to his identification with material or spiritual nature, he receives a material or spiritual body. In material nature he may take a body from any of the 8,400,000 species of life, but in spiritual nature he has only one body. In material nature he is manifested sometimes as a man, demigod, animal, beast, bird, etc., according to his karma. To attain material heavenly planets and enjoy their facilities, he sometimes performs sacrifices (yajna), but when his merit is exhausted he returns to earth again in the form of a man. This process is called karma.

Karma to Akarma

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Q. I too believe that GOD exists. But very recently I have been experiencing
very bad moments, whatever I think it doesn’t happen, whatever I touch it
gets postponed, wherever my name is involved the work some how
mysteriously gets cancelled. So I started checking my numerology and
astrology online, people tell me that our present life karma is based on
past life deeds. Is it true? Is our fate is already written by Brahma? Are
we just puppets in God’s hands. I checked my last life jyotisha in some
astrology website, it says that in my past life I was a big cheater and also
based on my name numerology I carry my past life karmic debts to this life.
I don’t understand why should I be responsible for my past life which I have
no clue about, why can’t God punish people in the same life itself for their
misdeeds and give everyone a fresh new life. My main question is can’t we
change our fate written by Brahma.

A. Yes, one’s karma is based on one’s deeds, not only of one past life, but of many many past lives.
Everything is calculated very precisely.
The nature of this material world is such that there are always some reversals and challenges to face.
It depends upon us as to how one takes it, positively or negatively.
Everyone has a baggage of good and bad deeds. And we have to nullify it, positive for the positive and negative for the negative.
If something good happens, one must know that one is exhausting our good deeds. Similarly, when bad things are happening, we must know that bad deeds are getting nullified. So one has less to suffer in the future.
If one remains steady in both happiness and distress, then one can transcend the dualities of this material world.
We cannot change the circumstances, but we can certainly change the way we perceive it.
Real positivity means to turn any difficult situation into an opportunity.
We may not remember our previous bad deeds and the sufficient punishment is not given in the previous life.
Because we may not have sufficient karma to suffer.
Therefore, karma is very inconceivable and difficult to understand.
The message of Bhagavad Gita explains how to not get affected by the karma.
It is possible to change the karma and the destiny.

The Debt!

General, , , ,

Q. First of all, thank you very much for the work that you are doing. I
sincerely appreciate it.

I have a question. For example, if a person takes a loan of Rs 1 lakh and
then never returns and cheats me. Diplomatic ways are not working. What
should be my response in Kaliyuga, 2015? I would like to consult Lord Sri
Krishna. But, for me now, you are as good as Lord Krishna, having understood
his preachings so deep and wide. So, I am asking you now, Sir. My options
are:

1. I might have cheated him in my last incarnation. So, he cheated me in
this incarnation. So, I got rid of my sin. Forget it and move on.

2. He cheated me in this incarnation. God will see to it that, he will
return the money to me in the next incarnation. So, forget it and move on.

3. He has done a cheating, which is wrong. But, I am not God to punish him.
So, leave him and let God punish him. Though it looks like a loss for now,
God will somehow pay me for that loss.

4. He has done cheating which is wrong. So, I need to take legal action. Let
me approach a lawyer. Let me fight it out till the end. I may end up losing
more money, time and energy doing this. But, I need to do this because, I
need to restore dharma/truth. It is a dharmayuddha. So, I need to keep
fighting till the justice is restored like Mahabharatha.

5. He has done cheating which is wrong. But, legally if I approach, I will
never win. So, I need to take law in my hand, use goondas if needed and
do whatever I can and get the money and restore dharma/justice. He cheated
me and so, I can also cheat him. Because, in Mahabharatha, Karna cheated
once. So, it is okay to cheat him and kill him as per Lord Krishna.

My sincere appreciations for your time and guidance in advance. Please
forgive me for the illogical reasoning that I may be making here.

Awaiting your/Lord Krishna’s response,

A. First of all, I am very sorry to hear that someone took money from you and is not returning.
Usually friendly loans are not returned.
You need to be careful.
If there is no document proving this, it becomes difficult to retrieve such loans.
Your various options of understanding this case are all valid, except the last one.
If he has dealt unfairly, according to the law of karma, he shall get similar reaction.
No one is spared from the law of karma.
You need to elevate your understanding by not getting too much affected by such incident.
Yes, this is Kaliyuga and people shall behave unethically.
Even he is punished for his sins, if he does not stop committing further sins, his punishment is like bath of an elephant.
Elephant goes in the water and takes bath with water.
And when he comes out, it throws dust all over his body.
So what is the use of taking bath.
Similarly if someone is punished for the sins, but if that person does not give up his tendency of committing sins, it is simply like bath of an elephant.
The real atonement is taking shelter of the Lord and rising above such lower tendencies.

Karma : The Inconceivable

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02. How will we come to understand that we are fully surrendered and that we are performing karma according to God’s will and in future we will nullify all the reactions from the past and present karma and return to the abode of Supreme Personality of Godhead, that is Goloka Vrindavana?

The law of karma is very inconceivable.
In order make our karma non-reactive (akarma), we need to offer our activities with full consciousness to the Supreme Lord, Krishna.

In this way, all of our activities become spiritual.

When all karma is purified, one will start acting on pure devotional platform.

For going to Goloka Vrindavan, one needs the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

When one continues to serve Lord, that mercy of the Lord automatically flows.

Free or Forced-will?

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Q. Why in the first place did the Supreme Lord of Godhead allow his spiritual fragmental sparks to act on their own and take independent decisions if it was not for good….being the supreme controller he could have prevented creation of this so called maya or material universe in the first place…. Please explain the subject matter without correlating to material things, place, situation, persons etc??

A. This is a very fundamental question.
Supreme Lord has His own free will and He has given a small minute independence to all living entities.
He does not force His own will on any living entity.
Everyone has power to exercise his/her free will in any capacity he/she wants.

It is explained that living entity wanted to become separate from the Supreme Lord by exercising its free will.
Sometimes it is explained that Supreme Lord did not want us to come in this material world.
But when the living entity is very stubborn, then even Lord cannot do anything.
In fact, He stops every living entity to leave His Supreme abode and come to this miserable material world.
And since every living entity has free will, Supreme Lord has to allow us come to this temporary world.
If Supreme Lord would have stopped us, then it would not be free will.
We might have to then call it as ‘forced-will’.

When the living entity comes to this world, Supreme Lord comes with him as Supersoul and sits in the heart of living entity.
Whenever the living entity intensely desires to serve the Lord and remembers Him, He instantly reciprocates.
By constant remembrance and absorption to serve the Supreme Lord, one can transcend the material dimension and rise to the spiritual dimension.
The Supreme Lord has given us the freewill to serve and love Him.
Can we force someone to love us?
Answer is ‘No’
When we develop real devotion to the Supreme Lord, that real love can develop.
So while remaining in this material world, we can exercise our free will and remain on the higher platform.

Effect of past life

Astrology, Free will, Karma, ,

Q. I too believe that GOD exists. But very recently I have been experiencing very bad moments, whatever I think it doesn’t happen, whatever I touch it gets postponed, wherever my name is involved the work some how mysteriously gets cancelled. So I started checking my numerology and astrology online, people tell me that our present life karma is based on past life deeds. Is it true?. Is our fate is already written by Brahma, are we just puppets in God’s hands. I checked my last life jyotisha in some astrology website it says that in my past life I was a big cheater and also based on my name numerology I carry my past life karmic debts to this life.
I don’t understand why should I be responsible for my past life which I have no clue about, why can’t God punish people in the same life itself for their misdeeds and give everyone a fresh new life. My main question is can’t we change our fate written by Brahma.

A. One’s karma is based on one’s deeds, not only of one past life, but of many many past lives.
Everything is calculated very precisely.  Continue reading Effect of past life →