I know this devotee who has sort of been guided by me in his devotional life and he asked me a perennial simple question last week, " Why is Krsna allowing innocent cows to be slaugtered mercilessly?" I went on to this philosophy trip explaining how in the realm of karma it is all about actions and reactions of the soul. Krsna is just waiting for the soul to voluntarily chose to come to him. And it is not necessary if the cow if put in a opulent position and bodily condition in a heavenly planet, the cow will begin to serve . From a higher picture, all these things are just transformations of matter nothing else.
Then afterwards I contemplated on this point and I found that it boils down to the tension between two conceptions I encounter: visvam puranam sukhayate, the whole world is joyful and complete and as SSM says we just have to adjust our view and the environment becomes favourable. Also such statements are made in the IsaVasya upanishad as well. On the other hand material world is asasvatam, dukhalayam as well and SP would stress more on this than the former view. For instance I sometimes feel very strongly about the need to give an alternative less fundamentalist presentation of GV and GM also passionately talks about how things need to be changed in the world etc. People are fighting for human rights, women rights etc. They are not finding the environment positive
And while listening to SSM lectures, you tend to feel that you just need to change yourself and your vision and you will detect good in the environment(fanatic, unfavourable,slavery, no gay rights or whatever). Then you kind of want to withdraw back and inward.
So that is always a conflict I am unable to resolve. If a person sees visvam puranam sukhayate, he should not be disturbed even by cow slaughter etc. So is it that only a uttam adhikari who does not preach can see positive everywhere, and till we reach that stage, we should try to discriminate and find fault with the environment.
I know this devotee who has sort of been guided by me in his devotional life and he asked me a perennial simple question last week, " Why is Krsna allowing innocent cows to be slaugtered mercilessly?" I went on to this philosophy trip explaining how in the realm of karma it is all about actions and reactions of the soul. Krsna is just waiting for the soul to voluntarily chose to come to him. And it is not necessary if the cow if put in a opulent position and bodily condition in a heavenly planet, the cow will begin to serve . From a higher picture, all these things are just transformations of matter nothing else.
Then afterwards I contemplated on this point and I found that it boils down to the tension between two conceptions I encounter: visvam puranam sukhayate, the whole world is joyful and complete and as SSM says we just have to adjust our view and the environment becomes favourable. Also such statements are made in the IsaVasya upanishad as well. On the other hand material world is asasvatam, dukhalayam as well and SP would stress more on this than the former view. For instance I sometimes feel very strongly about the need to give an alternative less fundamentalist presentation of GV and GM also passionately talks about how things need to be changed in the world etc. People are fighting for human rights, women rights etc. They are not finding the environment positive
And while listening to SSM lectures, you tend to feel that you just need to change yourself and your vision and you will detect good in the environment(fanatic, unfavourable,slavery, no gay rights or whatever). Then you kind of want to withdraw back and inward.
So that is always a conflict I am unable to resolve. If a person sees visvam puranam sukhayate, he should not be disturbed even by cow slaughter etc. So is it that only a uttam adhikari who does not preach can see positive everywhere, and till we reach that stage, we should try to discriminate and find fault with the environment.
Nice deliberation! I suppose they both hold their truth through different perspectives.
These are two different points of view from two different perspectives. visvam purnam sukhayate is from Prabodhananda Saraswati, reiterated by Srila Sridhar Maharaj and similar viewpoint expressed by GM as a devotional point of view on the world. dukhalayam asasvatam is a point of view of the world urging someone (Arjuna) towards liberation, to leave this world behind. In bhakti the emphasis is not so much on renunciation of the world because one is already situated beyond bhoga and tyaga.
As Prahlad points out, both points of view have their value, I would say depending upon where one is situated in their progressive march towards bhakti. In our times after much emphasis on the dukhalayam asasvatam perspective I think modern preachers like our GM hope to bring devotees towards at least a more balanced perspective on the world, and eventually towards this post-liberated devotional perspective of visvam purnam sukhayate.
Still I struggle with this question.
I'm struggling with something in connection to this. Srila Sridhara Maharaj says that the environment is perfect and that the only problem is oneself. Is this a meditation meant only for advanced devotees, or could also neophytes try to see the surroundings like this? He said this when speaking about the mentality of fault finding. I suffer a lot from the tendency of finding faults with others, but when I try the meditation "Everyone are perfect except me", it feels like solipsism. How to deal with this?
I'm struggling with something in connection to this. Srila Sridhara Maharaj says that the environment is perfect and that the only problem is oneself. Is this a meditation meant only for advanced devotees, or could also neophytes try to see the surroundings like this? He said this when speaking about the mentality of fault finding. I suffer a lot from the tendency of finding faults with others, but when I try the meditation "Everyone are perfect except me", it feels like solipsism. How to deal with this?
You need to discriminate to progress from your stage. But try nonetheless to think that somehow God is behind everything happening to fully engaged devotees.
Thank you, Swami.