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Krishna, Karma, Reincarnation and all that...

• Subject: Krishna, Karma, Reincarnation and all that...
• From: Paul M
• Date: Thu Jun 29 12:02:01 1995
• Message-Id: id546

Dear Paul

Hello! Hare Krishna!

>> Do you know anything about Krishna?
>>
>Not very much... I have a vague idea of the philosophy (pantheism?)
>but I'm not sure how accurate it is:

No. We are not panthiests. Many Hindus are panthiests [they worship many different
"gods"] but we as Viasnavas worship one God, Krishna or Vishnu [same God,
different names...]

God has many servants called "demigods" who are living entities like you and me
but are in powerful positions within the universe. If one wants material things he
can worship and pray to these demigods for this. Many Hindus do this... But it is
less intelligent, it is for material things only [money, a beautiful wife, fame,
good heath, etc...] Worshipping the demigods can't help us to reestablish our lost
relationship with God. We have to worship God for that!

>
>-Physical matter is a prison from which we must escape?

Yes. The material world is likened to a fort. We are trapped here. And we should
get out and go back home, back to Godhead...

>
>-Salvation from misery of this world lies in merging with the the great
>spirit which pervades every living and non living thing in the universe?

No. No. No... That's not us at all! Many Hindus hold this belief. It is called
impersonalism. It means to accept an all-pervading energy to be supreme. But God
is a person. There is an all-pervading energy but it is God's energy... So these
impersonalists can merge or "become one" with the energy of God. But that is not
the highest spiritual platform. There is a spiritual world, the Kingdom of God,
and this material world is a temporary perverted reflection of that eternal

spiritual world. So everything we see here is a preverted reflection of the
original spiritual reality. So everything we see here is in the spiritual world
also. It is there in it's original pure form that's all. So we remain persons in
the spiritual world and Krishna is the Supreme Person. So our business is to serve
Him. We all have a relationship with Krishna. Some are friends of Krishna, some
are parents of Krishna, some are servants of Krishna, some are even lovers of
Krishna. Everything is there in the spiritual world...

>
>-Accomplish this task through meditation and following moral law?

Yes. Always thinking of Krishna. Always chanting His name...

>
>-Those who are successful will be reincarnated as a new life
>form -- usually a mammal or some other "holy" animal such as a
>cow.

No. It is unsuccessful to be reincarnated as an animal! Our next body depends upon
the state of our consciousness at the time of death. So if we live like an animal,
if we are just concerned with the animalistic instincts of eating, sleeping sex
life and defence, then we will get an animals body next time... But if we use our
human form of life to ask questions like "Why am I here?", "What is the purpose of
life?", "Where do I go after death?" then we will at least be born as human being
in the next life.

Perfection means to become completely detached from the material world and
comletely attached to Krishna. If I have no more attachment for the material world
I don't have to come back here again... I can instead go back to Krishna, back
home, back to Godhead.

>Eventually, with enough successful reincarnations the
>person will transcend this physical world
>and achieve Nirvana? (be absorbed into a transcendental spiritual entity)

That's Buddhism... Nirvana is the void... They don't believe in a spiritual world.
They see this world as a suffering place and see nonexistence as the solution. But
that's not so nice... We have to purify our existence not finish our existence!

>
>-Those who fail to follow moral law and practice meditation (ie. by
>repeating mantras such as "Hare Krishna" designed to help focus the mind
>on "nothingness" as opposed to rational thought and the worries of
Chanting Hare Krishna is to focus the mind on God, Krishna... Not on
nothingness... There are people who try to make the mind "void" but it is not
possible. Instead we should engage all our senses in serving Krishna...

everyday
>life, etc etc) will be reincarnated as a new life form (usually one with
>a bad rep. such as insects, deformed human beings, etc)

Yes. We get what we deserve. We get a body according to our consciousness at the
time of death... We can go to heaven also and we can go to hell too...

>
>> Do you believe in reincarnation?
>>
>No, but I do believe in our immortality and ressurection after death!

It's the same thing really... [but it's the soul that is immortal not the body...
the body rots in the grave while the soul goes on to heaven or hell or to take
birth again here...]


Thanks for the nice letter! Looking forward to hearing from you again!

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