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A little Hare Krishna FAQ!

• Subject: A little Hare Krishna FAQ!
• From: AnneLizrd
• Date: Mon Jan 08 14:42:23 1996
• Message-Id: id689

Dear Sarah

Hello. Hare Krishna...

>Thanks for all the info! I'll check out those books. would I find them at a
>liberary, or more likely a very diverse bookstore?

Hopefully the Library will have some. They are not very available in bookstores
unfortunately. There is a mail order service called "Krishna Culture" and they
have a free order "hot-line". I think that would be the best thing. Just ring them
on:

>I'm glad you accept Jesus, because (being raised Catholic) I'd have a hard
>time throwing him out.

Yes. It is possible to be a Christian and a Krishna at the same time. There is no
conflict. Here, in Australia, we even have a few priests who are devotees too.
Krishna is the same God Jesus talks about in the Bible.


>Okay, I read your reply again, and I have some more questions.

>why do you say Hare Krishna like a greeting?

We try to always chant and remember Krishna's names. Because Krishna and His name
are nondifferent. Krishna is present in the sound vibration of His holy name:



"The holy name of Krishna is transcendentally blissful. It bestows all spiritual
benedictions, for it is Krishna Himself, the reservoir of all pleasure. Krishna's
name is complete, and it is the form of all transcendental mellows. It is not a
material name under any condition, and it is no less powerful than Krishna
Himself. Since Krishna's name is not contaminated by the material qualities, and
there is no question of its being involved with maya, Krishna's name is always
liberated and spiritual; it is never conditioned by the laws of material nature.
This is because the name of Krishna and Krishna Himself are Spiritual." (Padma
Purana)

>What is Srimati? or Srila? Sri is like mister, right?

Srimati is the female form of "sri". "mati" comes from "maji" or mother. "Sri"
means opulence. It is used something like "mister". It is a term of respect used
for Krishna (Sri Krishna) or His incarnations (Sri Balarama) or His great devotees
(Srila Prabhupada)...

>By your life being devoted to Krishna, do you mean you spend all of your time
>chanting           and meditating etc.?

It is very difficult for us, brought up in the western world, to just sit down and
chant and meditate. There are some great devotees who have done it in the past.
There was one great devotee about five hundred years ago called Haridasa Thakura.
He would chant 192 rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra every day. That means
chanting:

         Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
               Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

108 times 192 times. (chanting the mantra 108 times = one round)

So Haridasa Thakura was able to just sit down at Jaganatha Puri [a holy city in
India] and chant Hare Krishna but it is not possible for us. We vow to chant at
least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra each day (it takes 2 - 3 hours only)
and the rest of the time we spend engaged in Krishna's service. For me at the
moment I am answering mail about Krishna on the internet. This is meditating also.
I have to think of how to explain Krishna to you. So it is also spiritual. Some
devotees distribute Srila Prabhupada's books, some worship Krishna in the temple,
some go out chanting Hare Krishna on the streets, some work on farms looking after
the cows and growing grains and vegetables to offer to Krishna.

The idea is we should arrange out life in such a way that we can always remember
Krishna. It's not that we have to go to some mountain cave and live there. Krishna
consciousness can be performed anywhere. But we should give up doing things for
ourselves. We should do everything for Krishna. Krishna is likened to the roots of
a tree. If you want to supply water to a tree and you give it to the roots of the
tree automatically the whole tree will get the benefit. But if you try and water
all the branches, leaves, flowers, etc without supplying water to the roots then
it will be useless. So if we try to please ourselves that will not be successful.
It will end in frustration. But if we try to please Krishna automatically we will
become satisfied ourselves and also everyone else will benefit too. Krishna is the
root of the entire creation. If you succeed in pleasing Krishna, everyone will
benefit.

>Why is Krishna's brother included in the mantra if there is only one Supreme
>Godhead?

It is a very good question. Krishna is the one Supreme Personality of Godhead, but
He can expand into unlimited forms simultaneously. After all He is God. He can do
anything. He has two types of expansions: visnu-tattva (God) and jiva-tattva (the
ordinary living entities like us). So Balarama is the first expansion of Krishna.
He is not different from Krishna. It is a little hard to understand. God is one
but manifests in different ways to perform different activities and relate with
His devotees in different ways. The best thing is to read the Bhagavad-gita As It
Is and Srila Prabhupada's other books and gradually these things will become
revealed to you.

>How would I go about finding a guru to learn from?



That is a very touchy question these days (since Srila Prabhupada left our
physical presence in 1977). I am now not connected with ISKCON (the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness) because of some disagreement on this point. But
the main thing is the guru has to be qualified. Unless you find a pure devotee, a
liberated soul, it is useless. An ordinary man in the dress of a guru can't help
you. Srila Prabhupada is present in his books, he is a pure devotee, a liberated
soul, and you can get his association through reading his books. That is my
advice.

              brahmanda brahmite kona bhagyavan jiva
              guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire
universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some
are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering
living entities, one who is very fortunate gets the opportunity to associate with
a bona fide spiritual master, by the grace of Krishna. By the mercy of both
Krishna and the spiritual master, one such person receives the seed of the creeper
of devotional service."

So you see it is not such a common thing, only "a very fortunate person" gets the
opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master. The thing is most
people don't really want a spiritual master... Many want a "spiritual master" who
will say, "whatever you are doing, that is allright -- just give me some money and
you will be god in six months." So there are many cheating spiritual masters and
they are doing a good business because the people generally want to be cheated.
They want something very cheep. So a real spiritual master is rare indeed.

>what is life like for you? Like, do you live in a normal house and have a car
>and a job, or           what?

I am a brahmacary, that means a celibate student. I am just preaching at the
moment, distributing some books about Krishna, preaching on the internet, as well
as getting up before 4am in the mornings and chanting Hare Krishna and reading the
scriptures. I am living in a flat, not a temple at the moment, but it doesn't
matter where we live, it is a question of consciousness.

Many devotees are married also, they have houses, cars and jobs, but still one can
even be Krishna consciousness amid all these material things [although it can be
quite a distraction]. Still there have been many very great devotees who were
family men. Srila Prabhupada himself had a wife and children and run a company
manufacturing medicine in India before he became a sannyasi [entered the renounced
order of life]. In his family life, although he was managing his business and
providing for his family, still he was always thinking of Krishna. So you can be
Krishna conscious in any position of life.

>Are you given a name once you are a 'devotee'?

You get a name of Krishna or one of His devotees at the time of initiation. That
is the time you accept your spiritual master and he accepts you as his disciple.
It is not a cheep thing. One has to actually surrender. So you have to find a
qualified person. At the time of initiation we make a vow to follow the four
regulative principles (no illicit sex life - sex is for having children within
marriage, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication) and to chant at least
16 rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra every day.

>About the vegetarianism and violence, do you not believe in harming any
>living creature?  Insects included?

A devotee doesn't want to kill anything, even an ant. Every living entity has a
right to live and to kill another living entity is sinful. Even the vegetarians
are sinful if they kill vegetables to eat. But there is the law of nature. Every
living entity is living by eating some other living entity. So as human beings the
proper food for us is grains, milk products, vegetables and fruit. But unless it
is prepared with love and offered to Krishna then it is sinful also. We should do
everything for Krishna, even cooking. If we purchase some nice vegetables, milk
products, grains, etc and prepare a nice meal for Krishna and offer it to Krishna
then it becomes "prasadam" or Krishna's mercy. Krishna tastes the offering, He
accepts the love the devotee prepared it with.


It is impossible to avoid killing some insects, etc, unknowingly. When you drink
water so many small creatures are killed, sometimes, even if you are careful, you
may step on an ant or some other insect, and these things are sinful also. But
because all a devotees activities are performed in the service of Krishna, there
is no sin. Service to Krishna is completely transcendental to all material
reactions. [not that a devotee can knowingly commit a sin and think, "I am working
for Krishna - Krishna will protect me." No. That is one of the ten offenses and is
not forgiven. It is something the Catholics do. They go to confession, and they
think their sins are forgiven, which they may well be if it is done offensively --
but many times they just go out and commit the same sins again and come back to
confession to be forgiven again. But that is offensive, to knowingly commit sinful
activities thinking they will be counteracted by chanting Hare Krishna or going to
confession. They are never forgiven in this way.

>Are you saying that Krishna is the equivalent of Jesus in the Christian
>religions?

Krishna is like "God the father" Jesus refers to.

> Did           Krishna send his spirit into a human form to go
>about teaching people?

           yada yada he dharmasya
                glanir bhavati bharata
           abhutthanam adharmasya
                tadatmanam srjamy aham

"Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of
Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion -- at that time I descend Myself."
(Bhagavad-gita 4.7)

So Krishna Himself comes to this world sometimes (as He did 5,000 years ago as
Krishna and 500 years ago as Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu) and sometimes he
sends his pure devotees, or sons like Jesus Christ and Srila Prabhupada.

>Do you (personally) believe that God/Krishna has come down from Heaven to
>lead his           people through different earthly forms? (Buddha, Jesus
>etc.)

Yes. That is what Krishna has said Himself in the Bhagavad-gita in the verse I
quoted above. Jesus is the son of God [Krishna} and Lord Buddha is one of the
incarnations of Krishna -- but his philosophy is different. That is a long story.
But the Buddhists are, more or less, atheists.

>I'm not quite clear on the afterlife thing... If you lead a non-sinful, but
>not totally devoted life, you're reincarnated and live another life; if you
>were sinful, you go directly to Hell, if you were very good you go to Heaven,
>and if you were Krishna conscious you go to him? So Krishna doesn't meet and
>greet in Heaven?

There are heavenly planets within this material world, they are much better than
this earth. You can live for millions of years there, the people are much more
beautiful, they don't get old, the food is better, etc.. But it's still the
material world. Eventually the people in the heavenly planets have to die also,
even if their life is for millions of years. Then generally they come back to this
earth again. But the Kingdom of God Jesus talks about is not these material
planets. There is a spiritual sky, far beyond this material sky, and as there are
many planets in the material sky so also there are many spiritual planets in the
spiritual sky. They are all predominated by various forms of Krishna and the
supreme planet is called Goloka Vrndavana. It is a lotus-shaped palnet and it is
the destination of the pure devotees after they leave their material bodies.

>About the social system, your job is karma?(after ever job you had in
>parentheses<sp>, karma)

Yes. More or less. Karma means "work". Not just you job, any type of work or
activity is karma and generates a reaction in the future. "Good karma" or good
work generates a good reaction and "bad karma" or bad work generates a bad
reaction. Krishna consciousness is akarma, transcendental to karma. Actions in
Krishna consciousness do not generate any material reaction, they are completely

spiritual and lead to liberation from the material world and going back home, back
to Godhead.

> I read about another religion where you have to
>fulfill your karma, or else you accumulate darma (described as dust on the
>soul) and then when you die you are put in a lower form. when you fulfill
>your karma, you then go to a Heaven-like state. I may have karma and darma
>backwards, orevn have the wrong words, but that's the basics. Is that in any
>way incorporated into this?

It is something of a Hindu hodgepodge. But the words karma and dharma are right.
Dharma means "occupation". It is usually translated as "religion". So Krishna
says:

             sarva-dharman parityajya
                  mam ekam saranam vraja
             aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
                  moksayisyami ma sucah

"Abandon all varieties of religion [dharma] and just surrender unto Me. I shall
deliver you form all sinful reactions, do not fear."

So that is "Sanatana-Dhama" or the eternal occupational duty. We, by our nature,
have to serve someone. If you look at anyone you will find they are serving
someone. Even big men like the president. He is serving the voters. If they are
not pleased with him they will throw him out. So that is the way of material
service. Always frustrating. So Krishna says to give up all these mundane dharmas
[occupations] and simply surrender unto Him. That is our real, eternal occupation
-- to serve God, Krishna.

Thanks again for the questions. Keep writing. Looking forward to hearing from you
again.

Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!

Madhudvisa dasa

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