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Christians and Krishna. A conflict?




Dear Vimal



Hello. Hare Krishna!



It's great that you are reading "Bhagavad-gita As It Is" by Srila Prabhupada 

and you are a firm believer in Krishna. You have mentioned there are many 

Christian preachers but they all seem to concentrate on the material energy, 

healing the sick and solving other material problems... You have asked why God 

would come as Jesus and say one thing and come as Krishna amd say another...



Krishna does appear in different ways and at different times to reestablish the 

religious principals and kill the demons. When He appears He preaches according 

to the time and place, according to the ability of the audience to understand. 

So Krishna has given very complete, very deep philosophy as He was speaking to 

a very qualified devotee, Arjuna, however Jesus was preaching to some fishermen 

in a desert, so it is a different thing. He had to present everything very 

simply and also he needed to show so many miricles to convince the people to 

follow him. So these days the Christinas focus on that -- the material 

miricles, the healing, etc.... But that is not the real substance of Lord Jesus 

Christ's teachings. He has given information of the "Kingdom of God" and the 

temporary nature of this material world... It is our business to change our 

consciousness in this life so at the time of death we will no longer be 

attached to this material world -- we will be just attached to God, Krishna... 

So we will go back home, back to Krishna.



This material world is not our real home. It is a temporary place full of 

miseries and suffering. But we, the soul, are eternal, full of knowledge and 

full of bliss... So we don't belong here in the material world... We belong in 

the spiritual world.



You have said:

>

>Christianity believes in non-reincarnation and one life, they believe in heaven 

>and hell and a devilish figure.

>

The Christian presentation is a very simple one, given by Jesus and suitable 

for his audience. But you can't really say they believe in "non-reincarnation" 

-- after all, reincarnation means an eternal soul, the Christians accept this 

-- the soul is eternal. And reincarnation means getting another body after 

death -- so they believe one gets another body in heaven or hell after death. 

So it is a simple explaination of reincarnation, that's all. As far as the 

devil is concerned there are many demons also and hellish planets mentioned in 

the Vedic scriptures. So perhaps the Devil is a summary of this?



>Hare Krishna followers believe in reincarnation, they believe in spiritual 

>heaven and material forms of hell, and they believe that the real devilish 

>identity is the uncontrollable mind.

>



As far as the Krishna conscious presentation is concerned this Earth is a 

middle planet, there are many other planets, higher and lower. The higher ones 

are heavenly and the lower ones are hellish. There are 14 divisions of 

planetary systems 7 up and 7 down and the whole thing is material. Beyond the 

material world alltogether is the spiritual sky and within the spiritual sky 

there are many planets, the Vikuntha plantes and the supreme, lotus-shaped 

planet is called Goloka Vrindavana and that is Krishna's planet, the supreme 

spiritual planet...



THe mind is our best friend or our worst enemy, if it is controlled it is our 

best friend and if it is uncontrolled it is our worst enemy. We have to control 

the mind by fixing it on Krishna and the best way to do that is by constantly 

chanting:

     Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare

        Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare



As far as telling your Christian friends about Krishna Srila Prabhupada had a 

great deal of success in preaching to the Christian priests, etc. There are a 

number of very nice classes and discussions Srila Prabhupada had about this. I 

am sending you a transcript of his class to a group of Fransciscan Priests in 

Australia -- I think you will find it very nice. "The Human Art of Loving God" 

Prabhupada just describes Krishna, God and the Christian Priests can appreciate 

it very much -- they can understand Krishna is the same person Jesus is talking 

about in the Bible. As far as challenging the Christians, I have heard one 

class tonight where Prabhupada says He simply challenges them "Jesus says you 

should not kill but your are killing so many animals..." and "God is supreme, 

so why can God not have more than one Son? You can have more than one Son. Are 

you greater than God?"



As far as the Christians having a different philosophy than the Krishnas that 

is not really the case, Jesus also stressed the importance of becoming detached 

from the material world and attached to God. That is the real thing, to become 

God-conscious, Krishna conscious. There's no way we can make this material 

world a comfortable place. Birth is there, disease is there, old age is there 

and death is also here. What can be done about this?? We don't want sickness, 

old-age or death. So there is not much point in this "material" spirituality. 

Even if they can get some healing from the Christian church they will get sick 

again -- it is the nature of the material world -- so what is the gain? 



The more you chant Hare Krishna, read Srila Prabhupada's books, hear Srila 

Prabhupada's classes, and serve Srila Prabhupada and Krishna the more your 

intelligence will develop and your realizations of the philosophy will increase 

so you will be able to convince innocent people who are a little curious. But 

there are demons also -- wou will never believe in God, who are envious of God 

and His devotees... so we have to come to the point of recognizing three types 

of people: the devotees, the innocent and the demons. We should associate with 

the devotees, preach to the innocent and avoid the demons. That is the middle 

platform of spiritual life, Krishna consciousness, and we have to come to this 

platform to be able to preach. 



Thanks for the letter, chant Hare Krishna and be happy. Please write back soon.



Your servant



Madhudvisa dasa







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Chant Hare Krishna and be happy! All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!