How to Accelerate Humanities Spiritual Evolution
Currently humanity is stuck in a very materialistic civilization which is completely degrading and not at all conducive for the spiritual evolution of the general public. One of the fundamental causes of this materialistic society is the widespread belief in the completely false theory that life comes from matter.
If the people can believe life comes from matter simply by random chance then they can avoid all spiritual considerations completely.
In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna completely smashes this idea by asserting that He is the source of everything and that everything emanates from Him. Bhagavad Gita is so clear but because of the tendency of people to be envious, because they do not want to accept anyone is greater them themselves, they reject these very clear statements of Krishna and try and explain them in some other way. This is very dishonest but that is what practically every commentator on the Bhagavada Gita does, except of course for His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada simply explains Bhagavad Gita “As It Is”, he simply presents what Krishna actually says.
Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both its origin and dissolution. (Bhagavad-gita 7.6)
Everything that exists is a product of matter and spirit. Spirit is the basic field of creation, and matter is created by spirit. Spirit is not created at a certain stage of material development. Rather, this material world is manifested only on the basis of spiritual energy. This material body is developed because spirit is present within matter; a child grows gradually to boyhood and then to manhood because of that superior energy, spirit soul, being present. Similarly, the entire cosmic manifestation of the gigantic universe is developed because of the presence of the Supersoul, Visnu. Therefore spirit and matter, which combine together to manifest this gigantic universal form, are originally two energies of the Lord, and consequently the Lord is the original cause of everything.
A fragmental part and parcel of the Lord, namely, the living entity, may by manipulation of material energy construct a skyscraper, factory or city, but he cannot create matter out of nothing, and he certainly cannot construct a planet or a universe. The cause of the universe is the Supersoul, Krsna, the supreme creator of all individual souls and the original cause of all causes.
These are very radical statements in today’s world. Nowadays ‘educated’ people do not believe in the existence of anything except matter. For them the only thing in existence is the gross material elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether. Some even don’t believe in ether… So they are like children who do not understand how something works. They are in complete ignorance as to the way the world is functioning. And they are worshipped as great scientists and scholars. This is the world we live in. Complete fools in complete ignorance are telling us that there is no spiritual energy, everything is matter, everything is chemicals and that life comes from a random combination of chemicals.
But we can understand from this verse of Bhagavad Gita that Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the source of all life and all matter. So life–and also matter–comes from life. It does not come from chemicals or from a primordial soup… Life and matter come from Krishna. Life comes from life! If we can just establish this fact it will be a great step forward for human civilization.
O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread. (Bhagavad Gita 7.7)
There is a common controversy over whether the Supreme Absolute Truth is personal or impersonal. As far as Bhagavad-gita is concerned, the Absolute Truth is the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, and this is confirmed in every step. In this verse, in particular, it is stressed that the Absolute Truth is a person.
That the Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Absolute Truth is also the affirmation of the Brahma-samhita: the Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead is Lord Krsna, who is the primeval Lord, the reservoir of all pleasure, Govinda, and the eternal form of complete bliss and knowledge.
These authorities leave no doubt that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. The impersonalist, however, argues on the strength of the Vedic version given in the Svetasvatara Upanisad: “In the material world Brahma, the primeval living entity within the universe, is understood to be the supreme amongst the demigods, human beings and lower animals. But beyond Brahma there is the Transcendence who has no material form and is free from all material contaminations. Anyone who can know Him also becomes transcendental, but those who do not know Him suffer the miseries of the material world.”
The impersonalist puts more stress on “no material form”. But this “no material form” is not impersonal.
It indicates the transcendental form of eternity, bliss and knowledge as described in the Brahma-samhita quoted above. Other verses in the Svetasvatara Upanisad substantiate this as follows:
“I know that Supreme Personality of Godhead who is transcendental to all material conceptions of darkness. Only he who knows Him can transcend the bonds of birth and death. There is no way for liberation other than this knowledge of that Supreme Person.”
“There is no truth superior to that Supreme Person because He is the supermost. He is smaller than the smallest, and He is greater than the greatest. He is situated as a silent tree, and He illumines the transcendental sky, and as a tree spreads its roots, He spreads His extensive energies.”
From these verses one concludes that the Supreme Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is all-pervading by His multi-energies, both material and spiritual.
So from these two verses of Bhagavad Gita we can understand it very clearly and very conclusively from Krishna Himself that everything–both the living entities and matter–comes from Krishna and that everything is resting on Krishna just like the pearls are resting on a thread.
So this very simple point (that everything comes from Krishna, that life comes from Krishna, life comes from life) will, if understood and accepted by the general public, take humanity to the next level of spiritual evolution.
About the Author
Madhudvisa dasa My first contact with a Hare Krishna was a most merciful Mataji in Oxford Street, London who sold me a "Higher Taste" cook book in 1984 while I was on holidays there. I started seriously reading Srila Prabhupada's books in Australia 1985 and by 1986 Srila Prabhupada had convinced me "Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead" and "we should surrender to Krishna." I joined the Hare Krishnas in Perth, Western Australia in 1986. Since then I have been chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, reading and distributing Srila Prabhupada's books and preaching as much as I can. That's my life and full-time occupation now really. I like it more than anything I've ever experienced before. Srila Prabhupada's books are so amazing... Even after reading them all many times they're still fresh and new. They are truly transcendental! That's it really. Now I'm just hankering to once again see the world chant Hare Krishna, dance and feast and float away in the ecstasy of Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana movement as it did in Srila Prabhupada's physical presence. Let the whole world drown in the ecstatic flood of love of Krishna!
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pamho prabhu agtacbsp thank you for the krsna connection newsletter I started to chant sixteen rounds daily again at Brahma muhurta just after the mangal artik I still keep celibate im disgusted regarding that nasty experience mistaken for enjoyment while is suffering asatyere satya korimani I think the power of your purity through the newsletter helped me to become really a serious devotee as I used to be more than two decades ago thank you jai radhe syam agtys ys acsd haribol
I am blessed.
Kripa barasti rehay.
Hara Krishna Hara Krishna Krishna Krishna Hara Hara
Dear Madhudvisa Dasa
Hare Krsna, & thank you for the regular emails that are very good. I appreciate this aspect of your devotional efforts, & share them with some of my friends who are also gradually becoming Krsna Conscious.. I just wanted to let you know, that we are very much enjoying Krsna Consciousness, studying Prabhupada’s books, & sharing what we learn with others, who are mostly very receptive to the knowledge we have attained by way of our growing greed for Krsna, which is the most wonderful greed 🙂
Please keep sending your emails. They are very good and I oftentimes take notes from them to research and learn more.
I thought I would send you some feedback to let you know that your efforts are mucb appreciated.
Yours Sincerely, Mandi B
Hare Krishna Mandi
Thank you very much for the encouragement, very much appreciated.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thank you for your regular emails. I enjoy reading them. Am attending Bhagwat Gita classes to learn the basics and the shlokas. Your emails add to the information i get in my class. Thanks once again.
Hare Krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare. Hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare.
A very eye opening article ! I strongly agree & believe that a spiritual revolution is needed in today’s world. Only Krishna consciousness can save humanity from progressive daily deterioration.
Thank you very much Prabhu !
Hare Krishna !
Thanks Prabhuji! Hare Krsna
Hare Krishna prabhu ji
All glories to Sri Radha Krishna
All glories to srila prabhupad
all respect for you
you are very right, in my school when I was discussing about lord visnu and his incarnations and also about the three visnu ji with my friend who simply worships Sri Krishna and likes to discuss about supersouls, one of my intelligent classmates just sitting at our back where listening to this and while us discussing she laughs and says(the intelligent one) “there is nothing like that in reality, these are just old stories and our earth was created by the big bang theory”. We were not talking to her but she interfared and at that time I was like…WHAT ???? We both continued our discussion and polietly replyed her that “these are all true statements and are written in many years old books by great sages and scholers”. That all day long, I was thinking about her that how can a topper of the class not belive or listen about the lord’s glories????? Why in this world people not right are heard???… Why so? Everytime something like this happens to me I remember Krishna and say him “Really… Really are these your children not remembering you, thanks for your blessings and love so that I am remembering you”.
Thanks for listening and your knowledgeable letters
Hare Krishna prabhu ji
Very good article keep it up Prabhu, Rasajana Prabhu, Kulshekhar Prabhu, Sampati Prabhu sab krishna kripa se badiya hi hoge, I am also enjoying in Uttrakhand
why has the e mails stopped i love em please
dont stop keep me and khrishna happy and carry on
You should only take Krishna prasadam, food cooked by devotees and offered with love to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Particularly you should not take grains cooked by non-devotees like bread. That is very bad. But everything prepared by non-devotees is very bad. So you should not take anything except Krishna Prasadam. Of course in your current situation that may be difficult and you have to eat something but you have to know if you are eating anything at all that is not Krishna prasadam you are eating sin only and that will have a very bad effect on your consciousness and will make it very, very hard for you to become Krishna consciousness. So in reality you need to make some arrangement so you can cook for Srila Prabhupada and Krishna yourself…
Chant Hare Krishna and pray to Krishna. Krishna is sarva karana karanam, the cause of all causes. So worshiping Krishna and praying to Krishna includes worshiping all the demigods because they are all part and parcel of Krishna.
Hare Krsna,
Thanks for sending that. I have a question, but it is not related to the above article, but hope that you may be able to answer it. I read in the Gita, that Krsna awards liberation easily but not devotional service because that is the way he can be purchased, but what is the difference, isn’t liberation, liberation. Are there two types of liberation? And if there are what is the destination of the easily given liberation? I thought liberation meant that after death you go back home to Krsna. Please explain.
Thanks
Haribol
Amena
Hare Krishna Amena
It is a very nice question, thank you very much.
There is more than one type of liberation. Liberation does not necessarily mean going back home, Back to Godhead. Only the bhaktas, the devotees can go back home, back to Godhead.
Liberation just means being free from the bondage of the material world. It means being on the spiritual platform, but the spiritual platform can also mean impersonal liberation. That is what the impersonalists aspire for. It is also what Krishna’s enemies achieve when they are killed by Krishna. This impersonal liberation means the spirit soul enters into the impersonal brahmajoti, the shining effulgence that surrounds Krishna, and he becomes one of those tiny shining particles that make up the brahmajoti. So this is liberation in the sense that one is free from the problems of the material world and he is situated on the transcendental platform. But it is impersonal. He has no form manifest in the brahmajoti and has no ability to do anything, he does not have any activities and he can not associate with anyone else. So although, in that position, he is liberated, and he is free from all the suffering in the material world and he is enjoying a type of bliss called brahmananada, that bliss is more-or-less just an absence of suffering. He has no activities at all there and ultimately this is not a satisfying position because the spirit soul is eternally active and enjoys through relationships with other spirit souls. So in this impersonal liberation there are no activities and there is no chance for any association with other spirit souls. So after some time he will be very dissatisfied in such a liberated condition and will again fall back down to the material world so he can have some activities and have some association with other living entities.
So this impersonal liberation is not perminant because it is not satisfying. There are three aspects to liberation: sat, cit and ananda, so in this impersonal liberation he can experience the sat and cit, eternality and knowledge, aspects, but not the ananda aspect. So it is not completely satisfying.
So this sort of impersonal liberation Krishna awards easily, as I said He even awards this impersonal liberation to the demons that He kills. But as you say Krishna does not award devotional service very easily because Krishna is purchased by his devotees. He can not be purchased in any other way.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thank Prabhu for reminding me of Krishna and for all your service to keep Bhaktivedanta s legacy as it is.
Thank you my dear Vaishnava for reminding me of Sri Krishna and for all your service to him,loyalty to Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Dear Swamiji
True. I also understand the teaching and its application. However when it comes to reality; I feel I am bound by the Materialistic Requirements and Desires.
I know for 100% death is certain and nothing shall remain as such in this world. I clearly see all that which has a beginning would certainly have an end. Yet, we are not able to compromise our ego, economy and emotion driven desires and requirements. These 3Es rules our life even though we want to come out and live a spiritual life turning God-wards
Many times, we are drawn away from God despite our Bhakti and Nama Sava.
This probably is to purify ourself and come back to him with more intensified love
I only feel the unwanted population, hyper materialistic and individualistic movements in the society and lack of proper guru and spiritual association is making us to go astray despite intellectually we can know what is truth and reality
Dasan
V. Narayanan