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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!