namaskaram ji
Cows are gentler than roosters
Gomata Ki jai , ....
I think it is necessary to accept, for the purposes of alleviating suffering, which certainly we are enjoined to do within dharma, that most people do not feel life is for realising God. We can encourage them to think it is, but we can't not help those who don't think so. It's fine, they're allowed to think that, maybe we're wrong, who knows? So we need to just help people regardless.
it is true many people do not realise , it takes some form of awakening , some particular experience , ....for beleif and realisation to occur , .....then it occurs in stages , just a little awakening here , just a little questioning there and slowly awakening happens , ...many many people are just like the child that is facinated with his toys as they grow the focus of their facination changes onto new toys and new accheivements , it is like saying that the Jiva comes back again and again to continue his facination with material life , only when something happens which causes him to look beyond the material does he start to question , then with questions if they are sincere comes the space for answers to form , ....oh yes it is fine , a person may think as he thinks , he must discover certain truths for himself , ...there is no point to force ones understanding upon him unless it falls with in our Dharma to do so , .....for instance as a (Hindu) parent one is bound by Dharma to give ones child both a material and spititual education , to perform samskaras at the right points , ...this is the best help we can give , people outside of our families we can only offer support in which ever way is needed , ....
Yes this is true. But we can never know. Whatever ends up happening was what was always meant to happen. So if we keep somebody alive for a long time when they are ill, that was what was supposed to happen. If we don't, then that too was supposed to happen.
in many respects yes , this is the age into which we are born , therefore many things which we experience are a part of that some good some bad , ...to be kept alive with no quality of life is a sad torture , some times it is done because the treatment exissts and a doctor may feel it to be wrong to refuse it , it is placing an unfair descission upon him , but some people do ask , .. for instance ''Do Not Revive''...and in other instances they can choose to refuse treatment , ..so here we have a potentialy good thing which causes some not so good dilemas at times .
I'm not sure there's such a distinction. Having been thoroughly irreligious myself, there is still a strong sense, or can be a strong sense, of trying to make life better for the future, not just within one's own life, but for the world, for your children, etc. And being pure, being healthy, increase your happiness at the time, within this life, in any case. So you can do them entirely selfishly, even!
even her there are differnt conceptions regarding what constitutes future , we will all look at it differently religious or non religious , ...you have followed these principles through Yoga practice , even following Patanjalis five yamas and niyamas you are following a dicipline then by following that dicipline you can become aware of the results of such actions , and with this comes a different understanding of purity , it is an unfolding , for instannce some one might begin Yoga practice for purely selfish reasons but as one progresses one learns to look at life with a different perspective . the attitude may change completly , but this is a very gradual and subtle change .
Or do we just think we do?
we do !.. there is allways free will , ...we canot blame our laziness or lack of action upon fate , ...this takes us to the the Gita's teaching upon ''Action in Inaction and Inaction in Action'' this deserves a discussion all by it self , ...
I kind of think it's the opposite. If we have other places to go, then we have less of an excuse to wreck the one planet with an entire biosphere.
this brings us back to the question of morality , ....if our actions were more sustainable we would not need ot go planet hopping , if we had the technology to visit other planets without causing any detremental efects , then OK we can do it , ... but to travel to other planets because we have exausted this one is not the right reason to do so .
Have you found the answers?
Jai Jai , ....by Krsnas mercy , ...we are given the answers , all we have to do is make it our sadhana to understand and to put those answers into practice , ....
to say I have found the answers would sound vainglorious , ...but many years ago I read something so sweet , ...about stages of attainment in Buddhism , ....and the words ''unshakable faith'' were used , ...to me one may not have all the answers , but one may have experienced sufficient answers to realise that ones faith is unshakable
But we've gotta help people anyway.
true experience leads one to develop compassion , compassion has to help where ever it can
but sometimes when a person is stuck in their thinking , there is very little way one can help except by setting an example that they may not even be ready to follow , but that example might have hidden influinces , imprints that might at some point ripen with positive results , this is our duty , but prehaps the largest duty is to become proficient in ones sadhana oneself then we are better equiped to help others .
Got to realise the Self to fully understand. Or however you say that in the Vaishnava language!
But yes, it's necessary to look at things from different angles. For me, there isn't material, there isn't spiritual. There's just one common substance, one universal substrate, That. You've felt it, I'm sure
You are a dualist?
here I am refering to something more commonly acknowledged verbaly , and described by Buddhists as the two truths , ...that being that in this bodily form we are subject to two truths symultaniously , conventional reality and ultimate reality , a Vaisnava tends to look at our material and bodily concerns as temporary and to some extent illusuory in that they are not what we realy are in the ultimate sence , ....so they are accknowledging this same Two Truths Doctrine , .....how ever it has nothing to do with being monist or dualist .
Spaceships are meant to carry you around in space, not between spiritual planes
But maybe if a spaceship's computer was to encode a human mind, then it could also be a devotee, and dance like a Vaishnava.
Im not interested in space , only spiritual planes , so I dont think I need a spaceship ,
....so my poor mind is deffinatly boggled at the thought of programing Bhakti into a space ship , ...
Do Advaitins dance like Vaishnavas? They certainly can. One can be both Vaishnava and Advaitin, in theory
excuse my asking , but how ?
at least. I don't know of any Advaitin Vaishnavas myself.
Hee Hee me neither !
You will like Valli the elephant, I think.
poor Valli , ...I am sure wales is too cold for an elephant I hope he has a coat for cold days .
It is odd, really it is. I don't know why. I don't buy into the yugas so literally, myself.
you have plenty of time in your life to change understandings and opinopns , you will be quite surprised things just fit into place all of the sudden and some things become suddenly clear , ...its not a subject that can be studied interlectualy , my nana once made a comment about how much had changed in her lifetime and about the degrading tendance of humanity , I was probably about fourteen so I didnt realy understand what she was saying , ...but haveing watched more of life go by I now understand exactly what she meant , she had no concept of yugas just experience of life .
Yes, I want to be a sadhu. Or a sannyasi, anyway, it need not be a sadhu exactly. That's what I'm drawn to, what my instinct is.
But perhaps I'll do some inter-faith work for a while first. I already have something coming up in that area, starting September 2016. I'll see how I feel, and what's appropriate.
I have allways wondered how Skandavale ballance the interfaith aspect ? it comes across that they are primarily Hindu although not of any particular Sampradaya from what I gather from freinds , so many of the visitors to our temple had been there and freinds of mine went a couple of years back , but I still havent
they are strict vegetarian I know , ...this is good
..... but being south Indian in origin do they take onion and Garlic ???
on the subject of inter faith work , ..how much importance would you place on Bhakti in enabling a person to accept and work with all faiths ? ....
