In2-MeC

Christchurch, New Zealand
22 November 2003

A Letter to In2-MeC

Hare Krsna Maharaj,

Please accept my humble obeisances.

Thank you very much for your enlivening diary.its really wonderful...the pastimes....the philosophy....the feeling that one is going closer to the lotus feet of SRI SRI RADHIKAMADHAVA is really
.........

Maharaj, i had a question regarding your articles on Dreams..... i had read that SP said that dreams are not worth thinking if its not of Krsna's or Spiritual masters(paraphased not as it is).

After the Jan issue on HH Vishnujana Maharaj you never came up with your ecstatic pastimes with him.Actually after i read RADHADAMODAR VILASA i was a bit fascinated by his personality...but unfortunately i was able to get only the first volume. Can you tell me how he disappeared from this mortal world to join SP in the loving pastimes of SRI SRI RADHADAMODRA.

Thank you very much.
your most insignificant servant,

vikram pandit
ISKCON YOUTH FORUM ,PUNE.

Dear Vikrama Pandit Prabhu,

Please accept my respects. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Hare Krsna! Your appreciation of In2-MeC is most welcome. Thank you.

Regarding the article on dreams, that is a summary of the Agni Purana's interpretation of dreams, omens and signs. I do not know if Srila Prabhupada made this statement that you were told. But this I do know--that in Srila Prabhupada's last days, when his disciples were trying to find an ideal medicine to strengthen his waning health, His Divine Grace had a dream of an Ayurvedic kaviraja who wore Sri Vaisnava tilaka. It soon turned out that the devotees made contact with just such a kaviraja in Calcutta, a pakka brahmana who always kept the large South Indian style of tilak on his forehead. The devotees quickly brought him to Vrndavana to treat Srila Prabhupada. In any case, Srila Prabhupada soon departed this world back to Godhead. But in this wondeful manner, that Vaisnava kaviraja was present to assist His Divine Grace in his final pastimes. So, in reference to the point you made in your letter, this kaviraja was not on the level of Krsna or the spiritual master, but still Srila Prabhupada saw him in his dream, and his coming to see Srila Prabhupada was somehow auspicious...even though by his medicine he could not keep His Divine Grace in this world longer.

Regarding Visnujana Maharaja's disappearance, I did not write about that because I do not know what happened. Years ago I asked HH Tamal Krsna Maharaja if he had any idea of Visnujana Maharaja's fate. He told me quite clearly that he did not. There is a story widely believed in ISKCON that Visnujana Maharaja gave up his body at Allahabad by drowning himself in the Triveni. I think HG Vayasaki Prabhu presents this account in the end of his Radha-Damodara Vilasa. But HH Tamal Krsna Maharaja told me personally that he thoroughly investigated the case for a long time and could not uncover any proof in support of the Triveni scenario. All that I know is, Visnujana Maharaja disappeared from this world. Despite the ISKCON legend, how he really disappeared seems to be a pure mystery.

Hoping this finds you well,

Suhotra Swami

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Bhagavad-Gita in Essence
(continued from yesterday)

The First Essence: Tri-sloki Gita
(Bg 15.16-18)
The Essence of Vedanta in Three Verses

Focus on the Purport of Bg 15.17

The Upanisadic verse runs as follows: nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam. The purport is that amongst all the living entities, both conditioned and liberated, there is one supreme living personality, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who maintains them and gives them all the facility of enjoyment according to different work.

Notes:

1. The conditioned souls depend upon the all-pervading Lord for material necessities. They approach Him through the Vedic sacrificial mantras. The liberated souls depend upon Him for transcendental knowledge. They approach Him through purified consciousness.

Bg 3.15:

Regulated activities are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently the all-pervading Transcendence is eternally situated in acts of sacrifice.

SB 11.12.17:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Uddhava, the Supreme Lord gives life to every living being and is situated within the heart along with the life air and primal sound vibration. The Lord can be perceived in His subtle form within the heart by one's mind, since the Lord controls the minds of everyone, even great demigods like Lord Siva. The Supreme Lord also assumes a gross form as the various sounds of the Vedas, composed of short and long vowels and consonants of different intonations.

Bg 13.25-26

Some perceive the Supersoul within themselves through meditation, others through the cultivation of knowledge, and still others through working without fruitive desires. Again there are those who, although not conversant in spiritual knowledge, begin to worship the Supreme Person upon hearing about Him from others (srutvanyebha upasate). Because of their tendency to hear from authorities, they also transcend the path of birth and death.

2. That all-pervading Lord who is worshiped through sacrifice is none other than Sri Krsna Himself.

Bg 9.15-16

Others, who engage in sacrifice by the cultivation of knowledge, worship the Supreme Lord as the one without a second, as diverse in many, and in the universal form. But it is I who am the ritual, I the sacrifice, the offering to the ancestors, the healing herb, the transcendental chant. I am the butter and the fire and the offering.

That Supreme Personality of Godhead is situated in everyone's heart as Paramatma. A wise man who can understand Him is eligible to attain perfect peace, not others.

Notes:

1. The Paramatma is the Lord of sacrifice, Lord Yajna. He is the goal of Vedas. Both matter and spirit are His energies. Those who know this can attain perfect peace.

Bg 15.15:

I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known, Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.

Bg 8.2-4:

Who is the Lord of sacrifice, and how does He live in the body, O Madhusudana?

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman (aksaram brahma paramam), and his eternal nature is called adhyatma, the self. Action pertaining to the development of the material bodies of the living entities is called karma, or fruitive activities. O best of the embodied beings, the physical nature, which is constantly changing, is called adhibhuta [the material manifestation]. The universal form of the Lord, which includes all the demigods, like those of the sun and the moon, is called adhidaiva. And I, the Supreme Lord, represented as the Supersoul in the heart of every embodied being, am called adhiyajna [the Lord of sacrifice].

Bg 5.29:

A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.

(To be continued tomorrow, focusing on the Purport of Bg 15.18)

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