Welcome to the KrishnaSoft's Electronic Newsletter.
This is the April 2001 issue entitled: "Misplaced Love is the Cause of Suffering!"
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This newsletter goes to over 1100 people who either have an interest in Vedic science and/or spiritually entertaining multimedia technology.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
(1) Misplaced Love is the Cause of Suffering!
(2) An 'Illiterate' Engaged in Devotional Service is Smarter than any Materialist!
(3) Editorial Policy and Product List
1. MISPLACED LOVE IS THE CAUSE OF SUFFERING!
We pointed out in the March 2001 newsletter that all plans for material happiness will fail:
"We want to be happy in the material world, but this will never be possible; we shall simply increase the blazing fire of desires. Our desires cannot be satisfied by illusory thoughts and plans; rather, we have to follow the instructions of Lord Krsna: sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja. Then we shall be happy. Otherwise, in the name of happiness, we shall continue to suffer miserable conditions." (Bhag. 7.9.25)
An important point to understand is that we are looking to love something whether it's a car, a TV, a computer, family, society, friend, or whatever else it may be. Our natural position is to serve Krsna with love instead of misplacing the love by becoming attached to matter:
"The natural position of the living entity is to serve the Lord in a transcendental loving attitude. When the living entity wants to become Krsna Himself or imitate Krsna, he falls down into the material world." (Bhag. 4.28.53)
"By misusing his independence, the living entity falls down from the service of the Lord and takes a position in this material world as an enjoyer. That is to say, the living entity takes his position within a material body. Wanting to take a very exalted position, the living entity instead becomes entangled in a repetition of birth and death. He selects his position as a human being, a demigod, a cat, a dog, a tree, etc. In this way the living entity selects a body out of the 8,400,000 forms and tries to satisfy himself by a variety of material enjoyment." (Bhag. 4.28.53)
"The Supreme Lord is the supreme friend of everyone; however, no one can take advantage of the supreme friend's instructions while making his own plans to become happy and entangling himself in the modes of material nature." (Bhag. 4.28.53)
It is already dormant in our nature as a living entity to love God, and devotional service is a process for awakening our dormant love of God:
"Love of Godhead is dormant in every living entity, and the entire process of devotional service unto the Lord is meant for awakening this dormant, eternal love of Godhead." (Bhag. 3.2.20)
This devotional service will remove all the miseries of our life and make us eternally happy:
"O Brahmana Vyasadeva, it is decided by the learned that the best remedial measure for removing all troubles and miseries is to dedicate one's activities to the service of the Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead [Sri Krsna]." (Bhag. 1.5.32)
"Those who are inclined to material activities remain in the material sphere. But persons who engage in devotional service reach the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, where there is neither birth nor death nor different varieties of life under the influence of the law of karma. The best interest of the living entity is to engage himself in devotional service and go back home, back to Godhead. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura advised: 'My friend, you are being washed away in material nature's waves of time. Please try to understand that you are the eternal servant of the Lord. Then everything will stop, and you will be eternally happy.'"(Bhag. 4.11.21)
"The intelligent class of men, therefore, must admit the Lord as the ultimate source of all energies and thus pay tribute to the Lord for His good blessings. Simply by accepting the Lord as the supreme proprietor of everything, since He is actually so, one can achieve the highest perfection of life. Whatever a person may be in the estimation of the social order of things, if a person tries to reciprocate a feeling of love towards the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is satisfied with the blessings of the Lord, he will at once feel the highest peace of mind for which he is hankering life after life. Peace of mind, or in other words the healthy state of mind, can be achieved only when the mind is situated in the transcendental loving service of the Lord." (Bhag. 2.6.6)
The service attitude is also already there within the living entity, but in the material world, this service attitude is being used to serve the material mind and material senses instead of Krsna's order as received via the medium of the pure devotee:
"The living being's constitutional position is one of serving a superior. He is obliged to serve by force the dictates of illusory material energy in different phases of sense gratification. And in serving the senses he is never tired. Even though he may be tired, the illusory energy perpetually forces him to do so without being satisfied. There is no end to such sense gratificatory business, and the conditioned soul becomes entangled in such servitude without hope of release. The release is only effected by association with pure devotees. By such association one is gradually promoted to his transcendental consciousness. Thus he can know that his eternal position is to render service unto the Lord and not to the perverted senses in the capacity of lust, anger, desire to lord it over, etc. Material society, friendship and love are all different phases of lust. Home, country, family, society, wealth and all sorts of corollaries are all causes of bondage in the material world, where the threefold miseries of life are concomitant factors. By associating with pure devotees and by hearing them submissively, attachment for material enjoyment becomes slackened, and attraction for hearing about the transcendental activities of the Lord becomes prominent." (Bhag. 1.10.11-12)
Therefore, all sorts of mental speculations, plans, and actions unrelated to the service of Lord Krsna or averse to the service of Lord Krsna should be rejected. By engaging in devotional service knowledge will automatically be revealed:
"Devotional service automatically reveals actual knowledge of our material existence. One who is sufficiently intelligent immediately attains the stage of renunciation of so-called society, family and love as well as other things. As long as we are attached to society, family and love of the material world, there is no question of knowledge. Nor is there a question of devotional service. By directly taking to devotional service, however, one becomes filled with knowledge and renunciation. In this way one's life becomes successful." (Bhag. 4.25.62)
It is clearly mentioned here that people who are attached to the material world actually have NO KNOWLEDGE. Their so-called knowledge is actually illusion. One may think that the modern atheistic scientists, philosophers, politicians, scholars, etc. who deal with all sorts of sophisticated experimentation, formulas, and word jugglery are full of knowledge. But this is false. They do not know anything. All of their experiments and formulas based on empiricism and mental speculations are subject to change and updates as history has proven. So many theories in physics, medicine, astronomy, etc. are accepted and rejected every few years. A devotee gains real knowledge from the Supreme Lord Himself by engaging in His devotional service. This knowledge is unchanging since it is coming from the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, the Absolute Truth.
When we try to love the material world, we are not in service to Lord Krsna and the result is only miseries. For example, if we love our pet dog and later the dog grows old and dies, we suffer in separation. Similarly, we suffer by misplacing our love with family, societies, our bodies, etc. instead of placing our love in the service of Lord Krsna. On the subtle mental platform, materialists have faith in so many theories which they later find to be incorrect or which they are forced to give up at the time of death and accept the reality-- the laws of God:
"In a dream we form a society of friendship and love, and when we awaken we see that it has ceased to exist. Similarly, one's gross society, family and love are also a dream, and this dream will be over as soon as one dies. Therefore, whether one is dreaming in a subtle way or a gross way, these dreams are all false and temporary. One's real business is to understand that one is soul (aham brahmasmi) and that his activities should therefore be different. Then one can be happy." (Bhag. 7.14.3-4)
Even after understanding the temporary nature of material relations, people continue to establish the same material relations over and over again in different planets, in different species, and in different objects of the senses. Giving up all the material things and relations to avoid the suffering is not the solution. The solution is to try to dovetail all our material possessions in service to Lord Krsna:
"Material achievements are not the ultimate goal of devotional service. The ultimate goal of devotional service is love of Godhead. Therefore although Prahlada Maharaja, Dhruva Maharaja, Ambarisa Maharaja, Yudhisthira Maharaja and many devotee kings were materially very opulent, they accepted their material opulence in the service of the Lord, not for their personal sense gratification. Of course, possessing material opulence is always fearful because under the influence of material opulence one may be misdirected from devotional service. Nonetheless, a pure devotee (anyabhilasita-sunyam) is never misdirected by material opulence. On the contrary, whatever he possesses he engages one hundred percent in the service of the Lord. When one is allured by material possessions, they are considered to be given by maya, but when one uses material possessions fully for service, they are considered God's gifts, or facilities offered by Krsna for enhancing one's devotional service." (Bhag. 7.10.1)
Note that it states "whatever he possesses"; it does not state that one should go and acquire material things before one can engage in devotional service.
2. AN 'ILLITERATE' ENGAGED IN DEVOTIONAL SERVICE IS SMARTER THAN ANY MATERIALIST!
"To become a bhakti-yogi means to automatically attain knowledge and renunciation. That is the consequent result of bhakti-yoga. In the Bhagavatam, First Canto, Second Chapter, it is also confirmed that one who engages in the devotional service of Vasudeva, Krsna, has complete transcendental knowledge and renunciation, and there is no explanation for these attainments. Ahaituki-- without reason, they come. EVEN IF A PERSON IS COMPLETELY ILLITERATE, THE TRANSCENDENTAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES IS REVEALED UNTO HIM SIMPLY BECAUSE OF HIS ENGAGEMENT IN DEVOTIONAL SERVICE. That is also stated in the Vedic literature. To anyone who has full faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the spiritual master, all the import of the Vedic literatures is revealed. He does not have to seek separately; the yogis who engage in devotional service are full in knowledge and renunciation. If there is a lack of knowledge and renunciation, it is to be understood that one is not in full devotional service." (Bhag. 3.25.43)
"According to the opinion of the acaryas, the word krama-yogopalabdhena indicates that by first performing karma-yoga and then jnana-yoga and finally coming to the platform of bhakti-yoga, one can be liberated. Bhakti-yoga, however, is so powerful that it does not depend on karma-yoga or jnana-yoga. Bhakti-yoga itself is so powerful that even an impious man with no assets in karma-yoga or an illiterate with no assets in jnana-yoga can undoubtedly be elevated to the spiritual world if he simply adheres to bhakti-yoga. Mam evaisyasy asamsayah. Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita (8.7) that by the process of bhakti-yoga one undoubtedly goes back to Godhead, back home to the spiritual world." (Bhag. 6.1.1)
By engaging in devotional service, Krsna gives the knowledge by which to go back to Godhead. An educated materialist remains in illusion and stays in the material world but even an illiterate engaged in devotional service will receive knowledge via revelation and go back to Godhead.
"The platform of knowledge is advantageous because it is a means by which one may come to the stage of devotional service. However, if one takes to devotional service directly, knowledge is revealed without separate endeavor." (Bhag. 4.25.62)
Srimad-Bhagavatam contains knowledge and religion but it is the bhakti in the Bhagavatam that makes it special and unique amongst literatures of the world:
"Thus please narrate to us the narrations of the Unlimited, for they are purifying and supreme. They were spoken to Maharaja Pariksit, and they are very dear to the pure devotees, being full of bhakti-yoga." (Bhag. 1.18.17)
"What was spoken to Maharaja Pariksit and what is very dear to the pure devotees is Srimad-Bhagavatam. Srimad-Bhagavatam is mainly full of the narrations of the activities of the Supreme Unlimited, and therefore it is the science of bhakti-yoga, or the devotional service of the Lord. Thus it is para, or supreme, because although it is enriched with all knowledge and religion, it is specifically enriched with the devotional service of the Lord." (Bhag. 1.18.17)
3. EDITORIAL POLICY AND PRODUCT LIST
"One should engage in practical service to the Lord. In our Krsna consciousness movement, *ALL* our activities are concentrated upon distributing Krsna literature. This is very important. One may approach any person and induce him to read Krsna literature so that in the future he also may become a devotee.... By fully concentrating on distributing books for Krsna, one is fully absorbed in Krsna."
Our newsletters are geared to show you the benefits of the instructions contained in the transcendental books of Srila Prabhupada so you can judge for yourself the value of these books and obtain them in book or CDROM format. We also have video demos of the Gita CDROM and Bhagavatam CDROM available for those without computers or those who want to get a glimpse into what is on the CDROM.
Krishna Software Inc. has produced some multimedia CDROMs and all the details and reviews of these CDROMs can be found at our website http://www.krishnasoft.com. Here is our current list of products:
(a) Multimedia Bhagavad-gita As It Is CD: Lord Krsna's eternal instructions to Arjuna and the rest of the world about Isvara (Supreme Lord), jiva (the soul), karma (activities), kala (time), and prakrti (nature). This is a 30-hour audio-visual CDROM. Also available with Hindi translations.
(b) Multimedia Srimad-Bhagavatam CD: An encyclopedia on the science of Krsna consciousness. This CDROM deals in detail with bhakti-yoga and covers various subjects-- the creation of the universe, Vedic astronomy, transmigration, birth-death, etc. This is about 35 hours of audio-visual presentations.
(c) Multimedia Krsna CD w/Vedic Astronomy: This is a 51-hour audio-visual presentation of the Krsna book and a Vedic Astronomy simulation based on the Srimad-Bhagavatam. All on a single CDROM. Free sample demo downloadable from our website.
(d) Multilingual Word Processor CD [version 4.00]: Type in diacritics, Hindi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, and Assamese without knowing the alphabet. This is for those who want to write articles using multiple languages. Free demo downloadable from our website.
All of the above software was tested on various Intel 486 and Pentium processors running Windows 3.1, Windows '95, Windows '98, Windows Me, and Windows NT (client and server).
Latest information and secure ordering is available at our web site: http://www.krishnasoft.com. Any upgrades can be downloaded from this website as well.
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End of Newsletter- written and edited by KSI staff; (c) 1998-2001 Krishna Software Inc.
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All glories to Lord Sri Krsna and His transcendental potencies! All glories to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the literary incarnation of Lord Sri Krsna!