Text PAMHO:14863909 (180 lines)
From:      Bhakti Vikasa Swami
Date:      19-Jan-08 22:07 (17:07 -0500)
To:        BVKS Sanga [6353]
Subject:   instructions received paranormally
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The following letter was sent to me from Russia.

I have to you some questions. Recently in our city spent the sunday program RK prabhu, brahman from M, your disciple. He frequently happens in our city, Coming to AG prabhu with which they then together distribute pictures in others Cities. RK prabhu carried spent conversation with devoted on a theme of the responsibility for and For others. And he spoke that the spiritual teacher wants that the pupil began "adult", Independently carried out the service, charged to him the spiritual teacher. And I have asked RK prabhu how to find out, what service charges guru. I have told RK prabhu, that sometimes seems to me, that I receive something on thin levels of energy of the instruction To make. And if this service  impracticable seems to me and I do not make it, That I receive for it negative reactions as bad weather, problems in family, difficulties on sankirtana. And at me in this connection what questions: whether my sensations are a reality about The volume, that is entrusted to me any service or it is a fruit of my imagination, and to me does not cost To pay attention to it? Whether reception of reactions by me for refusal to operate is a reality Or it is simple concurrence and I do not have such responsibility? Who gives me such orders, If they are real? Whether I can ask again to achieve understanding, at the one who gives me Such orders? I can read what spiritual literature about such ways of dialogue? Whether can The spiritual teacher to influence weather? Whether openly it is possible to have a conversation about it conversation or these are secret Practice?
RK prabhu has told, that I can set to you these questions. Thank. Your schoolgirl N dd.


I gave a lecture to answer these points (available in MP3 format at BVKS.com). A summary of the points made therein is given below.

The process of Krishna consciousness is a simple, straighforward process. It consists of chanting minimum 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra every day, associating with devotees, regularly studying Srila Prabhupada's books and hearing from devotees.

But this simple process may be difficult in some circumstances. We may have family responsibilities, and perhaps only once a week association with devotees, because they are all spread in some big city. It may be difficult to follow very strictly, especially if other family members are not devotees, or if we are on our own without regular guidance. Another difficulty may be that many devotees in different parts of the ISKCON society do not know English very well, and what they know about the philosophy of Krishna consciousness may have been obtained through translations with questionable accuracy. Thus the simple and pure message of Krishna consciousness may become obscured, and devotees may even confuse different irrelevant practices of the New age esoteric kind to be part of Krishna consciousness.

Nevertheless, the whole Krishna conscious tradition is full of what we could call paranormal occurrences, but of a bona fide kind. There are many examples of devotees taking guidance from such occurrences in our scriptures. In the Caitanya-caritamrita we find that Krishna came to Madhavendra Puri in a dream and ordered him to go to Puri and bring sandalwood paste.

Sri Nityananda Prabhu came to Krishnadasa Kaviraja and told him to go to Vrindavana where all his desires will be fulfilled. There, the Vaisnavas ordered him to compose the Sri Caitanya-caritamrita. He went to get blessings from the Madana-mohana Deity and just at that time, a flower garland fell down from Madana-mohana and the pujari gave it to him. Krishnadasa Kaviraja took this as a blessing of Madana-mohana.

Similarly, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was praying to Lord Jagannatha, "Please send me someone to help me in this mission of spreading Krishna consciousness." His own child was born with the yajna-upavita, brahmin thread. His umbilical cord was wrapped around his body like a brahmin thread and the astrologer said that this was a great personality. About six months later, Lord Jagannatha's cart stopped in front of his house and then they organized a sankirtan festival. Bhaktivinoda Thakura's wife brought the young child to the lotus feet of Jagannatha and a flower garland immediately fell down. Bhaktivinoda Thakura understood that Jagannatha is telling him that this was His very dear devotee.

Srila Prabhupada's Guru Maharaja came to Srila Prabhupada in a dream and said, "Come with me." Srila Prabhupada thought, "Guru Maharaja is calling me to take sannyasa." He was avoiding it, but when his Godbrother forced him then he could understand that, "In a dream my Guru was calling me and then through my Godbrother he was forcing me, so I have to accept."

When he was going to America, he suffered two heart attacks and in a dream, Krishna in His various forms was rowing the boat and told him, "Don't worry, I'm rowing the boat, I'm taking you across."

Many devotees are reporting that they have had dreams of Srila Prabhupada. Even myself and many of Srila Prabhupada's disciples are also experiencing that devotees are telling them that in their dreams I came or one of my Godbrothers came and gave some instruction which I'm not aware of, but Krishna as the Supersoul is arranging to speak like that.

Srila Prabhupada said that dreams are generally nonsense but if the spiritual master is there then we can take that as spiritual. But we don't have to wait for some dream, all the instructions are already in Srila Prabhupada's books. Dreams and similar psychic experiences do exist and can be valid but they are not the substance or the base of our spiritual life.

When Srila Prabhupada heard about a woman who said that Lord Jagannatha was pulling her sari while she was visiting the Jagannatha temple in Puri, he commented, "Such an ugly woman and Jagannatha is going to be attracted and pull her sari? As far as I'm concerned I never had any such thing. I simply have faith in the words of my spiritual master, that's all." Although Srila Prabhupada had many paranormal experiences like the one on the Jaladuta ship, he wanted to emphasize that we do not need any such experiences to practice Krishna consciousness. We have Srila Prabhupada's books, our spiritual master and devotees who are telling us what to do.

I also had a dream two years ago in which Srila Prabhupada told me to write educational and philosophical books. That was very nice because it confirmed what I already felt in my heart Srila Prabhupada wants me to do. But that was already there in Srila Prabhupada's books in which he writes that the foremost duty of a sannyasi is to make a literary contribution for the benefit of human society.

It is very important to keep our focus on the basic process of Krishna consciousness. We should practice Krishna consciousness according to the standard method given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, transmitted through all the acaryas and given to us by Srila Prabhupada. It consists of chanting the holy names of Krishna, associating with devotees, taking Krishna prasadam and "kara para upakara", acting for the benefit of others, trying to bring others to this process of Krishna consciousness. Preaching Krishna consciousness is the sum and substance of what ISKCON is for.

The process is simple but the world around us or even our minds can be complex and give us many troubles. Still, we should stick to the basic process, which will help us through all the difficulties. We should make the vow that whatever happens I will go on, I must chant 16 rounds, I must study Srila Prabhupada's books, I must associate with devotees, I must remain in Krishna consciousness, whatever happens. If we stick to that then Krishna will be pleased and however difficult the situation may be, the time will come by Krishna's grace, we will cross over all of this. Krishna will take us across if we have faith in Him, in the holy name of Krishna, in the Vaisnavas and in the process of bhakti. We should have that faith in this basic process and if we continue following it, definitely Krishna will help us.

Often devotees become sidetracked by so-called shortcuts like yoga, pranayama, various diets, astrology, vastu and so on. These things are given by God to help us make our difficult journey in this material world a little easier. All these can be used to a certain extent and can be helpful, but we should keep everything in perspective. Better than spending money on a precious gem that can supposedly remove the influence of a Rahu period, is to chant Hare Krishna. By chanting Hare Krishna all the real problems of life will go away. For example, some people pay a lot of money for a vastu expert who tells them to move a window from one wall to another, but I would suggest to rather call the devotees, have sankirtan, give them prasadam and sponsor book distribution. You may have some difficulties because the window is on the wrong side of the house but you will get much more valuable blessings from Krishna if you simply focus on the direct method of Krishna consciousness.

Krishna is the Supreme controller and He only controls even the weather, not the guru. But we can actually see Krishna everywhere; yo mam pasyati sarvatra sarvam ca mayi pasyati / tasyaham na pranasyami sa ca me na pranasyati (Bg 6.30), Krishna says, "For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me." Just like, when the bombs were falling on Calcutta, Srila Prabhupada saw Krishna even in these bombs, while others simply saw death. We may not be so important that Krishna is arranging the weather to punish us but we can still see that Krishna is testing us or showing us what we should be doing.

What should we be doing if we get some kind of psychic instruction or inspiration? If the instruction is to rise early, chant our rounds, try to cooperate with devotees to distribute books, then we can understand that that is a good instruction and we should follow that. Nevertheless, we should confirm it with devotees or our spiritual master, especially if we get some bizarre, unusual instructions. It is always good to have the instructions or our inspirations confirmed. We should not think that we are going to receive some special instruction if we are not regularly chanting 16 rounds, we are not taking only Krishna prasadam, we are not regularly studying Prabhupada's books, and so on. Let us stick to the basic process of Krishna consciousness first.

It is very nice if you get a dream about Krishna, but serve Him and chant Hare Krishna when you get up. Better than having dreams of Krishna and waking up and not chanting Hare Krishna is to not have dreams and chant Hare Krishna. If we do chant Hare Krishna when we are awake then whether or not we get dreams of Krishna is not really that important.

(Thankyou to Kisor Prabhu and his wife Ananta-sarovara mata for preparing this summary.)
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