Liberalism, Feminism and Krsna Consciousness
BY: D. DAS
Feb 12, 2013 — VANCOUVER (SUN) — Motto!
"The purpose of the teaching of sanatana-dharma is to speak directly to the soul to awaken her to herself and to Krsna. Because of its perfect purity we cannot but see ourselves in its clear light for what we are -- the "ugly ducklings". To embellish the image of themselves, those of us who want to be fooled try to dim that light to minimize the impact of that revelation. Thus the "religious reformers" come onto the scene."
We come to Krsna Consciousness with a sincere desire to go back home back to Godhead through the process of vaidhi bhakti -- surrender to Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, under the directions of bona fide Guru, Sadhu and Sastra.
As a spiritual practice, this vaidhi bhakti will fully purify us -- our subtle body -- our material psyche, in all its aspects, to bring it in complete harmony with our own original spiritual self. This is what is called in sastric terms "transcending the gunas" -- coming to the stage from which the pure bhakti can begin to develop.
To succeed, the vaidhi bhakti has to be performed as a conscious and concentrated effort fully dedicated to Krsna Himself. Only then, when Krsna is pleased with the devotee's level of conscious surrender, will He help him triumph in his endeavour.
All this is a completely voluntary process. Because Krsna has given us a free will it is not possible to leave this world and go back home back to Godhead, Lord Krsna's eternal abode, against or without one's own will.
Naturally, it is not possible to go back home back to Godhead, to Krsna's eternal abode, against Lord Krsna's will.
Krsna's will is expressed within His Lawbook for this material Creation in the form ofBhagavad-Gita As It Is, and has been implemented throughout the yugas in the form of our Vaisnava tradition. Just as a disobedient child will not get what he wants from his conscientious parents, likewise, we will not get from Krsna what we do not deserve on account of our own disobedience to His will. Even though Krsna's mercy is certainly "causeless", never-the-less, it has to be deserved! He is neither obligated nor obliged to reciprocate our foolish whims. As Srila Prabhupada puts it "He is not our order supplier...."
"As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha."
Purport by Srila Prabhupada:
"Some of them (meaning some of us), who are not firmly situated (due to insufficient surrender resulting from disobedience) even in the impersonal existence return to this material field to exhibit their dormant desires for material activities. They are not admitted into the spiritual planets, but they are again given a chance to act on the material planets."
(Bhagavad-gita As It Is 4.11)
In other words, those of us caught in misunderstood conceptions (due to our disobedience) of the spiritual reality will simply not be admitted into the spiritual world. The rebellious, obstinate attitude in the form "....I am entitled to be accepted my way and 'as I am'...." will not get us there, because it is fully based on our false ego's demands.
"You may know from Me that I am always sitting within your hearts as Supersoul, and because you have now turned your faces toward Me, I, as master of everyone, shall always give you good counsel so that you may never forget Me and so that gradually you will come back home, back to Godhead. My dear kings, your decision to give up all conceptions of material enjoyment and turn instead toward My devotional service is factually the symptom of your good fortune."
( Krsna Book Ch. 73)
By the same token, the ".... all conceptions of material enjoyment...." include our possible misconceptions about the spiritual world as well, because the misconceptions about the spiritual world are based on the conceptions of material enjoyment by the law of perverted reflection revealed in the Vedic sastras, and thus also have to be given up.
Some of these misconceptions about the "workings of the spiritual world" are beliefs, for example, that different karmi concepts based on mere emotional needs like Liberalism, Feminism etc., can, somehow become part of our spiritual sadhana. But because they fully originate from our false ego's desires, rather than Krsna's will, they pollute and dilute our endeavours for Krsna Conscious-ness by distracting us from our sincere efforts. Because they have nothing to do with the surrender to Krsna they are a hindrance to our spiritual progress.
Anyone who claims that these can become somewhat part of the endeavour for one's spiritual emancipation is simply fooling himself, as well as fooling all those around him who want to be fooled.
You need to be a member of puredevoteeseva to add comments!
Replies