Brief Updates from TheHareKrishnaMovement.wordpress.com

Posted: 29 Feb 2012 12:05 PM PST

'Whatever may come by Your mercy, let it come.’ That’s our philosophy. That’s our siddhanta. But if you know it’s going to rain, it’s better to take an umbrella.”

Srila Prabhupada on Astrology
By Patita Pavana das
Feb 28, 2012 — FRANCE (SUN) — From:

‘Memories of Shrila Prabhupada, Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint’.

Shrila Prabhupada often called Pradyumna das Adhikary his “Panditji.” Beginning from 1968 Pradyumna was the first among the Western disciples to learn Sanskrit. Under the guidance of his spiritual master, he lent his expertise into all of Prabhupada’s literary projects. A natural scholar, Pt. Pradyumna Prabhu traveled the world with Shrila Prabhupada carrying any number of weighty tomes with him. He assisted with the Bhagavatam project right until the last days of the pure devotee’s earthly manifest appearance.

The following conversation with Pradyumna was recorded several years ago by the innovator of the Memories series, Shriman Siddhanta das.

(See Tape 16, Order here: PrabhupadaMemories.com)

Pradyumna: “Once in Hyderabad I asked Shrila Prabhupada about astrology. I was interested in Indian astrology and I was trying to understand how one’s life is determined or not determined, what you can and what you can’t read in a chart, what was there and what was not there spiritually. I asked Prabhupada, “What about astrology? Is it part of Vaishnavism? Do we use astrology?” …Because Nilambara Chakravarty, Lord Chaitanya’s maternal grandfather, did an accurate chart for Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Shrila Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati and Shrila Bhaktivinode Thakur also knew astrology very well. “What’s its validity?” Prabhupada said, “The Vaishnava attitude and siddhanta is whatever may come, may come. We don’t care. But if you know it’s going to rain, it’s better to have an umbrella.” Again he repeated it, “So our philosophy is as Maharaja Kulashekhar said, 'Whatever may come by Your mercy, let it come.’ That’s our philosophy. That’s our siddhanta. But if you know it’s going to rain, it’s better to take an umbrella.”

Pasted from; Sampradaya Sun

Lust, Anger & Greed

Posted: 29 Feb 2012 11:44 AM PST

They believe that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no end to their anxiety. Being bound by hundreds and thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification.

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Chapter 16, Text 10-12

The Divine and Demoniac Natures

TEXT 10

kāmam āśritya duṣpūraṁ
dambha-māna-madānvitāḥ
mohād gṛhītvāsad-grāhān
pravartante 'śuci-vratāḥ

kāmam—lust; āśritya—taking shelter of; duṣpūram—insatiable; dambha—pride; māna—false prestige; mada-anvitāḥ—absorbed in conceit; mohāt—by illusion; gṛhītvā—taking; asat—nonpermanent; grāhān—things; pravartante—flourish; aśuci—unclean; vratāḥ—avowed.

The demoniac, taking shelter of insatiable lust, pride and false prestige, and being thus illusioned, are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent.

Purport
The demoniac mentality is described here. The demons' lust is never satiated. They will go on increasing and increasing their insatiable desires for material enjoyment. Although they are always full of anxieties on account of accepting nonpermanent things, they still continue to engage in such activities out of illusion. They have no knowledge and cannot tell that they are heading the wrong way. Accepting nonpermanent things, such demoniac people create their own God, create their own hymns and chant accordingly. The result is that they become more and more attracted to two things—sex enjoyment and accumulation of material wealth. The word aśuci-vratāḥ, unclean vow, is very significant in this connection. Such demoniac people are only attracted by wine, women, gambling and meat eating; those are their aśuci, unclean habits. Induced by pride and false prestige, they create some principles of religion which are not approved by the Vedic injunctions. Although such demoniac people are most abominable in the world, still, by artificial means, the world creates a false honor for them. Although they are gliding toward hell, they consider themselves very much advanced.

TEXT 11-12

cintām aparimeyāṁ ca
pralayāntām upāśritāḥ
kāmopabhoga-paramā
etāvad iti niścitāḥ

āśā-pāśa-śatair baddhāḥ
kāma-krodha-parāyaṇāḥ
īhante kāma-bhogārtham
anyāyenārtha-sañcayān

cintām—fears and anxieties; aparimeyām—unmeasurable; ca—and; pralaya-antām—unto the point of death; upāśritāḥ—having taken shelter of them; kāma-upabhoga—sense gratification; paramāḥ—the highest goal of life; etāvat—thus; iti—in this way; niścitāḥ—ascertain; āśā-pāśa—entanglement in the network of hope; śataiḥ—by hundreds; baddhāḥ—being bound; kāma—lust; krodha—anger; parāyaṇāḥ—always situated in that mentality; īhante—desire; kāma—lust; bhoga—sense enjoyment; artham—for that purpose; anyāyena—illegally; artha—wealth; sañcayān—accumulate.

Purport
The demoniac accept that the enjoyment of the senses is the ultimate goal of life, and this concept they maintain until death. They do not believe in life after death, and they do not believe that one takes on different types of bodies according to one's karma, or activities in this world. Their plans for life are never finished, and they go on preparing plan after plan, all of which are never finished. We have personal experience of a person of such demoniac mentality, who, even at the point of death, was requesting the physician to prolong his life for four years more because his plans were not yet complete. Such foolish people do not know that a physician cannot prolong life even for a moment. When the notice is there, there is no consideration of the man's desire. The laws of nature do not allow a second beyond what one is destined to enjoy.

The demoniac person, who has no faith in God or the Supersoul within himself, performs all kinds of sinful activities simply for sense gratification. He does not know that there is a witness sitting within his heart. The Supersoul is observing the activities of the individual soul. As it is stated in the Vedic literature, the Upaniṣads, there are two birds sitting in one tree; the one is acting and enjoying or suffering the fruits of the branches, and the other is witnessing. But one who is demoniac has no knowledge of Vedic scripture, nor has he any faith; therefore he feels free to do anything for sense enjoyment, regardless of the consequences.

Text pasted from Causless Mercy