Levels of Consciousness BG 7.19-20 (3-17-08)

 

This is a home program where Acaryadeva discusses various states of consciousness, ontological questions, the conception of God in Christianity and Vaishnavism, and the state of the world today. At the end there is a long question and answer session.

 

Part 1

 

 

Part 2

 

 bahunam janmanam ante

 jnanavan mam prapadyate

 vasudevah sarvam iti

sa mahatma su-durlabhah

Bg 7.19 

 

TRANSLATION

After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.

 

 kamais tais tair hrta-jnanah

 prapadyante 'nya-devatah

 tam tam niyamam asthaya

 prakrtya niyatah svaya

Bg 7.20

 

 

 TRANSLATION

Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures.

 

Some points from the lecture:

 

 Fanatical religions tend to come from the Far East. However, Krsna is not a jealous God. He doesn’t send people to hell who don’t worship Him. He even encourages people to worship other deities by given them faith to worship, and from that they get what they want which even more confirms their faith in these deities. Why does He do that? 

 

 The whole purpose of creation is to give everybody the chance to be foolish and then figure out what they really want is Krsna. 

 

 We can learn so many processes and act according to rituals, but you cannot go back to the spiritual world as a trained animal. You have to be convinced. Fanatical religions twist the meaning of religion by resenting a psychotic, dogmatic creator. God is interested in the quality and level of our consciousness. The externals are details. 

 

John Steward Mill was asking the question, “How can I worship a God who is morally inferior to human beings” (by torturing them eternally). The great theologian St. Anselm presented an ontological proof for the existence of God as the being than whom no greater being can be conceived. Rupa Goswami in his Bhakti-rasamrita Sindhu similarily says that the highest conception of God is the truest. Christian theology is only interested in the existence of God, but they don’t know other concepts.

 

 The Sanskrit word “asti” means “he is, exists”. “astikiyam” therefore meaning believing, that He exists. This is one of the qualities of a brahmana (as mentioned in BG 18). 

 

 Socrates (written by Plato in his Dialogue) places an important question: “Are certain activities good because the gods love them, or do the gods love them because they are good?” So is Krsna imposing His own taste on us according to the saying “might makes right”? This would imply that morality stems from power. Or is there an objective superiority in certain actions? Krsna says that your fate depends on the quality of your consciousness and actions. According to the Gita you can be in the mode of goodness without following sastra: In BG 17.1. Arjuna is asking: “Those who give up the rule of sastra, what is their status?” Krsna replies “Faith is of three kinds and is born of your nature”. According to BG someone who doesn’t follow the Vedas can be higher than people who do – it depends on what mode you are in. The Gita is not a fanatic conception of God as a psychotic monster. 

 

 So when Rupa Goswami asks for the highest conception of God we find that it is Krsna. Anselm is merely trying to proof that God exists, but Rupa Goswami is going much further. 

 

 Today we are living in a very unphilosophical age. Most people are not aware that even if you believe in human rights it means that you are commit yourself to metaphysical principles. 

 

 Krsna says that if you are in the mode of goodness you see one unperishing reality, a metaphysical background to the world. 

 

When you have a religious society some people have power and inevitably human being are imperfect so inevitably Whatever ideology rules a society, some people will take that power it and use it for the wrong purpose or reason. Power is like energy, it cannot be destroyed. There is always power, it moves like energy. And wherever there is power, there is also corruption, therefore any society has some degree of corruption, because any ruling system wealds power. However, if the aggressive religions from the Middle East (Christianity and Islam) hadn’t caused so many atrocities in the world, people wouldn’t say religion has caused so much trouble.

 

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