The ascending and descending process

 The ascending and descending process, by Haripada dasa

There are two processes to receive knowledge, the ascending and descending process, I will try to explain them. A person believes that by his mental and intellectual power he will understand everything, who am I, who is God, what is the material creation, etc., this is called ascending process, in relation to this I share a very interesting story, to Saint Augustine is considered the greatest philosopher of the Christian Church, this saint was walking along the beach speculating on various philosophical issues, and he saw a child who was making a hole in the sand with a shovel, the saint asked the child who was doing and the boy replied that I am going to put all the water of the ocean in this hole, and Saint Augustine laughed and said that it was impossible, then the boy said that it was more impossible to want to understand things through speculation, and that the only way to understand things is when God is pleased with you, he will reveal everything to you, the only way to understand things is through the mercy of God, there Saint Augustine understood the essence of spiritual life, let us not forget that we are all born with four defects, 1- we have the tendency to make mistakes, to err is human, 2- we have the tendency to fall into ignorance, 3- we have the tendency to deceive others and 4- we have imperfect senses. Descending process means that God or Krishna transmits all eternal truths to Brahma, the first created creature, then Brahma transmits it to his son Narada, Narada to Vyasadeva, Vyasadeva to Madhvacharya, etc., this is called guru parampara or disciplic succession, and this knowledge comes pure and does not change, that's why Srila Prabhupada who is the 32nd spiritual master of this guru parampara chain always said that the philosophy of Krishna consciousness is very easy because we don't have to invent anything, we just repeat the messages given to us by the predecessor spiritual masters.

There are four sampradayas or spiritual schools authorized by God or Krishna that transmit descending knowledge, 1- the Brahma sampradaya whose Acharya or founding Master is Madhvacharya, 2- the Kumara sampradaya, the 4 Kumaras, whose Acharya or founding Master is Nimbarkacharya, 3- the Laksmi sampradaya, whose founding Acharya or Master is Ramanujacharya and 4- the Rudra or Siva sampradaya, whose founding Acharya or Master is Visnuswami. One must receive spiritual knowledge and mantras from these 4 spiritual schools. When Srila Prabhupada's teacher named Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada was preaching Krishna consciousness all over India, when he met a guru he would ask you who has authorized you to be a guru, and then he would say that all these manufactured gurus are cheaters of first class. That is why Srila Prabhupada says in Srimad Bhagavatam, 4, 8, 54 that one should receive initiation from a guru authorized by the guru who preceded him.

Pride

 Pride, by Haripada dasa

It is said that pride is the prelude to the fall, pride is not good, there are so many people in history who were proud, for example Stalyn the dictator of Russia, he not only killed the entire Czar's family but all the who criticized him, he did not tolerate anyone criticizing him, whoever criticized him killed him. Pride is a demonic quality, the psychology of demons is explained very well in The Bhagavad Gita, 16, 13-15, there it is said that the demonic personality thinks that today I have all this wealth, and I will earn more by following my tricks. All this is mine now, and in the future it will increase more and more. That was my enemy and I have killed him, and my other enemies will also be killed. I am the lord of everything, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man in existence, and I am surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is no one as powerful and happy as me. I will celebrate some sacrifices, give some charity, and thus rejoice. In this way, this class of characters is deceived by ignorance.

A person is proud because he lives in the darkness of ignorance, of course in the vineyard of the Lord there is everything, people are like magnets, we attract others according to the mode in which we live, a leader in the mode of ignorance will attract to people who live in the mode of ignorance, another in passion will attract those who are in passion, and another in goodness will attract those who live in goodness, and our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada who lives in goodness pure will attract those who live in pure goodness. We live in Kali-yuga, the era of ignorance, in this way people confuse everything, they think that religion is irreligion and that irreligion is religion, they think that a good person is bad and that a bad person is good, they think that we should eat meat, fish and eggs because we have the teeth of a crocodile, because of that mistake dentists become rich, crocodiles never go to the dentist, instead of using their intelligence to develop good qualities, people use it to degrade themselves. Humility is a divine quality, when one is humble he feels like the most insignificant person and if he does something wonderful he gives all the credit to God or Krishna and His devotees. A humble person learns from everyone, and a proud person does not learn from anyone because he thinks he knows everything.

Before and after

 Before and after, by Haripada dasa

Before it means when Srila Prabhupada was in his physical form preaching Krishna consciousness, and after it means after Srila Prabhupada disincarnated or entered his lila samadhi, I have the 23 DVDs from the ITV collection on Srila Prabhupada, there you see the very happy and bright devotees in Krishna consciousness, there Srila Prabhupada was the center and the founding Acharya and everyone was very united to please Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada's wish and Krishna's is that when Srila Prabhupada entered his samadhi lila, everything would continue the same as before, that is why Srila Prabhupada ordered his disciples to initiate in his name, and he would continue to be the center and the spiritual master of all, that is called Jagat guru, the guru of the whole universe.

Unfortunately Srila Prabhupada's disciples made changes to Srila Prabhupada's books and did not obey the order to initiate in his name, and in an artificial way that is by vows (Srila Prabhupada says in El Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya Lila, 1, 220, that the choice of a guru is not made by votes), they became gurus because they think that they are at the same level as Srila Prabhupada, when Srila Prabhupada's Gurudeva entered his lila samadhi a very similar thing happened, there is a letter that Srila Prabhupada sent him to Rupaguna explaining what happened, there Srila Prabhupada says that his Gurudeva openly said to create a GBC and to all work together, and if they see someone who is self-effulgent they have to accept him as my successor, they did not obey these orders and the result is that now they all claim to be Acharyas, although they may be adhikaris kanisthas with no ability to preach, therefore we may make the same mistake in our ISKCON. Actually, among my godbrothers no one is qualified to become Acharya. So it is better not to mix with my godbrothers too intimately because instead of inspiring our students and disciples they can sometimes contaminate them. This attempt was previously made by them, especially Madhava Maharaja, Tirtha Maharaja and Bon Maharaja, but one way or another I saved the situation.

We accept that Srila Prabhupada is that self-effulgent person, but Gaudiya Matha does not recognize that, we do not mix with Gaudiya Matha. We do not mix with Srila Prabhupada's disciples who are betraying and offending Srila Prabhupada, they live in unconsciousness and that is the reason why they do not want to obey Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada, Krishna and everyone would like it. that Iskcon was led by people who obey and love Srila Prabhupada, it is always better to pray for others than to criticize, we pray to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna so that these people obey Srila Prabhupada and thus we would all be together and happy and bright in the Krishna consciousness.

I have served in Iskcon 1984-2008, Krishna has distributed through me more than a quarter of a million books of Srila Prabhupada and from my collection I have given them more than 500,000 dollars, they have deceived me but I do not bear any grudge They already have a bad enough misfortune to be the way they are. Now I feel happy and free in Krishna consciousness.

The Spiritual World

 

The Spiritual World, by Haripada dasa

The pure devotees of God or Krishna say that the Vrndavana of this material world and the Vrndavana of the spiritual world are made of the same spiritual substance, as the great spiritual master Srila Narottama dasa thakura says that one will be able to see Vrndavana when one has purified himself of anxieties and material desires. There is a Sacred Scripture called The Brahma-Samhita and there the spiritual world is described in a very beautiful way: “I adore that transcendental abode known as Goloka Vrindavana, where as loving consorts, the Goddesses of Fortune in their immaculate spiritual essence practice loving service to the Supreme Lord Krishna, as His only lover, where every tree is a gem for spiritual purposes, there all water is nectar, every word is a song and every step a dance, the flute is the favorite assistant of the Lord Sri Krishna and the effulgence of this place is full of spiritual bliss. There the supreme spiritual entities are all pleasant and charming, and the innumerable surabhi cows provide oceans of transcendental milk. I adore that abode where transcendental time is always present - without past or future - and therefore is not subject to the nature of passing away even for half a moment. That Kingdom is known as Goloka Vrindavana by very few realized souls in this world."

Our heart is like a television, and there are only two channels, the material and the spiritual, when we connect with the spiritual channel through chanting the Maha-Mantra Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare (H is read as J for J), God or Krishna reveals to us the spiritual world and His eternal pastimes, and when we connect with the material channel we only see a lot of suffering and everything is temporary.