Respect

 Respect, by Haripada dasa

In chapter five, verse 18 of The Bhagavad Gita it is said that one who has spiritual vision sees with the same equality a humble priest, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater, this is to have true respect. Today people do not respect anything or anyone because they do not respect themselves, the other day a young woman was driving her car all drugged up and ran over 3 cyclists and killed them. Respect is the basis for coexistence, when respect is lost, offenses enter, people do not know how to live without offending others. There are no educational institutions that teach people to be peaceful and respectful, and parents do not want their children to be peaceful and respectful, once some parents told me that they had to take their son to a psychologist because they saw that their son was very strange, he didn't go after women and he didn't go to discos, he went to the mountains and he was a vegetarian, so they were very worried.

 Political leaders don't want people to be peaceful and respectful, political parties are made to spread materialism and atheism, nowadays they do hate trials, they don't believe in the law of karma, the law of karma means that any suffering that you do to another living entity, that same suffering you will have to suffer in your own person, violence begets violence, animals follow the laws of nature in a natural way, it is an act of hatred when one kills a animal because by killing it you are interrupting its evolution, I mean, if an animal had to live 20 years, and you kill it when it is 10 years old, that soul that lives in the animal has to be reborn in the same species to complete its 20 years, to understand this point the example given is that I go to your apartment and break everything, that is a criminal act because I am causing inconvenience to the person who lives in that apartment, non-violence means that you let the animal live and die naturally, and act of hate is that you kill the animal. If you want to eat meat, fine, you eat it when the animal dies, but don't kill it, because killing is an act of hate. Why don't they prosecute everyone who eats meat, fish and eggs for acts of hate?

Srila Prabhupada says in his books that just because of the killing of innocent animals, the karmic reaction to this is that every once in a while there is a world war and millions of people die. Nowadays people don't believe in anything, they are worse than animals, they only believe in money and power. Usually people do not awaken to a higher consciousness because they are full of envy, fear, doubt, fanaticism, speculation, prejudice, and are full of sinful activities, and they have no interest in purifying themselves. I end this message with a beautiful verse from Srimad Bhagavatam that says don't be a father or mother, don't be a ruler, don't be a spiritual master, but you are capable of liberating your dependents from the cycle of birth and death.

Humility, delusion and tolerance

 Humility, delusion and tolerance, by Haripada dasa

Humility, humility means feeling insignificant, and if we do something positive to help others awaken to their Krishna consciousness, it is by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and God or Krishna.

On cheating, on a walk in Mayapur, India, March 14, 1976 Srila Prabhupada says that the whole world is a society of cheaters and cheated, that is my Gurudeva's version, so don't become a cheater and don't let fool you, that's intelligence.

All conditioned souls are born with 4 defects, 1, we make mistakes, to err is human, 2, we have imperfect senses, 3, we have the tendency to fall into ignorance and 4, we have the tendency to deceive ourselves and others .

In Srila Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami's book entitled mana-siksa or preaching to the mind, he says that the only medicine to cure delusion is humility, humility means feeling insignificant, and if we do something positive to help others awaken their Krishna consciousness, it is by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and God or Krishna.

On tolerance, Jesus Christ was given many offenses and was crucified, but he prayed to God for his offenders. He was merciful and tolerant, it is said that a great personality is measured by his degree of tolerance, of course tolerance and mercy are two qualities that go together, a person is tolerant when he is very merciful, materialists are not even tolerant nor merciful, every day they send millions and millions of innocent animals to the slaughterhouse, and they are not tolerant, I saw how a person honked at the car in front because the traffic light had turned green and the other got out of the car all upset and they ended up punching each othe

The symptom of love

  The symptom of love, by Haripada dasa

Years ago, a devotee named Devarsi prabhu translated some things from the books of conversations into Spanish and gave me those translations. I remember reading an interview there between Sria Prabupada and one of his disciples. Srila Prabhupada said that I will play the Christian and you will play Hare Krishna, Srila Prabhupada told him that we have millions and millions of followers, temples, etc., and you are very few, the devotee said, but we have love for God or Krishna and that is the important thing, Srila Prabhupada told him He said that we also have love for God and we go to church and pray to him, the devotee told him that if you had love for God you would obey his orders, Jesus ordered you not to kill and you have the best slaughterhouses, and Srila Prabhupada told him that there It is where I wanted to take you. The symptom that you love God is that you obey his orders. A person who does not know or love God cannot obey God's orders. Today there are many groups of Christians, and also of Hare Krishnas, so that you are not deceived, you must see if these people are obeying the orders of Jesus and Srila Prabhupada.

One of the points of the philosophy of Krishna consciousness is that we are not interested in the opinions of an ordinary person, ordinary people have four kinds of faults, the first fault is that they tend to make mistakes, another fault is that they are in illusion , the third defect is the propensity to deceive and finally our senses are imperfect. Any opinion other than revealed truth is worthless. Revealed truth means truth, or scripture that comes from a reliable source, the chain of disciplic succession formed by bona fide spiritual masters is the reliable source; since these people are self-realized and pure souls, and they are free from the four defects mentioned above. You can cheat yourself and others, but no one can cheat God or Krishna and His pure devotees.

In Srimad Bhagavatam, 5, 26, 15 Srila Prabhupada says that whether we are Hindus, Muslims or Christians, we all must follow the religious principles that correspond to us. However, whoever invents his own religious path, or does not follow any religious principles, will be punished in hell.

Blessings

 Blessings, by Haripada dasa

In relation to the blessings, Srila Prabhupada always told a very interesting story, once a Spiritual Master was walking with his disciples, and in the course of the walk he gave different blessings to several people, first they met a King, and the Master The Spiritual Master told him that I bless you that you live, but do not die….later they met a butcher, and the Spiritual Master told him that I bless you that you do not live and do not die….then they met a pure devotee of God or Krishna and the Spiritual Master told him that you are the same whether you live or die, upon hearing these blessings the disciples did not understand them and told the Spiritual Master to please explain the blessings, and the Spiritual Master said that the King live but do not die means that now that he is King the opulence that God has given him instead of using it to serve God and His devotees, he is using it for his sense gratification, to your personal enjoyment, that's why you live but don't die because when you die you will have to spend a lot of time in hell, then to the butcher you don't live or die, that means that this person his life is hell, always cutting meat, his hands full of blood, and when I die more hell, and to the pure devotee of God or Krishna I told him that it is the same whether you live or die, because living you are living with God or Krishna always, and when you die you will continue living with God or Krishna and His devotees in the spiritual world. A great Spiritual Master always said that those who say that the devotees of God or Krishna die, they die to live, and living are always expanding the glories of God or Krishna and His devotees, reason badly.

Nowadays there is no interest in knowing God and loving him, people have very few reserves of pious activities from their past lives, from the time they get up until they go to bed they only do sinful activities, thus their brain is full of cow dung, they do not understand the simplest truths of life, there is only sense gratification, a demonic principle, the symptom that one has an interest in spiritual life is that they ask spiritual questions, for example what and who am I, why do I not want suffer and I suffer, what and who is God, how can I purify my existence, what awaits me after death, etc., when a person asks himself these questions he is said to be aware of God, the problem is pride, one thinks I know everything, nobody is above me, I am the best, because of his pride that person will never learn from anyone, only the humble person learns from everyone.

An ocean of mercy

 An ocean of mercy, by Haripada dasa

Srila Prabhupada is an ocean of mercy. The spiritual master receives the blessing of the ocean of mercy. Just as a cloud pours water on a forest fire to put it out, the spiritual master releases the afflicted material world by extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my respectful obeisances to the lotus feet of that spiritual master, who is an ocean of auspicious qualities.

I share a very moving story, we were in Vrindavana, India, in the house of some Italian devotees, we were respecting some maha-prasada pizzas, a very old disciple of Srila Prabhupada arrived, I don't remember her name, but I know she was Lohitaksa's wife , she told us that Srila Prabhupada was in the temple in New York and they were doing guru puja, suddenly a person with very long hair and a beard and very dirty entered the temple as if it were a dog on all fours. He headed towards Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada recognized him immediately, and crying at Srila Prabhupada's lotus feet told him several times that forgive me I have failed you, Srila Prabhupada crying was stroking his head, and all the devotees in the guru puja were crying, then that person left and no one ever heard from him.

A few years ago I was talking to an Iskcon guru in Vrindavana, India, he told me that Srila Prabhupada deviated from the guru-parampara by ordering his disciples to initiate in his name or the Ritvik philosophy, as this philosophy does not come in the Sastras or Scriptures, when I heard this I thought that this person has less intelligence than a mosquito, I told him that Srila Prabhupada distributes his mercy to everyone, but if you do not want to obtain it, the fault is yours, Srila Prabhupada ordered his disciples who initiated in his name, this is supported by a special document that Srila Prabhupada sent to all Iskcon from Vrindavana, India, on July 9, 1977, anyone can read this document, and if you do not want to obey this order, blame It is not from Srila Prabhupada but from you. I also told him that according to Harinama-chintamani, the result of offending the guru is that one becomes a mayavadi or atheist. Then some years passed and we also saw each other in Vrindavana, and he said sorry for what I told you several years ago, I replied that you should not ask forgiveness from me, but from Srila Prabhupada.