WEEK 12
MISCELLANEOUS (Verse to learn Bg 2.13)

(1) People in the material world

*Two kinds of beings in this world (Bg 16.6+p)
*Four kinds of impious people (Bg 7.15+p/Iso 9p last para)
*The mentality of a demon (Bg 16.4+p,7+p 1st 1/2 of 1st para,8-18)
 Arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, ignorance, lack of knowledge of correct
 course of action, uncleanliness, misbehaviour, untruthfulness,
 faithlessness, atheism, lust, destructive work, false prestige, illusion,
 anxiety, cheating, no vision of a goal in life except sense gratification
 (see also SB 7.5.30 and 31), cruelty, self-complacence, impudence,
 delusion (caused by wealth), ritualistic sacrifices, pride in bodily
 strength, blasphemy and mischievousness
*Envious people become ruined (Bg 3.32+p)
*Four kinds of pious people (Bg 7.16+p)
*The best of the pious (Bg 7.17,18+p's)
*How a jnani actually becomes a great soul (Bg 7.19+p)
*The nature of a godly person (Bg 16.1-3)

(2) Food, Vegetarianism and Cow Protection

*Slaughtering animals, especially cows, is due to the mode of ignorance
 and so society becomes condemned (Bg 14.16p 2nd para)
*Karmic reaction for one transgressing the law of God (Iso 1p 8th&9th
 paras)
*Human bodies are not designed for flesh eating (though a human being is
 able to eat meat if he wants) (Iso 17p 2nd para)
*Krsna wants us to be vegetarians (or rather "Krsnatarians") (Bg 9.26+p
 1st&2nd paras/Bg 3.13+p)
*In times of emergency only, when there is no alternative meat eating may
 be allowed (Bg 16.1-3p 13th para 10th para Mac)
*The slaughtered animal has to come back again to complete his allotted
 time in that species (Bg 16.1-3p 13th para)
*Even meat-eaters must depend on the production of vegetation (Bg 3.14p
 last para)
*The foolishness of animal protection societies (PQPA page 79-80)
*Read book called the "Higher Taste"

(3) Christ and Christianity

*Lord Jesus as a saktyavesa avatar (Tape NY '66-47)
*Read SSR pages 112-125 (we should not imitate a great personality but
 follow his instructions)
*Miracles are for the ignorant (PQPA page 5-6)
*Christ and the sins of his followers (PQPA pages 58-59)
*Jesus is guiding the Christians but they are not taking His guidance
 seriously (PQPA pages 93-94)
*If you want to imitate Jesus Christ by eating meat why not imitate him by
 sacrificing your life for spreading God Consciousness? (PQPA page 95)

Possible answers to some popular questions

*"Only one way" "Alright, so follow it properly! In Krsna Consciousness we
 are! "Yes, one can only approach God through the principle of guru and
 disciplic succession. The guru is the representative of God and although
 the person may change, the principle of only approaching the Lord through
 the bona fide guru remains the same. Similarly, the Prime Minister may
 have different secretaries at different times but each one will say to you
 "I am the only way you can approach the Prime Minister".
*Jesus eating meat--most unlikely, (see Vegetarian society booklet and
 Higher Taste) even if he did, because of the situation he was preaching in
 (practically a desert by the sea) we should not try to imitate such a
 great personality as him but rather simply follow his instructions:-
*"Thou shalt not kill" should be taken literally. If I love you I would
 not kill even your dog. Similarly if you actually love God how can you
 even kill an ant what to speak of a cow? If Jesus did actually intend his
 followers not to kill only other human beings, this shows that by saying
 "Thou shalt not murder" he had to draw their attention to an obvious fact.
 If you preach to murderers the first achievement is to stop their killing
 of other humans--one has to start somewhere.
*"Plants also have souls"--yes, but there is a difference in the
 development of consciousness, the animal feels practically the same pain
 as human being. Most people are reluctant to personally kill an animal and
 would not relish eating their own dog (or even budgerigar) for supper, but
 would quite happily pull up a carrot. Killing one's own child and eating
 him has a much closer correlation to eating an animal, than does killing a
 plant. Also, food such as fruit, milk and many vegetables and nuts involve
 no killing at all. And if there is some sin in this type of killing it is
 completely absolved by Lord Krsna (BG 3.13) and He also clearly tells us
 what He wants us to offer Him (Bg 9.26).
*Srila Prabhupada also explained that sometimes plants become ripened
 after the soul has already left the body--that is the process of ripening.
*Why can't the meat eaters wait until the animal dies naturally?--they
 already do this in other countries sometimes.
*If meat eating is so wonderful, why don't they slaughter the animal in
 church on Sundays in front of the whole congregation and decorate the
 altar with the innards? Why only vegetables and fruits at harvest thanks
 giving?

(3) Independence, Forgetfulness and Falldown

*It does not matter how the living entity originally came into contact
 with the material world (Bg 13.20p 1/2way through 2nd para)
*"Dear Swami, why do some people neglect the Lord, if He is the centre of
 everything?" "Dear Mr. Jones, why do some men lie down on the Bowery
 Street? There is independence, and independence means that one can choose
 wisely or foolishly". Ever your well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (BTG
 No 14)
*Minute independence (Bg 15.8+p)
*One's freedom consists of acting according to Lord Krsna's direction or
 according to the direction of the modes of nature (Bg 18.63+p, 2nd
 para/18.59&60)
*The living entity falls to the material world because of the desire to
 lord it over the material nature and so he becomes the cause of his own
 suffering and enjoyment (Bg 13.21+p)
*The living entity generates his own position by association with the
 three modes (Bg 17.3P, middle of 1st para)

(4) Freedom (Liberation)

*No question while one is still influenced by the material energy. So many
 miseries forced upon one:- repeated birth, death, old age and disease (Bg
 13.9)/the six whips of material life:- lust, anger, greed, illusion,
 madness and envy/ the three kinds of misery:- (1) caused by demigods,
 (2) one's own mind and body, (3) other living entities/innumerable other
 miseries:- (SB 5.14.27)
*One is also forced to act by the modes (Bg. 18.59),, by one's
 uncontrolled mind (Bg 6.5+p end), by one's senses (Bg 2.60/Bg 2.67) by the
 government and even by one's pet dog (PQPA pages 90-91)
*Everyone is always a servant (Bg Intro page 19, or 17 Mac)/PQPA page 92)
*Why are we in this situation? Because we have misused our freedom, which
 is similar to that of a free citizen controlled by the government. (PQPA
 page 90, bottom). If he correctly uses his freedom to obey the laws of the
 state he is as free as the next man to travel all over and to use all the
 facilities open to a good citizen. However if he rebelliously misuses his
 freedom and breaks the laws he finds himself restricted by the government;
 to a greater and greater degree the more rebellious he is. Similarly it is
 possible for a living entity to take the body of a tree in consequence of
 a great exhibition of rebelliousness. Apart from being a free citizen, if
 one is a trusted servant of the government one may enjoy even greater
 freedom, similarly Narada Muni can travel anywhere in the material and
 spiritual worlds, like a good son enjoying to the extent of his father's
 estate--Krsna's estate is unlimited!
*One may not appreciate the above analogy due to pride and illusion, like
 Satan who says in Paradise Lost "Better to rule in hell than serve in
 heaven", but who is completely wrong because there are not actual kings in
 the material world except the modes of nature and the senses (KB Vol.2 Ch
 5 Page 40 or/Vol.2 p.182 of the 3 Volume Set). Although the rebellious
 living entity wants to rule and dominate others he is ever dominated,
 whilst in the illusion that he is in fact the dominator (Bg 16.14)
*Another example Srila Prabhupada gives (Bg Intro page 13 11-12 Mac)
 states that as a finger is free to move in co-operation with the rest of
 the body we are also free--but as soon as the finger detaches itself from
 the body in an attempt to become free of it's obligation it becomes
 useless to itself and also the rest of the body, and immediately it's
 conditions of distress begin (SB 6.16.57+p). Similarly an individual or
 society without a sense of obligation and affiliation to God, is useless
 and dead (SB 2.3.23), although initially there may appear to be freedom
 but it is simply the so-called freedom of the finger separating itself
 from the body. Lord Krsna is represented in this analogy as the complete
 body of which we are a tiny part. The part of the body enjoys freedom to
 the extent that the body possesses it--as Krsna is unlimitedly free we can
 also share in His unlimited freedom if we are attached and surrendered to
 Him.
*Yet another example Srila Prabhupada gives (Tape--Lon 73,60 Side B) is
 that of a street dog who is apparently running very freely but who is
 actually restricted by hunger, disease, loneliness, fear, mistreatment and
 many other impediments that the jolly, confident dog who serves a master
 does not have. In fact, such a street dog will often try to find a master
 to give him shelter, and fawning, attempt to follow someone back home.
 Krsna and Krsna's devotee, however, will never kick one away however mangy
 and flea-bitten one is!
*Krsna controls one out of love, and maya by force (PQPA page 89). Srila
 Prabhupada once gave the example that one can either be controlled by a
 policeman and kicked into submission or one can rectify one's bad habits
 by the kind association of the devotees--the result is ultimately the
 same. Similarly, by maya's kicking, the proud so-called fredom-fighter
 will eventually come to Lord Krsna'a lotus feet and find real freedom.
*one can try to interfere with destiny and commit suicide but one must
 come back and continue one's sentence in that particular prison situation
 (PQPA pages 89-90). Similarly the impersonalists try to commit spiritual
 suicide in an attempt to avoid serving Krsna but actual liberation means
 real life, not destruction (Bg 6.23p 3rd para). A hospital patient will
 think himself factually liberated from his disease when he recovers, not
 if he dies from the treatment.
*A devotee surrenders to Krsna (Bg 7.14+p/Bg 15.5), follows the regulative
 principles of freedom (Bg 2.64) and thus becomes freed from the enforced
 conditions of material nature. Sometimes when ignorant people see the
 discipline of the practitioners of sadhana-bhakti, they think this
 regimented existence to be horrible, not being able to comprehend how the
 devotees are becoming freed from the bodily concept of life and fixed up
 in the complete freedom of the soul, which lies beyond the covered regions
 of this world. And even within the apparent confines of material existence
 a surrendered soul is in fact completely free of it's influence and
 factually liberated (Bg 5.11p)
*A devotee is not controlled by false thoughts (PQPA page 92) because he
 knows that his constitutional position is that of the eternal servant of
 Krsna (Bg 4.35p, last 2 lines). Freedom therefore means to be situated in
 one's eternal, constitutional position.
*A devotee does not separately endeavour for liberation because he is
 already liberated (PQPA pages 92-93). In fact all the benefits that
 liberation have to offer stand at the door of the devotee waiting to serve
 Him.

(5) Violence and Non-violence

*should be properly understood because sometimes apparent violence is
 actually non-violence and vice-versa. A policeman may be considered
 violent, or even criminal himself, if, in a particular situation he
 refrains from violence. A doctor is considered non-violent even though he
 cuts off your arm. A so-called friend is violent if he gives you a
 cigarette, meat etc. (see also Bg 2.21+p)
*Violence and non-violence are not always physical concepts--a father is
 considered violent if he denies his child certain rights, an advertisement
 is considered violent because it violates one's sensibilities etc.
*Generally violence is taken as the application of unlawful force.
 "Unlawful!" ultimately must mean "against the laws of God", which, being
 absolute, are designed for the progressive path of everyone. Therefore
 violence means to transgress the laws of God.
*Violence further means to put someone to distress, misery or confusion.
 Therefore to be non-violent one must have knowledge, otherwise unwittingly
 one may be causing violence to someone--"the path to hell is paved with
 good intentions". (see Bg 10.4-5p 6th para/Bg 13.8-12p 3rd para)
*Violence also means to obstruct someone's progress. "Progress" can be
 understood from authoritative scripture to be the evolution of the soul to
 his natural state of Krsna consciousness. The worst form of violence
 therefore is to interfere with someone's spiritual life.
*Animals too are evolving progressively. To unnecessarily kill an animal
 is also violence (Bg 16.1-3p 13th para)

(6) Morality

*means to surrender to Krsna (Bg 18.78+p 3rd para)
*Krsna, being absolute, knows precisely what is right and wrong, correct
 and incorrect. Anyone surrendering to Krsna is no longer subject to the
 "mental platform" where there can be no factual good qualities (Bg
 2.55+p), acts for the well being of every living entity (NOD preface, 3rd
 para before the last one), has a perfect character and is dear to everyone
 (Bg 5.7)
*sometimes rascals accuse Krsna of being immoral--one such rascal
 challenged: "If Krsna is actually moral why do we find Him cavorting with
 other men's wives?" Srila Prabhupada immediately replied, "You are
 immoral. Krsna is God, everything belongs to Him, and you are thinking
 that your so-called wife belongs to you." Krsna is the Supreme emblem of
 morality and Gita is the Supreme instruction on morality.

(7) Honesty

*explained (PQPA pages 70 near the bottom)--74 (?down), 76 (1/2 way)--78
 (bottom))

(8) Peace

*means--real desirelessness or to be free of the desire for
 sense-gratification, over-Lordship, false ego etc. (Bg 2.71+p). To desire
 everything for Krsna knowing Him to be the real enjoyer, master and friend
 (Bg 5.29+p, 1st para). To be sure and certain of one's ultimate goal (Bg
 2.66+p)
*is achieved--by restraining oneself from the urges of the senses (a
 devotee is full in himself, like the ocean, and is never disturbed by the
 incessant river-like flows of desires--therefore he is peaceful) (Bg
 2.70+p)
  -by giving up all personal desire (CC Madhya 19.149)
  -by being faithful (Bg 4.39)
  -by offering the result of one's work to Krsna (Bg 5.12+p/Bg 12.12)
  -by conquering the mind (Bg 6.7)
  -by surrendering to Krsna (Bg 18.62)
  -by even a fallen devotee who always tries to serve Krsna (Bg 9.31)
*the Peace Formula (SSR page 192-3)

(9) Love

*is transformed into lust on contact with the material energy, however,
 this lust can be transformed back into love again (Bg 3.37p)

(10) Cults and Culture

*Read booklet entitled, "Please don't Lump Us In".
