I love Krishna..

[Tirisilex]

I love Krishna sooooo much.. The more I think about him the more I believe in him.. He makes so much sense to me.. I'm so glad I chose to follow him.. or was it he who chose me?? I remember the day I decided to start following him.. I was in my Living room and I had a vision of him standing there.. He said "I will never Judge you. I will never dictate to you on how to live your life like how your "voices" do." Thats all what I needed.. I called the Boston ISKCON and I went down the week after and spoke to someone there.. He told me that Krishna would have said that.. I just feel so comfortable with Krishna and I'm not in fear or guilt.. I LOVE KRISHNA

I just needed to say that..

[Spiritualseeker]

Namaste,

hehe,I am glad you found a path that you love. I hope it allows you to grow into Self Realization here and now. Don't forget us in your prayers.

[Krsna Das]

Trisilex,

You love Krsna, you said? - Then you are my friend.

It doesen't really matter if you haven't read vedas and upanishads.

You know the essense of it.

Your Servant
Krsna Das

[grames]

You are the best of the best Prabhu!
You are the master of all devotees and my obeisances to you.

I love Krishna sooooo much.. The more I think about him the more I believe in him.. He makes so much sense to me.. I'm so glad I chose to follow him.. or was it he who chose me?? I remember the day I decided to start following him.. I was in my Living room and I had a vision of him standing there.. He said "I will never Judge you. I will never dictate to you on how to live your life like how your "voices" do." Thats all what I needed.. I called the Boston ISKCON and I went down the week after and spoke to someone there.. He told me that Krishna would have said that.. I just feel so comfortable with Krishna and I'm not in fear or guilt.. I LOVE KRISHNA

I just needed to say that..

[smaranam]

I love Krishna sooooo much.. The more I think about him the more I believe in him.. He makes so much sense to me.. I'm so glad I chose to follow him.. or was it he who chose me?? I remember the day I decided to start following him.. I was in my Living room and I had a vision of him standing there.. He said "I will never Judge you. I will never dictate to you on how to live your life ...

That is exactly Him. Krshna does not judge, even when one wants Him to.
He drives any fear , worry instantly out of the window. He is the resting place, all comfort and all that He promises in the Gita.

I am happy you found KRshna. He was always there, waiting for you to turn to Him.

My story is so similar.

At the time He walked up to me when I was looking for someone but did not know Who. I was lying in a desert, and He pulled me out of it, into a place of falling leaves.... and then to a steep road upto a gate .... and the rest is history.

VAsudevah sarvam iti . He is right beside each jiva, in and out, He is the SELF. If the jiva walks into His heart , blinds her by the light at the end of the tunnel of His heart , till nothing else can be seen - VAsudevah sarvam iti.

[Krsna Das]

Smaranam Ji,

Dandavat Pranamas.

So pl share with us, what is your story? How did you turn to Krsna?

My story is like this:

My spiritual journey in this life started when I was in school, in 12th standard. I had hobby of reading books before sleeping and most specifically stories. Once, I was looking for books and I realized there is none which I have not finished reading. Suddenly, my eyes glanced geeta, and it was Geet by Gorakhpur press, which also contained mahatamya for each chapter. I started reading mahatamya because they were like stories only. When i read mahatamya of all the chapters, i developed faith in Geeta and then started reading the chapters of geeta, and there it was, I developed faith in Krsna.

However, I was drawn later to the impersonal theory of brahma and at that time, I found this theory "all-encompassing" and very exciting also. So I started reading books related to advaita-philosophy, and even got diksa from a well known guru of advaita. I always used to perform dhyaan, in order to achieve a thought-less state. The realization of turiya-vastha was my goal. I used to think, once this turiya-vastha is realized, one can come to know that "I AM THAT"; And we already are, but we do not realize this..........................so on and so forth.

How-ever, In 1997, I attended a satsang which was organized by ISKCON. I liked kirtan of mahamantar - my all time favourite. I also purchased GB AS IT IS, and started reading it, but then kept it aside since I thought -"The explanation given by swami ji is not of my taste". I even used to think that when everything is brahm, there is actually no difference between Krsna and me because Krsna's real self is same as that of my real self, and so we both are actually one (my misconception at that time).

But I did used to visit ISKCON often, for hearing sankirtan. as the time went by, I gradually started reading books. When i came to know of mahaprabhu, i was really amazed that how Lord fulfills his promise to us "dharma sansthaapnarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge". I started reading about mahaprabhu and other books, and it was then that I realized the fallacy of shudhha-advaita-vada.

Then I started devoting more time to ISKCON, even house programmes. I started doing service in the temple, and used to get 03:00 early morning to attend the mangal arti.

However, in these 8-9 years in ISKCON, there were some questions, of which I was not able to find the answer, and more specifically, i was not able to accept somebody as my Guru-Maharaj, though there are so many nice maharajs over there.

Then I came across my Guru Maharaj, SriSrimad B.V Narayana Goswami maharaj and attended his satsang 6 years back in Noida. I also purchased some books compiled by him. When I read the books, I realized that he alone was my Guru, whome I had been searching for so many years. Surely Krsna arranged everything very mercifully for me.

Last year only, In 2009, I was initiated by his grace, and since then I am reading his books and doing whatever service my schedule allows (I am in a Grihastha-ashrama now).

I have now received all the answers to my spiritual questions, and I am feeling satisfied in my heart.

But ofcourse, I must say that srila Prabhupada, the founder of Iskcon has a speacial place in my heart, and will always be, because it is only by his grace I have reached this point. After getting initiated by srila Narayana Maharaj, i have developed even more faith for Srila Prabhupada.

I beg aplogies because my english is not very good and you people must be finding lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes in my posts.

All glories to our Guru-parampara, all glories to all the vaisnavas, to mahaprabhu and his associates, and Sri Sri Radha Krsna !

[smaranam]

Smaranam Ji,

Dandavat Pranamas.

So pl share with us, what is your story? How did you turn to Krsna?

praNAms Krshna Das Ji

I am sorry if I spoke too much in yesterday's post.

About yr qn - How did you turn to Krshna ?

I was always sort of allergic to the mainstream worldliness, and drawn to spirituality - like when I saw an ashram at 15, I wanted to live there, for instance.

The usual Hindu Faith in God was there since childhood , but quite a bit of it was dormant ; faith in KRshna as the supreme Lord arose the moment I learnt that from the Gita - it was more of knowledge that was lacking rather than faith.
The Bhagavad Gita was first presented to me by my aunt. At 25 I started reading it , was drawn to it as a source of comfort. Again and again I would be awed by all Krshna said, His desc. of sthitapradnya etc. and especially the "such people are very dear to Me" verses. Actually , the entire Gita was my close friend.

Any discourses by sadhus that I read all talked about how to get interested in paramartha and not obsess over prapancha. My problem , on the other hand, had always been - how to keep prapancha going , how to stay pragmatic.

As I was living life with indifference .... once I watched a new Mahabharat and heard BhAgvat Katha on TV - by Mrdul Krshna Goswami , all of which made me sort of infatuated with Him.
Then one day KRshna came into my life, and things changed a lot. I was in love and a major chunk of "the world" vanished, I did not care anymore. I started living with KRshna and He amazed me day by day.

Things recently seen/conveyed to me internally , I was surprised to find them later in the Bhagvat stories, or as events. My search for BhAgvat led to Srila PrabhupAd , his books.

First of all let me clarify : I do not think that my mind is the same as Krshna's Self. No. Its that only one SELF is eternal.

Really, I never cared to 'be' one with Krshna at all , just wanted to be with Him.
Over the years He made it evident that He is my own SELF.

Knowing well that I am not an action oriented and very outgoing person, it was Krshna who instructed me : DhyAna DhyAna DhyAna , not an external Guru .

What I don't like is external impositions of being the servant of servant of nth servant of mth servant of Krshna which may have nothing to do with what Krshna already is to you. Its like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

I have heard/read statements like "Any direct relationship with KRshna is condemned" - in NOD for instance (Nectar of Devotion). It was clear this is not my path. Only by being in direct one-on-one relationship with Krshna can I be a servant of one and all.

I was drawn to Swami Shivananda's descriptions of Para Bhakti and Jnana.
The qn, "How can a jiva have eternal spiritual individuality (with no traces of material mind/intellect) ?" bothered me too.

*Personal experience - internal
*logical fallacies I found in eternal-jivaness and fall-from-Vaikuntha theory,
*other things
drove me towards Advaita Jnana , not association with Advaitins !

Advaita does not mean losing Krshna or losing sight of Krshna, it means losing jiva-individual existence (ego) - eventually, and also seeing Him in all beings thru' oneness.

~*~*~*~

Wishing everyone a wonderful MahAShivratri

[Ramakrishna]

Thank you for sharing. I am glad to see you are so devoted to the Lord!

[Krsna Das]

I have heard/read statements like "Any direct relationship with KRshna is condemned" - in NOD for instance (Nectar of Devotion). It was clear this is not my path.

mad-bhakta-pujabhyadhika sarva-bhuteshu man-matih - Bhagwatam

"Worshiping My devotees is better than worshiping Me directly.That is My opinion."

Yes , that is our sidhhanta, our tattva. We do not accept direct relation ship with Krsna, nor with Srimati Radhika, nor with any of her 8 manjaris or 8 sakhis.

We accept relationship with him by relationship to our Guru Maharaj, who is the maid servant of one of the 8 majaris or sakhis or still one of there maid servants.

But yes, it is upto you whatsoever path you may choose for yourself, Lord has given this independance to everybody. It is upto us, in what way we use this independance.

Radhe !
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[saidevo]

Yes , that is our sidhhanta, our tattva. We do not accept direct relation ship with Krsna, nor with Srimati Radhika, nor with any of her 8 manjaris or 8 sakhis.

We accept relationship with him by relationship to our Guru Maharaj, who is the maid servant of one of the 8 majaris or sakhis or still one of there maid servants.

But yes, it is upto you whatsoever path you may choose for yourself, Lord has given this independance to everybody. It is upto us, in what way we use this independance.

Radhe !

This sounds like the laity--clergy--Christ relationship in Christianity. Certainly, a devotee/disciple relates to BhagavAn in a devotee/disciple--guru--BhagavAn relationship in all sampradAyas, but when the devotee is spiritually mature and advanced, or after a guru confers the state of guruhood to a shiShya, he obtains the status to directly relate to BhagavAn. Thank God, we have that independence in almost all sampradAyas.

I am a KRShNa premin too, but I relate to him and his consorts directly, as well as through the satsangha of gurus.