devotion, bodily contact and the weapon of control -

Dear friends,
Jay Sri Radhe!

wow, openmind. very nice attitude. that´s what my girlfriend preaches to me since years...
not that she doesn´t follow the 4 regs, but she has that similar nice vision.
to her fortune, shes was not brought up via ISKCON/GM, so she´s not full of prejudices.

so, how to deal with our "sins". are they sins anyhow? what are sins? i recall being told by a very nice christian person
that sins actually are acts which cut us off from Sri Sri Radhe Syam. and i guess there are more than those famous 4 regs, as Madhava pointed
out to the money-horders .

in my prejudiced ISKCON/GM-mind always rings that bell a.k.a. the words of AC Bhaktivedanta SWami:
"Meat-eaters cannot understand God". so i have a hard time to open up to new mental horizons.
for me, meat-eating still is an act of participating in cruelty and it may promote violent consciousness and vice versa hinders the development
of compassion, depending on the state of consciousness.

there´s certainly a gulf of difference in the consciousness of Mother Therese from India and Stan Smith, the average meat-eater with gusto.
Mother Therese was and still is worldfamous for having a huge amount of compassion for human beings.
she even went so far to sacrifice her life for the poor. but still i read in her biography that she ate whatever was given to her, meaning if they got meat by alms-begging they took it and ate it.
but Stan Smith has a definite choice in K-Mart. he decides willingly to devour meat like a tiger.
so the consciousness plays an important role.

but still, doubts hover in my mind: how can someone have so much compassion and be God-conscious although eating meat?
for me its difficult to reconcile the point made about Mother Therese for example.

i also know a lot of "meat-eaters" whose character is much more advanced than mine (no big deal anyway ).
many of them i consider dear friends. compared to so-called ISKCON/GM-relationships i had and saw and experienced, these "asat-sanga" -friendships go much deeper and last longer and are much more honest. hard to swallow, sad but true...

the 4 regs are very helpful for spiritual life, no doubt, but never can they be "measure-points" on the scale for Judgement Day.
The Divine Couple loves everyone, not just the followers of the 4 reg-sampradaya. Also i am convinced, that the 4 regs are a very powerful
weapon for controlling people through fear (of failing!) and for making people obedient through inner guilt.
Guilt and fear are the fuel for this mental control-machine.

in my personal life i went through different regulated phases. i was too an overly fanatic soldier in the ISKCON army and then i became softer and softer...
i ate for several time-periods garlic, onions and mushrooms. it was never good for my spiritual life but also i didn´t go to hell for 10 minutes after
garlic-spaghetti. so i gave that up completely. it made me very "rajasic-tamasic" and i got sick more often.
intoxication i used before "joining" and also some time through the beginning times, but that clearly blocks clear vision and can be very
harmful.
alcohol never was a discussion-choice for me.
what´s left is sex-life. i found some wonderful words from Jagat on that subject:

"Look at Radha and Krishna and don't deny what they symbolize. ISKCON people are so eager to
say Radha and Krishna are not symbols of mundane sex. This is serious
denial, folks. They represent the ideal love and we should think of that
when we love, just as we should think of Yasoda and Krishna when we see our
child. Your wife and child are Krishna for you. Krishna is everywhere, he
is even in the temple, but his presence is most important in the objects of
love around us. You want to learn to love Krishna? Love the people who are
around you. Love those whom you are supposed to love. Remember Jesus who
said, 'As you do to even the least of these, you do to me.' That, my
friends, is Krishna consciousness."

i frankly admit that i´m not at all free from that desire and as a householder i have sometimes nice bodily contact
with my soulmate-lady.
and now somewhat free of fear and guilt, i don´t feel bad or ashamed or elsething.
but performed too often, energy gets lost, the mind becomes filled with lust and too much attached.
then it turns into becoming harmful for spiritual life (exploitation).

how do householders in raganuga-bhakti deal with this issue of bodily-contact (sex-life)?

ultimately we know, its not useful since it makes the detachment from this world and the attachment to the spiritual
world much more difficult.
Srila Ananta das Babaji gave me this answer:
"Sex-life has nothing to do with spiritual devotion."
i can live with that. much better answer than to condemn it or spit on it.
yes, ultimately it has nothing to do with our siddha-deha, so the goal must be focused!

any thoughts?

M.Scott Peck ( a nice psychologist) defines his pinnacle for love in this this world:

" to love your partner means to help him in spiritual growth in every way."

thanks for letting me open my mind

Tarunji

Sorry, my reply has nothing to do with the main subject of your post, but this comment intrigued me:



I must say that the same was/is true of me also. How would you say this happens? Does this occur through the gradual advancement that takes place through chanting of Harinama, or the grace of Mahaprabhu, or what?

Radhe Radhe!

in my spacecase foremost because of the mercy from the Vaishnavas and of course all that you mentioned too.
but devotees like Advaita das ( translator of Srila Ananta das Babajis books) Madhavananda das and Radhapada das showered their grace upon me very nicely, so that i could come in contact with Radhakund Mahant Srila Ananta das Babaji.

you mentioned that you read the three printed books, Vaishnavaji, did you read other ones like SriSriRadhaRasaSudhanidhi? Sri Vilapa-kusumanjali?
SriSriStavavali ( 4 parts of 250 pages!). the heart melts, in the right frame of mind of course. Babajis realizations are incredible.

i also became softer and more open through the association of my dear soulmate Moni, who balanced my masculine passion with her soft female
energy.

but mostly through the grace of the Lords devotees.

Jay Sri Radhe!

Tarunji

No I have not read them yet and I am especially interested in reading Vilapa-kusumanjali. As far as I know, Advaitaji is still in Bengal but I will enquire from him when he gets back. Otherwise I'm happy to wait until they're published by the Krishna Caitanya Sastra Mandira. Is this a possibility, Madhava?


LOL! I'm going to use this line!

My siksha-gurudev, who is himself a young married man with children, also believes that marriage is helpful for Gaudiya bhakti.

It is written, I'm not sure where, that renunciation can make one hard-hearted, in a way which is not favourable for developing the soft sentiments of Raganuga Bhakti.

Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, first division, second chapter.

jJAna-vairAgyayor-bhakti-pravezAyopayogitA |
ISat prathamam eveti nAGgatvam ucitaM tayoH || 248 ||

yad ubhe citta-kAThinya-hetU prAyaH satAM mate |
sukumAra-svabhAveyaM bhaktis tad-hetur IritA || 249 ||

"Jnana and vairagya may be employed while initially coming in contact with bhakti, but they certainly cannot be said to be angas of bhakti. In the opinion of the saints, they are a cause of the hardening of the heart, while bhakti is said to be a cause of the heart's becoming very tender in nature."