Letter No.37 Krishna Fundamental Lessons

Emerging from the Atlantis to the Sanctuary of the Spirit

Letter Nº 37

KRISHNA FUNDAMENTAL LESSONS

Víctor Manuel Guzmán Villena

In the West Krishna followers are popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement, or devotees of Krishna, the identification that the generality of the people has of the devout ones is with the most popular song of the movement, the singing of the Maha-Mantra I will Do Krishna:

“Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,
Rama Rama, Hare Rama,
Rama Rama, Hare Hare”

Singing that consists of the God's holy names - Krishna and Rama.

The record of this doctrine is in the literature Védica (The Vedas), compiled in the Sanskrit language it does approximately four thousand years for Sri Vyasadeva. Today it has been translated to all well-known languages. Inside the works of these literary heritage has been explained to us that there are four classes of evidences by which it is possible to know the truth: revelation, perception, history (common voice), and inference.

Srila Madhavacharya in his work Prameya-ratnavali concludes that, because the common voice or history is included in the perception, the means to get the appropriate knowledge are three (aforesaid ones), among which Sruti (divine sound) or revelation, it is the most elevated.

The Bhagavatam consists of 18.000 poems, shlokas. It contains the best parts of the Vedas and the Vedanta. Lord Chaitanya says that The Bhagavatam is based on four Shlokas that Vyasa received from the wise person Narada. He says to us further that Brahma penetrated across the whole material universe per years looking into the final cause of the world, but on not having been able to find it out, he looked inside the construction of his own spiritual nature and there he heard to the Universal Spirit.

In all its twelve skandas or divisions. The Bhagavatam teaches us that there is only one God without parallel, which was finished in itself and which is and it will remain equal. Time and space, which prescribe conditions to the created objects, they are much underneath of the supreme spiritual God nature, which is undetermined and absolute. The created objects are subject to the influence of the time and of the space, which are the essential ingredients of this beginning in the creation that we know for the name of Mayan. Mayan is a thing not easily understood by us who are subject to it, but God says, as much as we can understand whit our present condition, this principle through our spiritual perception.

The Bhagavatam teaches that everything we perceive is true, but it material appearance is fleeting and illusory. The scandal of the ideal theory consists in its tendency to misrepresent the nature, nevertheless the theory explains by Bhagavatam it does the nature like "real" although not as an eternal truth as God and his ideas.

The Bhagavad-Gita

The Vedanta's writings. The Srimad Bhagavad-gita Upanisad is the sacred conversation between Lord Krishna and prince Arjuna, that is in the section Bhisma Parva of Sri Mahabarata, the Writing of the Divine Law that was compiled in hundred thousand strophes by Srila Vyasadeva.

In the doctrine gaudiya-vaisnava the Bhagavad-Gita is the book for the aspirants. Then, at a higher level we have the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and finally, the postgraduate study is in the Chaiyanya-charitamrita Srila Krishna das Kaviraja Goswami. The concept of God by Krishna is expressed magnificently in the Gita. In the Bhagavatam, however, the ideal theist is presented in the Gita develops to plenitude and is explained by all its elements and parts. And in the Chaiyanya-charitamrita, the concept of God by Krishna reaches its highest expression through the precepts of Lord Vhaitanya. In an inconceivable way the levels of good, better and higher, they exist in the spiritual reality.

In general the Bhagavad-Gita is known like an excellent study of the science of the religion. From the atheists up to the highest saint - the essential concepts of all kinds of philosophers are treated by a clear and vigorous logic-. The furtive worker, the scholar, the practitioner of yoga, the devout one of the Lord will find in this holy book an illuminating and comprehensive exhibition of the substance of its respective philosophies, having the whole book in high esteem. The essence of the teachings of the Vedas and Upanishads of Aryan is directly explained, and with a little more research, the essence of various doctrines no Arias may also detected in the text.

Within the meaning of the Bhagavad-Gita is find the purification of consciousness through wisdom arises from the execution materially unmotivated of the duties identified by scripture, resulting in self-knowledge or divine realization. At full maturity, the pure and immaculate perception culminates in the search for a pure state of understanding in the Supreme abode.

The Bhagavatad-Gita has distinguished and delineated clearly the characteristics of not devout footpaths based on the action (karma) and the knowledge (Jñana) and its objective correspondents of pleasure of the senses (Kama) and liberation (Moksha). Therefore, the intelligent one can notice than by means of the declaration: yo yac charaddhah sa eva sah, "One is identified by his particular faith", Sri Gita (cap. 17 text 3) has planned an objective comparison of different footpaths and his goals, disarming and exhibiting those who make confusion for support the speculation of which many footpaths and goals are all one.

Krishna: The Almighty

In the Veda theology, the creative beginning of the Divinity is personified by Brahma, and the destructive beginning is Shiva. Indra is the head of some of the low elements of the administration. They are not the proper Lord, but representations of different attributes of the Almighty one. They have obtained their powers of the original source and that's why they are considered to be beings subordinated in the God's service.

Apart, there exist also three different philosophical ideas of the Divinity, namely:

(1) the idea of the omnipresent bhahman of the pantheistic school,

(2) the idea of the universal soul-paramama - of the school yoga, and

(3) the idea of a personal God - bhagavan - with all his stateliness, power, glory, beauty joint knowledge and supremacy in his personality

The human ideas can be material or spiritual. The material or mental idea is defective, since it has relation with the created beginning of the matter. The spiritual idea constitutes certainly the nearest approach the Supreme Being. The spiritual idea of God (Bhagavan) is of two kinds: first the person of God is beyond all its majesty. The first idea is represented in the great Vaikuntha of Narayana, who is considered the Lord of Lords and all the God of all Gods. The second idea is represented in Krishna with his eternal consort, Radharani, his energy-giving pleasure (hladini).

Krishna attracts, loves, and offers to them blessedness to all the souls. The qualities of Krishna are purely spiritual, they have no relation with the material substance. The material senses of the man cannot come closer to him. It is the spirit in the man who can see him straight and communicate with him. For its own degradation, the soul chained in the matter has lost its right to see Krishna and his divine activities (lilac) in the spiritual world. But Krishna can, for his own supremacy, appear with His eternal residence (Vrindavan) and his activities before the eyes of all men.

Krishna is the supreme will and he exercises his supreme power in accordance with his pleases. His power is not subject to any law, since any law has come from his power and from his will. The power can be known by means of his exercise or application. In this world only we have experience of three of the attributes of the power of God. We see the material creation and understand that his power has the attribute of creating the matter. This attribute is known in the vedics literature like Mayan - shakti. We see a man and understand that the supreme power has the attribute of producing limited and imperfect souls. The Writing calls this attribute jiva-shakti. We conceive someone who is spiritual and supreme in your residence of eternal spirits and we understand that his power has the attribute of exhibiting perfect spiritual existences. The Vedas call this attribute chitshakti. They all as a whole form his supreme power named para-shakti.