Mukham karoti vaachaalam…
Question: (not audible)
Guru maharaj: Since we offer items to the deities so that is devotional. The 26 items we offer to the deities. And then we touch the head of the deity. So I think as we are doing worship of Krishna, it would be part of devotional service. What karma kanda has is more offering yagnas to Shiva or Brahma. That is not karma kanda, to offer to Krishna.
Question: Three related questions. Shraadha ceremony – if someone leaves the body in Purushottam month can we offer pinda to the departed soul? If someone left the body in other months, can we offer the monthly shraadha during Purushottam month? Generally, people say that offering maha prasad is sufficient we do not need to do pinda, is that true?
Guru maharaj: Of course I did not research it. Generally, the children should offer Krishna prasad to the forefathers. And in this way one is offering pindi. In the pindi ceremony people offer what the person likes to eat that is particularly criticized but offering Krishna prasad is considered auspicious. So we just offer Krishna prasadam.
Question: Difference between the different sampradayas. I am preaching in a city in Sweden and in the city there are two different temples one is Iskcon and one is a disciple of Prabhupad who has started his own temple. So it is impossible to try to stop the people from going to the other temple. But now we have tried to communicate a little more and because they initiate very fast, so it gives a wrong sign to the people we try to cultivate if people who get initiated there come to every program, so we say, when you get initiated come sometimes as a guest but don’t come regularly as it gives wrong signal to new people. I had to communicate this. On one level it is like a political border, how can we forbid somebody from coming to the temple? On another level I feel it is a little bit of preaching in Prabhupad’s mission. So it may be offensive to say that. So what attitude should we have, guru maharaj?
Guru maharaj: You see a grihastha can have his own temple and it seems that this grihastha has made a temple. (she says it is a sanyasi disciple of Srila Prabhupad who has made this temple). What is his name? (Param Adviaiti Swami. His association is Vrnda). He is basically against Iskcon and generally we would avoid associating with him. It is not that he has a temple, he has many temples. In Columbia, in Peru, in Chile and so he has made a separate movement. It will be better to associate with devotees of Iskcon. I talked to him for about six hours to be part of Iskcon but he did not want. In such a case it is not like some grihastha who has a house, he has made his own movement and we respect him but we don’t associate. We consider he is a vaishnava but he is not following Iskcon’s rules that means he is not following Srila Prabhupad. I did not know that he was in Sweden. He gets people to join up easy and we heard that basically anything goes in his temple. You can smoke marijuana, that is not following Prabhupad’s system. (She says, is it ok if we ask them to take darshan but not to come regularly because it disturbs our preaching?) If they come to our program and they don’t talk to anyone, that is not a problem. You can tell them not to speak to anyone. Some of the disciples of Param Advaiti wanted to rejoin Iskcon, so we asked that they get a letter from him. So that we don’t encroach on each other’s areas. I think that he is the only person like that. In Bangalore there are also ritviks, apart from that we don’t have so much competition.
Question: Does law of karma apply to only human beings or does it apply to lower species? Does it apply to people in brahma loka, Swarga loka and other places?
Guru maharaj: The laws of karma apply particularly to the human beings. The animals follow their instincts and by their nature they act. Whereas the human beings have more free will so they can follow the laws of karma. It is said that animals in the species of cows, tigers and lions, and monkeys are born in their next birth as human beings in the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. So tiger is expected to act in a particular way and cows also act in a particular way. So the cows are in the mode of goodness, monkeys in the mood of ignorance and tigers and lions in the mode of passion. So when you see a tiger or lion, don’t say please don’t bite me because its nature is such! Ha! But a human may act accordingly, he can choose what to do, what not to do and therefore he is responsible under the laws of karma.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna!
20 May 2018
JRDD