Trivikrama Swami .com

Question:
I am living within a grihasta ashram and I wanted to ask one practical question I am bothered with. I with my wife were thinking about it and need some clarification concerning the subject of accepting a guru. I wanted to know what is better or more suitable for the uninitiated devotees as we are. Is it better to choose one spiritual master and serve him together or rather the choice should be left for us to be made indipendently? What is the usual rule and what is better for the spiritual progress?

Answer:
The choice can be made independently but generally the husband’s guru become the guide for the family. Actually the husband is the first guru for his wife.

Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami

Question:
On public forums I have twice now heard the suggestion (by vegetarians) that cloned animals could be the solution to the animal slaughter problem because clones have no souls.

And could you speak something on the karma involved in taking such a birth as a clone.

Answer:
This is a incorrect idea that cloned animals have no souls. Without a soul there can be no consciousness. There are so many souls waiting to take birth so when the clone cells are favorable then the soul enters.

Doesn’t seem like very good karma that is true.

Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami

Question:
Hare krishna! How can I stop sinful thoughts occuring in my mind?

Answer:
You can stop sinful thoughts by loudly chanting the Holy Name of God, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Also it is useful to engage the mind with ideas of how to benefit people instead of ideas of how to exploit them. The best benefit you can offer anyone is to engage them somehow in Krishna’s service.

Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami

Question:
If everything in our life is fated, then why we must pray to GOD?

Answer:
Hare Krsna! We pray to, and glorify God because He is deserving of it. Here in the material world we have forgotten God because we want to take His place as the enjoyer, controller and owner. When we realize our mistake, by the mercy of His devotees, then naturally we will want to pray to Him to ask His forgiveness for our offenses and for strength not to again forget Him.

So we do have some individual free will, to turn to God or to turn away from Him. That free will is not interfered with by God, even if He may know how we will use it, He still gives us the right to choose.

Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami

Question:
Dear Srila Trivikrama Maharaja.
Dandavat Pranamas, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Why is it that Iskcon devotees should not associate with Srila Narayana Maharaja or his followers?

Answer:
Dear Bh. Rune, Hare Krsna!
Thanks for your inquiry.

We have a saying in English that, “Good fences make good neighbors”. I think it is clear to any objective observer that Narayana Maharaja’s society and Iskcon are not one. Of course there are many areas where we are in agreement and we want to respect him and his followers as devotees of Lord Sri Krsna.

We disagree however in some important respects. First of all, our faith is that Srila Prabhupada was especially empowered by his spiritual master and Krsna to establish the mission of Lord Caitanya throughout the world. And thus we believe that his method of expanding this movement is ideal. For instance his emphasis on distributing his books.

In the last days Srila Prabhupada ordered us to manage his society as we had been managing it and he made the GBC body as the ultimate governing authority. This is history that none can dispute.

Narayana Maharaja was not so ordered, nor is he ready to accept this order, but as Srila Prabhupada’s loyal followers we are duty bound to accept this order on our head and to execute it as our life and soul.

Secondly, Srila Prabhupada foresaw that his books would be the basis for spreading this mission for the next 10,000 years. In all our Iskcon temples these books are used for all the classes and there is always a push to distribute them. In Narayana Maharaja’s society this is not the case. There nobody refers to them or considers them as the most important basis for all spiritual subjects. In Iskcon we do.

Then there is the history. About 10 years ago Narayana Maharaja began preaching that Srila Prabhupada did not give us every thing and if we wanted to go deeper into spiritual life we need to have a “rasika guru”, and offered to be that guru. The GBC rejected this claim, and by numerous quotations from Srila Prabhupada’s books and lectures, established that our rasa would be revealed to us when we were qualified to understand it by our sincere service to Srila Prabhupada and his mission. Therefore the GBC ordered our members not to hear from him. He was annoyed by this injunction and since then has been actively targeting Iskcon devotees to get them to leave Iskcon and join him. Because of this the GBC has advised our members not to associate with him or his followers, but to give them respect from a distance.

If this is not clear please feel free to inquire further.

Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami

Question:
Is it possible for a God conscious woman to lead her husband in spiritual life even though he’s a materialist?

Answer:
A God conscious women can lead her husband to God consciousness if he chooses to follow her. But remember that spiritual life is always voluntary so don’t be surprised if he doesn’t follow. In any case a God conscious women should always try to remain as God conscious as possible even if she has to live with a materialistic husband.

Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami

Question:
Why has a jiva fallen down to the material world. Is it his free choice or a will of God? If a soul has been created to be perfect and without any defects, then which deeds of him make him fall down to the material world? If the spiritual world is perfect, there shouldn’t be any deeds that make a soul fall down to the material world, so maybe we are in the material world because of our own will?

Answer:
A jiva falls to the material world by misuse of it’s own free choice. Because the jiva is made in the image of God and God has independence so God has given the jiva soul independence also. Without independence there would be no love. Love means we voluntarily choose to love someone, so when the jiva chooses not to love God then it comes to the material world. This is our position. Now if we want to return to the Kingdom of God we simply have to choose to love God. Then we will be immediately fit to enter into the Spiritual world.

Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami

Question:
If a Devotee thinks that he may fall down from Grastha Platform to Grahmedhi, should he marry or not? ( It is recommended that A Grastha Life should be regulated as instructed in Scriptures).

Answer:
It is advised that before one marries he is trained up as a bramachary under the care of a guru. One should be able to save his dependents from the cycle of birth and death. Without having that qualification it is better not to become a husband, father etc. In good association it is possible to remain a fixed up grhasta, why not try for that.

Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami

My dear Bhn. Jesse,
Thanks for you intelligent questions.

Questions:
1. After we quit these bodies and get new bodies, will we forget all of our present spiritual activities (like interacting with devotees, Deity worship etc)? It makes sense that we would forget this live’s material (maya) actions, but aren’t things done in Krishna consciousness transcendental even here, so why wouldn’t we remember them?

Answer: In the Bhagavada Gita 15/15 Krsna says from Me comes knowledge, rememberance, and forgetfulness. He also says He will carry what we lack and preserve what we have. So we should have faith that simply by sincerely serving Krsna all our needs will be met, and regarding the details we can just let Him worry about that.

2. This really is worrisome to me, because I was thinking about leaving my body–yes, I can think about Sri Krsna at the time of ‘death’ and attain Him, but when it is time to take birth again, (either in a spiritual or
material body,) will we will forget everything devotional because of the terrifying birth process?

Answer: So please don’t worry. Krsna tells us directly to just surrender to him and not to worry. It is good that you are thinking about leaving your body. This will keep you serious about remembering Krsna and even if you forget, he will not and will arrange every thing for you in a favorable way.

3. Also, what is our relationship with Srila Prabhupada and/or Guru when we leave our bodies… if He is our Lord birth after birth, will we still know it? (and be able to worship Him and Sri Krsna, and have some interaction)?

Answer: Yes. By Krsna’s mercy we will be able to recognize and serve our spiritual masters birth after birth.

Yours sincerely,

Trivikrama Swami

Dear Bh. Patryk,
Hare Krishna!
Thank you for your questions.

Questions:
1. No illicit sex- what is exactly an illicit sex? Is masturbation an illicit sex?

Answer: Yes!

2. Is breaking of any of 8 points of Brahmacharya an illicit sex (thinking of an opposite sex, touching the opposite sex with evil intension, looking at the opposite sex with passion, and other points)?

Answer: It is said that in the Kali yuga sinful thoughts are not counted as a
sin. However as Bhagavad Gita mentions by contemplating the objects of the senses lust develops, and from lust anger arises and from anger bewilderment arises and thus we fall into the material pool. Therefore it is obviously best if we can follow all the points of Brahmachary life.

3. No intoxication (no drugs, no alcohol, no smoking, no coffee, no tea); but what about chocolate and drinks like Coca-cola? what if someone eats a lot of sweats at the time and gets sugar-intoxicated? Does such a person break a regulative principle?

Answer: No… But it is best to avoid.

4. No gambling - not going to casino, not playing in a lottery- that’s what. I know- but what about buying stocks at the stock market?

Answer: “Gambling of all description, even speculative business enterprise, is considered to be degrading,…” SB 1.17.38

“Instead of wasting his time with business speculations, he should seek the life of plain living and high spiritual thinking and thus save himself from perpetual materialistic unrest.” Adi 5.22

“But even if we do speculation business and do it for Krsna, that is not good.” Room Conversation — August 1, 1972, London

I hope this helps.

Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami