Neither poetry nor imagination (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

Excerpt from Subjective Evolution of Consciousness 

— The Play of the Sweet Absolute 

Questions & Answers with Srila Sridhar Maharaj

Srila Sridhar Maharaj

Srila Sridhar Maharaj:

We should understand that we are living in the plane of misconception. The whole thing is false. It is all a part of illusion. Within the world of illusion, some thing may have its place, but when we deal with the real truth, however, we will conclude that everything here is like a dream. This whole world is like a dream, a misconception. Any part of this world will therefore also be misconception. What is real, what is truth, will become apparent when a thing is judged in connection with the real world. The association of saints who have a genuine connection with spiritual reality promotes this transaction.

What is real and what is unreal? Whatever has a connection with the real self, with the soul, is real. Soul is consciousness in the world of pure consciousness. Whatever is connected with the mind in the mental world of false ego, is all false. A part of the false is also false, extremely false. But it has got its negative utility.

Approaching the Spiritual Master (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

Excerpt from Sri Guru and His Grace

We must be careful to get proper direction. That direction has been given by Krsna in the Bhagavad-gita (4:34):

                                       tad viddhi pranipatena

                                       pariprasnena sevaya

                                      upadeksyanti te jnanam

                                      jnaninas tattva darsinah

"To understand transcendental knowledge, you must approach a self-realized soul, accept him as your spiritual master, and take initiation from him. Inquire submissively and render service unto him. Selfrealized souls can impart knowledge unto you, for they have seen the truth."

Here, Krsna has given us the standard by which we can understand what is what, from a bona fide source. The standard to measure truth or untruth must come not from a vitiated, vulnerable plane, but from a real plane. And to realize that, we must have these three qualifications: pranipat, pariprasna, and seva. Pranipat means we must surrender to this knowledge, for it is not an ordinary class of knowledge, which as a subject we can make our object; it is supersubjective. We may be the subjects in this mundane world, but we will have to become objects to be handled by the superknowledge of that plane.

Service — Samadhi* — Lila**

When you engage yourself, under the guidance of your spiritual master, 
in transcendental welfare work, and you do so without a selfish motive 
but rather as a service real, without any hidden agenda, 
then this becomes samadhi.

— Srila B A Paramadvaiti Maharaj, today

* Samadhi — Ecstatic state of consciousness in which the mind becomes completely still, one-pointed or concentrated, and the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object.

 

** Lila — Divine pastime
 

The Play of God (Swami B. V. Tripurari)

Excerpt from 
Aesthetic Vedanta: The Sacred Path of Passionate Love

By Swami B. V. Tripurari

Absolute Harmony: J S Bach's Air and Srila Sridhar Maharaj from the veranda

I don't remember what came first: if JS Bach's "Air" reminded me of Srila Sridhar Maharaj's "Absolute Harmony" or the other way around. But in either case, here is Bach's "Air", a piece of music that most people would think of as the epitome of harmony, but which is actually full of dissonances, all the time. And below, an excerpt from Srila Sridhar Maharaj's "Absolute Harmony", where there is talk of how even discord is harmonized in the Absolute.

In this clip the disharmonies can be visually seen in graphics. Every time the white rectangles touch, that is disharmony – friction, two notes of two incompatible movements meeting and creating dissonance. But you won't really notice, because as listener you are following the greater movement of the piece, and you will anticipate the greater harmony that the piece itself is both promising and delivering, and in that way harmonize the discord. At 2:47 and 4:19 the dissonances are extra pronounced (and can be given more stress by the conductor than in this version).

*

Paramatma (Excerpts from Bhagavad Gita)

The Supersoul

The Supreme Lord, by His plenary portion as Paramatma [Supersoul / Superconsciousness / Superself / Mighty I AM Presence], is present in everyone's heart. Therefore, making distinctions between species and by social points of view is meaningless, being differences of the body.

The Lord is equally kind to everyone because He treats every living being as a friend yet maintains Himself as Paramatma regardless of the circumstances of the living entities. The Lord as Paramatma is present in the outcaste and in the brahmana.

The soul and the Supersoul within the body are of the same spiritual quality. The equality in quality does not, however, make them equal in quantity. The individual soul is present only in that particular body whereas the Supersoul is present in each and every body. The similar characteristics of the soul and the Supersoul are that they are both conscious, eternal and blissful. The difference is that the individual soul is conscious within the jurisdiction of the body, whereas the Supersoul is conscious of all bodies. 

The Supersoul is present in all bodies without distinction.

– Srila Prabhupada, Bhagavad Gita, 5:18, purport

Played by God (Srila Sridhar Maharaj)

Excerpts from The Loving Search for the Lost Servant 

Srila Sridhar Maharaj

(Headings, linebreaks, notes by Sd)

Srila Sridhar Maharaj

Hare Krishna Top 10 (5)

5.

Jedi Mind Tricks feat. El Eloh:

“Books of Blood: The Coming of Tan” (1997)

Conscious hip hop duo Jedi Mind Tricks chanting (the second half of) the Hare Krishna Mantra: “Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare” (2:13). And after some well-informed truth-telling to The Children of Lie, the lyrics end: “Praise to His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada” (3:34).

Srila Prabhupada, the man who took Krishna Consciousness to the West