Question:
Today I visited the Krishna temple in Caracas and I liked the atmosphere, the singing and the vegetarian food. But I do not understand what they say. Can you please summarize in a few words the basis of your ideas?
Answer:
First it is important to specify that what we say are not our ideas, but rather a part of a culture studied and practiced for thousands of years. This culture is contained in books such as the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, Maha-bharata and many more.
In the West this philosophy has not been particularly known for the last centuries, but in India there is not one person who doesn’t know who Krishna is, what is the Bhagavad-Gita or that the Vedas are great books of knowledge.
Let’s say something simple and in a few words.
There is matter and spirit.
These are two different energies, in two separate worlds.
Living beings are spirit while the objects of the world, including our bodies, are made of matter. The main characteristic of the spirit is that it is living. On the contrary, matter is inert. For this reason we, being obviously living, cannot be matter but spirit.
For some reason the living spirit soul comes into this world and thinks that he is a material body. The main problem in the life of all of us is the ignorance of the basic fact of our spiritual identity and the contrary conviction that we are the body and that everything that exists in this world belongs to us. As a consequence of this illusion, we live in a wrong way causing negative reactions to ourselves and to others.
From this misconception, which we call “maya”[1], atheism develops. They think, since I do not see God then He does not exist. That’s what atheists say. And if God exists, they insist saying, He is elsewhere and does not do anything good for us.
In reality, God exists and is supremely merciful.
One might ask: then if He is so kind, why do many horrible things happen in this world?
The answer is that the evil of the world is the result of the evil deeds of men, it is not God’s responsibility. This principle is called karma, the rule of personal responsibility.
Each action involves a reaction. Since there cannot be an action without a reaction, in the same way there cannot be a reaction without a corresponding previous action. If there is a bad reaction it means that a bad previous action has been committed. We are responsible, not God.
God exists and He is a person.
Not a limited person like us, but possessing perfect and infinite qualities.
Being a person and being unlimited are not contradictory concepts.
The perfection of life is to know Him, whom we call Krishna, and return to the place from which we originally came, to our spiritual abode. This will give us an eternal life, full of knowledge and happiness.
The system that allows us this very desirable goal is called bhakti-yoga, which is a system of life. It constitutes the life that we, the devotees of Krishna, follow.
[1] Illusion, or a thing that is not real.
This is a section of the book “Brilliant as the Sun”.
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