Time Went Backwards

Today on 31 December 2008 I arrived in Santiago, Chile at 12:55pm flying in from Auckland, New Zealand. The most amazing thing about this journey was that I left Auckland at 5:25pm on 31 December 2008, which is 5 1/2 hours after I arrived in Santiago. I arrived in Santiago before I left Auckland. In other words time went backwards. If I told this to someone who is not familiar with what happens when one crosses the international date line, he would think that I had lost my marbles, that I was crazy. Crossing the international dateline always does uncanny things to one's calendar no matter which way he crosses it.

There is another crossing point known as the Viraja River, which is the crossing point between the spiritual and material worlds. It acts in ways that are even more amazing and inconceivable than the international date line. On one side of the Viraja, the material side, is the realm of past, present, and future. And on the other side of the Viraja, the spiritual side, there exists the realm of timelessness, described as follows by Srila Prabhupada:

"In the transcendental realm there is no creation and no destruction, and thus the duration of life is eternal unlimitedly. In other words, everything in the transcendental world is everlasting, full of knowledge and bliss without deterioration. Since there is no deterioration, there is no past, present and future in the estimation of time. It is clearly stated in this verse that the influence of time is conspicuous by its absence."

This means that even though we fell from the spiritual world into the material world (due to our envy of the Lord) because there is no time in the spiritual world there is no time that we fell into this material world. And when we become purified by the process of Krishna consciousness and reawaken our original love for the Supreme Lord there will be no time when we returned. We will always have been there.

Just as time goes backwards when one crosses the international date line from Auckland to Santiago, time also goes backwards when the jiva crosses the Viraja on his return trip back to home, back to Godhead. Time will go back to that moment when he fell from the spiritual sky. In other words, he will never have fallen. This is why it is sometimes said that no one falls from the spiritual world even though countless numbers of jivas have fallen into this material existence due to misuse of their minute independence by desiring to take the position of being the center of existence.

Some may argue that time cannot go backwards. But if the Lord has true supremacy over everything within existence, He must have the power to fast forward, rewind, or freeze time. And he can do it differently for each individual person. It's not that everybody has to be on the same program. This is why some souls exist in the timeless spiritual realm as nitya-siddhas, eternally liberated souls, and some souls exist in the material realm of past, present, and future as nitya-baddhas, eternally conditioned souls.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Ecstatic Krishna Consciousness in Santiago, Chile

ISKCON Santiago, Oasis in the Desert

Lecturing Underneath Lord Caitanya Painting

Revealing the Innermost Secrets of Bhakti

Prasadam Distribution to Eager Santiago Devotees

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Krishna Is A Sinner For Keeping So Many Girlfriends

Hare Krishna,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!

Earlier I was chatting with one of my Christian friends about God. He seems to believe that there are different types of souls, good ones and bad ones. From what I have read and heard from other devotees and preachers, the soul is pure, and all souls are alike. So there is no such thing as a good soul or a bad soul. Could you please shed some light that I could pass on to my mate?

Also when I was telling him about Krishna he asked me the following:

1. I have heard so many bad things about Krishna that He had so many girl friends. So how can then can you say that He is God?
2. if Krishna is God then why He is not sin-free like Jesus?

Please advice how I can respond.

Thanks,

Devi

Answer: You Are A Sinner For Claiming That This Woman Is Your Wife

Every soul is inherently good, but due to his being part and parcel of the supremely independent Personality of Godhead each soul possesses a minute degree of independence. If he misuses this independence to try to rebel against the authority of the Lord, he is immediately transferred to this material world both to satisfy his desire to enjoy separately from the Lord and to free him from this desire.

Some foolish people criticize Krishna for having so many girlfriends, but they do not know the meaning of the Supreme Person. Supreme Person means that because He is the creator of everything He is also the owner of everything. This means that all the women belong to Krishna and that if any man thinks that a women is his wife or his girlfriend that man is a thief because he is falsely claiming the property of God as his own property. So Krishna is not sinning when He enjoys loving relationships with so many women. It is we who are sinning by claiming that here is my girlfriend or here is my wife.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari