Amazing Indian Hospitality

Even before arriving here in Vrindavana we had the most wonderful heart-warming experience. On our way out of Delhi we stopped at the Apollo Hospital for a doctor's appointment. The waiting room was crowded, and I needed a place where I could plug in my computer and write and then upload "Thought for the Day". To my amazement the gentleman in charge of the waiting room gave me his desk and his chair for doing my work. This desk was a necessary part of the service that he and his assistant had to do. But still he most graciously gave it to me, and he and his assistant just somehow squeezed around me to get their work done. I could never expect to receive such generous hospitality in a public place anywhere in the Western countries. This experience demonstrates the sweetness of Indian culture that even a total stranger would be treated with such kindness even to point of creating inconvenience for those who are providing the hospitality. I was never made to feel that I should hurry up and finish my work so that they could again have their work space. I was welcome to stay there using their work space for as long as I needed it. I used it for almost two hours.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Apollo Hospital Staff Gave Me Their Work Space.

Even Though They Had to Work Around Me...

...They Joyfully Accepted My Intrusion.

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Where is Maheshwaraloka?

There is a Maheswaraloka in the spiritual world. What is the position of this planet? Who are its inhabitants? What is their eternal position? How does one reach this planet?

Radhagopal das

Answer: Between the Material and Spiritual Worlds

Maheshwarloka or Mahesh-dhama is not in the spiritual world.
It is also known as Shivaloka and it is on the boundary between the spiritual world and the material world. Devi-dhama is the material world. Hari-dhama is the spiritual world. And Mahesh-dhama is in between them.

The conditioned living entities who wish to become liberated from the miseries of material existence are given a chance within Devi-dhama to seek liberation. Some of them become the Lord's devotees and enter Hari-dhama, some of them want to merge into the Lord's existence and enter Mahesh-dhama, and some of them remain within Devi-dhama.

Mahesh-dhama is the marginal place between Hari-dhama and Devi-dhama. The impersonalists who want to merge into the existence of the Transcendence are placed within Mahesh-dhama. It is also the destination of the Buddhists who attain nirvana. Those who want to remain within the planetary systems of the material universes do so on various planets. But those who want to go outside the material energy can enter Hari-dhama and go either to the various planets there or directly to Krishnaloka, the planet of Lord Krishna. The system of bhakti-yoga makes one eligible to enter Hari-dhama, the system of jnana-yoga makes one eligible to enter Mahesh-dhama, and the system of karma-yoga obliges one to remain in Devi-dhama repeatedly being born and dying, and changing his material covering according to the standard of karma he performs.

When a living entity is liberated from Devi-dhama but does not know of the opulence of Hari-dhama, he is placed in Mahesh-dhama, which is between the other two dhamas. This liberated soul does not get an opportunity to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead there; therefore although this Mahesh-dhama is Lord Shiva's dhama and above Devi-dhama, it is not the spiritual world. The spiritual world begins with Hari-dhama, or Vaikunthaloka.

This Mahesh-dhama or Shivaloka is also the destination of those who attain nirvana as described in Buddhist philosophy. Those who attain nirvana in Mahesh-dhama are also liberated. But they are not in the spiritual world. They are in the marginal place known as nirvana. Their material existence is finished, but their spiritual development is not there. So finishing material existence is not the all in all.

Nirvana is just like a man who is suffering from fever, and the fever subsides, but still he has not fully recovered his health. He is still lying in the bed. Full health will be when he can get up out of the bed and work again with full energy. For now, even though his fever has subsided he is still recuperating in the bed. This is the stage known as nirvana.

So when your material existence is finished, that is nirvana. But you have to go further. Then your real, constitutional life as spirit soul will be manifested. So that is bhakti-yoga or devotional service to the Supreme Lord. This devotional service is healthy life after nirvana. So those who are in Krishna consciousness, they have already passed this material existence and nirvana stage. They are in healthy activities, provided they are actually engaged in Krishna consciousness.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari