My Life's Goal

My life's goal is to see that the entire world becomes Krishna conscious. Critics may label this as foolish naïveté, that I should not waste my time dreaming about realizing such an impossible goal. But what can I do? The order has been given to us by our spiritual master, "Become guru and make the entire world Krishna conscious." My duty as a disciple is to always meditate upon, worship, and try to successfully execute the orders given by my spiritual master. So possible or impossible is not an issue for me. Even if it were impossible, my prayer to Lord Krishna would be, "My dear Lord, kindly make the impossible possible so that we can successfully carry out the order that Srila Prabhupada has given us." Success or failure is not in our hands. That is up to Krishna. But whether or not we absorb ourselves fully in trying to carry out the order of our spiritual master, that is up to us. And if we can absorb ourselves fully in this way, our lives are already a grand success whether or not the world takes to Krishna consciousness.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Departure from Pune--18 October 2010

Distributing Mahaprasad to the Devotees

Giving Final Instructions on the Bhakti Science

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Is Krishna (God) Male, Female, or Both?

In talking with friends about God, they struggle to understand when I refer to God as He. They believe that because everything comes from God then He must be a She also. They also find it extremely hard to refer to God as He due to past negative experiences growing up as Christians. They feel that referring to God as He does not liberate them as females. I'm not sure how to handle their objections.

Can everyone look to God the way that works for them? Why is God male and not female? Or is he sexless but appeared as male on earth? Thinking about my friends struggle I'm now getting confused writing this to you.

Would you be so kind as to help educate me about the male/female-ness of God?

C.S.

Answer: All Aspects Are Present in Krishna or God

The masculine and feminine natures must both be present in God, since God is the source of all existence. Radha is the feminine aspect of the Supreme and Krishna is the masculine aspect. We address God as "Radha Krishna" acknowledging both the masculine and feminine aspects. We first address the feminine aspect of God because the feminine aspect is more softhearted and easily approachable than the masculine aspect. In the Hare Krishna mantra we first utter "Hare" addressing Radha, the feminine aspect of God, before we utter Krishna to address the masculine aspect. So our Hare Krishna mantra calls out to God as "She-He."

As long as someone is attached to thinking themselves to be a male or a female, they will remain on the material non-liberated platform. It is only when one realizes, "I am not my material body. I am instead a spirit-soul who is the eternal servant of God." that they can become liberated. A male does not become liberated by thinking that because I am male, God must also be male. Similarly, a female does not become liberated by thinking that because I am female God must be female. God is not a subjective relativity conjured up in our fertile imagination. God is a scientific reality, the source of all existence.

Since God is the original impregnating seed-giver for all of existence, in His original form He must be male. Even though He sometimes manifests the female form of Mohini-murti, still in his original form He is male because the female does not give the seed to impregnate the male. It is the other way around. It is the male that impregnates the female. These are nature's laws. They cannot be changed. Because God is the supreme impregnator of the entire existence, He must therefore be male.

When one becomes spiritually perfect and perceives the original form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the source of all existence, one will see that He is manifesting a male form. To expand His enjoyment that Supreme Person manifests from Himself His feminine aspect, Srimati Radharani. It is only through the mercy of Radharani, our divine mother, that we can approach our divine father, Lord Sri Krishna. So, since in one sense God's feminine aspect is more important and in another sense God's masculine aspect is more important, both of them are given equal importance by learned transcendentalists.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari