There's Nothing New in this Material World
In this material world everyone is crazy to read, hear, or watch the latest news through newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and the internet. But in their delusion they do not realize that there is nothing really new in this material world. Everything that is going on here is at best nothing but the same old wine, although sometimes the bottle may be different. Therefore the devotee of the Lord has no interest in the ordinary tidings of this flickering material world, which he finds to be painfully boring. Although he has some awareness of the ordinary news to facilitate his execution of devotional service, his only real interest is the extraordinary news of Lord Krishna and His devotees, which triumphantly dominates all of existence by its sweet transcendental flavor.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
There's Nothing More Blissful Than Talking About Krishna
1) I recently saw a BBC program "Human Universe--Why We Are Here" where the presenter Prof. Brian Cox postulates (and very convincingly at that):
a) We and the universe are chance occurrences-like a ticket in a lottery.
b) There are infinite number of universes
c) We do not need a God to explain us or the universe. Everything can be explained by Darwin's theory of evolution).
2) Influenced by the program I then did some research and read some articles by Carl Sagan and Einstein's nonbelief in a personal god.
3) Then I read a book by Richard Dawkins, "The God Delusion." This book has started the confusion in me that I refer to. It says that almost certainly there is no God and gives several justifications for it (all very acceptable to my logical mind). Dawkins writes why and how we have started believing and how we have been trained not to question God even if our logical mind thinks otherwise.
I ask you, Sir, with all due respect and with all humility, do you believe that someone can be born of a virgin mother and that someone can be the son of God and God Himself?
Do You believe (at the very depth in your heart and brain) that a flute playing young man from Vrindavan can be the creator of this infinite number of universes and that reciting His name 1,728 times a day by turning a beaded string is a very logical thing to do. If there were intelligent life on another planet, would they not laugh at us if they were to see us doing this day in and day out? If Lord Krishna is the creator of this vastness and of us, then who created Lord Krishna? If God does not need a creator, then why does this universe need a Creator?
Please help to allay my confusion.
Thank you Sir.
Dr. Dipankar B.
Regarding what you heard on the "Human Universe" program presented by Professor Cox and what you have understood from the theory of Charles Darwin, where is the evidence that any highly organized system can be produced by chance? This cannot be demonstrated scientifically. Anyone who accepts this materialism doctrine is simply taking a leap of blind faith into the darkness of ignorance. Atheists, not unlike fanatical religionists, cling to the doctrine of materialism, that life arises from dead matter which comes from dead nothingness, to be an established scientific fact, when in reality it is nothing but a blind assumption. Even within science itself, evolutionary cosmology, quantum physics, and consciousness studies make this materialism doctrine look quite quaint, doggedly dogmatic, and indeed to be rendered completely extinct. Everywhere around us we see that life comes from life, not from dead matter arising from nothing. There is not a shred of evidence to establish that something alive can come out of something dead. A dead, empty nothingness cannot produce life. Only something that is alive can produce life. If the scientists want to actually make progress, they should do research to find out what is the original living force behind all of existence and give up their dishonest attempt to brainwash the masses into accepting their materialistic dogma.
You mention Richard Dawkins. This is the same Richard Dawkins who says that you are nothing more than a robot. Do you honestly feel that a robot can feel love? Do you feel that you are a robot? Have you ever tried to make friends with a machine? These atheists propound a mechanistic world view that completely denies the existence of persons. Do you feel that your personality is an illusion, that you don't really exist. If that were true, then who is it that is experiencing the illusion that you exist?
The main reason for the widespread dismissal of religion as blind faith is that the commonly understood systems of theistic thought are not backed up by any verifiable direct interaction with the Supreme Person. Krishna consciousness, however, is different. It is a completely different theological system, which totally decimates the materialistic doctrine of atheism because it gives one the scientific tools to directly perceive and associate personally with the Supreme Person, who is the origin of all existence. Any genuine scientist or sincere seeker of the highest truth can directly experience the Supreme Truth which contains all truths if he will learn from a bona fide spiritual master how to become peaceful, free from all material hankerings, and how to dovetail his individual consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness. Otherwise, by undefendable distorted so-called scientific arguments these atheistic pseudo scientists do nothing more than cover the existential truths with a dense fog in which the Supreme Lord disappears from our sight.
Lord Krishna warns us of the danger of being carried away by irrational atheistic dogma:
ajñaś cāśraddadhānaś ca
saṁśayātmā vinaśyati
nāyaṁ loko 'sti na paro
na sukhaṁ saṁśayātmanaḥ
"But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next."---Bhagavad-gita 4.40
Therefore we should have pity on these highly decorated fools and try to save them from their madness. This is the mission of the Krishna consciousness movement, to save the world from this deadly soul-killing atheism.
These atheists are the most extreme dogmatists. They have blind faith that everything came out of nothing, although there is absolutely no proof of that in the vast history of the universe that anything has ever come out of nothing. Let them do even one experiment now in their richly funded laboratories to produce something out of nothing. They cannot do it. Their claims are simply sophisticated word jugglery bluffs. That's all. Our modern society has become a fool's paradise in which the blind are leading the blind because the people in general blindly follow these blind fools who are masquerading under the name of scientists. These so-called scientists will fall into the ditch of the animal kingdom in their next birth, and their blind followers will go with them. This is the pathetic result of this vast ocean of misinformation which is being forcibly crammed down the throats of the innocent public falsely designated as science. It is not science at all. It is just the opposite. It is nescience or ignorance. Those who have good intelligence are not being fooled by these sophisticated word jugglers who say that a big bang came of nothing and produced this highly ordered universe. Fools and rascals dogmatically cling with the fervor of fanatical religionists to their elaborately fabricated theory that this beautifully ordered universe came into being from a freak explosion. According to their logic you can explode a stick of dynamite on a stack of building materials and get a beautifully constructed house as a result. These scientists should prove their philosophy by building their own homes in this way. I dare them to do this and prove their theory by practical example.
They foolishly think that everything came of nothing when in fact the opposite is the real truth. Everything we experience comes from something, which comes from something, which comes from something, etc., etc. At some point in this chain of causality there has to be something which set things into motion without that thing being set into motion by something else. This is called in philosophy "the unmoved mover." There is an original substance to reality. It is not void as these rascal cheating scientists are trying to convince us.
If they want to convince me of their philosophy, they need to stop trying to brainwash me with their dogma and start speaking like intelligent, sane people. But they can't do this because there is no scientific, logical, or philosophical basis for their spurious malarkey born out of envy of the Supreme Person.
We do not need the use the word "God" when talking to these people. Because of their envy of God they become very angry like venomous serpents as soon as we mention His name. Instead we should simply defeat their rascal voidistic speculations which have not a shrewd of empirical evidence to support them. And then when and if they become humble and submissive we can teach them the techniques by which they can personally meet face to face, eye to eye, with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and directly witness how everything in all of existence is emanating from His transcendental body at this very moment.
Now I will list and answer your questions:
Q: Do You believe that someone can be born of a virgin mother and that someone can be the son of God and God Himself?
A: If you can accept the atheistic conclusion that the universe comes out a virgin nothingness, why can't you accept that Krishna can appear from a mother without the seminal injection of a father? Everyone has a father, who has a father, who has a father, etc. When you come to that father that does not have a father, you have found God.
Q: Do you believe (at the very depth in your heart and brain) that a flute playing young man from Vrindavan can be the creator of this infinite number of universes?
A: If you accept the atheistic conclusion that from nothingness are derived unlimited planets and universes, what is the difficulty to understand that they could also be derived from anything? In other words, if nothing can produce everything, why something can't produce everything? There is no logical reason why it could not.
Q: Is reciting Krishna's name 1,728 times a day by turning a beaded string a very logical thing to do?
A: If you were in a prison and they had policy that anyone who begs for release 1,728 times will be set free, do you think that any of the prisoners would find a logical reason to do this?
Q: If there were intelligent life on another planet, would they not laugh at us if they were to see us doing this day in day out?
A: There is intelligent life on other planets who are so intelligent that they chant a lot more than we do.
Q: If Lord Krishna is the creator of this vastness and us, then who created Lord Krishna?
A: Krishna is self-manifested. He is created by Himself because He is origin of all existence.
Q: If God does not need a creator, then why does this universe need a creator?
A: If the sun is self-luminous, why can't the sunshine also be self-luminous without having to depend on the sun for it's existence?
In conclusion, these scientists still cannot clearly discern between a living body and a dead body because they insist on closing their eyes like owls to the truth that is being clearly presented to them.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
There's Nothing More Blissful Than Talking About Krishna
Sunday Feast Lecture--Riga, Latvia--26 October 2014
Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:
Question: How Could There Be a God?
I have been reading Bhagavad-Gita since I was 15, mostly as my parents read it and then during medical school I started reading Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita As It Is version. I read your "Thought for the Day" on most days and although I am not initiated, I try to do japa on beads between 7-12 rounds per day. I have managed 16 rounds only a few days. However I always convince myself that very soon I will start doing 16 rounds as well as giving up meat and the occasional wine on social occasions. However a few things happened in quick succession, which are disturbing me:1) I recently saw a BBC program "Human Universe--Why We Are Here" where the presenter Prof. Brian Cox postulates (and very convincingly at that):
a) We and the universe are chance occurrences-like a ticket in a lottery.
b) There are infinite number of universes
c) We do not need a God to explain us or the universe. Everything can be explained by Darwin's theory of evolution).
2) Influenced by the program I then did some research and read some articles by Carl Sagan and Einstein's nonbelief in a personal god.
3) Then I read a book by Richard Dawkins, "The God Delusion." This book has started the confusion in me that I refer to. It says that almost certainly there is no God and gives several justifications for it (all very acceptable to my logical mind). Dawkins writes why and how we have started believing and how we have been trained not to question God even if our logical mind thinks otherwise.
I ask you, Sir, with all due respect and with all humility, do you believe that someone can be born of a virgin mother and that someone can be the son of God and God Himself?
Do You believe (at the very depth in your heart and brain) that a flute playing young man from Vrindavan can be the creator of this infinite number of universes and that reciting His name 1,728 times a day by turning a beaded string is a very logical thing to do. If there were intelligent life on another planet, would they not laugh at us if they were to see us doing this day in and day out? If Lord Krishna is the creator of this vastness and of us, then who created Lord Krishna? If God does not need a creator, then why does this universe need a Creator?
Please help to allay my confusion.
Thank you Sir.
Dr. Dipankar B.
Answer: Nothing Comes From Nothing
I am delighted to hear that out of the countless zillions of lost souls in this material world you are one of the extremely rare souls who is fortunate enough to be reading Bhagavad-gita As It Is and to have begun the process of regularly reciting the holy names of God. I can absolutely assure you that you are on the right path and that these atheists who have razzle-dazzled your brain are nothing but a bunch of highly decorated fools and rascals who don't even have the slightest idea of what they are talking about. They don't even know who they are, what to speak of anything else.Regarding what you heard on the "Human Universe" program presented by Professor Cox and what you have understood from the theory of Charles Darwin, where is the evidence that any highly organized system can be produced by chance? This cannot be demonstrated scientifically. Anyone who accepts this materialism doctrine is simply taking a leap of blind faith into the darkness of ignorance. Atheists, not unlike fanatical religionists, cling to the doctrine of materialism, that life arises from dead matter which comes from dead nothingness, to be an established scientific fact, when in reality it is nothing but a blind assumption. Even within science itself, evolutionary cosmology, quantum physics, and consciousness studies make this materialism doctrine look quite quaint, doggedly dogmatic, and indeed to be rendered completely extinct. Everywhere around us we see that life comes from life, not from dead matter arising from nothing. There is not a shred of evidence to establish that something alive can come out of something dead. A dead, empty nothingness cannot produce life. Only something that is alive can produce life. If the scientists want to actually make progress, they should do research to find out what is the original living force behind all of existence and give up their dishonest attempt to brainwash the masses into accepting their materialistic dogma.
You mention Richard Dawkins. This is the same Richard Dawkins who says that you are nothing more than a robot. Do you honestly feel that a robot can feel love? Do you feel that you are a robot? Have you ever tried to make friends with a machine? These atheists propound a mechanistic world view that completely denies the existence of persons. Do you feel that your personality is an illusion, that you don't really exist. If that were true, then who is it that is experiencing the illusion that you exist?
The main reason for the widespread dismissal of religion as blind faith is that the commonly understood systems of theistic thought are not backed up by any verifiable direct interaction with the Supreme Person. Krishna consciousness, however, is different. It is a completely different theological system, which totally decimates the materialistic doctrine of atheism because it gives one the scientific tools to directly perceive and associate personally with the Supreme Person, who is the origin of all existence. Any genuine scientist or sincere seeker of the highest truth can directly experience the Supreme Truth which contains all truths if he will learn from a bona fide spiritual master how to become peaceful, free from all material hankerings, and how to dovetail his individual consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness. Otherwise, by undefendable distorted so-called scientific arguments these atheistic pseudo scientists do nothing more than cover the existential truths with a dense fog in which the Supreme Lord disappears from our sight.
Lord Krishna warns us of the danger of being carried away by irrational atheistic dogma:
ajñaś cāśraddadhānaś ca
saṁśayātmā vinaśyati
nāyaṁ loko 'sti na paro
na sukhaṁ saṁśayātmanaḥ
"But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next."---Bhagavad-gita 4.40
Therefore we should have pity on these highly decorated fools and try to save them from their madness. This is the mission of the Krishna consciousness movement, to save the world from this deadly soul-killing atheism.
These atheists are the most extreme dogmatists. They have blind faith that everything came out of nothing, although there is absolutely no proof of that in the vast history of the universe that anything has ever come out of nothing. Let them do even one experiment now in their richly funded laboratories to produce something out of nothing. They cannot do it. Their claims are simply sophisticated word jugglery bluffs. That's all. Our modern society has become a fool's paradise in which the blind are leading the blind because the people in general blindly follow these blind fools who are masquerading under the name of scientists. These so-called scientists will fall into the ditch of the animal kingdom in their next birth, and their blind followers will go with them. This is the pathetic result of this vast ocean of misinformation which is being forcibly crammed down the throats of the innocent public falsely designated as science. It is not science at all. It is just the opposite. It is nescience or ignorance. Those who have good intelligence are not being fooled by these sophisticated word jugglers who say that a big bang came of nothing and produced this highly ordered universe. Fools and rascals dogmatically cling with the fervor of fanatical religionists to their elaborately fabricated theory that this beautifully ordered universe came into being from a freak explosion. According to their logic you can explode a stick of dynamite on a stack of building materials and get a beautifully constructed house as a result. These scientists should prove their philosophy by building their own homes in this way. I dare them to do this and prove their theory by practical example.
They foolishly think that everything came of nothing when in fact the opposite is the real truth. Everything we experience comes from something, which comes from something, which comes from something, etc., etc. At some point in this chain of causality there has to be something which set things into motion without that thing being set into motion by something else. This is called in philosophy "the unmoved mover." There is an original substance to reality. It is not void as these rascal cheating scientists are trying to convince us.
If they want to convince me of their philosophy, they need to stop trying to brainwash me with their dogma and start speaking like intelligent, sane people. But they can't do this because there is no scientific, logical, or philosophical basis for their spurious malarkey born out of envy of the Supreme Person.
We do not need the use the word "God" when talking to these people. Because of their envy of God they become very angry like venomous serpents as soon as we mention His name. Instead we should simply defeat their rascal voidistic speculations which have not a shrewd of empirical evidence to support them. And then when and if they become humble and submissive we can teach them the techniques by which they can personally meet face to face, eye to eye, with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and directly witness how everything in all of existence is emanating from His transcendental body at this very moment.
Now I will list and answer your questions:
Q: Do You believe that someone can be born of a virgin mother and that someone can be the son of God and God Himself?
A: If you can accept the atheistic conclusion that the universe comes out a virgin nothingness, why can't you accept that Krishna can appear from a mother without the seminal injection of a father? Everyone has a father, who has a father, who has a father, etc. When you come to that father that does not have a father, you have found God.
Q: Do you believe (at the very depth in your heart and brain) that a flute playing young man from Vrindavan can be the creator of this infinite number of universes?
A: If you accept the atheistic conclusion that from nothingness are derived unlimited planets and universes, what is the difficulty to understand that they could also be derived from anything? In other words, if nothing can produce everything, why something can't produce everything? There is no logical reason why it could not.
Q: Is reciting Krishna's name 1,728 times a day by turning a beaded string a very logical thing to do?
A: If you were in a prison and they had policy that anyone who begs for release 1,728 times will be set free, do you think that any of the prisoners would find a logical reason to do this?
Q: If there were intelligent life on another planet, would they not laugh at us if they were to see us doing this day in day out?
A: There is intelligent life on other planets who are so intelligent that they chant a lot more than we do.
Q: If Lord Krishna is the creator of this vastness and us, then who created Lord Krishna?
A: Krishna is self-manifested. He is created by Himself because He is origin of all existence.
Q: If God does not need a creator, then why does this universe need a creator?
A: If the sun is self-luminous, why can't the sunshine also be self-luminous without having to depend on the sun for it's existence?
In conclusion, these scientists still cannot clearly discern between a living body and a dead body because they insist on closing their eyes like owls to the truth that is being clearly presented to them.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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