Be True to Your Guru

The secret of success on the path of spiritual awakening is to take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master by initiation and then to be fully obedient to his instructions. One's every thought, word, and deed in all times, places, and circumstances should then be fully dedicated to pleasing his spiritual master. One who follows this simple formula, becomes very solidly situated in Krishna consciousness. Those who act independently of their spiritual master, thinking that they can be Krishna conscious on their own, are deluded and will not attain the perfectional stage of pure Krishna bhakti until they have rectified their mistaken mentality.

Srila Prabhupada With His Disciples in the Early Days of the Mayapur Project

Srila Prabhupada With His Disciples in the Early Days of the Mayapur Project

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: How Can We Be Eternally Conditioned?

Hare Krishna!
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!
My respectful obeisances unto you Gurudeva.

What exactly does it mean being eternally conditioned? By definition eternal means lasting or existing forever, without end or beginning. So, there is no point that we were envious of Krishna if we’ve been eternally conditioned, without beginning or end? I respectfully request to illuminate me with your Krishna katha. This is to reference at Bhagavad Gita 7:14 purport.

Hari Bol, Hare Krishna.

J. Raul C.

Answer: Bad Dream of the Eternally Liberated

It is very subtle philosophy. So lay aside for a moment all preconceived notions of reality and try to understand.

There are two dimensions of reality: the material realm and the spiritual realm. The material realm is situated within time, and the spiritual realm is situated beyond time. Since there is no time in the spiritual world, our departure from the Lord’s abode occurred within timelessness. In other words, there is no moment within time that it occurred. This means that we have always been here in this material world and are thus eternally conditioned. And conversely when we return to the spiritual world, that realm where time does not exist, there will be no time that we reentered there. Therefore, when we return there, we will have always been there and hence will be known as eternally liberated.

It is no doubt very tricky to understand this. But if you consider the international date line, which exits on this planet in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it becomes a little easier to understand.

On my recent flight from Melbourne, Australia to Los Angeles I departed from Melbourne at 9:50am on 25 June and arrived in Los Angeles at 7:10am on 25 June. This means that I arrived in Los Angeles before I even departed from Melbourne. If such an amazing thing can happen by crossing the international date line here in this material world, just imagine the even more amazing thing that happens when you cross the Viraja River that divides the material world from the spiritual world. When you go back to Godhead you will return there before you ever left it. Therefore for all practical purposes you never left it. Your endless eternally conditioned situation in the material world was ultimately nothing more than just a bad dream. So now just try to wake up from this dream by fully surrendering yourself to Lord Krishna. When you do this your understanding will be crystal clear.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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