Teachings of Lord Caitanya - 1968 Edition (Prt.2)

Books:
Teachings of Lord Caitanya - 1968 Edition
TLC Intoduction ( these are excerpts followed in continuation)

Introduction

…(continued)

This may seem to be a simple instruction to follow, but invariably our reaction is, "Oh, surrender? Give up? But I have so many responsibilities." And māyā, illusion, says to us, "Don't do it, or you'll be out of my clutches. Just stay in my clutches, and I'll kick you." It is a fact that we are constantly being kicked by māyā, just as the male ass is kicked in the face by the she-ass when he comes for sex. Similarly, cats and dogs are always fighting and whining when they have sex. These are the tricks of nature. Even an elephant in the jungle is caught by the use of a trained she-elephant who leads him into a pit. Māyā has many activities, and in the material world her strongest shackle is the female. Of course in actuality we are neither male nor female-for these designations refer only to the outer dress, the body. We are all actually Kṛṣṇa's servants. In conditioned life, however, we are shackled by the iron chains which take the form of beautiful women. Thus every male is bound by sex life, and therefore when one attempts to gain liberation from the material clutches, he must first learn to control the sex urge. Unrestricted sex puts one fully in the clutches of illusion. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu officially renounced this illusion at the age of twenty-four, although His wife was sixteen and His mother seventy, and He was the only male member of the family. Although He was a brāhmaṇa and was not rich, He took sannyāsa, the renounced order of life, and thus extricated Himself from family entanglement.


If we wish to become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, we have to give up the shackles of māyā, or, if we remain with māyā, we should live in such a way that we will not be subject to illusion. It is not necessary for one to abandon his family, for there were many householders amongst Lord Caitanya's closest devotees. What must be renounced is the propensity for material enjoyment. Although Lord Caitanya approved of a householder having regulated sex in marriage, He was very strict with those in the renounced order, and He even banished junior Haridāsa for glancing lustfully at a young woman. The point is that one must take up a particular path and stick to it, obeying all the rules and regulations necessary for success in spiritual life. It was Lord Caitanya's mission that He teach the path of Kṛṣṇa consciousness to all men and thereby enable them to partake of the immortality of spiritual life.


From Caitanya-caritāmṛta we learn how Caitanya taught people to become immortal, and thus the title may be properly translated as "the immortal character of the living force." The supreme living force is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is also the supreme entity. There are innumerable living entities, and all of them are individual. This is very easy to understand: We are all individual in thought and desires, and the Supreme Lord is also an individual person. He is different, though, in that He is the leader, the one whom no one can excel. Amongst the created living entities, one being can excel another in one capacity or another. The Lord is an individual, just as the living entities are individual, but He is different in that He is the supreme individual. God is also infallible, and in Bhagavad-gītā He is addressed as Acyuta, which means, "He who never falls down." This is indicated because in Bhagavad-gītā Arjuna had fallen into delusion but Kṛṣṇa had not. We often hear it said that God is infallible, and in Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa states:


nānyaṁ guṇebhyaḥ kartāraṁ
yadā draṣṭānupaśyati
guṇebhyaś ca paraṁ vetti
mad-bhāvaṁ so 'dhigacchati


"When you see that there is nothing beyond these modes of nature in all activities and that the Supreme Lord is transcendental to all these modes, then you can know My spiritual nature." (Bg. 14.19)


Thus we should not think that Kṛṣṇa is overpowered by the material potency when He is in the material world. Kṛṣṇa and His incarnations are not under the control of material nature. They are totally free. Indeed, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam one who has a godly nature is actually defined as one who is not affected by the modes of material nature, although in material nature. If even a devotee can attain this freedom, then what to speak of the Supreme?

Teachings of Lord Caitanya - 1968 Edition (Prt.1)

Books: Teachings of Lord Caitanya - 1968 Edition: TLC Introduction;  (these are excerpts  followed in continuation)

Introduction

[Originally delivered as five morning lectures on Caitanya-caritāmṛta-the authoritative biography of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī-before the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, New York City, April 10-14, 1967.]


The word caitanya means living force. As living entities, we can move, but a table cannot because it does not possess living force. Movement and activity may be considered to be signs or symptoms of the living force. Indeed, it may be said that there can be no activity without the living force. Although the living force is present in the material condition, it is not amṛta, immortal. The words caitanya-caritāmṛta, then, may be translated as "the character of the living force in immortality."


But how is this living force displayed immortally? It is not displayed by man or any other creature in this material universe, for none of us are immortal in these bodies. We possess the living force, we perform activities, and we are immortal by our nature and constitution, but the material condition into which we have been put does not allow our immortality to be displayed. It is stated in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad that eternality and the living force belong both to ourselves and God. Although this is true in that both God and ourselves are immortal, there is a difference. As living entities, we perform many activities, but we have a tendency to fall down into material nature. God has no such tendency. Being all-powerful, He never comes under the control of material nature. Indeed, material nature is but one display of His inconceivable energies.


On the ground we may see only clouds in the sky, but if we fly above the clouds we can see the sun shining. From the sky, skyscrapers and cities seem very tiny; similarly, from God's position this entire material creation is insignificant. The tendency of the conditioned living entity is to come down from the heights where everything can be seen in perspective. God, however, does not have this tendency. The Supreme Lord is not subject to fall down into illusion (māyā) any more than the sun is subject to fall beneath the clouds. Because the Supreme Lord is not subject to illusion, He is unconditioned; because we, as finite living entities, are prone to fall into illusion, we are called conditioned. Impersonalist philosophers (Māyāvādīs) maintain that both the living entity and God Himself are under the control of māyā when they come into this material world. This may be true of the living entity, but it is not true of God, for in all instances the material energy is working under His direction. Those who consider the Supreme Lord to be subject to material conditioning are called fools by Kṛṣṇa Himself in Bhagavad-gītā:


avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā

mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam

paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto

mama bhūta-maheśvaram


"Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be." (Bg. 9.11)


Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu should not be considered to be one of us. He is Kṛṣṇa Himself, the supreme living entity, and as such He never comes under the cloud of māyā. Kṛṣṇa, His expansions, and even His higher devotees never fall into the clutches of illusion. Lord Caitanya came to earth simply to preach Kṛṣṇa-bhakti, love of Kṛṣṇa. In other words, He is Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself teaching the living entities the proper way to approach Kṛṣṇa. He is like a teacher who, seeing a student doing poorly, takes up a pencil and writes, saying, "Do it like this: A, B, C." By this, one must not foolishly think that the teacher is learning his ABC's. Although He appears in the guise of a devotee, we should always remember that Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa (God) Himself teaching us how to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and we must study Him in that light.


In Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa sets forth the highest religious principle in this way:


sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ


"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear." (Bg. 18.66)

Humans Vs. Carnivores

There is this misconception that Eating animals e.g. Cow Slaughter is "Good" for you. Modern medical research has shown link between meet-eating and killer degenerated deceases such as cancer, heart disease etc. Humans are not biologically and anatomically designed to digest flesh. Human teeth are more similar to that of an Herbivore, designed for grinding and chewing than that of a carnivorous animal which have sharp teeth for tearing flesh. Carnivorous animals Intestinal tract is 3x's the body length with strong hydraulic acid in the stomach to digests rapidly decaying meat. Humans Intestinal track is 12 times the body length with stomach acid 20x's less strong than that of carnivores. Meat clogs you're intestinal track and it's putrefaction creates poisonous wastes within the Human body. Hence degenerative deceases. As early as 1961, the Journal of the American Medical Association states that ninety-seven percent of heart disease, the cause of more than one half of the deaths in the United States, could be prevented by a vegetarian diet.1 These findings are supported by an American Heart Association report that states, "In well-documented population studies using standard methods of diet and coronary disease assessment ... evidence suggests that a high-saturated-fat diet is an essential factor for a high incidence of coronary heart disease."2 The National Academy of Sciences also reported recently that the high serum cholesterol level found in most Americans is a major factor in the coronary heart disease "epidemic" in the United States.3

Humans derive ALL nutritional necessities for optimal health from fruits, legumes, seeds, vegetables. Instead of eating the mother cow drink her Organic Grass feed Milk, purest form of blood.