The philosophical question of fate versus free will is an old one. Are our thoughts and actions completely determined by forces over which we have no control? Or, are we free to decide for ourselves, to be the captains of our fate?
Realization is not something we learn in a book or hear in a lecture. Realization is living the life for which man is intended. Realization does not imply withdrawal; realization is leading life and meeting destiny with opened eyes.
In recent years there have been many philosophies based around the premise of the nonexistence of God. One such philosophy, existentialism, which emerged in a shattered France during World War II, maintains that the universe is purposeless and that there is no supreme controller.
I have strong evidence to support the fact that there is no happiness in the material world and I have equally strong evidence to prove that any human being can achieve total, lasting happiness in this lifetime.
A frequent criticism of the Krsna consciousness philosophical tradition is that it places too much emphasis on authority. This is not surprising, seeing as how philosophy in the modern world is based on a revolt against authority.
No. Providence is not responsible for the sufferings of humanity. The suffering of humanity is the result of its misuse of discriminative power or the little independence which is given to the individual soul.
In the relative truth everything can be known within the purview of time, space and thought but in the realm of the Absolute no such method of scientific thought can work. The Absolute Truth can therefore be known by the transcendental method of thinking.
Truth cannot be realized by unremitting study of the Scriptures, by passing examinations, testing scholarly knowledge, by dint of intellectual power, or by outwitting unsophisticated folk in verbal jugglery by enmeshing them in the cobweb of sophistry.
What is ego? I am pure soul, but with my intelligence and mind I am in contact with matter, and I have identified myself with matter—and this is false ego. I am pure soul, but I am identifying falsely.
Om is a manifestation of the Supreme Lord in the form of sound vibration. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita. So, Hare Krsna and om have practically the same value, but chanting Hare Krsna is easier.
The Theosophist knows, by his knowledge of the pattern, that men have not come together to form communities because of greed or for the purpose of self-protection; but that they have together primarily because they are to be mutually helpful.
The Theosophist believes in a Personalised Consciousness or a Directing Will behind the operation of the universal activity. This conclusion is logical as we see in every field of our activities. Nothing in the world is possible to perform without a directing Will.
Many people are under the illusion that they were really happy in their youth. But once the fourfold miseries of material life—birth, disease, old-age and death—manifest themselves, the evanescence of that previous happiness becomes apparent to them.
People often ask us, “Can you prove the existence of God?” Proof indicates a conclusive demonstration that establishes the validity of an assertion, in this case the assertion that God exists.
One class of transcendentalists are the devotees, who have realized the Absolute Truth to be the Supreme Person. A second class are the yogis, who have realized the Supersoul. And the third class are philosophers, who can only realize the impersonal feature of the Absolute.
This material nature is constituted in such a way that we have to suffer; it is God’s law. And we are trying to relieve the suffering by patchwork remedies. Everyone is trying to get relief from suffering; that is a fact. The whole struggle for existence is aimed at getting out of suffering.
The poet John Berryman was my teacher at the University of Minnesota the year he jumped from a bridge over the Mississippi and killed himself at the age of fifty-seven. In some respects, his suicide puzzled me.
Personalistic Bhagavad-gita scholars reject the idea that God is a formless entity. On the contrary, the personalists, or Vaisnavas, maintain that God’s personal form is the source of all others.
Since everyone, no matter how he chooses to define the self, is interested in self-fulfillment, it is of paramount importance to know what the self is. Generally our concepts of the self are vague and speculative; so we often feel unfulfilled, even after attaining our goals.
By speculation Aristotle may have known something about God, but our point is that we can know everything about God from God Himself. This is not a question of “religion.” It is simply a matter of the best process to know God.