The Spiritual Scientist http://www.thespiritualscientist.com Integrating the Scientific method and the Spiritual vision for all-round human growth Sun, 19 May 2013 22:59:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 How all living beings manifest different gradations of Brahman http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/how-all-living-beings-manifest-different-gradations-of-brahman/ http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/how-all-living-beings-manifest-different-gradations-of-brahman/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 22:59:42 +0000 Chaitanya Charan das http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/?p=13256 ln the Vedanta-sutra, the living entities of different gradations are compared to candles or lamps with different candle power. For example, some electric bulbs have the power of one thousand candles, some have the power of five hundred candles, some the power of one hundred candles, some fifty candles, etc., but all electric bulbs have light. Light is present in every bulb, but the gradations of light are different. Similarly, there are gradations of Brahman. The Visnu svamsa expansions of the Supreme Lord in different Visnu forms are like lamps, Lord Siva is also like a lamp, and the supreme candle power, or the one-hundred-percent light, is Krsna. The visnu-tattva has ninety-four percent, the siva-tattva has eighty-four percent, Lord Brahma has seventy-eight percent, and the living entities are also like Brahma, but in the conditioned state their power is still more dim. There are gradations of Brahman, and no one can deny this fact.

Srimad Bhagavatam 4.1.15 purport

]]> http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/how-all-living-beings-manifest-different-gradations-of-brahman/feed/ 0 Meditating on the Sanskrit and Bengali prasadam prayers – Hindi http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/meditating-on-the-sanskrit-and-bengali-prasadam-prayers-hindi/ http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/meditating-on-the-sanskrit-and-bengali-prasadam-prayers-hindi/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 16:36:31 +0000 Chaitanya Charan das http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/?p=13402 To hear the lecture podcast, please click here

]]> http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/meditating-on-the-sanskrit-and-bengali-prasadam-prayers-hindi/feed/ 0 SB 7.9.19 Let the apparent protectors not distract me from the actual protector http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-19-let-the-apparent-protectors-not-distract-me-from-the-actual-protector/ http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-19-let-the-apparent-protectors-not-distract-me-from-the-actual-protector/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 13:42:15 +0000 Chaitanya Charan das http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/?p=13399 To hear this holy name meditation podcast, please click here

]]> http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-19-let-the-apparent-protectors-not-distract-me-from-the-actual-protector/feed/ 0 SB 7.9.18 The Lord’s pastimes are not for entertainment but for being entered into http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-18-the-lords-pastimes-are-not-for-entertainment-but-for-being-entered-into/ http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-18-the-lords-pastimes-are-not-for-entertainment-but-for-being-entered-into/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 13:34:28 +0000 Chaitanya Charan das http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/?p=13395 To hear this holy name meditation podcast, please click here

]]> http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-18-the-lords-pastimes-are-not-for-entertainment-but-for-being-entered-into/feed/ 0 SB 7.9.17 The whole business of material desirables and undesirables is undesirable; I desire only your service http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-17-the-whole-business-of-material-desirables-and-undesirables-is-undesirable-i-desire-only-your-service/ http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-17-the-whole-business-of-material-desirables-and-undesirables-is-undesirable-i-desire-only-your-service/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 13:21:54 +0000 Chaitanya Charan das http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/?p=13392 To hear this holy name meditation podcast, please click here

]]> http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-17-the-whole-business-of-material-desirables-and-undesirables-is-undesirable-i-desire-only-your-service/feed/ 0 SB 7.9.16 A healthy fear of material existence engenders a healthy longing for Krishna http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-16-a-healthy-fear-of-material-existence-engenders-a-healthy-longing-for-krishna/ http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-16-a-healthy-fear-of-material-existence-engenders-a-healthy-longing-for-krishna/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 13:14:04 +0000 Chaitanya Charan das http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/?p=13389 To hear this holy name meditation podcast, please click here

]]> http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-7-9-16-a-healthy-fear-of-material-existence-engenders-a-healthy-longing-for-krishna/feed/ 0 SB 1.7.4-7 – Vyasa’s mystic vision as the seed of the Bhagavatam http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-1-7-4-7-vyasas-mystic-vision-as-the-seed-of-the-bhagavatam/ http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-1-7-4-7-vyasas-mystic-vision-as-the-seed-of-the-bhagavatam/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 08:57:57 +0000 Chaitanya Charan das http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/?p=13384 To hear the lecture podcast, please click here

]]> http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/sb-1-7-4-7-vyasas-mystic-vision-as-the-seed-of-the-bhagavatam/feed/ 0 03.37 – Red carpet or red light? http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/03-37-%e2%80%93-we-need-the-red-light-not-the-red-carpet/ http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/03-37-%e2%80%93-we-need-the-red-light-not-the-red-carpet/#comments Sun, 19 May 2013 04:10:16 +0000 Chaitanya Charan das http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/?p=13382 Self-destruction. That’s the bane of humanity. From hot-heads who ruin relationships and break hearts due to their urge for speaking ill-considered words to sex addicts who risk their dignity and integrity for a few sensations of physical release to alcoholics who ruin their jobs and families to go high for a few moments, our society presents a sorry spectrum of people who have brought suffering upon themselves.

Why do we act in such self-defeating ways?

This is the essence of the question that Arjuna asks Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita (03.36). In the next verse, Krishna identifies the cause to be the urge for quick pleasure that expresses itself first as lust and then transmogrifies into wrath.

We are unrelentingly pleasure-seeking creatures. Whatever promises pleasure catches our attention, stimulates our imagination and accelerates us into action. We roll out the red carpet for it. What we frequently fail to consider is rational and unsentimental evaluation of the consequence of the pleasure. Anger gives us the pleasure of being in control for a few moments before we realize how we have caused things to spin further out of control. Lust gives us a taste of exhilaration till the body brakes due to exhaustion. Alcohol gives us the pleasure of escaping from our problems into the bliss of oblivion till reality rudely and ruthlessly drags us back.

Gita wisdom shows us the way to a higher happiness and by contrast exposes the urge for such short-sighted pleasures to be our enemy. The Bhagavad-gita (03.37) emphatically declares this urge to be the enemy of the world. An enemy whose arrival at the threshold of our consciousness should cause us to turn on the red light, not roll out the red carpet. Then we can avoid self-destruction and progress towards self-fulfillment.

]]> http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/03-37-%e2%80%93-we-need-the-red-light-not-the-red-carpet/feed/ 0 Don’t mistake lack of qualification as sectarian discrimination http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/don%e2%80%99t-mistake-lack-of-qualification-as-sectarian-discrimination/ http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/don%e2%80%99t-mistake-lack-of-qualification-as-sectarian-discrimination/#comments Sat, 18 May 2013 22:57:13 +0000 Chaitanya Charan das http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/?p=13253 The Vedas… are specifically meant for persons who have acquired the brahminical qualifications. This restriction is based not upon any sectarian distinction but upon qualification. The Vedic literatures cannot be understood unless one has developed the brahminical qualifications. It is regrettable, therefore, that persons who have no brahminical qualifications and have never been trained under a bona fide spiritual master nevertheless comment on Vedic literatures like the Srimad-Bhagavatam and other puranas, for such persons cannot deliver their real message.

Srimad Bhagavatam 4.1.3 purport

]]> http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/don%e2%80%99t-mistake-lack-of-qualification-as-sectarian-discrimination/feed/ 0 NoI 10 Text 3 – Three directions we may go on deviating from bhakti http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/noi-10-text-3-three-directions-we-may-go-on-deviating-from-bhakti/ http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/05/noi-10-text-3-three-directions-we-may-go-on-deviating-from-bhakti/#comments Sat, 18 May 2013 14:24:58 +0000 Chaitanya Charan das http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/?p=13378 To hear the lecture podcast, please click here

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