there's a whole thread at the bottom in Philosophy7 Religion thread about Hare Krishna click here: http://hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=432&page=1&pp=10
oh, those guys...the hairy krishnas...why do they call themselves the hairy krishnas if they shave their head?
And here are a couple of links http://harekrishnatemple.com/ http://links.krishna.org/ Hope you find them useful. Love, BBB.
Are you kidding me? They're the HARE krishnas, it's pronounced Hah-rey, learn to pronounce things before you go asking dumb questions about people's beliefs.
the main purpose in Hare Krishna is Krishna, God. Hare Krishnas are serving Him instead of maya. It is not a cult. This teaching, which is 5000 years old was brought in West by Srila Prabhupada, who formed Isckon, the international societry for Krishna Consciousness. In my opinion it's not a cult and they are very good people. it's not even religion. Hare Krishnas have respect for al religions, becuz God is one. Srila Prabhupada left 80 books behind, where he explains how Krishna looks, who he was and how yyou can serve Him. It's not a sentiment and yet it's not a dry speculation. I was reading and exploring lot of philosophies, but this one offers a complete deliberation from egotism. The point is to love instead of yourself or your friends, lovers Krishna, the guy, who controls everything and who is everything, thus you can love everybody around you unconditionally. the main prayer goes like this:
That's why I asked, "Are you kidding me?" If he was kidding, than obviously the thread no longer applies to him.
What SleepingJiva said is pretty much it....I myself am a Christian Hare Krishna... Do visit the larger Hare Krishna thread...its really wonderful...also... http://www.iskcon.org If you click on FAQ you can find all you need to know...that's how I first learned more about Krishna...
you are a Christian Vaishnava (whom we have colloquially called the Hare Krishnas because of association with the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra are Vaishnavas...devotees of Visnu...Krishna Bhaktas...Visnu is Krishna) ...have you decided which sect of the Vaishnava faith that you want to be a member...Shri Sampradaya, Brahma Sampradaya, Rudra Sampradaya or Samak Sampradaya?
That which divides is not religion. Many schools of thought may coexist like many petals of a flower. A wise man would look at the lotus rather than a single petal.
So how come there are all these sects as spoken of by the chief in his post? The thing gets too complex, fragmented into sects who then just spend their time putting each other down, denouncing each others gurus etc.
"::shrug:: What's the difference?"................SvgGrdnBeauty "That which divides is not religion. Many schools of thought may coexist like many petals of a flower. A wise man would look at the lotus rather than a single petal."...............Bhaskar. Dear Nicole and Bhaskar, Both of you have satisfied all the true devotees. So nice to hear 'What is the difference?' So nice to read that we should look at the lotus rather than a single petal. I am happy and proud of you. As long as you are chanting the mahamantra with all your being at His lotus feet how do these groups matter? No matter who you are, where you are and what you are, the only fruitful thing is whether you love Him or not. Even how you love Him, what you do for that does not matter. One just loves Him the way it suits him or her. Japa yoga, Dhyan yoga, Jnan yoga,Karma yoga,Bhakti yoga.... all are ways and means of connection with Him. With love..........Kumar.
"So how come there are all these sects as spoken of by the chief in his post? The thing gets too complex, fragmented into sects who then just spend their time putting each other down, denouncing each others gurus etc." ...............BlackBillBlake. Dear BlackBillBlake, You have so truly said it, thank you. It is so unfortunate that we fail to understand this. But it is never too late, let us understand the fact now and try not to indulge into such acts and deeds. ChiefCowPie is an enigma for me, I really do not understand him. The only thing I understand is that he also feels the same pain as you and I do about it. He is a very large container full of knowledge-nectar and he wants all of us, irrespective of our religious positions, to share and enjoy the same. I believe his only intention was to find out SvgGrdnBeauty's reactions and ideas about those sampradayas. I am sure he has very high opinions about her. I am one of his charmed friends. With love.........Kumar.
[size=-2]Sri Visnuswami[/size] "Both Jiva Goswami in his Bhagavata Sandarbha and Krsnadasa Kaviraja in his Caitanya-caritamrta look to Sripad Visnuswami for inspiration to establish the essential difference between God and the individual souls and quote from his Sarvajnasukta, his commentary on Vedanta. Visnuswami is the founder-acarya of the Rudra sampradaya, which is the oldest of the four recognized sampradayas. It is even said that Visnuswami was born in the Dravida country after the completion of the sacrifice of Janamejaya, around the beginnining of Kali-yuga. Although most scholars are only able to find scanty and conflicting information on Sripada Visnuswami, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura gives us a authoritive biographical account of Visnuswami which we accept to be authoritive. There were three Acaryas bearing the name of Visnuswami in the Rudra sampradaya. The first is called Adi Visnuswami, who is said to have been born about the third century B.C. in the Pandyan country. Visnuswami's father Devesvara was the royal priest and minister. Devatanu, as he was known before he took the sannyasa name of Visnuswami, was trained by his father in a vigorous theistic eduacation, to fight Buddhism. The Pandyan king exerted all his influence to crush Buddhism in particular and other non-vaisnava sects in general. King Pandyovijaya and his minister, Devesvara, went to Puri and recovered the Deities of Jagannatha, Balarama and Subhadra, which had been turned into the Buddhist Dharma by Buddha and Samgha by the Buddhists. King Padyovijaya and Devesvara removed the deities from the main temple to sundaracala about two miles away by cart. This is said to be the origin of the Rathayatra of Jagannatha. Now the ceremony of conveying the Deities from the temple to the car is named Pahandi or Panduvijaya. The word Panda is applied to the priests of Jagannatha and is said to be derived from the "Pandya". The Deities were again brought back to the temple after Buddhism had been supressed to some extent. Visnuswami was the first to adopt tridandi sannyasa which he brought into practice among his seven hundred sannyasa disciples. It was he who introduce the Astottara satanami sannyasa (108 designations of sannyasis) including the dasanami which was adopted by Sankara in his sect. It was not Sankara who originated it, as some scholars think. Vyasesvara was the last in the line of Sannyasis, after whom the line became almost extinct, until it was revived by Raja Gopal who also assumed the name of Visnuswami in the beginning of the 9th century. His main follower was Bilvamangala. Raja Gopala Visnuswami revived the old Visnuswami line and began the active propaganda with renewed vigour and enthusiasm. He installed the Varadaraja temple in Kanci, Ranchorlal in Dwaraka, and many other Deities in different places of pilgrimage. He converted many of Sankara's prominant disciples after Sankara's death. After the disappearance of the second Visnuswami a great feud took place between his community and that of Saivasivaswami, who regards Rudra as an independant God while the former holds Rudra as Guru and the intimate associate of Visnu. The Saiva opposed it vigorously and peoplefailing to appreciate the subtle point of theism in the Suddhadvaita system of Visnuswami became inclined to Saivite monism, which soon became embraced by the population in general. The Saivaite community, taking advantage of the situation, tried to misappropriate Visnuswami's Sarvajnasukta and modified it to a great extent to suit their system. The third revival came under Andhra Visnuswami in the 13th century, whose successors included Laksmana Bhatta, the father of Vallabhacarya. This Visnuswami is said to have been the son of a minister of a Dravidian prince under the Emperor of Delhi. Visnuswami's philosophy is visuddhadvaita. Brahman as Visnu, Narasimha, non-dual and having no second. Brahman has all contradictory qualities. The soul is part of Brahman like spiritual sparks, real, eternal, atomic and dependent. Creation has no motive , it is like a cosmic game and it directly emanates from Brahman. The cause of bondage is one's attachement to karma. The process of release is devotion based on Bhagavata. The goal of life is to attain uninterupted contact with Krsna, Vaikuntha salokya where there is no return." [size=-2]Modified version of a posting to soc.religion.vaisnava by Nathan Parker, 1995. [/size]
[size=+2]Various Sampradayas were present at the time[/size] [size=+2]Suka Dev recited Srimand Bhagavatam[/size] [size=+1]There are four transcendental schools ( Sampradayas ) that teach pure Devotion to the Supreme[/size] [size=+1]Personality of Godhead.[/size] [size=+1]1. Brahma Sampradaya beginning from Brahma after His initiation from the Personality of Godhead[/size] [size=+1]2. Rudra Sampradaya beginning from Sankara or Mahadeva[/size] [size=+1]3. Sri Sampradaya beginning from Srimati Laxmi Devi the Eternal Consort of Sri Narayana[/size] [size=+1]4. Kumar Sampradaya beginning from the Kumars namely Sanak, Sanat, Sanatan and Kumars.[/size] [size=+1]Sree Madhyacharya belonged to Brahma Sampradaya[/size] [size=+1]Sree Ramanuja belonged to the Sree Sampradaya[/size] [size=+1]Sree Vishnuswami belonged to the Rudra Sampradaya[/size] [size=+1]Sree Nimbaditya Acarya belonged to Kumar Sampradaya[/size] [size=+1]All these four Acharyas are bona fide preachers of the pure transcendental philosophy dealing with the problems of the world, living entities and the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is the cause of the creation as well as the living entities, who falsely try to dominate over the creation and the controlling energy known as the material Nature.[/size] [size=+1]End[/size]
[size=+1]THE FOUR KUMARAS[/size] [size=+2]Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Sanat kumara[/size] [size=+1]The four MANASPUTRAS created by Lord Brahma[/size] [size=+1]A man meets a virtuous person when his 'good fortune' arrives and his soul attains enlightenment and his mind becomes pure by the destruction of his ignorance and attachment. When Brahma decided to commence the sequence of creation, he first of all created four Kumaras by just having a wish in his mind.[/size] [size=+1]They were Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Sanatkumara. Brahma had experienced the sight of Lord Vishnu sleeping on the back of Ananta Shesha after performing penance for thousands of years. Lord Vishnu pleased with his penance gave to him the basic knowledge of the Veda. Only after getting that knowledge, he commenced his creation.[/size] [size=+1]When the four Kumaras came into existence, they were all embodiments of pure qualities. They did not have any sign of negative qualities like laziness, sleep etc. Brahma had created these four Kumaras so that they could help in the process of creation. But they refused when they were ordered by Brahma to do so. So these four Kumaras—kumara means unmarried brahmacaris. Because in the beginning Brahma begot so many sons, and each of them were asked to increase the population. Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatana, they were also requested by their father to increase population, but they refused. They said, “No, we are not going to be entangled in these material affairs. We shall remain kumaras, brahmacaris, and preach the glories of Godhead,” by which Brahma became angry. And while he was angry, from his anger Rudra, Siva, was produced frm his forehead.[/size] [size=+1]Actually these four Kumaras are eternaly liberated souls. All of them are pious and virtuous right from their birth and engaged themselves in activities like chanting the name of the Lord, listening about the lords divine activities, pastimes etc. Not for a single moment in their minds, came the desires for worldly matters. They chant 'Hari nama' all the time. They never utter anything mundane. The constant chanting of this mantra has its effect. They never face any danger to their lives and always remaine like a child of five years. Neither do they have mudane desires nor do they suffer from defects.[/size] [size=+1]These four Kumaras, as siddhesvaras, had achieved all the yogic perfectional achievements ( siddhis ), and as such they travel in outer space without machines.[/size] [size=+1]Prithu and sage Narada were fortunate to receive knowledge from these Kumaras.[/size] [size=+2]Sanaka, Sanatana, Sananda, Sanat-kumar[/size] [size=+1]These four Kumaras are vastly learned, and they preached the philosophical way of understanding the Absolute Truth. Sankya. Later on, they became unalloyed devotees of lord Vishnu, and now have their sampradaya, or party, and is called the Sanakadi-sampradaya. Some refer to this Sampradya as the,[/size] [size=+2]Nimbarka - Sampradaya.[/size] [size=+2]General Lessons from the Kumars[/size] [size=+1]KUMARA SANAKA: There is no greater pilgrimage like the river the Ganges, no greater teacher like one's own mother, no deity like Lord Vishnu and the Guru is the greatest of all. There is no other brother like peace, no other penance like truth, no other gain better than salvation of the soul and there is no river like the Ganges. Charity, enjoyment and destruction are the only three movements of wealth. The wealth which is neither used in doing charities nor is cherished gets destroyed. Plants too have lives and nourish and protect the human society with its fruits, roots and branches. If a man does not chant the holy , then he is like a dead person.[/size] [size=+1]KUMARA SANANDANA: Bhagavan (Krishna) means, one who is full of all the splendours, all the virtuousness and religiousness, all the fame, all the knowledge, all the wealth and fortune and also possesses all the apathy and who also knows the cause of the creation and destruction. One who has the knowledge of all these 6 things is entitled to be called learned.[/size] [size=+1]KUMARA SANATANA: One must follow the rules as it has been described in the sacred texts on Dashami (Tenth Day), Ekadashi(Eleventh Day) and Dwadashi (Twelfth day). One should avoid the followings ten things on Dashami day- pots and vessels made of bronze, eating grains, honey, spinach, pumpkin, lentils and food given by others, having food for the second time in a day and making sexual contacts with wife. On Ekadashi, the following should be avoided- gambling, sleeping, chewing beetle leaves, brushing of teeth, violence, copulating and untruthfulness. On Dwadashi, the following should be avoided- items made of bronze, wine, honey, oil, untruthfulness, doing exercise, going abroad, having food twice during the day, copulating and touching those things which are not worth touching and eating lentils.[/size] [size=+1]KUMARA SANATKUMARA: One who has is self-realized neither sees the death of the body, diseases nor the sorrows because he understands that the real self is the soul (Atma). When the diet is pure then the inner self becomes pure and when the inner self becomes pure then he acquires remembrance of his past lives (Smriti) and he attains eternal knowledge about the permanence of the soul and the ephimeral nature of the physical body. Fools and ignorant people are fearful of thousands of things but the learned man who has attained self-realization is not affected by the fear. Death and fear have been conquered. The material enviroment becomes friendly and serves the devotee with folded hands.[/size]
