Questions & Answers
Questions & Answers

Brahman and Jivas

Question: My understanding is that on a superior level of analysis, Brahman is made of persons: Jivas, like light is made of photons. Am I right? Answer: No, Brahman is not made of jivas. Jivas are the tatastha sakti of Bhagavan and Brahman is Bhagavan with unmanifest qualities. Moreover, Brahman has no parts. If it

Read More
Philosophy Questions & Answers

Questions about Jñāna and its Relation to the Self

Question: I read the article on jñāna on your website and have some questions: What is the difference between self-luminous and self-conscious? Answer: Self-luminous means an object which does not need the help of another luminous object to see it or perceive it. For example, a burning candle is self-luminous because you do not need

Read More
Questions & Answers

Practices of Rāgānugā Bhakti

Question: Eight years ago, by his mercy my guru informed me about my siddha-deha (ekādaś bhāva). Gradually I came to understand that rāgānugā bhakti is not possible to practice unless and until one receives siddha praṇāli. Many devotees take initiation but they don’t know about this fact and they mistakenly think that the path of

Read More
Questions & Answers

Questions on Bhakti

Upanishads and Kamasutra Question: The Upanishads state that everything is a sacrifice – including the sex act in which woman’s sexual organs are seen as the sacrificial altar and the man’s seed is thrown into it as an oblation. Moreover, sex was mainly propagated for having children. Is this in some ways contradictory to the

Read More
Philosophy Questions & Answers

God’s Personal and Impersonal Features – Part 3

Continuation of a discussion following a seminar in Terre de Ciel: Another one of God’s most important characteristics is that He has inconceivable power. Inconceivable refers to something that can’t be embraced by the mind’s intelligence. It is beyond our imagination or common logic. There are logical and illogical things, and there are trans-logical things.

Read More
Philosophy Questions & Answers

God’s Personal and Impersonal Features – Part 2

Continuation of a discussion following a seminar in Terre de Ciel: Every morning, Krishna’s mother Yashoda used to make butter from milk. She heated the milk and added some yogurt to it. She let the mixture sit overnight and by the next morning, it had become yogurt. Yashoda then churned the yogurt with a wooden

Read More
Philosophy Questions & Answers

God’s Personal and Impersonal Features – Part 1

The following is an excerpt from a discussion following a seminar in Terre de Ciel: Part I Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji: We accept some kind of God who is the Creator and Manager, but is He a personal being or an impersonal manifestation? What do you say? Reply: He is certainly impersonal because he is everywhere.

Read More