Short Questions and Answers
Questions & Answers

Short Questions and Answers

Association

Question: How detrimental is the regular association of non-devotees (in terms of family, and business associates)? And what is to be done about it?

Answer: It is not detrimental if you are fixed in your goal of devotion to God, rather you will influence them.

*

Enjoyment

Question: Is the aim to stop material enjoyment entirely, or to stop certain forms of material enjoyment, or is all material enjoyment equal if performed in devotion. Or do some forms of enjoyment, even if taken in devotion, retain their negative effects?

Answer: Any nondevotional enjoyment is detrimental.

Maha-mantra

Question: Why did Caitanya Mahapabhu change/invert the maha mantra?

Answer: He did not. In Sanat Kumar Samhita the Maha Mantra is mentioned in the order which Lord Chaitanya gave.  In the Kaliysantarana Upanishad it is mentioned in the revers order, so both are valid.

*

Purusha and conception

Question: I read how the male element is Purusa and Female is Prakriti in Ayurveda.  Does this mean that the sperm contains purusa and the female egg does not?  This would make sense since the sperm has mobility and the egg does not.  Does the sperm carry the purusha with it during conception?

Answer: Both sperm and egg have life.  When they combine then the purusha enters them.  So in a way the sperm acts as a purusha because it attracts the purusha.

Question: I also recall reading in Bhagavatam that from the Lord’s Genitals originate water, semen, rains and procreation. Would this mean that when male seed is spilled with intent and without conception it is a form of violence to the sperm itself by not allowing it to perform its natural function?

Answer: Yes.

Question: By abstaining, does one derive any benefit from this and how so?

Answer: Yes, it benefits because you are not wasting your energy unnecessarily and you are gaining control over your senses. But it should not be repression.

*

Jiva Gosvami’s Knowledge

Question: I read in the introduction of your translation of Jiva Gosvami’s Bhakti Sandarbha (which I am thoroughly engulfed in) that Jiva Gosvami and his associates were practicing ”Causeless Love” and their writings simply put this practice into Vedantic and Upanisadic language. This means that Jiva Gosvami’s writings do not ORIGINATE from the Vedas. So where did Jiva Gosvamis knowledge originate from?

Answer: From Srimad Bhagavat Purana.

Tags:

Share This Post:

5 Comments

  • Kurt Shoemaker January 15, 2012

    In reference to the questions on abstinence. I read that seminal tissues are produced in the final stage of digestion and that each tissue produced in succession provides a degree of nourishment to the previously produced tissue. Since seminal tissue is created last from the food products, would this mean that each time seminal tissue is passed, it takes away from the other tissue which constitute the body. Is this not another form of indirect violence to the body? Thanks so much for posting these answers!!! Very helpful to keep things in perspective!!! Hare KRSNA!!!

  • snd January 17, 2012

    The later tissue is made from a portion of the preceding tissue. So seminal tissue is made from majja tissue, not all the preceding tissues.
    Why do you think this is a violence to the body? i am not clear about your question.

  • Kurt Shoemaker January 17, 2012

    Perhaps my understanding is flawed. I think I am misunderstanding the process of tissue creation. If seminal tissue is made from a portion of majja, and too much seminal tissue is released from the body, will the body then need more majja to replace the expended seminal tissue? If seminal tissue is released at a rate greater than the rate at which the body produces majja tissue, wouldn’t this cause damage to the body because there is not enough majja?? So if each tissue uses a portion of the tissue created by the prior created tissue, does this cause a chain reaction or domino effecting each prior tissue? Maybe using the term violence is not correct since its not a direct or intentional action against the body, maybe a better word to use for this question is harm. So to rephrase that portion of my question, does unnecessary release of seminal tissue cause harm to the body? Thanks for your response to my questions!! -Kurt

  • snd January 26, 2012

    Now you have used the proper term, “harm”. Yes, unnecessary release of semen will harm the body. It is said that one of the easiest ways (of course a harmful way indeed) to lose weight, for men, is to lose semen. Loss of semen will deplete all the preceding tissues.

    • Abhay Naik January 30, 2012

      Hare Krishna!!Prabhuji, with all humility I submit my comments for corrections, if necessary. For our mundane mind and intellect, which is made of temporary tattva and, which is trigunamayi, we have to indicatively understand from the simile given in the triguna world i. e. the Purusha and Stri have a compulsive attraction towards each other, but of temporary nature, and this can only give us an idea of how our Atma is compulsively attracted towards Paramatma Shri Krishna, when we are able to cleanse our mind of our sanskaras and prarabdhas from our previous lives. So, this simile of Purusha and Stri indicates the strong love bond between Krishna and His all devotees, but it is of a divine and permanent nature and not to be misunderstood as that between in Purush and Stri in the mundane world. Our aim in Bhakti should be to lift our intellect and thoughts and desires and ego from the temporary side to the true permanent self side by constant awareness and constant non-attachment.

      The analysis of semen and tissues etc. will keep your intellect searching for absolute Truth in the trigunmayi temporary world of prakrati and will make it a treatise in physical science, which is at best, speculative knowledge.
      Hare Krishna!!

Comments are closed.