100 Trutis = 1 Vedha
3 Vedha = 1 Lava
3 Lava =
1 Nimesh
3 Nimesh = 1 Kshana
5 Kshana = 1 Kashtha
15 Kashtha = 1 Ghadi
2 Ghadi = 1 Muhoorta
(= 1 Hour)
3 Muhoorta = 1 Prahara
4 Prahara = 1 day or night
360 days = 1 Varsha (= 1
year)
432,000 x 1 years = 1 Kali yuga
432,000 x 2 years = 1 Dwapara yuga
432,000 x 3 years = 1 Treta yuga
432,000 x 4 years = 1 Satya yuga
One cycle of Satya, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali = 1 Maha yuga.
71 Maha yuga = 1 Manvantara
14 Manvantara = 1 Kalpa = 1 Day of Brahma
360 days of Brahma = 1 Year of Brahma
100 Years of Brahma = 1 Maha Kalpa = 1 Breath of Maha Vishnu
3. The Predictions:
Bhavishyat Purana full of predictions. Srimad Bhagavatam
in its final chapters predicts that Krishna would incarnate as Buddha.
He did, 2000 years ago. The next predicted incarnation of Krishna
is Kalki at the end of Kali. The kind of culture we see now is all
predicted in there clearly.
4. The Concept
Of Space:
Three quarters of the total creation of God is called the spiritual
world. The rest, one quarter, is this material world within our sky
with its galaxies, stars, suns, moons, and planets. The spiritual
world is beyond this material world which is dark, and that is why God
has created suns and moons so that we can see. The spiritual world
is self illuminating and has spiritual planets. A lot more spiritual
living beings live there.
5.
The Technological Advancements:
Space travel, consequences of the theory of relativity, all kinds
of weapons much more advanced and destructive than we have now, counter
weapons, voice operated airplanes, etc. is described in Mahabharata and
other scriptures. To Vedic people, no technological advancement is
new. It is new in our time only.
6.
The Concept Of The Supreme God:
The Supreme God is only one, otherwise the word supreme has no
meaning. He can be realized by any human in three ways:
1) as Brahman which is formless, sexless, without any qualities,
impersonal. it is described as sat (eternal existence) chit (supreme
consciousness), and aananda (bliss).
2) as Paramatma within one’s heart as the Supersoul along with
the Soul in the bodies of all living beings. He just looks at the Soul
and witnesses everything the Soul thinks, speaks, and does. He is
one, common in each living being, and
3) Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which is known
as Krishna, Vishnu, Mahavishnu, etc. He is the supreme controller
and cause of the causes. He incarnates as Brahma to create, as Vishnu
to maintain, and as Shiva to destroyer. Bhagavan the almighty God
who is the controller of all opulence, power, fame, beauty, and renunciation,
says Swami Prabhupada. He is a person full of all the qualities and
forms. He loves His creation and each living being. He especially
loves those who love him or remember Him or want to come to Him.
He provides extra help to them. His forms, abode and past times are
described very vividly in scriptures like Brahma samhita, and Srimad Bhagavatam.
Whenever there is decline of religion and advent or irreligion, He incarnates
in the material worlds mainly to protect and please His devotees.
Then, as His secondary activity, He also annihilates the miscreants who
give troubles to His devotees. He is unborn and never dies.
He never gets old or sick. He is everywhere, knows everything of
the past, present, and the future. He can appear in person before
any one who qualifies, and can communicate like any other human being.
7. The
Concept Of Demigods:
The principal demigods are three, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva as
described above. Vedic people worship Vishnu or Krishna, Shiva (a
son of Brahma), Goddess Durga (or Uma, wife of Shiva) which is the material
energy of Krishna, Ganesh (the elephant-headed son of Shiva, and the Sun
God. In addition, they also worship Lakshmi (the goddess of money
and wife of Vishnu,) Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge and daughter of
Brahma,) and nine other goddesses which are different forms of Durga.
The forms of all demigods and goddesses are very beautiful, but goddess
Kali’s form is black, and ferocious.
Each demigod or goddess serves Krishna, the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. They control various planets and carry on various functions
and control the various natural laws. Each demigod has special power
to give special benediction. Lakshmi gives money to her devotees,
Saraswati gives knowledge to her devotees, Ganesh gives success in religious
endeavors of his devotees, Hanuman, the monkey-god gives willpower to curb
sex drive and strength to body and knowledge of Rama (Krishna) to his devotees,
etc. Whatever benedictions the demigods give are actually given by
Krishna. Demigods are like human beings, but with very much physical
and mystic powers and very long lives. They live on their own planets
in this material universe. They too die and re-incarnate like humans.
The Puranas describe how demigods have fought with each other and how Vishnu
finally ends the conflicts. This is always happening on various planets
in various universes.
8.
Analysis Of A Living Entity:
A living being has a body made of five great material elements:
earth, water, air, fire, and sky. In the language of Physics these
are five states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, plasma, and sky which is
void and ether or electromagnetic medium which pervades every where in
space. A body is born, constantly changes, gets diseases, could gets
cured, and ultimately dies.
Within a body is a Jiva or subtle body made of mind, intelligence,
ego, and the Soul of the living being with the Supersoul called Paramatma
which is common in each living being.
The mind, intelligence and ego are described as material, but
the Soul and Supersoul are spiritual, non-material. Just as light
is spread everywhere from the Sun, consciousness is spread everywhere in
the body from the Soul. The size of a soul, living spark, is described
as 10 thousandth part of the tip of a hair. It resides in the heart
along with the Supersoul whose size is that of a thumb. A soul is
qualitatively same as the Supersoul, but quantitatively its powers are
very less compared to the Supersoul or God. Like God, a soul never
dies. It is described as a part and parcel of God.
The business of mind is to make various desires and receive thoughts.
Mind is very swift. It can go from one desire to another, one thought
to another, with the speed of light. Mind’s natural propensity is
to wander swiftly, but it could be made steady by constant practice and
detachment, says Krishna. The purpose of Yoga is to make the mind
steady and focus it on God.
The business of intelligence is to figure out right form wrong
and good from bad. The ego says, “I am this or I am that,” like:
“I am American, white, black, student, teacher, president, boy girl, woman,
man, etc.” When some one asks you who you are? The answer comes
from your ego. Their intelligence could change from fool to wise
or wise to fool. The scriptures and SD is meant to make us more and
more intelligent and wise, spiritually.
Most people have an ego which is based on the body. Therefore,
it is called a false ego because body is not permanent and is material.
Our true ego, SD says is that we are the souls, part and parcels of God.
We have an eternal loving relation with God, Krishna, which we have forgotten.
9. Why We
Are Here In The Material World?
As the servants and devotees of Krishna, we, the souls were once
in the spiritual world with Him in perfect harmony and blissful state like
many may others who are there. Because God loves all souls equally,
He gives all freedom to each soul. Some souls there think, “God controls
everything and enjoys everything. I am like God too. So, why
not I control the material energy and enjoy myself?” Thus, they desire
to enjoy independent of God. This, however, says SD, is not possible
unless one forgets Krishna. So, Krishna’s Maya, the illusory energy
makes them forget Krishna so that they can fulfill their desire.
This gives them a birth in the material world with a material body.
Swami Prabhupada says that this material world is like a prison.
The souls who desire to exploit the material energy and enjoy with their
senses independent of Krishna are sent here from the spiritual world.
Thus they are called fallen. God and His demigods maintain law and
order in this prison, but because we have made unspiritual desires, we
cause troubles in the prison.
10. The
Purpose Of Living:
Some prisoners, the souls in this material world, come to realization
that they do not belong here, that they made a wrong desire to enjoy independent
of Krishna. They then desire to go back to their original home, back
to Godhead, Krishna. Then Krishna’s agents in the prison help them.
Thus they go back to godhead soon.
Of all the living beings, only humans can understand God with
their intelligence, His creation, purpose of life, etc. Therefore,
only they are capable of going back to Krishna in the spiritual world.
The purpose of human life is to go back to Krishna.
11. The Concept
Of Maya (Illusion):
Maya is the illusory energy of Krishna that makes a soul
forget Krishna so that the soul could go ahead per his desire to exploit
the material energy of Krishna independent of Him. It conceals the
truth from us, and we perceive something other than the truth. It
is under the control of Krishna. So, if we surrender to Krishna,
Maya could not fool or bewilder us. It binds us by its three gunas
(modes or ropes): Satva (the mode of knowledge), Rajas (the mode
of work), and Tamas (the mode of ignorance). At any given time one
mode is predominant in us. These modes compete among themselves to
influence over us. We always are under the influence of a mix of
any amount of these three modes. The true purpose of life, says SD,
is to constantly struggle against Maya and ultimately become independent
of Maya. The purpose is to raise ourselves from Tamas to Rajas to
Satva, and ultimately go beyond Satva. Then we free ourselves from
the clutches of Maya, we become Gunatitas. Then we qualify to go
back to godhead.
12. The Theory
of Karma (Action) and Re-incarnation:
This describes a law of Prakriti (nature). Everyone does
something at any moment. It is not possible to stop acting.
Generally, if we do good, we get good/ pleasing result. If we do
bad thing, we get in trouble. We get reward and punishment in fair
proportion to our good or bad actions.
A soul never dies. In the material world, Prakriti (nature)
gives the soul a body suitable to fulfill its desires. All souls
in the animal and plant life once had a human body. It was their
chance to use their intelligence and go back to godhead. Instead,
they choose to live like an animal or demon. Therefore, as a result
of their karma, their desires to enjoy food, sleep, defending, and sex
only as animals do, nature prescribed them a series of births in non-human
lives.
Animals live by instinct, not by spiritual intelligence.
Therefore, there is no sin for whatever they do. In the animal and
plant lives, they enjoy as they desired, but they suffer too, because miseries
of birth, death, old age, and diseases could not be avoided in the material
world. Once they pass through a series of births forced upon them
by nature, they again get a human birth. Thus again they get a chance
to use intelligence and learn how to go back to godhead.
Whatever a living being enjoys or suffers is because of the results
of its past actions, even of previous lives. Krishna loves all souls,
and He also controls the nature. Therefore, even if one has committed
so much sins, but if one surrenders to Krishna, He could destroy one’s
past sin’s bad reactions instantly. Krishna, always being along with
each soul as Paramatma, knows all the previous births of a soul and one’s
all acts in each. Most of us do not remember our past lives.
Whatever one remembers at the time of one’s death, one gets the next birth
accordingly.
13. The Ways
Of Going Back To God:
Death is certain, but no one knows when it will come. So,
if we remember Krishna and think of going back to him constantly, then
we would be thinking that too at the time of our death. Then Krishna
says, we go to Him. Whatever we remember in most of our lives, whatever
our strong desires are, that we remember at the time of death which may
be painful.
In Vedic culture, the social system given by Krishna is such that
each person has opportunity to go back to Him. This system is called
Varna-aashrama Dharma. This is also another true name of SD.
The society is divided in four classes of people:
1) Brahmins or the intellectuals. They study and teach
the Vedas and other religious scriptures. They are the spiritual
guides to the society.
2) Kshatriyas or the protectors. They maintain social law
and order within and from without so that all other classes of people could
execute their duties as prescribed by Krishna.
3) Vaishyas or mercantile. They do farming, cattle keeping
for milk, etc., and merchants, and
4) Shudras or laborers. They do manual service to all the
other classes.
A class for a person is decided not by his birth but by his qualities
and actions. Krishna and scriptures describe in detail how these
classes should conduct their duties. Krishna says, by performing
duties as prescribed, one goes back to Him.
Life given to humans is of 100 years, generally. SD says, one
should do four activities in life:
1) Dharma. Study religion and what one’s duties are. This
is done from age 5 to 25 in a Gurukula where one lives with a spiritual
master and serves him and learns from him.
2) Artha . Earn living according to one’s natural tendencies or
as advised by one’s guru. This is done from age 26 to 75.
3) Kama. Get married and gratify the senses as prescribed by the
scriptures, from age 27 to75. Sex indulgence out of marriage is prohibited.
Sex indulgence within marriage is allowed only when one wishes to raise
God conscious children and is capable of raising, and
4) Moksha. This, going back to godhead, getting out of the
cycle of births and deaths, raising one above the three modes of material
nature, is the ultimate goal of life. All the three previous activities
are for to get this.
Life of a human has four phases depending upon age:
1) 5-25: Barhmacharya Aashrama (phase). In this phase,
one studies and observes celibacy.
2) Grihastha Aashrama. 25-50: In this, one enjoys
married life, earns money, raises god conscious children.
3) 50-75: Vanaprastha Aashrama. In this, one retires from
family life and lives in nature as prescribed.
4) 75 to end: Sanyasa Aashrama. In this, one
completely withdraws from worldly life and lives a complete spiritual life
with just minimum necessities. They become the highly respected preachers
of the society. Thus, SD prescribes how one in each Varna should
live in each Aashrama. The spiritual intelligence goes down
from Brahmins to Kshatriyas to Vaishyas to Shudras. Therefore, a
higher Varna usually is more strict in living according to scriptures.
More one abides by SD, more one is respected in society.
14. The Four
Main Yoga’s:
Yoga means to join, with the supreme god, Krishna. One chooses
a yoga depending upon where one’s strength is. The result, or goal,
ultimately is the same, Moksha.
1) Some people are more action oriented. They mostly think,
“What do I do?” They usually prefer Karma yoga. Krishna says,
“Whatever you do, do it for Me, and do not aim for results. Just
do it because it is right thing to do for me.” This is karma yoga.
2) Some people have a lot of brain power. They usually
prefer Gyana yoga. They study about god and his creation. They
ask who am I, why am I here, etc. Births after births they keep on studying
and developing intelligence. Krishna says that after many births
a Gyana yogi becomes a Bhakti yogi.
3) Some people are men of heart, very emotional. They
usually prefer Bhakti Yoga. They fall in love with Krishna.
Then they cannot help but do everything to please Krishna. Krishna
says that of all the yogis, a Bhakta, a devotee, is most dear to
Him. Bhaktas are of two kinds: a) A Sakama Bhakta worships
Krishna because he wants something from Him. b) A Niskama Bhakta
worships Krishna because he knows that Krishna is worshipable. He
does not want anything from Him. He loves Krishna so much that he
does not want to give Him any trouble. Such Bhaktas do not care for
even Moksha. They want is to have the opportunity to serve and glorify
Krishna and His devotees. This is the highest form of Bhakti.
It usually comes after some sakama bhakti.
4) Some, very few, people are good at controlling mind.
They prefer Dhyana yoga. They constantly practice controlling the
wandering mind and focus it on Krishna. When they become able to
do it by practice and by detachment, they feel bliss when they are in that
Samadhi condition when the mind stays steady on Krishna like a flame
of a lamp in a room without any air movement. They get some supernatural
power because of this accomplishment. If they misuse it, however,
they fall down spiritually and suffer eventually.
15. Control
Over The Senses:
Any yogi, anyone who wants to go back to godhead, needs
to keep his senses in control. The senses of knowledge: eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, and sense of touch are engaged in acquiring knowledge and
understanding of Krishna and His past times. The senses of action
are engaged in the service and glorification of Krishna and His devotees.
16.
Some Vedic Views and Prayers:
