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For countless lifetimes we have been acting as rascals by defying the authority of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because of our foolish rascal mentality we have needlessly suffered in the cycle of birth and death. So instead of punishing ourselves, we should be kind to ourselves by returning to our original, healthy, innate state of consciousness. In other words, we should give up our rascaldom and come back to Krishna consciousness.



Sankarshan Das Adhikari
 

Krishna is Inviting You to Come Home

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Question: How Can We Not Merge Back into God?

How is it possible that when Lord mentions he is the Source of everything, that I can be part and parcel of him and still be separate from Him? If He is the source, we were all in Him at some point and thus at some point will merge back with Him. In this way, the vasishtadvaita philosophy of Ramanuja looks logically correct!

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Prasad

 

Answer: We Were Never Merged & Will Never Merge

Just as the center of a circle and all other points on the circle are inseparably one because they are all part of the same circle, but at the same time are distinctly different because of their varying locations on the circle, in a similar way the Lord and the living beings are inseparably one and at the same time distinctly different. The circle must have a central point. It cannot be without a central point. And all points on the circle besides the central point are distinctly different from the central point, even though they are all one because they are all part of the circle. They all have locations in the circle relative to the central point.

Even though Krishna is the source of everything, this does mean that we were originally merged in Him and then became unmerged when He decided to emanate us from Himself. This is so because we are eternally being emanated from Him. There was never a time that we did not exist as His emanated separated expansions. Nor will there ever be a time in the future when we will not exist as Krishna-emanated individuals. This point is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita 2:12.

You have misunderstood Sri Ramanujacharya's philosophy known as Visitadvaita. According to his teaching although the Lord and His energies are one, each keeps his individuality. The Sanskrit word vasistya means individuality. A nice example in this connection is the sun and sunshine. The sunshine is nothing but the sun. But at the same time it is different. When the sunshine enters our room, we may say the sun has come. But if the sun planet had entered, we would be burned to a crisp immediately. So the sun and the sunshine, although one, are different. Just as the sunshine, although also sun, is the sun's separated energy, in a similar way the living beings are non-different from God because they are nothing but His energy, and at the same time they are different because they cannot emanate everything from themselves as God is able to emanate everything from Himself.

I hope this clears up your understanding.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari
 

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