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The more we become immersed in Krishna consciousness, the more we become liberated from the miseries of material existence. Therefore those who are intelligent immerse themselves in Krishna consciousness as deeply and intensely as possible on a regular daily basis. By such daily immersion ones makes serious advancement on the path of Krishna bhakti and quickly attains the platform of self realization.



Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Ecstatic Immersion in Krishna Consciousness
ISKCON Temple--Riga, Latvia--5 October 2011

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Question: How to Accept Far-Fetched Concepts?

Dear Guruji,

Can you please tell me more about the transcendental awakening you had? I want to be transcendentally awakened too.

I remain a skeptic because my mind is limited. I cannot conceive of things beyond this universe. Then also, these things like hell seem a bit far-fetched.

Evolution through 8,400,000 species also seem far-fetched. How to accept such theories which haven't been tested and experienced?

For such reasons, I might leave this e-course

With thanks

Aryan

 

Answer: By Perfecting Your Imperfect Senses

Transcendental awakening means to realize that you are not your body, that you are instead an eternal spiritual being. This realization is attained by purifying your senses, beginning with the tongue, by chanting the holy names of God and tasting the remnants of foodstuffs which have been offered to the Supreme Lord. When one becomes awakened that which previously may have seemed outrageously far-fetched becomes logical and comprehensible.

As I have previously described, the logical conclusion of skepticism is to be absolutely skeptical of everything including skepticism itself. In other words, the serious skeptic will eventually reach the point of rejecting skepticism. If one puts his blind faith in skepticism, he is not a true skeptic. He is only a semi-skeptic. One who is total in his skepticism must necessarily also reject skepticism at which time he has nowhere to go philosophically except to that Absolute Truth which lies beyond the purview of his imperfect material senses.

Transmigration through 8,400,000 species is not as far-fetched as it may seem. Every day we see people who are hankering to be like the other species. Some people like to swim in the ocean in imitation of the fish. Some people like to sky dive in imitation of the birds. I even saw one man who put branches all over himself in imitation of the trees. I have seen an old man walking his dog, how his facial features were starting to resemble the facial features of his dog. So, that people could be attracted to another species and get such a body in their next lifetime is not so inconceivable. Just as a caterpillar can get a change of body into a butterfly, according to our consciousness at the time of death we acquire another body either as a human being or in another of the 8,400,000 species. You say that transmigration through the 8,400,000 species has not been experienced. But yet we are all experiencing this. And we will continue experiencing this until we revive our original enlightened consciousness, our Krishna consciousness.

There are so many things that we cannot directly perceive, but yet we accept as real on the basis of higher authority. The electron is an example. Have you ever seen an electron? But we it accept it is as real on the basis of higher authority. Just as you accept so many things that are inconceivable by you as facts on the authority of the empirical scientists, we accept things that are inconceivable by us on the authority of the Vedic scientists. The empirical scientists utilize various instruments such as microscopes and telescopes to draw their conclusions. The Vedic scientists use the instrument of their enlightened consciousness to draw their conclusions. The difference between the conclusions of the Vedic scientists and the empirical scientists is that the empirical scientists are constantly changing their conclusions to adjust for errors in their previous conclusions, while the perfect conclusions of the Vedic scientists have remained unchanged for thousands and millions of years.

For example, many years ago at the University of Florida I attended a scientific seminar conducted by a leading PHD in which he told us about the black holes in outer space. At the end of his presentation he asked if there were any questions. I asked him if what he told us was a theory or a fact. He said, "I think it is a fact." Then I asked him, "We have seen that throughout the history of modern science a theory comes into popularity for some time and is then eventually replaced by another theory. So how do we know that your theory will not be replaced by another theory?" He answered me, "I hope it is because then we will be making progress." Such is the state of empirical science. They will never reach a final conclusion. They are simply groping in the dark with their imperfect senses, while the Vedic sages who have perfected their senses through the self realization system have consistently throughout the ages given us the same unchanging knowledge.

Even though we hope you will stay, you are welcome to stay or leave our course as you like. If you would rather accept the ever-changing conclusions of men with imperfect senses, that is your prerogative. We would rather stick with those scientists who have perfected their senses and thus have unchanging conclusions.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari
 

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