Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

A Wise Group

Toronto, Ontario

The students were great with their questions.

1) Can you know your past lives?
2) Would there be advantages to being aware of all you have gone through in previous lives, in other words, how does it impact you now, in this life?
3) What about Hitler and what kind of life would he have had after he died?

A secondary school class from Silverthorne Collegiate came in today (philosophy students) who were curious to know about the Krishna Consciousness lifestyle. I presented them in front of Prabhupada, the murti (statue) of our guru. I lead a chant before this murti and then students tossed flower petals at the base of it. Our super-monk on the mrdunga drum, Radha Kantha, from Assam, did a demo of beats which thrilled the students. I then introduced the maha-mantra, "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare". They sang in response, clapped hands, tapped their feet. I gave an intro on the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita. Then the questions came followed by answers. The above were a sample. They were intrigued with the soul's transmigration.

1) It is possible to know your past existence. Krishna explains in the Gita that we pass through bodies as much as we change clothes. Lives we have experienced, and there are stories in the Puranas that detail these events. In more recent times documentation has been collected by Edgar Cayce and others who have found persons recalling previous lives. To make spiritual progress, however, we need not be so concerned about the past but to look at your current circumstances and use them as assets and tools with which to prosper in life.

2) There may be advantages to knowing your past. It then may become more rational why things are as they are in the present life but again, how long does an individual need to dwell on the past? Not much. Accept the present and move on.

Whatever was done previously impacts today. Negative actions and bad choices bring negative reactions (the positive brings positive). Krishna speaks of dharma (duty) and to be less attached to results to focusing more on being responsible. But consider that as physics tells, 'for ever action there is an equal and opposite reaction'

3) What happened to Hitler karmically? The answer could be that he was reborn into a better situation because there wasn't anything worse than him that I can think of.

6 KM