DOUBLE WHAMMY

This was a double whammy! I never expected a double.

You've probably noticed this too if you are reading or hearing from Srila Prabhupada. Something will come up in trying to communicate with others about Krishna consciousness and either it is difficult to connect about that specific point or there seems to be some confusion. Something needs clarification. Then the next time you read or hear from Srila Prabhupada that very thing is discussed and becomes clear.

I'm used that. It's always exhilarating when it happens but I am not shocked or incredulous when it does. I almost expect it although I forget that it does happen so when it does it is a pleasant surprise. Like when someone you love brings you a handful of flowers or something. But I never even considered this could happen twice in one day.

The first:

In discussing with Theresa at the 2nd session of Bhagavad gita she was confiding that she understands and accepts about the existence of God but she doesn't seem to have any experience of His presence in her life. She needs a sign or something, an intervention or something. So I am very happy for her because she is making some effort to chant Hare Krishna and hear about Krishna consciousness and taking prasadam and is engaging in devotional service in that way so it is only a matter of time before Krishna rewards her for her efforts.

The example I gave her was the very example I just read this morning in Bhagavatam. Of all the things that can be discussed in Bhagavatam this exact example popped up.

"When a hungry man is given food to eat, he feels satiation of hunger and the pleasure of dining simultaneously. Thus he does not have to ask whether he has actually been fed or not. The crucial test of hearing Srimad Bhagavatam is that one should get positive enlightenment by such an act." SB 2.4.5 purport

Jaya Srila Prabhupada...

The second:

The arguments rage on another post about the origin of the jiva. That somehow the jiva at some point was not a person and was created. I cannot accept that I was not a person at any point.

(Or that I have never been in the spiritual world. That is sure to pop up in the reading very soon. Because that is simply the problem of forgetfulness and illusion. Or as one devotee pointed out this morning: We are in the spiritual sky... the whole material creation is in the spiritual sky... it is like a cloud in the sky.)

But this is what I just read relating to have not been a person at some 'time":

"In the Kathopanisad the Supreme Lord is described as the chief eternal being amongst all other eternal individual beings (nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam) and the one Supreme Lord who maintains innumerable other individual living beings (eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman). So all living entities, both in conditioned state and in liberated state, are maintained by the Almighty Supreme Lord." SB 2.4.7

That's it. Clear and simple. Eternal living beings. Either conditioned or liberated. I am never created.