HARE KRSNA GENERAL

Bajan musek where?

>>18002942
Pretty good collection here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/krodhaha

>>18002935
Can we only revere Krishna? I really have a thing for Acala too.

>>18003957
The different demigods are all servants of Krsna, and so in that way they can be revered.

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>>18003957
Reverence can be given to anyone, and since Lord Chaitanya asks us to be humbler than grass it probably should be.

The issue in Gaudiya Vaishnavism is that we accept there are beings who are not God, but who are so above us in ability they seem to be from our view. This would be Brahma, Indra, and so on. However there are also expansions and avatars of God like Rama, Kalki, Matsya, etc. It can seem confusing from the outside: why does this set of really powerful beings get relegated to demigod, while this other set of really powerful beings are considered aspects of God?

The dogmatic answer is that shastra and the acaryas tell us so. Early scriptures make declarative statements on a being's supremacy. Acaryas use these myriad statements like a lawyer uses precedence to determine this or that person goes in this or that category. Leave it up to authority - simple, but rigid and unappealing to today's people.

Later writings like the Chaitanya Charitamrita and the Nectar of Devotion attempt to give a reasoned or at least categorical explanation. The first goes into explaining the different energies of the Godhead; describing the connections and differences between internal/spiritual/purusha, external/material/prakriti, and marginal/living/jiva energies. The second categorizes through qualitative descriptions found in avatars and expansions that are not seen in demigods and other living entities. This is better as it provides some attempt to give a determination process. However the differences listed are often imperceptible from our perspective.

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>>18005681
Ultimately, in my opinion, I don't think it's worth the time to figure out who is or isn't God. I know Paramatma is beside all living entities, and the jiva is part and parcel of the Paramatma, and the material energy is sourced in Paramatma. So if I wish I can see everyone as God in this way. Or I can leave God as the undefined Supreme, and attach my service to a higher personality who I feel will elevate me closer to the Supreme where I have a better perspective. (This sounds to me like what might be best for you with Acala.) Or I can have a clear description of God, and this becomes my worshipful Deity.

I think the case of Sri Hanuman is a great precedence here. Hanuman worships Lord Rama. Gaudiya Vaishnavism teaches he is aware that Rama is an Avatar of Krishna, that Krishna the Supreme Personality of the Godhead. But Hanuman doesn't care. Hanuman loves Lord Rama, and he worships Lord Rama. Even when Krishna was here on Earth, and came to give darshan to Hanuman, he saw Krishna as his Lord Rama in a different form.

>>18005719
>I don't think it's worth the time to figure out who is or isn't God.

That came out VERY wrong. I mean if someone comes to me and says Jesus is God, I say great - please apply bhakti to your worship of Jesus. If they say the Ultimate Source of Everything is a bunch of noodles, I say weird...but great, please apply bhakti to your worship. I'm not going to quibble over name and form. God is infinite and all names and forms are God's.

> SB 7.3.34 — Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme, who in his unlimited, unmanifested form has expanded the cosmic manifestation, the form of the totality of the universe. He possesses external and internal energies and the mixed energy called the marginal potency, which consists of all the living entities.

>>18005744
>God is infinite and all names and forms are God's

I see what you mean prabhuji, but the way you put it could be misconstrued as mayavad or impersonal philosophy.

>>18005820
I agree. That all names and forms belong to and have their source in God does not mean that you can point to anything and declare it God. I only mean that the Supreme Person can appear in different ways to different traditions and people, and I am wary to discount devotion over cosmetic differences.