--- In [email protected], "Cliff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I remember getting a copy of someone else's translation of the > rest of the Gita back in 1972 during my checker training course. > My thought was, great - now I get to see how this wonderful story > of enlightenment turns out. > > Strange - turned out pretty much everyone got slaughtered in > mostly very unpleasant ways. The entire civilization got destroyed. > Even Krishna himself got an arrow in the foot and died. And then > the whole world went into Kali Yuga. > > Gosh, what an upligting tale! I decided I'd discovered why > Maharishi never finished his translation. With that as the great > example of teaching enlightenment, most people would probably > go for Monday Night Football... :-) >
*********** People have been asking for centuries why God allows suffering, and certainly if God did not want the Kaliyuga to exist, it would not. Therefore there must be some use for it, and that use is discussed in the Vedic literature: the worse that outside conditions are, the more people seek inside for enlightenment (of course, this was also the meaning of Jesus' saying that it is harder for a rich man to enter within than for a camel to enter the eye of a needle -- when outside life is attractive, it's hard to close your eyes and transcend materiality). When Lord Brahma the Creator wanted his son Vasistha to help suffering humanity, he primed him for the job by drawing the veil of ignorance over him: Vasistha: "Reflecting thus, the Creator brought me into being. He drew me to himself and drew the veil of ignorance over my heart. Instantly I forgot my identity and my self-nature. I was miserable. I begged of Brahma the creator, my own father, to show me the way out of this misery. Sunk in my misery I was unable and unwilling to do anything, and I remained lazy and inactive." p. 29, http://tinyurl.com/6xndt Although the poverty and war and disease and the 1000 other shocks that flesh is heir to might seem horrible, they are insignificant compared to the loss of one's status as bliss consciousness, so the natural order of life is always trying to guide human beings back onto the track of enlightenment, and the Kaliyuga's grief, when people finally get completely fed up with suffering and become receptive to wisdom, is useful for human evolution, in a paradoxical way. > --- In [email protected], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > In a message dated 4/26/05 6:11:56 A.M. Central Daylight Time, > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > > ---There can be only one? After all Krishna didn't go around enlightening > > the masses, nope, only Arjuna. > > > > > > > > He didn't even enlighten Arjuna! To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
