Perfect Questions Perfect Answers

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In Perfect Questions Perfect Answers book, Cohen says I began to ask my questions. Inadvertently, I had approached a guru, or spiritual master, in the prescribed way-by submissively asking questions about spiritual life. Srila Prabhupada seemed pleased with me, and over the next several days, he answered my questions. I asked them mostly from an academic point of view, but he always gave me personal answers so that I would actually spiritualize my life. His answers were logical, scientific, satisfying and amazingly lucid.

Description

Perfect Questions Perfect Answers:

True accounts of people seeking real happiness, spiritual realization, & liberation. Like, Bob Cohen, a young American Peace Corps worker halfway around the world, searches for meaning enters an ancient village in the midst of West Bengal, where in a small bamboo hut, he finds a teacher who tells him everything he longed for.

In Perfect Questions Perfect Answers book, Cohen says God, spiritual life—those were such vague terms to me before I met Srila Prabhupada. I have always been interested in religion, but before I met the Krishna conscious devotees, somehow I did not have the proper perspective needed to inquire fruitfully about spiritual life. The existence of a Creator is only common sense—but who is God? Who am I? I had been to Hebrew School and had studied Oriental philosophy, but I could never get satisfying answers to my questions.

I first heard the Hare Krishna mantra in Greenwich Village, New York, in late 1968.

hare krishna hare krishna

krishna krishna hare hare

hare rama hare rama

rama rama hare hare

The chanting was captivating, and it made me feel very comfortable. The mantra stuck in my mind, and I soon regretted that I had not taken a magazine from the devotees. As explained to me later, a transcendental seed had been planted that could eventually ripen into love of Godhead.

Several months later, I came across a card with the Hare Krishna mantra on it. The card promised, “Chant these names of God, and your life will be sublime!” I would occasionally chant, and I found that the mantra did, in fact, give me a feeling of peace of mind.

Table of Contents of Perfect Questions Perfect Answers:

        •  PQPA : Introduction
          PQPA 1: Krishna, the All-Attractive
          PQPA 2: Vedic Culture: Varnashrama-dharma
          PQPA 3: The Real Goal of life
          PQPA 4: The Three Modes Of Nature
          PQPA 5: Becoming Pure
          PQPA 6: The Perfect Devotee
          PQPA 7: Acting in Knowledge of Krishna
          PQPA 8: Advancing in Krishna Consciousness
          PQPA 9: Deciding for the Future
          PQPA : Concluding words

In Perfect Questions Perfect Answers book, Cohen says I began to ask my questions. Inadvertently, I had approached a guru, or spiritual master, in the prescribed way-by submissively asking questions about spiritual life. Srila Prabhupada seemed pleased with me, and over the next several days, he answered my questions. I asked them mostly from an academic point of view, but he always gave me personal answers so that I would actually spiritualize my life. His answers were logical, scientific, satisfying and amazingly lucid.
On July 19, 1976, His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda accepted my wife and me as his disciples and initiated us with the names Bhakti-devī dāsī and Brahmatīrtha dāsa. As I reflect back on that day, I can see how fortunate I was to have met His Divine Grace and my Godbrothers in the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

When I was handed my beads at initiation, I promised to follow the regulative principles and to chant God’s names daily. Four years previously, Śrīla Prabhupāda had advised me to follow these principles, and within six months, he said, I could be like the other devotees; all unnecessary things (anarthas), such as mundane movies and restaurants, would cease to attract me. “The whole human life is meant for purification,” he said. I was interested in being purified, even though I did not really know what purification meant. I had gone to India with the Peace Corps hoping to find a higher level of consciousness. I could not believe that satisfying the senses was the all in all, yet I myself was bound by the senses. Later I could understand that yoga means becoming free from the dictation of the senses.

Upon returning to America, I started graduate school in geology, got married, and became somewhat entangled in domestic responsibilities, but I would very often think of my conversations with Śrīla Prabhupāda and of his instructions. One of his primary instructions was simply to associate with the devotees, and this I gladly did. Devotees are different: by understanding that loving service to the Supreme Lord is the goal of life, they avoid getting caught up in the petty affairs of sense gratification and false ego. Visiting the temple was most refreshing. Gradually, my wife and I became friends with many devotees and wanted somehow to do some service for the movement. I sponsored a bhakti-yoga club at the university, and our apartment served as a way station for traveling parties of devotees.

As we followed Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions, even our eating became purified. In India I had told Śrīla Prabhupāda that I could not offer my food as the devotees do because I did not understand that Kṛṣṇa is God. So he told me simply to thank God for my food before eating. This we did, and finally our devotion matured, and we started actually offering our food to the Supreme Lord. What a wonderful feeling, to be cooking for the Supreme Lord! This actually freed us from the control of the tongue.

Finally, we were ready to become involved fully in temple life. By Kṛṣṇa’s grace, I obtained a job near a temple in Texas and began to take part in all the temple programs. In this way, all the anarthas disappeared, just as Śrīla Prabhupāda had predicted. It was like having a burden lifted from our shoulders. We were no longer servants of our senses, but servants of God and His devotees. The value of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions had become clear. A human being is not meant to labor like an ass and enjoy like a dog. Purification means coming to a higher level of consciousness.

Even though I have been initiated, I still admire my Godbrothers’ spiritual awareness and wish to advance. Actually, initiation is the beginning.

 

If you have any doubts in the quest of spiritual progress, please ask our experts at 9738769587 or 9740603910 or email at contactus@divyamayayoga.com

 

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Weight .075 kg
Dimensions 15 × 10 × 1 cm

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