QUOTE (angrezi @ Mar 26 2008, 01:18 PM)
QUOTE (dayalu @ Mar 24 2008, 05:28 PM)
So I thought that this would be a discussion of impersonal and personal features of God. But this discussion is not to be found. The atheists have no business in such a discussion since they do not believe in what they are discussing.
I have seen that the only things most IGMers know about 'personal/impersonal' (whatever the hell that subjective terminology means), is what they have simply imbibed from fundamentalist IGM training, therefore the discussion is rather limiting and usually only ends with the same lame analogies and diatribe against 'impersonalists' that we learned in ISKCON (usually ending in ad hominem attacks on the offenders when they fail to 'surrender', as modeled by ACBS himself, and practiced by his devoted followers), and most defenders of the faith have no actual knowledge of 'impersonalism (?)' or even Buddhism (which is actually a tradition). Madhvacarya would not be proud.
Plus when discussing with IGMers, the issue is further muddied in that the supreme person is actually Krishna, which not even many 'personalists' agree on. 99% of Indian Hindus would likely be termed 'impersonalists' by IGM logic. Of course, whomever more forcefully bashes the other is the actual possessor of truth.
as far as I have seen, its only IGMers that really get hot under the collar about this stuff (following the acaryas). most older Indian sects have moved onto other pastimes the last couple of centuries, and have found newer enemies to bash such as Muslims and Communists.
Therefore, i defend my, and others, right to glib comments and jokes on mayavadi/athiest witchunting.

(impersonalist greeting)
Before you start throwing out your labels, like IGM, or let’s take it farther like Hindus, Muslims, Christians, or Atheists, Personalists or Impersonalists, you must admit that there is only one kind of living entity, the jiva, who adopts many relative conceptions that he finds suitable in a certain position. Stripped of all these designations we could then examine the jiva, your 'self'. This is the position Bhagavatam takes, Sukadeva makes a similar statement. Krishna says this when he says the living entity carries his different concepts like the air carrying aromas. We are to try to see in that universal way, one kind of living entity, various impressions. And to know what each impression (religion) is in general. Filled with such materially limiting designations and thus having no engagement, what then is the meaning of any and all scriptural knowledge?
Since the position of knowing Krishna as God is dependent upon stripping away all designations and ideas incompatible with unmotivated service, His actual position is known by few. His mercy, sent through souls like Prabhupada, is the only means to know Him, to some degree, and that means His service. There is much more to this.
KC is simple, it is the engagement of the non-designated soul. Not a speculation or an interpretation.
You did not know Prabhupada or BR Sridhara in their lifetimes (maybe just recorded words) and how first and foremost their order was to engage anyone in some small way in service. Not spend excessive time reading books. Serve and knowledge of the bewildering sastra comes later, naturally.
Now the universal, non designated vision of the jiva will be required to experience and know the universal, omnipresent God, Who bears no such temporary designation. Hindus may call Him Krishna but we are not Hindus and we know Him as the One Universal Absolute, described partly in various books by sages of all orders. Yes we are happily Mahaprabhu’s sold out servants, we have nothing else but Him, and when a verse like:
jivera ‘svarupa’ haya——krsnera ‘nitya-dasa’
krsnera ‘tatastha-sakti’ ‘bhedabheda-prakasa
suryamsa-kirana, yaiche agni-jvala-caya
svabhavika krsnera tina-prakara ‘sakti’ haya
“It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Krishna because he is the marginal energy of Krishna and a manifestation simultaneously one and different from the Lord, like a molecular particle of sunshine or fire. Krishna has three varieties of energy. Madhya 20.108-109
…is considered it must bear all applied universal implications that are free from material designations. Oh, we did not discuss God, why He is, His personalities, potencies, the revelations coming down that must be applied, etc. but I am finished writing for now.