"Life Comes From Life"

"Life Comes From Life- A Startling Challenge to the Modern Scientific Theory of the Origin of Life and the Universe:" Morning Walks With His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Founder of the International Society for Krishna Conciousness)

I thought I would share a few passages from a book I am currently engaged in, "Life Comes From Life", which is basically a philosophical dialogue between Swami Prabhupada and his students during intercourses on morning walks in the Los Angeles area in the mid- 1970's.  There is some very great insight in this book- in fact, if one were to keep accumulating books such as "Life Comes From Life" or "Red Earth, White Lies" by Vine Deloria Jr., a clear image will start to emerge that modern scientific (and academic) theories and mind-sets are complete buffoonery (for example, Darwinian Evolution).  Swami Prabhupada repeatedly condemns scientists to be "rascals" and "fools" who are "misguiding the public".  I would have to agree with him.  I found a used copy of this book for 0.99 cents; I knew it would be good when I picked it up at the store, and was surprised, reading through it, to find out just how good it is!

A note before quoting some relevant passages concerning energy and stone (which can be applied to our understanding of the Ceremonial Stone Landscape) from the book- from my understanding, Krsna (Krishna), is the emanating spiritual force of energy that has created our universe.  What Swami Prabhupada explains is that matter comes from this spiritual, emanating life-force, and that matter does not create life (which is what scientist's believe.)  Although I have used different terminology (different life experience), I immediately realize from reading Swami (or Srila) Prabhupada's words that I am in the same camp as him- I believe in a spiritual life-force (Great Spirit) as the emanation or source of creation, a Divine Intellegence, rather than matter (a material substance) as the source of Life.  As far as I am concerned, what this Vedic philosophy refers to as "Krsna Conciousness" is the same thing as having "Christ Conciousness" (which is a big reason to independently study the Christian and pre-Christian religions and philosophies- the Essenes, Gnosticism, Alexandrian scholars such as astrologers and alchemists, the earlier Egyptian Mystery Schools, etc.)  As a matter of fact, the highest attainment in the ancient Egyptian Mystery Schools was to become a "Son of the Light" or a "Son of the Reflected Light."  In the Vedic tradition Lord Krsna is said to be the source, or emanation of the Spiritual Light, thus the source of All Creation in our universe.  And of course, as I will touch on later, we know that "light" or the interplay and reflection of light (sun and moon) plays a significant role in Ceremonial Stone Landscape sites, such as Standing Stones, Stone Chambers, rock pile sites, etc.  I would maintain that the sacred understandings of the medicine people (at one time many people probably were medicine people to some degree or another), of the Eastern Seaboard of the America's had the same understandings that other ancient people had such as the Egyptians or the Hindus, or the Mayans, as understood in their own cultural context, in their area, expressed in their way.  Although this has always been known to some degree by say, historians or archaeologists ("everything Native people did was sacred"), I believe that Ceremonial Stone Landscapes can confirm this in a way that sheds a whole new light on the pre-colonial civilization and past.  Compared to this religious understanding, things like subsistence and hunting sites are a bit of a "dim" understanding (or, I should say, far from a complete picture) when compared to a megalith building and spiritual component of the culture- but how many academics will admit this?  Sadly, not many as of yet, although there are some.  Hopefully this will be realized by more people in a Good Way in future years, which may help people, and perhaps our society as a whole, to elevate our consciousness, understandings and compassion to new heights, which should have reciprocal positive benefits for the environment as well.  But first, people will need to "find their way" out of all of the distractions, modern confusion, technology that is hurting our health, government scandals, and other various forms of toxicity.

Now, some quotes from the dialogue from the book "Life Comes From Life:"

Srila Prabhupada:  "As soon as you speak of energy, there must be a source." (Pg. 16)

Dr. Singh:  (Pg. 62) "If someone looks at the Deity of Krsna in the temple and thinks that it is only stone or wood, what does that mean?"

Srila Prabhupada:  "He is ignorant of the facts.  How can the Deity be material?  Stone is also Krsna's energy.  Just as electric energy is everywhere but only the electricians know how to utilize it, so Krsna is everywhere- even in stone- but only His devotees know how to utilize stone to appreciate Krsna.  The devotees know that stone cannot exist outside of Krsna.  Therefore, when the devotees see the Deity, they say 'here is Krsna.'  They see the real oneness of Krsna and His energy.... This means that Krsna's energy- that is, Krsna in His partially manifested form- pervades every atom of the universe.  But His fully manifested personal form is present in the Deity (the stone) shaped according to His directions.  This is the philosophy of acintya-bhedabheda-tattva, the simultaneous oneness and difference of God and His energies.  For example, when the sunshine is in your room, that does not mean the sun itself is in your room.  The sun and its separated energies, like heat and light, are one in quality, but different in quantity."

Note: The emphasis on the word "separated" and the clarification of "the stone" in paranthesies are my own clarifications.  Now, this Hindu, or Vedic perspective would be different to a Native American perspective in some regards.  Well no sh*t (here I am getting a bit defensive, perhaps unfoundedly, but just in case).  However, Srila Prabhupada is indeed speaking some great universal truths here in these statements.  For instance, he describes "the simultaneous oneness and difference of God and His energies" while describing to a disciple the properties of an energetic, or conciouss, manifestation of Spiritual Force or Life within a stone, or certain stones (in this case used in a temple to represent Krsna).  So here the Swami is maintaining that 1) Stones have a life force, for they are a material manifestation emanating from the original spiritual Life-Force (as is everything we perceive in this world), and 2), The stone can represent a higher ideal, attainment, or purpose than just stone, it is imbued, to some degree or another, with a life-force essence, such as that of a divine saint or deity, coming from spiritual source energy.  He also talks about "separated" energies using light, or sunshine, as an example- this is what the Egyptian Mysteries talked about with the "Sons of the Reflected Light."

This topic closely relates to one of the themes I mentioned in my last post concerning different Standing Stones being imbued with "spirit" of a great medicine person, chief, or sage.  In other words an Ascended Master.  This was a tradition to be found in many parts of the world including Northeastern America, and, going back in time tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of years of our human civilization, what some may call "Atlantis."  This practice also existed in the Celtic and pre-Celtic European Standing Stone sites (usually located on the western-most coasts of Europe, hugging the Atlantic shoreline, compared to, paradoxically, eastern-most North America), until the times of Christianity and "witch-hunts" came about, when it was banned to inter-act with these stone sites.   These traditions are in other lands as well around the world such as Mongolia, India, Taiwan, etc.

"The Sons of the Reflected Light" is found in every land.  This may be what some have referred to even as the "Masma" culture (the guy who studied at Markahuasi, Peru).  There was, and sometimes still is, a universal understanding of how Spirit works, and of the manifestation of Life Force and Creation itself.