Krishna Software Newsletter February 1999 LORD KRSNA IS THE SUPREME COMPUTER ENGINEER!

Welcome to the KrishnaSoft's Electronic Newsletter.
This is the February 1999 issue entitled: "Lord Krsna is the Supreme Computer Engineer!".
WEB: http://www.krishnasoft.com; EMAIL: krishna@krishnasoft.com

This newsletter now goes to over 1100 people who either have an interest in Vedic science and/or spiritually entertaining multimedia technology.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
(1) Devotional Service is the Highest Goal of Human Life!
(2) Lord Krsna is the Supreme Computer Engineer!
(3) Detailed Look at the Multimedia Krsna CDROM
(4) Please Distribute Books!

1. DEVOTIONAL SERVICE IS THE HIGHEST GOAL OF HUMAN LIFE!

[The following is the third of a series of articles to present the benefits of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. The multimedia Krsna CD published by Krishnasoft presents the summary of the 10th Canto with parts from the 5th Canto of this great spiritual masterpiece.]

Lord Caitanya states: "I say that devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead is the highest goal of human life." [intro of Srimad-Bhagavatam]. All living entities are servants of Lord Krsna, the Personality of Godhead. The living entities who are in the material world are here because they are currently engaged in the service of their gross and subtle bodies, their families, societies, nations, etc. instead of service to Lord Krsna, and thus they remain in the material world and undergo the tribulations of the three modes of material nature. Devotional service, however, is the function of the internal energy and is characterized by eternity, knowledge, and bliss. The aim of life is to switch over our service from the external energy to the internal energy; i.e., switch from the miserable material service to the all blissful devotional service. When one is fully engaged in devotional service, one's life is perfect.

In all cases, the living entity is the servant-- whether to the material energy or the spiritual energy. Some people say that life's perfection is that we become 'god'. However, this statement is self-contradictory. In the January 99 newsletter, we showed that Krsna or God means the cause of all causes- including space and time. To become 'god' implies that at one time we were not 'god' which means the new 'god' is controlled by time. Thus, time is greater than 'god' which is contradictory to the definition of God.

We also showed in the January 99 newsletter that Srimad-Bhagavatam is the Absolute Truth and the answer to all questions. So one may think that so many commentaries have been written which caused the Srimad-Bhagavatam to expand so which portion constitutes the Absolute Truth? The answer is given in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.9.44):

"It is unlimited in strength, and however one may expand it according to one's own ability, Bhagavatam still cannot be finished by such expansion. Srimad-Bhagavatam, being the sound representation of the Lord, is simultaneously explained in four verses and in four billion verses all the same, inasmuch as the Lord is smaller than the atom and bigger than the unlimited sky."

All commentaries and books written in devotional service to the Absolute Truth or Srimad-Bhagavatam are of the same nature as the Absolute Truth. This fact is confirmed in one of the original four verses of the Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.9.34):

"O Brahma, whatever appears to be of any value, if it is without relation to Me, has no reality. Know it as My illusory energy, that reflection which appears to be in darkness."

Of course, we need to stress once again that devotional service is not something to be taken lightly; devotional service is something that is received from Krsna Himself or from His bona-fide representative. Mayavadi philosophers also write commentaries on Srimad-Bhagavatam but their commentaries are not in devotional service to Lord Krsna. They write commentaries only to establish their own doctrines. Therefore, their commentaries are representative of the illusory energy. The commentaries have to be authorized via disciplic succession (2.9.44):

"Brahmajii had also advised Narada previously that he should expand the idea he had heard from Brahmajii. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed this to Srila Rupa Goswami in a nutshell, but the disciple Rupa Goswami expanded this very elaborately, and the same subject was further expanded by Jiva Goswami and even further by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura."

Sometimes people ask what is the need of a guru or spiritual master since everything is already perfectly presented in the Srimad-Bhagavatam? This question is self-contradictory. The living entities are always dependent. The living entities in the material world accept either their minds or someone else's mind as authority or guru. So the question is better phrased as "who to accept as guru" rather than "whether to accept a guru or not". As we showed in the previous issues, the athiests and Mayavadis also read Srimad-Bhagavatam but come to completely different conclusions. The reason for this is because people generally only accept that which tallies with their limited minds and intellects. But the Absolute Truth cannot be understood by our limited and imperfect minds and intellects else it would mean the mind and intellect can contain the Unlimited. The Absolute Truth is realized or revealed by the Absolute Truth Himself or by one who is in touch with Him:

"The Personality of Godhead said: Knowledge about Me as described in the scriptures is very confidential, and it has to be realized in conjunction with devotional service." (Bhag. 2.9.31)

"By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world." (Bhag. 1.2.7)

"Without serving the lotus feet of a pure Vaisnava or spiritual master, no one has ever attained perfect liberation from material bondage....If one has unflinching faith in the Supreme Lord and the spiritual master, the essence of all Vedic knowledge is revealed to him." (Bhag. 5.1.6)

"One has to receive the instructions of the Supreme Lord through the disciplic chain of spiritual masters. A devotee of the Lord always considers himself a servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord." (Bhag. 5.1.20)

Because the Vaisnava is engaged in the service of Krsna, he is not engaged in serving his mental concoctions or any other aspect of the material world. And, by assisting in this devotional service coming down from Krsna through the disciplic succession, we also conquer the mind as confirmed in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.11.17):

"When one receives the seed of devotional service by the mercy of the guru and Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one's real life begins. If one abides by the orders of the spiritual master, by the grace of Krsna he is freed from service to the mind."

Before the battle of Kuruksetra, Arjuna wanted to go to the forest and meditate rather than fight his relatives. This was his mental idea that by meditating according to Vedic rules and regulations, he would attain perfection. While this may be a means of attaining perfection for some people, it was not Arjuna's devotional service. However, after surrendering to the instructions of Lord Krsna, his spiritual master, Arjuna fought and thus attained perfection.

2. LORD KRSNA IS THE SUPREME COMPUTER ENGINEER!

Today people are so enamoured by technology and science especially computers that they forget Lord Krsna's technology which is far far superior. They forget to recognize this technology although it is all around them. This is due to illusion. [Of course, even the intelligence to build computers is coming from the Supersoul.] Let's take the example of a small honeybee as compared to the most powerful computers available today. Of course, a human is a lot more complex but as you will see in this comparison, the state of the art material technology cannot even compare with a small honeybee.

(a) ENERGY USAGE: a honeybee's brain dissipates less than 10 microwatts; a computer energy usage is in watts-- about 1 million times more power usage.
(b) SPEED: a honeybee's brain performs more than 1 trillion operations per second compared to current computers which perform about 1 billion operations per second.
(c) SIZE: a honeybee's brain is measured in cubic millimeters whereas even the smallest laptops are measured in inches and usually require big heat sinks, fans, and other supporting peripherels to properly function.
(d) FULLY AUTOMATED: honeybees do not rely on programmers or maintainers; they manage their activities by themselves. Computers have to be programmed, interacted with using keyboards and microphones, serviced, etc.
(e) BEHAVIOR: honeybees can see, smell, fly, walk, and maintain balance. They can navigate long distances and predict changes in nectar location; they can remember which flowers they have already visited; they can communicate the location of nectar sources to worker bees in the hive; they recognize intruders and attack; they remove garbage and dead bees from the hive; and, when the hive becomes crowded, a subpopulation will swarm in search of a new home. They also reproduce full versions of themselves to continue their activities.

Don't forget there are no errors in the honeybees so that they crash, need to be upgraded, or need to be rebooted! Of course, the athiests will tell you that these better-than-supercomputer honeybees came by chance whereas the modern computers came by the work of intelligent award-winning scientists and many years of research. Hare Krsna.

3. DETAILED LOOK AT THE MULTIMEDIA KRSNA CDROM

[Here is a detailed list of what is on the Multimedia Krsna CDROM published by Krishnasoft. All the features listed below have been squeezed onto a SINGLE 650MB CD using lossless compression technology.]

(1) Entire text of Srila Prabhupada's English 3-volume Krsna book w/diacritic marks [90 chapters]
(2) 300 moving/scrolling illustrations synchronized with the text
(3) Search by chapter and paragraph or by any phrase
(4) Dictations of the Krsna book by Srila Prabhupada [45+ hours!]
(5) Multimedia presentation of Krsna's Universal Form
(6) Multimedia presentation of greeting the Deities of NINE different Deities
(7) Multimedia presentation of the glories of chanting the Hare Krsna Mahamantra
(8) Printing facility for printing any chapter and paragraph with fancy borders
(9) Extract feature for exporting text into other documents
(10) Multimedia presentation of the disciplic succession
(11) Multimedia presentations of some bhajans by Srila Prabhupada
(12) Multimedia presentation of some of the achievements of Srila Prabhupada
(13) Interactive Vedic Planetarium based on the Vedic Astronomy of the Fifth Canto
(14) Superexcellent Power of Krsna GAME based on Vedic Planetarium
(15) Easy-to-use with on-line user's manual and help

4. PLEASE DISTRIBUTE BOOKS!

Krishna Software Inc. is dedicated to help people become peaceful and happy via spiritual science presented using modern multimedia technology. Spiritual science has been very devotionally and profoundly expressed in Srila Prabhupada's books. Here are some excerpts from Srila Prabhupada's letters regarding these books:

"The report of book distribution going on in Chicago is very pleasing to me. As you know, our Chicago center is one of the most important. Please continue to use your intelligence to find out how to distribute my books more and more. I am especially pleased to learn that you are introducing my books as textbooks in the colleges." -- Letter to Govinda written in New York on April 7, 1973

"Please distribute as many of our books as possible and Krsna will be very pleased." -- Letter to disciples written in Los Angeles on January 11, 1974

"Regarding your question, actually it is a fact that ultimately everyone should preach and distribute books if they want to please me in the best way. Book distribution must be given stress always. He has spoken the right thing. If you do this sincerely, it is a fact that Krishna will supply everything else required...I blindly follow my guru maharaj. I do not know what is the result. So I am stressing on this point of book distribution. He told me this personally. Book distribution is bhagavata marga and temple worship is pancaratriki viddhi. Both are important for cultivating Vaisnavism but comparatively speaking bhagavata marga is more important than pancaratriki viddhi. As far as possible both should go on in parallel lines but still bhagavata marga is more important than the other." -- Letter to Govinda written in Bombay on December 6, 1974

"Your report of book distribution is very encouraging. Please go on increasing more and more. Yes, you should become the topmost temple for distributing my books. This is a very good proposal. That is the only way to please me. Distribute my books profusely. That is real preaching." -- Letter to Bala Krsna written in Vrndavana on October 23, 1976.

"I have no personal qualification, but I simply tried to satisfy my guru. That's all. My Guru Maharaja asked me that 'If you get some money, you print books.'...So kindly help me. This is my request. Print as many books in as many languages and distribute throughout the whole world. Then Krsna consciousness movement will automatically increase." -- Los Angeles, June 20, 1975

Srila Prabhupada sums up his desire and request in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.2.37 Purport):

"One should engage in practical service to the Lord. In our Krsna consciousness movement, *ALL* our activities are concentrated upon distributing Krsna literature. This is very important. One may approach any person and induce him to read Krsna literature so that in the future he also may become a devotee.... By fully concentrating on distributing books for Krsna, one is fully absorbed in Krsna."

Krishna Software Inc. has produced some multimedia CDROMs and all the details of these CDROMs can be found at our website http://www.krishnasoft.com. Here is our current list of products:

(a) Multimedia Bhagavad-gita As It Is CD: Lord Krsna's eternal instructions to Arjuna and the rest of the world about Isvara (Supreme Lord), jiva (the soul), karma (activities), kala (time), and prakrti (nature). This is a 30-hour audio-visual CDROM.

(b) Multimedia Krsna CD w/Vedic Astronomy game: The latest release from Krishna Software Inc. This is a 51-hour audio-visual presentation of the Krsna book and a Vedic Astronomy game based on the Fifth Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. All on a single CDROM. Free sample demo downloadable.

(c) Multilingual Word Processor CD [version 4.00]: Type in diacritics, Hindi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, and Assamese without knowing the alphabet. Free demo downloadable.

All of the above software was tested on various Intel 486 and Pentium processors running Windows 3.1, Windows '95, Windows '98, and Windows NT (client and server). All products are in stock.

Latest pricing and ordering information is at our web site: http://www.krishnasoft.com.

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End of Newsletter- written and edited by KSI staff; (c) 1998-1999 Krishna Software Inc.
Our staff consists of: Hari Rama Dasa, Rajni, and Virender and a few part-time volunteers.

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All glories to Lord Sri Krsna and His transcendental potencies! All glories to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the literary incarnation of the Lord Sri Krsna!

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