some questions- from V.V.S. MANI

[V V S Mani]

I was not sure if my mail of yesterday went through as I had some
'undeliverable ' message. Hence the repeat sending as below:


Shri. Jaldharji,
Namaskarams.
I have a few funny questions.
In my childhood, I use to ask many people one question- what if there is no
world- I used to try and visualise what will be there if nothing is there- I
presume I was perhaps trying to understand  what will happen during  and
after Pralayam.
I understand that The Lord annhilates everything during pralayam to the
unmanifest state and brings them back to the manifest state after kindful
offer of 'rest'to all souls- back to where they left the previous body
at-based on the karmas till then.
But what will be the identity of the various souls in the various lokas
including Vaikunthas and Kailaasa etc. Like for instance what will be the
routine for these souls- I believe in Vaikuntha the souls have bodies with
four handed Vishnu form etc. How is it Kailaasa and other higher planets or
lokas?
Do the souls keep serving The Lord in those Lokas? what do they do? so many
in numbers? At the end of the life of Brahma , after that pralayam( is it
Aadhyantha pralayam) I read that the souls in the spiritual lokas (Brahma
loka, Kailasa, Vaikunthas) (by the way the term Brahma loka-does it mean all
the spirutual lokas?)merge into the Brahman at that time. Are they
helplessly merged into the Brahman or they can decide to be in the Vaikuntha
etc and continue to serve The Lord?
Once the merging of the individual soulwith Paramatma happens, the identity
of the individual soul is lost is not it? is this what is called Atma
Nivedhan at the highest above Shravanam, keerthanam, vandanam, padasevanam
etc etc .
What are all the spiritual lokas from where one does not come back to this
Mrityuloka.I read that Lord Hanuman will be the next Brahma. Does He then
leave the devotional service to Lord Rama-or He could be discharging the
duties as service to The Lord.
When a person gets to think of The Lord at the time of passing the body,
when does he/she go to the spiritual planets for mukthis other than Sayujya?
immediate or is there some timelag? does any of these things depend on the
various samskaras to be performed for the first year till varushabdhikam? I
even heard that at the end of one of the ceremonies of Anthimkriyas, they
use to say that the grandfather or his father leaves one loka? is it leaving
of Pitruloka? who all will go to pitruloka? Lord Krishna says that those who
worship Pitrus go to pitruloka - those who worship Me , come to me etc.
Where do we get Bhagavad Gita with Bhasyam of Shri ShankaraBhavadPadaal-
English?I have many copies of iskcon books only. Is Bhagavatham with
purports by any of the Acharyas in the disciplic succession of
Bhagavadpaadaal available- english? I am planning to go over to India by end
of this month for 3 weeks- mainly Madras, Thirupathy, Shringeri etc. I would
like to buy these books if available. I will enquire in Shringeri of course,
God willing.
By the way 8 th May is Shri Shankara Jayanthi , I think. Are we supposed to
fast on that Auspicious day?
Namaskarams. Kindly excuse me for asking may be foolish, silly, unworthy
questions. As tomorrow is holiday for us, I thought i will write something
today.
I was reading Golden Words of HH Shri Shri ChandraSekhara Bharathi
Mahaswamigal of Shringeri. If of interest I will type them and send them by
mail.
Venkatasubramani.

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

Archives : http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l.html
Help     : Email to listmaster at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Options  : To leave the list send a mail to
           listserv at lists.advaita-vedanta.org with
           SIGNOFF ADVAITA-L in the body.