Greetings, :)(:

Glad you found my posting helpful. (Sorry, I lost my avatar on the last post... must have timed out.)

I'm one of the personalists -- a Vaisnava. I'm a monotheist (there's only one God), I believe that God is a unique personality, that He comes again and again to re-establish the Absolute Truth each time humanity looses it, and that sometimes He sends his pure devotee representatives (avatars, incarnations, sons.

I believe in all the manifestations of God worshipped by major religions, Allah, Jehovah, Buddha, but personally I choose to worship God in what I believe to be his original Form, Krsna. I accept the teachings of the avatars/sons, including Christ.

While I accept the philosophical fundamentals of most of the major religions (and I don't see them as being in great contradiction to one another… they're mostly just badly practiced), I think most current religions suffer from the fact that their sastra (scripture) has been adulterated over time. I believe that the Vedas are the most complete and perfect scripture available on the planet, and that the methodology of parampara (disciplic succession/lineage), which is a very exacting science, allows us even today to have access to the unadulterated Absolute Truth.

I believe the Absolute Truth is sound vibration, and when we hear it, we know it (although we may reject it in order to keep trying to enjoy our senses). I believe that one finds a spiritual master/teacher/guru by recognizing his/her purity, by hearing the unadulterated sound vibration of the pure surrendered servant of God.

I believe that God is the Supreme Personality and all the living entities are God's servants. I strive to serve rather than be served. I mostly fail at that, but keep trying.

I believe that the best way to engage in spiritual life, gaining knowledge and realization, is to keep a peaceful, simple regulated life. My practice includes celibacy, no meat eating, intoxication or gambling. My practice of worship includes hearing and chanting… chanting japa (mantra… reciting the Holy Names of God) and devotional singing (bhajans and kirtan), reading sastra, and generally trying to think about God as much as possible… His glories, His name, fame and pastimes, etc.

In another recent GLP thread entitled "When We Die And Our Souls Go Somewhere Else Then...", I wrote:

The spirit soul (jivatma) is eternal. It was created by God and empowered with free will, so it can choose to remain in the spiritual realm serving God in pure loving relationship, or it can fall into the material realm as a result of wanting to be God. Jivatmas who have become fallen conditioned souls are 'conditioned' by the mind, senses and false ego. They "want to be God" in the sense that they want to control the material energy and the other living entities in order to enjoy sense gratification.

The jivatma is a part and parcel of God… inconceivably, simultaneously one and different. The individual living entity is qualitatively the same as God, but quantitatively different (lesser than). Everything that exists came from God, including the jivatmas. But being conditioned, they are like a perverted reflection of the Supreme Creator, who is also a personality.

While the jivatma may become separated from God, it is not complete separation. The Lord is always present in the heart of the jivatma, in the form of Supersoul (paramatma). This is like two birds in a tree… one is the Lord as Paramatma, and one is the jivatma. The Lord is present, observing, and when the jivatma 'wakes up' enough to the Lord's presence, greater interaction begins to occur. By His presence as Paramatma, the Lord fulfills the desires of the living entity… good, bad, or indifferent.

The jivatmas who have fallen into the material condition have become embodied so that they can "enjoy" through the mind and senses. But of course they can't really enjoy. All they really do is suffer the endless repetitions of birth, death, disease and old age. Meanwhile, they think their temporary sense enjoyment is real. Actually, it's just a temporary cessation of suffering. They continue cycling through until they become God-conscious (self-realized), and go back home to God.

In the meantime, while they struggle to regain their spiritual sense, they cycle through bodies, one after another. This is called transmigration of the soul (reincarnation). Basically, here's how it works:

The jivatma never leaves the body until his next body has already been identified. This next body is determined based entirely upon the jivatmas's own desire nature. This is often referred to as karma, but that's a simplistic view. Karma is actually a consequence of the desire nature. It's not that you're "punished" for your past deeds, so much as that you take a new body that's appropriate to fulfilling your free will, i.e., your desire nature, as expressed by your past actions.

Throughout his lifetime, the jivatma's aggregate desires are stored up in the subtle mind. These desires, along with karmic reaction, create the living entity's next body. So the jivatma dies after it has been decided what form of body he will have in the next life. Higher authorities, not the living entity himself, make this decision. According to our activities in this life, we either rise or sink. This life is a preparation for the next life. If we can prepare in this life to get promotion to the kingdom of God, then surely after quitting this material body, we will attain a spiritual body. If not, we take another material body and continue suffering, to the degree that we aren't yet fully God-conscious. We never lose whatever spiritual progress we've made. In whatever condition one quits his present body, in his next life he will attain to that state of being without fail.

If the living entity has attained perfection, he can select the time and place for leaving this material world. But if he is not so perfect, then he has to leave at nature's will. What is of most importance is that at the time of death, the jivatma's mind and heart are firmly fixed on God. In that state, one can also return home to God, regardless of past karma and desires. For that reason, engaging in spiritual activities throughout life is critically important. It conditions us to meditate upon, and constantly glorify God. That way, it's much easier to fix one's consciousness on God at the time of death, thereby escaping the misery of this conditioned material life, cycling constantly through birth and death.