last updated 24th July 2008

Kazakhstani online petition

Kazakhstani online petition

By Radha Mohan Dasa

Please visit http://www.krishnatemple.com NOW and click the link to the new petition, or go straight to the petition webpage:

http://harekrishna.epetitions.net

Please sign it soon as you can, and please tell as many people as you can about it.

Background: Workers and police arrived on 15th June at the village near Almaty, Kazakhstan, where the embattled Hare Krishna commune is based to demolish twelve more Hare Krishna-owned homes. “The houses were literally crushed into dust. By ten o’clock it was all over,” said ISKCON spokesperson Maksim Varfolomeyev.

The temple, which the devotees have been ordered to destroy, has not been touched but the devotees fear it could be the next target. Human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis is outraged at the continuing destruction. “The authorities are showing that they will do what they want, despite the international outrage at the earlier demolitions of Hare Krishna-owned homes.” He believes the local administration chief “doesn’t care about the political damage to Kazakhstan’s reputation – or to its desire to chair the OSCE.”

ys Radha Mohan das

Kazak Edition of Bhagavad-gita presented to Srila Prabhupada.
This is now the 55th language in which Bhagavad-gita has been printed.

Kazakhstan continues to try to close places of worship, Forum 18 News Service has found. The latest incident is a court case brought against Grace Protestant Church in Semey, in eastern Kazakhstan. The Fire Brigade claim that their newly constructed place of worship does not meet fire safety requirements, stating that that there must be a six meter gap between their building and the next building. However, a church member told Forum 18, "there is no building on that land, it is an empty plot." Church members and their lawyer insist that all relevant building permits, including those from the Fire Brigade, are in order. But "the court ignored these documents." A church member told Forum 18 that "it looks like they are trying to close down our church with any excuse." The state's long-running attempts to intimidate Almaty's Hare Krishna commune also continue. In a separate case, a Soviet-era prisoner of conscience, Yegor Prokopenko, pastor of an unregistered Baptist church, has been fined for a second time in three years for unregistered religious activity. Local prosecutor Tatyana Semynina told Forum 18 that "they can believe as much as they want, but should not organize religious meetings."

Kazakh authorities continue to apply pressure against religious communities across the country, Forum 18 News Service has found. The latest example of the authorities' attempts to take places of worship away from religious minorities is a court case against Grace Protestant Church in Semey, in Eastern Kazakhstan Region. The case was brought before the regional Economic Court by Semey Fire Brigade on 25 June, Forum 18 was told by church members. The Fire Brigade claimed that the church's newly constructed place of worship does not meet fire safety requirements.

Semey Fire Brigade told Grace Church that there must be a six meter [six and a half yard] between their building and the next building, church members stated. However, they pointed out, "there is a wall two and half meters from our building, between us and the neighbouring plot of land." And, a church member continued, "there is no building on that land, it is an empty plot."

Judge Armana Kuzhambetova decided that until the church has fulfilled all the fire rules, it was prohibited from using their own building. A church member pointed out that the church had been under construction for four years, but "when we had just completed it the Fire Brigade suddenly appeared and told us we could not use the building." The church already has all the necessary building permits, including a permit from the Fire Brigade, "but the court ignored these documents," Forum 18 was told. "It looks like they are trying to close down our church with any excuse," a church member stated.

Marat Dauletin, Deputy Head of Semey Fire Brigade, claimed to Forum 18 on 2 July that Grace Church had violated fire regulations. "We did not bring them before the court for nothing", Dauletine stated. But he had difficulty in explaining exactly what fire regulations the church had violated. "I do not remember exactly, because they are just one organisation among many who we have brought before the court for violations," he said. "If they disagree they can hire a lawyer to defend their interests."

Judge Armana Kuzhambetova was not available to talk to Forum 18 on 3 July, but an official who answered the phone stated that Grace Church "either need to pull the building down and move it further away from their neighbour, or install a special fire system around the building." The official stated that they could not explain the "special fire system" over the telephone.

No such explanation of the Court's decision was given at the trial, Marasbek Raisov, the church's lawyer, told Forum 18 on 3 July. "This is the first time I have heard the reasons the Economic Court gave you," he told Forum 18. Despite the claims of the Fire Brigade, the lawyer, like church members, insisted that all the necessary official documents for the building's construction were in order.

A highly restrictive draft Religion Law will ­ among other attacks on freedom of thought, conscience and belief - to ban all religious communities with less than 50 members from owning property (see F18News 10 June 2008). The Law completed its first reading in the Kazakh parliament on 11 June. Kazakh authorities are also carrying out raids and media attacks on religious minorities (see F18News 30 May 2008), as well as attacks on their right to own their own property (see F18News 25 April 2008).

In 2007, Semey authorities banned a mother and her young child from their home after a Court Executor sealed the Baptist church premises in Shymkent where they live, to prevent the church from meeting. The local National Security Committee (KNB) secret police tried to pressure the church's Pastor into informing them of everything happening within the church, claiming that "terrorists" are entering the congregation and conducting "subversive activity" (see F18News 23 July 2007). Along with authorities across Kazakhstan, local state authorities have pressured religious minority communities and their leaders into completing highly intrusive questionnaires (see F18News 25 February 2008).

Elsewhere in Kazakhstan, members of the Baptist Council of Churches network contiune to be fined. Zyryanovsk district Criminal Court, in East Kazakhstan Region, under Judge G. Zhumashova fined Yegor Prokopenko, the pastor of the town's unregistered Baptist Church 29,200 Tenge (1,230 Norwegian Kroner, 150 Euros, or 240 US Dollars). He is a Soviet-era dissident who was a prisoner of conscience, and this fine was for unregistered religious activity under part 1, article 362, of the Criminal Code.

Baptist Council of Churches congregations refuse on principle to register with the authorities in post-Soviet countries. Their congregation members are regularly prosecuted in Kazakhstan, Belarus and other states where ­ in breach of international human rights standards - registration is compulsory.

Zyryanovsk Prosecutor Tatyana Semynina told Forum 18 that she could not do anything about the fine given to Prokopenko. "He has violated the Religion Law," she stated. "He must respect the Law". Told that this is a peaceful group of believers and asked why they should be punished for their faith, Semynina said that "they can believe as much as they want, but should not organize religious meetings." When asked what was wrong when groups of religious believers do not want to register as legal persons but want to worship together, Semynina said the question must be asked to the lawmakers. "We as State Prosecutors function according to the law," she emphasized. "There is the Religion Law, and we act based upon that Law."

Professor Roman Podoprigora of the Adilet Law School in Almaty has noted that Kazakh law contradicts itself on whether or not the registration of religious organisations is compulsory (see F18 News 4 August 2005).

Yegor Prokopenko, born 1926, was imprisoned several times during the Soviet period for his religious activity. His last Soviet-era jail sentence began in July 1982, when he was given a three year strict regime labour camp term. In June 2006, he was fined the very large sum of 103,000 Tenge (5,425 Norwegian Kroner, 686 Euros or 870 US Dollars) by Zyryanovsk District Specialised Administrative Court, while congregation member Pyotr Shevel was fined half that amount (see F18News 14 July 2006). Appeals against those fines were rejected (see F18News 1 December 2006).

Kazakhstan's long-running attempts to intimidate Almaty's Hare Krishna commune also continue. On 22 June, Orynbay Zhanedil, the Hakim (Head of the Executive Authority) of Zhetisu rural area of Almaty region's Karasai district personally intimidated devotees at a worship service of the Commune. "As the Krishna congregation arrived by bus at the commune, Orynbay Zhanedil also arrived accompanied by local policemen," Maksim Varfolomeev of the Hare Krishna community told Forum 18 on 30 June.

"The Hakim stopped our worshippers, and warned us that the meeting was illegal," complained Varfolomeev. "He demanded that we vacate the area within one hour, and threatened that, if we failed to comply, he would bring more police to conduct a check up on all the attendees." While leaving the commune, Zhanedil warned the Hare Krishna devotees that their land "belonged to him." The Hakim also confiscated the bus driver's driving license, returning it later with a warning "never to drive people to the Krishna commune again," Varfolomeev told Forum 18.

Zhanedil's actions "were a flagrant violation of our Constitutional rights", complained Varfolomeev. He also stated that the Hakim "violated Article 12 of the Religion Law," which states that religious worship, ceremonies and rites may be freely performed in places of worship. The Hakim has not since returned to the Commune, and Hare Krishna devotees contiue to worship in their temple.

Forum 18 has repeatedly tried to talk to the Hakim about the Hare Krishna Commune, but the telephone has been repeatedly put down by a woman who answered the call. At the most recent attempt to speak to the Hakim on 3 July, Forum 18 was told to "call back tomorrow when maybe there will be someone to talk to you."

In previous attempts to intimidate the Hare Krishna devotees into giving up their land, the local authorities have bulldozed about half of the houses on the commune, without offering compensation or alternative accommodation for the devotees made homeless (see F18 News 15 June 2007). The authorities continue to try to evict the Hare Krishna commune, offering unsuitable alternative land - including a rubbish dump (see F18News 25 April 2008).

Read HERE how the original issue began in Kazakstan

Read HERE what the previous articles from November 2006 were

Iskcon Kazakstan
http://www.palaceofthesoul.com/news/index.php

PLEASE VISIT THIS PAGE
http://kazakhkrishna.com/en-main/

Kazakh
http://vedabase.net/kazakhstan/

Throughout the Indian subcontinent, ISKCON celebrated Ratha Yatra this weekend. Journalists in Mumbai, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Surat, Ahmenabad and Dhaka posted reports. Jaya Jagannatha!

Rath Yatra celebrated in Mumbai
http://www.odishatoday.com/India/Rath_Yatra_in_Mumbai_050708-956823625417.html
odishatoday.com - Bangalore,Karnataka,India
ISKCON devotees sang kirtans throughout the journey to the Mausi Maa Mandir, three kilometers away from the temple. As the three chariots passed the streets...

Celebrations across state
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=9&theme=&usrsess=1&id=211737
The Statesman - Kolkata,India
Here in Bhubaneswar, a great number of devotees took part in the Rath Yatra organised by International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon)...

50000 people take part in Rath Yatra in Kolkata
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/50-000-people-take-part-in-rath-yatra-in-Kolkata/331703/
Kolkata Newsline - New Delhi,India
It was organised by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) for the 37th year. Information and Broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan...

Rath Yatra proceeds peacefully in Surat
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Rath-Yatra-proceeds-peacefully-in-Surat/331710/
Ahmedabad Newsline - Ahmedabad,India
The Yatra organised by the ISKCON started from the Surat railway station in the afternoon. Thousands of devotees were seen singing devotional songs...

Vadodara cops heave a sigh of relief
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Vadodara-cops-heave-a-sigh-of-relief/331711/
Ahmedabad Newsline - Ahmedabad,India
It concluded at the Polo Ground well before the dusk, after which the Rath was dismantled and the idols taken to the ISKCON temple in a private vehicle...

Rathajatra celebrated
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=44281
The Daily Star - Dhaka,Bangladesh
The country's biggest Rathajatra started from International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) temple in the capital's Swamibagh seeking divine...

More Rathyatra links HERE

http://www.moscowtemple.org

Members of the ISKCON Moscow community dance and chant the names of Krishna in the famous Red Square.

Russian ISKCON devotees celebrated Ratha Yatra in Moscow this June eighth for the first time in nine years. Held in conjunction with The Beatles And India festival in Gorky Park, the program featured a parade of the chariots along with a concert of popular Moscow groups covering Beatles’ songs.

An impressive chariot was built for the deity of Jagannatha, the Lord of the Universe. The excellent craftsmanship, featuring a tall red dome decorated with flowers, was reminiscent of the original Ratha Yatra carts in Puri, Orissa, from where the festival stems.

Naturally, the Lord of the Universe is above mundane law. Still, he complies with whatever will make it convenient for his devotees to worship him. So his chariot was registered and given an official license place by the Moscow traffic authorities.

The festival began shortly before midday and was attended by over a thousand people, including many businessmen and students of the Indian community. Some turned up with their entire families.

Abhai Thakur of the Indian Embassy in Moscow addressed the crowd. “In India, there are many followers of this religion and culture,” he said. “But it is surprising to see Russian people’s love for it. This testifies to the very close ties between Russia and India.”

In the afternoon, a concert was held in memory of the Beatles including the late George Harrison, who was a follower of Vaishnava philosophy for decades, and popularized the Hare Krishna mantra with his songs.

Moscow bands such as Denis Mazhukov and Off Beat, Dance Ramblers, and Flowers, as well as singers Marina Devyatova, Ananda, and Nikolai Demidov performed on stage at the Summer Theatre. The crowd lapped up favorites like My Sweet Lord, Yesterday, Come Together, Can`t Buy Me Love, Let it Be and others.

A number of stalls were set up near the stage, where guests could learn astrology and Ayurvedic medicine and buy Indian souvenirs. Many were attracted to the fashion show featuring Indian saris and dhotis, and even fashion for Indian monks.

The Ganga café, extremely popular with over ten years on the Moscow market, distributed traditional Indian vegetarian food.

Although Russia is an Orthodox country, and its attitude to other religious groups is not always favorable, this time Lord Jagannath conquered the hearts of all present, proving that He is indeed the Lord of the Universe.

Moscow ISKCON member Krishnadas Kaviraj das recalls, “People would approach me and ask, ‘Is this some sort of a sect?’ I’d answer, ‘Do we look like a sect?’ Then they’d smile and join the parade.”

“One young man asked me if the deities on the chariot were idols. ‘Just enjoy the festival,’ I replied. ‘Dance and sing!’ He nodded and disappeared into the crowd. Some time later he emerged again with some sacred food offered to Jagannath in his hand, smiled at me and said, ‘Hare Krishna! Now I can answer my own question: they’re not idols.’”

The festival was considered a great success by both ISKCON devotees and guests, and one of the most effective ways of getting people acquainted with the Vedic culture and promoting religious tolerance.

Below is a video of an orthadox Christian priest chanting in the kirtana:

OTTAWA, CANADA, July 5, 2008: (HPI Note: The Ottawa Citizen asked several religious leaders about their religion’s look on obesity-related health issues. This is the answer from Radhika Sekar of the Ramakrishna Mission.)

For Hindus, the body is the vessel that carries our spirit across the ocean of life. Thus Ayurveda, the healing system based on the Vedas and Yoga, views body, mind and spirit as a single continuity. The physical is composed of the elements ­ air/space, fire, water and earth ­ coded in three biological forces, doshas, that determine the physiological and psychological processes of all living organisms. Good health occurs when there is harmony and illness sets in when the doshas are imbalanced.

Thus Ayurveda emphasizes diet and lifestyle in its treatments. Foods have direct and specific influences on the three doshas and are classified accordingly. Often it is what we eat, as well as how much, that causes problems. Obesity is treated therefore with exercise and the avoidance of foods that generate excess kapha, the earth element that hampers fat metabolism. A qualitative change in diet can produce remarkable results. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna discusses the effect that the three types of food (sattvic, rajasic, tamasic) have on health, personality and spiritual state.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

UNITED STATES, July 6, 2008: Researchers say they’ve taken a significant stride forward in understanding how relaxation techniques such as meditation, prayer and yoga improve health: by changing patterns of gene activity that affect how the body responds to stress.

The changes were seen both in long-term practitioners and in newer recruits, the scientists said.

“It’s not all in your head,” said Dr. Herbert Benson, president emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “What we have found is that when you evoke the relaxation response, the very genes that are turned on or off by stress are turned the other way. The mind can actively turn on and turn off genes. The mind is not separated from the body.” Benson first described the relaxation response 35 years ago. Mind-body approaches that elicit the response include meditation, repetitive prayer, yoga, tai chi, breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, biofeedback, guided imagery and Qi Gong.

“Previously, we had noted that there were scores of diseases that could be treated by eliciting the relaxation response ­ everything from different kinds of pain, infertility, rheumatoid arthritis, insomnia,” Benson said.

He believes that this study is the first comprehensive look at how mind states can affect gene expression. It also focuses on gene activity in healthy individuals.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

MALIHABAD, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA, June 27, 2008: Haji Kalimullah Khan has a rare technique of growing more than 300 varieties of mangoes of different shapes, sizes and hues on one single tree.

When Khan talks about the variety of mangoes grown by him in his orchards, it seems that he is fondly referring to his family members. Khan’s prized tree is about 100 years old on which he started work in 1987.

The craft developed by him has become a mystery for researchers and agriculturists from the country and abroad who have been left baffled by his work. The sexagenarian, who also finds mention in the Book of records for growing the rare tree, has the support of his sons in keeping the tradition alive. Khan has also cultivated a new variety of all season flowering guava which on ripening grows as red as an apple.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

The highlight of my visit to Mayapur this year was Anuttama Prabhu's seminar on leadership and management—an extremely valuable course, which teaches so many important skills and principles of effective leadership and management.

Taking this course confirmed my realization that there is another reason why we have lost so many devotees worldwide over the past years besides the fact that we have failed to create a supportive spiritual culture which would give nourishment and shelter to each and every devotee joining this movement. We have also failed to educate and train our leaders systematically and equip them with the necessary skills in order to become true servant-leaders, who lead with affection and detachment. Rather we have so often allowed that dangerous weed to grow and flourish: the attachment to power, position and facilities...

So often we take "management" to mean "keeping devotees under control," and a management position can nearly become a license for exercising the tendency of wanting to be in power and position over others—a licence for being a little "supreme controller."

I remember once HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja saying in a seminar in Mayapur: "There are some leaders in ISKCON who wouldn't be devotees if they were not leaders." What a bold statement!

I also remember one devotee who had been a temple president for several years, once saying to me in confidence, after he had stopped being active in ISKCON: "When I joined I could very clearly see that ISKCON has such a structure that if you do the right thing for some years, you get into power and position. And that was my motive." He had been honest enough to make such statement—how many others would never dare to admit it...

A leader who is attached to power and position will not allow others to come up. He will see them as a threat to his position and therefore will keep them down. This creates a very discouraging and stiffling atmosphere, not giving any space and possibility for personal growth and development. And as a result the entire project doesn't grow and develop. Such a leader will surround himself with "Yes-men," who simply hope to also get into power and position one day, after saying "yes" long enough.

Intelligent people will not want to be part of this and go somewhere else, or feel so discouraged in their attempts to develop themselves spiritually, that they get back into developing themselves materially. I have observed this going on in many places.

Over the past years devotees often complained to me about discouraging leadership and management in their yatras; I didn't take this seriously, thinking them too critical, only finding faults. I had no experience of what it's like to work under discouraging authorities, having left the Australian yatra as a rather young devotee, after being in Krishna consciousness for four years only.

It was in 1989—I had just gotten married, and we ventured all the way to Latvia in order to start the preaching there. It was such exciting pioneer work, right at the end of the Soviet days. I had had the perfect environment to grow and develop myself; life was full of dynamic transcendental adventures and challenges. My only direct authorities had been my spiritual master and our local GBC's. This is most likely how I survived until today, as an active and happy devotee.

I had no experience of what it's like to serve under temple authorities day-in and day-out, and I simply couldn't imagine that they wouldn't always be supportive and encouraging.

Anuttama Prabhu's course was indeed an eye-opener in this regard. I came to understand that, apart from so many other important skills, we hadn't taught our leaders how to delegate and empower others—even though Srila Prabhupada was such a perfect example of being expert at both: empowering his new and inexperienced disciples and delegating.

Interestingly enough, in the secular world it is common knowledge that a 'servant-leader,' one who is expert at delegating and empowering others, achieves a much higher productivity, profit, and growth of a company than an autocratic leader, and as a result the secular world is so much ahead of us in applying our own principles in regards to leadership and management.

They are prepared to pay thousands of Dollars to such a manager who would know how to empower others and expand the company. And if he wasn't doing a good job he would be replaced—autocratic leaders had gone out of fashion.

But somehow not (yet) in ISKCON—maybe because we are not so profit-orientated and therefore might not realize how much faster we could expand, if we simply had more qualified leaders?

Certainly no serious institution or company would ever put a person into a leading position unless he had the adequate training and education in the first place. But in ISKCON, it seems, we have never thought of this, even though it is well known how important leadership is for the development of a project.

Srila Prabhupada's famous letter to Karandhara in 1972 comes to my mind, where he describes good leadership in a nutshell:

"Our leaders shall be careful not to kill the spirit of enthusiastic service, which is individual and spontaneous and voluntary. They should try always to generate some atmosphere of fresh challenge to the devotees, so that they will agree enthusiastically to rise and meet it. That is the art of management: to draw out spontaneous loving spirit of sacrificing some energy for Krishna. But where are so many expert managers? All of us should become expert managers and preachers."

No doubt, to fulfill this vision of Srila Prabhupada requires the cultivation of training, combined with purity of heart. So often we put devotees in leading positions on grounds of some material ability, not paying much attention to their personal spiritual practise, or their motivations. Maybe we are too attached to externals: big and quick results. Externals are satisfying to the senses and the mind, a result of the mode of passion. We tend to forget the internals: to purify our motives and cultivate a taste for hearing and chanting. Krishna is mainly interested in our motives, with which we are offering our service, and not so much in the offering itself.

A common trap for leaders is that a big workload can lead to further neglect of one's spiritual life, and as a result the weeds of attachment are growing, rather than the bhakti lata.

In another letter Srila Prabhupada writes in 1970:

"So these two things are always side by side — Maya and Krishna — Krishna is service and Maya is sense gratification, so every moment we are prone to be subjugated by either of them. Our duty is therefore to be very, very careful. The poison is personal ambition."

Maybe we have allowed this poison of personal ambition to hamper the development of many yatras. One might say: but don't we have to be very careful in judging other's motivations? How to recognize whether we are driven by personal ambition or pure desire to serve Srila Prabhupada and spread Krishna consciousness?

The answer is: it will manifest in our ways of associating with equals. A person driven by personal ambition will find it very difficult to work with equals. He can only work with juniors, who are willing to accept and follow him. A leader who is attached to power and position can not tolerate an equal person next to him, and he will not be prepared to share his territory with another influential person.

A true servant leader will be happy to share responsibility with like-minded equals. His only desire is to serve and inspire the devotees, and he is not concerned where the inspiration comes from: himself or another person. Since he is not attached to power and position he will never feel threatened, but will simply be happy to serve in any capacity. He is free from envy.

Equal association is very powerful, intensely purifying: the most subtle anarthas are coming to the surface. Therefore HH Radhanath Maharaja is recommending the following formular: out of 100% time for association, 60% should be spent with equals, 20% with juniors, and 20% with one's Guru and the Guru's godbrothers.

Reality shows, though, that many seniors or leaders prefer to surround themselves at least 60%­80% of their time with juniors, and rarely do they have close and affectionate relationships with equals.

During this year's visit to Sri Mayapur I discussed this topic with as many devotees as I could: with seniors and GBC's, and with friends. Amazingly enough: again several devotees came up to me and poured out their heart about exactly this issue—without knowing that I was having those same realizations. They were relating to me how they felt so discouraged and unwanted by their temple authorities. It seemed as if Krishna wanted to strongly confirm this realization in my heart.

My conclusion is: we have to systematically train our leaders and managers, if we want to keep our devotees happy and enthusiastically serving in ISKCON for their whole lives. I am convinced that if we give solid training to our leaders and take care of the devotees by creating a supportive culture we will have a real "Hare Krishna explosion," and our GBC's won't have to spend most of their precious time and energy solving conflicts!

MIAMI, FLORIDA, July 6, 2008: (HPI note: this report was written by Dr. Hari Bansh Jha, Professor of Economics and Executive Director of Center for Economic and Technical Studies in Kathmandu, Nepal) The three-day Seventh International Conference of World Association for Vedic Studies (WAVES) happened at the University of Central Florida (UCF) on June 27-29, 2008.

“Lokasangraha” of Bhagavad-Gita, which means global welfare or well-being of all was the major theme of the Conference. I was invited to make a presentation on “Relevance of Spiritual Economics in the Modern World.” In the paper, I advocated ethics in economics as opposed “turning economics and management sciences into a technique of exploitation.” I also felt the need to reorient economics with the wisdom of spirituality so that it could promote global welfare through the creation of exploitation-free society.

The Conference for the first time gave thrust to projecting “Hinduism” as a viable Global Religion; for which inter-generational dialogue was promoted. Other than this, a large number of issues including the Vedas, Upanishads, Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Yoga, Chakras, Ram Setu, Saraswati River Basin Civilization, Yajna Therapy, Vastu, Ayurvedic Herbal Medicines were covered in different sessions.

However, I was alarmed that many of the Conference participants equated Hindus with India alone. Many of the Hindus live in Asian, African and American countries. It was largely overlooked that Hinduism is the dominant religion in Nepal and also flourishes in Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka and even to some extent in Pakistan.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

USA, July 9, 2008 (RNS): [HPI note: American TV star Oprah Winfrey has been under scrutiny by her fellow Christians for embracing unorthodox views. Hindus may find her personal finds quite familiar.] Oprah Winfrey has become a catalyst for conservative Christians questioning and criticizing her spiritual beliefs. Some evangelical Christians have voiced alarm that Winfrey is introducing the 46 million viewers who watch her each week to nontraditional spirituality.

One of Winfrey’s quotes highlighted in the story is her belief that “there couldn’t possibly be just one way” to God. “One of the mistakes that human beings make is believing that there is only one way to live,” Winfrey said. A spokesman for Winfrey’s Harpo Productions said the celebrity is a Christian. “Oprah is a Christian and she believes in only one God,” said the spokesman. “Oprah has also said, ‘I’m a free-thinking Christian who believes in my way, but I don’t believe it’s the only way, with 6 billion people on the planet.’” The spokesman noted Winfrey is hardly alone; 70 percent of Americans said “many religions can lead to eternal life” in a recent survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

There is a YouTube video produced by those who oppose her views, called “The Church of Oprah.” It can be seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA

Source: MUMBAI, INDIA, July 11, 2008: Two of India’s best loved epics about gods, demons and cataclysmic wars are making a comeback on Indian television, hoping to recreate with snazzy visual effects the magic they wove on TV two decades ago.

Such was the appeal of the epics that when they were adapted for the small screen in the 1980s they managed to empty city streets, forced changes in train timings and got their actors elected as members of parliament. Some people even prayed in front of their television screens while the shows were on. Now, the makers of the new Ramayana and Mahabharata series say they could top the success of the cult series with high-tech techniques such as those used in The Lord of the Rings films.

“The special effects, the costumes and the whole treatment of the story is such that younger audiences will be attracted to the shows,” Bobby Bedi, producer of one of the new versions of Mahabharata, told Reuters. “There is a huge market for mythological serials in India.” While the two epics air on three channels, a fourth will screen the mythological exploits of the Hindu god Krishna. India has a surfeit of profitable religious channels ­ they could double their share of 15 percent of TV advertising spending of US$2.6 billion ­ as people turn to spirituality to deal with the stress of modern life.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

Six decades ago, a 21-year-old Navy fighter pilot on a mission over the Pacific was shot down by Japanese artillery. His name might have been forgotten, were it not for 6-year-old James Leininger.

Quite a few people — including those who knew the fighter pilot — think James is the pilot, reincarnated.

James' parents, Andrea and Bruce, a highly educated, modern couple, say they are "probably the people least likely to have a scenario like this pop up in their lives."

But over time, they have become convinced their little son has had a former life.

From an early age, James would play with nothing else but planes, his parents say. But when he was 2, they said the planes their son loved began to give him regular nightmares.

"I'd wake him up and he'd be screaming," Andrea told "Primetime Live" co-anchor Chris Cuomo. She said when she asked her son what he was dreaming about, he would say, "Airplane crash on fire, little man can't get out."

Reality Check

Andrea says her mom was the first to suggest James was remembering a past life.

At first, Andrea says she was doubtful. James was only watching kids' shows, his parents say, and they weren't watching World War II documentaries or conversing about military history.

But as time went by, Andrea began to wonder what to believe. In one video of James at age 3, he goes over a plane as if he's doing a preflight check.

Another time, Andrea said, she bought him a toy plane, and pointed out what appeared to be a bomb on its underside. She says James corrected her, and told her it was a drop tank. "I'd never heard of a drop tank," she said. "I didn't know what a drop tank was."

Then James' violent nightmares got worse, occurring three and four times a week. Andrea's mother suggested she look into the work of counselor and therapist Carol Bowman, who believes that the dead sometimes can be reborn.

With guidance from Bowman, they began to encourage James to share his memories — and immediately, Andrea says, the nightmares started to become less frequent. James was also becoming more articulate about his apparent past, she said.

Bowman said James was at the age when former lives are most easily recalled. "They haven't had the cultural conditioning, the layering over the experience in this life so the memories can percolate up more easily," she said.

Trail of Mysteries

Over time, James' parents say he revealed extraordinary details about the life of a former fighter pilot — mostly at bedtime, when he was drowsy.

They say James told them his plane had been hit by the Japanese and crashed. Andrea says James told his father he flew a Corsair, and then told her, "They used to get flat tires all the time."

In fact, historians and pilots agree that the plane's tires took a lot of punishment on landing. But that's a fact that could easily be found in books or on television.

Andrea says James also told his father the name of the boat he took off from — Natoma — and the name of someone he flew with — Jack Larson.

After some research, Bruce discovered both the Natoma and Jack Larson were real. The Natoma Bay was a small aircraft carrier in the Pacific. And Larson is living in Arkansas.

"It was like, holy mackerel," Bruce said. "You could have poured my brains out of my ears. I just couldn't believe it.

James 2 = James M. Huston Jr.?

Bruce became obsessed, searching the Internet, combing through military records and interviewing men who served aboard the Natoma Bay.

He said James told him he had been shot down at Iwo Jima. James had also begun signing his crayon drawings "James 3." Bruce soon learned that the only pilot from the squadron killed at Iwo Jima was James M. Huston Jr.

Bruce says James also told him his plane had sustained a direct hit on the engine.

Ralph Clarbour, a rear gunner on a U.S. airplane that flew off the Natoma Bay, says his plane was right next to one flown by James M. Huston Jr. during a raid near Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945.

Clarbour said he saw Huston's plane struck by anti-aircraft fire. "I would say he was hit head on, right in the middle of the engine," he said.

Treasured Mementos

Bruce says he now believes his son had a past life in which he was James M. Huston Jr. "He came back because he wasn't finished with something."

The Leiningers wrote a letter to Huston's sister, Anne Barron, about their little boy. And now she believes it as well.

"The child was so convincing in coming up with all the things that there is no way on the world he could know," she said.

But professor Paul Kurtz of the State University of New York at Buffalo, who heads an organization that investigates claims of the paranormal, says he thinks the parents are "self-deceived."

"They're fascinated by the mysterious and they built up a fairy tale," he said.

James' vivid, alleged recollections are starting to fade as he gets older — but among his prized possessions remain two haunting presents sent to him by Barron: a bust of George Washington and a model of a Corsair aircraft.

They were among the personal effects of James Huston sent home after the war.

"He appears to have experienced something that I don't think is unique, but the way it's been revealed is quite astounding," Bruce said.

Asked if the idea that James may have been someone else changes his or his wife's feeling about their son, Bruce said: "It doesn't change how we think. I don't look at him and say, 'That's not my boy.' That's my boy."

This story originally aired on April 15, 2004.

Read more on Reincarnation HERE:

By Andrew Drummond
July 04, 2008 11:44am

THE majority of Australians consider themselves religious but say faith does not play a big part in their life, according to a new survey showing few regularly pray or visit church.

The news comes less than two weeks before the world's Catholic leader, Pope Benedict XVI, heads Down Under for World Youth Day.

The survey of 21,000 people from 21 countries, which names Australia as one of the world's least religious countries, was conducted by the independent, not-for-profit, German-based Bertelsmann Foundation.

It found 28 per cent of Australian respondents are not religious, 25 per cent are "deeply religious", and 44 per cent are religious but say faith does not play a central role in their lives.

Of the 21 countries surveyed, Australia was placed 17th for religious adherence, with only Russia, France, Germany and the UK less godly.

Religion ranked as less important than family, partners, career, leisure time or politics for 50 per cent of Australian respondents, while 48 per cent said they did not partake in personal prayer and 52 per cent never or very seldom visited a church.

"This is not to say that the Pope will be landing in a religious desert on his visit to the World Youth Day in Australia," research leader Martin Rieger said in a statement of the survey results.

"On the eve of World Youth Day, it is interesting to note the strong religious vitality recorded amongst the nation's youth."

Some 72 per cent of Australian respondents aged under 30 said they believed in God or a divine power and/or life after death, the survey showed.

Catholics are Australia's largest faith group and Christian denomination, but are not the most religious, according to the survey, which shows 37 per cent are "deeply religious" and 52 per cent are "religious".

Religion was found to be strongest among the small group of free-church and Pentecostal Protestants, including charismatic movements. Fifty per cent of that group were found to be "deeply religious".

"Christianity and Catholicism in Australia are not blossoming, but equally are not in danger of losing their core roots," Dr Rieger said.

"The big polarity between religious and non-religious people is very defined here.

"Typical is the trend towards a loose, perhaps seeking, spirituality that no longer has any clear relationship to the different churches and denominations. This reveals a great potential for religions and all churches that has so far been neglected and perhaps overlooked."

SRI LANKA, July 13, 2008: The Tirumala Venkateswara Temple has overtaken the Vatican as world’s most visited place of worship. With more than 60,000 daily visitors and an average of 19 million visitors a year, it attracts almost double the estimated number of people visiting Vatican City. The numbers are so large that every visitor is given a bar-coded wristband which will indicate the time of his or her ‘dharshan’ ­ the puja time with the deity.

Five hundred thousand people are expected at the annual Brahmotsavam celebrations that began yesterday. The historic and sacred temple of Sri Venkateswara is located on the seventh peak of the Tirupati Hill. The benefits acquired by a pilgrimage to Tirupati Temple, also known as Tirupati Balaji Temple are mentioned in the Rig Veda and Asthadasa Puranas. In these epics, Sri Venkateswara is described as the great bestower of boons.

The temple is the most visited Hindu place of worship and is the world’s second richest in terms of the offerings made by pilgrims to God.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

Chanting the transcendental vibration:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

…is the sublime method for reviving our transcendental consciousness, or Krishna consciousness.

As living spiritual souls, we are all originally Krishna conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial, our consciousness is now polluted by the material atmosphere, called maya, or illusion. And what is this illusion? The illusion is that we are all trying to be lords of material nature, while actually we are under the grip of her stringent laws. When a servant artificially tries to imitate the all-powerful master, he is said to be in illusion. We are trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we are becoming more and more entangled in her complexities. Therefore, although we are engaged in a hard struggle to conquer nature, we are becoming ever more dependent on her. This illusory struggle against material nature can be stopped at once by revival of our eternal Krishna consciousness.

Krishna consciousness is not an artificial imposition on the mind. This consciousness is the original energy of the living entity. When we hear and chant the transcendental vibration:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

…this consciousness is revived.

This simplest method of meditation is recommended by learned authorities for this age. By practical experience also, one can perceive that by chanting this maha-mantra, or the great chant for deliverance, one at once feels transcendental ecstasy coming through from the spiritual stratum.

In the material concept of life we are busy in the matter of sense gratification, as if we were in the lower, animal stage. A little elevated from this status of sense gratification, one engages in mental speculation for the purpose of getting out of the material clutches. A little elevated from this speculative status, when one is intelligent enough, one tries to find out the supreme cause of all causes, within and without. And when one is factually on the plane of spiritual understanding, surpassing the stages of sense, mind, and intelligence, one is situated on the transcendental plane. The chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is directly enacted from this spiritual platform, and thus this sound vibration surpasses all lower strata of consciousness—namely sensual, mental, and intellectual.

There is no need, therefore, to understand the language of the mantra, nor is there any need of any mental speculation or intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It springs automatically from the spiritual platform, and thus anyone can take part in the chanting without any previous qualification and dance in ecstasy. We have seen this practically. Even a child can take part in the chanting and dancing.

Of course, for one who is too entangled in material life, it takes a little more time to come to the standard point, but even such a materially engrossed person is very quickly raised to the spiritual platform.

When the mantra is chanted by a pure devotee of the Lord, it has the greatest effect on hearers, and therefore this chanting should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, so that immediate effects can be achieved. As far as possible, chanting from the lips of non-devotees should be avoided, just as one would avoid milk touched by the lips of a serpent because it has poisonous effects.

The word Hara is a form of addressing the energy of the Lord, and the words Krishna and Rama (which mean “the highest pleasure eternal”) are forms of addressing the Lord Himself. Hara is the supreme pleasure energy of the Lord, and when addressed as Hare in the vocative, She helps us to reach the Supreme Lord.

The material energy, called maya, is also one of the multi-energies of the Lord, and we, the living entities, are the marginal energy of the Lord. The living entities are described as superior to the material energy. When this superior energy is in contact with the inferior energy, an incompatible situation arises, but when the superior marginal energy is in contact with the spiritual energy, Hara, the living entity is established in his happy, normal condition.

These three words, namely Hare, Krishna, and Rama, are the transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra. The chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His internal energy Hara to protect the conditioned soul. This chanting is exactly like the genuine cry of a child for its mother. Mother Hara helps the devotee achieve the grace of the Supreme Father, Hari or Krishna, and the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely.

Therefore no other means of spiritual realization is as effective in this age of quarrel and hypocrisy as the chanting of the maha-mantra:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Read more on Chanting Hare Krishna HERE:

UNITED STATES, July 7, 2008: Every vegetarian remembers his first time. Not the unremarkable event of his first meal without meat, mind you. No, I mean the first time he casually lets slip that he’s turned herbivore, prompting everyone in earshot to stare at him as if he just revealed plans to sail his carrot-powered plasma yacht to Neptune. For me, this first time came at an Elks scholarship luncheon in rural Oregon when I was 18. All day, I’d succeeded at seeming a promising and responsible young man, until that fateful moment when someone asked why I hadn’t taken any meat from the buffet. After I offered my reluctant explanation–and the guy announced it to the entire room–30 people went eerily quiet, undoubtedly expecting me to launch into a speech on the virtues of hemp. In the corner, an elderly, suited man glared at me as he slowly raised a slice of bologna and executed the most menacing bite of cold cut in recorded history. I didn’t get the scholarship.

I tell this story not to win your pity but to illustrate a point: I’ve been vegetarian for a decade, and when it comes up, I still get a look of confused horror that says, “But you seemed so … normal.” The U.S. boasts more than 10 million herbivores today, yet most Americans assume that every last one is a loopy, self-satisfied health fanatic, hell-bent on draining all the joy out of life. To demonstrate what a vegetarian really is, let’s begin with a simple thought experiment. Imagine a completely normal person with completely normal food cravings, someone who has a broad range of friends, enjoys a good time, is carbon-based, and so on. Now remove from this person’s diet anything that once had eyes, and, wham!, you have yourself a vegetarian.

To read this very humorous and lengthy article on the joys of vegetarianism in America, please go to source above.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

Every vegetarian remembers his first time. Not the unremarkable event of his first meal without meat, mind you. No, I mean the first time he casually lets slip that he's turned herbivore, prompting everyone in earshot to stare at him as if he just revealed plans to sail his carrot-powered plasma yacht to Neptune. For me, this first time came at an Elks scholarship luncheon in rural Oregon when I was 18. All day, I'd succeeded at seeming a promising and responsible young man, until that fateful moment when someone asked why I hadn't taken any meat from the buffet. After I offered my reluctant explanation—and the guy announced it to the entire room—30 people went eerily quiet, undoubtedly expecting me to launch into a speech on the virtues of hemp. In the corner, an elderly, suited man glared at me as he slowly raised a slice of bologna and executed the most menacing bite of cold cut in recorded history. I didn't get the scholarship.

I tell this story not to win your pity but to illustrate a point: I've been vegetarian for a decade, and when it comes up, I still get a look of confused horror that says, "But you seemed so … normal." The U.S. boasts more than 10 million herbivores today, yet most Americans assume that every last one is a loopy, self-satisfied health fanatic, hellbent on draining all the joy out of life. Those of us who want to avoid the social nightmare have to hide our vegetarianism like an Oxycontin addiction, because admit it, omnivores: You know nothing about us. Do we eat fish? Will we panic if confronted with a hamburger? Are we dying of malnutrition? You have no clue. So read on, my flesh-eating friends—I believe it's high time we cleared a few things up.

To demonstrate what a vegetarian really is, let's begin with a simple thought experiment. Imagine a completely normal person with completely normal food cravings, someone who has a broad range of friends, enjoys a good time, is carbon-based, and so on. Now remove from this person's diet anything that once had eyes, and, wham!, you have yourself a vegetarian. Normal person, no previously ocular food, end of story. Some people call themselves vegetarians and still eat chicken or fish, but unless we're talking about the kind of salmon that comes freshly plucked from the vine, this makes you an omnivore. A select few herbivores go one step further and avoid all animal products—milk, eggs, honey, leather—and they call themselves vegan, which rhymes with "tree men." These people are intense.
 
Vegetarians give up meat for a variety of ethical, environmental, and health reasons that are secondary to this essay's goal of increasing brotherly understanding, so I'll mostly set them aside. Suffice it to say that one day, I suddenly realized that I could never look a cow in the eyes, press a knocking gun to her temple, and pull the trigger without feeling I'd done something cruel and unnecessary. (Sure, if it's kill the cow or starve, then say your prayers, my bovine friend—but for now, it's not quite a mortal struggle to subsist on the other five food groups.) I am well-aware that even telling you this makes me seem like the kind of person who wants to break into your house and liberate your pet hamster—that is, like a PETA activist. Most vegetarians, though, would tell you that they appreciate the intentions of groups like PETA but not the obnoxious tactics. It's like this: We're all rooting for the same team, but they're the ones in face paint, bellowing obscenities at the umpire and flipping over every car with a Yankees bumper sticker. I have no designs on your Camry or your hamster.

Now, when I say that vegetarians are normal people with normal food cravings, many omnivores will hoist a lamb shank in triumph and point out that you can hardly call yourself normal if the aroma of, say, sizzling bacon doesn't fill you with deepest yearning. To which I reply: We're not insane. We know meat tastes good; it's why there's a freezer case at your supermarket full of woefully inadequate meat substitutes. Believe me, if obtaining bacon didn't require slaughtering a pig, I'd have a BLT in each hand right now with a bacon layer cake waiting in the fridge for dessert. But, that said, I can also tell you that with some time away from the butcher's section, many meat products start to seem gross. Ground beef in particular now strikes me as absolutely revolting; I have a vague memory that hamburgers taste good, but the idea of taking a cow's leg, mulching it into a fatty pulp, and forming it into a pancake makes me gag. And hot dogs … I mean, hot dogs? You do know what that is, right?

As a consolation prize we get tofu, a treasure most omnivores are more than happy to do without. Well, this may stun you, but I'm not any more excited about a steaming heap of unseasoned tofu blobs than you are. Tofu is like fugu blowfish sushi: Prepared correctly, it's delicious; prepared incorrectly, it's lethal. Very early in my vegetarian career, I found myself famished and stuck in a mall, so I wandered over to the food court's Asian counter. When I asked the teenage chief culinary artisan what was in the tofu stir-fry, he snorted and replied, "Shit." Desperation made me order it anyway, and I can tell you that promises have rarely been more loyally kept than this guy's pledge that the tofu would taste like shit. So here's a tip: Unless you know you're in expert hands (Thai restaurants are a good bet), don't even try tofu. Otherwise, it's your funeral.

As long as we're discussing restaurants, allow me a quick word with the hardworking chefs at America's dining establishments. We really appreciate that you included a vegetarian option on your menu (and if you didn't, is our money not green?), but it may interest you to know that most of us are not salad freaks on a grim slog for nourishment. We actually enjoy food, especially the kind that tastes good. So enough with the bland vegetable dishes, and, for God's sake, please make the Gardenburgers stop; it's stunning how many restaurants lavish unending care on their meat dishes yet are content to throw a flavorless hockey puck from Costco into the microwave and call it cuisine. Every vegetarian is used to slim pickings when dining out, so we're not asking for much—just for something you'd like to eat. I'll even offer a handy trick. Pretend you're trapped in a kitchen stocked with every ingredient imaginable, from asiago to zucchini, but with zero meat. With no flesh available, picture what you'd make for yourself; this is what we want, too.

 to day spas are often unfazed that an equally smart pig suffered and died to become their McMuffin? Yes, I do. (Or, to use a more pressing example, how many Americans will bemoan Eight Belles' fatal Kentucky Derby injury tonight at the dinner table between bites of beef?) Would I prefer it if we at least raised these animals humanely? Yes, I would.

Let's be honest, though: I'm not exactly St. Francis of Assisi over here, tenderly ministering to every chipmunk that crosses my path. I try to represent for the animal kingdom, but take a look at my shoes—they're made of leather, which, I am told by those with expert knowledge of the tanning process, comes from dead cows. This is the sort of revelation that prompts meat boosters to pick up the triumphant lamb shank once again and accuse us of hypocrisy. Well, sort of. (Hey, you try to find a pair of nonleather dress shoes.) My dedication to the cause might be incomplete, but I'd still say that doing something beats doing nothing. It's kind of like driving a hybrid: not a solution to the global-warming dilemma but a decent start. Let's just say that at the dinner table, I roll in a Prius.
 

Finally, grant me one more cordial request: Please don't try to convince us that being vegetarian is somehow wrong. If you're concerned for my health, that's very nice, though you can rest assured that I'm in shipshape. If you want to have an amiable tête-à-tête about vegetarianism, that's great. But if you insist on being the aggressive blowhard who takes meatlessness as a personal insult and rails about what fools we all are, you're only going to persuade me that you're a dickhead. When someone says he's Catholic, you probably don't start the stump speech about how God is a lie created to enslave the ignorant masses, and it's equally offensive to berate an herbivore. I know you think we're crazy. That's neat. But seeing as I've endured the hassle of being a vegetarian for several years now, perhaps I've given this a little thought. So let's just agree to disagree and get on with making fun of Hillary Clinton's inability to operate a coffee machine.

Because, really, peace and understanding are what it's all about: your porterhouse and my portobello coexisting in perfect harmony—though preferably not touching. We're actually not so different, after all, my omnivorous chums. In fact, I like to think that when an omnivore looks in the mirror, he just sees a vegetarian who happens to eat meat. Or, no, wait, maybe the mirror sees the omnivore through the prism of flesh and realizes we all have a crystalline animal soul, you know?

This is excellent weed, by the way, if you want a hit. Hey, while you're here: Have I ever told you about hemp?

TIRUPATI, INDIA, July 7, 2008: The Tirumala temple, in the south Indian city of Tirupati, is one of Hinduism’s holiest shrines. Over 5,000 pilgrims a day visit this city of seven hills, filling Tirumala’s coffers with donations and making it India’s richest temple. But since 2002, Tirumala has also been generating revenue from a less likely source: carbon credits. For decades, the temple’s community kitchen has fed nearly 15,000 people, cooking 30,000 meals a day. Five years ago, Tirumala adopted solar cooking technology, allowing it to dramatically cut down on the amount of diesel fuel it uses. The temple now sells the emission reduction credits it earns to a Swiss green-technology investor, Good Energies Inc.

Like Tirumala, dozens of holy places across India are moving quietly towards green energy. Muni Seva Ashram, in Gujarat, which combines spiritual practice with social activism, is working to make its premises entirely green by using solar, wind and biogas energy. A residential school for 400 students is already running exclusively on green energy. Starting this year, the ashram will also sell three million carbon credits. A similar movement is afoot at the revered Sai Baba Temple in Shirdi, Maharashtra. “Our aim is to avoid pollution in every way,” says Raghunath Aher, the temple’s chief engineer. “A holy place should be pure and completely in harmony with nature.”

It’s not surprising that religious groups are in the vanguard of India’s green movement: India is the birthplace of Hinduism and three other of the world’s largest religions ­ Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, all of which revere nature and preach conservation. Indeed, with 99% of Indians professing to one faith or another, the country’s green movement might not have a prayer without them.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

READ MORE on Environmental Issues HERE

Have you ever wondered why the consumption of processed meats is so strongly linked to cancers of the colon, breast, prostate and pancreas? The evidence continues to mount, as demonstrated by a recent study showing a 67% increase in pancreatic cancer for people consuming moderate amounts of processed meat on a frequent basis. (Pulse; 4/23/2005, Vol. 65 Issue 16, p10).

Conventional medical doctors and nutrition researchers tend to put the bulk of the blame on the saturated fat content of processed meats, but that ignores two notable culprits that I think are far worse offenders when it comes to human health. Let's take a closer look at these two problems with processed meats.

The first problem is found in the fats of these processed meats. The problem isn't the fat molecules themselves, but rather the toxic chemicals, heavy metals and environmental pollutants that are found inside those fat molecules.

You see, fat tissues -- whether in a cow or a human -- tend to concentrate whatever pollutants are found in the mainstay diet of the animal. A cow eats literally tons of grass in its lifetime, and in doing so, it collects and concentrates low-level pollutants found in its diet. For non-organic beef, it's quite common to find trace amounts of heavy metals (mercury, cadmium), pesticides, and even PCBs. That's because, for non-organic beef, feed practices are rather horrifying. You'd be shocked to learn what's perfectly legal to feed to cows intended for human consumption.

So while conventional doctors tend to put the health risk blame on the saturated fat found in meat products, I think it has a lot more to do with the toxic substances concentrated in those fat tissues. A cow is much like a land bottom-feeder, and eating meat from a non-organic cow is a lot like eating shrimp from the bottom of the ocean.

These toxins, when consumed, are clearly and unquestionably linked to cancers as well as nervous system disorders that can accelerate Alzheimer's disease and dementia. They also stress the liver and impair immune system function. The human body should never be exposed to mercury, PCBs or the rocket fuel chemicals that are now almost universally found in cows' milk products across the country (in a 2005 Texas Tech University study, perchlorate was detected in 46 of 47 store-bought samples of cows' milk across 11 states).

The second (and more important) reason processed meats are so strongly correlated with cancer is, I believe, the continued use of a cancer-promoting additive called sodium nitrite.

This ingredient, which sounds harmless, is actually highly carcinogenic once it enters the human digestive system. There, it forms a variety of nitrosamine compounds that enter the bloodstream and wreak havoc with a number of internal organs: the liver and pancreas in particular. Sodium nitrite is widely regarded as a toxic ingredient, and the USDA actually tried to ban this additive in the 1970's but was vetoed by food manufacturers who complained they had no alternative for preserving packaged meat products.

You can find sodium nitrite in nearly every packaged meat product imaginable. It's listed right on the label of products like bacon, breakfast sausage, beef jerky, pepperoni, sandwich meat, ham, hot dogs, and even the meats found in canned soups. If you and I walked into any grocery store in America, I could show you hundreds of products that contain this ingredient right now. And I believe this sodium nitrite is the primary cause of pancreatic cancer in humans who consume even moderate quantities of processed meats.

If sodium nitrite is so dangerous, why does the food industry use it? Simple: this chemical just happens to turn meats bright red. It's actually a color fixer, and it makes old, dead meats appear fresh and vibrant. Thus, food manufacturers insist on using sodium nitrite for the simple reason that it sells more meat products. Consumers are strongly influenced by the color of grocery products (which is why Florida oranges are often dipped in red dye, by the way), and when meat products look fresh, people will buy them, even if the true color of the months-old meat is putrid gray.

There are other problems with processed meats, nutritionally speaking. Meat has zero fiber, for one thing. But in terms of the major causative factors of disease in the human body, I believe the two primary culprits are the heavy metals and toxins concentrated in the fat tissues of cows, combined with the sodium nitrite additives used by meat processing companies to preserve their products and give them enhanced visual appeal.

And thus, the saturated fat argument is a distraction from the real causes of cancer that the U.S. beef industry doesn't want to talk about. It's not the saturated fat that causes pancreatic cancer. For example, coconut oil consumption wouldn't cause a person's risk of pancreatic cancer to leap 67%, although it's still saturated fat. The real cause of the cancer, I believe, is what's found INSIDE the fat, and what's ADDED to the meat during processing and packaging.

- by Mike Adams - http://www.healthranger.org/

Sivarama Swami: Regularly watching TV and movies: there are two main defects in this activity, whether they’re done regularly or even occasionally. The first is that this media always includes intoxication, graphic sex life, violence, and gambling. Therefore watching it means to break the regulative principles. What reason do we have that we would go out of our way to observe and watch these activities of Kali-yuga when already it’s difficult enough to stay away from it, when even walking down the street, going into a shop or going out on harinama or sankirtana, these things are bombarding us and challenge the consciousness of a serious practitioner. So why would I want to bring these things into my own home, to give ideas to children? Answer: because people have material desires and they give into them. I’ll come back to that in a moment.

The second defect is that anything you see makes an impression in the heart. So the rampant violence, sex, intoxication, bad language, immoral behavior, irreverence for the real values of life, and fairytale worlds like Spiderman jumping off buildings and flying through the air, these make an impression in the heart, and when they do they become a source of meditation, something to meditate on, because these impressions will come out at a later time. Not only as a reflection of the mind but something that creates seeds of material desires in the heart and which will also water existing seeds of desire in the heart.

So it is a very detrimental practice. But back to the first point, breaking principles. Initiated devotees vow to follow regulative principles. When referring to brahmacaris and sannyasis in this regard, we say that even in the mind if one contemplates these things he is breaking the principles. But while grhasthas might have license, they only have that within their own marriage situation. They don’t have a license to view sexual activities or these other things. So for them to contemplate it, to view it, to enjoy it: it’s all breaking the principles. How then can an initiated devotee do these things with a clear conscience?

And what is the effect of breaking the regulative principles? We commit sin. And by committing sin, we complicate our spiritual lives, entangle ourselves in material existence, and suffer from the results of that sin.

By committing sin there’s an effect in the mind, and that is that sinful thoughts linger in heart. They come up like bubbles from the mud and become the source of other sinful desires, which then become the result of further sinful acts. Ultimately what devotees see on TV and in movies, they’ll end up doing. If they see infidelity, they’ll end up doing it. If they see violence or other activities, they’ll do that. When they become bewildered thinking materialism, egoism, pride in the material body is the ultimate goal, they become more body conscious and egotistical.

All these things strangle the creeper of devotional service and make one’s devotional life more or less null and void. Why do they do this? Well, obviously because they’re not doing what they should be, which is chanting Hare Krishna and hearing Srimad Bhagavatam and Caitanya-caritamrita. They’re not doing those activities without offense and they’re not doing them enough. And so they don’t have enough spiritual strength to resist the social pressure from those who are doing these things, nor do they have the strength to resist the inner desires that are still there in conditioned souls.

SULTANPUR, BANGLADESH, July 12, 3008: Brahmanbaria Sadar upazila found a 10th century statue of Lord Vishnu five metres below the ground in Sultanapur, Bangladesh. The night after the discovery, a local art smuggling group offered him US$15,000 for the statue, but he refused and contacted the local police station to handover custody of the statue.

Meanwhile, local journalist and cultural activists contacted Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (ASB) and urged them to help preserve the statue properly. Editor of Smatat Barta, a local daily of Brahmanbaria, Manjurul Alam said, “We thought it is our responsibility to protect our heritage from the clutches of smugglers.”

The experts claimed the five feet high and 2.6 feet wide statute of Lord Vishnu, weighing 262 kg, is an artefact of 10th century made during the Chandra dynasty”s rule of Samatat Kingdom, now the greater Comilla district.

Renowned archaeologist AKM Zakaria said, “It is a unique piece of art made with superior quality black stone… could be made of high-quality Basalt. It is one of the finest and one of the largest artefacts discovered in the country.”

On why the artefact was found five metres under the ground, Zakaria said it was a practice of the ancient Hindu community to bury the image of a deity, when a part of it was distorted. Of the four hands, two hands and the nose of the Vishnu statute are broken. But there is another theory. Archeologist Dr. R. Nagaswamy says Hindu scriputes give instructions on how to preserve a Deity by burying it under the ground or throwing it in a pond, lake etc., so that they can escape invaders and marauding iconoclasts. Later, they could be recovered and re-installed.

Last year, a Vishnu murti was reported in Russia fonud in similar circumstances as reported here. The statue found in Staraya dates back to the 8th century AD. Staraya Maina village in Ulyanovsk region was a highly populated city 1700 years ago, much older than Kiev, believed to be the mother of all Russian cities.

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

Vedic World Heritage links:

See our pages supporting these views HERE:
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Western Indologists been exposed page:
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How British Misguided the World on Vedic History
http://www.hknet.org.nz/MotiveBritishRajMissionaries.html

"The clown who starred as Ronald McDonald in McDonald's telly ads has quit to lead a crusade against burgers. Actor Geoffrey Giuliano - famous world-wide as the burger-loving clown - revealed he is a vegetarian!

He has pledged to rescue animals from the slaughterhouse "as my way of saying sorry for selling out to concerns who make millions out of murdering them." Giuliano, 38, has bought ten calves who wander free on his "Cow Protection Estate" in New York State."

This is not exactly breaking news, but interesting nevertheless.

We avail of the opportunity offered by the Anniversary Celebrations of the advent of Thakur Bhaktivinode to reflect on the right method of obtaining those benefits that have been made accessible to humanity by the grace of this great devotee of Krishna. Thakur Bhaktivinode has been specifically kind to those unfortunate persons who are engrossed in mental speculation of all kinds. This is the prevalent malady of the present Age. The other Acharyas who appeared before Thakur Bhaktivinode did not address their discourses so directly to the empiric thinkers. They had been more merciful to those who are naturally disposed to listen to discourses on the Absolute without being dissuaded by the specious arguments of avowed opponents of Godhead.

Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode has taken the trouble of meeting the perverse arguments of mental speculationists by the superior transcendental logic of the Absolute Truth. It is thus possible for the average modern readers to profit by the perusal of his writings. That day is not far distant when the priceless volumes penned by Thakur Bhaktivinode will be reverently translated, by the recipients of his grace, into all the languages of the world.

The writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode provide the golden bridge by which the mental speculationist can safely cross the raging waters of fruitless empiric controversies that trouble the peace of those who choose to trust in their guidance for finding the Truth. As soon as the sympathetic reader is in a position to appreciate the sterling quality of Thakur Bhaktivinode’s philosophy the entire vista of the revealed literatures of the world will automatically open out to his reclaimed vision.

There have, however, already arisen serious misunderstandings regarding the proper interpretation of the life and teachings of Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode. Those who suppose they understand the meaning of his message without securing the guiding grace of the Acarya are disposed to unduly favor the methods of empiric study of his writings. There are persons who have got by heart almost everything that he wrote without being able to catch the least particle of his meaning. Such study cannot benefit those who are not prepared to act up to the instructions lucidly conveyed by his words. There is no honest chance of missing the warnings of Thakur Bhaktivinode. Those, therefore, who are misled by the perusal of his writings are led astray by their own obstinate perversity in sticking to the empiric course which they prefer to cherish against his explicit warnings. Let these unfortunate persons look more carefully into their own hearts for the cause of their misfortunes.

The personal service of the pure devotee is essential for understanding the spiritual meaning of the words of Thakur Bhaktivinode. The Editor of this Journal, originally started by Thakur Bhaktivinode, has been trying to draw the attention of all followers of Thakur Bhaktivinode to this all-important point of his teachings. It is not necessary to try to place ourselves on a footing of equality with Thakur Bhaktivinode. We are not likely to benefit by any mechanical imitation of any practices of Thakur Bhaktivinode on the opportunist principle that they may be convenient for us to adopt. The Guru is not an erring mortal whose activities can be understood by the fallible reason of unreclaimed humanity. There is an eternally impassable line of demarcation between the Savior and the saved. Those who are really saved can alone know this.Thakur Bhaktivinode belongs to the category of the spiritual world-teachers who eternally occupy the superior position.

The present Editor has all along felt it his paramount duty to try to clear up the meaning of the life and teachings of Thakur Bhaktivinode by the method of submissive listening to the Transcendental Sound from the lips of the pure devotee. The Guru who realizes the transcendental meaning of all sounds, is in a position to serve the Absolute by the direction of the Absolute conveyed through every sound. The Transcendental Sound is Godhead, the mundane sound is non-Godhead. All sound has got these opposite aptitudes. All sound reveals its Divine face to the devotee and only presents its deluding aspect to the empiric pedant. The devotee talks apparently the same language as the deluded empiric pedant who had got by heart the vocabulary of the Scriptures. But notwithstanding apparent identity of performance, the one has no access to the reality while the other is absolutely free from all delusion.

Those who repeat the teachings of Thakur Bhaktivinode from memory do not necessarily understand the meaning of the words they mechanically repeat. Those who can pass an empiric examination regarding the contents of his writings are not necessarily also self-realized souls. They may not at all know the real meaning of the words they have learned by the method of empiric study. Take for example the Name “Krishna”. Every reader of Thakur Bhaktivinode’s works must be aware that the Name manifests Himself on the lips of His serving devotees although He is inaccessible to our mundane senses. It is one thing to pass the examination by reproducing this true conclusion from the writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode and quite another matter to realize the Nature of the Holy Name of Krishna by the process conveyed by the words.

Thakur Bhaktivinode did not want us to go to the clever mechanical reciter of the mundane sound for obtaining access to the Transcendental Name of Krishna. Such a person may be fully equipped with all the written arguments in explanation of the nature of the Divine Name. But if we listen to all these arguments from the dead source the words will only increase our delusion. The very same words coming from the lips of the devotee will have the diametrically opposite effect. Our empiric judgment can never grasp the difference between the two performances. The devotee is always right. The non-devotee in the shape of the empiric pedant is always and necessarily wrong. In the one case there is always present the Substantive Truth and nothing but the Substantive Truth. In the other case there is present the apparent or misleading hypothesis and nothing but un-truth. The wording may have the same external appearance in both cases. The identical verses of the Scriptures may be recited by the devotee and the non-devotee, may be apparently misquoted by the non-devotee but the corresponding values of the two processes remain always categorically different. The devotee is right even when he apparently misquotes, the non-devotee is wrong even when he quotes correctly the very words, chapter and verse of the Scriptures.

It is not empiric wisdom that is the object of quest of the devotee. Those who read the scriptures for gathering empiric wisdom will be pursuing the wild goose chase. There are not a few dupes of their empiric Scriptural erudition. These dupes have their admiring under-dupes. But the mutual admiration society of dupes does not escape, by the mere weight of their number, the misfortunes due to the deliberate pursuit of the wrong course in accordance with the suggestions of our lower selves.

What are the Scriptures? They are nothing but the record by the pure devotees of the Divine Message appearing on the lips of the pure devotees. The Message conveyed by the devotees is the same in all ages. The words of the devotees are ever identical with the Scriptures. Any meaning of the Scriptures that belittles the function of the devotee who is the original communicant of the Divine Message contradicts its own claim to be heard. Those who think that the Sanskrit language in its lexicographical sense is the language of the Divinity are as deluded as those who hold that the Divine Message is communicable through any other spoken dialects. All languages simultaneously express and hide the Absolute. The mundane face of all languages hides the Truth. The Transcendental face of all sound expresses nothing but the Absolute. The pure devotee is the speaker of the Transcendental language. The Transcendental Sound makes His appearance on the lips of His pure devotee. This is the direct, unambiguous appearance of Divinity. On the lips of non-devotees the Absolute always appears in His deluding aspect. To the pure devotee the Absolute reveals Himself under all circumstances. To the conditioned soul, if he is disposed to listen in a truly submissive spirit, the language of the pure devotee can alone impart the knowledge of the Absolute. The conditioned soul mistakes the deluding for the real aspect when he chooses to lend his ear to the non-devotee. This is the reason why the conditioned soul is warned to avoid all association with non-devotees.

Thakur Bhaktivinode is acknowledged by all his sincere followers as possessing the above powers of the pure devotee of Godhead. His words have to be received from the lips of a pure devotee. If his words are listened from the lips of a non-devotee they will certainly deceive. If his works are studied in the light of one’s own worldly experience their meaning will refuse to disclose itself to such readers. His works belong to the class of the eternal revealed literature of the world and must be approached for their right understanding through their exposition by the pure devotee. If no help from the pure devotee is sought the works of Thakur Bhaktivinode will be grossly misunderstood by their readers. The attentive reader of those works will find that he is always directed to throw himself upon the mercy of the pure devotee if he is not to remain unwarrantably self-satisfied by the deluding results of his wrong method of study.

The writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode are valuable because they demolish all empiric objections against accepting the only method of approaching the Absolute in the right way. They cannot and were never intended to give access to the Absolute without help from the pure devotee of Krishna. They direct the sincere enquirer of the Truth, as all the revealed scriptures do, to the pure devotee of Krishna to learn about Him by submitting to listen with an open mind to the Transcendental Sound appearing on His lips. Before we open any of the books penned by Thakur Bhaktivinode we should do well to reflect a little on the attitude, with which as the indispensable pre-requisite, to approach its study. It is by neglecting to remember this fundamental principle that the empiric pedants find themselves so hopelessly puzzled in their vain endeavor to reconcile the statements of the different texts of the Scriptures. The same difficulty is already in process of overtaking many of the so-called followers of Thakur Bhaktivinode and for the same reason.

The person to whom the Acharya is pleased to transmit his power is alone in a position to convey the Divine Message. This constitutes the underlying principle of the line of succession of the spiritual teachers. The Acharya thus authorized has no other duty than that of delivering intact the message received from all his predecessors. There is no difference between the pronouncements of one Acharya and another. All of them are perfect mediums for the appearance of the Divinity in the Form of the Transcendental Name Who is identical with His Form, Quality, Activity and Paraphernalia.

The Divinity is Absolute Knowledge. Absolute Knowledge has the character of indivisible Unity. One particle of the Absolute Knowledge is capable of revealing all the potency of the Divinity. Those who want to understand the contents of the volumes penned by the piece-meal acquisitive method applicable to deluding knowledge available to the mind on the mundane plane, are bound to be self-deceived. Those who are sincere seekers of the Truth are alone eligible to find Him, in and through the proper method of His quest.

In order to be put on the track of the Absolute, listening to the words of the pure devotee is absolutely necessary. The spoken word of the Absolute is the Absolute. It is only the Absolute Who can give Himself away to the constituents of His power. The Absolute appears to the listening ear of the conditioned soul in the form of the Name on the lips of the sadhu. This is the key to the whole position. The words of Thakur Bhaktivinode direct the empiric pedant to discard his wrong method and inclination on the threshold of the real quest of the Absolute. If the pedant still chooses to carry his errors into the Realm of the Absolute Truth he only marches by a deceptive bye-path into the regions of darker ignorance by his arrogant study of the scriptures. The method offered by Thakur Bhaktivinode is identical with the object of the quest. The method is not really grasped except by the grace of the pure devotee. The arguments, indeed, are these. But they can only corroborate, but can never be a substitute for, the word from the living source of the Truth who is no other than the pure devotee of Krishna, the concrete Personal Absolute.

Thakur Bhaktivinode’s greatest gift to the world consists in this; that he has brought about the appearance of those pure devotees who are, at present, carrying on the movement of unalloyed devotion to the Feet of Sri Krishna by their own wholetime spiritual service of the Divinity. The purity of the soul is only analogously describable by the resources of the mundane language. The highest ideal of empiric morality is no better than the grossest wickedness to the Transcendental perfect purity of the bona fide devotee of the Absolute. The word ‘morality’ itself is a mischievous misnomer when it is applied to any quality of the conditioned soul. The hypocritical contentment with a negative attitude is part and parcel of the principle of undiluted immorality.

Those who pretend to recognize the Divine Mission of Thakur Bhaktivinode without aspiring to the unconditional service of those pure souls who really follow the teachings of the Thakur by the method enjoined by the scriptures and explained by Thakur Bhaktivinode in a way that is so eminently suited to the requirements of the sophisticated mentality of the present Age, only deceive themselves and their willing victims by their hypocritical professions and performances. These persons must not be confounded with the bona fide members of the flock.

Thakur Bhaktivinode has predicted the consummation of religious unity of the world by the appearance of the only universal church which bears the eternal designation of the Brahma Sampradaya. He has given mankind the blessed assurance that all Theistic churches will shortly merge in the one eternal spiritual community by the grace of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya. The spiritual community is not circumscribed by the conditions of time and space, race and nationality. Mankind had been looking forward to this far-off Divine Event through the Long Ages. Thakur Bhaktivinode has made the conception available in its practicable spiritual form to the open minded empiricist who is prepared to undergo the process of enlightenment. The key stone of the Arch has been laid which will afford the needed shelter to all awakened animation under its ample encircling arms. Those who would thoughtlessly allow their hollow pride of race, pseudo-knowledge or pseudo-virtue to stand in the way of this long hoped for consummation, would have to thank only themselves for not being incorporated in the spiritual society of all pure souls.

These plain words need not be misrepresented, by arrogant persons who are full of the vanity of empiric ignorance, as the pronouncements of aggressive sectarianism. The aggressive pronouncement of the concrete Truth is the crying necessity of the moment for silencing the aggressive propaganda of specific untruths that is being carried on all over the world by the preachers of empiric contrivances for the amelioration of the hard lot of conditioned souls. The empiric propaganda clothes itself in the language of negative abstraction for deluding those who are engrossed in the selfish pursuit of worldly enjoyment.

But there is a positive and concrete function of the pure soul which should not be perversely confounded with any utilitarian form of worldly activity. Mankind stands in need of that positive spiritual function of which the hypocritical impersonalists are in absolute ignorance. The positive function of the soul harmonizes the claims of extreme selfishness with those of extreme self-abnegation in the society of pure souls even in this mundane world. In its concrete realizable form the function is perfectly inaccessible to the empiric understanding. Its imperfect and misleading conception alone is available by the study of the Scriptures to the conditioned soul that is not helped by the causeless grace of the pure devotees of Godhead.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, The Harmonist, December 1931, vol. XXIX No.6

This excerpt from the biography of Srila Gaurakisora Dasa Babaji, written by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami, gives clear insight into the qualifications and activities of a pure Vaisnava.

How Can I Know a Vaisnava?

Once one person approached Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji and asked, “We see many discriptions of the devotees of the Lord in the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam and other scriptures which are of the highest order. But these narrations do not have any real counterpart with the persons we wee today who are called Vaisnavas. Sometimes we see these persons are even the opposite of these persons described, therefore, very mercifully instruct us as to how we can without a doubt identify the real devotees of the Lord.”

Gaurakisora dasa Babaji Maharaja replied, “When the desire of the devotee of the Lord is in direct conjugation with the desire of Krsna, then the compassionate pure devotee of the Lord regardless of birth, time, and place liberates the conditioned souls. When the pure devotee of the Lord attracts the living entities by exhibiting pure love of Krsna, then the Supreme Lord Krsna begins to doubt as follows: Those living entities who surrender unto my devotees are as dear as myself. If I cleanse away all of their debts in this material world, then I will be in a precarious situation. Those pure devotees surrendered unto Me are completely dependent and thus simply by their desire, I am within their grasp.”

For this reason Krsna covers the eyes of the ordinary people so they cannot realize the qualities of His pure devotee. Krsna also tests the other living living entities in this way to see how attached they are to him. Those symptoms which are manifestations of Krsna’s material energy are not the same symptoms which are manifested by the pure devotees of the Lord. Therefore, it is only by the independent desire of the pure devotees of the Lord that the symptoms can seen even through the scriptures.”

“Sometimes it is seen that pure devotees will offer a high position of prestige to a conditioned living entity. In this way, such a person is kept at a distance from the Supreme Lord. At other times, the pure devotee of the Lord may become alarmed at attracting too many followers and thus, keep his natural qualities hidden. Even though they keep their spiritual identity hidden, pure devotees may act as if they are going to accept disciples so that persons will remain with them and receive their association. They also carry out the role of giving instructions and accepting different types of service.”

Srila Gaurakisora then continued, “I Have seen with my own eyes a devotee in Vrindavan who would perform his devotional service in a solitary place. He lived in a village just north of Radha Kunda. Many different persons would approach him and ask for different benefits and for the removal of mental and physical distress. He would fulfill their desires and thus became famous and well known as a perfected practitioner in devotional service. He was very renounced, free from the desires of wealth, woman and prestige. He was always compassionate to the living entities and free from fault in his appearance.”

“As it became circulated that he was of this type of character, many persons same to annoy him. Following this, the great devotee had a very wealthy man in Calcutta monthly pay the young beautiful wife of a sweeper to sit in front of his place of worship. In this way, people would come and consider he was having illicit connections with that woman and that he was collecting money out of greed. Other persons would come and because of their material desires not being fulfilled, would altogether reject him. This person was actually a Vaisnava. When devotees of the Lord, out of compassion, manifest their mercy, then the faithful persons who worship the Lord will become attracted to them.”

“Those persons who then surrender unto the pure devotee are eventually able to attain pure devotional service. Extremely fortunate persons are able to approach Krsna by the mercy of the devotee. Otherwise, being unfortunate, the pure devotee may in some way or another, act in such a way as to reject them. Sober devotees always pray to the lotus feet of Sri Nityananda Prabhu and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, to become more serious and non-deviates. It is by their mercy that one is able to understand the character of the pure devotee. By the favor of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu one’s heart becomes free from all pride and becomes filled with humility. In this condition, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu manifest the identity of the pure devotee. The pure devotee’s identity is manifest by Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda and then Lord Nityananda and Lord Chaitanya make the devotees known to everyone. Therefore, it has been mentioned in the Chaitanya Caritamrta.

More than one million people in Taiwan have pledged to help cut carbon emissions by being a vegetarian. Taiwan's population is about 23 million, and the one million vegetarians would reduce at least 1.5 million tons of carbon emissions in Taiwan in one year.

The Union of NoMeatNoHeat made the announcement during its anti-global warming drive. Many prominent politicians, such as the legislative speaker, the environment minister, and Taipei and Kaohsiung Mayors all pledged to become vegetarians.

The Union said 20 percent of the world's carbon emissions are created by the livestock industry, which is higher than the 15 to 18 percent produced by all the world's transportation vehicles.

The Union said if a person eats only vegetables for a whole year, roughly 1.5 tons of carbon emissions can be cut.

See our World Vegetarian Day Newsletters 2004 - 2005 - World Vege Day

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A servant of a very rich man came before his master one day and told him of an interesting yogi he had seen in the river.  The servant said that this yogi claimed he could stay in the water all night in the middle of the river without any outside heat.  The yogi was willing t take a wager with anyone to prove that he could do it.  When the rich man heard this, he decided to wager against the yogi.  So the bet was made to see whether the yogi could stay in the water all night.  The yogi went into the water, and the rich man and his servant went home.  The next day word came that the yogi had successfully stayed in the water all night.  The rich man went out to see the yogi, and indeed he was still standing in the water.  Therefore by all rights the rich man had lost the wager.  But then a friend of the rich man said, "Wait!  See that light?"  He pointed to a small flame far away in a temple.  The rich man's friend said, "By his mystic power, this yogi has been using the heat of that light to keep warm in the water.  So he shouldn't be paid, because the bet was that he would stay in the water without taking any heat."  Taking advantage of this word jugglery, the rich man said, "Yes I'm not going to pay you.  You've tricked me."  Then the rich man and his servant went back to the house.  The rich man asked his servant to quickly cook him a nice breakfast, but after waiting for some time, the servant had not produced anything.  The rich man expressed his impatience, but the servant replied, "Please wait.  I'm cooking."  The rich man waited, but it got later and later and no food was brought.  When he demanded food from his servant, the servant only replied, "I'm cooking.  It's going to be ready soon."  Finally the rich man became angry and walked into the kitchen.  "What is this cooking?" he demanded.  And there he saw that the servant had a very strange arrangement for cooking.  He had a very small fire on the ground an a tall bamboo tripod to hold the pot he was supposed to be heating high near the ceiling.  Obviously, the small flame would never be able to reach the pot to heat it.  "What do you think you're doing?" demanded the rich man.  "Well," said the servant, if you claim that the yogi was keeping warm in
the water by that light, then I am also cooking."  The man could understand that his servant was dissatisfied with the outcome of the wager with the yogi.  And so he went and paid the yogi the wager.

MORAL: If you want to get a result, you have to follow the process.  What is the use of trying to chant God's name but at the same time doing all nonsense.

See similar inspirational snippets HERE:
http://www.hknet.org.nz/parables.htm

The phaomnneil pweor of the hmuan mnid: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig!
Mybae the I can sotp slpel ckchenig?

http://www.gaura-gambhira.com/

Written by HH Bhakti Purusottama Swami

Dear Maharaj/ Prabujis/ Matajis,

It is my great pleasure to inform all the devotees of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that a great service opportunity has been offered by the temple authorities of Gambhira, in Puri dham, where Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spent the final years of His manifested pastimes on this earthly planet. Kasi Mishra's house, also known as Gambhira, and the Radha Kanta math, were both under the care of the Orissa government due to 20 years of litigation. Finally, this litigation problem has been resolved and the management of the institution has been returned to the temple mahanta.

The temple has sustained much damage over the years due to lack of proper maintenance. The whole place is very dirty and the roofs and walls are falling down. The temple roof is also cracking. Additionally, the temple has a lack of proper income for the maintenance of the devotees and for deity puja—and, of course, the more the Gambhira is allowed to deteriorate, the fewer visitors it will have.

At this crucial point, the mahanta of Gambhira has requested ISKCON to extend kind assistence to him in order to protect and maintain this most holy place. Devotees from all over the world come to offer their prayers and obeisances at Gambhira. This is one of the most important places for the followers of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and must be maintained nicely.

Thus, this is a golden opportunity for devotees to render service to this most sacred cause. I request all devotees to kindly donate towards this purpose. There are many things to be fixed at the place. For the time being we have prepared a rough budget, for whatever the most urgent needs are, just to bring the situation up to  survival position. Later on, we will let you know about further opportunities for service in the development of the Gambhira.

For further information contact

Bhakti Purusottama Swami

Phone: ++ 91 9434506434

E mail: bps@pamho.net

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World Smoke Free Day
31st May Every Year 

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yeah kick the butt
...and remember from 10th December 2004 no more smoking in public places in New Zealand by law