last updated 6th August 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

Immediately following the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Astana dedicated to "Transparency in the OSCE" the Kazakhstan government has begun a new attack on the embattled religious community of the Society for Krishna Consciousness.

The Karasai District Hakim, A. Musakhanov, has cancelled the license to use the buildings possessed by the Krishna Society. The deputy Hakim, M. Bigediev, has told the directors of the Krishna Society to "be ready for new court cases."

On July 11, 2008, the directors of the Krishna Society were called for a meeting with the Karasai deputy Hakim. They were presented a document that annuls the license to use the buildings, quarters and cottages owned by the Society for Krishna Consciousness.

The Karasai government issued the license permitting usage in 2001. The current Hakim, Musakhanov, signed the annulment document.

The Krishna Society representatives questioned the reason for revoking the license permitting the buildings usage. The government's legal representative told them that the government possesses the right to issue a license for usage and to arbitrarily revoke it.

The Krishna Society had no lawyers at the meeting and they did not comply with the order to sign the document. They requested the document be sent by registered post and upon receipt the Society's lawyers would review the document.

The deputy Hakim Bigediev responded by threatening, "Be prepared for new court cases."

The buildings in question include the Krishna Society's Temple, barn, and remaining residences.

The Kazakhstan government has been trying to establish legal status to demolish the Krishna Society's Temple and remaining properties.

In January 2008 the Department of State Architectural and Construction Control conducted a special investigation to determine if the buildings were legal.

In March 2008 the Hakim of Almaty Province instructed the Krishna Society that they had one week to accept unusable land plots. Failure to do so would result demolition of their temple and barn.

The Kazakh government prosecution against the Krishna Society began in 2005.

The process of selective discrimination has resulted in the demolition of 26 homes of the Hindu practitioners in 2006 and 2007. It also resulted in the confiscation of 116 acres of the legally owned property of the society.

The Kazakh government has offered no humanitarian aid or compensation to the society or it's members.

The Kazakh government has become a member of the OSCE managing troika preceding their 2010 chairmanship. According to the statements of the government officers, Kazakhstan may soon start legal procedures to legitimize the demolition of the only established Hindu temple in Kazakhstan and central Asia.

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

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/

If you are ever in trouble while in India, simply dial 108! India recently launched a new scheme and 108 has become an emergency number for some of some states. Here is an article about it form http://www.india-server.com/news/dial-108-for-emergency-in-india-1805.html:
"You may have often seen in the movies or even read in books about ‘911’ the number the United States denizens dial incase of emergency situations! Now a similar service is being introduced in India by the Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), which is soon about to launch this service in Madhya Pradesh. In a recent statement, Health minister Ambumani Ramadoss was intimated by Union Telecom minister A Raja that 108 is being finalized as the national toll free trauma care number to the institution.

It was further informed that 108 is already being used as the toll free emergency number in Indian states such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. On the other hand, even states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have inked MoU with the EMRI Institute for availing this service. Indian states like Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Kerala too are charting plans for fixing the number 108 for all emergency purposes.

Every time a caller dials 108, his or her call will be received by a 24 hour call centre which will take down all important information from the caller. After this, the call centre will locate an ambulance, fire vehicle or the police vehicle depending on the type of emergency through GPRS technology and dispatch it to where the help is needed. The EMRI Institute has received top recognition in the health care category at the 2008 computer world honours programme."

Bhaktivedanata Institute's latest quarterly newsletter is now available online.

You can download the January-March 2008 issue from:
http://scienceandscientist.org/current.php
______________________________ ______________________________ __
 
What's it about?

Modern science has generally been directed toward investigating the material world, excluding consideration of the conscious scientist who is essential to the whole process, since, of course, the very existence of the scientific endeavor itself depends upon consciousness. Complete scientific knowledge must consequently include both objective science and subjective consciousness.
 
In addition to other programs, Bhaktivedanta Institute's Science and Scientist Newsletter is humbly offered to inspire scientists and scholars to contribute their sincere efforts toward developing this grand synthesis. The result will be valuable not only for helping to better understand the "hard" problems of science such as the nature and origin of life and the cosmos, the mind-brain connection, artificial intelligence, etc. But the pressing problems of ethics in science, world peace, and interfaith dialog will also benefit from a more inclusive scientific worldview.
 
In our modern era science and religion are the predominating influences determining the fate of mankind. Promoting and developing a culture of harmony between such diverse fields has the potential to expand our conception of reality and advance  human knowledge in the new millennium, in which it is said the  study of life will be pre-eminent. Let us welcome the dawn of that new epoch with great hope and determined endeavor.
______________________________ ______________________________ __
 
Newsletter Homepage: http://www.scienceandscientist.org
 
Newsletter Subscription:
http://www.scienceandscientist.org/subscribe.html
 
Please send comments/questions to:
editors@scienceandscientist.org

USA, July 29, 2008: A Sikh teenager excluded from school for breaking a “no jewellery” rule by refusing to remove a wrist bangle which is central to her faith was a victim of unlawful discrimination, a judge ruled. As a result of the judgment in the High Court, Sarika Watkins-Singh, 14, will be returning to Aberdare Girls’ School in South Wales in September - wearing the Kara, a slim steel bracelet.

Her lawyers had told Mr Justice Silber that the Kara was as important to her as it was to England spin bowler Monty Panesar, who has been pictured wearing the bangle. Sarika, of mixed Welsh and Punjabi origin, of Cwmbach, near Aberdare, was at first taught in isolation and eventually excluded for refusing to take off the bangle in defiance of the school’s policy, which prohibits the wearing of any jewellery other than a wrist watch and plain ear studs. The judge declared that the school was guilty of indirect discrimination under race relations and equality laws.

Sarika happily declared, “I am a proud Welsh and Punjabi Sikh girl.”

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

Janmastami is the major annual festival for Vaisnavas and in that way could be likened to Christmas in the Christian calendar. It takes place in August or early September. Traditionally devotees fast until midnight, the hour of Lord Krishna's appearance, having spent the day performing devotional activities in honour of this most auspicious occasion.

Typical festive activities are:

    * Cooking 108 different delicacies for offering to the Lord at midnight. (All the foods and drinks are then served to all the guests and celebrants).
    * Darshan (viewing) of the Lord in His specially decorated murti (statue) form on the flower-laden altar.
    * Abhiseka (public bathing) of the form of the Lord using fruit juices and milk products.
    * Bhajanas (devotional songs) sung to traditional tunes accompanied by traditional instruments (and sometimes modern ones).
    * Dramas re-enacting the pastimes of Lord Krishna.
    * Dance in the traditional Indian style, sometimes with modern innovations, portraying the Lord's pastimes.
    * Readings from the scriptures, particularly the section describing the Lord's unique birth and the intriguing events leading up to and following His arrival.
    * Kirtana (group chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra) this is a daily affair in temples but on a festival day devotees consider the more kirtana there is the better it is.

Krishna periodically appears in other forms but this festival celebrates His arrival in his original form as a two-armed beautiful cowherd boy with bluish hued skin who plays a flute and enjoys family and village pastimes with His most intimate and loving devotees. Although, being God, He is Lord of all the worlds, He prefers to interact as a village cowherd boy and His Vaisnava followers aspire to one day join Him in His eternal blissful pastimes in His own home, Vrndavana. This is the essential religious sentiment and mood of Janmastami.

This is the birthday celebration of Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON's founder-acarya.

Srila Prabhupada was born on the day immediately after Janmastami, 1896. Festivities are therefore carried over from Janmastami to the next day in celebration of the arrival in this world of the great personality who introduced so many people to Krishna consciousness. In fact he is still introducing people to his beloved Lord Krishna through his books.

This special day brings an increased awareness of him and more elaborate worship. Devotees gather in the morning and share homages written in praise and appreciation of Srila Prabhupada. This can be a very moving and spiritually uplifting event in which to participate.
 

The traditional guru-puja bhajana is sung by the devotees around noon, after the offering of a wonderful feast (including kachoris, which Srila Prabhupada especially liked), and a n offering of flower petals to Srila Prabhupada.

When the ensuing kirtana finally subsides the feast is served to all the devotees. The remains of the afternoon is then well spent in catching up on rest after the two days of festivities and weeks of Janmastami preparation!

OXFORD, ENGLAND, August 3, 2008: Oxford could soon have a Hindu temple to add to its churches, mosques and synagogue. Leaders of Oxfordshire’s 500-strong Hindu community have launched a campaign to construct a US$3.9 million, 12,000 square foot temple in the city as they currently have no base for communal prayer. Temple project initiator Jagruti Bhuva, 44, from Kennington, said: “A temple would help unite the community and be a good way to get everyone together and celebrate. “Some elderly Hindus don’t have much of a social life and this would give them a place to meet up together and give a big boost in their daily lives.

Although no formal survey has been done, it is believed a large proportion of Oxford’s 300 Hindus live in Headington. The temple would be open about four hours a day, seven days a week for prayer and use as a community centre. Headington Action Group chairman James Bloice Smith said: “The Hindu community deserve the right to have their religious beliefs served and I would defend that. To find out more about the temple plans visit http://www.oxfordhindutempleproject.org

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

past life evidence, PART 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EWwzFwUOxA

past life evidence, PART 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5965wcH2Kx0&NR=1

Reincarnation, children remember past life, PART 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_T5vNgusEw&NR=1

Reincarnation, children remember past life, PART 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooRnQT4agXY&feature=related

Read more on Reincarnation HERE:

Listen to Prabhupada's explanation & kirtan below

The transcendental vibration established by the chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is the sublime method of reviving our Krsna consciousness. As living spiritual souls we are all originally Krsna conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial, our consciousness is now polluted by the material atmosphere. The material atmosphere, in which we are now living, is called Maya, or illusion. Maya means "that which is not." 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, this is called illusion. In this polluted concept of life, we are all 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 ever more dependent on her. This illusory struggle against material nature can be stopped at once by the revival of our Krsna consciousness. Krsna consciousness is not an artificial imposition of the mind; this consciousness is the original energy of the living entity. When we hear the transcendental vibration, this consciousness is revived. And this is the process recommended for this age by authorities. By practical experience also, one can perceive that by chanting this maha-mantra or the Great Chanting for Deliverance, one can at once feel a transcendental ecstasy coming through from the spiritual stratum. And when one is factually on the plane of spiritual understanding-surpassing the stages of the senses, mind, and intelligence-one is situated on the transcendental plane.

This chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is directly enacted from the 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 for mental speculation or any intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It springs automatically from the spiritual platform, and as such, 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, or even a dog can take part in it. 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 man is raised to the spiritual platform very quickly. When the mantra is chanted by a pure devotee of the Lord in love, it has the greatest efficacy on the hearers, and as such, 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. Milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects.

The word Hara is the form of addressing the energy of the Lord, and the words Krsna and Rama are addressing the Lord Himself. Both Krsna and Rama mean "the supreme pleasure" and Hara is the supreme pleasure energy of the Lord, changed to hare in the vocative. The supreme pleasure energy of the Lord helps us to reach the Lord.

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

These three words, namely Hare, Krsna, and Rama, are transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra. The chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His internal energy, Hara, to give protection to 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 Krsna, and the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely.

No other means of spiritual realization, therefore, is as effective in this age as chanting the maha-mantra:

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

Read more on Chanting Hare Krishna HERE:

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT2rgZcCLDU&feature=related

(He looks exactly like the original Balaji Deity and He is at Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, the South Indian Cloth Mill city)

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igD38IvnzlY&feature=related

(the last part is the abhisheka of the Utsava Deities at Tirupathi)

Part 3

The abhisheka (Tirumanjanam) of the Utsava Deities at Tirupathi Continues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq3Fll05S4E&feature=related

Looking for small ways to make a big difference for the environment? Why not start by making yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

As members of the PB&J Campaign (no, I’m not kidding) like to say, “You don’t have to change your whole diet to change the world. Just start with lunch.”

Eating a plant-based lunch (such as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bean burrito, vegetarian chili, or a hearty salad) instead of an animal-based lunch (such as a hamburger, a tuna or grilled cheese sandwich, fish and chips, or chicken nuggets) will save water, preserve land and slow global warming.

How Eating a PB&J Sandwich Slows Global Warming
Every time you eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or other plant-based meal instead of one that features red meat, such as a hamburger, you save the equivalent of almost 3.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. Eating a strictly plant-based meal compared to the average American lunch still saves 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. That’s about 40 percent of the carbon you would save by driving a hybrid vehicle for the day instead of a standard sedan.

How Eating a PB&J Sandwich Saves Water
Growing plants for food takes a lot less water than raising animals. As a result, every time you substitute a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or some other plant-based meal for an animal-based meal such as a hamburger, you save about 280 gallons of water. Eat three PB&J sandwiches a month instead of animal-based meals and you can save as much water as you would by switching to a low-flow showerhead.

How Eating a PB&J Sandwich Saves Land
Raising animals for food takes a lot of space. For example, animal products require 6 to 17 times as much land as soy to produce the same amount of protein. Eating a plant-based lunch like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of a hamburger, ham sandwich, or another animal-based meal saves anywhere from 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, overgrazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution.

How Eating One PB&J Sandwich Helps the Environment
By eating lower on the food chain—plants instead of animals—you also consume fewer resources. Why? Because, basically, everything you eat comes from plants. You either eat plants directly—in the form of fruits, vegetables and plant products such as peanut butter—or indirectly after animals have converted plants into meat, milk, eggs, butter and cheese.

The problem is that animals are not very efficient as living food factories that convert plants into food for humans. Animals use most of the plants they eat to produce the energy they need to walk around and keep breathing. To stay alive long enough to become part of your lunch or dinner menu, every cow, pig and chicken has to eat much more protein, carbohydrates and other nutrients than it will yield once the ax finally falls. As a result, it takes several pounds of plants to produce one pound of beef, pork, chicken, eggs or milk.

Inevitably, that means it also takes a lot more land, water and fuel to produce one pound of meat, milk or eggs than it does to produce one pound of edible plants. Not only do the animals need food, water and room to roam, but growing the plants to feed the animals that will, in turn, become food for you requires even more land and water as well as fuel for farm machinery and irrigation pumps.

To help provide some context, the PB&J Campaign says the water required to produce the beef in one hamburger could grow enough peanuts for 17 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And the land required to put that same beef patty on your bun could produce enough peanuts for 19 PB&J lunches.

How You and Your Diet Can Make a Difference
Basically, this all comes down to your power as a consumer. Every time you choose a hamburger, omelet or grilled cheese sandwich over a plant-based meal, you’re telling your local restaurants and supermarkets to buy more meat, eggs and dairy products. By choosing more plant-based meals, you’re asking for less meat and a more efficient use of resources. Either way, your unspoken but unmistakable messages are received by your local merchants and conveyed to wholesalers and farmers.

Want to do more? Share this information with your friends, coworkers and family members and urge them to take action. Urge your school or office cafeteria, or the local restaurants you frequent, to offer more plant-based dishes. Organize a weekly PB&J lunch (or other plant-based meals) at work, home or school and calculate the positive environmental contribution you’ve made.

Part 2
http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivinginthekitchen/a/peanut_butter_2.htm
A Special Word About Seafood
Often, when people start thinking about reducing their meat consumption, their thoughts turn to seafood. Unfortunately, if your goal in consuming fewer meat-based meals is to eat more efficiently, reduce your carbon footprint, and free up more resources, then seafood is no better option than beef, chicken or pork.

All seafood arrives on your dinner plate from one of two sources: it’s either caught by commercial fishing boats or raised on fish farms. About half of the seafood we eat is wild-caught, but commercial fishing creates a lot of greenhouse gas emissions because fishing boats use a lot of fuel.

There are also other environmental problems with wild-caught seafood. First, 69 percent of the world’s major fish species are endangered and in decline, according to estimates by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Second, many commercial fishing methods do a lot of environmental harm. For example, trawling scrapes up everything in its path, turning delicate marine ecosystems into undersea deserts, while long-line fishing results in a tremendous amount of bycatch, fish that are hooked unintentionally and discarded in pursuit of the target species.

Aquaculture, or fish farming, poses many of the same problems as the process of farming other animals for food. If farmed fish and shellfish eat grain and soy, then raising them commercially is as inefficient as fattening cattle or hogs. If the farmed fish eat fish meal, which is made from wild- caught fish, then they contribute indirectly to the environmental problems caused by commercial fishing: greenhouse gas emissions, over-fishing, bycatch, and environmental degradation.

The next time you go grocery shopping or order a meal in a restaurant, don't think exclusively about flavor and price. Give some thought as well to the long-term environmental effects of the food you choose to eat. It makes a difference.

Sources:

    * Global warming statistics: The global warming calculations are based on information from “Diet, Energy, and Global Warming,” by Gidon Eshel and Pamela A. Martin of the University of Chicago.
    * Water statistics: The water figures are based on information in “Water Footprint of Nations,” a report by the 2004 UNESCO Institute for Water Education.
    * Land statistics: The land statistics are based on information from the “Quantification of the environmental impact of different dietary protein choices,” by Lucas Reijnders and Sam Soret, which appeared in a 2003 supplement to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and on the protein output per acre for soy and peanuts reported in the 1996 edition of Food, Energy, and Society, edited by Pimentel and Pimentel.

READ MORE on Environmental Issues HERE

Proposed Excavations May Rewrite History

http://www.thecheers.org/article_2809_Proposed-excavations-may-rewrite-NE-history.html

INDIA, July 25, 2008: Is Guwahati the site where the ancient kingdom of Kamrupa existed? This and many more questions, which are still mired in controversy, could be answered more vividly when the archeologists excavate the entire Bhaitbari-Tikrikilla area in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district.

Wadagokgre is the site of an ancient civilization; believe to be cast out of the mighty majesty Bramaputra River in the fourth century AD or even earlier. The site is located in a small remote hamlet in West Garo Hills of Meghalaya. The excavations so far have clearly demonstrated that this site was a sprawling township with Buddhism, Hinduism and amalgamation of the two being widely practiced in this area.

In 1992, AK Sharma of ASI, Nagpur excavated the site and unearthed the three temple sites - with numerous Shiva lingas - and a Buddhist Stupa.

But the prominent and the most impressive discovery of the site is this Octagonal Temple with eight miniature octagons, each having a Shiva Lingam. The structure is of a more magnificient architecture, having eight square subsidiary shrines radiating from the eight arms of the main octagon. This is perhaps one of the unique discoveries during the excavation.

“Further excavations are likely to reveal further remains of an earlier habitation, besides unravelling the historical antiquity of the plains-belt of the State of which very little is known from recorded history,” Williamson Sangma Museum curator Dr. Julius Marak said.

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

Vedic World Heritage links:

See our pages supporting these views HERE:
http://www.hknet.org.nz/VWH.html (Vedik World Heritage)
Western Indologists been exposed page:
http://www.hknet.org.nz/WesternIndologists-page.htm
How British Misguided the World on Vedic History
http://www.hknet.org.nz/MotiveBritishRajMissionaries.html

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/ET_Cetera/Vegetarians_prone_to_strokes_Study/articleshow/3227497.cms

NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 13, 2008: Strokes are the second most common cause of deaths and the commonest cause of severe disability. Now a study has shown that deficiency of Vitamin B12, usually seen in vegetarians, can predispose a person to strokes much more than the usual risk factors ­ diabetes and hypertension.

“While 20% of Indians suffer from diabetes and high BP,” says Dr Arun Garg, consultant neurologist, Max Hospitals, “incidence of homocysteinemia (increased levels of homocysteine, an amino acid) caused by vitamin B12 deficiency, is 70%. This is seen more among vegetarians as this vitamin is mainly found in meat and milk, if it’s neither boiled nor pasteurised.” In fact, deficiency of vitamins B12, B6 and folate causes two-thirds of strokes.

This risk is four times higher in vegetarians. As folate is found in vegetables and fruits, its deficiency is rare among Indians, but that of vitamin B12 is common.

The link between strokes and vegetarianism was confirmed in a five-year study by Garg and Dr A K Jain, neurologist, Jain Neuro Centre, in two Max hospitals and this Centre. From 2003, 4,680 OPD patients were screened for vitamin B12 and homocysteine levels.

It was found that 60% patients had vitamin B12 levels below 400 pg/ml and 38.9% had less than 200 pg/ml. Homocysteine levels were high (over 15 micromol/l) in 36%. And out of these, over 80% were either strict vegetarians or took non-vegetarian food less than once a week. This showed the co-relation between vegetarians and strokes.

Prevention would cost less than Rs 10 per day, says Garg. All one has to do is take prescribed doses of vitamin B12 and B6 and folic acid. These are shown to reduce homocysteine level by 38% and the risk of stroke by 20-30%. Goyal says, “Vitamin B12 is also there in soyabean, legumes, dairy products, cottage cheese, etc.”

[HPI adds: According to Dr. Virender Sodhi, an Ayurvedic Physician in Seattle, WA, vegetarians do show low levels of folic acid and B12. This is true as our diets have been refined,
processed and include added chemicals. The solution is to take 1000 mcg of Folic acid and B12 twice a day and measure your Homocysteine regularly at least once a year.]

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

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

See similar articles at Vegetarianism & beyond:
http://turn.to/Vegetarianism

Some labourers were criticizing the minister of the king, claiming that he only sat around and did no work.  The king reminded them that it took intelligence to become a minister.  He said he would give a test for everyone, including the minister.  Whoever could pass the test could become the next minister.  The king said, "Take this big elephant, weigh him and let me know the exact weight."  The ordinary men were baffled.  Where was there a scale for weighing an elephant?  They could not do anything.  They came back to the king with no information.  Then the king turned to his minister and asked, "Will you kindly weigh this elephant?"  So in six minutes he came back and reported, "It is twenty mounds [1,920]."  The other men were standing open-mouthed in surprise.  "How is that?" they asked.  "Within six minutes he came back and he gave the exact weight!"  The king asked, "How did you weigh him?  Did you get some very big scale?"  "No sir," replied the minister.  "It is not possible too weigh the elephant on a scale.  It is very difficult."  "Then how did you weigh it?"  "I took it on a boat.  When I got him on the boat then I saw the watermark and I marked it.  Then, after getting the elephant off the boat, I added weight onto the boat, and when it came to the same watermark, then I understood."  SO the king addressed the labourers and cautioned them, "Now you see the difference?"  They agreed, "Yes."

MORAL:  Buddhir yasya balang tasya nirbuddhes tu kuto balang / pashya singha madonmatah shashah kena nipatata.  A shasha, a rabbit killed a singha, a big lion by intelligence.  One who has got intelligence, he has strength, and one who has no intelligence has no strength.  Foolish people often criticize devotees as do-nothings and weaklings, but such people do not understand the intelligence of a devotee.  Therefore, a devotee does not have to heed such people.

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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