krsna

"All of you should remain in close co-operation with the objective to propitiate the Supreme Lord with wholehearted allegiance to the grace incarnate form, Gurudeva, who is the Absolute Counterpart of the Supreme Lord. All of you should somehow maintain your livelihood in this most perishable non-eternal world, with the only objective of satisfying the Supreme Lord. Don't give up worship of God inspite of hundreds of troubles, hundreds of humiliations and hundreds of abuses. Don't be discouraged by seeing that most of the conditioned souls in this world are not accepting the service of Sri Krishna sincerely, without deceitfulness. Never give up your own worship, and never give up your only wealth, the 'be-all and end-all' of your life, which is the hearing and chanting of the glories of Sri Krishna. Always do Hari kirtan with the qualities of being humbler than blade of grass and more forbearing than tree." -Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati said this to his Disciples, just prior to entering Nitya Lila.

Srila Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja GOPAL AND THE SCHOOLBOY A mother had a small six- or seven-year-old son. She wanted to admit him into primary school so that he could get some education, but the school was a little far away, half a mile from their house. Still she told the boy that he should go to school every morning. So, the boy started going. On the path to school he had to pass through a jungle where there were some ferocious animals like tigers and snakes. Being a small child, he was afraid. He came to his mother and said, "Oh mother, when I was going through that jungle on the way to school I was very afraid. So many ferocious animals are there. I can't go any more." His mother said, "Why are you afraid? Don't you know that your friend Gopal is there? Just call your friend, He will help you. You need not be afraid." "Oh, my friend is there?" "Yes. When you feel afraid you should call out, 'Oh my friend Gopal, I am in a fearful situation! Where are You? Please come!' You should say like that." The child followed her instruction. When he was passing through the jungle and he felt afraid, he called out, "Friend Gopal! My brother Gopal! Where are You? I am in a fearful situation. Please come! Help me!" Gopal appeared before him. "Yes, I am here. Why are you afraid?" "I have to go through the jungle to go to school and it is full of ferocious animals." "Don't fear. Come with Me!" Gopal was helping him every day. MILK FROM GOPAL In Indian schools they perform ganesa-puja and sarasvati-puja to give the students knowledge. For these festivals, the teacher will collect some fees from the students. One day at school the teacher announced that they were going to have such a festival and that the students should all pay some fee. But the boy and his mother were very poor. There was nobody in that family, only the mother and the son, and they had no money. The teacher told him, "You are poor, you don't have enough money, but you should at least bring fifty paisa - half of a rupee." The child returned home and told his mother that the teacher said that he had to pay fifty paisa for the festival. But they had nothing, not even a single paisa. The mother said, "Tell the teacher that we have no money. We are very poor. But we will bring milk." The child said, "Who will give us milk?" "Oh, your friend Gopal will give us milk. He tends cows. He can supply as much milk as your teacher wants. Yes. You tell Gopal!" The boy accepted what his mother said, "Yes, I must tell my friend Gopal." So that day in the forest he called out to his friend, "O Gopal, where are You?" "I am here." Gopal appeared. "What do you need?" "My teacher has said that I have to pay fifty paisa, but we have no money. My mother said to ask You to give us some milk, because they need milk for the festival. So You must supply as much milk as they need." "Oh yes, I must supply, I must help you. I am always here to help you." On the puja day when he was passing through that jungle, he called his friend, "Gopal, today is the day. Please come!" Gopal came with a small earthen pot filled with milk. "All right, take this milk. Give it to your teacher. This pot will give as much milk as they want. It will never be empty." The boy took it and gave it to the teacher. Seeing the small pot, the teacher said, "Oh, this is just a small amount of milk. We need a large amount, ten buckets of milk. You have only brought a small pot." "No, no, no. It will never be empty. You bring ten buckets and pour this pot out. All ten buckets will be filled." The teacher did so, and, amazingly, ten buckets were filled. Then the teacher asked, "Where did you get such a pot?" "My friend Gopal gave me." "Your friend Gopal? Who is He?" "Oh, He stays in the jungle. Every time I need, I call Him. My mother told me that whenever I am in a fearful situation I should call out, 'Gopal! Gopal! O brother! O my friend Gopal!' Then He appears. He helps me, protects me, and leads me to school. He gave this pot of milk. He says that He is a friend to one and all." Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita (5.29), suhrdam sarva-bhutanam - "I am the only well-wishing friend of all living entities." "He says He is not only my friend, He is a friend to one and all. If one calls, He is there ready to help in time of danger, in time of need, in time of calamities." WHY DOESN'T GOPAL COME TO YOU? Such a simple child gets help from Krishna. But you are worrying, he is worrying, she is worrying, "What shall I do? What shall I do? I need so much money. How can I do it? I cannot collect. I have to do this thing. I have to do that thing. I have so many problems, so many hindrances, so many obstacles." Why don't you ask Gopal? Gopal is ready to help you, but you are not asking Him. If you are asking, then why is Gopal not coming? You say, "Yes, yes. I am asking, 'O Krishna! O Krishna! Please help me, please help me!' But Krishna is not coming and helping me." Gopal immediately appeared before that small child. Why can't you get Gopal's help? Why doesn't Gopal come to you? What is the difficulty? What is the reason? It's because you have no faith in Gopal, no faith in Krishna. It is a question of faith. That small child had strong faith. As soon as his mother told him he put strong unflinching faith in her words, and he got Krishna. But you do not have faith. Now in America, many, many people have lost faith. In his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.4.15) Srila Rupa Goswami says, adau sraddha, the first thing is unflinching faith. Similarly, Krishna says in Gita (4.39): sraddhaval labhate jnanam tat-parah samyatendriyah jnanam labdhva param santim acirenadhigacchati A faithful man who is dedicated to transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses is eligible to achieve such knowledge, and having achieved it he quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace. What do we mean by sraddha? Rupa Goswami says that the first thing is sraddha. Following that comes other things. Sraddha means strong, unflinching faith. Bhajante mam drdha-vratah - those who have faith, they do bhajana with determination. [bg. 7.28]. Strong faith in what? Sadhu-sastra-guru-vakya - faith in what sadhu says, what guru says, what sastra says - what Krishna says [Narottam Das Thakur's Prema-bhakti-candrika 1.10]. You should put strong unflinching faith in what Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. It is said: visvasa mile krsna tarke bahu dura If one has faith then he can easily obtain Krishna and arguments or doubts stay far away. WHY DEPRESSED AND DISAPPOINTED? If you have strong faith you will get Krishna. You have faith, but it is not strong. It is soft faith. At any time it can break and you feel yourself disappointed, depressed. Why such feelings? Why disappointed? Why depressed? Because you do not have strong faith in Krishna. You have no faith in sadhu-sastra-guru-vakya. You have lost faith, therefore you feel disappointed, and depressed. Faith is the most important thing. It has been stressed in Bhagavad-gita, in Srimad Bhagavatam, and all of our acaryas have said it. Rupa Goswami says in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.4.15-16) that everything begins with sraddha: adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango 'tha bhajana-kriya tato 'nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha rucis tatah athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudancati sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah First comes sraddha, faith; next sadhu-sanga, association with saintly persons; after that bhajana-kriya, spiritual practices; then anartha-nivrtti, cessation of all offenses or obstacles; next nistha, firmness; which is followed by ruci, taste; after that asakti, attachment; then bhava; and then appears prema. These are the different stages leading to prema's appearance within the heart of a spiritual practitioner. It is a gradual process. Mahaprabhu said the same thing: ucca sankirtane kari sraddhara pracara Loudly chant the holy names and preach with faith. When my guru-maharaja came to the West, what did he have with him? Only strong faith in Krishna, strong faith in the words of his guru, strong faith in the holy name. He had nothing else. It is a question of strong faith in Gopal. But people are lacking faith. You have some faith, but not strong faith. You should develop strong faith. Caitanya-caritamrta (madhya 22.62) states: 'sraddha'-sabde -- visvasa kahe sudrdha niscaya krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya "Sraddha" is defined as confident, firm faith that by rendering transcendental loving service to Krishna one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such faith is favorable to the discharge of devotional service. CHANT LOUDLY! If you develop krsna-bhakti all of your duties and obligations are finished. You are thinking, "This is my duty, my responsibility, to look after the maintenance of my family, my wife and my children. But it is said, krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya - "All of your work is finished." Everyone says this, but they are only speaking from the lips. In their heart, 99.9% people have no faith. Therefore Gauranga Mahaprabhu has said, ucca sankirtane kari sraddhara pracara - "Chant loudly: hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare. Inculcate sraddha, faith, unto those people who have not developed sraddha." My guru-maharaja did that. When he first arrived here he came with only a pair of karatalas. He simply went to a park and chanted Hare Krishna. The hippies were rolling on the ground, half-naked, taking strong drugs like LSD and marijuana, and becoming mad. My guru-maharaja just played karatalas and chanted, and thereby he inculcated sraddha in them. Cora-vesya-satha - the thieves, the prostitutes, and the cheaters - sadhu is able to inculcate sraddha even into them. That is Mahaprabhu's instruction: agre sraddha diya - "First inculcate sraddha unto them." Then when they are sraddhavan, when they have developed sraddha, strong faith in the holy name, strong faith in Krishna, and sadhu-sastra-guru-vakya, then they are eligible to be initiated. There is the offense to the holy name known as sraddha-hina-jane namopadesa "don't give someone nama-upadesa, instructions on chanting, if they are lacking in sraddha." So agre-sraddha first one must have sraddha. How can one develop sraddha? That is another question - for this reason we perform loud sankirtana. By doing so you can develop sraddha. Don't feel depressed or disappointed; Mahaprabhu is there, Krishna is there, Srila Prabhupada is there. Chant loudly and fill the atmosphere with transcendental sound vibration! You should have full complete faith in the holy name, in Gopal, in Krishna and Mahaprabhu. Don't feel desperate at any time, under any circumstances. There is no question of pessimism in Mahaprabhu's movement. There is all optimism. I have seen during my tour that now this pessimism is widespread amongst the devotees in America. Seeing that, I feel very sorry. I am crying in my heart. What has happened? My guru-maharaja came here first. He sowed the seed here. Now what has happened? They have lost faith - such a sorry state of affairs. How is it that a small boy immediately developed faith and got Krishna? He cried out, "O Gopal! Where are You? My mother has said to call you!" And immediately Gopal appeared. THE DETERMINATION OF DHRUVA Dhruva Maharaja was also only a child, a five-year-old boy. When he inquired from his mother Suniti, she told him, "Narayan is there. If you get the mercy of Lord Narayan then all of your desires will be fulfilled." Dhruva said, "Yes! Lord Narayan. Where is He?" Suniti said, "I have heard that saints and sages go to the forest to get Him." Dhruva said, "Oh I must go! I must go and get Him!" He was only a five-year-old boy, but he had such determination. Later, Narada Muni told him, "The forest is a very dangerous place. There are many fearful, ferocious animals here - tigers, lions, and snakes. You are a small boy, what can you do here?" Dhruva said, "No! No! My mother said that Narayan is there. I must go and find Him. Dhruva wouldn't hear any dissuasion. He was so strong and determined! Therefore his name is Dhruva. "Dhruva" means "determined". His determination never shakes. Rupa Goswami therefore says in Upadesamrta (text 3): utsahan niscayad dhairyat tat-tat-karma-pravartanat sanga-tyagat sato vrtteh sadbhir bhaktih prasidhyati One can execute the process of bhakti-yoga successfully with full-hearted enthusiasm, perseverance, and determination, by following the prescribed duties in the association of devotees and by engaging completely in activities of goodness. Rupa Goswami, mahajana-acarya, says one must have utsahan, enthusiasm, and niscayad, determination. "Yes, I am determined to achieve this thing. I must achieve it." Dhruva had that kind of determination. But also dhairyat, you must have patience. Don't lose patience. This strong determination and strong faith is most important. Nothing is impossible. Krishna is always there to help you. He is there in your heart. He will test how strong your faith is in Him. Your faith is shaking; it is not strong. How determined are you? Krishna creates everything. His will is supreme. By His mere desire creation, maintenance, and destruction take place. We are completely dependent on His will. Bhaktivinode says in Saranagati (3.4.7), tomara icchaya achi nirbhara koriya - "I am completely dependent on Your will, O Krishna." So Krishna says, "Okay, I will test your faith, to see if you are really completely dependent on My will." But you are lacking faith, and Krishna knows, "Oh, he has no faith. He only speaks from the lips. In his heart he has no faith." -- From an evening program in Lansing, Michigan, USA, 28 October 1991

THE LIVING MRIDANGAS OF SRI CHAITANYA Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada The following is an excerpt from a lecture given by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur on the occasion of sending his first sannyasi preachers to the West : All persons of this world are superior to us in every way as far as this world is concerned. Such material matters are not commodities that are to be coveted by us. We are merely beggars carrying the triple staff of renunciation and devoted to the chanting of the words of Sri Chaitanya. We have no more, nor any higher desirable object than the pleasure of serving sri-hari-guru-vaisnavas. We are not the operators of the instrument; we are only the instruments. We must always bear this in mind. The triple bhiksus, tridandi-sannyasis, are the living mrdraga drums of Sri Chaitanya. We must constantly give forth our music at the lotus feet of Sri Guru. We should practice the function of the peripatetic preacher, parivrajakacarya, of carrying aloft the victorious banner of the commands of the divine Sri Gaurasundar by constant submission to Sri Guru and the vaisnavas, fixing our eye on the pole-star of the heard transcendental voice. We must always bear in mind that we have been initiated in the vow of peripatetic preacher for the sole purpose of promulgating the heart’s desire of Sri Guru and Gauranga. If we are constantly inspired with the duty of discoursing about the truth under the guidance of Sri Guru, then no hankering after traveling, nor any veiled form of desire other than the chanting of Hari-Nama will ever strike any terror in our hearts. — Lecture given in Madras, 18 March 1933 _______ *** These words are so vast that they cover the entire sky of the heart!

"Those who are unwilling to show any duplicity, wish to be frank and straightforward, or in other words to exercise unambigiously the function of the soul, such really sincere persons are called sectarian and orthodox by those who practice duplicity. We will cultivate the society only of those who are straightforward. We will not keep company with any person who is not so. We must by all means avoid bad company. We are advised to keep at a distance of a hundred cubits from animals of the horned species. We should observe the same caution in regard to all insincere persons." Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

Prabhupada's Magic: He Got the Whole World Chanting Hare Krishna! Tamala Krishna: He was asking that... He was hoping that because he had heard that you had some mystical powers, so he was hoping that you could help his situation by demonstrating some of these mystical powers. Prabhupada: Some magic. Our magic is already there. Throughout the whole world we are chanting Hare Krsna. Is not that magic? Foreign countries, foreign religion, and they are accepting Krsna and chanting Hare Krsna. Is not that magic? Indian man (1): It is. Prabhupada: And still more magic? The world is chanting Hare Krsna. Boliye? yoginam api sarvesam mad-gatenantar-atmana sraddhavan bhajate yo mam sa me yuktatamo matah He is yogi. There are many varieties of yogis. And Krsna concludes, "Of all the yogis, big, big yogis, the person who is always remembering Krsna and chanting Hare Krsna maha-mantra is first class." This is said by Krsna, not by me. Therefore it is authorized statement. Without Krsna consciousness, all these mystic powers... They may be temporarily some magic, but Krsna says that "One who is always remembering Me," satatam kirtayanto mam yatantas ca drdha-vratah, "he is first-class yogi." So all these persons who are chanting Hare Krsna according to the prescribed rules and regulations, without any offense... There are ten kinds of offenses. So in the beginning there may be offenses. It doesn't matter. It will be rectified. Offenseless chanting means mukti, and then pure chanting means love of Godhead. There are three stages. In the beginning, when one begins chanting, it is not pure. There are so many offenses. But chanting, chanting, the offenses become purified. Offenseless chanting is not purified completely, but it is offenseless. So offenseless chanting makes one liberated, and then pure chanting makes one lover of God. This is the process. So chanting is definite mystic power. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has recommended, ceto-darpana-marjanam: "By chanting, your heart becomes purified." Ceto-darpana. We are suffering in this material world on account of... (background talking) (aside:) Ask him not to talk loudly. On account of impurities... (aside:) What is the use of talking? The first impurity is identifying... (aside:) Stop him. Don't talk at all. Indian man (1): It is one gentle..., one person. He says, "I am Bengali." And he has got some trouble. He was told that "If you have got any physical trouble, go to the medical practitioners." Prabhupada: Yes. Indian man (1): "If you have got any spiritual, then you can stay." He is continuing. That is all. Prabhupada: (aside:) Don't talk. Why you are talking? So our real trouble is that we have become conditioned by the material identification, "I am this body." Everyone is thinking, "I am Indian,I am American,I am brahmana,I am sannyasi," everything, identification with the body. That is the dirty thing. So one has to purify, that "I am neither American, neither Indian, nor brahmana, or so many designations." Then it is called cleansing the heart. Sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam. That is mukti, when you don't identify with this material body. And so long you identify with this material body, either you become a sannyasi with some beard or a grhastha without some beard, the same thing, identifying with the body. So ceto-darpana-marjanam means to become free from the bodily designation. And sastra says, yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke. This body is composition of three dhatu, kapha, pitta, vayu, according to Ayur Veda; and according to medical science, it is skin and then muscle, blood, bone, and marrow, stool, urine, those, combination. So I am not this combination of stool, bone, skin, blood. But people are taking that. When they are diseased, they take care of the body. Of course, it is not that we should not take care. But that is superficial. Real care should be taken of the soul within the body. Dehino 'smin yatha dehe. Dehinah, dehi. Dehinah and deha. So anyone who is identifying with this body in either... According to Vedic civilization, the bodily identification is divided into eight: brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa. Varnasrama-dharma. So human civilization begins, according to Vedic understanding, when there is varnasrama system. Otherwise it is not human civilization. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gita it is stated, catur-varnyam maya srstam. This system should be followed. Then, gradually, one has to come to the spiritual. Chaotic society cannot help us. There must be systematic social order: brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, catur-varnyam, and brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa. Sannyasa is not voluntary, but it is compulsory. At the last stage one must take sannyasa. After fiftieth year one must take to vanaprastha, vanam vrajet. This is system. So... System of purification, how to become designationless. And if we keep the designation, then, sastra says, sa eva go-kharah: "One who keeps the bodily designation, he's no better than the cows and the asses, animal." So Caitanya Mahaprabhu recommends that... Caitanya Maha... This is the shastric, Vedic culture, that we have to purify ourselves from the bodily designation. That is called ceto-darpana-marjanam, cleansing the dirty things within the core of the heart, that "I am this"--"I am Indian,I am American,I am brahmana,I am sannyasi,I am grhastha,I am white,I am black." These are the dirty things. So these dirty things can be cleansed by chanting this Hare Krsna mantra. Srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah punya-sravana-kirtanah. This chanting and hearing is punya-sravana. If you do not know anything about, if you simply chant and hear, you become purified, punya, because on account of dirty things, impious life, you have become covered by different bodies. Mrtyu-samsara-vartmani. Different bodies means the way of birth and death. That you have to stop. And that is stopped when you get Krsna; otherwise not. Therefore Krsna says, I think, in the Ninth Chapter... Find out this verse, asraddadhanah purusa dharmasyasya parantapa, mam aprapya. You cannot get Krsna. If you have no faith in Bhagavad-gita, then you cannot get Krsna. If you don't care for Krsna, that is another thing, but if you want to get Krsna, then what Krsna says, you follow. Read. Tamala Krsna: asraddadhanah purusa dharmasyasya parantapa aprapya mam nivartante mrtyu-samsara-vartmani Translation: "Those who are not faithful on the path of devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of foes, but return to birth and death in this material world." Prabhupada: Purport? Tamala Krsna: Purport: "The faithless cannot accomplish this process of devotional of service. That is the purport of this verse. Faith is created by association with devotees. Unfortunate people, even after hearing all the evidence of Vedic literature from great personalities, still have no faith in God." (break) Prabhupada: Pure bhakti. anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam anukulyena krsnanu- silanam bhaktir uttama There should be no mixture of jnana and karma or even yoga. Anukulyena krsnanu... Simply to cultivate Krsna consciousness favorably. Favorably means what Krsna wants. That is favorable. If you do what Krsna wants, that is favorable. And if you do what Krsna does no want, that is unfavorable; that is not bhakti. Just like Kamsa. He was always thinking of Krsna, but that was not favorably. He was thinking otherwise, how to kill Krsna, and that is not bhakti. The gopis were also thinking of Krsna, how to make Him happy, and that is favorable. So anukulyena krsnanusilanam bhaktir uttama. Without any mixture, adulteration of jnana and karma, that is pure devotion. Then? Tamala Krsna: "Those who have no faith, even after hearing about Krsna and the excellence of devotional service, who think that it is simply eulogy, find the path very difficult even if they are suppose..." (break) Prabhupada: So without this faith, nobody can achieve the association of Krsna. There are two things. You become associate of Krsna, or you become associate of this material world. So if you do not become associate of Krsna, then the next step is this association of material world. And association of material world means accepting one type of body and enjoy or suffer for some time; then you get another body. Mrtyu-samsara-vartmani. Now we have to make our choice, whether you want to stop this material way of life and attain the eternal spiritual life... mam upetya punar janma duhkhalayam asasvatam napnuvanti mahatmanah samsiddhim paramam gatah If you get the association of Krsna, then you haven't got to come here, this material world. Duhkhalayam. Krsna says it is duhkhalayam. Either you take birth in a very rich, aristocratic family, born in the upper planetary system as demigods--Brahma, Indra, Candra, like that--or you take your birth, an insignificant ant; wherever you are in material body, it is duhkhalayam. That you cannot avoid. Duhkhalayam asasvatam. And you cannot make any compromise that "Never mind it is very much miserable. I shall enjoy." So that also will not be allowed. Asasvatam. Your tendency is to live forever. So that will not be allowed. Asasvata. So this requires knowledge, intelligence, that "If I am eternal," na hanyate hanyamane sarire, "I am not destroyed even this body is destroyed," then you should seek after eternal happiness. Why temporary? That is not in your interest. That happiness is there when you go back to Krsna; otherwise not. These are the statement in the Bhagavad-gita. So if we do not try to understand the real purpose of Bhagavad-gita, and if we theorize, "Bhagavad-gita means nonviolence. Bhagavad-gita means to become patriot," these are materialism. We should avoid this wrong interpretation, misguiding direction of blind leaders. We'll not get any benefit out of it. So we are trying to rectify this. That's all. Everything is there. Any question is solved by Krsna. Politics, economics, religion, culture, philosophy--everything is discussed very thoroughly. Simply one has to understand. Then he becomes fixed up in Krsna consciousness. People are generally after yoga, especially the Westerners. I think they have come here for perfection of yoga. But here it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, mayy asakta-manah partha yogam yunjan mad-asrayah. That is first class, to increase your attachment for Krsna. Mayy asakta-manah partha yogam yunjan. This is yoga, how to increase the attachment for Krsna. This is called bhakti-yoga. So this yoga can be practiced--mayy asakta-manah par..., yogam, mad-asrayah, not anyone's other's asraya. Mad-asrayah. Taking shelter of Krsna or taking shelter of Krsna's personal person, personal associates, mat-para. Mat-para means one who has dedicated his life for Krsna. He is called mat-para. Or directly under Krsna. Directly under Krsna is difficult. Because we do not understand Krsna, therefore we have to take shelter of a person who is already under the shelter of Krsna. Indian man (1): Mat-para people are very seldom available. Prabhupada: No. How do you know? If you do not know what is the meaning of mat-para, how you can say "seldom"? Do you know what is mat-para? Unless you know who is mat-para, how you can say like that? You have no knowledge. Mat-para means a simple thing, one who has fully surrendered to Krsna. That's all. This is very seldom? There are so many. But you have decided, "seldom." Why seldom? Here you see so many young men, our association. They are fully surrendered to Krsna. They do not know anything else than Krsna. So why it is seldom? You won't take. That is your fault. Rather, they are coming to you. They are canvassing. But you are so stubborn, you'll not take it. That is your fault. They are canvassing door to door. Why do you say, "It is seldom"? It is very easily available. But you won't take. That is your fault. Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally came, and He canvassed door to door. He sent His men door to door. We are sending all over the world. But you do not come. Mat-para is not seldom. At least at the present moment, it has become very easily available. But you take. That is your fault. (break) Ceto-darpana-marjanam. That is... Caitanya Mahaprabhu say. Ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha-davagni..., sreyah-kairava-candrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanam, anandambudhi-vardhanam. Anandambudhi. Ambudhi means sea. You do not find that the sea is increasing. But this transcendental sea of blissful life increases. Anandambudhi-vardhanam sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. Very simple thing. You take to sri-krsna-sankirtanam and see the result. Why you say it is seldom? It is very easy, but you won't take. Seldom we find the followers. Otherwise it is very cheap. Rupa Gosvami worshiped Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu with these words, namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te krsnaya krsna-caitanya- namne gaura-tvise namah "My Lordship, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, You are the most magnanimous person of charity." Why? Now, krsna-prema-pradaya: "One cannot understand Krsna, and You are directly delivering love of Krsna." It is not seldom. If you want to love somebody, you must know him. Love is not with the air. If you want to love somebody, then you must know what he is and why should I love him. So nobody can understand Krsna. Where is the question of love? If you do not understand what is Krsna, the question of loving Him does not arise. But here Caitanya Mahaprabhu is giving directly love of Krsna. That means Krsna understanding is automatically--finished. Therefore He is addressed as the most magnanimous. So it is not at all seldom. As the age is fallen, the most magnanimous incarnation is Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and He is giving directly Krsna, Krsna-prema. You take it. Why don't you take it? It is not seldom. You do not like to take it. That is the disease. And that is asraddadhana. There is no sraddha. Asraddadhanah purusah, mam aprapya. How you can get Krsna? There is no sraddha. Therefore they must suffer in the cycle of birth and death. Nivartante mrtyu-samsara. So you voluntarily accept this cycle of birth; you don't accept Krsna. Then who can help you? If you have decided to cut your own throat, how can I help you? You'll do it. Whenever you'll get opportunity, you'll cut your throat. How much I can give you protection? That is going on. They have no faith in the words of Krsna. They'll manufacture ideas. It is not "seldom." It is my dog's obstinacy that is checking. We cannot give up. Krsna has..., sarva-dharman parityajya. That you cannot do. You want to keep in the same position, and at the same time, you want to understand Krsna. That is not possible. In this Hrishikesh, tirtha-ksetra, everyone comes to get some spiritual enlightenment, but who is talking of Krsna? Am I right? And there is Gita-bhavan, Gita this, Gita that. What is that "Gita"? Gita commentation. Nobody's interested. They don't like to hear even about Krsna. This is the position. So mat-para is not seldom. (laughs) The followers are seldom. But Krsna says, mat-para. "If you want to practice this yoga..." Mayy asakta-manah partha yogam... This is yoga. Imam vivasvate yogam proktavan aham avyayam. This is real yoga. So nobody's interested. Then what can be done? My Guru Maharaja used to say that "If one is selling langlam(?), and he's canvassing, 'Please come here. Take langlam. There is no price for it,' then people will not take. 'Why langlam he's distributing free?' " So that is the position. We are going to door to door: "Take Krsna." They think, "It is very cheap thing. What is the use? Let us practice some other yoga." Krsna says, yoginam api sarvesam. We don't take. So langlam is not seldom, but the person who take langlam is seldom. This is the difficulty. Krsna says, "By this practice of yoga..." Aiye. mayy asakta-manah partha yogam yunjan mad-asrayah asamsayam samagram mam yatha jnasyasi tac chrnu (indistinct) He says, "How you can understand Me perfectly," samagram, "and," asamsayam, "without any doubt." So Krsna is speaking about Him, which is without any doubt and without any difficulty, in fullness, but who is hearing Him? That is seldom. Otherwise Krsna has become very easily available. Namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te. Even krsna-prema. But we won't take. Is it seldom? Indian man (1): Our fault. Prabhupada: Hm? Yes. Indian man (1): Our fault. Prabhupada: It is our fault we won't take. A man has fallen in the blind well, and he's crying, "Save me! Save me!" and when somebody comes and gives him a rope--"You catch it. I shall lift you"--but he'll not touch it. Then who can save him? The rope is there, the man is there, and he is crying, but when we request that "You take it," he won't take. Aiye. So how he can be saved? And Krsna said, mad-asrayah. But he'll not take mad-asrayah. He'll take asraya of something else. This is the position. Mayy asakta-manah partha. People are harassed to understand God, whether there is God or not God, who is God. When I first went to America, the theory was going that "God is dead." And what was the... Tamala Krsna: There was a newspaper... Prabhupada: Paper... Yes? Tamala Krsna: When Prabhupada first did the first public kirtana, they said that "We thought God is dead, but now we see that Swami Bhaktivedanta has made God alive again." Prabhupada: This was the first remark. Then, gradually, these boys joined. They were after God, but they were given to understand that "God is dead. Now you take LSD." So the... God is speaking: mayy asakta-manah partha yogam yunjan mad-asrayah asamsayam samagram mam yatha jnasyasi tac chrnu "Take perfect knowledge of God from Me." Why don't you do that? Boliye. What is the reason? Boliye, Swamiji. When God is speaking that "You take from Me perfect and complete knowledge of God," so why don't you take it? Indian man (1): We are still attached to material side. Prabhupada: Whatever it may be, but we are denying. Is it not? When... Suppose a big man. You do not know what he is. But if the man says, "You want to know me? All right, I shall disclose all my secrets to you. Try to understand." So why don't you..., do not take it? If you want to know the person, and the person is explaining himself, why don't you take it? Why theorize that "God is like this. God is like this"? What is the meaning? When the person has come to explain about himself... Asamsayam samagram mam yatha jnasyasi tac chrnu: "Hear." Hearing is the process of knowledge. Therefore our Vedas are called sruti. The knowledge has to be acquired through ear. My Guru Maharaja used to say that "Don't try to see a sadhu by your eyes. You try to see a sadhu by ears." Karne sadhu dekhi. (Hindi) Tavac ca sobhate murkhah yavat kincin na bhasate. (Hindi) For real perfect knowledge, one has to hear. Srotriyam brahma-nistham. Tad-vijnanartham sa gurum eva abhigacchet, srotriyam brahma-nistham. Sabde pare ca nisnatam brahmany upasamasrayam. That is guru. One who has heard perfectly from the authority, he is guru. Tasmad gurum prapadyeta jijnasuh sreya uttamam. And who is guru? Sabde pare ca nisnatam brahmany upasamasrayam. Everything direction is there. tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya upadeksyanti te jnanam jnaninas tattva-darsinah So about from... Apart from sastra, the vedanta-krt, vedanta-vit, Krsna, He is speaking. Asamsayam samagram mam yatha jnasyasi tac chrnu: "Just hear." And He's vedanta-vit, vedanta-krt. He knows what is Vedanta, and He has compiled Vedanta, and He is ready to speak. We don't hear Krsna. How much unfortunate we are. (aside:) Here. Indian man (2): (Hindi) Prabhupada: (Hindi) (Hindi conversation) So naturally he'll be averse to maya. He's no more interested. (Hindi) This is the test. Krsna-bhaktih paresanubhavah. (Hindi) There is no need of separate endeavor. (Hindi) The first line Krsna says that asocyan anvasocas tvam prajna-vadams ca bhasase, gatasun agatasums ca nanusocanti. (Hindi) (Hindi conversation) Find out this, tesam evanukampartham, mrtyu-samsara-sagarat. (Hindi) Read it. Tamala Krsna: tesam aham samuddharta mrtyu-samsara-sagarat bhavami na cirat partha mayy avesita-cetasam Prabhupada: No. Tesam evanukampartham. Tamala Krsna: tesam evanukampartham aham ajnana-jam tamah nasayamy atma-bhava-stho jnana-dipena bhasvata "Out of compassion for them, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance." Prabhupada: Is there any purport? Tamala Krsna: Yes, Srila Prabhupada. Purport by Srila Prabhupada: "When..." (break) Prabhupada: So let us stop today. Somebody kirtana. (kirtana begins) (end) [Evening Darsana May 13, 1977, Hrishikesh]

So where are you located on the map of spiritual life? Can you identify your true location without a GPS -(Gaudiya Positioning System)? If you think you're on top when in fact you're not will that help you get closer to the goal of Krsna prema?

Guru is Always There S.B.Class at New Talavan, Miss., USA on 17-05-1994 If guru passes away...but he has eye on his dear disciple. What he does? He takes care. He appears in the form of sadhu, sastra. In the form of sadhu and sastra he appears. where the disciple is staying, nearby if some qualified sadhu vaisnava is there, he empowers him and he teaches through him. That guru is there. Yes. Eternal. "I am eternally his disciple, he is eternally my master." Fools cannot understand, "Oh no more, my guru is gone, gone. I can act anything. I can do anything." Then you hear your stupid mind. Now you become hippy, long hair, big mustache and drinking liquor, "O my guru has passed away. No more. Prabhupada is no more." What happened, such condition?! Fools, isn't it? So many Prabhupada's diciples; seeing them my heart cracks...Fools.Fools. Guru is always there, always there. He takes care. He takes care, yes. He has...if you are serious, if you are really crying for the help of guru he is always there, "O my guru has gone, I am independent now. I can act anything." Then you have become servant of your stupid mind, godas, go das. You are not using the weapon given to you by Guru. You have lost it. Understood? ...Guru is there. He slaps me. Do you understand? If you have vision(then) you can see. And if you are really crying in your heart for the help of guru he is always there. But fools cannot understand it. They cannot understand it. "Guru is gone, no more, nobody to inflict discipline on me. I am independent. I can do whatever I like." Then you become dasa of your stupid mind. Hearing the prompting of the stupid mind, he then falls down. Now he is hippy, again hippy...

Srila Gour Govinda Swami: "The sad-guru or Sri Guru is an eternal associate of the Lord. When he disappears he enters into the nitya-lila of the Lord and goes to the abode of Krsna. But if he has accepted someone as his disciple, and if he has not rejected that disciple, then he is responsible for taking that disciple to the lotus feet of Krsna. As we speak of sad-guru, similarly there is sat-sisya. As it is very difficult to find a sad-guru, it is similarly difficult to find a sat-sisya, a true disciple." "One who is very, very eager and very, very inquisitive, prays to his spiritual master, "Oh my spiritual master, you have departed. You are not physically present, so I cannot understand. I am such an ignorant fool. I have no qualification. Though your instructions are there, I cannot understand what you have said. Please help me." In Another Form So guru will also come, but not in the same form. He may come in the form of a sadhu, a very dear devotee, who is also very dear to your spiritual master. Through him this will be revealed. Doubts will be cleared. Through him you will be able to understand tattva, purport. You should think, "My guru is teaching me, he is speaking to me in this form." Don’t think, "My guru is not here. He has departed. What shall I do?" Pray fervently to your spiritual master. He must help you. We have personal experience. We have been helped in this way. " from :- The Worship of Sri Guru, 'Sri Guru My Eternal Master.'

- Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura - Jaiva Dharma - Chapter 12 entitled "Nitya Dharma": Conditioned souls in human bodies display three stages of consciousness: 1. budding consciousness 2. blossoming consciousness 3. fully blossomed consciousness. There are five kinds of human beings: 1. immoral people 2. atheists who follow moral principles 3. people who believe in God and follow moral principles 4. people engaged in practical devotional service (sadhana-bhakti) 5. people engaged in loving devotional service (bhava-bhakti). Thus the categories are: people who because of ignorance or because of improper knowledge become atheists, the immoral people, the moral atheists, the moral people who have a little faith in God, the people who believe in God, the people who, following the rules of the scriptures, engage in sadhana-bhakti (devotional service in practice), and the people who have attained love for God and thus engage in bhava-bhakti. The immoral people and the two kinds of atheists are situated in the stage of budding consciousness. The people who believe in God and the people engaged in sadhana-bhakti are situated in the stage of blossoming consciousness, and the people engaged in bhava-bhakti are situated in the stage of fully blossomed consciousness. "When a soul wandering from one species to another in the material world sees a Vaisnava filled with the nectar of devotion to Lord Hari, he becomes attracted to follow that Vaisnavas. By chanting the holy names of Lord Krsna, that soul gradually renounces materialism, and in the end he regains his original spiritual form. In that form he enjoys the pure and sweet nectar of the spiritual mellows of direct service to Lord Krsna." When one is released from Maya's prison, that is called 'liberation'. To attain liberation one must associate with saintly devotees of the Lord. When he attains liberation, the soul regains its original spiritual glory. That kind of liberation should be sought. In Srimad Bhagavatam (2.10.6) it is said: "Liberation is the permanent situation of the form of the living entity after he gives up the changeable gross and subtle material bodies." When the soul is released from Maya's prison, at the moment he is at once liberated. However, when he is thus situated in his original form, the soul begins to perform an endless series of spiritual activities. The soul's first need is to perform these duties. It may be said that liberation puts an end to a great host of sufferings. However, beyond that, liberation brings with it spiritual bliss.This is described in the following words of Chandogya Upanisad (8.12.3): "Then the soul leaves the material body and goes to the effulgent Supreme Personality of Godhead. The soul then regains his original spiritual form and in that form he enjoys many pastimes, eating and playing with the Supreme Personality of Godhead."

Dear Beloved Devotees: Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to H.H. Bhakti-tirtha Swami Maharaja. Please accept our apologies for not keeping you updated; however from now on, we will update you once a week. Because it had been raining, the weather was cold, and the Institute House is simply too small to accommodate many devotees, Gurudeva asked to be driven to the Temple on Sunday to give the afternoon class in spite of his extremely delicate physical condition and in spite of many requests that he not do so. Fortunately, the roads were somewhat repaired to reduce Gurudeva's physical discomfort. At the Temple, Gurudeva gave a beautiful class, along with H.H. Candramauli Swami and H.H. Kavicandra Swami. Gurudeva read his prayer, "Live Until Dying" and spoke of devotees in sastra who are immortal (ciran jivas) and of pastimes in which a devotee was brought back from death (mrta sanjivani); he also mentioned two other categories: those who remember their previous lives and those who can determine the time of their own death. Gurudeva didn't speak for very long and towards the end, seemed to experience shortness of breath. As Gurudeva was carried back to the car, a godsister of his sang softly and sweetly. Gurudeva's act of love for the devotees left many of us feeling quite emotional. Gurudeva has grown increasingly internal and devotees are working hard to minimize noise and disturbances to facilitate Gurudeva's needs at this time. Gurudeva spends quite a lot of time hearing and viewing Vrindavana pastimes and parikramas from various devotees. Personal visits and telephone calls have been greatly reduced as these are so tiring for him; however, he keeps in contact with Godsiblings through emails, which he has read to him once a day. Gurudeva had been receiving radiation treatments daily at a nearby hospital; however, after weighing out the pros and cons of this treatment, Gurudeva decided to stop it altogether. His eating is steadily decreasing, and he follows a strict diet to minimize undesirable symptoms; his many cooks have been successfully employing their creativity to cook diverse preparations with the few permissible ingredients. Devotees staying at the Temple have also had chances to clean the Institute House and a few experienced devotees have even gotten to massage Gurudeva, a crucial service at this time. Thank to Maryland/DC devotees (and others) who have been so generously donating bhoga, supplements, and other needed items. Thanks to all devotees who have so lovingly cared for the caregivers and to those Maryland devotees who cooked a sumptuous Sunday feast. We are also so grateful to the Gita-nagari devotees who have been so warmly caring for and accommodating many guests and visitors. Hare Krishna. Your servants, Caretakers of H.H. Bhakti-tirtha Swami ************************* My path is very difficult. I am blind, and my feet are slipping again and again. Therefore, may the saints help me by granting me the stick of their mercy as my support. - Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami

"Prabhupada: So Lord Caitanya's sampradaya. (laughter) That is my joy, that we have now a sampradaya, a party of Lord Caitanya in the Western country. That is my success. That's all. I have no value--insignificant--but somehow or other you cooperated, and you are still cooperating, and you are still cooperating as Lord Caitanya's sampradaya. That is my life. Thank you very much." (Begins playing kartals, ecstatic kirtana follows) Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 07-04-70, San Francisco /images/graemlins/cool.gif /images/graemlins/cool.gif /images/graemlins/cool.gif

Guru is Always There S.B.Class at New Talavan, Miss., USA on 17-05-1994 Devotee: Seeing as Guru's discipline is required to control the stupid mind, what should the disciple do when the Guru passes away (to get that instruction)? Srila Gour Govinda Swami:You are a fool! (To think Guru passes away). Guru is always with the disciple. That is only apparent guru passed away. Not that Guru is not there. Guru is always there. Yes. "I am eternally his disciple, he is eternally my Guru." Yes. Such relationship is there. It is only apparent that he passed away. We have such loving relationship. Though he is not present here, he's gone, went back to Godhead ; from that land, Vraja Bhumi, nitya Goloka Vrndavana, he has eye on his dear disciple, takes care: 'Caksu dan dilo yei, janme janme prabhu sei', One who has opened my eyes, he's my Master life after life - why not this life?

DEVOTIONAL SERVICE IN IGNORANCE TRANSLATION. Devotional service executed by a person who is envious, proud, violent and angry, and who is a separatist, is considered to be in the mode of darkness. PURPORT. It has already been stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto, Second Chapter, that the highest, most glorious religion is the attainment of causeless, unmotivated devotional service. In pure devotional service, the only motive should be to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is not actually a motive; that is the pure condition of the living entity. In the conditioned stage, when one engages in devotional service, he should follow the instruction of the bona fide spiritual master in full surrender. The spiritual master is the manifested representation of the Supreme Lord because he receives and presents the instructions of the Lord, as they are, by disciplic succession. It is described in Bhagavad-Gita that the teachings therein should be received by disciplic succession, otherwise there is adulteration. To act under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master with a motive to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead is pure devotional service. But if one has a motive for personal sense gratification, his devotional service is manifested differently. Such a man may be violent, proud, envious and angry, and his interests are separate from the Lord's. One who approaches the Supreme Lord to render devotional service, but who is proud of his personality, envious of others or vengeful, is in the mode of anger. He thinks that he is the best devotee. Devotional service executed in this way is not pure; it is mixed and is of the lowest grade, tamasah. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura advises that a Vaisnava who is not of good character should be avoided. A Vaisnava is one who has taken the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the ultimate goal of life, but if one is not pure and still has motives, then he is not a Vaisnava of the first order of good character. One may offer his respects to such a Vaisnava because he has accepted the Supreme Lord as the ultimate goal of life, but one should not keep company with a Vaisnava who is in the mode of ignorance. (S.B. 3.29.8) DEVOTIONAL SERVICE IN PASSION TRANSLATION. The worship of Deities in the temple by a separatist, with a motive for material enjoyment, fame and opulence, is devotion in the mode of passion. PURPORT. The word "separatist" must be understood carefully. The Sanskrit words in this connection are bhinna-drk and prthag-bhavah. A separatist is one who sees his interest as separate from that of the Supreme Lord. Mixed devotees, or devotees in the modes of passion and ignorance, think that the interest of the Supreme Lord is supplying the orders of the devotee; the interest of such devotees is to draw from the Lord as much as possible for their sense gratification. This is the separatist mentality. Actually, pure devotion is explained in the previous chapter: the mind of the Supreme Lord and the mind of the devotee should be dovetailed. A devotee should not wish anything but to execute the desire of the Supreme. That is oneness. When the devotee has an interest or will different from the interest of the Supreme Lord, his mentality is that of a separatist. When the so-called devotee desires material enjoyment, without reference to the interest of the Supreme Lord, or he wants to become famous or opulent by utilising the mercy or grace of the Supreme Lord, he is in the mode of passion. Mayavadis, however, interpret this word "separatist" in a different way. They say that while worshipping the Lord, one should think himself one with the Supreme Lord. This is another adulterated form of devotion within the modes of material nature. The conception that the living entity is one with the Supreme is in the mode of ignorance. Oneness is actually based on oneness of interest. A pure devotee has no interest but to act on behalf of the Supreme Lord. When one has even a tinge of personal interest, his devotion is mixed with the three modes of material nature. (S.B. 3.29.9) Devotional service in goodness TRANSLATION. When a devotee worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead and offers the results of his activities in order to free himself from the inebrieties of fruitive activities, his devotion is in the mode of goodness. PURPORT. The brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas and sudras, along with the brahmacaris, grhasthas, vanaprasthas and sannyasis, are the members of the eight divisions of varnas and asramas, and they have their respective duties to perform for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When such activities are performed and the results are offered to the Supreme Lord, they are called karmarpanam, duties performed for the satisfaction of the Lord. If there is any inebriety or fault, it is atoned for by this offering process. But if this offering process is in the mode of goodness rather than in pure devotion, then the interest is different. The four asramas and the four varnas act for some benefit in accordance with their personal interests. Therefore such activities are in the mode of goodness; they cannot be counted in the category of pure devotion. Pure devotional service as described by Rupa Gosvami is free from all material desires. Anyabhilasita-sunyam. There can be no excuse for personal or material interest. Devotional activities should be transcendental to fruitive activities and empiric philosophical speculation. Pure devotional service is transcendental to all material qualities. Devotional service in the modes of ignorance, passion and goodness can be divided into eighty-one categories. There are different devotional activities, such as hearing, chanting, remembering, worshipping, offering prayer, rendering service and surrendering everything, and each of them can be divided into three qualitative categories. There is hearing in the mode of passion, in the mode of ignorance and in the mode of goodness. Similarly, there is chanting in the mode of ignorance, passion and goodness, etc. Three multiplied by nine equals twenty-seven, and when again multiplied by three it becomes eighty-one. One has to transcend all such mixed materialistic devotional service in order to reach the standard of pure devotional service, as explained in the next verses. (S.B. 3.29.10) Pure devotional service TRANSLATION. The manifestation of unadulterated devotional service is exhibited when one's mind is at once attracted to hearing the transcendental name and qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is residing in everyone's heart. Just as the water of the Ganges flows naturally down towards the ocean, such devotional ecstasy, uninterrupted by any material condition, flows towards the Supreme Lord. PURPORT. The basic principle of this unadulterated, pure devotional service is love of Godhead. Mad-guna-sruti-matrena means "just after hearing about the transcendental qualities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead." These qualities are called nirguna. The Supreme Lord is uncontaminated by the modes of material nature; therefore He is attractive to the pure devotee. There is no need to practice meditation to attain such attraction; the pure devotee is already in the transcendental stage, and the affinity between him and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is natural and is compared to the Ganges water flowing towards the sea. The flow of the Ganges water cannot be stopped by any condition; similarly, a pure devotee's attraction for the transcendental name, form and pastimes of the Supreme Godhead cannot be stopped by any material condition. The word avicchinna, "without interruptions," is very important in this connection. No material condition can stop the flow of the devotional service of a pure devotee. The word ahaituki means "without reason." A pure devotee does not render loving service to the Personality of Godhead for any cause or for any benefit, material or spiritual. This is the first symptom of unalloyed devotion. Anyabhilasita-sunyam: he has no desire to fulfil by rendering devotional service. Such devotional service is meant for the purusottama, the Supreme Personality, and not for anyone else. Sometimes pseudo devotees show devotion to many demigods, thinking the forms of the demigods to be the same as the Supreme Personality of Godhead's form. It is specifically mentioned herein, however, that bhakti, devotional service, is meant only for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, Visnu, or Krsna, not for anyone else. Avyavahita means "without cessation." A pure devotee must engage in the service of the Lord twenty-four hours a day, without cessation; his life is so moulded that at every minute and every second he engages in some sort of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Another meaning of the word avyavahita is that the interest of the devotee and the interest of the Supreme Lord are on the same level. The devotee has no interest but to fulfil the transcendental desire of the Supreme Lord. Such spontaneous service unto the Supreme Lord is transcendental and is never contaminated by the material modes of nature. These are the symptoms of pure devotional service, which is free from all contamination of material nature. (S.B. 3.29.11) The process of bhakti-yoga, devotional service, is the main river flowing down towards the sea of the Absolute Truth, and all other processes mentioned are just like tributaries. Lord Kapila is summarising the importance of the process of devotional service. Bhakti-yoga, as described before, is divided into four divisions, three in the material modes of nature and one in transcendence, which is untinged by the modes of material nature. Devotional service mixed with the modes of material nature is a means for material existence, whereas devotional service without desires for fruitive result and without attempts for empirical philosophical research is pure, transcendental devotional service. (S.B. 3.32.37) Mixed devotees and pure devotees "O best among the Bharatas [Arjuna], four kinds of pious men render devotional service unto Me--the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute." (Bg. 7.16) When these four types of people amass righteous activities, they come to the devotional service of the Lord. Out of these four, those who are distressed and those who desire wealth are called devotees with desires, whereas the other two, the inquisitive and the searcher for wisdom, are seekers of liberation. Because they worship Krsna, they are all considered to be very fortunate. In due course of time, if they give up all desires and become pure devotees of the Supreme Lord, they can be considered most fortunate. Such fortunate beginners can develop only in the association of pure devotees of Lord Krsna. When one associates with pure devotees, he becomes a pure devotee himself. (T.L.C. 161p) On the whole, when the distressed, the inquisitive, the seekers of knowledge, and those who are in need of money are free from all material desires, and when they fully understand that material remuneration has nothing to do with spiritual improvement, they become pure devotees. As long as such a purified stage is not attained, devotees in transcendental service to the Lord are tainted with fruitive activities, the search for mundane knowledge, etc. So one has to transcend all this before one can come to the stage of pure devotional service. (B.G. 7.16) In the Skanda Purana it is said that those who are attached to ritualistic activities, the four orders of social life and the four orders of spiritual life, are considered devotees. But when devotees are actually engaged in offering service to the Lord directly, these must be bhagavatas, or pure devotees. Those who are engaged in fruitive activities, or prescribed duties according to the four orders of social and spiritual life, are not actually pure devotees. But still, because they are offering the result to the Lord, they are accepted as devotees. When one has no such desire, but acts spontaneously out of love of God, such a person must be accepted as a pure devotee. (N.O.D Chapter 11) The sun rays are open to everyone, but the capacities of the receptacles differ. Foolish people think that devotional service is flattering the Lord to get special mercy. Factually the pure devotees who are engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord are not a mercantile community. A mercantile house renders service to someone in exchange for values. The pure devotee does not render service unto the Lord for such exchange, and therefore the full mercy of the Lord is open for him. Suffering and needy men, inquisitive persons or philosophers make temporary connections with the Lord to serve a particular purpose. When the purpose is served, there is no more relation with the Lord. A suffering man, if he is pious at all, prays to the Lord for his recovery. But as soon as the recovery is over, in most cases the suffering man no longer cares to keep any connection with the Lord. The mercy of the Lord is open for him, but he is reluctant to receive it. That is the difference between a pure devotee and a mixed devotee. Those who are completely against the service of the Lord are considered to be in abject darkness, those who ask for the Lord's favour only at the time of necessity are partial recipients of the mercy of the Lord, and those who are cent percent engaged in the service of the Lord are full recipients of the mercy of the Lord. Such partiality in receiving the Lord's mercy is relative to the recipient, and it is not due to the partiality of the all-merciful Lord. (S.B. 1.8.29) Anyone engaged in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as a devotee, but there is a distinction between pure devotees and mixed devotees. A mixed devotee engages in devotional service for the spiritual benefit of being eternally engaged in the transcendental abode of the Lord in full bliss and knowledge. In material existence, when a devotee is not completely purified, he expects material benefit from the Lord in the form of relief from material miseries, or he wants material gain, advancement in knowledge of the relationship between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entity, or knowledge as to the real nature of the Supreme Lord. When a person is transcendental to these conditions, he is called a pure devotee. He does not engage himself in the service of the Lord for any material benefit or for understanding of the Supreme Lord. His one interest is that he loves the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and he spontaneously engages in satisfying Him. The highest example of pure devotional service is that of the gopis in Vrindavana. They are not interested in understanding Krsna, but only in loving Him. That platform of love is the pure state of devotional service. Unless one is advanced to this pure state of devotional service, there is a tendency to desire elevation to a higher material position. A mixed devotee may desire to enjoy a comfortable life on another planet with a greater span of life, such as on Brahmaloka. These are material desires, but because a mixed devotee engages in the service of the Lord, ultimately, after many, many lives of material enjoyment, he undoubtedly develops Krsna consciousness, and the symptom of this Krsna consciousness is that he is no longer interested in any sort of materially elevated life. He does not even aspire to become a personality like Lord Brahma. (S.B. 3.27.27) Prabhupada: No, for the human society. Not for the birds, beasts. But they follow nature's law. But this rascal violates nature's law and suffers. Yadubara: What about for the devotees, Srila Prabhupada? Sometimes they are very sick, have so many... Prabhupada: Devotees.... To become devotee is not so cheap thing. You don't think that because you have got a tilaka you have become devotee. Why do you think like that? Pusta Krsna: Jaya Prabhupada. Prabhupada: That Bhaktivinoda Thakura, eita eka kalira chela, nake tilaka, galaya mala:(?) "Here is another follower of Kali. He has got tilaka and mala." Sahaja bhajana kacen mamu, sanga laiya parera wala (?): "He is worshiping, bhajana, taking another's wife." Sahaja bhajana kacen mamu, sanga laiya parera wala, ei ta eka kalira chela: "Here is a servant of Kali. Simply he has changed his dress with tilaka and mala." Bhaktivinoda Thakura says. If you take tilaka and mala and do all nonsense things, then you are not a devotee. You are Kali-chela. To become a devotee is not so easy thing. Atreya Rsi: Devotee means perfect. Prabhupada: Oh, yes. Certainly. Devotee means sa gunan samatityaitan brahma-bhuyaya kalpate. He is above these material laws. That is devotee. Brahma-bhuyaya kalpate. He is in the Brahman stage. That is devotee. If you take.... That means sahajiya. "Because I have got a tilaka and mala, I have become devotee." This kind of cheating will not do. (M.W.C. Delhi 25th March, 1976) Prabhupada: (break) ...difference between animal and man. Therefore if one is not spiritually advanced or has no spiritual sense, he's animal. He is not human being. Sa eva go-kharah. The verdict is already there. Sa eva go-kharah. He is nothing, no better than the cows and asses. Devotee (3): Often the devotee thinks that he's more unhappy than the karmis because he knows he's unhappy. Prabhupada: Then that means he is not a devotee. Devotee (3): He's not a devotee. Prabhupada: Yes. He's not devotee. Devotee means the first sign will be happy, brahma-bhutah prasannatma. If he's not prasannatma, he's a rascal. He has not entered even devotional life. He's outside. That is the test. Just like Dhruva Maharaja. When he saw Visnu, he said, "Everything is all right. I don't want anything." Svamin krtartho 'smi. That is Vaisnava. And if he is still in want or unhappiness, that means he has no spiritual life at all. He is simply making a show. (M.W.C. Melbourne 24th April, 1976) The self realized soul TRANSLATION. Because he has achieved his real identity, the perfectly realized soul has no conception of how the material body is moving or acting, just as an intoxicated person cannot understand whether or not he has clothing on his body. PURPORT. This stage of life is explained by Rupa Gosvami in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu. A person whose mind is completely dovetailed with the desire of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and who engages one hundred percent in the service of the Lord, forgets his material bodily demands. (S.B. 3.28.37) Herein the word sva-drstavadbhih is very significant. One who has actually realized his self realizes the transcendental form of one's self. Impersonal realization of self and the Supreme is not complete, because it is just an opposite conception of material personalities. The Personality of Godhead and the personalities of devotees of the Lord are all transcendental; they do not have material bodies. (S.B. 2.9.9) In the Brahma-samhita (5.38) it is stated that when one's eyes are smeared with love of Krsna (premanjana-cchurita), he always sees Krsna, outside and inside. This is confirmed here; one should be freed from all other vision, and in that way he is freed from the false egoistic identification and sees himself as the eternal servitor of the Lord. Caksusevarkam: as we can see the sun without a doubt, one who is fully developed in Krsna consciousness sees Krsna and His energy. By this vision one becomes atma-drk, or self-realized. When the false ego of identifying the body with the self is removed, actual vision of life is perceivable. The senses, therefore, also become purified. Real service of the Lord begins when the senses are purified. (S.B. 3.27.10) There are five different rasas or humors, in which we are eternally related with the Supreme Lord. And when we are actually in the liberated stage of all knowledge, we can understand that "Our relationship with the Lord is in this way." That is called svarupa-siddhi. That is real self- realization. That is real self-realization. Everyone has an eternal relationship with the Lord, either in the conception of master and servant, or in the conception of friend and friend, or in the conception of parents and the child, or in the conception of husband and wife, or in the conception of paramour and lover, and the beloved. So these relationships are there eternally. (B.G. Lecture 6.1-4, New York, 2nd September, 1966) When one engages in the transcendental devotional service of the Lord one becomes aware that his constitutional position, as an individual soul, is to be eternally a servitor of the Supreme Lord, Vasudeva. Self-realization does not mean that because the Supreme Soul and the individual soul are both souls they are equal in every respect. The individual soul is prone to be conditioned, and the Supreme Soul is never conditioned. When the conditioned soul realizes that he is subordinate to the Supreme Soul, his position is called labdhatma, self-realization, or mukta-bandhana, freedom from material contamination. (S.B. 3.24.45) This is God consciousness, Krsna consciousness, or self-realization. Self-realization means either you see yourself or see the Supreme Lord, either way. But without seeing the Supreme Lord, you cannot see yourself. Just like without seeing the sun in the darkness...Just like it is now night. There is no sun. So I cannot see also. In darkness I cannot see also myself. But when there is sun in the morning, I can see the sun and I can see myself also. (B.G. Lecture 7.1, 27th April, 1974, Hyderabad) Pure self-realization, as we have several times discussed, is the pure consciousness of admitting oneself to be the eternal servitor of the Lord. Thus one is reinstated in his original position of transcendental loving service to the Lord, as will be clearly explained in the following verse. This stage of rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord without any hopes of emolument from the Lord, or any other way, can be attained when the material senses are purified and the original pure state of the senses is revived. (S.B. 2.2.30) Actual self-realization means becoming a pure devotee of the Lord. The existence of a devotee implies the function of devotion and the object of devotion. Self-realization ultimately means to understand the Personality of Godhead and the living entities; to know the individual self and the reciprocal exchanges of loving service between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entity is real self-realization. This cannot be attained by the impersonalists or other transcendentalists; they cannot understand the science of devotional service. Devotional service is revealed to the pure devotee by the unlimited causeless mercy of the Lord. (S.B. 3.27-28-29)

All the time, non-stop, without cessation, forever more, On and on and on...the Holy Name has taken root in the citta/heart and manifests it's full glory as Krsna Himself- dancing and playing the 5th note on His Venu... There is nothing but Krsna and His divine lila.

23/04/05, Bhakti-Tirtha Swami sets the stage for his final offering Dear Maharajas, Prabhus and disciples Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. This is probably the penultimate special message of wisdom from the ground hog aka the beggar aka spiritual warrior. So let this prepare you for the ultimate message. (smile) You can see that this kind of communication that I am doing must actually come to a stop. Firstly because it is natural, for I definitely have to get out of this body sometime in the near future, but also because if I am not careful, this sort of communication could become my biggest failure. Just consider how every time I send out some of these messages, so many nice devotees all around the world write and call and offer me kindness and praise. Yes, this is wonderful but can you see all the danger in this? One of Maya’s most special tricks is to get the devotee who has acquired some little achievement to start thinking, ‘just see, I am an advanced devotee.’ For instance, if I’m not careful and if I let myself start thinking in this way, then when the helpers come to take me out of the body they’ll take me straight to Brahmaloka or some place of this nature. They’ll say, ‘this was your final test and you accepted certain adoration and glorification as your own, therefore go ahead and enjoy now for 311 trillion years managing your own planet or universe.’ Isn’t Maya just so tricky? (Smile) When Vasudeva the leper was healed by Krishna he prayed very intensely ‘please do not let me become proud’. When the great devotee Madhavendra Puri was called out by the pujari and the deity Ksira-Cora Gopinatha he was so eager to avoid praise. We’ve never heard of devotees like Narottama Dasa Thakur, Bhaktivinode Thakur or our Srila Prabhupada (we can go on and on and on), being in a mood of arrogance. They were constantly writing and praying, addressing how they do not have love of God and how they are unqualified in so many areas etc. Anyway, what I’m writing now is for my own edification and purification and maybe for yours as well. Devotees like me, in one sense have no qualification in practically any area but have received blessings by causeless mercy. However, pride manifesting as pratistha (a desire for fame) is a serious enemy. When I had my amputation I offered up a sacrifice. I offered that a substantial quantity of pain that some of the women, children, elders, brahmins, and cows etc in our movement had suffered, could be absorbed in my extremely deteriorated leg and that when the leg was amputated, as it was thrown away from my own body, that there would also be some elimination of this unhealthy karma from the body of our institution. So now today in a similar spirit I want to offer in sacrifice all the rest of what remains with this body. In other words, I fully want to present myself to the Lord in the mood of Saranagati – full surrender. ‘Thy will be done, so please use me in this last way to make an ultimate sacrifice for those devotees, saints and sadhus who are having seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their own spiritual journey.’ I would like to also make it specific, particularly focusing on forgiveness. The duty of a brahmana is to culture the quality of forgiveness, which is illuminating like the sun. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, is pleased with those who are forgiving. (SB 9.15.40) All of us have so many people who we’ve interacted with who have hurt us in different ways. Just to exist, or to be engaged in any type of relationship means we’re going to be hurt by someone and we’re going to hurt someone. We all have people who we need to forgive and there are so many people who need to forgive us. Sometimes the person we have the greatest difficulty forgiving is ourselves. Why am I bringing up forgiveness and resentment? Because I am noticing that it is a very serious issue. I am especially sending this message out to those children who’ve been abused. In the USA for example, the statistics show that 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 5 boys have been sexually abused and unfortunately most of these kinds of abuse are done by the people who are actually supposed to be their protectors or overseers etc. So this is a global problem of people being abused and hurt by their fathers, uncles, brothers, mothers, sisters, Doctors, counsellors and all other types of mentors. In other words this is so unfortunate and is never to be justified, but it has gone on everywhere on this planet. And surely each institution, community and family must find more ways to minimise so much of the suffering that people are experiencing through these abuses and traumas. Some may say what right do I have to ask others to forgive, but I can assure you that by being born in a minority body, (without the active presence of my father) and going through all the ranks of ISKCON, I surely have my history of all kinds of abuses. Let’s get right to the point. A) Forgiveness does not mean: i) That what happened to you was your fault ii) It doesn’t mean that you allow those who hurt you or any others to continue the abuse iii) It doesn’t even mean that you have to forget as sometimes we have to remember the past so that it doesn’t repeat itself and often we have to learn from the past while we look and plan for the future. iv) That what happened as horrible as it was, really wasn’t so bad after all B) Forgiveness does mean: i) That you stop allowing whoever hurt you so much to continue to daily hurt you by carrying this around in your mind everyday and therefore being attacked, disappointed and hurt everyday again and again. ii) That you now live for the present and the future and you stop bringing a wounded you into all of your present encounters. It is not right for you to hurt yourself or those who come around you, who you really want to give your greatest love, attention and full presence to. But when you do not forgive you keep dropping a wounded you on others day after day. iii) That you’re ready to stop giving up, denying your power everyday and being so faithless, for Krishna can use us and help us in so many ways if we do not keep shutting ourselves down with resentment. iv) That in spite of whatever else may be happening you are ready to keep looking for and accepting Krishna’s mercy which cannot happen without accessing a deeper level of compassion and sensitivity ourselves. Isn’t is true that the greatest achievers have had to deal with the greatest obstacles, and in some cases they particularly turned their obstacles into opportunities C) When we do not forgive i) It is like carrying around in your hand a bunch of hot coals and waiting for a chance to throw them at the person who hurt you. But look how you burnt you own hand waiting for the opportunity. In essence forgiveness actually does more for your own well being than for another ii) We have to ask ourselves how much suffering do those who hurt us the most have to undergo before we can release them? Must they be run over by 10 trains, chopped in to a hundred pieces or even eaten up by a pack of lions? Let’s just be honest, if we look at the lives of all the great personalities in our sastra we will see the amazing ways in which they forgave. If any of you have time, I gave a course in Mayapur in 2003 on forgiving those who hurt you the most and we talked about over 40 or so great personalities in our Vaisnava history and examined what we learnt from the amazing ways they forgave. So the groundhog aka the beggar aka spiritual warrior is praying that the ultimate sacrifice he makes in having to walk away from his body will act somewhat as a catalyst for helping us all to look closer at resentment and forgiveness. The sad thing is that most of the time we’re prone to think that we have already forgiven others. It can be a gradual process which has many levels. For example, think of the person who has hurt you the most, and now think of all the most wonderful things you can imagine happening to this person. If you are very uncomfortable with this, or if you feel too angry or uneasy hearing or seeing them, then more than likely you haven’t released this person from your consciousness. Remember that to see a Vaisnava and not be happy is an offence. (Skanda Purana) So that this beggar does not engender pride thinking that he has some special sacrifice to make or some very special wisdom to offer he will try to particularly use some of these points to look deeper at the subtleties in his own consciousness. Hopefully if you listen to the seminar on forgiveness, the wonderful pastimes about our great acaryas and how they forgave and the amazing honest sharing amongst the seminar participants, it will help you to help yourself to help others. Yours in Srila Prabhupada’s Service With Love Bhakti-Tirtha Swami

http://prabhupadaconnect.com/CauselessMercy45.html

The Form of the Sri Guru - is it spiritual?

TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS ACTUALLY RELIGION IS DIFFICULT The common religion of all classes of human beings, regardless of whosoever and whatsoever one may be, is devotional service. Even the animals may be included in devotional service to the Lord, and the best example is set by Sri Vajrangaji, or Hanuman, the great devotee of Lord Sri Rama. As we have already discussed, even the aborigines and cannibals can also be engaged in the devotional service of the Lord if they happen to be under the guidance of a genuine devotee of the Lord. Religious affiliation in terms of different countries and cultural circumstances is obviously not the common religion of the human being; rather, the basic principle is devotional service. Therefore, no one can manufacture any system of religion without the principle of devotional service to the Lord. As we find in the Sixth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, the initiator of religious principles is the Lord Himself. In Bhagavad-gita also we find that the Lord condemns all forms of religion other than that which entails the process of surrendering unto the Supreme. Any system which leads one to the devotional service of the Lord, and nothing else, is actually religion or philosophy. In the Sixth Canto we find the following statements of Yamaraja, the controller of all unfaithful living entities: “The principles of religion are initiated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and no one else, including the sages and demigods, can manufacture any such principles. Since even great sages and demigods are unauthorized to inaugurate such principles of religion, what to speak of others—the so-called mystics, demons, human beings, Vidyadharas and Charanas living in the lower planets? Twelve personalities—Brahma, Narada, Lord Shiva, Kumara, Kapila, Manu, Prahlada Maharaja, Janaka Maharaja, Bishma, Bali, Sukadeva Goswami and Yamaraja—are agents of the Lord authorized to speak and propagate the principles of religion.” (SB. 6.3.19–21) Nonviolence, etc., are necessary for misguided persons because unless one is moral and nonviolent one cannot understand the principles of religion. To understand what is actually religion is very difficult even if one is situated in the principles of morality and nonviolence. It is very confidential because as soon as one is conversant with the real principles of religion, he is at once liberated to the eternal life of bliss and knowledge. Therefore, one who is not situated in the principles of devotional service to the Lord should not pose himself as a religious leader of the innocent public. The Isopanishad emphatically forbids this nonsense. A person in ignorance of the principles of religion who therefore does nothing in the matter of religion is far better than a person who misguides others in the name of religion without reference to the factual religious principles of devotional service. Such so-called leaders of religion are sure to be condemned by Brahma and other great authorities. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the form of complete existence and transcendence, who is the liberator of the pious devotees from all distresses and the destroyer of the further advances in atheistic temperament of the nondevotee-demons. For the transcendentalists who are situated in the topmost spiritual perfection, He grants their specific destinations. (Srila Sukadeva Goswami- SB 2.4.13)

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~John Adams A belligerent state permits itself every such misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual. ~Sigmund Freud War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. ~Thomas Mann The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. ~Robert Lynd In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons. ~Herodotus Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. ~General Douglas MacArthur After each war there is a little less democracy to save. ~Brooks Atkinson I want to scare the hell out of the rest of the world. ~General Colin Powell If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator. ~George W. Bush We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other's children. ~Jimmy Carter Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men. ~Pope John Paul II If peace...only had the music and pagaentry of war, there'd be no wars. ~Sophie Kerr God hates violence. He has ordained that all men fairly possess their property, not seize it. ~Euripides Every man thinks god is on his side. ~Jean Anouilh All the gods are dead except the god of war. ~Eldridge Cleaver The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. Wars should be over in three days or less...and the American people must be all for it from the outset. ~Evan Thomas We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives...inside ourselves. ~Albert Camus The supreme excellence is to subde the armies of your enemies without even having to fight them. ~Sun Tzu From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step. ~Denis Diderot The time has come to stop beating our heads against stone walls under the illusion that we have been appointed policeman to the human race. ~Walter Lippmann It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world. ~George Washington We must recognize the chief characteristic of the modern era--a permanent state of what I call violent peace. ~Admiral James D. Watkins The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force. ~Thomas Jefferson No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war. ~Calvin Coolidge Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man has a right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has quarrel with mine, although I have none with him? ~Blaise Pascal An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war. ~Montesquieu War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. ~John F. Kennedy Most quarrels are inevitable at the time; incredible afterwards. ~E. M. Forster It is the youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow...that are the aftermath of war. ~Herbert C. Hoover There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse. ~Golda Meir The military doesn't start wars. The politicians start wars. ~General William Westmoreland It is the merit of a general to impart good news, and to conceal the truth. ~Sophocles In war, truth is the first casualty. ~Aeschylus A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. ~Oscar Wilde Man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid...There is no harm in a well-fed lion. It has no ideals, no sect, no party... ~George Bernard Shaw "My country right or wrong" is like saying, "My mother drunk or sober." ~G. K. Chesterton History is littered with wars which everybody knew would never happen. ~Enoch Powell At least we're getting the kind of experience we need for the next war. ~Allen Dulles War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it. ~Martin Luther How vile and despicable war seems to me! I would rather be hacked to pieces than take part in such an abominable business. ~Albert Einstein Have you ever thought that war is a madhouse and that everyone in the war is a patient? ~Oriana Fallaci War is the unfolding of miscalculations. ~Barbara Tuchman War is mainly a catalogue of blunders. ~Winston Churchill Hate is able to provoke disorders, to ruin a social organization, to cast a country into a period of bloody revolutions; but it produces nothing. ~Georges Sorel We are all familiar with the argument: Make war dreadful enough, and there will be no war. And we none of us believe it. ~John Galsworthy War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus. ~Antoine De Saint-Exupery War is the health of the State. ~Randolph Bourne War is the Health of the State. ~Randolph Bourne War would end if the dead could return. ~Stanley Baldwin There are no warlike people--just warlike leaders. ~Ralph Bunche Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannonball. ~Charles V of France As for being a General, well, at the age of four with paper hates and wooden swords, we're all Generals. Only some of us never grow out of it. ~Peter Ustinov You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it. ~Malcolm X To wage war, you need first of all money; second, you need money, and third, you also need money. ~Prince Montecuccoli Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later. ~Benjamin Franklin A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it. ~William Ralph Inge You can wipe out your opponents. But if you do it unjustly you become eligible for being wiped out yourself. ~Ernest Hemingway No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one. ~Ernest Hemingway You can't have this kind of war. There just aren't enough bulldozers to scrape the bodies off the streets. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower The Atomic Age is here to stay--but are we? ~Bennett Cerf You've got to forget about this civilian. Whenever you drop bombs, you're going to hit civilians. ~Barry Goldwater It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. ~Eleanor Roosevelt Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. ~Albert Einstein Let us not deceive ourselves; we must elect world peace or world destruction. ~Bernard M. Baruch It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not pay with their own. ~H. G. Wells Only the winners decide what were war crimes. ~Gary Wills True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else. ~Clarence Darrow If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat. ~Simone de Beauvoir A time will come when a politician who has willfully made war and promoted international dissension will be...surer of the noose than a private homicide. ~H. G. Wells It takes twenty years or more of peace to make a man; it only takes twenty seconds of war to destroy him. ~King Baudouin I of Belgium The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war. ~E. B. White In peace, sons bury their fathers; in war, fathers bury their sons. ~Herodotus When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise. ~Winston Churchill One more such victory and we are undone. ~Pyrrhus of Epirus All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. ~Edmund Burke The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. ~H. L. Mencken The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. ~H. L. Mencken Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. ~Alexander Hamilton One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. ~Plato The obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people. ~Ron Paul Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. ~George Washington It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world. ~George Washington I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone. ~H. L. Mencken America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. ~John Quincy Adams ...patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. ~Julius Caesar Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another... ~Sigmund Freud The coward threatens when he is safe. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe People who talk of outlawing the atomic bomb are mistaken — what needs to be outlawed is war. ~Leslie Richard Groves Peace has its victories no less than war, but it doesn't have as many monuments to unveil. ~Kin Hubbard A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit. ~Thomas Jefferson War is just one more big government program. ~Joseph Sobran The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire. ~Joseph Sobran How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words! ~Samuel Adams Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives. ~Ayn Rand Most wars are started by well-fed people with time on their hands to dream up half-baked ideologies or grandiose ambitions, and to nurse real or imagined grievances. ~Thomas Sowell The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. ~Ludwig von Mises Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business. ~Ludwig von Mises War can really cause no economic boom, at least not directly, since an increase in wealth never does result from destruction of goods. ~Ludwig von Mises War is the Health of the State. ~Randolph Bourne Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism. ~Ludwig von Mises The attainment of the economic aims of man presupposes peace. ~Ludwig von Mises History has witnessed the failure of many endeavors to impose peace by war, cooperation by coercion, unanimity by slaughtering dissidents…. A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets. ~Ludwig von Mises Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted. ~Thomas Jefferson Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto. ~Thomas Jefferson There never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Benjamin Franklin Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. ~James Madison The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire. ~Joseph Sobran Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. ~Thomas Jefferson The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. ~H.L. Mencken America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. ~John Quincy Adams When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. ~Plato When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. ~Plato After each war there is a little less democracy to save. ~Brooks Atkinson An eye for an eye makes us all blind. ~Mahatma Gandhi In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful. ~Leo Tolstoy If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. ~James Madison The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure. ~George Washington The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. ~Justice Louis D. Brandeis No one has deputized America to play Wyatt Earp to the world. ~Pat Buchanan All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. ~Voltaire You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it. ~Noam Chomsky War doesn't make boys men, it makes men dead. ~Ken Gillespie I am not against all wars--just whichever is current. ~Ken Gillespie They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and lives of their people. ~Thomas Jefferson About the quote: From a letter to president Monroe, 1823. I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people. ~Edmund Burke I think war is a dangerous place. ~George W. Bush War’s a brain spattering windpipe splitting art. ~Lord Byron It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society. ~Murray Rothbard The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. ~Robert Lynd It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty. ~John C. Calhoun The only defensible war is a war of defense. ~G. K. Chesterton All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the state hangs on; political power never abdicates. ~Frank Chodorov The pertinent question: if Americans did not want these wars should they have been compelled to fight them? ~Frank Chodorov The State acquires power... and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates. ~Frank Chodorov The more laws, the less justice. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero The sinews of war are infinite money. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero Politics is the womb in which war develops. ~Carl P. G. von Clausewitz The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation form their purposes. ~Carl P. G. von Clausewitz Wars have ever been but another aristocratic mode of plundering and oppressing commerce. ~Richard Cobden Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have. ~Davy Crockett A standing army is a standing menace to liberty. ~Voltairine de Clayre When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower War settles nothing. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson If you kill one person you are a murderer. If you kill ten people you are a monster. If you kill ten thousand you are a national hero. ~Vassilis Epaminondou Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock. ~Sigmund Freud When American presidents prepare for foreign wars, they lie. ~Robert Higgs Since the end of the nineteenth century, if not earlier, presidents have misled the public about their motives and their intentions in going to war. ~Robert Higgs Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues. ~Thomas Hobbes What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood. ~Aldous Huxley Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government. ~Thomas Jefferson We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest. ~Thomas Jefferson I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind. ~Thomas Jefferson The most successful war seldom pays for its losses. ~Thomas Jefferson Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! ~Helen Keller Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction! ~Helen Keller Nothing good ever comes of violence. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. ~George Orwell Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. ~George Orwell One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression. ~Howard Zinn War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings. ~Ludwig von Mises Will . . . the threat of common extermination continue?. . . Must children receive the arms race from us as a necessary inheritance? ~Pope John Paul II War--after all, what is it that the people get? Why--widows, taxes, wooden legs and debt. ~Samuel B. Pettengill No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic. ~A. J. P. Taylor No war is inevitable until it breaks out. ~A. J. P. Taylor Almost all war making states borrow extensively, raise taxes, and seize the means of combat- including men--from reluctant citizens... ~Charles Tilly All warfare is based on deception. ~Sun Tzu There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare. ~Sun Tzu I hate it when they say, ‘He gave his life for his country.’ They don’t die for the honor and glory of their country. We kill them. ~Rear Admiral Gene R. LaRocque War has become a spectator sport for Americans. ~Rear Admiral Gene R. LaRocque We all have to be concerned about terrorism, but you will never end terrorism by terrorizing others. ~Martin Luther King III Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it. ~General Douglas MacArthur Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. ~James Madison No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. ~James Madison The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war. ~James Madison If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. ~James Madison The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. ~James Madison War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. ~Thomas Mann Our poverty will be brought home to us to its full extent only after the war. ~Joseph A. Schumpeter War is the statesmans game, the priests delight, the lawyers jest, the hired assassins trade. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley War is just one more big government program. ~Joseph Sobran This president failed so miserably in diplomacy that we are now forced to war. ~Tom Daschle The opposite of war is not peace, it's creation. ~Jonathan Larson The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Is it security you want? There is no security at the top of the world. ~Garet Garrett With no notice to the American people...this country entered the war...Stranger than the fact was the passive acceptance of it. ~Garet Garrett What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness god has given us in this world... ~Robert E. Lee What a cruel thing war is...to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors. ~Robert E. Lee Either war is obsolete, or men are. ~R. Buckminster Fuller History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. ~Ronald Reagan It is not only the living who are killed in war. ~Isaac Asimov Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. ~General Omar N. Bradley Wars frequently begin ten years before the first shot is fired. ~K. K. V. Casey Where is the indignation about the fact that the US and USSR have thirty thousand pounds of destructive force for every human being in the world? ~Norman Cousins There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it. ~Henry Havelock Ellis The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. ~David Friedman War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man. ~Napoleon Hill The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution. ~John F. Kennedy We have war when at least one of the parties to a conflict wants something more than it wants peace. ~Jeane J. Kirkpatrick One does not create a human society on mounds of corpses. ~Louis Lecoin In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. ~Jose Narosky A visitor from Mars could easily pick out the civilized nations. They have the best implements of war. ~Herbert V. Prochnow The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes...can no longer be of concern to great powers alone. ~John F. Kennedy [War] can no longer be of concern to great powers alone. ~John F. Kennedy We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. ~General Omar N. Bradley There are no warlike people, just warlike leaders. ~Ralph Bunche Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice. ~Spinoza Conflict cannot survive without your participation. ~Dr. Wayne Dyer I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace. ~George W. Bush About the quote: From a speech at the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development in Wash. DC, 6/18/02. How far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without? ~Dwight D. Eisenhower You are not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance over a road littered with cannon. ~David Lloyd When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration? ~Benjamin Franklin All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. ~Benjamin Franklin Mankind is becoming a single unit, and that for a unit to fight against itself is suicide. ~Havelock Ellis I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private individuals. ~Joseph Heller To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. ~Michael Servetus What a country calls its vital... interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war. ~Simone Weil Petroleum is a more likely cause of international conflict than wheat. ~Simone Weil War is never a solution; it is an aggravation. ~Benjamin Disraeli Force without judgement falls on its own weight. ~Horace Dress it as we may...huzza it, and sing swaggering songs about it, what is war, nine times out of ten, but murder in uniform? ~Douglas Jerrold War should be made a crime, and those who instigate it should be punished as criminals. ~Charles Evans Hughes Yes, we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war. ~John Andrew Holmes I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower We have all taken risks in the making of war. Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace? ~J. Ramsay MacDonald We shall never be able to effect physical disarmament until we have succeeded in effecting moral disarmament. ~J. Ramsay MacDonald I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. ~Albert Einstein During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism. ~Howard Thurman One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one. ~Agatha Christie We have guided missiles and misguided men. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle...your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. I am a steadfast follower of the doctrine of non-violence which was first preached by Lord Buddha, whose divine wisdom is absolute... ~Dalai Lama [iraqis] know we own their country...It's a good thing, especially when there's a lot of oil out there we need. ~U.S. Brig. General William Looney It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. ~Albert Einstein I went into the Army believing that if you want peace you must prepare for war. I now believe that if you prepare thoroughly for war you will get it. ~Sir John Frederick Maurice [iraqis] know we own their country. We own their airspace... We dictate the way they live and talk. And that's what's great about America right now. ~U.S. Brig. General William Looney ...the role of the military is to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place. ~George W. Bush Force is the weapon of the weak. ~Ammon Hennacy The price of empire is America’s soul, and that price is too high. ~Sen. J. William Fulbright (Ark.) There is nothing politically right that is morally wrong. ~Daniel O'Connell Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war. ~Donald Rumsfeld O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name. ~Alexander Pope If we don’t stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, we’re going to have a serious problem coming down the road. ~George W. Bush I can tell you this: If I’m ever in a position to call the shots, I’m not going to rush to send somebody else’s kids into a war. ~George H. W. Bush In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. ~Jose Narosky It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad. ~James Madison War is the most striking instance of the failure of intelligence to master the problem of human relationships. ~Harry Elmer Barnes We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living. ~General Omar N. Bradley The tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick The 1st panacea of a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the 2nd is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; a permanent ruin. ~Ernest Hemingway The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster. ~Ludwig von Mises War...is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror. ~Ludwig von Mises War...is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror. ~Ludwig von Mises Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things. ~Ludwig von Mises To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war. ~Ludwig von Mises War can really cause no economic boom, at least not directly, since an increase in wealth never does result from destruction of goods. ~Ludwig von Mises The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war. ~Ludwig von Mises Sovereignty must not be used for inflicting harm on anyone, whether citizen or foreigner. ~Ludwig von Mises Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism. ~Ludwig von Mises Modern society, based as it is on the division of labor, can be preserved only under conditions of lasting peace. ~Ludwig von Mises Men are fighting...because they are convinced that the extermination of adversaries is the only means of promoting their own well-being. ~Ludwig von Mises If men do not now succeed in abolishing war, civilization and mankind are doomed. ~Ludwig von Mises The root of the evil is not the construction of new, more dreadful weapons. It is the spirit of conquest. ~Ludwig von Mises If some peoples pretend that history or geography gives them the right to subjugate other races, nations, or peoples, there can be no peace. ~Ludwig von Mises Wars of aggression are popular nowadays with those nations convinced that only victory and conquest could improve their material well-being. ~Ludwig von Mises Only one thing can conquer war--that attitude of mind which can see nothing in war but destruction and annihilation... ~Ludwig von Mises Whoever wants peace among nations must seek to limit the state and its influence most strictly. ~Ludwig von Mises The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight. ~A. J. P. Taylor War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means. ~Carl P. G. von Clausewitz We...are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant. ~Charley Reese War: A wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization. ~General Omar N. Bradley The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war. ~James Madison There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact. ~Donald Rumsfeld Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. ~John F. Kennedy If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another...after the war is on. ~Senator Robert M. La Follette Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak... ~John Adams Power always thinks...that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. ~John Adams Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too. ~Marcus Aurelius Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government. ~Thomas Jefferson Oh! it is excellent to have a giant's strengh; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant. ~William Shakespeare Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it. ~Mark Twain Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire Putting aside all the fancy words and academic doubletalk, the basic reason for having a military is to do two jobs --to kill people and to destroy. ~General Thomas S. Power The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero Freedom is to understand, and to be unbounded by that freedom. ~Juan C. Mustelier War is the ultimate tool of politics. ~R. Buckminster Fuller The failure to dissect the cause of war leaves us open for the next installment. ~Chris Hedges Rulers who want to unleash war know very well that they must procure or invent a first victim. ~Elias Canetti "Rules of engagement" are a set of guidelines for murder. ~Dr. Theresa Whitehurst The soldier's main enemy is not the opposing soldier, but his own commander. ~Ramman Kenoun The occupation and robbery of a nation occurs under the illusion of freeing its citizens from brutal oppression. ~Ramman Kenoun A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves. ~German proverb You can’t legislate morality. ~Jesse Ventura (State Governer of Minnesota) The truth is that neither British nor American imperialism was or is idealistic. It has always been driven by economic or strategic interests. ~Charley Reese The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. ~H. L. Mencken The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. ~Albert Camus Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. ~William Pitt It's quite fun to fight 'em, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling. ~Lt. Gen. James Mattis, USMC About the quote: Comments from 2/1/05 conference in San Diego, California. Lt. Mattis commanded troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. ~Voltaire The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. ~Tacitus Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn About the quote: This quote is often mis-attributed to Mikhail Gorbachev, who merely quoted the remark from Solzhenitsyn's Nobel prize Harvard address. The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error. ~Hannah Arendt An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot. ~Thomas Paine Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it. ~Noam Chomsky ...war doesn't need more participants. It needs fewer participants. ~Michael Badnarik Conflict is the criminals' paradise; it is the only time when killing is allowed, theft is tolerated, and rape is forgiven. ~Ramman Kenoun No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war. ~Calvin Coolidge Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear. ~General Douglas MacArthur The politicians in this world... have at their command weapons of mass destruction far more complex than their own thinking processes. ~Charley Reese Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: ‘War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills.' ~Immanuel Kant Whoever wishes peace among peoples must fight statism. ~Ludwig von Mises War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. ~Thomas Mann To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war. ~Ludwig von Mises All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the state hangs on; political power never abdicates. ~Frank Chodorov I believe in only one thing: liberty, but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone. ~H. L. Mencken A lasting order cannot be established by bayonets. ~Ludwig von Mises It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell. ~General William Tecumseh Sherman Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms. ~Congressman Ron Paul War is the gambling table of governments, and citizens the dupes of the game. ~Thomas Paine War is a way of shattering to pieces...materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses... too intelligent. ~George Orwell The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie: deliberate, continued, and dishonest; but the myth: persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. ~John F. Kennedy Humanity is quite a unique species, since it is the only one with the means to wipe itself out. ~Ramman Kenoun He whom many fear, has himself many to fear. ~Publilius Syrus Those who do not move, do not notice their chains. ~Rosa Luxemburg My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military. ~General Smedley Butler (USMC, Ret.) The enormous gap between what US leaders do...and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments... ~Michael Parenti Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty. ~Anne Louise Germaine de Stael None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ~George Orwell It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives. ~Dorothy Thompson There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. ~John Adams A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. ~John F. Kennedy We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. ~John F. Kennedy A hospital alone shows what war is. ~Erich Maria Remarque Vietnam should remind conservatives that whenever you put your faith in big government for any reason, sooner or later you wind up an apologist for mass murder. ~Karl Hess During war, the laws are silent. ~Quintus Tullius Cicero Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man. ~Bertrand Russell Whether or not patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, national security can be the last refuge of the tyrant. ~Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe About the quote: from 1/14/05 If God is just, I tremble for my country. ~Thomas Jefferson It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. ~Eleanor Roosevelt Every move we make in fear of the next war in fact hastens it. ~Gregory Bateson Societies can be sunk by the weight of buried ugliness. ~Daniel Goleman No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. ~Alexis de Tocqueville Wars based on principle are far more destructive...the attacker will not destroy that which he is after. ~Alan Watts About the quote: from the book "The Way of Zen" We Americans have no commission from God to police the world. ~Benjamin Harrison About the quote: from an 1888 address to Congress Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both. ~Abraham Flexner I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends. ~Abraham Lincoln The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. ~Charles-Louis De Secondat About the quote: From "The Spirit of Laws," 1748 It is for us to refuse loyalty when injustice holds sway. ~Henry T. Laurency About the quote: from "The Philosopher's Stone" Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction. ~George W. Bush About the quote: from a speech on 10/3/03 These people are trying to shake the will of the Iraqi citizens, and they want us to leave...I think the world would be better off if we did leave... ~George W. Bush (on Iraqi Insurgency) We cloak ourselves in cold indifference to the unnecessary suffering of others--even when we cause it. ~James Carroll About the quote: The Boston Globe, 9/21/04 Misery, mutilation, destruction, terror, starvation and death characterize the process of war and form a principal part of the product. ~Louis Mumford About the quote: from "Technics and Civilization" Peace and not war is the father of all things. ~Ludwig von Mises Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. ~Ludwig von Mises War is a defeat for humanity. ~Pope John Paul II About the quote: from 1/1/2000 Wars generally do not resolve the problems for which they are fought and therefore...prove ultimately futile. ~Pope John Paul II About the quote: from 1/1/2000 The fact that certain planets are uninhabited may very well derive from the fact that their nuclear scientist are more advanced than ours. ~Salon Gahlin, Swedish author When [men] go to war, what they want is to impose on their enemies the victor's will and call it peace. ~St. Augustine About the quote: From "The City of God" One reason the United States finds itself at the edge of a foreign policy disaster is its underinformed citizenry, a key weakness in democracy. ~Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke About the quote: from "America Alone" If [America] becomes militant, it will be because its people choose to become such; it will be because they think that war and warlikeness are desirable. ~William Graham Sumner About the quote: from 1903 O, it is excellent To have a giant’s strength! But it is tyrannous To use it like a giant. ~William Shakespeare About the quote: from "Measure for Measure," Act II, Scn. ii Peace is the virtue of civilization. War is its crime. ~Victor Hugo Killing someone is the ultimate crime, while on the other hand, killing someone in uniform is fulfillment of duty. ~Ramman Kenoun The best defense is no offense. ~Dr. Ivan Eland Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained. ~Mahatma Gandhi Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play. ~Joseph Goebbels One can...never create [freedom] by an invading force. ~Maximilien Robespierre If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. ~James Madison About the quote: This quote is from the period he served as a US Congressman (he represented Virginia from 1789-1797). The right to revolt has sources deep in our history. ~William O. Douglas About the quote: Supreme Court Justice Douglas lived 1898-1980. We may never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. ~Friedrich Nietzsche To preserve our independence...We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. ~Thomas Jefferson All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. ~George Orwell About the quote: This quote comes from "Homage to Catalonia," Orwell's 1936 eyewitness account of the Spanish Civil War. If a war be undertaken...before the resources of peace have been tried and proved vain to secure it, that war has no defense, it is a national crime. ~Charles Eliot Norton If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. ~Nelson Mandela All it takes is a single act of aggression to permanently wound a nation's reputation. ~Ramman Kenoun The tyrant always talks as if he's preserving the best interests of his people when he actually acts to undermine them. ~Ramman Kenoun It’s one thing to fight for what you believe in, another thing to fight for what others believe in. ~James Wolcott About the quote: in his article “From Fear to Eternity” in Vanity Fair, March 2005 The lies the government and media tell are amplifications of the lies we tell ourselves. To stop being conned, stop conning yourself. ~James Wolcott About the quote: in his article “From Fear to Eternity,” Vanity Fair, March 2005 We have met the enemy and he is us. ~Walt Kelly About the quote: Cartoonist, notably of "Pogo." lived 1913-1973. A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. ~Edward Abbey About the quote: A naturalist and author, Abbey lived from 1927-1989. Our ‘neoconservatives’ are neither new nor conservative, but old as Bablyon and evil as Hell. ~Edward Abbey About the quote: A naturalist and author, Abbey lived from 1927-1989. The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other--instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals. ~Edward Abbey About the quote: A naturalist and author, Abbey lived from 1927-1989. Our "neoconservatives" are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell. ~Edward Abbey About the quote: A naturalist and author, Abbey lived from 1927-1989. America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~Abraham Lincoln

Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin The chain reaction of evil--wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. ~General Smedley Butler Imperialism is an institution under which one nation asserts the right to seize the land or at least to control the government or resources of another people. ~John T. Flynn The great error of nearly all studies of war... has been to consider war as an episode in foreign policies, when it is an act of interior politics... ~Simone Weil We may extend our dominion over the whole continent...but be assured it will be at the price of our free institutions. ~Rep. William Waters Boyce I hate war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatreds it arouses... ~Harry Emerson Fosdick Before the war is ended, the war party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly. ~Senator Robert M. La Follette After every ''victory'' you have more enemies. ~Jeanette Winterson Wars are inevitable...as long as we believe that wars are inevitable. The moment we don't believe it anymore it is not inevitable. ~Lydia Sicher The winds that blow our billions away return burdened with themes of scorn and dispraise. ~Garet Garrett I hope....that mankind will at length, as they call themselves responsible creatures, have the reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats... ~Benjamin Franklin [T]he essence of so-called war prosperity; it enriches some by what it takes from others. It is not rising wealth but a shifting of wealth and income. ~Ludwig von Mises Our children are not born to hate, they are raised to hate. ~Thomas della Peruta Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war. ~Donald Rumsfeld Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same. ~Marie Beyle I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war...suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own. ~Phillip Caputo Although tyranny...may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its own people. ~Hannah Areddt I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die. ~Mary Roberts Rinehart Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism. ~George Washington The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. ~Major Ralph Peters, US Military For me war has become a flat, black depression without highlights, a revulsion of the mind and an exhaustion of the spirit. ~Ernie Pyle Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official... ~Theodore Roosevelt The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all. ~Tacitus War creates peace like hate creates love. ~David L. Wilson War's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at. ~William Cowper Military glory--that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood--that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy... ~Abraham Lincoln Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. ~Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. ~George McGovern War is fear cloaked in courage. ~General William Westmoreland Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor. ~A pirate, from St. Augustine's "City of God" Never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. ~Sir Winston Churchill What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero We are the ones responsible to determine whether the war that our marines, soldiers and airmen are fighting in is worth the cause... ~Scott Ritter I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit. ~Thucydides The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. ~Frederick Douglass Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it. ~Noam Chomsky It is far easier to make war than peace. ~Georges Clemenceau The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. ~Robert Lynd Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. ~Ulysses S. Grant It would be easier to subjugate the entire universe through force than the minds of a single village. ~Voltaire Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. ~James Madison War doesn't make boys men, it makes men dead. ~Ken Gillespie An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot. ~Thomas Paine Modern war appears as a struggle led by all the State apparatuses and their general staffs against all men old enough to bear arms... ~Simone Weil Every nation has its war party. It is not the party of democracy. It is the party of autocracy. It seeks to dominate absolutely. ~Senator Robert M. La Follette It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners. ~Albert Camus We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. ~Edward R. Murrow Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies. ~W. L. George The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject. ~Marcus Aurelius The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero Man was/is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One who believes himself the master of others is nonetheless a greater slave than they. ~Jean Jaques Rousseau The dangerous patriot...drifts into chauvinism and exhibits blind enthusiasm for military actions. ~Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps I've been immersed in it too long. My spirit is wobbly and my mind is confused. The hurt has become too great. ~Ernie Pyle It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else. ~Theodore Roosevelt Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificually induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear. ~General Douglas MacArthur For what can war, but endless war, still breed? ~John Milton The statesman who yields to war fever...is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. ~Sir Winston Churchill Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people... ~Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent. ~Issac Asimov Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood. ~Mahatma Gandhi Let not your zeal to share your principles entice you beyond your borders. ~Marquis de Sade Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction. ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn The demands of internal growth are incomparably more important to us...than the need for any external expansion of our power. ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn It is always more valuable to report the truth. ~Jean-Paul Sartre Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle. ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act. ~George Orwell What an immense mass of evil must result...from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen. ~Leo Tolstoy Peace is constructed, not fought for. ~Brent Davis Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils. ~Thucydides We say that we care about the war, but we don’t even really know what we’re fighting for. ~Scott Ritter In this war – as in others – I am less interested in honoring the dead than in preventing the dead. ~Butler Shaffer It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood...War is hell. ~General William Tecumseh Sherman It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. ~Voltaire The worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being. ~Ellen Key some men...in order to prevent the supposed intentions of their adversaries, have committed the most enormous cruelties... ~Clearchus, in Xenophon [War] might be avoidable were more emphasis placed on the training to social interest, less on the attainment of egotistical grandeur. ~Lydia Sicher If, finally, violence meets with violence, we have confirmation of the age old adage that war though it kills many men, makes many more men evil. ~Fritz Medicus It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so... ~Robert A. Heinlein Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice. ~Lord Acton Military justice is to justice what military music is to music. ~Groucho Marx In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. ~Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~Margaret Mead No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. ~James Madison Look at you in war...There has never been a just one, never an honorable one, on the part of the instigator of the war. ~Mark Twain The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature. ~James Madison ...Violence as a way of gaining power...is being camouflaged under the guise of tradition, national honor [and] national security... ~Alfred Adler Every nation has its war party...It is commercial, imperialistic, ruthless. It tolerates no opposition. ~Senator Robert M. La Follette War is not the continuation of politics with different means, it is the greatest mass-crime perpetrated on the community of man. ~Alfred Adler As long as we can talk with people, as long as one can keep the guns quiet, one has a chance. ~Lydia Sicher It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them. ~Alfred Adler We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children. ~Jimmy Carter The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be. ~Thomas Jefferson The dangerous patriot...is a defender of militarism and its ideals of war and glory. ~Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war. ~Winston Churchill War is the continuation of politics by other means. ~Karl Von Clausewitz Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley Is it not a strange blindness on our part to teach publicly the techniques of warfare and to reward with medals those who prove to be the most adroit killers? ~Marquis de Sade The next war ... may well bury Western civilization forever. ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. ~William Ellery Channing ...Uncalled-for aggression arouses the hatred of the civilian population... ~Jean-Paul Sartre War is at best barbarism. Its glory is all moonshine...War is hell. ~General William Tecumseh Sherman The voice of protest...is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum...is bidding all men...obey in silence the tyrannous word of command. ~Charles Eliot Norton The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. ~George Orwell About the quote: This quote is spoken by the character of Emmanuel Goldstein in Orwell's novel, "1984." The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. ~Frederick Douglass The war...was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides. ~Robert E. Lee Where is the justice of political power if it...marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills? ~Kahlil Gibran We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower Respect for the rights of others means peace. ~Benito Juárez War is not a word, it's an acronym for "Wasting Another's Resources." ~Ramman Kenoun Let us become inspired by inherent beauty, and not impassioned by manufactured hate. ~Nima Shirali, Middle Eastern Reconciliation Forum Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself. ~James Anthony Froude A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. ~Edward Abbey About the quote: A naturalist and author, Abbey lived from 1927-1989. War remains the decisive human failure. ~John Kenneth Galbraith That we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. ~Theodore Roosevelt All nations want peace, but they want a peace that suits them. ~Admiral Sir John Fisher The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. ~Thomas Jefferson The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding. ~Albert Camus Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. ~Albert Einstein All mankind...being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions. ~John Locke Today the real test of power is not capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it. ~Anne O'Hare McCormick Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right. ~H.L. Mencken One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one. ~Agatha Christie I hate war...for the dictatorships it puts in the place of democracies, and for the starvation that stalks after it. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. ~Voltaire Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. ~Thomas Jefferson To all those who walk the path of human cooperation war must appear loathsome and inhuman. ~Alfred Adler If there is no sufficient reason for war, the [war] party will make war on one pretext, then invent another...pretext after war is on. ~Sen. Robert M. La Follette War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. ~General Smedley Butler War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. ~Lois McMaster Bujold We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom. ~Stephen Vincent Benét Chauvinism is a proud and bellicose form of patriotism...which identifies numerous enemies who can only be dealt with through military power... ~Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure. ~Lyndon B. Johnson Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. ~James Madison History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. ~Ronald Reagan What is more immoral than war? ~Marquis de Sade When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest...and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war ~Plato There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. ~General Smedley Butler War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality. ~Senator John McCain Total war is no longer war waged by all members of one national community against all those of another. It is total...because it may well involve the whole world. ~Jean-Paul Sartre Dulce bellum inexpertis (War is delightful to the inexperienced). ~Erasmus, the 16th-century scholar Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it. ~William Penn Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer? ~Kahlil Gibran Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower We first fought...in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change. ~Serj Tankian People do not make wars; governments do. ~Ronald Reagan Any forces that would impose their will on other nations will certainly face defeat. ~General Vo Nguyen Giap (Vietnam) Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing. ~Ronald Reagan To announce that there must be no criticism of the president...is morally treasonable to the American public. ~Theodore Roosevelt To declare that the end justifies the means, to declare that the government may commit crimes, would bring terrible retribution. ~Justice Louis D. Brandeis When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. ~Thomas Jefferson If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. ~James Madison Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ~George Orwell Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens. ~Plato The Department of Defense is the behemoth...With an annual budget larger than the gross domestic product of Russia, it is an empire. ~The 9/11 Commission Report About the quote: Norton First Edition Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. ~Theodore Roosevelt This world of ours...must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower War is the business of barbarians. ~Napoleon Bonaparte The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. ~George Orwell About the quote: This quote is spoken by the character of Emmanuel Goldstein in Orwell's novel, "1984." War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder. ~Alexander Berkman One day the end of the world will come as a result of a 'justified' war. ~Mikhail Gofman, Antiwar.com reader Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we. ~George W. Bush There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat. ~Jimmy Carter After each war there is a little less democracy to save. ~Brooks Atkinson Our modern states are preparing for war without even knowing the future enemy. ~Alfred Adler War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley A man who says that no patriot should attack the war until it is over...is saying no good son should warn his mother of a cliff until she has fallen. ~G. K. Chesterton War is organized murder and torture against our brothers. ~Alfred Adler Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter... ~Winston Churchill Chauvinism is a proud and bellicose form of patriotism...which equates the national honor with military victory. ~Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain. ~Marquis de Sade War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings. ~Ludwig von Mises Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. ~George Orwell Criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government. ~Sen. Robert Taft, ® Ohio In times of peace, the war party insists on making preparation for war. As soon as prepared for, it insists on making war. ~Senator Robert M. La Follette In the eyes of empire builders men are not men but instruments. ~Napoleon Bonaparte There is neither rank nor station nor prerogative in the republic of the grave. ~John James Ingalls Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose... ~Dwight D. Eisenhower Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower Cruelty must be whitewashed by a moral excuse, and pretense of reluctance. ~George Bernard Shaw ...no mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology. ~Ronald Reagan War vies with magic in its efforts to get something for nothing... ~Louis Mumford Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire It is finer to bring one noble human being into the world and rear it well...than to kill ten thousand. ~Olive Schreiner The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. ~George Orwell The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people. ~Frank Kent The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. ~Albert Camus In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. ~Jose Narosky What a cruel thing is war...to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. ~Robert E. Lee ...to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. ~Theodore Roosevelt If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest. ~Thomas Jefferson War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood. ~Alexander Berkman There is but one evil, war. All the other proclaimed evils such as hate, greed, descrimination, and jealousy are only sub-categories of it. ~Jose Barreiro Emphasis on military prowess is an indication of philosophical poverty. ~Henk Middelraad We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace. ~George W. Bush War brings out the most negative emotional human responses on both sides. ~Henk Middelraad I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. ~James Baldwin Don't regard yourself as a guardian of freedom unless you respect and preserve the rights of people you disagree with... ~Gerard K. O'Neill Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. ~James Bryce Don't talk to me about atrocities; all war is an atrocity. ~Lord Kitchener (Horatio Herbert) War is a way of shattering to pieces...materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and...too intelligent. ~George Orwell About the quote: This quote is spoken by the character of Emmanuel Goldstein in Orwell's novel, "1984." Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom. ~Ludwig von Mises There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. ~A. J. Muste The State thrives on war – unless, of course, it is defeated and crushed – expands on it, glories in it. ~Murray Rothbard Old men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. ~Herbert C. Hoover The greater the state, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded. ~Leo Tolstoy How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men? ~Lao Tzu Most wars are started by well-fed people with time on their hands to dream up half-baked ideologies or grandiose ambitions... ~Thomas Sowell Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. ~Ludwig von Mises There were no international terrorists in Iraq until we went in. It was we who gave the perfect conditions in which Al Qaeda could thrive. ~Robin Cook About the quote: Cook is Britain's former foreign secretary. He resigned from the British Cabinet over the Iraq War. Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things. ~Russell Baker A people free to choose will always choose peace. ~Ronald Reagan Any excuse will serve a tyrant. ~Aesop Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. ~Mark Twain Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise. ~Sir Francis Bacon The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. ~James Madison Let us form a new religion, that which would be called 'humanity', with 'peace' as its prophet. ~Nima Shirali, Middle Eastern Reconciliation Forum All men having power ought to be mistrusted. ~James Madison All war is based on deception. ~Sun Tzu Think of war as a game of Russian roulette. It is a game of chance with your life as the grand prize. ~Ramman Kenoun What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise. ~Barbara Jordan Dictators have always played on the natural human tendency to blame others and to oversimplify. ~Gerard K. O'Neill Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong. ~James Bryce Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism. ~Dorothy Thompson Even the most piddling life is of momentous consequence to its owner. ~James Wolcott About the quote: in his article “From Fear to Eternity” in Vanity Fair, March 2005 We Americans have no commission from God to police the world. ~Benjamin Harrison There are no politics in war. Politics is the luxury of the safe-at-home. War is a lottery of survival. ~John Cory War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures. ~Congressman Ron Paul Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich. ~Patrick J. Buchanan The reality right now is that the most dangerous opinion in the world is the opinion of a U.S. serviceman. ~Lance Cpl. Devin Kelly (USMC) War has all the characteristics of socialism most conservatives hate. ~Joseph Sobran We carefully nurture a spirit of detachment toward the wars we pay for. ~James Carroll About the quote: The Boston Globe, 9/21/04 The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectual pygmies. ~Basil O'Connor All government wars are unjust. ~Murray Rothbard The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. ~Herman Goering We must not only cease our present desire for the growth of the state, but we must desire its decrease, its weakening... ~Leo Tolstoy Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself. ~Lao Tzu Wars have ever been but another aristocratic mode of plundering and oppressing commerce. ~Richard Cobden Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. ~Thomas Jefferson As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand. ~Josh Billings Tyrants seldom want pretexts. ~Edmund Burke The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one. ~Albert Einstein To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public. ~Noam Chomsky This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector. ~Plato Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it. ~Friedrich Hebbel, German poet and dramatist The state has, in order to control us, introduced division into our thinking, so that we come to distrust others and look to the state for protection. ~Butler Shaffer The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. ~Louis D. Brandeis Peace...is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle. ~Dorothy Thompson We believed ourselves indestructable... watching only the madmen outside our frontiers, and we remained defenseless against our own madmen. ~Jacobo Timerman There is no morality in war. Morality is the privilege of those judging from the distance. War is only death and destruction... ~John Cory That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true... ~Thomas Paine The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy. ~Ramsey Clark In war, the army is not merely a pure consumer, but a negative producer... ~Louis Mumford About the quote: from "Technics and Civilization" In war, there are no winners. ~Ramman Kenoun ...The very nature of interstate war puts innocent civilians into great jeopardy, especially with modern technology. ~Murray Rothbard Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew. ~John Greenleaf Whittier A belligerent state permits itself every such misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual. ~Sigmund Freud It's more humane to cure your enemies than to kill them. ~Hugh Mann There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance. ~Goethe Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. ~Edward Everett We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements. ~Senator James W. Fulbright Coercive practices that threaten our neighbor(s) also threaten us. ~Butler Shaffer We need a type of patriotism that recognizes the virtues of those who are opposed to us. ~Francis John McConnell A man who kills on his own is a murderer. A man who kills at his government's request is a national hero. ~Ramman Kenoun National defense is the usual pretext for the policy of fleecing the people. ~Senator John Taylor About the quote: US Senator, lived from 1753-1824 We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower War is the tool of small-minded scoundrels who worship the death of others on the altar of their greed. ~John Cory The State acquires power... and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates. ~Frank Chodorov No great dependence is to be placed on the eagerness of young soldiers for action...fighting is agreeable to those who are strangers to it. ~Vegetius To the wicked, everything serves as pretext. ~Voltaire I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security. ~Jim Garrison The only security for the American people today, or for any people, is to be found through the control of force rather than the use of force. ~Norman Cousins In order to rally people, governments need enemies...if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us. ~Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk We must get away from the idea that America is to be the leader of the world in everything. ~Francis John McConnell The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny... ~David Hume The coward threatens when he is safe. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe If this phrase of the 'balance of power' is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure. ~John Bright Mankind deserves sacrifice - but not of mankind. ~Stanislaw Jerzy Lec No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots. ~Barbara Ehrenreich War is the cemetery of futures promised. ~John Cory To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. ~Michael Servetus Phony pretexts repeated often enough become real reasons. Things that...are not true become true in the public mind simply through endless repetition. ~Lenny Bloom War is eternity jammed into frantic minutes that will fill a lifetime with dreams and nightmares. ~John Cory In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people... ~Leo Tolstoy 'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded. ~Friedrich August von Hayek Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means. ~Ronald Reagan Economically considered, war and revolution are always bad business. ~Ludwig von Mises You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. ~Jeanette Rankin It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. ~Albert J. Nock Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~John Adams All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it. ~Alexis de Tocqueville The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. ~John Stuart Mill The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people. ~Ron Paul Force always attracts men of low morality. ~Albert Einstein War is just a racket...I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. ~General Smedley Butler War technology is science in the service of obscene anatomical vandalism. ~Stan Goff There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. ~General Smedley Butler We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk. ~Eleanor Roosevelt The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad. ~James Madison Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure. ~Abraham Lincoln Our nation is somewhat sad, but we’re angry. There’s a certain level of blood lust, but we won’t let it drive our reaction. We’re steady, clear-eyed and patient, but pretty soon we’ll have to start displaying scalps. ~George W. Bush It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear. ~General Douglas MacArthur Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason. ~Ernest Hemingway What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy? ~Mahatma Ghandi And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. ~John 8:32 When fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression. ~H.L. Menken War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support. ~Colin Powell Vietnam was the first war ever fought without censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind. ~General William Westmoreland Vietnam was the first war ever fought without censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind. ~General William Westmoreland The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations. ~Ambrose Bierce War, n: A time-tested political tactic guaranteed to raise a president’s popularity rating by at least 30 points. It is especially useful during election years and economic downturns. ~Chaz Bufe To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. ~Calgacus To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. ~Calgacus I learned nothing from war. War is not an activity for human beings; war is for criminals—rape, robbery and murder. ~Roman Podabedov (Russian anti-tank gunner) There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. ~Howard Zinn War is a racket. ~Smedley Butler We have to show the American People that war is not patriotic. ~Justin Raimondo If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army. ~Frederick the Great They talk about conscription as a democratic institution. Yes; so is a cemetary. ~Rep. Meyer London Either war is obsolete, or men are. ~R. Buckminster Fuller Are bombs the only way of setting fire to the spirit of a people? Is the human will as inert as the past two world-wide wars would indicate? ~Gregory Clark I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in. ~George McGovern If I'm fighting for freedom here, and I go home and I'm opressed, what does that mean? ~Pv2 Frederick Phoenix, MP, US Army War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men. ~Georges Clemenceau Nothing except a battle lost can be half as melancholy as a battle won. ~Duke of Wellington I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. ~James Baldwin Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. ~John F. Kennedy Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck. ~Guy de Maupassant War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle. ~Thomas Carlyle To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. ~Abraham Lincoln Why should you ask blood be spilled for a cause that is not in the interest of the American people? ~Rep. Wally Herger All wars are fought for money. ~Socrates Tis nobler to lose honor to save the lives of men than it is to gain honor by taking them. ~David Borenstein Man is the only animal that is cruel. It kills just for the sake of it. ~Mark Twain Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. ~Abraham Lincoln The first casualty when war comes is the truth. ~Sen. Hiram Johnson This war is not necessary. We are truly sleepwalking through history. ~Sen. Robert Byrd The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure. ~Lyndon B. Johnson They talk about conscription as a democratic institution. Yes; so is a cemetery. ~Rep. Meyer London Washington...has become an alien city-state that rules America, and much of the rest of the world, in the way that Rome ruled the Roman Empire. ~Richard Maybury Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness. ~George Washington

Are you on the spiritual/hindu forums?

k

/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Prabhpada said, "Chant Hare Krsna and be happy!" (And go BTG at the end of this lifetime...) /images/graemlins/cool.gif

Please dear Lord Nitai, Have special divine dispensation for this most wretched conditioned soul I implore you with all my heart to deliver me once and for all from the illusory concepts of 'me, myself, and I' which is keeping me locked into maya's clutches. You have the key to Mahaprabhu's heart and shelter. You aspiring servant, krsna das