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Christian scholar questions Gibson's depiction of Jesus Theology taken from nun's meditations Passion is dangerous, sadistic, expert says RON CSILLAG SPECIAL TO THE STAR For such a solemn, serious scholar, John Dominic Crossan sure is animated — and peeved. He can barely stop fidgeting, rolling his eyes, sighing, and shaking his head in that exasperated way a teacher might reserve for a student who just doesn't get it. Try as the interviewer might to steer the conversation into other areas, the professor emeritus of religious studies at Chicago's DePaul University, charter member of the Jesus Seminar and one of the world's most renowned experts on the founder of Christianity, can't resist returning to the errant student. Clearly, Mel Gibson gets an F — and a bloody thumbs down. "This is the most savage movie I have ever seen. I've never seen anything like it. It is two hours of unrelenting brutality." That was Crossan's reaction immediately after viewing Gibson's cinematic firestorm, The Passion Of The Christ, in January in Orlando, Fla. along with more than 5,000 evangelical Christian pastors. "They all knelt and prayed afterwards," he said in an interview while attending the recent annual meeting in Niagara Falls, Ont., of the SnowStar Institute, dedicated to advancing religious literacy and tolerance. "I wanted to pray too, (but) not the same prayer." The plea to God Crossan had in mind was for a single conservative Christian "to come out and say, `and what did you think of God? The God who came up with this monstrous plan — what did you think about that?' "I have said that if this is the way God is, this punishing God who takes it out on Jesus instead of us, then we should not worship that God. We're dealing with a savage God and we are in really serious trouble if that's what God is like." Crossan isn't done with his question: "Is your God a punishing God who demands punishment for sin but, who instead of taking it out on us, takes it out on his own beloved son? "I'm waiting for some strong evangelical with a conscience to say, `Wait a minute. This is not our Jesus. This is not our God.'" Now 70, Crossan has written 20 books in the past 30 years on the historical Jesus, four of which have become national religious bestsellers, including The Historical Jesus: The Life Of A Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (1991) and Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994). The Irish born, one-time Roman Catholic priest is also a former co-chair of the Jesus Seminar, a controversial group of theologians and scholars that meets twice a year to debate the Jesus of history — mainly what he said, could have said, and definitely didn't say. Crossan is certain about this: Gibson's Jesus looks nothing like the Jesus Crossan has come to know. Devoid of Christ's ministry, it's "like telling the story of Martin Luther King by focusing on him getting hit by the bullet." But Crossan is aware of the movie's intent. He knows Gibson's title says it all. "He said he's not interested in (Jesus') ministry and resurrection, but his sacrifice. But (Gibson) has gone from sacrifice to suffering, and from suffering to sadism. What he's decided to do, and what every passion play does, is to take the four Gospels and reduce them to one. Then you take what each of them does and reduce that to (Jesus') death. "Then you reduce death to passion, which means to suffer. He shows the last hours (in Jesus' life) as suffering, and I think at that point, it becomes sadism because all that shows you is people thoroughly enjoying beating Jesus to a bloody pulp. "I'm sure the Crucifixion was horrible," Crossan goes on. "I'm sure the scourging was horrible. I think rape is also horrible but I don't think we should dramatize it or show it in detail. It would be pornography." -- It's a `huge irony that all these conservative Christians are awestruck over a movie that is based on an extremely conservative Roman Catholic nun's meditations' -- As disturbing as he found the violence in The Passion, Crossan says he was more shocked by the vivid display of Gibson's personal theology, which is pinched not so much from the New Testament as another source: the often lurid meditations of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich, an Augustinian nun, mystic, visionary, and, some say, prophet who lived from 1774 to 1824. "The movie is 5 per cent from the Gospels, 80 per cent from Anne Catherine Emmerich and the rest from Gibson. If she was copyrighted, he'd be sued, or she would get a major screenwriting credit," Crossan says with a chuckle. But he becomes very earnest when he says he finds it a "huge irony that all these conservative Christians are awestruck over a movie that is based on an extremely conservative Roman Catholic nun's meditations," and not on the very scriptures they hold as inerrant. As for the charge that the movie will fan anti-Semitism, and may already have, Crossan says every Christian "should bend over backward" to be sensitive to Jewish concerns, "since you know what has happened out of these stories. Don't just be politically correct, but be terribly careful. You're dealing with dynamite." But Gibson has dropped the explosives, Crossan feels, and that could leave a large blast radius. The theologian has used the phrase widely: The director has shown "depraved indifference" to how the movie will be received in the Muslim world, where Jesus is regarded as a great prophet, and in Europe, where anti-Semitism is again not only fashionable but almost de rigueur. "I think it will be a disaster," Crossan says. "I think these images will get into peoples' minds, especially the crowds (the one that calls for Jesus' blood; huge in the film but which Crossan believes really numbered no more than a dozen) and a devil figure. These are the most ghastly images and these are going to be in people's minds." Ultimately, what the film will convey to foreign markets is that "there are Jews who are bad and there are ex-Jews, called Christians, who are good." Crossan's trademark is speaking his mind, whether it's about Gibson's film or the Bible itself. He's posited that even the traditional understanding of the Gospels as historical fact is not only wrong but dangerous. The last chapters of the Gospels and the first chapters of Acts, taken literally, "trivialize Christianity and brutalize Judaism," he's written. That has created in Christianity "a lethal deceit that sours its soul, hardens its heart, and savages its spirit." Gibson's movie, like Oliver Stone's JFK, has the potential to mix myth, faith and history — and present it as fact, much like Christianity itself, "which often asserts that its faith is based on fact not interpretation, history not myth, actual event not supreme fiction. I find that assertion internally corrosive and externally offensive." As a Christian, Crossan feels he has a duty to show why some people wanted to worship Jesus but others wanted to execute him. Which brings him to the present day: If Jesus were to return tomorrow, "he would be eliminated with extreme prejudice as soon as possible. The only question would be how. "Assassination would be likely. We would eradicate him because he would threaten the deepest norms of civilization, which I summarize as: `I want to keep mine and take yours.' Jesus said that is not the rule of God. That is not just. "You should come out of that movie saying, 'I think I've got it. We would do the same.'" The Passion will force a lot of people to think about Jesus, Crossan concedes, "but I would never have wanted it to happen this way."

Royal Bathing at Kumbha Mela by Panca-pandava das Posted April 11, 2004 Tomorrow, 5th April will be the first of three Royal Bath dates. There will be a great procession of the different Akharas to the bathing ghat. Akharas are in three different sects being Saivites, Vaisnavas and Udasins. An Akhara is the ksatriya force that protects the Sampradaya, ISKCON comes under the Vallabhadra Akhara, which is a sub group of the Niravani Akhara. Each Akhara will be led by their Nishans, which are the symbols and flags of the Akhara, followed by a band. Then come the Naga Babas, carrying axes spears and other things, they will be shouting slogans and running wild. The Akhara Mahant, or leader, who will sit on a high seat, with an umbrella above him, on a vehicle, will follow the Naga Babas. Originally they would sit on elephants but now generally they will be on a tractor. There will be some fifty to sixty Mahants in the procession, the order being governed by the seniority of the Mahant, the procession route will be surrounded by the followers of the Akharas, all shouting slogans for their Akhara. Each Akhara is allocated thirty minutes for taking bath, with no gap between Akharas, so there will be a great rush for everyone to take bath. ISKCON will be taking bath with the Niravani Akhara between 9.00 and 9.30am. Presently ISKCON does not have its own Mahant, who should obviously be Srila Prabhupada . So ISKCON is not recognised under the Sadhu Samaj (Sadhu Society), therefore during this Kumbha Mela we will try to establish Srila Prabhupada as a Mahant and then ISKCON will effectively have it's own Akhara, then under the Mahant we can have ten Khalsas who can be senior devotees within ISKCON, and then a number of Nagas which are like a disciplinary force, not necessarily naked babas. This will help ISKCON at future Kumbha Melas by being recognised by the Sadhu Samaj, thereby raising the profile of ISKCON, and will also include the provision of free land, electricity and other facilities and benefits. There will be a fairly large cost to this process, as we will have to provide prasadam, a chaddar and dakshina to over five hundred sadhus in order to gain their approval. If you would like to donate towards this process or generally for the ISKCON Kumbha Mela camp please contact me on PAMHO or at KumhaMela2004@hotmail.com The remaining Royal bathing dates are the 22nd April and 4th May. If you would like to come then please contact us to let us know when you will be arriving so we can make arrangements to collect you from the station, or help you in any other way.

FAULTS OF MODERN CIVILIZATION http://www.prabhupadaconnect.comacarya.jpg Everyone is greedy, and everyone makes plans for material enjoyment. In his lust for material enjoyment, the living entity is described as a madman. Everything is enacted by the laws of nature, and these laws are under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The atheists, or unintelligent men, do not know this. They are busy making their own plans, and big nations are busy expanding their empires. And yet we know that in due course of time many empires have come into existence and been destroyed. Many aristocratic families were created by people in their extreme madness, but we can see that in the course of time those families and empires have all been destroyed. But still the foolish atheists do not accept the supreme authority of the Lord. Such foolish people unnecessarily concoct their own duties without referring to the supreme authority of the Lord. The so-called political leaders are busy making plans to advance the material prosperity of their nation, but factually these political leaders only want an exalted position for themselves. Due to their greed for material position, they falsely present themselves as leaders before the people and collect their votes, although they are completely under the grip of the laws of material nature. In other words, the executive heads are fools and rascals in the strict sense of the terms, and the people in general are sudras. This combination of fools and rascals and sudras cannot bring about peace and prosperity in this world. Therefore we find periodic upheavals in society in the forms of battles, communal riots and fratricidal quarrels. Under these circumstances, not only are the leaders unable to lead the people toward liberation, but they cannot even give them peace of mind. In Bhagavad-gita it is stated that anyone who lives on concocted ideas, without reference to the shastras, never becomes successful and does not attain happiness or liberation after death. These are some of the faults of modern civilization. Without taking to God consciousness and accepting the authority of the Lord, the living entities become ultimately confused and frustrated in their planmaking attempts. Due to their unauthorized plans for economic development, the price of commodities is rising daily all over the world, so much so that is has become difficult for the poorer classes, and they are suffering the consequences. And due to lack of Krsna consciousness, people are being fooled by so-called leaders and planmakers. Consequently, the sufferings of the people are increasing. According to the laws of nature, which are backed by the Lord, nothing can be permanent within this material world; therefore everyone should be allowed to take shelter of the Absolute in order to be saved. In this regard, Lord Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita (5.29): “The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.” If one wants peace of mind and tranquillity in society, he must accept the fact that the real enjoyer is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord is the proprietor of everything all over the universe, and He is the supreme friend of all living entities as well. By understanding this, people can become happy and peaceful individually and collectively. (SB 4.24.66, 4.20.15) My dear Lord, all living entities within this material world are mad after planning for things, and they are always busy with a desire to do this or that. This is due to uncontrollable greed. The greed for material enjoyment is always existing in the living entity, but Your Lordship is always alert, and in due course of time You strike him, just as a snake seizes a mouse and very easily swallows him. (Lord Shiva SB 4.24.66) Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

It's qiuntessientially luminous !

Jesus offered forgiveness for all who did what they did without knowing what they were doing ------------------------------- Yes,good analysis of the deeper truths regarding the Son of Man lila

I 've been in may near death situations and even though chanting Hare Krishna for 25 years the first thing that blurts out of my mouth is: "JESUS CHRIST !!!"

Haribol (Chant the Holy Name)

Post deleted by krsna

Washington Post Publishes Article on Disputes in Hindu Studies in America http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A334-2004Apr9.html WASHINGTON, D.C., April 10, 2004: The Washington Post, one of America's leading newspaper, published this informative article on several disputes in the academic arena regarding the study of Hinduism. There is a growing movement in the US for Hindus to gain control of the academic treatment of Hinduism at the university level, just as women, Jews and African Americans have so done over the last 40 years. One excellent model is Emory University's Rabbi Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies (http://www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/JewishStudies/index.html) which has a faculty of thirty, including three ordained rabbis. The Hindu-American community can explore means of funding chairs in Hindu studies and even entire institutes of Hindu studies. We reproduce the article in full below: By Shankar Vedantam Washington Post Staff Writer Folklore has it that elephants never forget, and Paul Courtright has reason to believe it. A professor of religion at Emory University, he immersed himself in the story of Ganesha, the beloved Hindu god with the head of an elephant. Detecting provocative Oedipal overtones in Ganesha's story -- and phallic symbolism in his trunk -- he wrote a book setting out his theories in 1985. Nineteen years later, thanks to an Internet campaign, the world has rediscovered Courtright's book. After a scathing posting on a popular Indian Web site, he has received threats from Hindu militants who want him dead. "Gopal from Singapore said, 'The professor bastard should be hanged,' " said Courtright, incredulous. "A guy from Germany said, 'Wish this person was next to me, I would have shot him in the head.' A man called Karodkar said, 'Kill the bastard. Whoever wrote this should not be spared.' Someone wanted to throw me into the Indian Ocean." Other academics writing about Hinduism have encountered similar hostility, from tossed eggs to assaults to threats of extradition and prosecution in India. The attacks against American scholars come as a powerful movement called Hindutva has gained political power in India, where most of the world's 828 million Hindus live. Its proponents assert that Hindus have long been denigrated and that Western authors are imposing a Eurocentric world view on a culture they do not understand. That argument resonates among many of the roughly 1.4 million Hindus in North America as well. In November, Wendy Doniger, a University of Chicago professor of the history of religion who has written 20 books about India and Hinduism, had an egg flung at her by an angry Hindu when she was lecturing in London. It missed. In January, a book about the Hindu king Shivaji by Macalester College religious studies professor James W. Laine provoked violent outbursts: One of Laine's collaborators in India was assaulted, and a mob destroyed rare manuscripts at an institute in India where Laine had done research. The Indian edition was recalled, and India's prime minister warned Laine not to "play with our national pride." Officials said they want to extradite the Minnesota author to stand trial for defamation, and the controversy has become a campaign issue in upcoming parliamentary elections. Doniger, a 63-year-old scholar at the center of many controversies, is distressed to see her field come under the sway of what she regards as zealots. "The argument," she said, "is being fueled by a fanatical nationalism and Hindutva, which says no one has the right to make a mistake, and no one who is not a Hindu has the right to speak about Hinduism at all." U.S. Cradle of Backlash The recent controversy began not in New Delhi but in New Jersey. In an essay posted on a Web site called Sulekha.com, New Jersey entrepreneur Rajiv Malhotra argued that Doniger and her students had eroticized and denigrated Hinduism, which was part of the reason "the American mainstream misunderstands India so pathologically." Malhotra criticized in particular a book for which Doniger had written the foreword -- Courtright's "Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings." The book drew psychoanalytic inferences about Ganesha, also known as Ganesa or Ganpathi, the son of the Hindu god Shiva and his wife, Parvati. Malhotra's critique produced a swift and angry response from thousands of Hindus. An Atlanta group wrote to the president of Emory University asking that Courtright be fired. "The implication," said Courtright, "was this was a filthy book and I had no business teaching anything." He said the quotes had been taken out of context and ignored the uplifting lessons he had drawn from Ganesha's story. Salman Akhtar, an Indian American psychoanalyst, said the disagreement sprang from different worldviews. "Are religious stories facts or myths?" he asked. "Facts cannot be interpreted. Stories can be interpreted." The book was withdrawn in India, where the local edition's book jacket, which Courtright had neither seen nor approved, depicted Ganesha as a child -- in the nude. "It was very painful reading," said T.R.N. Rao, a computer science professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who advises the university's branch of the Hindu Student Council, a national group with Hindutva roots. "It makes Ganesha a eunuch . . . It was very vulgar." Rao and the council started an Internet petition against the book. Seven thousand people signed within a week -- and among their comments were 60 threats of violence. The petition was swiftly removed. "We condemn any threats to the author and the publisher," said Rao. "We wanted to get the book corrected and replaced. . . . We are not asking for banning the book. I am a professor and I know the value of academic freedom." Insider vs. Outsider Courtright was not the first to find Oedipal overtones in the Ganesha story. But his book became a rallying point for devout Hindus in the United States who say the academic study of their religion is completely at odds with the way they experience their faith. "For the past five years, our field has been in turmoil," said Arvind Sharma, a professor of comparative religion at McGill University in Montreal, who sides with the critics even as he disavows the violence. "There may be a Hindutva connection in what happened in India and the death threats and the person who threw the egg, but there also is a Hindu response." Sharma was asked to write an essay on Hinduism for Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia to replace a previous essay written by Doniger. The switch came after a Hindu activist, a former Microsoft engineer named Sankrant Sanu, charged that Doniger's article perpetuated misleading stereotypes and asked for a rewrite by an "insider." "For pretty much all the religious traditions in America, most of the people studying it are insiders," said Sanu. "They are people who are believers. This is true for Judaism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism. This is not true for Hinduism." In January, fresh controversy along the same lines erupted over a book by Macalester College's Laine, "Shivaji: A Hindu King in Islamic India," which explored the life of a 17th-century icon of the Hindutva movement. After Laine suggested in his book that Shivaji's parents may have been estranged -- an assertion that upset Hindus who see them as nearly divine -- a history scholar in India who had collaborated with Laine was roughed up and smeared with tar by members of Shiv Sena, a Hindutva group. Another nationalist group called the Sambhaji Brigade stormed the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in the city of Pune, and destroyed priceless manuscripts. The reason? Laine had done research there . "No one in Pune today will defend my book, not my friends, not my colleagues, because they are fearful," Laine said. "Oxford University Press pulled the book because they are fearful of physical violence. There will be a chilling effect on what topics you choose to do." Many Indian scholars have rushed to the defense of the American authors. They say the controversy over the books is part of a larger pattern of political violence against scholars in India. Doniger blames the Internet campaigns. "Malhotra's ignorant writings have stirred up more passionate emotions in Internet rs who know even less than Malhotra does, who do not read books at all," Doniger wrote in an e-mail. "And these people have reacted with violence. I therefore hold him indirectly responsible." Dwarakanath Rao (no relation to T.R.N. Rao), a Hindu psychoanalyst in Ann Arbor, Mich., said Doniger had written moving interpretations of Hindu texts that made them accessible for the first time in North America. "I just do not hear disrespect," he said. "I hear a woman who, frankly, is in love with India." India Inc. Malhotra said he began his campaign after visiting African American scholars at Princeton University, who told him that it had taken the civil rights movement before black scholars were allowed into schools to tell their own history. Hindus were only following in the footsteps of blacks, Jews and the Irish, he said, likening his campaign to a consumer struggle: "It's no different than Ralph Nader saying we need a consumer voice against General Motors." Malhotra disavowed the violence -- he called the attackers "hooligans." He said he has campaigned against the Hindutva agenda and opposed the Internet petition against Courtright. "I know I am championed by the Hindu right but there is nothing I can do about that," he said. Indeed, Malhotra's critique seems to have less to do with religious nationalism than public relations. Doniger and other academics are "an inbred, incestuous group that control a vertically integrated industry," the former telecom entrepreneur said. Unlike other critics' objections, Malhotra's is not that outsiders have written about India -- he has himself encouraged many Americans to study India -- but that the books have harmed the image of what he calls "India Inc." "In America," he said, "everything is negotiable -- you have to negotiate who you are and how they think of you." Previously, Malhotra waged a campaign against CNN for coverage that he charged was biased toward India's rival, Pakistan. A foundation he has launched is dedicated to "upgrade the portrayal of India's civilization in the American education system and media." This approach does not go down well within the academy. "We are not in the business of marketing a nation state," said Vijay Prashad, an international studies scholar at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., in a recent Internet debate with Malhotra. "That is the job of the ambassador of India, not of a scholar." McGill's Sharma, a practicing Hindu, countered that the academy had never been neutral, objective ground. Trends in academia have always been governed by shifts in public opinion: "The recalibration of a power equation is an untidy process." But if the controversies are only about influence, Doniger said, there was little use in discussing the merits of the various books, or her Encarta essay on Hinduism. "It does not matter whether the article published under my name was right or wrong," she said in an e-mail. "The only important thing about it was that I wrote it and someone named Sharma did not." © 2004 The Washington Post Company

Initiation ~March 24, 1968 Srila Prabhupada has decided it is time to initiate his new disciple, who has been living at the Radha-Krishna Temple in San Francisco for a month. It would be at the dawn of Spring, on the morning of Easter Sunday, that Vishnujana das would appear in this world... On returning to the temple from his morning walk around Stowe Lake, Srila Prabhupada enters the small storefronts double doors amid the excitement of the devotees, busily completing the final arrangements for the initiation cermony. Srila Prabhupada walks to the rear of the temple room and offers obeisances at the altar of Lord Jagannatha. He then walks to the cushioned seat which has been arranged before a raised mound of earth where the fire sacrifice will take place. Sitting in a meditative mood, Srila Prabhupada begins to play his kartalas, singing prayers to the maha-disciplic succesion of Lord Chaitanya. After chanting, Srila Prabhupada gives a potent lecture about spiritual qualification. A nod from Srila Prabhupada, and the new initiate approaches him respectfully. After chanting on japa beads and reciting the regulations of initiation, Prabhupada hands the beads, saying, "Your name is Vishnujana dasa. 'Vishnujana' means 'one who serves the devotees of the Lord'. Hare Krishna." Everyone in the temple cheers as the new Vaishnava accepts his beads and offers obeisances to his eternal spiritual master. Srila Prabhupada begins the fire sacrafice, formalizing the rites of initiation. As he continues ladling the ghee, the small flame quickly turns into a fiery blaze.

Jai Sita Ram Jai sita ram Jai Hanuman Hari, Hari bol Jai sita ram.

Old article but good defense of the cultist propaganda:----------------- One Man's Road to Krishna By Robert F. Corens Sunday, April 8, 1979; The Washington Post I was my family's representative at church on Sundays, while they slept late. The minister, a kind man, cajoled me into memorizing the Apostle's Creed and other prayers so that by the age of 13 I could muster for my Confirmation. In those days I prayed every night to "bring the boys back from Korea." That Episcopal minister, Rev. Coleman, had weaned us from a wooden, prefab chapel to a respectable stone edifice before he was reassigned. His leaving coincided with my first year in high school when I came more under the influence of my friends; my interest in church activities diminished. From 13 to 17, I competed with my peers for recognition and enjoyed simultaneous independence and protection from my parents, whose strongest admonition was to do what I thought would make me happy as long as I stayed out of trouble. Using the schedules in the newspapers, with my naked eye I spotted and trailed the first Sputnik as it glided high overhead against the innumerable stars. I wondered at the vast heavens and life's purpose. I paid my way through George Washington University with money saved from boyhood paper routes and part-time jobs after classes. College was an opportunity for philosophical speculations with my friends and my capacity to wonder expanded. After graduation I decided to go straight to what I thought was the heart of the material world - New York City - to seek out whatever was the highest truth. I ended up living around the corner from the first East Village "head shop," in the middle of the drug revolution of the Sixties. My job as a social worker didn't seem to really help anyone besides myself, but I planned to make it a career. Most clients I worked with weren't changed much by grants, counseling, training. Over the years they maintained pretty much the same basic mentally and habits. I tried to give more meaning to my life by becoming a union activist, attending graduate school, visiting West Village coffee houses, going to Alpert and Leary lectures on "consciousness expansion" and reading yoga books. With my wife and small son, I paraded down Fifth Avenue next to Allen Ginsberg and thousands of ladies and gentlemen protesting Vietnam while people stood on the sidewalks jeering and throwing paint. But I was bored and couldn't keep my wife and son happy. Within myself, I felt more and more intensely that my "normal" aspirations for a master's degree and a nice apartment left something about out. Something was missing. I heard about the "I Ching," a book that was supposed to chart a person's position in the material world. So I got someone to do a reading for me. The answer was: "Push upward through darkness." I took it as a good sign, a spiritual sign. Then a friend gave me a book by a great Sikh teacher who wrote that there could be no higher knowledge without a spiritual master. A few months later I found myself in a tiny storefront listening to lectures from the "Bhagavad-gita" given by the eminent Sanskrit scholar, Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada Swami, who was destined to become the founder of the Hare Krishna movement in America. A short time later, by November, 1966, I was in a different parade, wearing an Indian dhoti and kurta (shirt), chanting Hare Krishna. Some of the people stood around and sneered but most of them looked the other way or pretended to window shop while listening to the chanting. Here and there were a few friendly smiles. My co-workers saw me on TV and my boss threatened to fire for wearing the distinctive white mark of my sect on my forehead. But I told him that I had a devotee friend with the same mark working at another welfare center, and, fearing charges of religious discrimination, he backed off. I was struggling to preserve my new spiritual identity and trying to leave off my old conditioned conceptions of life. My consciousness of God was flickering, but it soared far beyong the faith of my boyhood. My wife and son have continued to follow me on this path.I am now director of the Radha Krishna Temple and monastery in Potomac and my wife does public relations work. My son is studying Sanskrit and Hindi in Vrindaban, India, the birthplace of Krishna. My parents have followed our activities over the years and they have been very sympathetic and encouraging. Now I have to marvel at those opo psychologists and dry academicians who thinly disguise their atheism by trying to explain away truly religious experience as a variety of mind-control or brainwashing. (They remind me of bees licking the outside of a jar of honey, never getting a taste). Two such "experts" have stated that the Hare Krishna arati (deity worship) ceremony is the most successful bit of mind-control they've seen. Wouldn't they be alarmed to see Vrindaban, the "City of 5,000 Temples," where 5,000 aratis go on simultaneuosly every sunrise! Anti-cultists and deprogrammmers with their scare tactics, forced retentin and psuedo-legalistic and scientific jargon would love to have open season declared on devotees without waiting to be hired by parents or condoned by courts. They think they're great moralist, doing a great service to society. So did the Spanish Inquiosittor, Salem witch-hunters, Nazis, McCarthyites and many others whom history has condemned. Like pilgrims who came three centuries before him, the founder of the American Krishna Movement, Srila Prabhupada, came to America in 1965 looking for a new field and a fresh start. Of the four great Vaishnava denomitions in India, only his, the Gaudiya Vaishnavas, has extended its missionary activities beyond India. Vaishnavism, like Islam, Judaism and Christianity, is a monotheistic religion and means personal service to a supreme being. In 1970, Srila Prabhupada appointed an international democratic body, presently consisting of 20 men. Just before passing away in 1977, he initially authorized 11 members of this body to take disciples. He did not designate an internatinal headquarters. Srila Prabhupada had a vision of combining the best of Indian and American cultures for the material and spiritual benefit of the rest of the world, a world in which he saw masses hoping against hope that their leaders would find a formula for peace. But, as he pointed out in literary commentaries written in 26 languages, peace would depend upon becoming conscious of the proprietorship of God. Otherwise, as he put it, the struggle for world leadership would remain something like thieves fighting over stolen bread, each admonishing the other to be "moral" and not take more than a rightful share. Our religion may not be mainstream America but it has been established for thousands of years. An ancient tradition can hardly be called a "cult," unless cult designates a phase that all the mainstream religions in America have gone through. Before the Constitution was written, Quakers, Baptists and Jews were driven from the Massachusetts Bay Colony; Catholics were harassed by Protestants in the Maryland Colony. I'm sure that's why the first line of the First Amendment defends religious freedoms. All the freedoms - speech, association, privacy, et cetera - will surely go down the historical drain if the "free exercise" and "non-establishment" of religion clauses are modified by judicial or legislative restraints to the point of becoming futile or even antireligious. To protect human rights, it seem more sober to measure by standard criminal codes any alleged illegal practices as distinguished from beliefs. Members of established religions have not been harassed like us, with ex parte court "conservatorships" originally intended for the senile and mentally incompetent. America Krishna devotees are entitled to the same rights as Catholics, Protestants and Jews. Christians and Jews were long ago accepted in India - without deprogrammings and conservatorships. If all genuine religion leads to one God (monotheism), which is the non-sectarian view, then there is ultimately no difference between one religion and another, except for the degree of faith and realization of its adherents. Krishna devotees are not looking to convert everyone we meet; we are simply looking for reasonable people who are (or ought to be) interested in the purpose of human life. That's not a meaningless question to any normal person, but I think most people have been distracted from trying to answer it by the temporary promises of material advancement. Because many people are avoiding formalized religon, we distribute books in public, assuming that a beautiful, high-quality book will taken home, kept and eventually read. Sometimes, the devotees are considered overly persistent in obtaining donations for the literature, although their tactics are no more agressive than those of insurance salesmen. They talk first of the movements' activities before identifying themselves so as to avoid being rejected outright as a "cult," thus losing a chance to say anything else. This lumping together of religious groups as "cults" is largely due to an unbalanced media coverage which has intensified since the Guyana incident. Some critics say Krishna devotees are dangerous, un-American, but to me it seems dangerous and against public interest to let government decide by regulations or restrictions where or what people should read or hear about religion, things which the Founding Fathers left up to the people's better judgement (notwithstanding any modern government distrust of that judgement or media influence upon it). Of course, I can't claim to speak for everyone in the Hare Krishna movement, but i think a lot of us feel this way. Nor should I make excuses for my friends at our New Vrindaban farm project in West Virginia for their buying (non-military) weapons after being attacked in the middle of a service by gunmen. I know how they must have felt because I was in a group of Krishna devotees in Knoxville, Tenn., who were firebombed one night. Three were injured; one devotee was killed. The crime never was solved. Nor can I apologize for the persistence and enthusiasm of devotees who are dedicating their lives to offer spiritual alternatives to broken homes, drugs, crime, abortions suicides and other social ills that plague our lives. Personally, I realize the path I've chosen is a difficult from within myself than from without. But the soul-searching required is human life's prerogative. ----------- Robert F. Corens, 39, is a director of the Washington Radha-Krishna temple and monastery in Potomac, Md., a native of Washington and a graduate of George Washington University.

BHAGAVAD-GITA: "Cow Protection" - Not "Cattle Raising" When Dravinaksa Prabhu uses the expression "Open A Case Of Nectar" when he talks about opening a case of Prabhupada's original Bhagavad-gita's, I can understand what he means. All the poetic language is there, along with all the bhakti-saturated impressionistic illustrations so beloved by Srila Prabhupada as "windows to the spiritual world." But there is one crucial change that Prabhupada stated that he wanted made on numerous occasions. That is in Bg 18.44. The translation in the book reads: "Farming, cattle raising and business are the qualities of work for the vaisyas…" Srila Prabhupada wanted that changed to read: "Farming, cow protection and business are the qualities of work for the vaisyas…" So before anyone distributes these Gita's, they should make that change. Use an ink pen if necessary, or make some neatly printed labels to cover the mistranslation in the book. Srila Prabhupada was much more emphatic about the importance of cow protection than most modern swamis - whether inside or outside ISKCON. For example, you'll rarely hear them state that comfort of the cows is more important than comfort of the brahmanas - but Srila Prabhupada makes that statement in the Bhagavatam: For the cowherd men and the cows, Krsna is the supreme friend. Therefore He is worshiped by the prayer namo brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca. His pastimes in Gokula, His dhama, are always favorable to the brahmanas and the cows. His first business is to give all comfort to the cows and the brahmanas. In fact, comfort for the brahmanas is secondary, and comfort for the cows is His first concern. >>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 10.8.16 In the first canto of the Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada refers to cow protection as one of the two "pillars of spiritual advancement." Prabhupada is not making a concoction when he emphasizes the importance of cow protection in Krsna consciousness. On the contrary, the importance of cow protection to Krsna is actually the very first word of spiritual instruction that we obtain from Lord Brahma, who is the founder of our sampradaya millions of years ago: "Govindam adi purusam" meaning "Lord Krsna, the Pleaser of the Cows, is the Original Person." Therefore we sing this prayer to the Deities every day. Also, Srila Prabhupada is practically the only swami to point out the fact that real cow protection must include working the oxen. On the other hand, in ISKCON we see numerous examples of leaders who minimized the importance of cow protection as a necessity for spiritual progress. Sannyasis like Kirtanananda, Jagadish and Harikesa who at one time became powerful members of ISKCON's GBC all had serious shortcomings in the matter of cow protection. From our perspective, it's difficult to say exactly what relationship this had to their subsequent falldown, but it is certainly worth noting. And there are other sannyasi leaders in today's GBC who have never even read the Ministry of Cow Protection and Agriculture's MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR COW PROTECTION. Obviously, we have to be concerned about their spiritual standing as well. Thus, for reasons like these, I urge anyone who uses the old Bhagavad gita to please make that one change which Srila Prabhupada requested on numerous occasions. If you like, you may insert a slip of paper with the passages below to authenticate the change and demonstrate that this is not an arbitrary revision, but one which was repeatedly requested by His Divine Grace. Tamala Krsna: krsi-goraksya-vanijyam vaisya-karma svabhava-jam paricaryatmakam karma sudrasyapi svabhava-jam [bg 18.44] "Farming, cattle raising and business are the qualities..." Prabhupada: They are not cattle raising, that was... Tamala Krsna: Cow protection. Prabhupada: Cow protection. It has to be corrected. It is go-raksya, go. They take it cattle-raising. I think Hayagriva has translated like this. Tamala Krsna: Hayagriva. Prabhupada: No, it is especially mentioned go-raksya. Krsi-go-raksya-vanijyam vaisya-karma svabhava-jam [bg. 18.44]. And then...? >>> Ref. VedaBase => Room Conversation with the Mayor of Evanston -- July 4, 1975, Chicago Prabhupada: That is fourth-class. First of all, third-class. Nitai: Third-class: "Farming, cattle raising and business are the qualities of work for the vaisyas,..." Prabhupada: Not cattle raising, cow protection. Nitai: Cow protection. Prabhupada: Yes. Farming and cow protection and trade, this is meant for the third-class division. And worker, fourth-class. These divisions must be there. Then the society will go on very nicely. >>> Ref. VedaBase => Television Interview -- July 9, 1975, Chicago Prabhupada: One thing immediately inform Ramesvara. In the Bhagavad-gita yesterday they have edited "cattle-raising." But not cattle-raising. Cattle-raising means to grow and killing. That is the.... Means the rascals, they have edited. Pusta Krsna: Yeah, and we're.... (interference) Prabhupada: And "protection of cows," clearly. Guru-krpa: Chapter Eighteen, Bhagavad-gita, that the vaisyas work... Pusta Krsna: Oh, krsi-go-raksya. Prabhupada: Ah, krsi-go-raksya. Immediately inform them. Pusta Krsna: Okay. I noticed that also. I thought it was strange, some time back. [break] Prabhupada: Hayagriva edited. He thought, "cattle-raising." Not "cattle-raising," but the word.... There.... It is mistranslation. It is go-raksya, "giving protection to the cows." Especially mentioned, go-raksya, not otherwise. The animal-eaters may take other animals, but not cow. They can take the pig, goats, lambs, rabbits, so many others, if they at all want to eat meat, birds, these so many. There is no such mention that "Animals should be protected," no. "Cows should be protected." That is Krsna's order. [break] They have decided to kill the cow. They have decided, "No brain. Eat." And our prayer is go-brahmana-hitaya ca, "to do good to the brahmanas and the cows." Actually it is revolutionary to the modern age. But how it is possible we say otherwise? >>> Ref. VedaBase => Morning Walk -- April 21, 1976, Melbourne