krsna

prithivite ache jata nagaradi gram / sarbatra prachar hoibe mor nam. "My name will be spread in every town and village, everywhere in the world." ------------ Sri Caitanya specifically states (Antya-lila 4.126): “I declare that My name will be preached in every town and village on this earth.”

Pure devotion and the competitive spirit: Part 2 Continued from Part 1 by B. B. Bodhayan President of Sri Gopinath Gaudiya Math All glories to Sri Guru, Sri Gauranga and the Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Saraswata Sampradaya! If we study the example set by all our previous acharyas, we will find that competition is not a religious principle. Nowadays, however, we see that in the Vaishnava Sampradaya, especially the Sri Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Saraswata Sampradaya, almost all societies and acharyas are trying to show that they are better than the others. That is one reason explaining all those articles on the Internet that seem to have defeating others as their only purpose. Every disciple naturally follows his or her spiritual master’s mood and so preaches in the same competitive spirit. If a follower asks his master, "Can I achieve my spiritual goal through chanting the Holy Name and propagating my society and acharya’s glories as much as possible?", the acharya replies with silence as a sign of his tacit approval – maunam sammati-laksanam. As a result, the Madhva Gaudiya Saraswata world as a whole sometimes looks like a battlefield. We seem to think that our acharya or society’s qualifications are proved by the number of supporters, devotees, or centers they possess, or how much wealth and mundane opulence they have accumulated. As a result, so many devotees in our sampradaya seem to be running after religion, wealth, sense pleasure and liberation in Mahaprabhu’s name, instead of seeking Divine Love, the fifth goal of life or Panchama Purushartha that He really came to give. Mahaprabhu said prithivite ache jata nagaradi gram / sarbatra prachar hoibe mor nam. "My name will be spread in every town and village, everywhere in the world." This prediction has for all intents and purposes come true and His name has indeed spread to almost every corner of the globe, leaving hardly any place untouched. Even so, most senior devotees in the sampradaya are feeling frustration at the way the present Vaishnava organizations and their acharyas are behaving. They feel that instead of spreading Mahaprabhu’s message, the followers of these groups are engaged in subtle politics against other devotees -- pure or impure -- in order to promote their own society and acharya. When devotees begin to lose their taste for chanting the Holy-Name after long practice, they naturally want to know why. We have heard from our acharyas that when this happens, it is because from the starting point of our bhajan life, knowingly or unknowingly, we have been committing offences. When this happens, some of us remain active in our society and follow its acharya without any real hope or enthusiastic mood. Others leave their society with a negative attitude to Vaishnavas in general. Such former devotees are now engaged in some business or work in mundane places to make their livelihood. This is a synopsis of the current situation in the Vaishnava world. Prabhupada Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur once said that we have not come into the association of Vaishnavas in order to become construction workers in brick, wood, and stone. If it is necessary to sell the bricks and other wealth in order to spread Mahaprabhu’s message of Divine Love, we should do that. We should try to cultivate this attitude in the service of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupada, Prabhupadas Rupa, Sanatana and Sri Jiva Goswami, and Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu! Are we preaching just to increase the mundane wealth of our particular society? If so, what do we achieve? Are we really following the path of the previous spiritual masters? Or are we simply using their name and words to further our own ends of increasing mundane wealth? Is this why Prabhupadas Rupa, Sanatana, and Sri Jiva Goswami set the example of building glorious temples for their Deities, while they themselves spent the rest of their lives under trees, writing books? Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur has sung in one of his kirtans (Kalyana-kalpa-taru) as follows: mukhe bolo prem prem bastuta tyajiya hem shunya granthi anchale bandhan "We are repeatedly speaking and preaching about Divine Love to others, but actually we are far from it. We have lost this diamond by our present activity. Now we have nothing, an absolutely empty pot in the name of full divine pot." At another place in same kirtan, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur wrote as follows: akaitaba krishna prem jena suvimala hem ei phal nriloke durlabh kaitabe vanchana matra hou age jogya patra tabe prem haibe sulabh "Divine Love is like a rare piece of bright gold or diamond. When we are absolutely free from hypocritical activities and surrender absolutely to His service, then we will be qualified to get this Divine Love. Actually the diamond of Krishna Prema is very rare on this planet. Rather than taking shelter of hypocrisy to deceive others, we should try to become worthy to receive Divine Love, for though Prema is very rare, it comes very easily to those who have attained eligibility by ridding their hearts of hypocrisy and the desire to deceive others." If we examine the essence of the above quote, we see that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur is explaining that what we are nowadays calling Prema (Divine Love) is actually fakery or deceit. My beloved Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaj, explained in one of his discourses that the first symptom of feeling separation is tears at the time of chanting the Holy Name. He himself would ask, "Where are my tears? Tears don’t come easily to me, even if I put hot peppers in my eyes!" Srila Gurudeva expressed himself in this humble manner just to teach us a lesson, for I often saw him in the middle of the night, secretly crying and lamenting to someone out of separation from Krishna’s service. What is the present condition of our hearts regarding the feeling of separation for Krishna? How can we pretend to have Divine Love (Prem) as long as we maintain selfish goals and are more and more dedicated to achieving them? According to Srila Narottam Das Thakur, apana bhajana katha na kahiya jatha tatha, " which means "we should not show or discuss our feelings of separation to anyone and everyone." We should keep them secret so that they can grow and develop. Nowadays, we are showing off, broadcasting our so-called mood of separation and our secret relation with Krishna to neophyte people in order to attract them to our camp. Furthermore, we are discussing very intimate topics of Radha-Krishna’s conjugal pastimes to those neophyte devotees, just to show off that we have full knowledge of Vaishnava siddhanta. But look at Mahaprabhu’s example: He discussed such matters in a very intimate place, the Gambhira in Jagannath Puri, where He lived for eighteen years along with Swarupa Damodar Prabhu and Ray Ramananda Prabhu, His most intimate associates. Are we really following the above instructions of Narottam Das Thakur and the example given by Mahaprabhu? Nowadays, though we belong to the same sampradaya, we criticize each other in order to steal devotees from other camps to make our own bigger, so we can show off our power. And we do it all in the name of preaching abroad! Is this the type of preaching Mahaprabhu showed? We all know what His standards of behavior were. When He converted Prakashananda Saraswati, the leader of the impersonalist camp, He did not do so in a challenging mood or in order to prove Himself on the field of competition. Though Prakashananda was an impersonalist, Mahaprabhu still displayed the Vaishnava qualities of humility and politeness to him. Once upon a time, when Mahaprabhu was visiting Kashi, Sripad Tapan Mishra and Chandrashekhar Acharya requested Him with great feeling to establish pure devotion in their town, because as devotees they were tired of constantly being insulted by the impersonalists. At that time, Mahaprabhu was invited to a Brahmin’s house where the impersonalists congregrated. The leader of the Mayavadis, Prakashananda Saraswati, asked Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu why He did not associate with them. Mahaprabhu replied with humility, "The instruction of my spiritual master is that foolish persons should only chant the Holy Name, instead of reading Vedanta, the essence of all scripture. I am fool number one according to my spiritual master’s judgment, so how can I associate with all of you who are giving such learned discourses from the scripture? harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam / kalau nastyeva nastyeva nastyeva gatir anyatha //" In this way Mahaprabhu tried to say that the essence of Veda and all Scriptures is Sri Holy Name. Then Mahaprabhu went on to make the following statement about Krishna Prema, quoted in Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita: krishna vishayak prema-- parama purushartha jar age trina tulya chari purushartha panchama purushartha premanandamrita sindhu brahmadi-ananda jar nahe ek bindu Among the five purushartha, Prema is the best, better than other four purusharthas: religion, wealth, sense pleasures and liberation. Next to the fifth purushartha, these four goals of life are valueless, like a piece of grass. The fifth purushartha, Krishna Prema, is like an ocean of blissful nectarean love. Even Lord Brahma, the son of God and creator of the universe, has not tasted a drop of it. Then, with proper Vaishnava etiquette, Mahaprabhu defeated Shankararachaya’s commentary and established His own siddhanta: God is opulence, full-bliss, eternity, and consciousness. After that, Prakashananda, the Mayavadi sannyasi, and his group of followers surrendered to Mahaprabhu’s lotus feet. The point is that Mahaprabhu did not display a competitive or aggressive challenging mood, even to these opponents. Contrast this with our attitude nowadays, when we behave in this manner even with those who are in our own same sampradaya, what to speak of the Mayavadis. Again, in Srimad Bhagavatam, Lord Krishna shows us that the challenging and competitive spirit are not included in devotion through the story of Arjuna, Ugrasena Maharaj and a pious Brahmin whose children had died as soon as they took birth. Once, there was a Brahmin in Maharaj Ugrasena’s kingdom, whose wife had given birth to nine baby sons. Unfortunately, every time she gave birth, her children would die for no apparent reason. The father of these babies widely accused the king, Maharaj Ugrasena, of responsibility for their death. Each year, the Brahmin would come to the King’s palace, carrying his dead child, and shout curses at Maharaj Ugrasena, blaming him for the death of his child. The king himself remained silent, showing tolerance as an acharya. After the ninth such death, Arjuna, the third Pandava happened to be present and heard the Brahmin hurling invective at the king. He asked him what was his complaint. The Brahmin blamed the death of all his children on the sinful activities of the king. Arjuna was astonished to hear the Brahmin’s accusation, but was convinced that what he said was true. Arjuna was filled with false pride and the desire to defeat Maharaj Ugrasena and so told the Brahmin that the next time his wife was ready to give birth, he should call him. He would go and protect the child from the forces of death. The pious Brahmin felt it was strange that Arjuna was claiming he could succeed where Vasudeva, Sankarshan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha had all failed. "How can you save my children?" he asked. Arjuna immediately replied, "I am Arjuna and I carry the Gandiva bow. I don’t care for all these others. I will show you my power when your wife gives birth." The Brahmin still had doubts, but Arjuna very proudly gave his promise that if he was not able to save the Brahmin’s next child, he would enter the fire and destroy his body. When the time came, the Brahmin remembered Arjuna’s promise and sent for him. Arjuna went to his house equipped with his bow and other weapons. On arriving, he chanted a few mantras to protect the area and sat down in front of the Brahmin’s wife to watch over her. Unfortunately, Krishna’s beloved friend Arjuna forgot Krishna out of pride on that day. When he chanted the mantra for protection, he did achaman for purification of his body and mind using the mantra namah Shivaya instead of the Krishna Mantra. Arjuna sat in front of Brahmin’s wife with his fighting-bow, awaiting the messenger of death, but as soon as she gave birth, her child died, as had happened every time previously. Arjuna was astonished to see the child die right in front of him. He set off to find out where the child had gone after death. He searched in so many places without finding the child. Finally, he had to admit his failure and arranged to keep his promise by entering a fire to end his life. Lord Krishna immediately appeared and spoke to Arjuna, "Please come with me and I will show you where that Brahmin’s children have gone." Then both went to Mahakalpur and Krishna ordered Karanodashayi Vishnu to give back the Brahmin his ten children. The teaching to be taken from the above story in the Srimad Bhagavatam is that when we commit offences to the acharya, Vaishnavas and God, our whole devotional practice is nipped in the bud. Favoring the words of the Brahmin, Arjuna, committed offence to Maharaj Ugrasena, who was an acharya. Due to that offence, he forgot Vasudeva, Sankarshan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, i.e., his relation with God. Thus when the Brahmin told Arjuna that Vasudeva, Sankarshan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha had failed to save his children, Arjuna pretended to be more powerful than them. With his proud answer to the Brahmin, Arjuna committed an offence to the lotus feet of the Chaturvyuha (God). Therefore at the time of achaman, he uttered namah Shivaya instead of a Krishna mantra. In this way, there are so many examples in the scriptures showing that competitiveness and the challenging mood destroy pure devotion. From the above facts, it is shown that when we commit offences towards the acharyas and Vaishnavas, we are pulled away from the lotus feet of God. Though Arjuna was Krishna’s dearest devotee, his offence caused him to take on a competing mood and to challenge Maharaj Ugrasena and Vasudeva, Sankarshan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. Please, readers, do not take any offence from me, I am simply expressing my heartfelt worries. Kindly bless me that I may follow the proper devotional path. I wish to continue writing more on this topic, giving more evidence from other scriptures. Your humble servant, B.B.Bodhayan President of Sri Gopinath Gaudiya Math

: Part 1 by B. B. Bodhayan President of Sri Gopinath Gaudiya Math All glories to Sri Guru, Sri Gauranga and the Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Saraswata Sampradaya! It is sad to say that in our contemporary Gaudiya Vaishnava community, many of us are Vaishnavas in name only. We make a show of devotion, but what we are calling devotion is in fact the observance of few rules of moral behavior at best. In essence, it is thus not devotion at all. Moreover, in the name of pure devotion, we are also abusing the ideal of yukta vairagya, renunciation with proper adjustment to time, place and circumstances. We are not supposed to be followers of Ekalavya, who was rejected by even his own guru Dronacharya. We must take stock of our true standing on the bhakti marga? Service to the spiritual master is based on surrender, and not on just following a few moral codes. Service to the guru means following the pure devotional path according to his instructions. It goes beyond morality. Krishna proved this when He instructed Arjuna to kill his own kinsmen. Krishna told Arjuna: "Do it! You will not incur any sin. I shall protect you." It was not "moral" to kill Dronacharya, Bhishma and all the other great and pious heroes fighting for the Kauravas, but Arjuna surrendered to Krishna, his guru. He thus surpassed the mundane principles of morality, which involve following rules and regulations to keep peace and order in human society. We must not neglect the instructions of our diksha guru. For, if we are not surrendered, we cannot actually render any true service to Krishna. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada gave us the proper conception of yukta vairagya for our present times. We should try to understand it properly if we are to serve the cause of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Surrender to Krishna gives life In the Bhagavad-Gita (18.66), Sri Krishna told Arjuna, "Abandon all varieties of religion (sarva-dharmAn) and take exclusive shelter of Me. I shall deliver you from the reactions of your sinful activities. Do not fear." Sarva-dharmAn indicates "all kinds of religious attitudes." This means that we must without hesitation reject all other methods of spiritual advancement other than surrender. Srila Rupa Goswami also recommends that we cultivate devotion free from personal interests (any”bhil”Òita-Á¸nyam) and the tendencies toward karma and jnana (jÒAna-karmAdy-anAvRtam). Surrender is the primary characteristic of bhakti. It cannot be found anywhere else. Other attempts to reach the Absolute by adopting the path of karma yoga or jnana yoga, for example, are destined to disappoint us. Sharanagati, or surrender to Krishna, is the name Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur gave to a collection of wonderful songs of his own composition. In the introductory song of that book, Bhaktivinoda writes, zrI kRSNa caitanya prabhu jIve dayA kari sva-parSada svIya dhAma saha avatari atyanta durlabha prema karibAre dAna zikhAya zaraNAgati bhakatera prANa Out of compassion for the fallen souls, Sri Krishna Chaitanya came to this world with His personal associates and divine abode to teach sharanagati, surrender to Krishna, and to freely distribute ecstatic love (prema) for God, which is ordinarily very difficult to obtain. This sharanagati is the very life (prana) of the true devotee." This song clearly says that without surrender, a devotee is without life (prana). Surrender to guru, Vaishnavas and Krishna will give us back our life. We have nothing to lose. This is the benefit of the bhakti process. On the other hand, if a person has a good character, but no devotion, he can be considered a moralist at best. The soul gives life to the body, which is otherwise dead. Similarly, a life of so-called devotion without surrender is like a useless corpse. It is impossible to achieve divine love (prema) without surrender. In this regard, we can learn a good lesson from the famous story of Ekalavya. The story of Ekalavya Once, when Arjuna, the celebrated Pandava, was still a boy, he, his brothers and his cousins studied the military sciences from the great master Dronacharya. At that time, Ekalavya, the son of Hiranyadhanu, the king of an aboriginal tribe, was moved by his faith to approach Dronacharya and request him for instruction in archery. Dronacharya refused to teach his prospective disciple because he wanted to test his faith, but Ekalavya was stubbornly determined to learn archery from the master. So unbeknownst to Drona, Ekalavya went to the forest and fashioned an image of him out of clay. He then began to practice archery in front of this image all day long. Concentrating his mind on Dronacharya in this way, Ekalavya gradually became the most expert archer in the world, more skilful than even Arjuna. Arjuna was not only Krishna's intimate friend, but also Dronacharya's dearest disciple. The master had once promised him, "No one will ever excel you in this art. You will become the best archer on this earth and so will you remain, I promise you!" One day, the Kauravas and the Pandavas went together for a walk in the forest when they suddenly saw something quite astonishing. Lying peacefully on the ground was a dog whose mouth had been sewn closed by seven arrows. The boys thought that one who could perform such extraordinary feat was undoubtedly the best archer in the world. They also thought that perhaps he was even better than Arjuna. As they continued to penetrate deeper into the dense forest, they came across an unknown archer tirelessly practicing his marksmanship. It was he who had shot the arrows at the dog because the animal had been barking and disturbing his concentration. When the boys returned to the palace, they related the incident to Dronacharya in detail. Arjuna humbly reminded Dronacharya of his promise that no one would ever excel him in archery. Dronacharya, who was very surprised to hear of the existence of such an expert bowman, went to the forest with Arjuna to meet him. When they reached Ekalavya's cottage, they saw him sitting down before the clay image of Dronacharya and shooting arrows with great expertise. As soon as Ekalavya saw them, he paid them their due respects, honoring Dronacharya as his master. When Dronacharya heard that Ekalavya considered him to be his guru, he requested dakshina from him. Dakshina is the donation or gift given to a priest or one's own guru. In ancient times, masters used to demand their due dakshina from their disciples at the time of initiation. Ekalavya stood with folded palms in front of Dronacharya, and told his master that he was ready to do whatever he ordered. Dronacharya then demanded that Ekalavya give him the thumb of his right hand. Though the loss of the thumb meant that he would no longer be able to shoot, Ekalavya cut it off without hesitation. A dangerous example Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur explains that Krishna, bhakti and the bhakta partake of the same absolute nature. A devotee enjoys a special position because the Lord is favorably inclined to him. On the other hand, a non-devotee may have many good qualities and moral virtues according to the standards of worldly life, but all these assets have no value in the eyes of the Lord. Any one who thinks that morality surpasses bhakti will fail to catch this subtle point. Though Ekalavya had initially been rejected by Dronacharya, he was moved by his own faith to make an image of clay of his master. He had then achieved perfection in archery by practising in front of that image. This seems to be an example of devotion to the master. Indeed, it seems that Ekalavya was completely surrendered to his guru. Otherwise, how could he cut away his thumb without thinking twice? However, it is my humble opinion that a devotee on the path of surrender must dismiss the example of Ekalavya. When Dronacharya refused to instruct Ekalavya in archery, he had good reasons for not doing so. Ekalavya should have waited for his guru's mercy, but he did not. Instead he concocted his own way of achieving his mercy by moulding the image of clay and training in front of it. In fact, the mind of Ekalavya was tainted by the desire to become a famous, skilful archer. He wanted to surpass Arjuna's dexterity in bowmanship. This was not at all a good attitude, especially if we consider Arjuna's status as a pure devotee of the Lord. The desire to be "bigger" or more famous than another Vaishnava is not devotion at all. This was also against the desire of Dronacharya. Therefore, Ekalavya committed guru aparadh by neglecting Dronacharya and Vaishnava aparadh by being envious of Arjuna. This is perhaps the reason why later on Ekalavya was killed by Krishna and merged into His brahmajyoti effulgence. This is the way Krishna deals with the demons. They achieve sayujya mukti, the liberation that is always despised by devotees. Ekalavya's dealings with Dronacharya were also tainted with impersonalism. He really did not take the instructions of his guru to heart. Instead of following the directions of the living guru, he used his guru's clay image as a means to achieving his own cherished ambition. Ekalavya tried to draw his guru's attention to himself instead of surrendering to his guru. This shows that his devotion was artificial. In other words, he outwardly showed the behavior of a disciple, but his heart was consumed by egotism. Similarly, one should not have the outward dress of a Vaishnava while harboring the attitude of a mundaner. Penances without the sanction of the guru and the Vaishnavas do not fall in the category of bhakti. Materialistic people with a demoniac mentality also perform many austerities, but their aim is to get material benefit and enjoy sense gratification. Although Ekalavya was not interested in gross sensual pleasure, his austerities had not been sanctioned by any senior authority. Thus the expert Dronacharya was able to detect that his devotion was mere pretense. For these reasons, therefore, Ekalavya's example is a dangerous one, particularly for beginners on the path of bhakti. Remove Ekalavya from our hearts We are living in difficult times. We have to face many problems even in the association of other Vaishnavas. Senior members of our Gaudiya Vaishnava community are somewhat puzzled by the nature of these problems. They too confess that they have no idea of how to bring about positive solutions. The subject matter is very intricate and requires more analysis. What must be done? It is true that if we stick to the instructions of our guru, Krishna will remove the ghost of Ekalavya from our mind. We must surrender and if we are sincere, the Lord will accept our service. We should not be Vaishnavas in name and dress only. We should stop thinking and acting like Ekalavya. We have to become saragrahi Vaishnavas, not just worshipers of the form like Ekalavya. In the words of Srila Sridhar Maharaj we have to dive deep into reality. Lochan Das Thakur stated that we are just chewing a piece of dry wood instead of sugarcane. ikhu daNDa bhAvi kATha cuÒili man kemone paibi mÈ–ha How will we taste the sweetness of the sugarcane juice by sucking on a piece of dry wood? Sugarcane looks like dry wood but is sweet and tasty. Vaishnavas in name or dress may put on many programs, but are not able to inspire pure devotion in others. Vaishnavas who are externally oriented are always busy building more temples and expanding their religious organizations. Unfortunately, they have little or no time to cultivate devotional practices such as hearing and chanting in the association of other devotees or counselling neophytes in how to strengthen their faith. If we chew the dry wood of false surrender, how can we taste the sweetness of bhakti? Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur explained the symptoms of surrender in «araΔgati: dainya, Atma-nivedana, goptRtve varaNa avazya rAkhibe kRSNa vizvAsa pAlana bhakti-anukUla mAtra kAryera svIkAra bhakti-pratikUla-bhAva varjanAngIkAra "The ways of sharanagati are humility, dedication of the self, acceptance of the Lord as one's only maintainer, faith that Krishna will surely protect, execution of only those acts favorable to pure devotion and renunciation of conduct averse to pure devotion." SaD-anga zaraNAgati haibe jAMhAra tAMhAra prArthanA zune zrI-nanda-kumAra "The youthful son of Nanda Maharaj, Sri Krishna, hears the prayers of anyone who takes shelter of Him by this six-fold practice." Unless we surrender to Krishna, He will not accept any prayer from us. How then will He accept any service? This is indeed very sad. By nature, we are the eternal servants of Krishna, but as we lack surrender, sincerity, or both, we are unable to serve Him. The sign of sincerity is accepting that Krishna comes to us through our guru. All scriptures confirm this. My spiritual master, His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaj, told me that so-called freedom is detrimental on the spiritual path. We should not detach ourselves from the desire of guru and Vaishnavas as Ekalavya did. We should not try to establish moral codes other than surrender to the will of guru and Krishna. We should not feel envious of others' opulence as Ekalavya did with Arjuna. The example of pretentious devotion set by Ekalavya can infect the heart of any aspirant on the spiritual path. Devotion to guru and Krishna should never be performed with an aim to achieving material benefits. Therefore, we have to keep very alert and remove the weeds of unwanted desires as soon as they sprout. In conclusion, I request the readers of this piece with folded palms to excuse all my offences and bless me so that I may become a true disciple of my Gurudeva and a true servant of all the Vaishnavas.

by Bhakti Ananda Goswami HARE KRISHNA ! SRI SRI GURU and GAURANGA Ki Jaya! Dear Friends, Please accept my humble obeisances. Anyone who has been around the Movement for the last 10, 20, or 30 + years probably has heard cynical and bitter diatribes about the falsity of love and friendship among selfish materialists in this world. All relationships have been routinely condemned as mere material attachment, and this has led to a profound impersonalism in the Movement masquerading as spiritual detachment, or 'transcendence'. However if we actually THINK ABOUT the exemplary relationships of the Lord, great devotees and spiritually advanced souls, we can see that They are NEVER IMPERSONAL and express GREAT ATTACHMENT. Their family, friendly and conjugal relationships are passionate, deep, rich and full of transcendental OTHER-CENTERED (NEVER SELF-CENTERED) flavor. Our Tradition is BHAKTI YOGA. But, instead of focusing on seeing KRISHNA and His beloved and loving devotees everywhere, some persons have developed the Mayavadi inclination to see only MAYA everywhere, and NOT YOGA MAYA EITHER. Gurus who specialize in this aversion-therapy kind of preaching designed to disgust people with the mundane world may be necessary for some of the people some of the time. However, aversion therapy or purging the heart and mind of evil contents is not the same as filling them up with the love, beauty and Godness of Godhead ! Eloquent but bitter-sounding posts on LOVE and FRIENDSHIP which assert that THERE IS NO LOVE IN THIS WORLD are rather typical of this kind of seeing and preaching. I don't know that this has ever made one person a better lover of GOD or of anyone. One result of this approach is to disgust and detach people from the falsities / illusions of selfish 'love', so that they can experience REAL LOVE. However, if people never move on from the vision of hell, they cannot experience the Beatific Vision of Godhead. It is not spiritually healthy to have 'maya consciousness' instead of Krishna Consciousness. In The Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna how TO SEE HIM EVERYWHERE. So here we have a little opportunity to share our glimpses of Him everywhere. Anti-maya consciousness is still maya consciousness. We must MOVE ON from the 'maya consciousness' anti-incarnational and impersonal negativity of our past, into a body-positive HEALTHY INCARNATIONAL REALIZATION OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE KRISHNA CONSCIOUS. But to do this, we need to learn some things about what has gone wrong in our lives and in the Hare Krishna Movement. It is not enough to read and repeat the standard matter-is-evil neo-gnosticism of the past. There are numerous sites where one can do it, and it is expected and welcome. There are also many sites where specific complaints against specific 'gurus' are being aired. Here I don't want to do more of that. I don't want to foster personal attacks or vendettas (justified or not) on this thread. That is not the mood that I want to foster here. Instead I would like us to analyze what is good and what is dangerous about guru-disciple relationships, how to recognize problems and how to remedy them. Abusive gurus are not just an ISKCON or Hare Krishna Movement problem ! Deceptive and dangerous mentors can be found in all areas of life. How can we find a legitimately qualified guru / mentor or intercessor-savior and inter into a proper relationship with them ? How can we avoid duplicitous control-freaks and spiritual charlatans ? What are the symptoms of a saint ? Can one legitimately use their own brain after 'surrendering' ??? How can we be obedient and avoid being abused at the same time ? Let us discuss these things for the benefit of all. A Few More Thoughts on Purgative or Negative Preaching Please allow me to clarify a little what I mean about negative aversion-therapy preaching. People should consume what is healthy for them. Generally that means sattvic nourishing food. Sometimes, however, if someone has consumed something poisonous, in the emergency room they will be given a drug called Ipecac, which makes them vomit to get rid of the poison. The parallel to this is the heavy preaching against selfish materialistic life that is commonly found in ascetic religious or 'spiritual' disciplines. A detailed analysis of what is wrong everywhere, is presented to create AVERSION to 'worldliness' in the spiritual aspirant. This is like administering Ipecac to get the body to reject what it has consumed. It may be an aid to health by expelling the poison, but there is no nourishment in Ipecac, and one cannot live on a diet of it. It is dwelling on SRI KRISHNA the TRUE, the GOOD, the BEAUTIFUL, the SWEET, the COMPASSIONATE, the FORGIVING, the PLAYFUL...and on His activities with His associates, and even with His adversaries, that is the nourishment we need for the revival of our souls. I have been on the Internet almost a year now, and have read scores of devotee sites, and have seen that forums are often dominated by those whose heavy preaching is aggressively 'maya conscious', in the sense that they dwell on what is wrong, and see maya and evil everywhere and never seem to recognize where KRISHNA IS. They have relegated Him to some remote place in time, or the far-off Spiritual Sky, and cannot seem to experience His Presence in the incarnate here and now. This emphasis has not come from Srila Prabhupada or our Sampradaya which has traditionally focused on nectar distribution. However, there has been a need to confront the evils of modern Godless society, so our acharyas have strongly done this. However they remained first and foremost founts of the nectar of Divine Love. They ‘practiced the Presence of God,’ and thus did actually experience Him everywhere ! Sri Krishna is present here and now, and His presence is what CAN make us more true, good, sweet, benevolent, compassionate etc. but we must EXPERIENCE HIS PRESENCE TO BENEFIT FROM IT. WE CANNOT BE NOURISHED BY FOOD IF WE ONLY LOOK AT IT. We must 'take' it in and make it part of our being, for it to have its life-giving effect. In the Hare Krishna Movement, some people have been reading Srila Prabhupada's books and performing sadhana for years, and have remained bitter, cold, and even cruel people. This means that they have not replaced the poison that was in them with the sweetness of real Krishna Consciousness. The constant bitter 'maya consciousness' preaching and attacking mood on so many devotee forums shows that this being stuck in aversion-mode is a wide-spread problem. Devotees have also fanatically defended their abusive 'gurus' and have lived in continual denial while aiding and abetting the crimes of these self-deluded and deluding men. The result of all this dishonesty, pride and religious posturing has been devastating. Although I mainly like to focus on presenting my historical and theological research information, sometimes it is necessary to deal with the problems in our Movement. While we should definitely be trying to move beyond the anti-materialism aversion-therapy phase of spiritual development / preaching, to a focus on WHERE KRISHNA IS, INSTEAD OF WHERE HE IS NOT, sometimes it is really necessary to confront a serious problem. So below I would like to share some thoughts on this subject of gurus, their abuse of authority, and what authorities and non-authorities can do to stop abuse. More Thoughts on Abusive Hell-Fire-and-Damnation Preaching There is anti-materialism and there is positive personalism. These are not the same thing. The kind of anti-materialism preaching which focuses on sinfulness and what is wrong, without moving on to a focus on GRACE, is like the hell-fire-and-damnation preaching of certain Protestant Fundamentalists. It may be effective to empty people of materialistic desires, but it does not feed their souls in a positive, personally healing way. Such Protestant preaching typically focuses on human guilt instead of divine grace. Many persons brow-beaten and overcome with guilt and self-loathing never get past it to the message of salvation in Godhead's Grace. Many souls just go away in despair as a result of such preaching. They may even decide that God, if He does exist is not a nice person and is certainly not worthy of being loved or worshiped ! Thus a preaching focus on hell-fire and damnation actually creates an AVERSION TO GOD AS A COMPASSIONLESS LOVELESS DESPOT IN MANY PEOPLE. What does attract and revitalize souls is the gospel of GOD'S GRACE and CHARISMA (COGNATE WITH KRISHNA !). Srila Prabhupada certainly warned us about all the falsities of the material world, but he went way beyond anti-materialism, all the way to Goloka Vrindavana, to introduce us to Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, The Loving and Grace-Filled Source of All Being, The Beautiful, The Sweet, The Eternally and Infinitely Playful, etc. If we cultivate KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS we can learn to recognize Krishna's Presence in the way that He instructed His confidential Friend Arjuna to understand His Presence everywhere. Krishna's lesson for Arjuna in the Great I Am verses of the Bhagavad-Gita was a form of positive personalism. Krishna emphasized over and over how to see where HE IS. He did not emphasize the neti neti or via negativa path, which is not Bhakti Yoga. The negative path is one of aversion, not attraction. Sri Krishna is the ALL ATTRACTIVE ONE, and His path of Bhakti Yoga is the path of personalism, of attraction, of sweetness and many other flavors of TRUE LOVE. All that is beautiful, good and true, all that is spiritually attractive and desirable, springs from but a spark of Krishna's Splendor. Holy Love in the flavor of friendship is one of Sri Krishna's manifestations of beauty, truth and goodness. It is only accessible to us through the CAUSELESS MERCY AND GRACE OF SRI BALADEVA AND SRIMATI RADHARANI. Krishna pours His Grace out to us through Balarama and Radha Rani, and in this world, the Spiritual Master mediates Their Grace to us. It is certainly a mercy that the Spiritual Master destroys our illusions about the false attractions of materialism, but even the impersonal Mayavadi, voidist Buddhist and Protestant Fundamentalist preachers can be expert at doing that. Bhakti Yoga must take us beyond anti-materialism to an actual experience of THE ALL ATTRACTIVE PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD THROUGH DIVINE GRACE. Srila Prabhupada has left us an inexhaustible treasure-trove of KRISHNA'S LOVE AND LOVE OF KRISHNA, plundered from the storehouse of the Holy Name by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Balarama. In fact, all the authentic Bhakti Traditions are an unlimited source of the Grace of Guru and Godhead. There is no lack of GRACE for our salvation, or lack of nectarean information about the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His Associates, and Their loving affairs. There is no lack of people with whom to share the Grace and Love of Guru and God. We don't have to find exalted beings with all good qualities, who are free of all material illusions and desires, to share God's Love, and the Love of God with. The more 'fallen' souls are, the greater is the Grace, the Causeless Mercy of Sri Guru and GodEss to save them. It is THIS GRACE that I want to concentrate on in my own sadhana and preaching...the Grace of Krishna that would cause Him to descend to this world in the Person / Purusha of Lord Baladeva / Jesus to save ALL beings. In our own immediate historical experience He sent His Saint, Srila Prabhupada to very sinful, fallen souls, with the REVELATION OF HIS MOST INTIMATE PERSONAL BEING. Not caring about our rejection of HIM, the Lord comes here and individually searches us out, to attract, invite and carry us back to home, back to Godhead. THIS is God's unconditional love FOR us, that "WHILE we were yet in our sins" He has come TO us, to purify us BY HIS LOVE OF US, THROUGH and IN His Grace, and WITH all His Saints, He WILL bring us all back to home, back to His Land of True Love, for eternity. It is GOD'S LOVE that saves us. He 'carries what we lack'. Bhakti Yoga is about His Causeless Gracious Love, which is the prerequisite for our ever developing any mature love for Him. He has first loved us. That is GRACE. As we grow through HIS GRACE, we can learn how to love Him back, reciprocating in infinite flavors of Divine Love. Abusive preaching can certainly be purgative, but it can also ruin our capacity for love and trust. So Let us share about God's Friendship with us, and how a true Guru, through, with, in and by the mercy of lord Baladeva, is our Advocate with God and thus our most dear Friend. Let us speak of the Holy Spirit, Paramatma, Who is Krishna-Balarama as the Guru seated in everyone's heart. Let us contemplate the gift of true friendship in the Saints and the souls who surround us. God is inspiring every experience of real love in this world. This experience of LOVE is our greatest teacher ! GURU IS ONE IN THE DIVINE 'ECONOMY OF SALVATION'. Every act of true love is a little bit of His Presence breaking through the 'maya' of our separation to reunite us with Him and His community of all the Blessed in this and every other world. Let us abandon the preaching of hell-fire-and-damnation which sends souls in fear fleeing from Godhead, and let us raise our thought, our contemplation up to the lord's Love, and Learn to See Krishna and His devotees everywhere ! This is my request. When is a Guru an Overflowing Giver of Divine Love, or a Needy Person Draining the Love Out of His Followers? Please share your thoughts on the guru as a receiver and giver of Divine Love and compassion with us. This is the kind of 'revealing our hearts' that devotees should be encouraged to do, and which I have prayed that we could do on various forums. Devotees write to me personally and usually don't post on groups to me about their realizations of Krishna's Love, and Loving Krishna and His creatures and associates. They are afraid to honestly discuss how they have been and are still being emotionally and physically abused by some of what I call NEEDY gurus. This is because they have been oppressed so long by the powers of false renunciation and impersonal love-lessness in the Name of Guru and Gauranga, that they are afraid to even discuss real love and its abuse publicly. 'Love' has been made a dirty word to them. They have been told "You are in maya, Prabhu !" about 'love' so many times, or seen this blanket damnation inflicted on others so much, that they are actually afraid to deal with their own authentic God-given feelings of love, what to speak of sharing those feelings with others. Thus it now takes a brave soul to speak up about LOVE in a Vaishnava forum where they are likely to be attacked. 'Love' has been wielded like a weapon by sexist men to condemn loving men and women as foolish sentimentalists in the Movement. Women, knowing that children raised without spontaneous natural HOLY human love grow up to be disordered and even dangerous people, have been fighting the battle against love-lessness in the Hare Krishna Movement for decades. Recently I have been accused of being 'politically correct' by appealing to the sentimentality of women and 'weak-minded' men because I preach about LOVE. It is a fact that on the subject of LOVE, I am definitely on the side of naturally and spontaneously affectionate and compassionate men, women and children. I think that impersonal lovelessness and thus a lack of true compassion has severely injured many souls who have come to Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai for shelter. How has such a thing happened ? Thoughts on the Pathology of Lovelessness in Religious Movements Let us consider the basic pathology behind this. Why have some FALSE religious leaders (NOT JUST IN THE HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT, BUT MANY 'CULT' LEADERS) trained their disciples to root-out or deny all of their feelings of love and compassion for OTHER persons in this world ? At the same time they say love is only from and for God, or Sri Krishna, WHICH IS TRUE, but they say that THEY are ( in this world), the SOLE REPRESENTATIVES or founts of such love, and the only proper focus of such love. This means that their disciples will withdraw from all un-guru-controlled loving exchanges with parents, spouses, siblings, children, friends...in short, their disciples will focus all their need to love, and to be loved on the guru and his agents alone. Thus the needy guru desires the exclusive devotion of his / her disciple not for / on behalf of the Lord, but rather to fulfill his own insatiable appetite for 'love' in the form of service, name, fame and adoration etc. The pathologically controlling false gurus will allow 'love' as defined and controlled by them alone. Such Love will be in books and Murti worship, in guru seva (service) and slavish master/servant-rasa guru worship, but nowhere else where it may actually threaten their own exclusive control and service. In this way, false gurus consume and control the love of their disciples OUT OF ENVY OF GOD'S RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER BEINGS, AND GODLY LOVING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN OTHER BEINGS. A real guru is not envious, and therefore does not need to consume and control all the love of his / her disciples. Such a non-envious guru is not threatened by 'losing' disciples to marriage, or other family or educational or career needs, but rather sees that KRISHNA IS ATTRACTING VARIOUS PERSONS TO SERVE HIM IN VARIOUS WAYS. The real guru WANTS TO SERVE HIS/HER DISCIPLES, not to consume them. However, the false guru will 'spiritually' intimidate and manipulate his /her disciples into focusing all their love and service on himself / herself as the 'via media' of God. They may do this directly, or may even live vicariously off of the service and love given to God in "THEIR TEMPLES" or under their direction. The true guru however IS a via media of God, but is atma-rama / self-satisfied and thus non-envious of God and His other devotees. The false guru is expert at the emotional / affective control of others, and can't stand for anyone to have relationships outside of his / her control. The true guru wants to encourage and actually EMPOWER love among all beings ! The false guru is a glutton whose insatiable appetite to consume the lives, love and energies of others compels him to commit spiritual blackmail and protection racketeering. Under threat of 'aparadha' and separation from God (or hell-fire and damnation) the false guru frightens devotees into unnatural impersonal behavior and even adharmic and sinful acts, like abandoning their wives and children. Such gurus play the protection racket by promising salvation or spiritual (and emotional and material) shelter for the devotees and/or their families. In this way the false gurus get absolute control over the affective and moral lives of their disciples. Devotees trained by such persons may eventually become isolated from their non-guru-controlled families and friends and increasingly affectively and morally confused and then anesthetized and cold-hearted themselves. Since the real gurus are not envious of the relationship between Krishna and other beings, they don't feel compelled to either enjoy or control everyone else's relationships. Real gurus are not threatened by love focused somewhere else than themselves (directly or indirectly / vicariously). Thus they are not forced to deny or diabolize it. I have been getting some negative feedback about my 'sentimental love preaching' on various forums, but many other devotees have privately written to express their great appreciation for what they rightly perceive as my effort to liberate the real, spontaneous love that has been long stifled in the lives of many Vaishnavas, due to the envious abusive preaching and example of some of these false leaders. To me it is as though a great fire of God's Love, and Love-of-God was kindled by Srila Prabhupada, and then some love-less autistic ego-centrists came along and tried to put that fire out. They tried to collect all the devotees’ love for themselves and covered their impersonalism with false renunciation. They put out the fire of love with the fire-fighting foam of technical shastra-ism and pseudo-religiosity, and tried to smother real love for God and anyone else (Krishna's beloved beings in this world and elsewhere) out of the hearts of the devotees under their control. These people could see no love anywhere, because they were devoid of the desire to truly love. Misery loving company. They tried to teach their own love-less-ness to others under the guise of holy detachment and a perverse 'spiritual' superiority. This left many devotees deeply confused about their relationship to Krishna and other beings. The deeply pathological over-control of the unqualified 'gurus' in the Movement has caused grave harm to many souls. This control has not prevented evils, but has instead fostered evils in the Name of Guru and Gauranga. It has taken away the healthy affective and moral responsiveness of devotees, and replaced these with cold-hearted blind following. For a long time the cold-hearted reciters of scriptures have told us that there is no love or compassion here, and that all is reducible to materially motivated attachment and sentimentality. These cold-hearted persons can go from worshiping GURU, TULASI and SRI MURTI and CHANTING ROUNDS, giving great classes, and reading about the loving pastimes of the Lord's compassionate devotees, to the most cruel mistreatment of real-live human beings and other creatures 'in a heartbeat'. I have seen this many times, and have met many devotees who have left the movement because of these heartless experts of 'Bhakti Yoga', who foolishly imagine that it IS POSSIBLE to love GOD without loving anyone else. They cannot stand to hear the word 'love' used in the context of family or friends or pets or anywhere except in books or other places WHERE IT DOES NOT THREATEN THEM. These people have all but destroyed the Hare Krishna Movement by hijacking and consuming all the love of 'their' devotees for decades. It is my conviction that devotees under this spell must be liberated to love again, and that such empowerment will unleash a conflagration of divine love that will sweep over the face of the Earth, burning-up all forms of loveless impersonalism and voidism in its path. This revival of our ability to love must begin in our own lives. We must refuse to be controlled by envious self-centered persons masquerading as spiritual authorities. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s NON-SECTARIAN MISSION is not meant to enslave humankind, but to free humanity from slavery to the false gods of the loveless, envious world ! Let us take hold of this mercy to love and be loved through, with, in, and by the Love and Compassion of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga, and in doing so, let us then go out and liberate all others whose love has been hijacked by the envious false-gods of 'the world'! The Love of many devotees has been hidden like a shameful thing in the closet of 'spiritual' denial since our LOVING AND NON ENVIOUS GURUDEVA SRILA PRABHUPADA DISAPPEARED. Let these devotees 'come out' and express their love to each other and all creatures ! Krishna is not envious, the true gurus cannot be offended, and WANT US TO INCREASE OUR LOVE FOR SRI KRISHNA AND ALL BEINGS. So let REAL SPONTANEOUS LOVE flow in all its flavors.....it is from Sri Sri Radha-Krishna and Baladeva and Their Associates, and THEY WANT US TO SHARE IT WITH EACH OTHER, OFFERING IT BACK TO THEM THROUGH OUR PRACTICE OF BHAKTI YOGA. May we all become fearless in loving today, and grow in the perfection of Godhead's Love at every moment ! Amen Aum and Hare Krishna ! aspiring to love all souls in the Divine Love of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga, your aspiring servant, Bhakti Ananda Goswami

http://www.godsolovestheworld.com/

A PURE DEVOTEES PRAYER O Lord! it is my humble request, unto Your Lotus Feet. I don’t want bodily comfort, Knowledge, glory, wealth and followers. I don’t want a place in the heaven, nor spiritual liberation. I don’t pray to you for, personal benefit or social position. Due to merits and demerits of my acts, I may take any birth. Birth after birth tirelessly, I should sing Your glories. My request unto Your Lotus Feet is that, causless devotion rise in my heart. The attachment that I have for the material world, similar attachment I have for You. Comfort or discomfort I should remain same, and improve by the mercy of Your Holy Name. May I be beast or bird in heaven or hell, Your devotion may prosper in Bhaktivinode’s heart. Shrila Bhaktivinode Thakur

BY: STAFF CORRESPONDENT Dec 08, NEW DELHI (HINDUSTAN TIMES) — India news coverage of Isa dasa's comments on Archbishop Nikon's diatribe against Lord Krishna A section of our surfers will agree, Hindus have traditionally been seen as 'passive'. Not any more. Hindus, learning from people of other religious sects, are quick to react every time a defamatory statement or picture appears. The comment of Archbishop Nikon of Ufa and Sterlitamak from the Russian Orthodox Church statements against Lord Krishna has evoked sharp and informed reaction from one of our surfers. It certainly merits attention. In recent times, there have been a good number of cases when Hindu gods and goddesses have been misused. Take the British postage department's mistake in November this year. The stamp allegedly featured two Hindus with 'tilak' marks worshipping the infant Jesus Christ. The Hindu Forum of Britain immediately raised a furore demanding its withdrawal from circulation. There has been any number of cases of fashion fraternity misusing Hindu icons and symbols as context for lingerie display. It is in this context that the article and its response gain importance. Let's first discuss the article appearing in HindustanTimes.com/UK Edition. It said that the Archbishop sent a letter to the Mayor of Moscow, proposing against the building of a Hindu temple in the city. He called Lord Krishna "an evil demon, the personified power of hell opposing God", and "a livid lascivious youth". It is amazing how a prominent member of such an important sect can have such intolerant and ignorant notions of another. In a fitting reply, the article quotes Sanjay Jha, President of the Association of Indians in Russia as saying that besides displaying stunning ignorance of the world's oldest religion, it is also evident from the statement that the Russian Orthodox Church is still embedded in the dark ages of religious exclusivity, which has no place in today's increasingly pluralistic society. Our surfer Mr William Glick (Isa dasa) from Gainesville, US wrote to put up an informed counter-argument. He says, "The Archbishop Nikon of Ufa and Sterlitamak from the Russian Orthodox Church has shown that he has no understanding of Hinduism." Glick contends Hinduism is far more assimilative as against the intolerance of the Archbishop. Glick says that the Bhagwat Gita believes that through the chequered history of mankind, "God or His representatives come to reclaim conditioned souls". There may be differences due to differences in culture, climate and people, but the basic principle remains the same, he says. Hinduism, therefore, agrees with the Biblical claim that Christ was the son of God and had come from the kingdom of God to reclaim conditioned souls, just as Lord Krishna. This is in sharp contrast to the intolerant creed of the Archbishop. The article on HindustanTimes.com also counters the Bishop's 'satanic' claims when it says, "To call Lord Krishna 'satanic' is not only sacrilegious in the eyes of Hindus, it is also patently ridiculous as any student of Hinduism knows, for Krishna is famous as the slayer of demons, Bhagavad-Gita (4.7-8)". Glick further shows the similarity between Hinduism and Judaism. He says, "In fact, the Jewish and Hindu (Vedic) religions are saying the same thing and using almost the same language root. Their calendars are only about 300 years apart (after 5000 years). The most important name of God for every Jewish person is the name El KNA, who every Hindu knows as Kana, another name of Krishna." A far cry from the exclusivity of Russian Archbishop's notions of his religion!

Would he not have to suffer in his next life as a karmic reaction for killing someone in this , especially if not punished in this life? But you say that he has 'surrendered to Krsna?' How is that ? Please explain, my dear Prabhu.

Iranian President Says the State of Israel Should Be Moved to Europe; Israelis Condemn Remarks By SALAH NASRAWI The Associated Press MECCA, Saudi Arabia - Iran's hard-liner president, who has called for Israel's destruction, said Thursday that the Jewish state should be moved to Europe if the West wants to make up for the Holocaust. The remarks drew an angry reaction from Israeli officials, Jewish leaders and the United States. "Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the president of Iran has made outrageous and even racist remarks concerning Jews and Israel," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. Speaking to reporters at an Islamic summit in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implied that European countries backed the founding of Israel in the Middle East in 1948 out of guilt over the Holocaust. "Some European countries insist on saying that during World War II, Hitler burned millions of Jews and put them in concentration camps," Ahmadinejad said. "Any historian, commentator or scientist who doubts that is taken to prison or gets condemned." "Let's give some land to the Zionists in Europe or in Germany or Austria, so they can have their government there," he said. "They faced injustice in Europe, so why do the repercussions fall on the Palestinians? Offer a piece of land from Europe, and we will back this decision and will not attack this government." "Those who are occupying and ruling Jerusalem, what is the origin of their fathers? ... Most of them have no roots in Palestine, but they are holding the destiny of Palestine in their hands and allow themselves to kill the Palestinian people," he said. Israel and Iran are sworn enemies and Ahmadinejad's recent remarks saying that Israel should be wiped off the map, combined with Israel's belief that Tehran's nuclear activities are aimed at producing nuclear warheads, have increased tension between the countries. "Only recently the U.N. General Assembly condemned Holocaust denial and here the Iranian leader is showing himself to be fundamentally contradicting the norms of international behavior and decency," the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said. "I hope that anyone who had illusions about the true nature of the Iranian regime has received these recent remarks as a wake up call." The United States also denounced the remarks as "appalling and reprehensible." "They certainly don't inspire hope among any of us in the international community that the government of Iran is prepared to engage as a responsible member of that community, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. He added that Ahmadinejad's comments appear "to be a consistent pattern of rhetoric that is both hostile and out of touch with values that the rest of us in the international community live by." Rabbi David Saperstein, the Washington-based director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, called Ahmadinejad's comments "poisonous, offensive rhetoric that is unacceptable for diplomatic political discussion." He said the remarks were especially troubling because of concerns about Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but the U.S. and others say is aimed at developing atomic weapons. "An extremist with a microphone can be dangerous enough; an extremist with nuclear weapons poses a danger to the entire world," Saperstein said in a statement. Ahmadinejad drew sharp international criticism and even some at home in Iran when he said in October that Israel is a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map." Still, Ahmadinejad, who was elected in June with the backing of Iran's hard-line clerical rulers, stuck by the comments, and his government organized a series of large anti-Israel demonstrations.

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"After finding a qualified guru, a faithful disciple should serve him with firm conviction and without duplicity. After pleasing the guru, one should accept initiation and krsna-mantra. Those who are averse to taking initiation and only make a drama of kapatya-kirtana, duplicitous chanting, while advertising themselves as vaisnavas certainly cheat themselves. It is not the duty of materialistic persons to renounce the process of initiation because a few great souls like Jada Bharata did not take initiation." 0------------- Follow the rule , not the exceptions to the rule.*************

PURPORT "According to Vedic knowledge, the Vedic sound is divided into four phases, which can be understood only by the most intelligent bramanas. This is because three of the divisions are internally situated within the living entity and only the fourth division is externally manifested, as speech. Even this fourth phase of Vedic sound, called vaikharis very difficult to understand for ordinary human beings. ... By offenselessly chanting the holy names ... one can enter into the transcendental mysteries of Vedic sound. Otherwise the knowledge of the Vedas will remain durvigahyam, or impossible to penetrate."

BY ARIJIT DAS — There is Krishna and karsna. Krishna's mercy is embodied in pure devotees, who are known as karsna. The lotus feet of a Vaisnava guru represents the mercy of the Lord. Krishna is the priceless treasure enthroned in Sri Guru's heart. The Lord can easily give this treasure to those who have faith in and surrendered to his devotees. There is no other way to receive Krishna's grace than to serve and take shelter at the lotus feet of a Vaishnava. Sri Kaviraja Goswami discusses the importance of honoring the Vaishnava's remnants, using the example of Sri Kalidasa, the uncle of Raghunatha Dasa Goswami. During Caitanya -Lila when the Bengali devotees of the Lord returned to Jagannatha Puri, a gentleman named Kalidasa, who was an uncle of Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, went with them to see Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Kalidasa had tasted the remnants of food of all the Vaisnavas in Bengal, even Jhadu Thakura. Because of this, he received the shelter of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu at Jagannatha Puri. The entire story of how Kalidasa receives the mercy of the Vaisnavas and attracts Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu can be found in Sri Caitanya CaritAmrita, Antya - Lila, Chapter 16. Antya 16.48 Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the most exalted, omniscient Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore He knew that Kalidasa, in the core of his heart, had full faith in Vaisnavas. Antya 16.49 Because of this quality, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu satisfied him with mercy not attainable by anyone else. Note: To honor the Vaisnava one attracts Sri Radha and Krishna and to dishonor the Vaisnava (ApaRadha ) one attracts Yamaraj and the Yamadhutas. Submitted for the pleasure of the Vaisnavas - Arijit Das

Are you still under the influence of the modes, past sinful habits, karma...???

"This religion sees God’s kindness in terms of one’s enjoyment of a happy life in this material world."

Smiling and chanting Hare Krsna. Your our hero of the moment here at Audarya. You say it like no one else can. Haribol!

One of the things that struck me the most about Srila Prabhupada when he visited the Mexico City temple for the first time, and the first time I saw him personally and got initiated by him, in June 1972, was during the engagement at the University (UNAM) of Mexico City. You can imagine the setting; at this time there is a lot of convulsion and desire for change in the entire Status Quo from the youth in Mexico. Recently, back in 1968, the government had repressed the students sending the army and killing many students. So, many were skeptics, communists or leftists, rebellious, and of course, many seekers, so before this audience Srila Prabhupada spoke. At the end of the lecture there were questions and answers; one student asked: "Do you see God?", then, there was an absolute silence, everybody was expectant of the answer. You may know many philosophers and great personalities in history, but you cannot imagine of asking someone can you see God? Do you imagine asking Plato, Socrates, Lenin, Marx or anyone whether they can see God? I don't know of anyone been asked this question with absolute seriousness. So everybody present, students, professors and devotees alike were concentrated in only one thing, Srila Prabhupada's answer. Then, with paused voice and that security and certainity of his, Srila Prabhupada answered: "If I say yes, would you believe it?". The student answered, "Yes." Then Srila Prabhupada said, "Yes, I can see God." He paused -- who else could say "Yes, I can see God"? -- then he added, "And you can see Him too," he quoted, "Premanjana churita bhakti vilocanena..." from Brahma-samhita, and explained on basis of this verse that for one who develops love of Godhead by practicing devotional service, his eyes anointed with the salve of love can see the Supreme Lord. Everybody was very happy with the answer. In the presence of Srila Prabhupada you knew that was truth, there was no doubt, and that was the impact to all the audience. There were even applauses. Just to be in the presence of the pure devotee all sins fly away, that is the statement of Srila Bhaktivinode, and we all practically lived it. Nandanandana das (Editor, Bhaktivedanta 108)

After chanting Hare Krsna for years, having visited the Holy Dhamas, hearing Krsna-katha from pure sadhus, taken Krsna Maha-prasad, read Srimad Bhagavatam,etc....I'll stoop so low as to take shelter in something like psychotherapy? It would be like for me to eat my own vomit, the vomit I threw up back in 1979 when I went to see a psychotherapist ....!?

By ALLISON DUNFIELD Wednesday, December 7, 2005 Posted at 12:18 PM EST Globe and Mail Update Prime Minister Paul Martin had tough words today for the United States on its refusal to ratify the Kyoto Accord. ”To the United States...there is such a thing as a global conscience and now is the time to listen to it,” Mr. Martin told reporters after speaking at the United Nations climate change conference in Montreal. Although 141 countries have ratified the agreement, which came into effect in February of this year, the United States has not. Mr. Martin said reducing environmental damage globally is only going to happen if every nation takes action. ”We have the potential to make real progress on the whole range of environmental issues. ”But for that progress to be meaningful, it has to be global.” Canada has vowed to cut its emissions by 6 per cent from its 1990 level over the period from 2008 to 2012, but its emissions by the end of 2003 were up 24 per cent, according to a recent Kyoto progress report. Canada has begun to do its part by ratifying Kyoto and intends to continue to work to reduce emissions, Mr. Martin said today. He said he remains "hopeful" great deal of progress can be made over the next couple of days and years. And the Prime Minister expressed optimism that the world leaders at the Montreal summit can use the event to come to an historic agreement on global warming. "There is a consensus growing. And that consensus presents us with an opportunity – a chance to make a difference here. A chance to make Montreal a name that is synonymous with the moment the world came together, and together set off down the long but vital path to progress, real progress, progress we can measure, progress we can one day celebrate." However, his critics say it still is far from perfect — that despite Mr. Martin's tough talk, the U.S. outpaces Canada in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions even though it not signed the Kyoto accord. Mr. Martin admitted in his speech that global warming is affecting Canada — especially in the north, where ice caps and permafrost are melting. "The country we know is being transformed," he said. About 175 countries are at the Montreal conference. Mr. Martin's federal election opponents are expected to use the event to hammer his government's environmental record. ----------------------------- Them Canuks are tough. /images/graemlins/blush.gif How do you last the Canadian winter Don? /images/graemlins/wink.gif All that snow , ice and cold wind: does the soul freeze during the winter months? /images/graemlins/grin.gif

<font color="red"> </font color> Is it good for humanity that Srila Prabhupada's society is transforming into a religion? <font color="red"> </font color> Should this question even be asked??? /images/graemlins/confused.gif /images/graemlins/confused.gif /images/graemlins/confused.gif

Krsna's Name is Krsna Chant Krsna & Be With Krsna Here & Now Dance Krsna's Name in Sankirtana & Krsna will Smile at You Eat Krsna's Name & Krsna Will Krsnize You Krsna is Krsna Always Krsna das

BY: PRAGHOSA DASA Dec 06, USA (SUN) — This article, written by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, was taken from "Sri Bhaktivinoda Vani Vaibhava", compiled under the direct order of His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur by Sripada Sundarananda Vidyavinoda; English rendition produced and published by Isvara das. [The following was published in Sajjana-toshani ("The Harmonist"), 15/1 and addresses the unhappy state of affairs in the house that Srila Prabhupada established some 40 years ago, a phenomenon that is a recurring theme in the lives of the great acharyas and devotees. We have all seen how shortly after the departure of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, quarrels and ambition erupted in his movement, which has since disintegrated. This happened likewise to the Gaudiya Math Society founded by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. It happened also to the preaching mission of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur was a very powerful preacher and set a wave into motion that inundated Bengal with Krishna consciousness, but then suddenly, everything turned around, and so many opposing elements appeared, overwhelming his preaching efforts. In this autobiographical note, written as if it were a journal entry, Srila Bhaktivinoda explains the events that led him to withdrawing from preaching and taking to a solitary existence in abhajan-kutir. He reveals that his preaching had become ineffective to check the disturbances, and that he had become heavy hearted to see it. At last he went to Puri, and there had a revelation that was to console him and confirm that the only recourse under such circumstances is to constantly recite or sing the holy names, which alone can purify the hearts of the living entities so that they will become receptive once more to Krishna consciousness in a future lifetime.] "Today we are sitting inside a bhajana-kutir at Sri Purushottama-kshetra. Why are we living in this faraway place, leaving the great city of Calcutta, which is full of people and learned communities? A long time ago, when we published this magazine Sajjana-toshani, I had a desire in my heart. I thought that the more this pure Vaishnava religion is spread through this magazine, the more the people of the world would benefit. We began to work with a free mind. Many educated gosvamis and babajis of Bengal came and pledged to help us. Some learned impersonalists joined us, and being overwhelmed by the beauty of devotional service, they began to help spread pure Vaishnavism. After hearing nice instructions regarding Vaishnavism, materialists also became attracted. Professional singers and players floated in the waves of pure hari-kirtan and considered themselves fully satisfied. Gradually many assemblies for chanting the holy names of Hari were established in villages and cities. In this way, the glories of pure Vaishnavism filled the hearts of the inhabitants of Bengal and overwhelmed everyone by their beauty and sweetness. On seeing such an unexpected response from the people of Bengal, we bgan to peach pure Vaishnavism with more and more enthusiasm. Then by the influence of time, a sudden change took place. The glow-wormlike superstitions that were hidden in the scorching heat of the sun of Vaishnavism suddenly took various forms and came from four directions. The demoniac religious principle in the form of Mayavada, which was immersed within the deep water of forgetfulness for some time, again surfaced in the form of discourses, taking shelter of the boat of the smarta teachers. At the same time, some Indian and foreign yogis appeared as supporters of thesmartas and created a revolution in the world of religion. Moreover, some useless people, who were fond of sense gratification, took shelter of unauthorized religious practices and began to create disturbance in society, identifying themselves as sahajiyas and baulas. Displaying the limit of their sinful propensity, a few wormlike people, who take pleasure in the stool of fame, began to advertise themselves as "the incarnation of the Lord" in the society of fools. Some other people even accepted names befitting a Vaishnava, acted as acharyas, and began to spread ideas that were opposed to Vaishnavism as if they were the religious principles of Vaishnavas. After seeing all such unimaginable activities, our hearts began to shatter. When we try to search for the cause of such a change, we suddenly remember the following verse written by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvatipada, "The age of Kali is formidable and the senses of the human beings are very powerful. Now the path of devotional service is full of millions of thorns. Where shall I go? What shall I do? I am completely helpless without the mercy of Gaurachandra." While crying and speaking in this way, I went to the birthplace of the Lord at Sri Mayapura. Still my mind did not become peaceful. Thereafter I left my place in search of the Lord and after arriving at Puri, I began to roll on the goldlike sand. At that time, the Lord informed me in my heart, "O well-wisher of the devotees. May you obtain peace! The nature that the living entities have developed, according to their respective karma from birth after birth in this world, influences them to engage in fruitive activities. Until desires opposed to devotional service are destroyed from the heart, no amount of good instruction can bring any auspiciousness. Such instructions will simply come out of the ear-holes and will not enter into the heart. No amount of preaching to them or discussing devotional service will produce a good result because of their bad karma. Your discourses and discussions will therefore not yield any result. My order to you is that you should live at the place where I kept My dear Haridasa and where I loudly chanted the holy names of the Lord. You should constantly sing the glories of the holy names for the benefit of the fallen souls. As a result of the piety that people will achieve by hearing from you, and the faith they will develop, they will attain unduplicitious faith in pure devotional service in a future lifetime." Following these instructions of our beloved Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya, we built our bhajan-kutir in the tract of land surrounded by huge waves.

Moscow, RUSSIA – Thousands of Indians living in Russia have become outraged with what they consider a public blasphemy of Hinduism as Moscow prepares to receive Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his first state visit to Russia, scheduled for Monday, December 5. In a letter to the Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov, wired by Interfax news agency on November 30, Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Nikon called Lord Krishna “an evil demon, the personified power of hell opposing God”, and “a livid lascivious youth”. The Archibishop further requested the Mayor to ban construction of the proposed Krishna temple in Moscow saying it would otherwise become “an idolatrous disgrace erected for the glory of wicked and malicious ‘god’ Krishna”. “Construction of the temple to Krishna offends our religious feelings and insults the thousand-year religious culture of Russia where the overwhelming majority of people, Christians and Muslims including, consider Krishna an evil demon, the personified power of hell opposing God”, Interfax quoted Archbishop Nikon as saying. President of the Association of Indians in Russia Sanjeet K. Jha wrote a letter of protest to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexiy II, asking him to step in and bring the Archbishop to senses. “For centuries faith in Lord Krishna has been the very foundation of the Indian tradition of tolerance and respect for all religions and for all life. Nurtured by His teachings, none of His followers will ever dare speak a word of blasphemy against founders of any other religions. In fact, His teachings instill in us deepest respect for Jesus Christ, Muhammad and Moses as genuine saints who dedicated their lives to God”, said Mr.Jha in his letter to Patriarch. “Therefore the shower of offenses that Archbishop Nikon decided to publicly pour on Lord Krishna caused us intolerable pain and evoked bitterness and indignation in our hearts”, Sanjeet Jha added. He also reminded the Patriarch that the only Krishna temple in Moscow had been demolished last year, leaving some 15,000 Indians and 10,000 Russian followers of Hinduism without a place of worship. The fact was quoted by the U.S. Department of State in its annual International Religious Freedom Report among instances of religious intolerance against Hindus and other religious minorities in Russia. In January 2004, the Department of State report says, the Mayor of Moscow Mr.Luzhkov signed a decree allocating land in northwest Moscow for construction of a new temple in place of the demolished one. However, in October 2005 the Mayor repealed the decree and gave the order to remove a temporary Hindu shrine that devotees had erected from the allocated land. Now, according to Mr. Jha, the statement by Archbishop Nikon just adds to the exasperation felt by Indian community in Moscow in regard to the razed temple. “With the old temple demolished and the new temple project thwarted at the very root, thousands of Indians living in Moscow feel utterly disappointed,” – says a leader of the Indian business community in Russia who wished to remain anonymous. “While Russia signs multibillion contracts with India in weapons, it seems to turn a blind eye to such outrageous violations of our essential needs in the center of its capital”. According to several Moscow-based Indians, the discriminatory move by the Moscow government, the harassment of Indians by Russian ultra-nationalistic groups, inspired by open hostility of some Church leaders towards Hinduism, is making Russia a less than appealing place for Indians to live. “We hope that during his upcoming state visit to Russia in December, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will treat the signing of contracts with Russia and the protection of Indians in Russia as two inseparably related issues,” – the Indian business leader added.

Faith that the thing can be done is essential to any great achievement. -- Thomas N. Carruther