rohini108

Sorry for all these tests.

well. I keep wiping out the video if I mess with the unwanted text. I can use the color white for all the code when embedding it in the beginning and that sort of gets ride of it.

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How do you place a youtube video here? I swear I saw somebody do it. I know how to embed the code using FrontPage, but I am confused as how to do it here. (I can post the link but I want to have the actual video show. This is what I want to know how to do.) Thanks

Ashvatama, I consider myself very fortunate to have met you here. Thank You. I understand the dog thing. I guess as dogs we can howl the Maha Mantra together and hope our master comes and gets us. rsd

Not exactly sure what you mean? Now I am very curious.

"H-Bomb" ...sorry my mistake. As you can see, the actual article reads, "atomic." I don't think there's a religion out there that hasn't got huge stains of shame on it, somewhere. The Catholic church, for sure! All that child abuse and what you mention - and other things you don't mention. Also, there are certainly many who wouldn't believe everything the ISKCON church says either. I think it was a Chinese scholar who once said, "groups corrupt." But as far as individual Catholics, devotees ...or individuals taken from other faiths, who love God and worship Him ...their lives, works, miracles, etc. all glorify God in the most wonderful way and are very valuable. You bold-out mundane religiosity. You're sort of saying that a person who spends their lifetime in love with Jesus Christ is just wasting away his/her life. Is this what you really mean to say?

This is a bit long, but interesting enough that you will probably read it ...and wonder. I did an Internet search and enough came up to verify that this did happen. During the Second World War atomic bombs were dropped on twoJapanese cities: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. An extraordinary thing happened at both sites. Absolutely unexplainable by scientific means. -A unique group of men survived a nuclear blast that killed nearly all other people even at over ten times further from the blast. -The group was unique, singled out: Catholic clergy living the message of Fatima. -It was reproducible. It happened twice: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both sets of survivors were Catholic religious. -Most other buildings were leveled to the ground, even at maybe 3 times the distance, but their house stood (apparently with some windows intact!) -All other people (except for a handful of scattered sole survivors), even at 3 times the distance from the explosion died instantly. Those within a radius TEN times the distance at which the Jesuits were exposed died from radiation within days. -The survivors, a group of Catholic clergy, were examined by scientists over 200 times over the next 30 years with no ill effects found. In Hiroshima, a small community of Jesuit Fathers lived in a church house near the parish church, situated only eight blocks from the center of the bomb blast. When Hiroshima was destroyed by the atomic bomb, all eight members of the small Jesuit community escaped unscathed, while every other person who was within a radius of roughly one and a half kilometers from the center of the explosion died immediately. The church house where the Jesuits lived was still standing, while the buildings in every direction from it were leveled. (This coincides with the bombing of Nagasaki where St. Maximilian Kolbe had established a Franciscan Friary which was also unharmed and also had no effects from The Nagasaki bomb.) Testimony of a survivor: Father Hubert Shiffer was one of these eight Jesuit survivors. He was 30 when the atomic bomb exploded at Hiroshima and lived another 33 years in good health. He recounted his experiences at Hiroshima during the Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia (USA) in 1976. At that time, all eight members of the Jesuit community were still alive. Fr. Shiffer, on the morning of August 6, 1945, he had just finished Mass, went into the rectory and sat down at the breakfast table, and had just sliced a grapefruit, and had just put his spoon into the grapefruit when there was a bright flash of light. His first thought was that it was an explosion in the harbor (this was a major port where the Japanese refueled their submarines.) Then, in the words of Fr. Schiffer: "Suddenly, a terrific explosion filled the air with one bursting thunderstroke. An invisible force lifted me from the chair, hurled me through the air, shook me, battered me, whirled me 'round and round like a leaf in a gust of autumn wind." The next thing he remembered, he opened his eyes and he was laying on the ground. He looked around and there was NOTHING n any direction: the railroad station and buildings in all directions were leveled to the ground. The only physical harm to himself was that he could feel a few pieces of glass in the back of his neck. As far as he could tell, there was nothing else physically wrong with himself. After the conquest of the Americans, their army doctors and scientists explained to him that his body would begin to deteriorate because of the radiation. To the doctors amazement, Fr. Schiffer's body contained no radiation or ill-effects from the bomb. Conclusion: There are no physical laws to explain why the Jesuits were untouched in the Hiroshima air-blast. There is no other actual or test data where a structure such as this was not totally destroyed at this standoff distance by an atomic weapon. All who were at this range from the epicenter should have received enough radiation to be dead within at most a matter of minutes if nothing else happened to them. There is no known way to design a uranium-235 atomic bomb, which could leave such a large discrete area intact while destroying everything around it immediately outside the fireball (by shaping the plasma). Not only did they all survive with (at most) relatively minor injuries, but they all lived well past that awful day with no radiation sickness, no loss of hearing, or any other visible long term defects or maladies. Naturally, they were interviewed numerous times (Fr. Schiffer said over 200 times) by scientists and health care people about their remarkable experience. The eight Jesuits say "we believe that we survived because we were living the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the rosary daily in that home." Fr. Shiffer feels that he received a protective shield from the Blessed Mother which protected him from all radiation and ill-effects. Fr. Schiffer attributes this to devotion to the Blessed Mother, and his daily Fatima Rosary; "in that house the Holy Rosary was recited together every day." Of course the secular scientists are speechless and incredulous at this explanation - and they are sure there is some "real" explanation - but at the same time over 50 years later the scientists are still absolutely bamboozled when it comes to finding a plausible scenario to explain the missionary's unique escape from the hellish power of that bomb. From a scientific viewpoint, what happened to those Jesuits at Hiroshima still defies all human logic from the laws of physics as understood today (or at any time in the future). It must be concluded that some other (external) force was present whose power and/or capability to transform energy and matter as it relates to humans is beyond current comprehension; a plausibility argument for the existence of a Creator who left his "calling card" at Hiroshima. Speaking on American TV, the German Jesuit Father Hubert Shiffner gave the startling answer: "In that house, the Rosary was prayed every day. In that house we were living the Message of Fatima," he said. How does one live the Fatima message? 1. People must first CONVERT: turn away from sin and go back to God. This entails the usual demands of the Christian life like prayer, reading Scripture, obedience to the commandments, concern for others. Beyond it there are special requests from the Blessed Virgin: 2. DAILY OFFERING. "Offer up each day whatever God requests of you... for the conversion of sinners and reparation for sin." 3. REPARATION. "Pray, fast, and make sacrifices for your sins and for the sins of all sinners and unbelievers." 4. EUCHARIST. Frequent prayer, adoration and reparation before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 5. FIVE FIRST SATURDAYS. "Confess, offer Mass, receive Holy Communion on the First Saturday of five consecutive months... with the intention of making reparation to me..." 6. ROSARY. "Each day recite the prayers of the rosary, five decades at least -- meditating on the mysteries -- to make reparation for sin." 7. CONSECRATION. Consecrate yourself to the Sacred heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This means entrusting yourself to their care and protection. Wear the brown scapular as a sign. What follows is Dr. Stephen Rinehart's commentary on the subject of the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast. Within the U.S.Department of Defense Stephen Rinehart is widely recognized as international expert in this field. Rinehart's Testimony: A quick calculation says at 1 kilometer the bulk temperature was in excess of 20,000 to 30,000 degrees F (transients in microseconds greater than 100,000F perhaps as high as 1,000,000 F within 1 kilometer - depends on construction details and you are inside the fireball) and the blast wave would have hit at sonic velocity with pressures on building (at one kilometer) greater than 600 psi. If the Jesuits (at one kilometer from the geometric epicenter) were outside the atomic bomb's "plasma" their residence should still have been utterly destroyed (temp > 2000 F and airblast pressures > 100 psi). Unreinforced masonry or brick walls (representative of commercial construction) are destroyed at 3 psi, which will also cause ear damage and burst windows. At ten psi, a human will experience severe lung and heart damage, burst eardrums and at 20 psi your limbs can be blown off. Your head will be blown off by 40 psi and no human would be alive because your skull would be crushed. All the cotton clothes would be on fire at 350 F and your lungs would be inoperative within a minute breathing air (even for a few seconds) at these temperatures. No way any human could have survived nor should anything have left been standing at one kilometer. At ten times the distance, about ten to fifteen kilometers I saw the brick walls standing from an elementary school school and I think there were a few badly burned survivors; all died within fifteen years of some form of cancer). (Examining pictures taken from a panoramic view from epicenter of the blast at Shima Hospital looking for the Jesuit’s house) did show some kind of two story house totally intact (at least from what I could make out and it looked to me the windows were in place!?). Also there was a church with walls still standing but roof gone a few hundred yards away

Hare Krishna. Yes...those plays. I put them on the Net over ten years ago. Now I have lost contact with the devotees that I was doing that for. But I know they wanted them out there so I have kept them available. I recently did a little housekeeping on the entire site, ...as you see it now. I guess by word of mouth they will get spread around. So glad you are enjoying them. By the way, just started reading the book you encouraged me to buy. Again, thank you so much for that!!! rsd

I love soup. You know, out in Southern California there is a famous soup restaurant. It is called Pea Soup Andersen's . Soup can do very well. Back before I had any knowledge of Srila Prabhupada I was one of the managers at Saratoga Traders, a bar and restaurant located in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. We served a "special" consisting of soup, salad and bread. It was a huge hit because people could eat in a nice place without going broke. Years later I was one of the original managers of Govinda's in St. Louis and I saw our little restaurant start out with just a few customers to well over 100 on the day I moved to the Chicago temple. We kept our prices very reasonable, the place immaculately clean, the food delicious, and our preaching centered on making friends first and foremost. A formula that works. Dhal was one of our menu items and people loved it. Chota Haridas was the cook. I remember this one day in particular. I had to go back into the kitchen to get some more strawberry halavah. As I came down the hallway to the swinging doors that led into the main dinning room, I stopped because I couldn't help but notice all the laughter coming from our customers. Srila Prabhupada was singing on our stereo and everyone was smiling and laughing. They were totally oblivious that they were in a temple. They were just lost to the moment. I never forgot that moment. Later when I moved to the Dallas temple and saw how "dead" the place was, I finally convinced the right person and 10 minutes later work on Kalachandji's Restaurant was initiated. This made all the difference for the Dallas temple. You can still eat at Kalachandji's, today. It is actually famous. But now I am reminded of a negative. Years later I took my wife there. She is just a simple Christian girl from a tiny town in Texas. So I was eager to show her what I had helped build. But I noticed her not eating. Later she told me that I couldn't see it happening because I was facing the wrong direction, but there was an Indian lady across from her that ate her entire meal with her fingers. This actually made my wife feel ill. She had never in her life conceived that a person would eat like that. It totally shocked her. As I said, this was a good many years after I left Dallas but I remember well how we were all cautioned not to turn Kalachandji's into a devotee hangout and act in anyway that might upset new customers. This was good advice. Anyhow, I think you could do very well. But I am not sure about that watermellon-rind subji. That was mentioned as a last-ditch effort to make something super cheap, because they had no money. Later I will offer a prayer for you, as you requested. But your own prayers and the prayers of your friends should prove much more effective than mine.

Where is the Greatest Hero? This cyclone hit a few days ago. If KDR was established properly, a timely press release to Reuters (etc.) outlining KDRs response would be published. I know this could be done. YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military junta believes at least 10,000 people died in a cyclone that ripped through the Irrawaddy delta, triggering a massive international aid response for the pariah southeast Asian nation. "The basic message was that they believe the provisional death toll was about 10,000 with 3,000 missing," a Yangon-based diplomat told Reuters in Bangkok, summarizing a briefing from Foreign Minister Nyan Win. "It's a very serious toll." The official toll on state media stands at 3,394 dead and 2,879 missing, although those figures only cover two of the five declared disaster zones, where U.N. officials say hundreds of thousands are without shelter or drinking water. The casualty count has been rising quickly as authorities reach hard-hit islands and villages in the Irrawaddy delta, the former "rice bowl of Asia" which bore the brunt of Cyclone Nargis's 190 km (120 miles) per hour winds. After getting a "careful green light" from the government, the United Nations said it was pulling out all the stops to send in emergency aid such as food, clean water, blankets and plastic sheeting. "The U.N. will begin preparing assistance now to be delivered and transported to Myanmar as quickly as possible," World Food Program (WFP) spokesman Paul Risley said.

Nicely said, Amlesh. Thank You. Back to the original question on the thread, How Can I Deepen My Personal Relationship With Him? ...isn't this what the mercy of Nitai-Gaura was all about, helping us to deepen our personal relationship with God? Therefore, the "How" is the Holy Name. Chant the Maha Mantra and you will attain the Lord's most intimate, inner circle of loving affairs. This is the standard of love contained in the Holy Name.

"Service is our life, it is everything for us. We thrive only there. And whenever we want to do the work of a master, we deviate from that; we go away, we degrade. By serving, we live, and by trying to make ourselves master, by lording it over others, we die." The word, slavey, isn't a word I normally use. "Servant" or "humble servant" is more familiar. But is approaches something even nicer. Prabhupada said that the Lord is very kind. I completely agree with you. My conception is that God is a very loving God. Obviously He doesn't think of us as His slaves. Nor does my conception of Him bring up any sort of thoughts such as He is demanding. I don't think He is demanding, at all, but I do think reality demands certain things. A lock can be made by the sweetest person you will ever meet, but the lock is very demanding. Only a certain key will open it. I think of Krsna as a divine, loving, little boy who is simple and sweet - very loving and childlike. In His realm I only see loving exchanges. Everyone is lost in that. To me, this is reality. I don't think His realm is guarded or has a warning sign out front. If it is guarded by anything, then I would think more like a fine screen made of love. Only tiny, loving souls can easily slip through it. Hare Krsna

As I read this I see that you want to talk to Krsna, you want Him to hear you, you want Krsna to make you His servant, you want to be alone with Him, have Him be your guide, and give you another chance. You want the Lord to bless you, notice you, and give you the association of a pure devotee. Today I was looking a the cover of a BTG that was recently sent to me. Listening to Krsna play his flute are two cows, and three deer. Staring at this picture for many minutes I got the deep sense that these are not ordinary animals. My God, what eternally-magnificent souls they must be ...to just lie there and listen and be alone with Him. I just know from the bottom of my heart that I am nothing like these great personalities. Then I looked at the rest of the painting: the trees, grass, tons of flowers, Krsna's foot on the grass and flowers. I thought that it would be OK if I could just be a blade of grass. Not the one under His foot. Who do I think I am? I feel like praying, "Dear Krsna, I am your unworthy slave. I am not even that because a slave knows exactly what to do - and does it. I have no good qualities other than the smallest amount of attraction to your beautiful form. Even this tiny good in me I constantly ignore and deny by my actions ...finding so many things on a daily basis, besides you, that I want to look at and do. And so I go about my life stuffing myself in so many ways with maya. Then late at night I feel rotten and wish I was different. I am truly your unworthy and above all, ungrateful slave - which makes me not even a slave. Much less. Whatever you call that - then this is who I am. My sincerity is a joke. Please have mercy on me a sinner. If there is one possible favor You could grant me, then I must ask for your mercy. Whatever lift that gives me will be a million times better than what I have now, despair and guilt and a natural attracted to everything bad. Yes, I do have a list of all my past service but what does that prove? Looking at it, big deal. Just a small drop compared to the ocean of drops of service that even just one of your real slaves easily and glady performs each day of eternity. Please Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.

Lord Krsna's Holy Name is so powerful, even if uttered by a non-devotee, it can lead one - who hears it - to Krsna's pure devotee. For example, I first heard the name - Krsna - mentioned just one time in a lecture given in Southern California, back in 1967. The speaker, Charles Berner, had made this flippant remark about these "two cats, Krsna and Arjuna, who roamed around ancient India causing all sorts of havoc with their mystical powers." What is remarkable is that I cannot remember squat, yet, eleven years later at the exact moment I asked my first sincere question about the purpose of life, bang... without a skip I then wondered if Krsna, the person Charles had mentioned in that lecture, might have had something to say about my urgent inquiry. A year later I was initiated by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. All glories to the Holy Name of Lord Krsna. This is how I perceive the power of His Name.

As dear as you are to Lord Nityananda, if you would pray to Him for His help, that would be just tremendous. More than tremendous. Hare Krishna. My humble obeisances to you. Thank you for your kindness.

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray to you in the name of your son, Lord Jesus Christ. Because you know everything, you know Ananda das more perfectly than anyone. You know of his many births. You know of the life he has just lived. You know how he lived and how he died. His love for Srila Prabhupada is the most profound thing I have just heard about Ananda das. My heart is so saddened by his tragic life. I ask you Lord, I ask you in the name of your son Jesus Christ who taught that this kind of prayer would bear fruit. Please find Ananda das and whatever it takes, let him play with the cowherd boys in Vrndavan. Let him taste forever the unlimited nectar of your association. In Jesus I ask all of this. Thank you.

Personally, I would be hard pressed to think of a more interesting service than Krishna Disaster Relief. It has massive potential! It just needs to be properly organized. Perhaps you are the one to make it all happen. I hope so. I can say this as a matter of fact: In just over a year (before the Internet was around) ...using the Food For Life mailing list to send out my little newsletter, hundreds of devotees - everywhere - had signed up to join KDR. All I am saying is that I was astonished at the superfast and positive response I received using a KINKO copy machine and the U.S. mail. Right, as you have indicated, much is needed. Here is thought.... somebody needs to buy the domain name, www.KrishnaDisasterRelief.com. Then a dedicated website could be built. I would be willing to build the website, but seriously, a much better webmaster should get involved. At best I am simply a rinky-dink webmaster. And yes - organized. But again, that person can't be me because I have no brain. Seriously. I would make you laugh. Anyhow, this might be a starting point.

Hare Krishna, yes, this is the one. Thank You.

Please note: The following article was posted today in The Sampradaya Sun. Today's issue has been mostly dedicated to the deteriorating state of our planet and how it is going to impact all of us. This is my response and I wanted my friends here, to read it also. Krishna Disaster Relief BY: ROHINI-SUTA DASA May 01, AUSTIN, TEXAS (SUN) — Founded in 1990, Krishna Disaster Relief (KDR) was truly an unexpected paradigm that resulted from an act of kindness toward the village of Limon, Colorado after it was hit by a tornado. This was KDRs first mission. The most impressive memory from that fateful day was the intense degree of appreciation that the residents of that small community expressed to me. Compared to feeding the ill-mannered and habitually homeless milling around Denver’s infamous “Devil’s Triangle,” the temporarily homeless in Limon actually gave a heartfelt, “thank you.” As the editors of the Sun have so correctly pointed out, a global doom does seem to looming. Even my latest issue of Wired Magazine has devoted a number of pages pointing out that our planet is running out of drinking water. An inedible fruit, Kali yuga is ripening. Remember those Mighty Mouse cartoons? Hm…OK, Superman or Batman will work, too, but I’m partial to Might Mouse. Regardless of your favorite hero, some type of doom is hell-bent on inflicting as much suffering as possible, prompting Might Mouse to fly to the rescue. This is what stirs us: seeing our heroes come to the rescue. When I was in the Air Force, our entire squadron was shown a film about the Air Force’s response to a massive earthquake that seriously jolted Alaska on March 27, 1964. Nobody knew in advance what the film was going to be about and after watching it I was stunned. Not at all the damage. Not at the speed in which the United States Air Force mobilized. Rather, what I’ll never forget was how all around me grown men, including my self, swelled with pride and eyes watered tears of appreciation. The dramatic feelings that this film brought out in me were profound and totally unexpected. It was just a normal day, after lunch and out of the blue these intense feelings suddenly surfaced without warning. In the same way that my laptop has been programmed to pop-up a little box to alert me when my battery is low, mankind has been programmed by God to love a hero. On queue, grown men will swell with pride and become emotional when watching a film about the Air Force rushing to the rescue. We all love heroes. It's just the way we are wired. Part of the human-side of our dharma. Even dogs are awarded medals - such as the Carnegie Medal of Honor - for acts of lifesaving valor. Everyone loves a hero. Have I fallen victim to sentimentality? So far what I've said sounds rather emotional. But I say, “exactly what the doctor ordered!” The most valuable kind of wisdom is knowledge that can be employed intimately in fulfilling the highest realm of devotional service. What am I talking about? What can be more intimate than helping Srila Prabhupada achieve his fondest dream? Listen to our beloved Gurudeva reveal what is on the altar of his heart. "Let us try to make them Krishna conscious. That is our only interest. Because I love Krishna, I want to see all - everybody in the world to become Krishna conscious." (Because I love Krishna, I want to see all - everybody in the world love Krishna). The love that Srila Prabhupada has for his Krishna is very much the “heartfelt kind” and there were many instances of Srila Prabhupada’s eyes filling with tears. Because Srila Prabhupada loved Krishna so much, he came to America to introduce us so that we, too, could fall in love with his Lord and Master. Srila Prabhupada says this himself. He wants the whole world to love Krishna. I would like to see Krishna Disaster Relief take a leading role in making this happen. This is my first public article on KDR in nearly 20 years, still addressing what I have always seen as a tremendous opportunity to serve Srila Prabhupada. Although this is just a concept piece, still, if there is any profound wisdom here, then at least on paper let KDR transform the gloom and doom of today’s topic into the topmost service: fulfilling Prabhupada‘s hearts’ desire. Doesn’t it strike you a bit odd that when you watch one disaster after another that you seldom, if ever, hear a word on the nightly news about Lord Krsna? Because I am interested in this, since 1990 I have watched countless newscasts covering everything from tsunamis to tornadoes, earthquakes to hurricanes, wars and famine. Not one single time did I hear the sound of Lord Krsna’s Holy Name come out of my television set. Hm, that doesn’t at all square with what we preach. Srila Prabhupada taught us that Lord Krsna is the greatest person. What this means is that Krsna is also the Greatest Hero! There is no greater hero than Krsna. Well, OK ...so where is He? This void, along with the unfulfilled dream of Srila Prabhupada can be traced directly to our failure to present to the world Lord Krsna, as He is. My proposal has always been that devotees, everywhere, turn their combined talents and resources into showing the world the Greatest Hero via Krishna Disaster Relief; right actions produce right results. I am not saying to do away with Food for Life. It has a tremendous place. And I am not saying to do away with Bhaktivedanta Charities, etc. What I am saying is that Krishna Disaster Relief should be created and brought to the forefront. As Rush Limbaugh, the greatest talk-show personality in the history of radio has said countless times, “words mean things.” I seriously doubt that if a group of average citizens were asked, “What does Food For Life mean?” …that any of them would say Krishna's name. As far as Bhaktivedanta Charities, very few could even pronounce it, what to speak of knowing what it means. But Krishna Disaster Relief …either look at those three words or utter those 7 syllables and with a snap of the fingers, everyone understands that Krishna has come to the rescue. Let me tell you a little known fact. In 1990, I received a phone call from the head of the American Red Cross in Denver, Colorado. She asked me to meet her in an underground bunker beneath the Denver Federal Center and speak with the acting president of NVOAD (National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters). He had heard of Krishna Disaster Relief. After going underground, past a military checkpoint and walking down a long tunnel, I met with this esteemed gentleman from Washington D.C. who told me an amazing thing. He said that NVOAD was being confronted with so many vegetarians during disasters that they had no way of providing them the necessary meals. He then asked if Krishna Disaster Relief would consider becoming a member of NVOAD. Now, I ask you, why is this so important? Disasters are a unique occurrence in many ways. They certainly get enormous media attention with the “event” streamed into the living rooms of millions and millions of homes. CNN, Fox News, CBS; they all send their news teams right into ground zero. Although often affecting large areas, disasters are also well protected by police, national guard, and even dog catchers and game wardens. They are all utilized to stop the general public from entering these dangerous areas. Most want to just look while others want to loot. Similar to a stage at a rock concert, unless you have a stage pass, you cannot enter. You have to have the proper credentials, no matter who you are. Just like in the military, there is a disaster chain of command that has to be followed and obtaining a stage pass is crucial. It is hung around the neck. This is how to understand the anatomy of a disaster. These valuable federal credentials are what NVOAD was offering Krishna Disaster Relief. With them, KDR can get through the police lines and right up onto stage, right next to the CNN cameras and where all the media focuses their attention. As far as I know this invitation still stands. Let me get back to transforming the gloom and doom of today’s topic into making Srila Prabhupada’s dream come true: (Because I love Krishna, I want to see all - everybody in the world love Krishna). Right now there is an existing Food for Life network. How difficult would it be for them to simply put on a different hat when called upon and perform disaster relief work under the banner of Krishna Disaster Relief? This is my vision of Lord Krishna in the 21st Century. In the global marketplace of religious ideas, devotees of Lord Krishna are also advertising. "Please stop and examine what we have." The most important thing is to get the public to stop and take favorable notice. Why is this so important? In one word, appreciation; appreciation of Lord Krishna. And if you think about it, the word, "appreciation" has many meanings and they all apply: to prize, regard, cherish, relish, savor, acknowledge, thank, comprehend, realize, recognize and understand. Once appreciation has been kindled within the heart, a monumental event takes place. Srila Prabhupada explains: August 19, 1972, Shrimad Bhagavatam 1.2.16 - “This is the beginning of spiritual life - people are praising our activities - this appreciation is a lift for such persons. If he doesn’t hear, doesn’t come, simply says, ‘it is very nice.’ Yes!” The beginning of spiritual life ...this is the result when appreciation is awakened for Lord Krishna. Appreciation is where love for Krishna begins. In a nutshell here is the formula that Krishna Disaster Relief represents: A tornado strikes downtown St. Louis. Monitored by KDR, the Food For Life teams in St. Louis, Dallas, and Chicago are activated. Mobile kitchens are dispatched, the St. Louis team deploying first. City officials already know about KDR from its participation in city and state disaster drills. As a member of NVOAD, Krishna Disaster Relief is allowed to enter the hardest-hit areas. Within 24 hrs. the Dallas and Chicago KDR teams arrive, one of them sporting KDR's newest, state-of-the-art mobile pizza kitchen. If you had omnipresent x-ray vision, you would see billions of televisions sets across America and the world tuned-in to find out what’s happening. In these countless homes people watch as Krishna comes to the rescue. On queue hearts swell and eyes water. Over the next 100 years, every time a disaster strikes, on all the news outlets, people everywhere see the Greatest Hero coming to the Rescue. Appreciation for Lord Krishna reaches monumental proportions. Public support for KDR surpasses the 10 billion dollar mark. Srila Prabhupada smiles. This is the formula.

This is also one of my favorite books. I have read it many times over. I highly recommend it. When I first looked into buying a copy, there were not so many versions. Now I see so many translations. The link, here, shows the one I have always read. Actually, I am in the process of reading it again.

Years ago a devotee told me that if I ever had a sinful or unwanted thought, simply say, "Jai Radhe." He said that by doing this I would be excused. I have been doing this now for about 30 years. Even after all this time, I still find myself saying, "Jai Radhe" at least once a day. So this is a habit I have developed over the years. And I might add, a good habit that I, too, can recommend. Over these many years I have noticed that, indeed, all kinds of unwanted thoughts are quickly vanquished by saying, "Jai Radhe." Who isn't plagued by unwanted thoughts? Even though they come in all forms, the power of, "Jai Radhe" has always triumphed.