Guruvani

The solution is that the brahmacary should take sannyasa and be independent, have bank accounts, jet-set around the world and convince people to give him money to support the lifestyle.

ISKCON has dozens and dozens of gurus now. Let them preach and make their own disciples. I don't want anything to do with that program. Why should I distrubute books and make disciples for the ISKCON gurus who will most often disappoint the innocent souls who take shelter of them? BTG was for bringing people to Srila Prabhupada. When BTG becomes a device for bringing suckers to the ISKCON gurus I am outta here.

Back in the early days of Sri Chaitanya Saraswata Krishna-kirtan Maha-mandal, I wrote Srila Sridhar Maharaja a letter and told him how much I was relishing his audio tapes. His secretary read my letter to Srila Sridhar Maharaja and Srila Sridhar Maharaja told him to reply and tell me he was pleased that I was appreciating his taped lectures very much. So, as far as that goes, I pleased Srila Sridhar Maharaja simply by listening very carefully to his tapes. The pleasure of the pure devotee is life's greatest accomplishment. I never got any personal words as such from Srila Prabhupada because my ISKCON authorities discouraged me from even writing Srila Prabhupada a letter. I obeyed them. Somehow, I don't really regret it because I have never felt disconnected from Srila Prabhupada because I had his books and tapes. I did get to hear Srila Prabhupada lecture and also attended his guru pujas. I got to see him in the San Francisco Rathayatra and that was totally awesome.

Hey, that is good enough. You oughta be ashamed of yourself for not giving this link sooner! thanks..... it's a good resource and that should be good enough for the seriously inquisitive.

Myself, I have a boycott of ISKCON going on. I don't distribute anything that will end up leading innocent seekers into the lair of the GBC guru nest.

So, now you must duplicate these and send them out to the hungry souls thirsting for the nectar. Don't be a nectar hog! Actually, you should make them available for download for FREE! Now, Murali Mo, it is time for you to serve the Vaishnavas!!!!

When I got involved there were no books yet, so the tapes were what I depended on. I have always preferred the tapes myself, though I do appreciate the books very much. There is just something special about the voice of Srila Sridhar Maharaja and I think that if one has never heard the tapes he has really missed something special. I think it is important to hear the tapes first so that one can get a sense of the mood and the tone of Srila Sridhar Maharaja. Once one has become acquainted with the tapes, then I think the books have more meaning.

That is quite true, but it is also one's karma concerning who one knows. That can also change as you meet new people. Some people inherit wealth without doing anything for it. So, that is also karma coming into fruition.

Even if one can subsist by "sponging off of others" that is also his karma that he is in a position to subsist by sponging. After all, everyone is subsisting by sponging off of Krishna anyway.

It appears that working smarter not harder is the key to prosperity in the modern world. Getting a good education appears to be more useful than just working hard like an ass. So, it is not necessarily how hard you work, but how smart you work. At least in within the parameters of modern American society it appears that education is generally more important than just working hard. Otherwise, investing in real estate can lead to prosperity if one has the investment money or the financing skills to get into real estate.

Well, I am not too crazy about their excuses for not circulating the recordings. But, Sudhir Maharaja made the tapes and he has some claim I guess, but when you are talking about the words of an acharya I think they belong to the whole world not to any individual or even SCSM. Sridhar Maharaja gave these recorded lectures knowingly and I think as a gift to the Krishna consciousness movement - not as the private property of any person or even SCSM. His words are his gift to the KC movement. He didn't charge for it and I don't think anyone should hoard the recordings he gave for all the devotees. I don't think there is any good excuse for keeping those recordings under lock and key. The loss of keeping them from the devotees is to me a lot more undesirable than any risk that someone might use the recordings to transcribe into books. I have heard the recordings and they are so precious and so valuable. There is NO excuse for keeping them away from the mass of devotees. NONE. I don't consider that even Govinda Maharaja has ownership of the words of Srila Sridhar Maharaja. Those words belong to all the devotees of the KC movement.

I might add that in that collection of tapes that Bhakti Sudhir Maharaja sold to Bhakti Saranga Maharaja was one of the rare copies of the appointment tape of Srila Prabhupada. I personally heard that recording several times. It is a shame that the "appointment tape" has also been kept away from the devotees of the KC movement.

with any luck, maybe Bhakti Saranga Maharaja has already transfered to digital media. It is a major atrocity that these tapes have not been reproduced digitally and made available to the devotees who would like to buy copies. In some way I think there might be something like a conspiracy to keep the tapes away from the masses of devotees. It might be something like the hoarding and hogging of Srila Prabhupada that his senior men imposed on the rank and file disciples of Srila Prabhupada. Murali Mohan is part of that family of devotees. Maybe he could look into the issue and find out what happened to all those tapes of Srila Sridhar Maharaja.

I never had any personal contact with Srila Sridhar Maharaja either. But, I really appreciated his taped lectures and I never felt disconnected. To me listening to the tapes is most intimate because the microphone was closer to Srila Sridhar Maharaja than any person could get, so the tapes can somtimes allow us a better chance to actually hear him better than if we were setting on his veranda right in front of him. For me, hearing the tapes gave me all the connection I needed. The books are nice too, but I have always been partial to the tapes. Unfortunately, Bhakti Sudhir Maharaja sold his whole collection to Bhakti Saranga Maharaja who has just kept them for his personal collection without distrubuting copies to the devotees. There were hundreds of tapes with all sorts of nectar on them that are being hoarded by Bhakti Saranga Maharaja who I think lives in Hawaii now and has some temple or ashram there. I don't understand why the followers of Srila Sridhar Maharaja have not managed to get back this collection or a least make copies for future generations. It just ain't right that Bhakti Saranga Maharaja is setting on such a collection that could be doing many devotees a lot of good. Bhakti Saranga Maharaja was previously Sahasrangi das who got Harinam in ISKCON during the Prabhupada-era and later took diksha and sannyasa from Jayapataka Swami. He is an old friend of mine because he started both the Tennessee farm and the Oklahoma farm and I was on both farms at one time or another. But, I haven't seen him since I left the Oklahoma farm around 1980 or 81.

I think the post above by Sunanda should be very instructive for you. Most all the mixed marriages I have heard of ended like his after some period of apparent success Even marriages between devotees can be very difficult. Marriage in general is very difficult in this age. Personally, I would recommend against it.

Nope, that was the birthday of the father of soul.

Again, I don't have the shastric quote at hand, but originally we were integrated parts and parcels of Krishna, then as a spark comes out of a fire we become a disintegrated part and parcel of Krishna. So, we have always existed, but at some point we became dis-integrated from Krishna and manifested our seperate existence. (0ne and seperate)

I don't have the quote right off, but for sure there is a statement by Srila Prabhupada in the Krsna Book that before going to Goloka a devotee takes birth in Gokula Vrindavana, the Vrajabhumi that manifests in material universes on planets like Earth. After taking birth in Gokula, the Vrajabhumi, then the devotee goes to Goloka from there after establishing his relationship with Krishna. There is no going to Goloka directly. First, the devotee takes birth in Vraja as it is manifesting for Krishna's pastimes in a material universe. Then, after establishing the relationship in Vrajabhumi the devotee goes to Goloka or Krishnaloka from there. I think this same idea is given in some book or commentary of either Srila Rupa or Srila Sanatan Goswami. With some research I could find some reference, but for now I am cooking stir-fry for dinner and I don't have time to do the research.

I talked to Raghavendu about 3 years ago here at the New Raman Reti temple and he was telling me his wife had more or less cut him loose and run him off. He was all smiles and a true pleasure to talk to. I guess your Mom wanted him to start moving towards the vanaprastha stage? Hey, to me, Raghavendu is a nectar soul. I am not an intimate friend, but what little association I got I really enjoyed.

did your parents ever live in Badger?

15 (almost 16) year old girls are not totally innocent babies. Girls mature faster than boys. I have an 18 year old daughter who is like a grown woman compared to my 20 year old son who is still like a boy. 16 year old women are not innocent babies when they are loose and stalking men they want. My 18 year old daughter demanded her independence at around 16 and I had no choice but to give it to her. The choice would have been to turn her over to juvenile authorities but that thought NEVER crossed my mind. Now, she is 18, working in a neurologist office, going to community college and about 4 years more mature than most girls her age. She was a woman demanding her independence at age 16 and I gave it to her. I don't consider Ramesvar a monster for giving in to the seduction of a 16 year old woman.

If anything deserves to be fair and balanced it would have to be hearsay.

Don't put words in my mouth weedhopper. All I said was that I heard from an L.A. insider who was in the confidence of Ramesvar that Ramesvar was complaining that some young girl was knocking on his window at night trying to seduce him. He resisted her for some time before she finally broke him down and got him to give in. I ain't defending Ramesvar, I am just telling the story the way I heard it from an ex-temple president of L.A. Hey, if it is true I think he deserves a little consideration for the fact that she came after him. He didn't go after her from what I heard, but he eventually gave in to her advances.

But, the social context and the moral standards of society make homo sex more abominable and more repulsive to most people. So, from the social consideration, the sannyasi having homosex with a young boy would be more repulsive than a sannyasi having sex with a young girl. Sex between man and girl is considered more natural than sex between man and boy. So, "sex is sex" is not really true because you have to factor in the social considerations and the stigma attached to different forms of sex.

shows how much I know about it. If that is true, then that is very despicable. In his mind he was probably thinking that "in Vedic society girls get married when they are 12 or 13". Maya got him with a KO that is for sure. If I was him I would be ashamed to ever show my face around ISKCON again. I guess he has to be really humble to show up and face the disgrace. But, I heard stories from an L.A. insider that the girl was knocking on his window at night and stalking him. I guess he failed the test.