Guruvani

Most devotees in the beginning need to live in a temple or closely associated with a temple community to get the association and peer pressure necessary to follow the regs. So, if you aren't living in a community of devotees then maybe you should look into the possibilites.

It just came to me that Madhvacarya was a Vaikuntha man where essentially Lord Narayana is worshiped in awe and reverence. This concept of eternal damnation would seem like a useful concept in stearing souls to the worship of Godhead in awe and reverence. In the more intimate love of the Vrajavasis there is no culture of awe and reverence and as such the concept of eternal damnation would not be a good principle to preach among those that the acharya is trying to bring in to the Vrindavan conception of Godhead. Maybe the concept of eternal damnation is part of the psychology of worshiping God in awe and reverence and thus necessary in the culture of aisvarya bhakti?

see, he was a very smart guy......

His runnig off with the devotee girl to get married was the least of his offenses as far as I am concerned. giving up his fake guru position to become a humble grihasta was nothing that I hold againt him.

Man, he looks like he is walking in a funeral procession. He looks very humbled. How can he not be? Hey, anybody that humbles themself before the devotees and Srila Prabhupada deserves some compassion. He is probably a better human being than he ever was before. (we can always hope so anyway)

Maybe he is a new and improved version? Or, do old attitudes die hard? I don't have any serious grudge against Ramesvar. I thought he was an eccentric genius back in the days. He is not an ordinary human being for sure. He wasn't friendly, but he was quite intelligent. I don't care to see him as a leader in ISKCON again, but if he makes a comeback in the realm of service to Srila Prabhupada then I wish him all the best. Actually, leaving his guruship and ISKCON was one of the best things I ever heard about him. That shows he has some genuine sincerity and authenticity. The ones that stay and perpetuate the atrocity are the real bad cookies. Ramesvar actually got real and acted like a real human being. I guess he wasn't cut out to be a monster?

nice story "Siva". I enjoyed hearing it. Haven't see you in a long time. You must be completely bald by now?

Smileys are punctuation on steroids, so, I am sorry we can't let you get away with this one.

Damn. the last time I saw him he asked me "what to you think of Narayana Maharaja?" I replied something about I didn't know much about him but that I respected Keshava Maharaja for giving sannyasa to Srila Prabhupada immediately after his request. I love Urukrama. He is such a sweet devotee. But, I cannot find in Narayana Maharaja what he and many others have found. I just don't feel it. His words turn me off. Urukrama was one of my favorite Godbrothers though. It is very sad to me that I know he would not be pleased with my feelings about Narayana Maharaja. I don't feel it. I never will.

I remember well the day that Srila Sridhar Maharaja passed away. I was living in Badger, California. I got up that morning and rolled a joint for breakfast. I smoked that baby all by myself and had a good buzz on. Then, a knocking at the door. Urukrama prabhu was there. He told me that Srila Sridhar Maharaja had just passed and that he was inviting all the disciples and followers to his house for a program. I was stunned. I got myself together, took bath, put on tilaka and dhoti and went to Urukrama prabhu's house. When I walked in I saw the sad and long faces of the devotees, my dear friends, and I just broke down into a pathetic mess and started crying uncontrollably. As more devotees came and the sadness and separation kept building I couldn't stop crying. I just cryed and cryed and cryed. Knowing I was stoned I felt like a sahajiya. I was not trying to cry. I just couldn't stop from crying. Through the whole program I cried and cried and cried. It was pathetic. But, I was with dear friends and devotees I loved and they all were very sympathetic to me. Urukrama read something from Srila Prabhupada's books about how a disciple should cry at the passing of the spiritual master and he was very kind and generous to me even though I was quite stoned. I don't know if they knew I was stoned. This is the first time I have confessed about it.

I am glad to hear that. When I joined the movement in L.A. in 1975 Srila Prabhupada came to New Dwaraka a few months later. Even though I joined ISKCON and was giving my life to the temple and to Srila Prabhupada and the movement I was not allowed to meet Srila Prabhupada. There were "scholars" and so-called intellectuals that were brought in to meet Srila Prabhupada and get personal time with him, but none of the several new brahmacaries that were in the temple at that time were brought in to meet Srila Prabhupada. I personally think the policy of keeping new devotees from meeting Srila Prabhupada when they had a good chance and opportunity, but were kept away by the big guns, was a heinous atrocity. That is why Tamal and so many of the senior ISKCON men were so despised because they built walls around Srila Prabhupada and wanted to keep themselves in the center and as many others as they could on the outside. I honestly hate them for that and I will NEVER forgive those that kept me away from Srila Prabhupada when I had a good opportunity to meet him and get a word of instruction from him. I cannot forgive them. Young men coming to give their lives to Srila Prabhupada were kept out while mundane scholars and religionists were given personal darshan. At least I got to hear some lectures and get some prasadam from his hand. I also got some Maha Maha from his plate because I worked in the kitchen when his plate was brought down for washing. Still, I despise the way the ISKCON heirarchy operated and I will hate them forever for their selfish ways.

Well, last night I also had a dream that me and my son got took on buying a washing machine on credit that had such a large interest rate that the machine ended up costing us $9000. I don't know how or where these dreams come from but I have some really weird dreams. Some of my dreams just leave me really baffled. Actually, you are not even supposed to remember dreams because dreams happen in the short term memory and most people cannot remember their dreams.

I caught it before you even mentioned it, but if you want to get nit-picky I could mention your sentence fragment.

Yep, Lake Okeechobee was even on fire just before the summer rains started. But, we have more water up here than South Florida. Tampa wants to start tapping into the reserves of North Florida but North Floridians are fighting it. Within 5 minutes of my house are probably the greatest occurence of large fresh water springs anywhere in the world. That makes this little town a bit of a tourist attraction, but we still keep our small town charm.

We have been in a drought the last year, but lately we have been getting lots of good rain and the forecast for an active hurricane season has just been revived. Florida is used to having lots of rain, but North Florida almost always has a dry spring. Then summer rains and winter rains are frequent. Last winter we had a dry winter and then a dry spring so the vegetation was getting thirsty. Lately it has been very wet and hot. But, even with the drought the springs were still kicking out millions of gallons each everyday. We still need lots of rain to get the water table back up to where we like it. But, my 60' well is still kicking out water faithfully, so the water table is not down real low.

Maybe for you, but for me my arrogance is humor based. People that know me personally know I am not an arrogant person. I feign arrogance because it is my own crazy way of being humble. Sometimes it is more humble to make oneself the object of ridicule than it is to try and present oneself as Mr. Nice Guy that wants everybody to join his fan club. I really could care less about having a fan club on the forum. Most of us need to have our cages rattled regularly to keep us from getting too pleased with ourselves.

Yep, it's a problem. That is one of the opulences of North Florida that we are setting on the largest fresh water aquafer on the planet. You can dig a hole here with a shovel and find water in many places. We have fresh water springs in this area that all spill out millions of gallons of fresh water daily forming a river of fresh spring water. One of the favorite recreational sports in this area is tubing down this river of cold spring water. Some of the springs spill into the Santa Fe river which then spill into the Suwannee River. We have fresh water all over the place here in abundance.

Looks like the world governments had better start developing de-salination facilities on a large scale because rainfail is going to get scarce in places that need it and abundant in places that don't.

I have never seen or heard of Jayatirtha showing ecstatic symptoms during the Prabhupada-era. What I remember of Jayatirtha during the Prabhupada-era was a very sober and serious devotee that appeared very straight-up. To my knowledge, Jayatirtha didn't start showing his "bhavas" until after the disappearance of Srila Prabhupada and his delving into LSD and whatever drugs he was using. There was no gossip or talking about Jayatirtha and his "bhavas" when I was in L.A. in 1975 and he was reporting directly to Srila Prabhupada as GBC of L.A. I think that situation evolved after the passing of Srila Prabhupada.

That is not what I am saying. I am just saying that I was living in the L.A. temple for a year at the same time Ramesvar was there and I just didn't make any personal contact with him like I did many other devotees. Scared? I don't think so. He just seemed like he didn't have good people skills and kind of lived in his own little world. He seemed hyper and very passionate. He didn't seem to have the calmness one looks for in spiritual personalities. Hey, I could be wrong. Many senior devotees introduced themselves to me when I became a new devotee at the L.A. temple and welcomed me to the movement. Ramesvar just blasted right by me and I don't remember him even giving me a smile or a nod. I was like the invisible man to Ramesvar. Maybe that is why I have these uncertain perspectives on Ramesvar. He just never took his head out of the clouds long enough to relate with me on a personal level. As such, I have always had a weird perception of Ramesvar. It might just be me, because like I said I never really got to vibe him on a one to one level.

I think the Cobra in dreams is some sort of Kundalini energy. Sometimes I dream about having debates and discussions like we have here on the forum. Last night I had one such dream. It's not unusual for me to dream about having philosophical debates. Recently, I was having emotionally stressful dreams night after night. I thought that it was due to one particular natural substance that I have been using to raise my physical energy level. so, I stopped using it and the emotionally stressful dreams also stopped immediately. I woke up in the night last night and I could actually remember the point I was debating in my dream, but after I went back to sleep and woke up this morning I couldn't remember what is was. I do remember that I was winning the debate...

I don't think any of us were offended. But, we have to remember that there are unlimited numbers of pure devotees in the other rasas than Madhurya rasa. Apparently, there are many devotees that find their ultimate attainment in friendship, parenthood and servitiude. Since you have access to Brhat Bhagavatamritam maybe you can just study it more and more and try to find out more about how Sanatan Goswami has shown the progressive levels of rasa and Krishna consciousness. Sanatan Goswami's conclusions are most authoritative. But, if then the topic get's changed to Lord Siva's gopi form or Prahlada's form in Vraja, then the issues get's clouded because the actual question is concerning Lord Siva and Prahlada - not their spiritual identities in Vraja but their personalities as Lord Siva and Prahlada. Because like I am saying that in the material world Lord Siva is considered greater than Lord Brahma, but in Lord Brahma's spiritual identity he is a maideservant of Krishna, so in that way Lord Siva is not superior to Lord Brahma. So, the comparison is Lord Siva and Prahlada - not who they are in their Vraja forms.

Comparitive rasa can get out of control in the hands of neophytes. Walk the sacred soil with extreme reverence.

In the Gaudiya tradition it is said that Prahlada incarnated in Gaura-lila as Vasudeva Datta - Thus, in Vraja it appears that Prahlada is a cowherd boy named Madhuvrata.