Haridasdasdas

Maybe if M K Gandhi hadn't let the Muslims live in India, there would have been less violence. maybe? Definately. All this liberalism is nice to say and nice to be quoted as saying, but at the end of the day, the world isn't full of Gandhis, its full of nasty little buggers who'd sooner chop your head off than get out of your way. By essentially being a 'do-gooder', hundreds maybe thousands of people might die. You cannot trust the Muslim people, history is proof of this.

Probably because it is a made up ritual which doesn't appear in sastra?

You're really, REALLY stupid. Seriously just read the thread and read your responses to people. Please, don't use power tools.

You are quoting sources but you do not know what they are. You are calling your country by a foreign name. What exactly defines me as the silly one?

Bloody hell SAr, can you not answer me? What scripture was that you quoted to me? Answer the question for the third time. Where I come from is irrelevant. If you're too uneducated to realise what your country is called, that is a criticism of you, and has nothing to do with me. Hindustan is a foreign name and by using it you are degrading yourself to a slave of the bloodthirsty muslims. It is puzzling to me that you live in India and you do not know this.

I don't know whether or not what he says is true, but attacking him as paranoid is unneccessary and is simply an ad-hominem attack.

Do the English call England 'Angleterre'? If they did, wouldn't you suggest they sort it out? It is a foreign name as I mentioned in the other thread. You still haven't said where your quotes came from, since the name Hindustan is from the time of the Mughal invasion, it is quite obviously not a Vedic scripture. Perhaps if you are going to quote it you could explain to us what it is you are quoting before you claim it as an authority? Isn't this logical?

So you will say Bharat or India from now on? This 'Hindustan' is just bowing down to the Mughals, and I hope you can appreciate that my sentiment is the same sa yours.

There is no such country as 'Hindustan'. That is a foreign name. In Shastra it is called Bharat, in modern politics it is called India.

Hindustan? What is this that you're quoting? It isn't scripture, where did you get it from? Are you referring to India/Bharat? Sort yourself out.

Shiva takes the role of an administrative demigod, but actually in his origional form he is the expansion of Visnu and not a Jiva-tattva(separated living entity) like Indra, Ganesha etc. I was told that at an Iskcon temple by a Sanyasi. Other senior devotees have said the same thing. My understanding on the Subject of Allah/Jehovah is that these are simply names for God. Perhaps you are right, perhaps these were origionally deities in some pantheon of desert people(I'm pretty sure Allah was), but what is important is that the people woshipping allah and Jehovah are trying to contact the supreme, and Krishna always rewards this kind of effort. Id someone gets your name wrong when they call you, you may still understand they are calling you, and can still respond. To say that the experience of God is universal and not connected to one sect or practise is not Mayavada, it is common sense based on observation. I don't think I'm the best person to ask. Perhaps if you went to a temple and asked a senior devotee they might be able to explain this one better. Please don't just accept second rate answers and assume that that is all there is to be said.

Well I don't agree with the last part of that.

Thank you, I thought your points were pretty good as well. I think we need to realise that for many growing up in Hindu families, this culture not so familiar to them. I don't think it's going to get better yet.

Great points. I think I'd add some more: 5) Read some scriptures. Just one Purana or something, it's all good. 6) Find out WHY you do certain things. If you don't know it's just empty ritualism. 7) Don't assume you know it all, very few people do. 8) After having educated yourself, educate your children with pretty much everything you know. 9) Don't take any nonsense from Muslims, and don't concede to their wishes, they aren't the same as Hindus, their religion is VERY different. 10) Maybe stop eating meat? At least don't eat foreign cows and say it's okay because they're 'not sacred'.

What on earth are you talking about?

Wow, it's as if she's been studying a totally different sampradaya! Mind emptying? Merging into God? Impersonal spiritual entity? Seriously, where did she get that from? She must have gone to the TM centre or something. New age repackaged hinduism? Again, she has no understanding of the History of Gaudiya Vaisnavism and it's relationship to other Vaisnava groups. This is the failure of the Christians, they have no understanding of anyone else, nobody else is worshipping their god apparently. What happened to monotheism? They dismiss everything based on their Bible, but if you ask them to explain their faith in the Bible they can't really. It's a patchwork quilt of a document that has little or nothing to do with the actual personality of Jesus. Simply put, most Christians are just trying to rationalise their beleif in God, and so choose this beleif system, instead of the one that would have the sun set into a pool of water after each day (wonderful Islamic science). All these people come to criticise Prabhupada and what he founded in the west, but their criticisms are based on flawed information and carry no real weight. I've read everythign these people can throw and it's all rubbish. Real Christianity doesn't mean to follow a dodgy edited and mistranslated book with accompanying sectarian religion, it means to be like Jesus, and to embrace the mood of Jesus, in the same way we embrace the mood of Sri Caitanya. Jesus didn't throw rocks at stem cell scientists, he carried a cross. How many of his followers are actually prepared to do that?

You're totally right, it's not an austerity at all. I'm shocked how people who live in India, and presumably have enough money to fund a computer and internet connection, will moan about how difficult it is. You live in America and you stopped eating meat with little fuss, what do people have to moan about in countries like the UK and India, where it is so much easier.

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Suffering is temporary, and is created by the Jivas, not by Krishna. People with a materialistic mindset will be very distressed by it, but if we understand that the soul is eternal, and that every soul has passed through so much suffering already, we can understand the temporary nature of it. That's not to say that we shouldn't alleviate the suffering of others, simply that we shouldn't be too upset about it. The material world is a place of suffering, since it is the abode of those who wish to be separate from god, and lord it over the material energy, including other living beings. So the suffering created by war, slaughterhouses, oppression etc is man-made and temporary. Chances are that everyone reading this has already undergone such horrible atrocities, but with a new birth they have forgotten them, so how can we identify so much with the trials and tribulation of the body?

Scrunch or fold?

Rama is emerald and Siva is grey from the ash.

The perspective of the man who killed this family is distorted, is it not? If people aren't doing this, then the environment IS friendly.

So you think it would be better if we didn't offer the food? You understand that devotees on Food for Life don't preach to the people they serve? Iskcon also do not ask or expect anything in return. You seem to be criticising something you know nothing about.

It's all very well to be a devotee when things are going bad, but real devotion continues when things are good as well. I think you should start seriously practising Krishna Consciousness, and regularly reading books and scripture for at least a year before you decide whether or not you 'beleive' in God. Until then, I don't think you will be qualified to make a judgement either way. That sounds harsh, but what I mean is that we cannot decide upon something until we know what it is we're deciding upon. I understand how confusing it can be when things are that uncertain. Hari Hari Bol!

So, you accept that these principles are bonafide? Why are you inimical towards the movement of Sri Caitanya? Perhaps this is a better thing to disscuss.