Kulapavana

I can actually see some progress I have made over the years, the 25 or so years that is... /images/graemlins/wink.gif

seriously though, the understanding of my varna (kshatriya in my case) helped me understand my problems and not get frustrated waiting for things I will most likely never see while in this body.

Knowing your varna and acting accordingly helps tremendously in this process. Dig up my varnashrama thread on this board if you like for more info. You cant force a change in your heart - it happens on its own, with time and devotional service. Patience grasshopper, patience... /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Mahaksa prabhu, I deeply appreciate your sincere and merciful post above. On an individual level we may feel great symphathy for sinners caught in this web of material life, but on a social level the benefits of individuals have to be weighed against benefits of the group. Is GALVA primarily interested in the benefit of our Society of devotees? I doubt that very much. Like I said in another post: there was no problem for gays in our Movement, and many of them held very high positions. Now they (GALVA) are creating a problem and are coming up with bogus philosophy to justify their position.

desire for happiness is there in both "lower" and "upper" self. you need to chose your path based on intelligence or "higher" self, and you know that. but the pain of austerity is unavoidable. just learn to live with it - it gets easier with time.

because you want to be happy, that is always our primary consideration

Synopsis: 'The Passion' set for Ash Wednesday release

Source: World Net Daily

Published: October 22, 2003 Author:

Mel Gibson has signed a deal with Newmarket to handle U.S. distribution for his controversial movie about the death of Jesus, now newly titled "The Passion of Christ."

Gibson's Icon Productions will retain all rights to "The Passion" while Newmarket will distribute the film for a cut of the gross, according to the entertainment magazine Variety.

Gibson sources told WorldNetDaily Icon is planning a release timed with Ash Wednesday, which next year falls on Feb. 25. Earlier reports had Gibson considering a release tied to Easter, which falls on April 11.

Icon is distributing "Passion" itself in the UK and Australia, where it already has its own distributing operations, according to Variety.

Gibson has so far invested $25 million on the film. With dialogue in Latin and Aramaic, the movie will be subtitled. Original plans called for no subtitles.

Source: Harris Interactive

Published: October 16, 2003 Author: Humphrey Taylor

Most Americans agree that there is a God, but their perceptions of who God is and how much God controls events on Earth vary greatly. There is no consensus on God’s gender, form or role on Earth:

A plurality (42%) of all adults (but only 37% of men) thinks God is male, but only 1% thinks God is female. Almost half of all adults believe that God is neither male nor female (38%) or that God is both (11%).

Only 9% think of God as being like a human being with a face, body, arms, legs and eyes. Almost half (48%) think of God as a spirit or power that can take on human form, while 27% think of God as a spirit or power who does not take a human form.

Less than a third (29%) of the public believes that God controls what happens on Earth. Half (50%) believes God observes but does not control events on Earth, while 6% believe God neither observes nor controls earthly events.

A slender (53%) majority believes that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worship the same God, but 32% think they worship different gods.

These are some of the results of a survey by Harris Interactive based on a nationwide sample of 2,306 adults surveyed online between September 16 and 23, 2003. Other results from this Harris Poll were released yesterday.

The poll finds interesting differences between members of different religions. Pluralities of Catholics (46%) and Protestants (49%) think of God as male. A large majority of Jews (69%) see God as neither male nor female.

A plurality of Catholics (49%) and a majority of Protestants (56%) think of God as a spirit or power that can take on human form but is not inherently human. A plurality of Jews (42%) thinks of God as a spirit or power that does not take on human form.

Protestants (38%) are also more likely than Catholics (21%) and Jews (9%) to believe that God controls what happens on Earth. They are also less likely (51%) than Jews (64%) or Catholics (58%) to believe that Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the same God.

Humphrey Taylor is the chairman of The Harris Poll®, Harris Interactive.

nazis literally twisted swastik yantra (reversed the direction of spin) which is very ancient and used by buddhism as well. it is a symbol of auspiciousness and prosperity (placed often on Sri Yantra plates), not peace in the "hippie" sense. this symbol appears with and without dots in vedic culture. It is not much used outside India (even by the Aryan culture enthusiasts like myself) due to obvious negative associations.

Dear Myra prabhu:

I do understand your position and I also reject statements of atheists regarding any religious tradition. But Shiva is correct, in my oppinion, in some of his criticism re Christianity, which in current and past practice is far more dogmatic and narrow minded than Vedic approach. In my previous post to you I was refering to the point that people usually simply CHOOSE the way they think based on their desires, not logic or arguments. Therefore it is often useless to merely argue about something when there is no good will to even look at the arguments in an objective way. Such "preaching" is therefore worthless.

Shivaji: what you wrote about Christians applies to a large segment of people who call themselves that, especially here in US. I'm just not sure that such "in your face" preaching is very useful for people like Myra who has both interest in our tradition and sentiment for the good side of Christianity. She sees Christianity more and more in light of the Veda and can separate the good and bad on her own. Even Vaishnavas have their controversies and it is not very useful to concentrate on the negatives. Beating down on other people's sentiments rarely produces good results in preaching.

thanks for clearing that up for me

yes it was Hare-Krishna.org

Sorry for using your post on HHK. They prompty removed it anyway /images/graemlins/wink.gif

the only time Raam was after an animal while in the forest it was the enchanted golden deer.

Source: University Of California Los Angeles

2003-10-22

Brain May 'Hard-Wire' Sexuality Before Birth

Refuting 30 years of scientific theory that solely credits hormones for brain development, UCLA scientists have identified 54 genes that may explain the different organization of male and female brains. Published in the October edition of the journal Molecular Brain Research, the UCLA discovery suggests that sexual identity is hard-wired into the brain before birth and may offer physicians a tool for gender assignment of babies born with ambiguous genitalia.

“Our findings may help answer an important question — why do we feel male or female?” said Dr. Eric Vilain, assistant professor of human genetics and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a pediatrician at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital. “Sexual identity is rooted in every person’s biology before birth and springs from a variation in our individual genome.”

Since the 1970s, scientists have believed that estrogen and testosterone were wholly responsible for sexually organizing the brain. In other words, a fetal brain simply needed to produce more testosterone to become male. Recent evidence, however, indicates that hormones cannot explain everything about the sexual differences between male and female brains.

Vilain and his colleagues explored whether genetic influences could explain the variations between male and female brains. Using two genetic testing methods, they compared the production of genes in male and female brains in embryonic mice — long before the animals developed sex organs.

To their surprise, the researchers found 54 genes produced in different amounts in male and female mouse brains, prior to hormonal influence. Eighteen of the genes were produced at higher levels in the male brains; 36 were produced at higher levels in the female brains.

“We didn’t expect to find genetic differences between the sexes’ brains,” Vilain said. “But we discovered that the male and female brains differed in many measurable ways, including anatomy and function.”

In one intriguing example, the two hemispheres of the brain appeared more symmetrical in females than in males. According to Vilain, the symmetry may improve communication between both sides of the brain, leading to enhanced verbal expressiveness in females. “This anatomical difference may explain why women can sometimes articulate their feelings more easily than men,” he said.

Overall, the UCLA team’s findings counter the theory that only hormones are responsible for organizing the brain.

“Our research implies that genes account for some of the differences between male and female brains,” Vilain said. “We believe that one’s genes, hormones and environment exert a combined influence on sexual brain development.”

The scientists will pursue further studies to distinguish specific roles in the brain’s sexual maturation for each of the 54 different genes they identified. What their research reveals may provide insight into how the brain determines gender identity.

“Our findings may explain why we feel male or female, regardless of our actual anatomy,” Vilain said. “These discoveries lend credence to the idea that being transgender — feeling that one has been born into the body of the wrong sex — is a state of mind.

“From previous studies, we know that transgender persons possess normal hormonal levels,” he said. “Their gender identity likely will be explained by some of the genes we discovered.”

Vilain’s findings on the brain’s sex genes may also ease the plight of parents of intersex infants, and help their physicians to assign gender with greater accuracy. Mild cases of malformed genitalia occur in 1 percent of all births — about 3 million cases. More severe cases — where doctors can’t inform parents whether they had a boy or girl — occur in one in 3,000 births.

“If physicians could predict the gender of newborns with ambiguous genitalia at birth, we would make less mistakes in gender assignment,” Vilain said.

Lastly, Vilain proposes that the UCLA findings may help to explain the origin of homosexuality.

“It’s quite possible that sexual identity and physical attraction is ‘hard-wired’ by the brain,” he said. “If we accept this concept, we must dismiss the myth that homosexuality is a ‘choice’ and examine our civil legal system accordingly.”

The UCLA study was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Science Foundation and with start-up funds from the UCLA Department of Urology. Vilain’s co-authors included Phoebe Dewing, Steve Horvath and Tao Shi, all of UCLA.

it is a waste of time trying to wake up someone who only pretends to be asleep. most people will only hear what they WANT to hear.

Associate with devotees who have understanding of your position and can help you in moving up, closer to Krishna. while Shiva has some good points, his approach to this issue is obviously very narrow and not very helpful to people like yourself. we are all different and need to appreciate and tolerate our differences. do not be discouraged. there are all kinds of devotees of Krishna out there, just like there are all kinds of Christians.

just get any job that is available and look for something better as you have time. do not be troubled about dispensing caffeine to people. this form of intoxication is not heavy on your karma. devotees reject caffeine not because of it's bad karma, but because they want to keep their consciousness pure. for karmis that's a mute point. actually caffeine keeps their dull brains a little more awake /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Do not worry about the success of your preaching to your parents as it is in Lord Krishna's hands. Parents rarely listen to their children. It is commendable that you try very hard to help them. This interaction is a lesson to both you and your parents.

Excellent response Babhru prabhu! Thank you very much for standing up to such "spiritual" bullying of devotees.

mala use in mantra meditation is very helpful: aids concentration, etc. but there are no hard and fast rules for chanting of the Holy Name. If you take formal vows (like during initiation) to chant certain number of Names daily, mala is almost indispensable.

Karma that is mature (fully manifested) is something you are pretty much stuck with (like your body). Krishna may change it if He likes (or make the problem less severe), but you should not expect Him to do that. Surrender to Krishna also means acceptance of your current situation as what is given to you by Him.

Sometimes mental problems are caused by ghosts who try to "hitch a ride" in your body. Chant the Holy Name as much as possible and you will be protected from them. Especially when you feel like your problems are getting worse. Hare Krishna!

Ancient carved 'faces' found

By Dr David Whitehouse

BBC News Online science editor

Face of an extinct human species?

A keen-eyed archaeologist claims to have found some of the oldest artwork ever - carved faces 200,000 years old.

The human images were found in 2001 by Pietro Gaietto on an expedition through the Borzonasca district of Italy.

He claims the rock has been sculpted into faces that look in opposite directions; one is bearded with what Gaietto calls an "expressive face".

If this is genuine, the artist would have been an extinct human species that died out about 150,000 years ago.

Cliff face

Local inhabitants say that prehistoric human faces are nothing new to the region and point to a rock cliff that they believe has been sculpted. They call it the Face of Borzone.

In 2001, in a pile of rubble collected for use as building material, Pietro Gaietto, from the Museum of the Origins of Man, saw something unusual in one particular head-sized rock.

"If I had not spotted it, it would have been covered in concrete and put into a wall," he told BBC News Online

Pietro Gaietto says it shows two heads, facing outwards and joined at the neck. One of the faces is bearded; the other is beardless.

Conceptual thought

"It has a very expressive face," he says. "The beardless face has two eyes, a mouth and a wide nose."

The Face of Borzone

He says close inspection of the rock reveals that it has been carved and knocked into shape.

Gaietto believes the sculpture is 200,000 years old, and would have been used in rituals.

He says it would have been made by an extinct species of human called Homo erectus, of which there is evidence in the region.

Older still

Gaietto's claims are controversial because hominids such as Homo erectus are not thought to have been capable of the symbolic thought needed to create art.

The earliest examples of human artwork that scientists feel confident to describe as such are all less than 100,000 years old. The most notable items are probably the 70,000-year-old engraved ochre pieces found in the Blombos Cave of South Africa.

But there are items some researchers have claimed to be art that are even older than the faces of Borzonasca. The so-called Tan-Tan object unearthed in Morocco in 1999 is said to be a 400,000-year-old sculpted figurine.

Mainstream science, however, believes these items are not man-made at all. It argues the distinctive features have very probably been moulded by geological processes.

thank you theist prabhu! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

keep it up for the next 50+ years and you will be all set! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Garuda is not a common living entity like you and me. He is Lord Vishnu's carrier and part of His lila. Since he has an eagle body, eating fruits and veggies is not much of an option. But if you were to eat meat, snakes and fish are a decent choice /images/graemlins/wink.gif