JRdd

But I DO feel as if God is the reason behind everything. Even the broken wing. Assuming God is real/you accept the existence of God, how can God be separated from anything. JR

Mine are always about good things. I never see the bad stuff that is going to happen. Mine are usually quite personal, too, about people I know, or about seeing someone I haven't seen or heard from in a long time. I wonder about the purpose of these little visions. JR

Mine are always about good things. I never see the bad stuff that is going to happen. Mine are usually quite personal, too, about people I know, or about seeing someone I haven't seen or heard from in a long time. I wonder about the purpose of these little visions. JR

I know that God has a hand in everything. Natural phenomena included. In fact, isn't everything natural phenomena? JR

I know that God has a hand in everything. Natural phenomena included. In fact, isn't everything natural phenomena? JR

I'd like to ask why God lets people get these visions. I am wondering why everybody doesn't get them, if some do? It seems as if we are not "supposed" to see the future, yet God gives some this gift? How does deliberate divination fit in with this? Like when one looks into the trend of things by using tools like Tarot cards or an astrological chart or runes. (Most Christians believe this is evil.) What good does it do someone to see events if he/she is unable to do anything about it, as in the case of animesh's uncle seeing the plane crash? Why do I sometimes dream of things before they happen? (Not such big things as a plane crash, but more personal things, usually.) JR

I'd like to ask why God lets people get these visions. I am wondering why everybody doesn't get them, if some do? It seems as if we are not "supposed" to see the future, yet God gives some this gift? How does deliberate divination fit in with this? Like when one looks into the trend of things by using tools like Tarot cards or an astrological chart or runes. (Most Christians believe this is evil.) What good does it do someone to see events if he/she is unable to do anything about it, as in the case of animesh's uncle seeing the plane crash? Why do I sometimes dream of things before they happen? (Not such big things as a plane crash, but more personal things, usually.) JR

OOO I love that painting! I was hoping it woud be that one, which I have never forgotten since someone posted it on the vnn forums last year. Does anyone know who the artist is? Is there a way to get prints of it? Gauracandra prabhu I hope you didnt think all the images on the Jaladuta (Open Heart) site were mine. The ones on the site linked from it were though, except the two fruit paintings which were done by Isvari, who also does wonderful devotional paintings soon to be sold (as prints) also on website. I agreed with the idea of surrounding ourselves with natural beauty created by the Supreme Artist, and even more, the beauty of the Artist Himself and all his associates. Also it is balm for the eyes to see a harinam party. Devotees are so beautiful. I just love them. I can't help it. On the topic of history, Gauracandra prabhu, did you hear of the Pre-Raphaelites? They started as a young group of friends in their late teens and twenties, in the late 1800's; they started a movement of more realistic paintings, including images which symbolized spiritual aspects. I did one painting inspired by this. (It's the one of the woman called "The Call", which to me can be like Radha hearing Krsna's flute in the night and leaving everything to go there. A peacock feather can be seen on the floor in front of her. It can also be seen as a woman leaving her comforts and opulences behind for her spiritual destiny, dropping everything and stealling away in the night.) Anyway if you get a chance look through a book on their art. The style is beautiful. Jayaradhe

OOO I love that painting! I was hoping it woud be that one, which I have never forgotten since someone posted it on the vnn forums last year. Does anyone know who the artist is? Is there a way to get prints of it? Gauracandra prabhu I hope you didnt think all the images on the Jaladuta (Open Heart) site were mine. The ones on the site linked from it were though, except the two fruit paintings which were done by Isvari, who also does wonderful devotional paintings soon to be sold (as prints) also on website. I agreed with the idea of surrounding ourselves with natural beauty created by the Supreme Artist, and even more, the beauty of the Artist Himself and all his associates. Also it is balm for the eyes to see a harinam party. Devotees are so beautiful. I just love them. I can't help it. On the topic of history, Gauracandra prabhu, did you hear of the Pre-Raphaelites? They started as a young group of friends in their late teens and twenties, in the late 1800's; they started a movement of more realistic paintings, including images which symbolized spiritual aspects. I did one painting inspired by this. (It's the one of the woman called "The Call", which to me can be like Radha hearing Krsna's flute in the night and leaving everything to go there. A peacock feather can be seen on the floor in front of her. It can also be seen as a woman leaving her comforts and opulences behind for her spiritual destiny, dropping everything and stealling away in the night.) Anyway if you get a chance look through a book on their art. The style is beautiful. Jayaradhe

Thank you. I wish I could see the beautiful glowing faces of the devotees here. Jayaradhe

Thank you. I wish I could see the beautiful glowing faces of the devotees here. Jayaradhe

Natural beauty is waiting for you MC. Picture it: trees all around, the sound of a flowing river, the mahamantra dancing on your tongue, a little rest on a boulder with your toes in the water....

Natural beauty is waiting for you MC. Picture it: trees all around, the sound of a flowing river, the mahamantra dancing on your tongue, a little rest on a boulder with your toes in the water....

oh yeah: worldfamilyart@ (the site for sore eyes is: http://www.geocities.com/theopenheart inspiring inputs welcome--poems, tales, pix, whatever.

oh yeah: worldfamilyart@ (the site for sore eyes is: http://www.geocities.com/theopenheart inspiring inputs welcome--poems, tales, pix, whatever.

Okay so if anyone wants to share any universal beauty here, they can email images to me, and I can post them on an unlinked page of my website (if they wish it to be unlinked to my other pages, which share nectar). Then I can give you the url of the images to post here (ask for help if that's tricky for you), or another way is to insert the link to that page. Mr Das, you have to change your images to jpgs or gifs though first. They seem to always be still in bitmaps or something. JR

Okay so if anyone wants to share any universal beauty here, they can email images to me, and I can post them on an unlinked page of my website (if they wish it to be unlinked to my other pages, which share nectar). Then I can give you the url of the images to post here (ask for help if that's tricky for you), or another way is to insert the link to that page. Mr Das, you have to change your images to jpgs or gifs though first. They seem to always be still in bitmaps or something. JR

I am feeling kind of sad that my Kanea has no Radha. I would appreciate inputs on this, meditations, etc. I wonder if I pray hard enough She may come for Him? Right now He has His cow and His Flute. But no Radharani. ys, Jayaradhe

I was always struck by Srila Prabhupada's explanation, wish I could think where, but I remember reading it in a small book, like Raja-vidya, anyway, he explained how the higher one's consciousness the higher is his or hers capacity for pleasure, leading right on up to the highest pleasure which comes through performing unalloyed devotional service to the Lord. I remember Gurudas prabhu saying once in a class in San Diego how little pleasure we get from our big toe, yet how much pain we get when we stub or smash it. Bodily consciousness is a far cry from the highest bliss.

I once had a little book on physiogamy, which told how to read a person by their physical characteristics. (I did not use it to do such, not being inclined to categorize people or hold them true to some formula, but was fascinated all the same.) This was written from a Vedic perspective, and perhaps JNdas prabhu has referred to this science, or knows what it is called. Taking on particular features is no random accident but corresponds to the mentality of the person. Hair color, shape and size of nose, etc., according to this study, tell you a lot about the person. This of course relates to karma, consciousness at the time of death, etc. About the pupils, when I was a pupil myself, in college, there was one book, someone wellknown put together (forget who) and there wre photos of people which focused on their pupils. The would show the same person, with the same expression, and ask you to say whether the person was angry or fearful or whatever. It seems that the size of the pupils gives these emotions away, and one can read them without consciously knowing it. So if one is feeling love that person may look way more attractive than one who is feeling coldness, simply by the way the pupils look. Mr das-ji, I am going to see if there is a category on this forum where I can address your questions about posting images. I was going to do it in email but I think it is much more helpful to share it publickly, and we may get more feedback and learn even more that way. I think your paintings are fantastic, as are your personal collections of nectar. (As are your perspectives) ys, JR

I once had a little book on physiogamy, which told how to read a person by their physical characteristics. (I did not use it to do such, not being inclined to categorize people or hold them true to some formula, but was fascinated all the same.) This was written from a Vedic perspective, and perhaps JNdas prabhu has referred to this science, or knows what it is called. Taking on particular features is no random accident but corresponds to the mentality of the person. Hair color, shape and size of nose, etc., according to this study, tell you a lot about the person. This of course relates to karma, consciousness at the time of death, etc. About the pupils, when I was a pupil myself, in college, there was one book, someone wellknown put together (forget who) and there wre photos of people which focused on their pupils. The would show the same person, with the same expression, and ask you to say whether the person was angry or fearful or whatever. It seems that the size of the pupils gives these emotions away, and one can read them without consciously knowing it. So if one is feeling love that person may look way more attractive than one who is feeling coldness, simply by the way the pupils look. Mr das-ji, I am going to see if there is a category on this forum where I can address your questions about posting images. I was going to do it in email but I think it is much more helpful to share it publickly, and we may get more feedback and learn even more that way. I think your paintings are fantastic, as are your personal collections of nectar. (As are your perspectives) ys, JR

No I really am scared. (note the teeth) I think of it as a pneumatic drill in my head. And if I move... Imagine putting your trust in someone you don't even know, letting them do al kinds of things inside your head. And we all do it, all the time. When I was a child, that and injections were the two main things that struck me the wierdest and most dreadful things about existing in this world. I couldn't understand why such brutalities were such a normal part of people's lives. My mom took us six kids every six months, right on time, for more than a decade, and we got our teeth practically drilled clean away. Such a gross culture, that carelessly feeds its own things that rot their teeth and cause them to undergo such torture as a result. Real intelligent.

This is such an interesting discussion. The silpa shastra gives very detailed proportions of the ideal body, including I think it is the head being one eighth in height of the total body, ordinary mortals tending to be at a ratio of 1:7. right around the time I was dabbling a bit in this, the devotee painters in Los Angeles were also learning this, and the figures in the paintings began to take on very specific characteristics. Look at the picture of Sita Rama in the Bhagavatam, the very elegant one with Them standing in the forest, Rama's bow upright, resting on the ground. I had the fortune to also be learning from Bharadraj prabhu the facial proportions in learning to sculpt Krishna's face, and these proportions were strictly delineated. I have never forgotten them. Look at photos of the FATE exhibit. Note the facial profiles. I read in a magazine, while sitting somewhere waiting, an article on what makes one person more attractive to others than another. They featured famous stars, and showed how symmetry did tend to play a strong role in attracting people. If both sides of the face matched, people were drawn to it, even though unconscious of why. But it's funny, as I have always tended to think of a certain asymmetry as being beautiful. Look at a tree. Every branch, every twig, every leaf, different. Yes as a whole there is some symmetry, of course. Growing up I shunned what I called "yearbook handsome"--those bland, too well-proportioned faces that were easily forgettable. Setting aside comparisons to the all-beautiful Lord, for the time being, to me far more attractive is the quirky lopsided face of Harrison Ford--but then it is hard to separate personality from strictly physical characteristics, for those I grow fond of look more and more beautiful to me, while those who show mean traits begin to look quite ugly to me. I have always been fascinated by this phenomena--how a person's looks change according to one's perceptions. Since I got on the subject of human attractiveness, I always wonder why people think Brad Pitt is so good-looking. He has a very strange shape of face. Even stranger is the face of Leonardo Decaprio. Now that is one very weird face. It must be their smiles. Or something shining from within. Who can understand. Is beauty subject or objective? Is that what we are really asking here. Back to symmetry. Taken alone, some features may look odd, but assembled together in a certain combination, a person's face can look very beautiful. Look at Julia Roberts. She has such a big mouth. And Liv Tyler. I was just telling Visoka, who has just had to have his photo taken for the cover of his book on Jayananda prabhu, how I just love looking at devotees, and how as a young hippie the devotees looked like angels to me. Someone can seem very plain and then they smile and their eyes sparkle and there is nothing like it. Hair is so attractive and yet these shaven-headed souls were more attractive than any old hippie. I used to love drawing faces of devotees while sitting in Bhagavatam class (it actually helped me concentrate better, to keep my restless hands busy). Anyway, I think everyone truly is beautiful (physically I am talking right now) in their own ways, manifesting a small degree of their Creator, the Supreme Artist.

This is such an interesting discussion. The silpa shastra gives very detailed proportions of the ideal body, including I think it is the head being one eighth in height of the total body, ordinary mortals tending to be at a ratio of 1:7. right around the time I was dabbling a bit in this, the devotee painters in Los Angeles were also learning this, and the figures in the paintings began to take on very specific characteristics. Look at the picture of Sita Rama in the Bhagavatam, the very elegant one with Them standing in the forest, Rama's bow upright, resting on the ground. I had the fortune to also be learning from Bharadraj prabhu the facial proportions in learning to sculpt Krishna's face, and these proportions were strictly delineated. I have never forgotten them. Look at photos of the FATE exhibit. Note the facial profiles. I read in a magazine, while sitting somewhere waiting, an article on what makes one person more attractive to others than another. They featured famous stars, and showed how symmetry did tend to play a strong role in attracting people. If both sides of the face matched, people were drawn to it, even though unconscious of why. But it's funny, as I have always tended to think of a certain asymmetry as being beautiful. Look at a tree. Every branch, every twig, every leaf, different. Yes as a whole there is some symmetry, of course. Growing up I shunned what I called "yearbook handsome"--those bland, too well-proportioned faces that were easily forgettable. Setting aside comparisons to the all-beautiful Lord, for the time being, to me far more attractive is the quirky lopsided face of Harrison Ford--but then it is hard to separate personality from strictly physical characteristics, for those I grow fond of look more and more beautiful to me, while those who show mean traits begin to look quite ugly to me. I have always been fascinated by this phenomena--how a person's looks change according to one's perceptions. Since I got on the subject of human attractiveness, I always wonder why people think Brad Pitt is so good-looking. He has a very strange shape of face. Even stranger is the face of Leonardo Decaprio. Now that is one very weird face. It must be their smiles. Or something shining from within. Who can understand. Is beauty subject or objective? Is that what we are really asking here. Back to symmetry. Taken alone, some features may look odd, but assembled together in a certain combination, a person's face can look very beautiful. Look at Julia Roberts. She has such a big mouth. And Liv Tyler. I was just telling Visoka, who has just had to have his photo taken for the cover of his book on Jayananda prabhu, how I just love looking at devotees, and how as a young hippie the devotees looked like angels to me. Someone can seem very plain and then they smile and their eyes sparkle and there is nothing like it. Hair is so attractive and yet these shaven-headed souls were more attractive than any old hippie. I used to love drawing faces of devotees while sitting in Bhagavatam class (it actually helped me concentrate better, to keep my restless hands busy). Anyway, I think everyone truly is beautiful (physically I am talking right now) in their own ways, manifesting a small degree of their Creator, the Supreme Artist.

I agree, avoid antibiotics of the allopathic nature as much as possible. I had pneumonia in January, and was almost unable to move or even breathe, could not eat at all for days, just water and fresh squeezed lemons. Then one day while struggling to my feet I noticed a bottle of grapefruit seed extract and starting sipping water with 15-20 drops. That day I felt relief from fever and some other improvements, and the next day the improvement was even more dramatic. By the third day I knew I had it licked. Took a while to start breathing again though. I noticed in the BBT (L.A.) catalogue they also sell this stuff, and quote a customer as saying "I wouldn't go to India without it!" You can wash your fruit with it too. It's the best natural antibiotic I know of. Besides goldenseal, which I prefer to use externally.