JRdd

Dear prabhus, I am too speechless to reply at this time to the many wellwishes and reminders of Krsna here. I was so touched and surprised to see this. Also Audarylila wrote a wonderful email which I am also too speechless to answer now. This is the real medicine, and I cannot express my thanks enough. Nice meeting you all here! your servant, Jayaradhe

I have been on my own here for so long, and wondering how or when I would next see a devotee. Saturday I ended up in an ambulance, and after the crew did their thing this bright faced young man bent before me and said "You're a devotee, aren't you?" I thought it was my neckbeads but realised I had never put them back on since xrays two days earlier. He said it was my house, he just knew. I said wait till you see the temple room. But anyway it turns out that he and his wife and child just moved up here for a few months while he starts studying to be a paramedic, and he jsut happneed to be there that day following a real paramedic around for his studies. I told him it was worth all the pain to have been able to meet him. He was as happy as I was for the contact so that is something I look forward to. It is so strange how we get to meet devotees, and this incident increased my faith in Krsna and that He does provide, when it is in our best interests. ys, Jayaradhe

Hare Krsna! (edited out because of a repeat) [This message has been edited by JRdd (edited 02-15-2002).]

I agree with gHari, that you definitely have a flow of nectar going, leyh. And thanks for distributing it. I have tears running down my cheeks from reading this post. I think I cry with both joy and yearning because to me you consistently show alignment with Srila Prabhupada's mood of love and harmony and respectfulness. Such a wonderful example. Keep spreading it around. This is the mood which can unify the devotees, more than any qualifications of rote or debate or shastric correctedness ever will, on their own. aspiring to be your servant, Jayaradhe

LOL! I can get so ignorant or forgetful about geography. As I was typing China I was thinking, wait a minute, isn't he in Singapore? Oh but Singapore must be in China. So I went ahead and typed it. (I beg ignorance due to tiredness. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.) Wonderful to hear you are keeping Their Lordships! ys, Jayaradhe

I don't know about that. But I think any masseuse who makes tension is not worth their weight in salt (is that how the expression goes, think I got something mixed up there?). I was in a car accident a few years ago and this devotee massaged me and did a sudden, without warning, "adjustment" type thing--it was EXCRUCIATING and sent me back two weeks to the pain of the accident, which was starting to ease up by then. So I was back in agony again. Also some people are strong and rough. Gentle does it. Heavyhandedness increases the pain which increases the tension wwhich increases the blocks. Personally I also don't want a stranger or even most people I know massaging me. In fact I feel quite picky about this and thus I get no massages. Apart from the fact that everyone charges up the nose around here.

Your face sure looks funny when you're mad, Atma. Yeah it sounds like you did the best practical thing you could at the time. Makes me mad too, that they would force you to do that, subjecting your daughter to the idea of meat and all. Especially when schools ban prayer, librarians are not allowed to wear crosses on their necklaces, and all in the name of not offending anybody! What about the religious or vegetarian people? Guess they don't count as being worthy of not offending? ys, JR

I thought I would share my experience with barium in hopes of perhaps helping someone else avoid its use. Also this can be a little reminder to pay attention to any intuitions you may get about your own body. Barium sulfate is the contrast agent that hospitals give you two bottles to drink before a CT scan. This enables them to get clear pictures of whatever inside part of your body they are interested in. In addition to ingesting all this heavy metal, they also shoot contrast agent through your body (through IV) while they are getting the scan. Well yesterday I had to have such a scan, and the night before I just could not drink this stuff. I felt nauseated with each swallow, and every molecule of my body begged me not to take it. It would have triggered off a snowball cycle of reactions that would have wound me up in emergency like what happened two weeks ago. Whenever I have ignored such signals from my body, my reasons for wanting to shun a substance has proven to be wellfounded, as evidenced by how sick I inevitably get, in raction to the substance. So I went to the hospital yesterday to at least do the other tests, thinking they would not scan me now. But all they said was I had to drink lots of water fifteen minutes before the scan, and that along with the IV should be enough for clear pictures. It was. So if anyone is wary of taking toxins ala Western medications into their bodies, I should think that in many cases, if getting scans, you could avoid ingesting this toxic substance. Many toxic drugs accumulate in the body, particularly the liver and spleen, so it's good to avoid as much as you can.

Thanks Bhaktajoy. Well I did get that gist of it, but I think there are technical or practical details that I'm not quite grokking. Like what is the subtle part of particular foods. Does each individual food have its subtle and gross parts? And what would this mean, for example, about the curd part, or the less subtle part? What does it become? A strong body?

Jahnava Nitai prabhu, could you please elaborate on or explain this verse? It is very intriguing to me but I'm not quite grasping it. Thanks in anticipation, ys, Jayaradhe

Thanks, Gauracandra prabhu! I think that is the kind of advice I was looking for. I too know someting about combining proteins so that their total becomes more than their parts (I forgot how to say that expression), but I forget some. My favorite of course is kitri. But I think right now I need super protein, of the kind often considered vegetarian meat, like certain legumes Prabhupada mentioned as being too high in protein. When we are unhealthy we have to sometimes do unusaul things to get back to health. Of course, Srila Prabhupada is so pure that when he was dangerously ill as a child, and they converted the whole kitchen and got new pots to make him the doc-prescribed chicken soup to save his life, when the bowl was raised to his lips he threw up--and got well! But I myself have resorted to garlic many a time do to an unnatural or unhealthy state of the body, and I recall that in Los Angeles once, when Dr Dernard or someone like that prescribed garlic in milk for a devotee, that Srila Prabhupada, who was there at the time (as was I) said this was okay. Hope that memory is correct. Anyone I am getting a bit off the point here, of the protein issue. So I will start as you say, keywording complementary po\roteins, I guess, and if you get any more keyword suggestions please let me know. Happily I am at least eating again. Five meals? I am lucky to drudge up two small ones at this point. But I do prefer small eating several times, than large eating fewer times. Taxes the system. I did not know that about eggplant. I think I go through phases of eating a lot of it because it falls into the bitter food category, which I only just found out last recently. My body sometimes craves it. Yams, I can dig it. They're great! Anymore ideas are most welcome, and thanks for the feedback. ys, Jayaradhe

Don't part with Them if you feel that way! They obviously inspire you! I am that way about the picture of Murali Manohara, playing the flute by moonlight, which I ended up painting for myself from a small tattered print I'd been carrying around for twenty years. (A few months ago I FINALLY saw the poster on ebay and snatched it up So now I have the original in one room, and the painting in another room.) Because we are to engage all our senses in Krsna consciousness, including the eyes, I think it is very very important that when an image of the Lord just captures your heart, that you should keep that image. You could keep your beautiful wooden Radha Krsna kind of like keeping a picture. Give Them a nice place, and offer Them a flower or incense when you can. I don't think I would start very formal worship yet though, if I were you. If you are not too tight moneywise (I know postage is expensive from USA to China), there are devotee sites online that sell Gaura Nitai deities, different kinds, brass, polyresin (marble dust with resin so they do look wonderfully marble--but these kind are terribly expensive). One is I think iskcon.org, which links to a catalog section. I would have to dig up the others. My bookmarks are so extensive that it's no longer an entirely handy item for me . Maybe someone else has the exact links. hope this helps, ys, Jayaradhe PS I too wish to have Gaura Nitai deities. I think this wish has to increase in order for Them to actually come to me. I prayed for a beautiful two-armed form of Krsna to come to me and the next day, for the first time in my town, there was a Krsna deity in a store, that I immediately feel for. Out went the budget, in came Krsna, Kanea. Same thing happened about Nrsimhadev. I spent a month painting an enormous picture of Lord Nrismhadev, and before the month was up, someone handed into my care a sila from the actual Pillar at Ahovalam. Before that, I had no deities. More recently, I had this strong desire to have a baby Krsna deity, Ladu Gopal, and to my great surprise one came in the mail for me, sent by a friend. In the couple of months or so since then, I have been wanting so much a Srila Prabhupada Deity, and now have been offered a little one who sounds just right. So keep fanning the flames of your spiritual desires, and if Krsna wants, He may appear to you in the form you desire. Sri Jagannath also is very very kind and if you are attraced to Him, well, they are very joyous and compassionate Deities to have in your home. They also overlook many offenses.

You give good advice regarding first taking on the worship of Gaura Nitai, Citra prabhu. However,I am inclined to respectfully disgree on the second point, because leyh is strongly connected to Srila Prabhupada, as is evident by his innumerable wonderful and appreciative posts both about Srila Pprabhupada and in the mood of Srila Prabhupada; he has a good philosophical understanding, as taught to him by Srila Pprabhupada, he chants Hare Krsna (the real initiation), and Deity worship may be just the spiritual medicine he needs, to get him even more attached to serving the lotus feet of the Lord. And by getting this higher taste, he may find that the anarthas still clinging to him will drop away by themselves. There are good links to sites for worshipping Gaura Nitai, leyh, which Srila Prabhupada recommended for those living away from a temple; these links I think are on some India Divine thread, but if not I can dig them up and paste them in, if you want them.

I am shocked that a Rathayatra festival would have pizza with fake pepperoni on it. That is just shocking. Pepperoni is among the more disgusting meats anyway, made of all kinds of junky garbagy animal parts, spiced up to disguise the disgusting reality. I have been diagnosed with serious protein deficiency, which was caused by illness but also created more complications and wound me up in emergency a couple of weeks ago. Now I am told to go on a high-quality protein diet (along with fresh greens etc, of course) and from their limited standpoint they suggested soy things (which I am not fond of and which, when nonorganic, are extremely iffy anyway, as soy has been one of the main foods to be grown with genetic engineering, and also there are serious questions being raised about its harmfulness), and they suggested cottage cheese and yogurt. I know about balancing protein and generally eating healthy, but I am a bit stumped regarding what high quality protein products I can be eating. Not just a bunch of protein, which is hard on my liver, but that the protein I do eat, in a small amount, should be strong, if you get my meaning. So does anyone have any suggestions. Even where I can research this? Pratyatosa prabhu, I also heard, as a very young devotee (another Prabhupada said, okay) that ones gets the blood of the animal through ghee. Something like that. I'm sure someone here must have the exact quote. And that anyone could very easily and naturally become vegetarian if given food cooked in ghee. ys, Jayaradhe PS I have another question. I have heard that when you pay for food it loses its karma of the person who prepared it. Anyone hear this?

I know exactly what you mean GC but I have to admit I do make vegy burgers once in a while. It doesn't remind me of meat though, not at all, though I know it is intended as a meat substitute. Once I visited a devotee friend who had just moved outside the temple to go to college, and she had this stuff taht was so much like roast ****, in taste but also--worse--in texture, all rubbery and chewy, that I could not go near it. It was TOO much like the real thing. I remember a devotee in England who was a very good cook sometimes made what was supposed to represent a BLT. It was eggplant slices pakora-ed with black cumin and black salt, two of these sandwiching homemade cream cheese with sesame seeds, and including tomato slices. Now that was incredible, it was prasadam, and it did not remind me of anything except itself. However, I can't remember meat much after more than thirty years of shunning it. Jayaradhe

Hmm, guess America's not so bad if you compare...

So much for this glorious melting pot of a country. How can people who are supposedly rugged individuals, and who pride themselves of being open to all, be offended because someone's belief system differs from their own? And what about the people who are offended at being barred from expressing their religon through their style? I mean if the powers that wannabe are pretending to be fair. This is just getting ridiculous. With a pica size 32 R. Big Brother is alive and hell.

Thanks for the wonderful link, bhaktajoy! I just did a browse but will definitely return. I lived in the town of Leicester, which is the sister town to the FOV in Vrindaban, for seven years, and it has a large Asian population, and many temples. The section of town we lived in was like little India. I was so pleased to see that Sanatan Mandir, which was a few blocks away from us, contributed to the Vrindaban fund, and am extremely curious to hear more about the Vrindaban gardens which they put in the city park, which has a beautiful lake with boats, water lilies, swans, ducks, and aggressive geese. Now I hear they have this Vrindaban Gardens. Amazing. The town government is pretty amazing too, as far as freeing parks around town for big Hindu celebrations, including the shooting of Ravana, who is built an evil fifty or so feet high. And one year every single school in this large town, of all nationalities, mostly English though, took part in a citywide project of creating giant fifteen-foot puppets that you get inside, for the Ramayana play. So for weeks everyone was meditating on the pastimes of Rama. They involved the devotees too, so I built two five foot high heads for Sita and Rama. A bit off the subject here maybe, but I thought it would add color to the subject by knowing a bit of background to one of the towns involved in the Friends of Vrindaban project. It's a pretty progressive and very melting pot type of town, especially for England, and it became the first environmental city, as a pilot for the rest of the country, when the town hired an English devotee to head it up. Amazing, really.

Yuk, last night my daughter and I were so grossed out by neighbor's fish cooking smells. We agreed that secondhand fish smell must be worse than for those actually cooking it. No one could possibly eat something that smells so bad. I lit Laxmi dhoop--the best aromatherapy for such emergencies--and smoked out the whole house, especially Kanea's area, what an abomination that He had that smell in His temple. And it quickly covered the smell. Whew! I am going to try clary sage essential oil for depression. I'll report back if it works. But I'll have to wait for a new depression first. I think the affects of aromatherapy sometimes take a while to notice. It is subtle. Lavender is my favorite of all oils and I think it does have a soothing affect. Still, nothing beats the floating whiffs of ghee and incense upon entering the temple. That is transportive aromatherapy.

LOL! Atma is right on form, love the improv, sister. Right on. (hee hee hee)

Well I managed to avoid the "spoiler" part of GC's warning. Kind of scary being able to not give in to curiosity. Thanks for the warning. I will not see this movie for another year or so. No kidding. It will come out on video first, then slowly make its way up here to the sticks. That movie Life Is Beautiful was just incredible. I think it was probably about the best movie I saw last year. This quality of film leaves me wondering if I will ever get a good novel or filmscript written.

Another thing along the same lines: If one eases one's stress by watching movies or playing golf or whatever, how is that different from easing one's physical stress with a pain killer? In fact, the former is more apt to distract one from Krsna (although devotees do often view flicks from that special devotee perspective).

Hare Krsna! gHari, why would you say "especially" drugs like novocaine? (Not heroin? Or Prozac?) This is not a religion of masochists. Not everyone is a ksatriya by nature, and it certainly wouldn't disqualify one from devoteehood just because one chose to take some form of painkiller. Even George Harrison was on special medication to ease his pain and thus increase the quality of his remaining days with his family and friends, in full concentration/meditation. I am not a glutton for pain but normally I endure a great deal, for weeks even, before I will resort to medication, when I simply need a break from the pain. To my knowledge Srila Prabhupada did not forbid this. His premise, like Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, has always been practical: you do the needful, according to time and circumstances, in order to best serve and be in consciousness of Krsna. In the context of this thread, I would have thought the word "especially" would refer to addictive or ongoing (as opposed to a one-off hit of novocaine) drug use, particularly of the psychotropic kind (and even here I would not argue for absolute abstainence, seeing what happens to some with certain chemical imbalances that stop taking their medication, and become dangerous to themselves or others. Krsna gave us the healing herbs, but not everyone finds out what they need). Just wanted to make this point, not to nitpick but to shed light on what may be confusing to a reader or two out there. ys, Jayaradhe

I have seen them for sale in more than one place. The one that springs to mind is Govinda's in L.A. I'll dig the catalog out tomorrow if you need the phone number. ys, JR

A few recommendations to start: Turn your closed eyes to the pre-noon sun as if you are looking right at it, and bask like that for five or ten minutes. This does some kind of serotonin thing, some actually physical chemical reaction with the happy hormones. Walk in nature every day. I knew a professor who wrote a book on healing through laughing. This is also some physical chemical reaction thing (along with the emotional involvement). One man cured himself of cancer by holing up with a load of humourous videos and laughing himself silly for a few weeks. Exercise. Cordcutting is good. Visualise the unhealthy ties to your dad or whoever, and visual taking a knife of scissors or sword and severing it. This may have to be repeated. Some people start rebuilding their tentacles as soon as they are cut off. This may take focus and practice but is actually simple to do. These ideas may be too mystical for the practical and scientifically-orientated Darwin. But at least we can agree on chanting and how it affects every level. Now I need to take more of my own advice. Good luck, Darwin. ys, Jayaradhe