sambya1

it was entirely my personal opinion about the matter . oh yes ! i know iskcon quite well . on your question on 'criticism' , its iskcon who specialises doing that for socio religious organisations doing extensive charitable works . the explanation provided is that temporary feeding the poor might eliminate their hunger but would do nothing to make them realise the true cause of their suffering ( lack of krsna realization , that is) . thats all very good and fine . turning towards god is the highest goal of man , we know that . but what they seem to forget is that religion is a luxury for starving millions . its easy for people like us to sit back at the comforts of our home and speculate about dying children and hungry masses . perhaps its even easy to donate a months earning to such people . but fact remains that people like us with all modern comforts can never understand even a fraction of the pain they actually endures. so when any financially strong religious organisation nominally approaches such helpless people with a subconcious motive of conversion and go on publicising such campaigns proudly world over it automatically draws comparison of similar other organisations who toil day and night with little or no funds without any self proclamation whatsoever. once more it was my personal opinion.

i think linking hallucinogenic experiences with high levels of conciousness would make the entire spiritual tradition of india shallow and meaningless. while there is no denying that hallucinogenic substances and other occult practices gave rise to or was intertwined with numerous primitive religions , that was not the case with vedic cultures. there might be clear references regaurding their widespread use but it was seperate from the spiritual depths reached by the vedic seers . vedic religion is definately not a typical primitive religion as prevailing at other parts of the world at that time . hallucinogenic substances actually obscures our consciousness giving rise to odd external symptoms . but spiritual realization cleanses our consiousness but often have similar external symptoms . numerous sadhaks were unable to walk properly out of deep god intoxication . in all such cases the apparent external symptoms would be same as of a liqour intoxicated man. seeing this it is all very natural for any western observer to draw such wierd parrellels between the two. the might look similar but poles apart actually.

you are talking about iskcon . but somehow i dont appriciate this 'food for life ' programme as much as i do to other works of different organisations. take bharat sevashram sangha in india for example . the kind of dedication with which they continue their charitable works even after 100 years and limited funds is spellbounding . and most importantly they dont ask or even remotely expect anything in return. but iskcon inspite of having sound financial capabilities are latecomers to this field . that too with a intention of turning school children and poorpeople into krishna bhakta by regular intake of prasadam . while i dont deny their well intentions( depending on god is certainly good) but it does remind me of the christian missionaries providing outstanding charity just to preach gospel while they recover and turn them into baptised christians once they are out of the bed. such a charity is never a pure charity nor a pure preaching but both rolled in one. this is sakaam charity or charity with desire .obviously someone might say that harinaam daan is the highest charity . i agree . but isnt it also said that harinaam and its glories should be only sung to those eligible to recieve it ? can you manufacture devotees ? its something thats spontaneous within.

hi bija ! one can actually see the din-bhav or humility shining through your posts . thats how a spiritual aspirant should be like . respect for others and abstaining from ninda. wish you success .

you must realize that mantra diksha has no connection with astrological purposes . astrological purposes mainly deals with materialistic pleasures and diksha is undertaken in pursuit of the higher truth . it is only when an aspirant truly becomes inclined towards spiritual realization that he becomes ready for diksha. mantra diksha for any other purpose is not proper diksha at all .