Dervish

The most important thing to do is to teach our society to respect the elderly and care for elderly relatives in the home. Such homes as the one ISKCON plans should mostly have those of the renounced order, or grhastas who have no family. This conception of putting the old in old folks' homes is a recent western invention, designed to provide maximum enjoyment potential for the modern "nuclear" family.

Thank you very much, Krsna prabhu!

I wish I had known about it. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

It's a great idea. I wish it could work. One question, though. Which faction, out of the myriad number of various missions and philosophies would administrate this channel? Surely they wouldn't all get together to make a group effort? Not without some considerable arguing on who's guru gets the most screen time.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=%5CForeignBureaus%5Carchive%5C200403%5CFOR20040329a.html I hope the devotees of Krishna will never get banned.

I played a lot of RPG's before I met the devotees. If a quality Mahabharata RPG came out that was also accurate, I'd be inclined to give it a try /images/graemlins/smile.gif Who is making this? Is it pen and paper, or an MMORPG?

To guest, and Shiva prabhu, I thank profusely for this help!

I recently met a westerner who is interested in Hinduism, but has gotten all his information from books and representitives of Ramakrishna. He expressed some intrigue toward Vaishnavism, but asked some specific questions, like jiva tattva, etc, and I very much wanted to present our perspective but in an educated way. Is there some book or essay from a Vaishnava perspective that outlines these comparisons? I heard something about a book by Srila Prabhupad's sanyas guru Srila Keshav Maharaj that dealt with these topics, but I don't even know the title or how to find it. Does anyone know a book or a website that I could refer to?

I used to love the MZ-707 until I realized it wouldn't transfer my lectures digitally from MD to PC. This is its single-most damning attribute. MD fans all over the internet have been crying to Sony to reverse this, and thankfully they've listened by allowing the transfers, but those who already have regular MD recordings are screwed. Other than that, I really do love this technology. So compact and efficient.

I'm no expert, but aside from Shikai, http://www.shikai.com/ Here is another great line of products to use: http://www.aveda.com It sounds like what you need is a scalp treatment. You probably have a dry scalp, and this alone is causing at least some of your hair loss if not all. I think there are other ayurvedic remedies, hopefully someone who knows more than I will speak up.

Before doing any puja, good to do achaman. And yes, when offering the incense, light, and flowers, you offer to Srila Prabhupad, your Guru Maharaj, and assembled devotees.

I personally feel an MD player would of great help to you guys as you can directly record the religious discourses, the MDs are reliable and lotsa plus points, including a looooooong battery life. I own a SONY MD player. Yes, the battery life is good (1 battery will record for about 8-10 hours), and you can adjust the recording format, so you can record for 5 hours and 20 minutes on the 80 minute discs, but there is one sizable problem. Let's say you buy the MD player with the USB connector. The geniuses at Sony made it so that you can only download mp3's from your PC to the MD player. YOU CANNOT UPLOAD FROM THE MD PLAYER TO YOUR COMPUTER! You have to wait for the High MD to come out (1-3 months), which allows this. Unfortunately for me, I have dozens of 5 hour MD's which I must now record manually since if I put the discs in the high MD, they will not be sent to the PC since they were recorded 1-2 years ago on my old MD recorder. The only way you can take your discourses and make them into mp3's is by putting a 2 way analog cable into the MD player headphone jack, then placing the other end at your PC's microphone outlet. In this way, you have to adjust your MD's soundsettings and your PC's microphone volume, to get a decent sound. Still, the BEST way to record discourses, is by getting a small notebook and an external soundcard (Audigy 2, etc.), and a good external mic. In that way you can make digital recordings without having to switch them back to analog. This makes for good distribution. Still, if anyone wants a copy of a lecture I recorded on my MD player and then transferred to PC using an analog cable, just give me a message.

Everybody deserves mercy, but the Madrid devotees came to my mind first (especially since I met several of them). You can hit me over the head now.

If you're young (late teens to mid twenties more or less) and you're losing hair rapidly, you may have allopecia. You can get diagnosed to be 100% sure. They have allopathic medication for allopecia that is very effective. I believe allopecia can be cured easily, although they're still struggling over male pattern baldness (but supposedly they are researching a cure using stem cells and are very close to a breakthrough).

The arm raising part definitely makes a world of difference. /images/graemlins/smile.gif Makes me want to send Liv Tyler a Bhagavad Gita. I almost gave Billy Boyd (Pippin from LOTR) a copy of Bhagavad Gita when I saw him ... damn, I should have.

When Srila Prabhupad saw that so many daughters were being born in our society he was not very pleased. At the end of his life he didn't even want to hear about it. I personally witnessed him in the last 3 weeks of his life refuse to hear when a daughter was born. He would groan and say," they do not know the science." His personal secretary wasn't even allowed to tell him when a daughter was born. He wanted only news of the sons. He could understand that if there were daughters being born that there was sense gratification in the relationship. Please show me ONE interview, lecture, room conversation, letter, etc., where Srila Prabhupad specifically makes statements to this effect. I refuse to take second hand information about Srila Prabhupad.

http://www.jerseygirl-movie.com/clips/lunch.mov

Don't laugh at me, but ... 40. I am maha bhogi, yes?

Loving Search of the Lost Servant Chapter 8: ''Gopi, Gopi, Gopi!'' A few days before Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyasa, He was chanting "gopi, gopi, gopi!" Hearing this, a tantric brahmana came to give some advice to the Lord. "Pandit," he said, "You are a scholar; You know the scriptures. Still, You are chanting the name gopi, gopi? What benefit will You get from that? The scriptures say that if You chant the name of Krsna, You may get some benefit. You will find this in many places in the scriptures, especially in the Puranas. Why then do You chant gopi, gopi?" Angered at the brahmana's ignorance, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in the mood of a follower of the gopis, picked up a stick and began to rebuke him. "You have come from the enemy camp to convert us into followers of Krsna?" He ran after the brahmana to beat him with His stick. In this example, we find that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was chanting "gopi, gopi" and neglecting the name of Krsna. Apparently He was advised to take the name of Krsna and became enraged - but what is the underlying thought there? If we are to understand the effect of someone's chanting of the holy name, we must examine his underlying purpose. Sometimes his chanting may have some effect, but not always. Still, Jiva Goswami mentions the following example as evidence that the holy name may have some effect even if one is unaware of its full meaning. Once, a wild boar attacked a Mohammedan, and the Mohammedan cried, "Harama! Harama!" Harama means "that abominable hog!" On the other hand, Ha Rama means "the Lord," who has allowed a hog to attack me. Somehow, Lord Rama was invoked, and the holy name had a divine influence on the Mohammedan, who attained liberation. Another example given in the scriptures is that of Valmiki. Before becoming a saint, the sage Valmiki was a dacoit. But the great saint Narada had a plan to benefit him. Narada thought, "This person is the most notorious and heinous dacoit I have ever seen. Let me experiment with him to see the potency of the holy name. I shall ask him to chant the holy name of Rama." He tried, but Valmiki could not pronounce the holy name of Rama. Then Narada told him to chant mara - the word for "murder" - instead. The dacoit said, "Yes, I can do this. This is just the opposite of the name of Rama." He began to chant "mara-mara-mara-mara-rama-rama-rama-rama." In this way, after some time, mara became rama. Valmiki began to chant the name of Rama, and gradually his mental attitude changed. So it is possible for the name to have an effect on someone even if he has no proper conception of its meaning. This is called namabhasa: the shadow of the name. It can effect liberation. But a real devotee is not interested in liberation. He wants to enter the domain of divine service. The sound and its effect depends upon the attitude we accept, and the quality we can conceive, because the actual vaikuntha nama is infinite. In that plane, the divine name is equal to the substance named. When the sound aspect is one and the same with the original aspect of the thing, that is vaikuntha nama. Here in this world, a blind man's name may be Padmalocan - lotus-eyed - but really he may be blind. The name and the figure may be entirely different. But in Vaikuntha, in the infinite world, the name and the named are one and the same. Yet to experience the vaikuntha nama, one must avoid both nama aparadha, offenses to the holy name, and namabhasa, the shadow of the holy name. By namabhasa, we get some relief from this worldly bondage, and by nama aparadha, we become entangled in this mayik world. But the ordinary physical sound cannot represent the real name, which is supernatural. It is said that one name of Krsna can remove more ignorance and sin than a man has the power to commit. But what is the quality of that one name? We may chant the physical name of Krsna so many times without getting the result of even one real name. There is a great difference between the ordinary sound of the name, the superficial mayik name, and the pure name. The pure name is one and the same with Krsna, but that descends down to our level only by His grace. We cannot vibrate it simply by dint of our moving our tongue and our lips. The pure name of Krsna is not lip deep, but heart deep. And it ultimately goes beyond the heart and reaches the land of Krsna. When Krsna comes down, the name Krsna comes through the heart and moves the lips and tongue. That vibration is the holy name of Krsna, Krsna nama. Negative Power When Krsna in the form of sound descends from the transcendental world into the heart, and from the heart, controlling every aspect of the nervous system, comes to the lips and begins dancing there, that is Krsna nama. The initiative is in the transcendental world. That sound is not produced from the physical plane. The spiritual sound has to come down into this plane; He can come down, but we cannot so easily go up there. He is the Supersubject; we are an object to Him. We cannot interfere with His independence. Only by the negative power of surrender can we attract the Supreme Positive to come down to our level. And so the holy name is not a production of our senses. It can be realized only when we approach Him with a very intense serving attitude. At that time, Krsna Himself may come down by His grace, being attracted by our serving nature. Then He can influence this element and produce transcendental sound and dance within the mundane plane. That is the holy name, the vaikuntha nama, the real name of Krsna. We cannot produce it with our lips. The sound we create with our physical or mental production is not Krsna. He is independent from whatever sound we may produce, and yet, because He controls everything, He can appear anywhere, in any form, in any plane, in any sound. And this is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (4.6). Krsna says, "When I come here by the power of My internal potency, I remove the external potency's influence and appear anywhere and everywhere." The mundane wave is forced back, just as a plane rides in the sky and pushes back the influence of air and wind as it forcibly passes. By removing the influence of the material waves, He appears within this world by the strength of His own force. The Lord says, "I have My own potency, and by the power of that potency, I remove this gross material energy. And so I live and move here in this world." The laws of material nature cannot apply to Him. He has special power. And with the help of that special power, He subdues the laws of material nature and comes here. He does whatever He wants with His own potency. Wherever He goes, the laws of material nature withdraw from that place and give Him His way. In this way, He can appear within the realm of sound as the holy name. The real importance of the name is not to be found merely in the arrangement of its syllables, but in the deep meaning within that divine sound. Some scholars argue that in the Kali-santarana Upanisad, Lord Brahma says that the Hare Krsna maha-mantra is properly pronounced only when the name of Rama precedes the name of Krsna: "Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare/ Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare." Krishna Nama In the Kali-santarana Upanisad, the Hare Krsna maha-mantra is given in that way. But to say that the name of Rama must precede the name of Krsna in the mantra is a superficial understanding. It is said that because it comes from the Upanisads, the Hare Krsna mantra is a Vedic mantra, and therefore, because the ordinary people may not have any entrance into Vedic mantras, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu readjusted this mantra by reversing the order of the words. In that way, it is said, the concern that it is a Vedic mantra is thereby canceled, and so Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave it to all without breaching the injunctions of the Vedas. Some devotees in Uttar Pradesh who have great affection for Sri Caitanyadeva like to give this opinion. But our faith is that the mentioning of "Hare Rama" first is only superficial. It concerns the idea that since the Rama avatara appeared first and the Krsna avatara afterwards, the name of Rama, "Hare Rama," should come first in the maha-mantra. A deeper reading will consider that when two similar things are connected together, the priority will be ordered not on the basis of historical precedent, but in consideration of the most highly developed conception. The holy name of Krsna is higher than the holy name of Rama. This is mentioned in the Puranas: three names of Rama equal one name of Krsna. The name of Krsna is superior to the name of Rama. Where the two are connected together, the first position should be given to the one that is superior. Therefore, the name of Krsna must come first in the maha-mantra. This is one point. Another point is that within the eternal plane, everything is moving in a cyclic order. In an eternal cycle, which is first and which is next cannot be ascertained, and so, in the eternal plane of lila, it cannot be determined whether Krsna is before Rama or Rama is before Krsna. So from that consideration also, since the names of Krsna and Rama are eternal and unrelated to any historical event, we may begin the mantra from any place. Rama Means Krishna But above these considerations, our sampradaya has given another, higher consideration. A deeper understanding will reveal that the Hare Krsna mantra is not at all concerned with rama lila. In the name of Rama within the Hare Krsna mantra, the Gaudiya Vaisnavas will find Radha-ramana Rama. That means "Krsna, who gives pleasure (raman) to Srimati Radharani." In our conception, the Hare Krsna mantra is wholesale Krsna consciousness, not Rama consciousness. Sri Caitanya's highest conception of things is always svayam bhagavan, krsna lila, radha-govinda lila. That is the real purpose of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's advent and teachings. In that consideration, the Hare Krsna mantra does not mention the rama lila of Ayodhya at all. There is no connection with that in the highest conception of the Hare Krsna mantra. And the inner conception of the mantra is responsible for our spiritual attainment. When one pronounces the name Rama, if he means Dasarathi Rama, his attraction will take him there, to Ayodhya; if he means Parasurama, he will be attracted to another place. And if Rama means Radha-ramana Rama, he will go to Goloka. The inner conception of the devotee will guide him to his destination. My original name was Ramendra Candra. When I was given initiation, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura gave me the name Ramendra Sundara. I asked him, "What is the meaning of Ramendra?" He told me, "In our consideration, Rama does not mean Dasarathi Rama or Lord Ramacandra, the son of King Dasaratha. It means Radha-ramana Rama - Krsna, the lover of Radharani." The name "Hare" may also mean different things according to one's conception. That the meaning of the word Hare in the mantra is taken to mean Radharani is also determined according to the spiritual development or qualification (adhikara) of the chanter. When one is firmly established in conceiving of Radha-Krsna in the background of everything - when one finds svayam-rupa, the original form of Godhead, underlying all sorts of conceptions of all things good - then only will he find that sort of meaning and nothing else. For beginners, the word "Hare" in the Hare Krsna mantra can be conceived to mean Hari. That is one meaning. It may also mean Nrsimhadeva. And just as "Rama" can mean Dasarathi Rama, "Krsna" may refer to different types of Krsna. There is also a Krsna in Vaikuntha, where the vaibhavas, or extensions of the Lord, number twenty-four. In Vaikuntha, first there is Narayana, and then four extensions: Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. Each of these four has five agents, making twenty-four in all. One of these is the Krsna of Vaikuntha. Then there is the Krsna of Dvaraka and the Krsna of Mathura. In this way there are various conceptions of Krsna. But the highest conception of Krsna is Krsna in Vrndavana: Radha-Govinda. When one cannot remove himself from that plane, he will conceive of divinity only as Hari-Hara. He will see nothing else but Radha-Krsna. Those who are completely and perfectly installed in madhura-rasa - who have the highest kind of divine vision - cannot come down from that plane. If they do, it is only for the interest of Radha-Govinda. In that case, the devotee may go anywhere, but his real interest is under lock and key in Vrndavana. Only on behalf of the service of Radha- Govinda will a devotee leave Vrndavana. For those who are followers of the Vrndavana line, "Hare" in the Hare Krsna mantra can only mean Hara: Srimati Radharani. Hara means "Radha, who can even snatch the attention of Krsna, Hari." The word harana means "to steal. " One who can steal the mind of He who is most expert in stealing - who can steal even the mind of Krsna - She is Hara. Stealing in its highest capacity is shown by Radharani. And "Krsna" means "He who is most attractive in the absolute sense." They are both represented in the mantra. Rupanuga Nama The followers of the rupanuga sampradaya can never deviate from that consciousness in their chanting of the maha-mantra. And with this conception, they go on with the service of Hari-Hara, Radha-Krsna. They absorb themselves in radha dasyam. They cannot think of anything else but that. And once having fully attained that plane, they can never come down from that level, from the interest of Radha-Krsna. They cannot allow themselves to be out of that circle. That is the position of our highest aspiration, and according to a devotee's adhikara, or spiritual qualification, that sort of meaning will awaken in one's mind. It will be awakened, discovered by sadhana. At that time the covering of the heart will be removed and divine love will spontaneously spring up from the fountain of the heart as the inner function of the soul.

There is nothing scary about somebody else's spiritual beliefs. Personally, I find Mayavadi (Brahmavadi, whatever) philosophy to be dry and very unattractive. From the moment I came into contact with it, that was my feeling. That's not going to change. You might have heard stories about devotees getting interested in Mayavadi matters and then smoking ganja, etc. Well, this was the sediment in their heart. Coming into contact with Mayavadi only brought that to the surface. Look at Kamsa, he appeared to be a just ruler who had utmost regard for Devaki and her husband Vasudev. The moment the prophecy was made that her eighth child would kill him, he assumed external demoniac qualities. Can you say that the prophecy forced him to become a demon? It is my impression that these qualities were always there within him. So do what you want. Personally, I find Mayavadi boring, even if I were to browse at some of their philosophical posts, I'm sure it would put me to sleep.

I've heard of several devotees who are police officers. Ask around, and most likely you will find out from them how to deal with it. Also in India, there are many policemen who are devotees.

I hope to be far away before the USA election. Oh yeah, it'll be Kartik. Joy /images/graemlins/smile.gif

The above quote by Srila Prabhupad does seem to get abused. In the previous post, if there are souls actually using this to deflect sincere questions, well, that belittles the importance of temples, and classes about books like Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and Sri Caitanya Caritamrta.

The internet is a tool, albeit the product of Kali Yuga. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupad and Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad have authorized the use of modern technology for preaching purposes. 500 years ago, an invention called the printing press enabled the Protestant reformation in Europe. It also allowed for the widespread publication of bibles, and eventually, the widespread publication of Srila Prabhupad's books. The internet is like any other tool. It has a positive use, and a negative use. I wouldn't blame the internet on the lack of self-control some people on forums past and presents may have had, the individual will accept the karma, instead. That being said, the impersonal nature of the internet enables all of us to air out our complaints easier than in real life. This can be good to air out legitimate concerns, yet very bad in making sadhu ninda all the more easier.