Gauracandra

This week’s episode by Srila Siddhaswarupananda deals with the philosophy of Karl Marx. “From each according to his ability to each according to his needs.” The meaning of this was that Karl Marx wanted a society where one would work as hard as he could, and his return would not be based on the work he did but rather the needs he had. This is a wonderful ideal. It sounds great. A world where nobody is selfish. But there is a fundamental flaw in this thinking when a person identifies himself as the body and denies the existence of God. The problem is a materialist can never be satisfied and thus their needs will never be satisfied. This is important to understand. Karl Marx defines the person as material. When a person identifies with the body they will try to satisfy the body’s sense desires. If I am the body and I feel want then it is only natural to consider that I will find satisfaction by supplying the body with things. If a person is identifying the body as the self and then trying to satisfy their desire by material life they will never be satisfied. Thus there is no ability for a Marxist society. “How much work can you do?” “I can work 6 hours.” “Now what are your needs?” “Ahem… I need 6 houses, 4 pools, servants…” After they get this do they then go back to the government and say “My needs are satisfied.” You have billionaires. What do they do? They continue to try to make more money. A billion is a thousand millions. And they are spending their time making more money. When he had $1000 he ate 3 meals a day and slept in 1 bed. Now when he became a billionaire he still eats 3 meals a day and can only sleep in 1 bed. And yet he is still trying to get more money. Today in American Samoa not only do they want Coca-Cola, now they need it. Before they didn’t know it existed. Want is neutral. But when someone sticks something in front of you then the want becomes a need. Material consumption cannot satisfy spiritual needs. In the Western world they have clothes, food, shelter, medical care, recreation. Marxists say this is all you need to be happy. Well we’ve had this for a long time. Even in the Soviet Union they have had this. The Russians aren’t starving to death. In fact, if you bring a pair of Levis to Moscow they’ll happily pay you $100 a pair on the black market. There is a huge black market. When will they say they have had enough? You will never find it. They always want more. There are so many countries that truly do not have enough but you will never find that country that says “We’ve had enough.” The United States, the Soviet Union, the Scandinavian countries, no one has had enough. Still they are gnawing away at the planet trying to get more. If America does not have enough then no one will ever have enough. So we must question Marx’s philosophy. Supposedly everyone collectively works hard and then the state supplies their needs. The first flaw is that he did not know that the person is not a material body. We are the spirit soul within the body. Just like I have a shirt on, I have a body on. The second flaw is that he denies the existence of the Supreme Person. This thereby makes it impossible to come to the platform where one has actual inner happiness. The Supreme Lord is the source of all happiness. Unless I am situated with Him I will never be happy and my wants will always be increasing. No matter how much gasoline you pour on the fire you only make it burn brighter and hotter. God is the only solution. This is the only way to prevent expanding exploitation and greed. Marx speaks vaguely of this perfect society but his foolish idea is based on ignorance of the soul and the Supreme Soul. He is in a dream state, an hallucinatory state when he speaks of a person who is selfless. Such a person is not a fruitive worker. How will he get to that point? Marx has no solution. It is just a foolish economic idea. You end up with chaotic dictatorial societies where people are miserable both materially and spiritually.

If you have a slow computer, let it load up, its well worth it. I've seen that technique used by magicians on stage for various effects. If you have the right lighting it works amazingly well.

What is the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil? I think it is symbolic of not being able to return to that pure, untainted state. Think of how old you are now, how many mistakes and misjudgements you have made. Every action has put upon us a subtle covering, taking away our purity and innocence. Once we have experienced the world we can never return to that innocent stage. A child is born, full of promise, innocent to the world. But in time tastes that knowledge and must leave paradise, the carefree innocent existence.

Have you guys seen the planet Mars off in the distance? Its pretty cool. Anyways, Mars is the planet named after the Roman god of war. I have heard that in Vedic astrology Karthikeya, the god of war, is the predominating deity of Mars. If so, its a pretty interesting "coincidence". Also, shouldn't the proximity of Mars to Earth be a bad omen if it represents war?

Have you guys seen the planet Mars off in the distance? Its pretty cool. Anyways, Mars is the planet named after the Roman god of war. I have heard that in Vedic astrology Karthikeya, the god of war, is the predominating deity of Mars. If so, its a pretty interesting "coincidence". Also, shouldn't the proximity of Mars to Earth be a bad omen if it represents war?

Yes, this is my understanding as well. Still the covering of the head, whether Vedic or not, is a nice symbol of chastity I think.

What I've never quite understood is the functionality of the indivisible soul. If it is indivisible then what is the functional use of eyes, arms, legs. If the soul has form, the form serves a function. Why would a soul need hair. Or does the soul have hair? I probably never will understand it, but hopefully one day will find out.

You see, being a vegetarian doesn't automatically make you healthy. Like if you eat subji with curd fried in ghee, rice with ghee, sweetrice, pakoras, samosas. halava. They all taste great, and this is a typical feast, but they are all loaded to the brim with ghee. That can't be good. Remember cholesterol only comes from animal products. Probably better to use olive oil than ghee.

A cool website for all space exploration happenings (International Space Station, Hubble, Mars landers, future missions) www.nasa.gov

Think about it. What if there really was a huge meteor zooming down on earth and it would hit in 10 years guaranteed. Immediately you would have all sorts of countries cooperating with one another to fight a common threat. After it was defeated, the carryover of cooperation would likely continue atleast more than it had been. But then again I don't wanna test it out in case we can't stop a huge meteor /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've really been getting into looking at space technology. The main constraint appears to be the weight and cost of the fuel to get into space. Anyways, here is one proposal for future space tourism. The Space Island Group is designing plans for giant wheeled space stations that would be constructed from existing spaceship parts (CNN) -- Gene Meyers wants you ... in space. The President of Space Island Group sees a day when space flights are routine, where giant space hotels and entertainment centers spin slowly in low Earth orbit, and a week's stay costs about $10,000. Don't assume this is some far off vision that may or may not occur during your lifetime. Meyers wants to start booking rooms for the year 2007. The idea of space hotels and passenger space flights are not exactly new. In the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," the character of Dr. Heywood Floyd flies to an orbiting space station aboard a Pan Am shuttle. The station is called the "Orbiter Hilton." It even has a Howard Johnson's restaurant. Screenwriters Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke saw a future for space tourism and realized that private enterprise would play a leading role. How will the Space Island Group put tourists into orbit so quickly and (by today's standards) so cheaply? The company says the key technologies for making its plan work are already in place. Meyers says, "We're taking hardware that's already flown for 20 years and we're simply improving it, modifying it a little bit so it fits into the newer commercial business plan." For example, consider the space shuttle's external fuel tanks. Those are the large orange cylinders that carry the shuttle into orbit. The tanks eventually separate from the shuttle and fall into the atmosphere to burn up. Meyers wants to leave them in space and convert them into human habitats. "They're enormous," he says. "Each external tank has roughly one-hundred-thousand feet of interior volume, which is twice the complete volume of the International Space Station." "You could put the living quarters and the laboratories and the manufacturing facilities from two International Space Stations inside each one of these tanks. And our intention is to join a dozen to a dozen and a half of these tanks in an enormous ring, so the entire complex might have as many as twenty external tanks in it." Imagine a giant bicycle wheel floating in space with the tanks strung end-to-end to form the rim. Now you have a picture of what Meyers is talking about. "The wheel shaped station will rotate about once every minute, which means that the suites inside this ring will have the feel of about one-third normal gravity," according to Meyers. "You'll be able to walk around, you'll be able to dine, use the shower and toilets. Those things will work because of the partial gravity. But everything you do will seem exotic because you will weigh one-third as much as you do here on Earth." For those who want the complete weightlessness experience, special elevators will take you to more external tanks that form the center of the wheel. This area will have no artifical gravity to hold you down. "Those will be set up as entertainment centers for the guests in the hotel, and one of them might actually be set up as a zero-G arena for zero-G sports activities that would be broadcast down to Earth," Meyers says. Of course something has to get you there first, and again the Space Island Group is relying heavily on current technology. It plans to carry tourists into space aboard a redesigned space shuttle. These so-called second generation shuttles would have a larger cargo area to hold passenger compartments with enough room for 75 people. Once in orbit, you'd be greeted by a small spacecraft that would grab hold of the compartment, remove it from the cargo hold and take you to the space station. The station wheel rims could be constructed from external shuttle fuel tanks, allowing for creative internal designs The company's goal is to relaunch the shuttles every two weeks. Since it takes months for NASA to turn around a shuttle, how does Meyers expect to do it any faster? He says the current fleet was never really designed for regular commercial use. "That's one of the elements we want to re-engineer out of the program, those very difficult set up times and charges." "Our goal," says Meyers, "rather than simply having a vehicle that goes up into space and comes back, will be to have a vehicle that goes up and comes back economically, safely, and at a far faster turnaround rate than what NASA has achieved." All this is going to cost money. By Meyers' estimates, it will cost $10 billion over the first five years. In the early stages, Space Island Group will try to raise money through corporate sponsorships, much like the Olympics. Eventually it plans to lure companies into space with the promise of affordable leases for microgravity research and manufacturing. Space hotels are only part of the vision. Meyers sees satellite rescue operations, hospitals, laboratories and even factories spinning like giant wheels in the sky. And perhaps, some day, you'll be there, too.

This week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program discusses Sri Isopanishad Mantra 14. “One should know perfectly the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna and His transcendental name, form, qualities and pastimes, as well as the temporary material creation with its temporary demigods, men and animals. When one knows these, he surpasses death and the ephemeral cosmic manifestation with it, and in the eternal kingdom of God he enjoys his eternal life of bliss and knowledge.” Sri Isopanishad Mantra 14 In the thirteenth mantra the point was made that these truths have been understood through disciplic succession through undisturbed authorities. Spiritual perfection means not being disturbed by the whirlpool of material nature. Material life means that you are trying to be the enjoyer of the material world and as such you are frustrated by natural forces (birth, disease, old age and death) as well as social forces (traffic lights, taxes and such). When you are no longer trying to be God then you will no longer be disturbed. In the fourteenth mantra it describes further the nature of this person. He knows the Supreme Person, His names and qualities. He understands both the eternal nature of God and the temporary nature of this material world including the demigods, animals, and plants. He knows the nature of each and because he has knowledge of the Supreme Person then at the time of death he enters the eternal kingdom of God. The eternal living being is in a temporary body. Unfortunately we identify with this body. We identify with the name of this body, the offspring of this body, and the possessions of this body. We view these as all expansions of ourselves. The Srimad Bhagavatam describes these people as being absorbed in “I, Me, Mine.” We have the United Nations to take care of quarrels between all the I-Me-Miners this way everyone doesn’t blow it all up. Such people cannot enter the kingdom of God. No matter what type of body you take, you will relearn to control that body and try to dominate the world. Here in the Sri Isopanishad it states as a fact that this material world is temporary. Sometimes people worship demigods who live for thousands of years. Some Mormons have as their highest goal to become God & lord it over their very own universe. There are countless universes and each is controlled by a particular Brahma. The Vedic scriptures describe our universe as being controlled by a Brahma with four heads, each looking in a different direction. To be Brahma the creator of the universe would be a great thing one would think. A father becomes so proud when he creates a son, and an architect likewise when he creates a building. Imagine the position one is in when they create an entire universe. So once the Supreme Lord said something that perplexed our Lord Brahma. There was a suggestion that this Lord Brahma was not the only one around. The Supreme Lord summoned all the creators of all the universes before Him. They all came and dwarfed our Lord Brahma. Some had hundreds of heads and others thousands. Immediately our Brahma became very humbled. This material dimension is temporary. Death exists everywhere. This is why it is called Martyaloka – the place of death. Matter comes together and again separates. The scientists think they will overcome it. They just need to find the clock in the cell. They have been promising this for years and everyone who did so is now dead. All of the gingseng you eat, all of the vitamins you take, or the jogging that you do, the most you will get is maybe 120 years. So what? All you are doing is putting off the inevitable. Why is there this struggle? Darwin talks of the struggle for existence. This points to the eternality of the living being. Why isn’t there a struggle to not exist? Why does Darwin take it for granted that non-existence is not desirable and foreign. I want to exist because I am eternal. I’m struggling in this material world in this temporary situation. They suffer because they are eternal and are in the illusion that they are not. So the guy that used to be 20 looks in the mirror and is 40. He sees the tread marks of life on his face. And if you are married you mirror each other. His hair falls out and her skin droops. Then in time they both get hunched over. There is so much suffering. Still sometimes we laugh at our condition because we know it is temporary. You ever see those movies where the trout is going upstream to lay their eggs? We are like that swimming upstream but we never make it. Someone will say “Oh you are so pessimistic.” We aren’t pessimistic we are just stating the laws of this material dimension. The material world is temporary. But there is another dimension that is not temporary. We belong to that environment that is eternal. When the eternal spirit soul achieves the eternal environment then it is home. All of the great teachers teach to go back home back to the kingdom of God. This is our hope that you will fully appreciate the temporary nature of this world, give up trying to be immortal, and learn to know the Supreme Person. The Existentialists know its temporary but don’t know the Supreme Person. So, like Sartre, they get nausea and want to commit suicide.

I think I just misunderstood you Theist. You're one of the few sane voices on the internet /images/graemlins/smile.gif 60 Minutes did an expose on the medical fraud that goes on. There is always this number of 40 million uninsured people in America. Many of these choose to be uninsured (young folks who are healthy and would rather have extra spending money). If I remember correctly they said that the amount of money in medical fraud was easily enough to more than cover everyone of those 40 million. It was either 60 Minutes or another program I saw it on. In the U.S. if you are very poor you can get medical assistance. And if you are middle class or wealthy there is no problem. The people who tend to fall through the cracks are those who are called the working poor. They aren't poor enough for government assistance, and they aren't middle class either. There are a few solutions that would use government and market forces. Jack Kemp has proposed one idea. I tend to like Jack Kemp, the happy Republican, because he tries to find innovative solutions. It would be possible for those working poor to receive some sort of a medical tax credit. Jack Kemp's idea is called the medical savings account. For those who fall through the cracks they would receive a tax credit. This money if not spent would roll over to the next year. The idea is this. Most people use health insurance even if they don't need it because they have paid for it. The slightest cough and they are at the doctor's office asking for this or that test rather than sleeping more and eating hot soup. So with this medical savings account you as the individual decide when to spend it on medical needs. If you don't use it the funds build up. If you do use it there is the incentive to shop around and get the best deal. But how to fund this? How about using market forces to reign in fraud? Here is one idea. License private investigators to root out fraud. Let them know that if they catch fraud they will receive 25% of all savings. You then build in a profit motive for people to go around and try to catch the biggest fish. If they catch one of these phoney medical supply groups say cheating the taxpayers out of $10 million, then give that guy $2.5 million.

Sorry, I might not have explained my frustration that well. You see, I see it all the time where Pro-choice individuals (ie. they support the killing of unborn humans) are against cruelty to animals. I remember seeing an interview with one animal rights activist who was against wearing fur. The interviewer asked a simple question - so are you prolife? A pretty simple question. The guy refused to answer the question. He kept dodging saying that was not his issue, his issue was not killing animals. You knew that in fact he was pro-choice. How can they hold this view? There must be some cognitive dissonance to say killing the unborn is ok but killing animals is wrong. I'm a vegetarian and am against the killing of either.

Sorry, I might not have explained my frustration that well. You see, I see it all the time where Pro-choice individuals (ie. they support the killing of unborn humans) are against cruelty to animals. I remember seeing an interview with one animal rights activist who was against wearing fur. The interviewer asked a simple question - so are you prolife? A pretty simple question. The guy refused to answer the question. He kept dodging saying that was not his issue, his issue was not killing animals. You knew that in fact he was pro-choice. How can they hold this view? There must be some cognitive dissonance to say killing the unborn is ok but killing animals is wrong. I'm a vegetarian and am against the killing of either.

Thanks for the explanation. I've asked this in the past but never got much of an answer.

I didn't offer a solution. Here would be my main point for solving the problem. The death penalty for any medical fraud that goes on. Ok, maybe not the death penalty, but life in prison. Something extremely harsh for this "white collar crime". Again, I don't have the stats on hand, but in some states you have like 1/3 of the medical expenses that are due to fraud. What happens is this. Someone claims to be injured. They go to the "doctor" who writes him a prescription or suggests he needs such and such. They are then reimbursed by the insurance industry. The only problem is this person was never hurt, the doctor never gave any medicine or equipment, and in some cases the guy doesn't even exist. Believe me this happens a whole lot. This isn't a marginal amount of money we are talking about. Literally tens of billions of dollars every year in "white collar crime". Most doctors are doing their best but there are a few who are milking the system. Then you have the liability issue which is a tough one. There should be malpractice insurance. But many doctors pay $150K every year just for malpractice insurance. If someone is truly damaged by an incompetent doctor they should be compensated. But there are so many frivolous lawsuits.

Sorry Theist but this is one of the few times we disagree /images/graemlins/smile.gif The U.S. health care system works perfectly well for those who can afford it. Great technology, major medical advances. Virtually all genetic and drug discoveries are by American companies. I don't have the statistics on hand but the proportion is staggering (last time I looked). The reason why is because there is a profit motive. If you take away the profit motive, the markets just move the resources to a new location. Remember price contains information. If you say I'm not allowed to make what I view as a return worth the investment (remember like 1 in 8 research projects fail to create a new drug so are complete losers) then I'll just move the money elsewhere. Instead of drugs, or medical supplies, I'll put my money into lumber, or computer chips. You CANNOT stop the flow of capital. Here is a major reason why medicine is cheaper in Canada. Its called Fixed vs. Variable expenses. What is the major cost of a drug? Is it the chemicals? Is it the packaging? Is it the marketing? No its the research and development. If a U.S. company spends $1 billion to develop a new drug, immediately that fixed cost is a sunk cost (its gone). Now when he sells that product in the U.S. he divides his fixed cost of $1 billion + his variable costs (the cost of actually manufacturing the product) and then passes those costs onto the consumer with some profit margin. However, if you are a socialist country like Canada or France and such, you put price controls and say "You are not allowed to charge more that X amount." Ok, fine. The drug companies know this. So they figure so long as the price I sell my drugs in Canada covers my variable costs, given that my fixed costs are sunk, then I will make a marginal profit on each drug I sell. Thus these countries get the benefit of U.S. drug manufacturing at cheaper prices. Meanwhile, the U.S. consumer has to pay for the fixed cost of research and development. Nothing, and I mean virtually nothing in terms of medical innovation comes from Canada or Europe. Again, I don't have the statistic on hand, but something like 80% of all new drugs developed in the world are from American drug companies. That is Europe with a population bigger than America, Canada, Japan, all the rest of the world, only accounts for 20% of new innovation. That my friends in pathetic. The American consumers take it on the chin because they are subsidizing the innovations for the world.

I can't claim I've solved the age old mysteries of weight loss & gain. But here is what I understand. First you need to have a proper diet. No way around this. You can do all the exercise you want and if your diet is bad its all for nothing. Second if you want to burn fat you need to do cardiovascular exercise. Third is weight lifting. The more muscle mass you put on the better because muscle feeds constantly. Then even if you are sitting reading a book if you have more muscle you will naturally burn more fat. Try weight lifting, that might really help.

The more I've seen of this guy, and the quick as they come knock offs of him, the less convinced I am. I think it is cold reading. I remember a test they did once with some psychic lady. They presented her with various pictures of people and asked her to describe them. They gave no clues one way or the other as she talked about them, so she had nothing to play off of. She got them all wrong. One was a handsome serial killer, and she was saying all these nice things about him, and there were others. I don't recall all the details. But it was pretty clear she was a fraud.

Vegetarians almost always are leftwing. And so I see it all the time, cars with pro-choice bumper stickers next to bumper stickers saying "be kind to animals" or some such. Aaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh. Ok, got that off of my chest /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Vegetarians almost always are leftwing. And so I see it all the time, cars with pro-choice bumper stickers next to bumper stickers saying "be kind to animals" or some such. Aaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh. Ok, got that off of my chest /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Just kidding /images/graemlins/smile.gif But if I don't have to fast that would be a good incentive /images/graemlins/smile.gif Actually this year I didn't find fasting all that difficult. There are benefits that science is starting to learn about fasting. It seems to prolong life in the studies that have been done. Not sure of the reason.

Just kidding /images/graemlins/smile.gif But if I don't have to fast that would be a good incentive /images/graemlins/smile.gif Actually this year I didn't find fasting all that difficult. There are benefits that science is starting to learn about fasting. It seems to prolong life in the studies that have been done. Not sure of the reason.

If scripture does not mention one way or the other about a tradition one engages in, can one accept it or reject it according to what one feels? I don't have particularly good examples but for instance, I know that the Puri temple will only serve food to the Lord based on traditional recipes. These recipes may be written down in cookbooks, but I doubt there is actually scripture that says that they are forbidden to offer say potatos (a new world crop). I can understand that if a tradition directly violates scripture then it should be rejected. But if the scripture is silent on a subject, can one create a new tradition or reject an old tradition?