Gauracandra

I figured I'd ask this question. A Jewish poster has been using the word G-d instead of God. My question is why? I know that many orthodox Jews do this, as you run across this alot on various forums. But it seems to me to be ritualism without purpose. The - in G-d is just as much a symbol as the O is in God. So you aren't avoiding saying the name of God. You're just playing games with the name of God.

Today is Janmastami so many devotees will be fasting. I'm wondering where fasting comes from - is it tradition or is it scripturally based. Also, is the point for penance/sacrifice? And how is it determined if its a half day fast or a full day fast?

Today is Janmastami so many devotees will be fasting. I'm wondering where fasting comes from - is it tradition or is it scripturally based. Also, is the point for penance/sacrifice? And how is it determined if its a half day fast or a full day fast?

I've heard that story about Jimmy Carter. There is the fourth branch of government. The Legislative, the Executive, the Judiciary - and the Bureaucracy. There are many people in the background who run the bureaucracy that have plenty of control but are never elected. They stay from one administration to the next. Back to the topic. I wouldn't be surprised at all by some of the developments. Even what we hear is pretty interesting what to speak of what they actually have in development. Remember the Stealth Bomber was built in the 70s but we only heard of it in the 90s. Thats a 20 year development lag from conception to revelation, and I doubt that is their most advanced system they revealed. Here is another item that is being discussed - permanent floating platforms for surveillance. I've read articles that they want to build huge blimps (5 - 10 times the size of conventional blimps) to create floating airborne bases that can stay in one location for long periods of time. Here are some concept drawings from Popular Mechanics.

I guess gravity is a natural attraction between two objects. So anti-gravity would be some means of shielding one object from this attractive nature. If you had an object that could turn on or off its "attractiveness" to the earth, or even become "repulsed" by the earth, then the implications for space travel would be phenomenal

I like the one with the tiny Arnold trying to lift the huge California weight and you realize its just too big no matter what he won't move it an inch.

The Darkstar was a program reportedly since cancelled (though there are rumors it was seen above Iraq). It was sort of like the Global Hawk system for capturing and relaying real time information. Here are some pics. I came across this and thought they were way cool. When you see this you know the government must have some really interesting things going on in the background. You think they actually are paying $500 for a hammer and $7500 for a toilet seat? Naah. Its just creative accounting to put the money into top secret projects /images/graemlins/wink.gif

I thought it was pretty good. I didn't understand why Hindu groups were protesting the film. I think transfering the ideas is very important, whatever the structure it may take. For instance, most people don't realize that the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien was his attempt (prompted by C.S. Lewis) to take Christian themes (of good & evil, temptation, and forgiveness) and put them into popular culture. This way even if you find church boring, you can still get the right message.

http://www.indiadivine.org/bhaktivinoda-thakur-stages-faith1.htm

Most religions have many common points dealing with how to be a good person. There is a really good article called "Stages and Varieties of Faith" by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur that explains very nicely why these religions are similar and dissimilar.

I have heard that some Sri Vaisnavas believe it is a composition of one of their saints. Is this so? If so I'd think they would accept it.

Does anyone know of a person who has actually positively changed their mode (goodness, passion, ignorance) in a major way? I kind of think the modes must be somewhat genetic as well as environmental (if you are raised bad, you will likely turn out bad). But a lot of people who are in the mode of goodness just seem like they were born that way, and their kids are that way etc....

But then we'd miss your association. Unfortunately I don't know much about Buddhism.

But then we'd miss your association. Unfortunately I don't know much about Buddhism.

I missed last week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program and this week I missed the first 10 minutes and last 10 minutes. So here is the middle section of this week’s program /images/graemlins/smile.gif Communism seems like such a loving, selfless society. “From each according to their ability to each according to their needs.” But it is not possible to find this utopia because we identify with the body. The communists deny the existence of the Supreme Soul. They raise their children from the very youngest age to deny there is a God. Its not even agnostic, it is completely atheistic. After all only superstitious people believe in a Supreme Being. “If you want to be in the party then cool it on your superstition.” They are trying to make people selfless but they completely identify the self with the body and deny the existence of the Supreme Soul. What was Marx upset about? Exploitation. People working 15 hour days like animals. Certainly he had feeling for others. But how will they be free of exploitation if they haven’t removed lust. How do you change people’s hearts? Communism is a religion. It is trying to change man into a non-fruitive worker. He is upset by exploitation. His solution is to kill off anyone who disagrees with him. Then those comrades who aren’t as disagreeable you try to reeducate them. “Its better to serve the people than to serve yourself.” Why? Its another system trying to tell people to be good. Their attempt is to free society of exploiters. But some of the most exploitive societies in the world are socialist. They are tyrants. How do they choose the leader? By power. The biggest bear, the guy with the most guns gets to the top. While they have all of these fancy slogans they believe happiness is in the body and sense gratification. Theirs is a materialistic philosophy. But what about those who desire spiritual happiness.

Its interesting, that when the last space shuttle was destroyed on reentry, NASA had search teams going around collecting all the pieces. Apparently, and this is not some conspiracy theory, NASA was conducting atleast one top secret experiment on the shuttle and wanted to track down all the component parts. No one explained what it was. Imagine being a fly on the wall of some of these government agencies - perhaps that will be my next life if I don't get my act together /images/graemlins/smile.gif If Gravity Probe B can explain more of how gravity works that would be very interesting. Isn't there some controversy Avinash in the physics world on whether anti-gravity exists? I think most believe it does not exist. Perhaps this experiment can verify that or assist in learning how to control or modify gravitational pulls. That would revolutionize space travel.

This week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program is about the protection of the Holy Name. It’s not hard. It’s very easy. Sometimes people think that spiritual life is very hard. They think “I’m not very learned.” But even those with Ph.D.s, they don’t know very much. They know how to juggle words. But they are afraid to really engage in what is needed to have a perfect relationship with God. I’ve known many highly learned people. But they are afraid of silence, of being alone, of questioning “Who am I?”, “What is beyond?”. They are afraid that if they look deeper they may fall into a pit and never get out of it. So they have this position, this false identity, and they don’t want to take a chance because they are afraid. Here Lord Caitanya is saying the process is very simple. In the previous verse He says: “Glory to the Sri Krsna sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious.” We seek happiness in so many places or run away from longing through other means. So we stay on the surface afraid of going deeper lest we be sucked in. We stop from being sucked in by always keeping “busy”. If you go fast enough you won’t drown. You ever see those fish running on water? The other day I was in the water and I saw these fish trying to jump out of the water. They were trying to stay above, to skim along the water. But eventually they tired and fell back in. The materialistic person is frightened. Even spiritualists are afraid of going too deep into prayer. They are afraid of abandoning all self-protection, all those things that keep them from looking at themselves. We are all drowning. Some people will try to ignore that they are drowning by reading the newspaper. Headline: “10,000 people died in the war in Argentina”. Tsk, tsk. YOU ARE DYING!!! You must realize your actual vulnerable position. We try so many things so that we don’t have to face the reality of our drowning condition. “I’m ok, you’re ok.” They really are very empty. There is no security in your home, in your money, not in gold, not in your wife. They are afraid of going deep because they’ll realize how shallow they are. They’ll have to face their whole life and realize it was a waste of time. That’s when you realize how meaningless it all was – at death. It is all a big zero. Lord Caitanya is saying that a person can go deep without fear by taking shelter in the Holy Names of the Lord. If you go deep you are not alone. A person does not need to speculate. Not like Sartre. When I was in college there was a book by Sartre called “Nausea” where he looked at a cut on his arm. He would describe how it was turning black and decaying. And everyone thought he was a philosopher. If you carried this book, then all you needed was a pipe and you too were a philosopher. A person who tries to speculate will only get nausea. Lord Caitanya says to take shelter of the Holy Names of the Lord. This is simultaneously the shelter and the means to take shelter. It is not just any sound. If you accept the existence of God then we can discuss otherwise there is no need to discuss. If you accept God’s infinite power then we can take shelter of His Holy Names. All energy is His. Sound is His energy. For Him to appear as His names is not difficult to understand. Here it is said that God has hundreds and millions of names. Not just Govinda, Krishna, Jehova, or Allah. The entire spiritual world, Vrindavan, is contained in the names of God. As you repeat the names of God and purify yourself you will experience being in the spiritual world. This is the effect. This is the fruit. These so-called yogis who say any man can create their own mantras are atheists. They reject God. Some of these so-called gurus, like Sai Baba, say you can chant any name. Why don’t you have them chant “Reagan, Reagan, Reagan.” Or “Butter, butter, butter”. These people have been saying words all of their life. So then why aren’t they purified. When I was a kid I would drive in a car to school. There was one commercial that would drive me crazy. “Double your pleasure, double your fun, DOUBLE MINT GUM!!!” It didn’t purify me, these damn commercials. We don’t accept this nonsense that any sound is a good sound. No. It is the names of God. And there are no hard and fast rules. You don’t need to join anything. You don’t need to pay anything. Anywhere you are you can chant and take shelter of the Holy Names of the Lord.

I don't think Islam is growing as fast as some may think. Christianity is dead in Europe so that helps Islam there (Europe will soon be an Islamic continent). But it is growing very rapidly through much of the developing world. 50 years ago most of Africa was not Christian (probably less than 5%) today the major religion in Africa is Christianity far outpacing Islam. But why do some convert to Islam? Because it suits their needs. Most people change religions because the existing religion doesn't serve them well. For instance, Islam is a very militaristic, strict religion. Thats why it does very well in African-American communities. In many inner city areas there are drugs, gangs, graffitti. The local churches make nice choir songs, and do their best to make a nice atmosphere but nothing changes. So they turn to Islam which starts making military patrols of the neighborhoods (like the Nation of Islam), starts throwing out the drug dealers etc.... For those living an undisciplined life, they might see the extreme strictness of Islam as fitting their needs. Its sort of whips them into shape. Christianity is just too nice for them perhaps. And that is fine if it suits their mood and needs.

Why are we in this material world suffering our karmic reactions? Because we have commited some sort of beginningless (untraceable) original sin. Our unease with the world is a symptom that we realize there is or was in fact a perfect world. We were part of that perfect world and long to be in it again. Call it the Garden of Eden, call it heaven, call it Nirvana, or Vaikuntha. Most religions have a place of perfection and the fact that we aren't in that perfect place is due to some action of our doing.

Go to general interest, then images. And just pull up big shots of them. I have no idea what these components are doing, but they have to be made perfect in order to avoid any distorting effects on the experiment. For instance they have ball bearings so perfectly made that if the earth was a smooth the highest mountain would be 8 feet tall. I find the images captivating even if I have no idea what they are.

Maybe Avinash can explain this. I know nothing about physics but I was reading up on this experiment. These are the kinds of things that are really interesing (like the Hubble telescope). People are a bit apathetic about NASA but they are atleast a government agency that really pushes the boundaries of what is known, and produces something. Check out some of the images. I don't know how it works, or anything. But just the images look sci-fi. Seeing something like this makes me think "Maybe they really do have UFOs at Area 51" /images/graemlins/smile.gif http://einstein.stanford.edu/

Here is a suggestion. Whenever people try to adapt a religious story for modern times there are always those who will complain. One solution to this would be to try to capture the themes of the stories, even if the actual underlying story you create is different. This way the ideas still get transferred without you receiving too many complaints. Still this doesn't always work. I remember there was complaining about "The Legend of Bagger Vance" by Hindus. I thought it was quite well done and in fact found nothing offensive. But because it wasn't a literal adaptation people thought it was demeaning.

http://www.audarya-fellowship.com/showflat/cat/hinduism1/35351/0/collapsed/5/o/1

http://www.audarya-fellowship.com/showflat/cat/hinduism1/35351/0/collapsed/5/o/1