Gauracandra

This doesn't matter. Europeans won't do anything. Why? Because they have given up their Christian culture. Christianity is dead in Europe with hardly any of the population attending church. Islam is rising and gaining strength. Muslims have not given up their traditions. So who will be stronger? Those who retain their traditions or those who abandone it for secular hedonism. Western civilization is constantly critical of itself, but never asks what would replace it. Well the answer is here: Islam will replace European civilization. And what has Islam produced in the last 1000 years? They'll conquer from the inside out. This is just the beginning. They are still a minority. Wait until they are the majority and start to tear down your churches and raise the crescent moon.

These aren't jokes, but I figured a list of quotations probably fits best here. "One of the chief uses of religion is that it makes us remember our coming from darkness, the simple fact that we are created." "It has been often said, very truely, that religion is the thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary; it is an equally important truth that religion is the thing that makes the extraordinary man feel ordinary." "Civilization has run on ahead of the soul of man, and is producing faster than he can think and give thanks." "All men thirst to confess their crimes more than tired beasts thirst for water; but they naturally object to confessing them while other people, who have also committed the same crimes, sit by and laugh at them." "To the humble man, and to the humble man alone, the sun is really a sun; to the humble man, and to the humble man alone, the sea is really a sea." "Great truths can only be forgotten and can never be falsified." "All science, even the divine science, is a sublime detective story. Only it is not set to detect why a man is dead; but the darker secret of why he is alive." "If we want to give poor people soap we must set out deliberately to give them luxuries. If we will not make them rich enough to be clean, then empathically we must do what we did with the saints. We must reverence them for being dirty." "In the struggle for existence, it is only on those who hang on for ten minutes after all is hopeless, that hope begins to dawn." "The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice." "Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions." "Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it." "The simplification of anything is always sensational." "I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid." "The person who is really in revolt is the optimist, who generally lives and dies in a desperate and suicidal effort to persuade other people how good they are." "When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale." "He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative." "I have formed a very clear conception of patriotism. I have generally found it thrust into the foreground by some fellow who has something to hide in the background. I have seen a great deal of patriotism; and I have generally found it the last refuge of the scoundrel." "There cannot be a nation of millionaires, and there never has been a nation of Utopian comrades; but there have been any number of nations of tolerably contented peasants.” "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." "The modern city is ugly not because it is a city but because it is not enough of a city, because it is a jungle, because it is confused and anarchic, and surging with selfish and materialistic energies." "Self-denial is the test and definition of self-government." "The whole pleasure of marriage is that it is a perpetual crisis." "Women have a thirst for order and beauty as for something physical; there is a strange female power of hating ugliness and waste as good men can only hate sin and bad men virtue." "Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere." "The decay of society is praised by artists as the decay of a corpse is praised by worms." "There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there." "Only friendliness produces friendship. And we must look far deeper into the soul of man for the thing that produces friendliness." "The average businessman began to be agnostic, not so much because he did not know where he was, as because he wanted to forget. Many of the rich took to scepticism exactly as the poor took to drink; because it was a way out." "Moderns have not the moral courage, as a rule, to avow the sincere spiritual bias behind their fads; they become insincere even about their sincerity. Most modern liberality consists of finding irreligious excuses for religious bigotry. The earlier type of bigot pretended to be more religious than he really was. The later type pretends to be less religious than he really is. He does not wear a mask of piety, but rather a mask of impiety - or, at any rate, of indifference."

This world is really getting sick. I'm going to predict the future. First they'll start with embryonic stem cells. Everyone will say "You want to stop progress. They are just going to go to waste if we don't use them." Then they'll start to use aborted fetuses. And again they'll say "You want to stop progress. They are just going to go to waste if we don't use them." Then they'll start using organ harvesting. Eventually what will happen is a market will develop. I do believe ultimately Hitler's master race will be created. Why? Because of economics. Once the technology develops no one will be able to stop it. When the atomic bomb was created everyone thought they could control it. But now dirt poor countries like North Korea have it and the world is trying to stop it from spreading. Eventually, a China, or an India, or the U.S., or Brazil will realize if they genetically modify their people, that they will have a competitive advantage (smarter, stronger etc...). So there will be a race among countries to genetically alter humanity for economic advantage. If you don't do it you will be overrun, so the ethics will go out the door. Thats where this is all going. Its the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Once we get that knowledge, we can never go back to paradise. So the question is "Must mankind be completely holy before pursuing knowledge? or can one seek out knowledge while one's character is still in need of reformation?" Anyways, this story is sick regardless of the cure: Abortion row fears over eye cure Stem cell use is controversial US scientists have successfully restored a woman's vision using eye cells taken from aborted foetuses. But while hailing their results as a triumph, the University of Louisville researchers are worried critics will say they are promoting abortion. The UK has clear guidelines to ensure people cannot conceive and terminate a baby to treat another person, but similar rules do not exist in the US. The findings appear in New Scientist magazine. Clear vision Elisabeth Bryant's sight was restored by a transplant of retinal cells taken from the eyes of aborted foetuses. The transformation appears not to have been a short-term effect, as the team who carried out the operation had feared. Before the experimental surgery on her left eye, Elisabeth, who was 63 at the time, could barely see anything with it. People are going to claim that we are promoting abortion. Mr Norman Radtke, the surgeon who carried out the transplants "Now I can see people's eyes, noses and mouths when they're sitting across the room from me," she told New Scientist. So far, six patients with degenerative diseases of the eye - either advanced retinitis pigmentosa or another disease called macular degeneration - have received similar transplants in the US. Dr Robert Aramant, who developed the technique at the University of Louisville, said: "We have shown the way. It is possible to reverse these incurable diseases." Ethics But his colleague Mr Norman Radtke, the surgeon who carried out the transplants, said: "People are going to claim that we are promoting abortion." The team has been given the go-ahead by the US Food and Drug Administration to carry out more transplants on people with less advanced disease. Earlier this week, Canadian researchers from the University of Toronto announced that they had shown that retinal stem cells taken from adults were capable of forming the cells needed to repair damaged eyes. Although this method has only been tested in animals, the scientists are hopeful that it could be used to treat humans. David Wong, chairman of the scientific committee of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, said: "As ophthalmologists, we welcome research into stem cells as indeed it offers hope for patients suffering from degenerative conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. "Particularly exciting is the fact that the Toronto group could harvest stem cells from adult human eyes," he said, which would overcome some of the ethical concerns. A spokesman from Comment on Reproductive Ethics said using tissues from aborted foetuses was totally unnecessary. "Why bother doing something that's ethically difficult or unacceptable when you can take stem cells from adults?" he said.

I decided to look this up and it seems most are accurate. One urban legends website tries to debunk them, but in my opinion does a very poor job. Basically they just say "its a coincidence". There are a few factual errors however. For instance, the Marily Monroe (apparently she had died one year prior to JFKs assassination). And this site said John Wilkes Booth was actually born in 1838. But for the most part the site couldn't really debunk these similarities except to say they were superficial. Individually they might be superficial, but together they are pretty interesting. They'd have a stronger case if they could randomly pick 2 presidents and make as many superficial connections. It might be possible, I don't know. Still, it is kind of creepy.

A few days ago I saw a documentary on the Lincoln assassination. I thought it was weird on one account. I didn't make all the connections listed in your post, but here is one that you didn't list. Lincoln was assassinated. Orders went out to capture the assassin alive. John Wilkes Booth is surrounded and is killed despite the direct orders to take him alive. No one could interrogate him (he died within 3 hours). Now with the Kennedy assassination, they capture Lee Harvey Oswald, and Jack Ruby kills Oswald before they could fully interrogate him. I thought that was weird myself. But now all the points you listed make it very very weird.

I remembered reading this article a long time ago and thought it apropos. The full article is here: http://www.indiadivine.org/tattva11.htm I especially found the story of the three dimensional painting interesting. Here is the snippet I found relevant. [Gandharva in general refers to a species of heavenly musicians. There are two categories of gandharvas mentioned in these verses. The first is the manushya gandharvas - or human gandharvas, and the second is the deva gandharvas - or heavenly gandharvas. On the earthly planet there are many realms of existence that are inaccessible to the ordinary humans. These realms exist on high dimensions of space. According to the Vedic conception of reality there are 64 dimensions of existence, of which ordinary humans interact with three. The manushya gandharvas live in higher dimensions within the earthly realm of existence. There are many descriptions within the Puranas of lands existing on this planet that are inaccessible to us. For example, there are three different levels of the Himalayas. What we experience as the Himalayas is only the lowest dimensional level. It is described in the Mahabharata that Bhima was able to visit many of these higher dimensional realms when he was collecting wealth for the rajasuya yajna. Also the palace of Yudhishthira Maharaja was created by yakshas, who exist on higher dimensions. The artwork they made for the palace (paintings, carpets, ceiling, etc.) was actually animated and in three dimensions. So much so that it was not possible to distinguish it from reality. For those who are existing in three dimensions, a painting will be done in two dimensions. But for those existing in four dimensions, a painting will be done in three dimensions. This is why Duryodhana was confused when he entered Yudhishthira's palace, and ended up stepping in a pond, thinking it was the floor.]

A New Slice on Physics Is the world we see trapped on a thin membrane separating us from vast other realms? Some scientists say that would explain a lot. Plato considered it first. What if everything we hold dear is but a thin slice of some larger, unreachable reality, like a flickering shadow cast on the craggy wall of a cave? What if the moon and stars, your home, your thoughts, your cat, are but projections on this wall -- mere suggestions of unfathomable realms beyond? In the last few years, a mathematically rigorous version of Plato's 2,000-year-old thought experiment has been refashioning the way physicists think about everything from subatomic particles to the Big Bang. The universe we see, according to this scenario, is stuck on a thin membrane of space-time embedded in a much larger cosmos. And our membrane may be only one of many, all of which may warp, wiggle, connect and collide with one another in as many as 10 dimensions. Physicists call this new frontier the "brane world." The idea could help solve a long list of outstanding mysteries. Among them: What is the "dark matter" that seems to make up 90% of the universe? And why is gravity trillions of times weaker than electromagnetism? The revolution was set off in the mid-1990s when UC Santa Barbara physicist Joe Polchinski determined through mathematics that branes were a surface to which things attach, like hair to skin -- except the "things" in this case were the minuscule "strings" that may well be the fundamental ingredients of the universe. "I was just fiddling around with mathematics.... Within a week or two [other physicists] had done things with it I hadn't envisioned. It was like taking the stopper out of the dam. Things poured through." Alan Guth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, creator of the currently accepted version of the Big Bang, said recently he felt a little like Rip Van Winkle -- picking up his head from a long sleep only to notice that the landscape of physics he thought he knew had suddenly, drastically, changed. Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge, among others, envisions brane worlds bubbling up out of the void, giving rise to whole new universes. He ends his latest book, "The Universe in a Nutshell," with a call to explore this "brane new world." One might well wonder why such a seemingly bizarre concept has attracted so many well-established physicists. The short answer is: desperation. The laws of nature that describe the large-scale universe to an astonishing degree of precision (Einstein's general relativity) are incompatible with the laws that describe the small-scale universe with the same astonishing exactness (quantum theory). This means either that one of these well-tested theories is wrong (all but inconceivable) or that there is some larger, more encompassing theory that somehow accommodates both. To date, the only theory that comes close to marrying the two is "string theory" -- a mathematically elegant set of ideas that has swept the world of physics over the last few decades. According to string theory, the basic ingredients of the universe are not point-like particles, but tiny strings vibrating in 10-dimensional space. Although still untested, string theory has scored a spectacular series of theoretical successes, earning it an ever-widening circle of admirers. And yet string theory remains a realm apart from day-to-day physics -- lovely to behold but innately aloof. For one thing, the strings are so small that it would take a particle accelerator larger than the solar system to create the energies needed to "see" them. This means, in effect, that strings can never be detected. For another, the complex mathematics required to deal with the tortured 10-dimensional landscape is beyond the reach of most physicists. Brane models change all that: Unlike in string theory, the extra dimensions in brane worlds can be big, infinitely big. "It led to a whole new bunch of possibilities that could be experimentally tested," said physicist Jim Cline of McGill University in Montreal. What's more, branes don't require the full range of mathematical tools required for string theory, opening the door to new groups of scientists. "You can use methods that are part and parcel of more traditional physics," said Columbia University physicist Brian Greene. "So a person who's not a string theorist can jump into the field and make contributions." This sense of promise was palpable last summer at the Aspen Center for Physics, where string theorists and cosmologists -- the scientists who study the origin and structure of the universe -- gathered for a workshop to explore links between the smallest scales in the universe and the largest. Brane scenarios popped up everywhere, enveloped in the thick fog of uncertainty that clouds the birth of new worlds. The setting was strangely church-like. The faithful sat in rows under spires of white-barked aspens, their round leaves fluttering in the wind. In front, a maestro in sneakers tapped out symbols on a blackboard, chalk flying like fairy dust, black jeans covered in white handprints. There was lots of talk about the infinite. Lots of recitation and response. Everyone strained to channel some larger reality through equations. "Your bulk could contain many 3-branes," one physicist said. "The 9-branes could still annihilate." "I'm lost." This was not your grandmother's physics. There were no objects in the usual sense. No matter, no particles. Not even numbers. Only "instantons,alpha vacua" and multidimensional membranes wrapping around one another, traveling down throats of black holes and bouncing back, transformed. Even to physicists, much of this seems unbearably strange. But in physics, strangeness comes with the territory. "When I first learned about quantum physics as an undergraduate, it just about destroyed my mind," said Stanford post-doctoral fellow Stephon Alexander. "And now, 12 years later, it's just a tool." There's actually nothing particularly new about the idea that space may extend into unseen dimensions, or even that the world we know is somehow trapped on a membrane. Extra dimensions were such a hot topic in the 19th century that Victorian schoolmaster Edwin Abbott wrote a famous science fiction novel, "Flatland," based on the notion that our limited perceptions prevented us from seeing worlds existing right in front of our three-dimensional noses. Albert Einstein made extra dimensions an integral part of physics when he used a fourth dimension, time, in his theory of relativity in 1905. Ten years later, he showed that this interwoven fabric of space-time could warp under the influence of massive objects -- "causing" the force we know as gravity. Extra-dimensional membranes were kicking around in string theory since at least the mid-1980s, but no one took them very seriously. One of the first suggestions that the world we know might be stuck to such a membrane appeared in a 1985 paper that was a parody of string theory titled "The Super G-String" by V. Gates, et al., from the University of Cauliflower (actually, physicist Warren Siegel of State University of New York, Stony Brook). "It was based on a serious paper that was totally overlooked because it was before its time," Polchinski said. The branes playing such a large role in physics today are richer and more mathematically rigorous than early versions. Essentially, a brane is a discontinuity in space-time, a boundary where things meet, like the surface of a pond where the water meets the sky. "It's a defect in the quantum fabric," said Ruth Gregory of the University of Durham in Britain. On one side of the defect would be the vacuum of empty space. A vacuum with somewhat different properties might exist on the other side. Imagine our brane as pond scum -- a thin film that divides the air above from a deep (perhaps infinitely deep) body of water below. Most of what we experience is trapped in the scum. But beyond is a whole other world of currents swirling beneath the surface. Their motion might tug on our scum. We'd feel it as nothing but a gentle disturbance, never dreaming of what lurks below. A brane doesn't always divide one thing from another. It may just be a condensation of stuff, "a localized lump of energy and curvature that likes to hang together," Stanford University physicist Steve Shenker said. Either way, it's a place where things get stuck -- like the scum on the pond. "That was the revolution," said Harvard University physicist Lisa Randall. "To realize that branes were honest-to-goodness objects." Randall played a pivotal role in the revolution when she and Johns Hopkins University physicist Raman Sundrum realized that branes could be infinitely large and yet remain invisible. The reason: We can't see anything outside our brane, because light can't escape or enter it. We can't hear anything outside, because sound travels through matter, and matter is stuck to our brane. We can't use radioactivity to sense what's beyond, or even break through with nuclear bombs, because nuclear forces are also firmly nailed to our brane. There could be a big blue elephant sitting not a millimeter away in another dimension, but we wouldn't know it's there because everything we use to "see" is stuck to our brane. Only gravity can't be glued to a particular brane. Gravity, as Einstein revealed, is the curving of space-time itself, so it wanders willy-nilly where it will, leaking off our brane into what physicists call "the bulk" -- the rest of space-time. Brane scenarios offer an elegant explanation for why gravity is such a weakling: Maybe it's not any weaker than the other forces. Maybe it's just concentrated somewhere else in the bulk, or on another brane. Explaining the wimpiness of gravity is but a taste of what this Brane New World might do. Consider another embarrassing problem that has stumped astronomers for decades. At least 90% of the matter in the universe is AWOL. Or more precisely, it is known to exist because of its gravitational pull (without it, galaxies wouldn't hold together) but can't be detected by any other means. The standard approach has been to populate the universe with exotic new forms of matter, too elusive to be readily seen. If our brane is but a small slice of a much larger cosmos, however, the "dark matter" might be nothing but ordinary matter trapped on another brane. Such a shadow world, Hawking speculates, might contain "shadow human beings wondering about the mass that seems to be missing from their world." Or take the mystery of why elementary particles always appear in triplets, each set heavier than the next. One possibility is that each triplet is the same particle repeating itself on three layers of branes. They would have different masses on our brane for the same reason as shadows on a wall can be different sizes depending on the distance of the object that casts them. "One of the neat things about the whole extra-dimensional idea," Polchinski said, "is that all the physics that we see -- all the kinds of particles and their detailed properties -- are reflections of some inner geometry." As in real estate, value depends on location, location, location. The physicists most entranced with brane worlds are cosmologists. Over the last decade, a new array of telescopes and satellites has provided them with sophisticated tools for taking the measure of the universe. What was once little more than navel gazing is fast becoming a data-drenched science. But cosmologists need string theory to understand the origin of the universe, because laws of physics break down at the tiny distances and immense gravity at play in the Big Bang. For now, cosmologists can see back in time only so far, and no farther. Consider the Big Bang. According to current theory, the universe sprang from an infinitely small speck of space-time known as a "singularity" -- a paradox in the accepted laws of physics, which hold that nothing can be infinitely small. "A singularity is a euphemism for: 'Things have gone haywire.... Things make no sense,' " said Greene, one of the coordinators of the Aspen workshop. "The Big Bang singularity is an 'It doesn't make sense' on the most important problem -- namely, how did it all begin." Branes can enclose the Big Bang singularity like a sheet of cellophane -- avoiding the problem of the infinitely small by giving the singularity some dimension. Not surprisingly, the string-cosmology connection that brane worlds brought about is also producing something of a culture clash. Until recently, string theorists have remained skeptical of the grand theories of cosmologists. String theory is mathematically rigorous. Cosmologists are a wilder bunch, willing to try out almost any model of the universe and see where it leads. "We know how branes work," said string theorist Nathan Seiberg of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. "We know what are properties of branes, and what are not properties of branes. [Cosmologists] violate all the rules. Is this good or bad? I'm not sure. Because if they come up with something which violates the rules of string theory but does all sorts of other wonderful things, then maybe we in string theory will have a motivation to look into it." Branes already have brought a whole new zoo of exotic species into the world of physics. There are skinny branes and fat branes; empty branes and full; active and still. "A brane which is wiggling a lot would translate to a brane that has excitations on it, particles on it," said McGill's Cline. That would be a brane with atoms, forces, us. "But I could also have a cold brane," he said. "That would be like a cold, empty universe. The brane still has some energy density, but there's no particles living there." And while the term brane derives from membrane -- a two-dimensional surface -- branes could also exist in every possible dimension. A string is a "1-brane," for one-dimensional object. Brane worlds (like the one we might live in) must by necessity be "3 plus 1" branes -- three dimensions of space plus one of time. But you can just as easily have a pair of 10-dimensional branes bounding an 11-dimensional universe. For now, no one knows whether the building blocks of the ultimate theory will be strings or branes. "You can't really say," Polchinski said. "It's kind of Zen-like, but in a very precise way." Ultimately, brane worlds will stand or fall, like all science, on the twin tests of consistency and experiment. Whatever bizarre brane worlds may exist in some larger dimensional landscape, they can't change what we perceive. The stars can't slip off into hyperspace. The cat can't be disturbed from the couch. Physics has to answer to nature as we know it. Experimental evidence could come in the next decade from two very different realms. A new particle collider under construction in Europe could reach high-enough energies to produce, say, a five-dimensional "particle" of gravity -- a telltale sign of brane worlds beyond. This particle might be detected as energy missing from a collision because it "leaks" into an extra dimension. At the same time, cosmologists are figuring out ways to read the signature of extra dimensions in the microwaves that pervade space as the afterglow of the Big Bang; the effects would be subtle but detectable, with a new generation of satellites. "We just have to keep hoping that nature will be kind," Cline said. In the end, there's always the chance that all these ideas will turn out to be too, well, off-the-wall. "Who knows?" said University of Chicago physicist Sean Carroll. But even if brane worlds aren't real, Carroll said, "they will have taught us a useful lesson that we should have known all along, which is that we don't have a clue to what's going on." Polchinski, for one, believes that branes are probably real, even though he isn't sure where the idea will lead. "It's possible that nature doesn't work that way," he said. "But it's so rich with possibilities, if it's not good for this, it's probably good for something else."

Avinash, I've heard this before and it is a good example. Essentially there is an order to perception. We are three dimensional beings so we can see anything at or below our order. Thus we can see three dimensions (an object), two dimensions (a surface), or one dimension (a dot). If there were a 4th dimension, that 4th dimensional being could see everything we see and his own dimension. But he couldn't see a 5th dimensional being etc.... I know is sounds weird, but real physicists study and believe this stuff. I was reading one article, and one of the pioneers of this field was saying something like "For all we know, right now a pink polka-doted elephant is walking right past us." I was thinking this guy had been brewing something funny in his laboratory. But maybe he is right.

If you were to overlay a map of the U.S. and a map of India on top of each other, you could rougly segment certain areas of the U.S. to correspond to areas in India. I think there should be sister temples between the U.S. and India. For instance, Washington and Oregon temples could work together to assist in projects on the west of India. Temples in Texas can work with temples in South India. The Boston, New York, and Philadelphia temples can work on the east of India like Manipur, Calcutta etc.... Many cities in the U.S. have sister cities with other countries like Japan or Germany. Its usually a small plaque and some ornamental gift. But I think the idea of regional areas in the U.S. supporting regional projects in India would be good.

This week's Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program addresses the question: Do all paths lead to the same result? In the Sri Isopanishad it is stated that one who worships the demigods will go to the demigods and one who worships God will go to God. There is a particular result based on the endeavor one undertakes. So we do not accept this idea that all paths lead to the same place. Those that state this are actually saying that God is formless and devoid of personality. Guys like Rajneesh say this but they don’t hand out pictures of dogs. They give out pictures of Rajneesh. If we sent them pictures of me they would not hand these out. “All paths lead to the same place but my path is the best.” Audience Member: I knew a number of psychics. I went to this one church where this lady spent her whole life communicating with ghosts and they say when she died she became a ghost. Srila Siddhaswarupananda: Yes, she developed ghost consciousness. These mediums do things like having sex with ghosts. But it wasn’t really a ghost, it was a guy in the dark [laughter]. They are following these rascals. Learn to have no hang-ups and have sex with ghosts. They are simply ghosts. Audience Member: I was talking to this guy about chanting God’s names. What about some tribe in Africa that have their own name for God. Srila Siddhaswarupananda: God has many names. Everyone has their own language. You say “Africa” like in Africa they don’t have God’s names but in America we do. The sound vibration represents the Lord. Right now I’m not speaking Sanskrit. English isn’t some holy language. But since I am glorifying the Supreme Person therefore there is spiritual power. No one anywhere is separate from God. If someone in this life cannot come in contact with devotees they will one day. Take a long-term view. Its not your fault that you didn’t come in contact with Billy Graham. So when you die and go to heaven and God says “Have you accepted Jesus Christ?” and you are from Africa and you’ve never heard of Jesus and don’t speak English, therefore you are damned. Even tribals experience God through contact with nature. God does not make it so some can know him and some cannot. We see time as eternal. If you don’t come in contact with devotees in this life, then at some point you will. God isn’t making an arbitrary choice. Those who do not accept the reality of reincarnation cannot understand this. Audience Member: I have heard that Bhakti-yoga is the culmination of all yoga. Srila Siddhaswarupananda: All yogic practices are meant to lead to the Supreme Person. Hatha yoga (breathing, stretching) is meant to calm the mind to have one pointed thinking of God. Jnana yoga is knowledge to understand our relationship with God. What is the practical application of knowledge? You should understand your identity and position. Bhakti yoga is loving service toward God. Sometime a person is called a Hatha yogi, or a Jnana yogi. This just means they’ve stopped at that stage but they don’t apply it. Bhakti yoga means acting on what we know to be the truth.

I found this pretty interesting. The Yezidi Kurds are a pre-Islamic religion found in Iraq, Armenia and surrounding areas. Here is a picture of a Yezidi mother and grandchild: They worship a “peacock god” known as Melek Taus, also known as Lucifer. To them Lucifer fell, but then was forgiven by God. Unfortunately, they are often oppressed by Muslims and called devil worshippers. Here is an encyclopedia entry for them: The Yezidi or Yazidi are adherents of a small Middle Eastern religion with ancient origins. They are primarily ethnic Kurds, and most Yazidis live in Iraq and Syria with smaller communities in Turkey and Armenia. There are also Yazidi refugees in Germany. The Yazidi worship Malak Ta’us, apparently a pre-Islamic peacock god with links to Mithraism and, through it, to Zoroastrianism. The Yazidi maintain a well-preserved culture, rich in traditions and customs. In the region that is now Iraq, the Yazidi have been oppressed and labeled as devil worshippers for centuries. During the reign of Saddam Hussein, however, they were considered to be Arabs and maneuvered to oppose the Kurds, in order to tilt the ethnic balance in northern Iraq. Since the 2003 occupation of Iraq, the Kurds want the Yazidi to be recognized as ethnic Kurds. The Yazidi’s own name for themselves is Dasin. While folk etymology connects the religion to the Umayyad khalif Yazid I (680-683), the name Yazidi is actually most likely derived from the Pahlavi (Middle Persian) word "yezd," meaning angel, probably in reference to Malak Ta’us. Religion Yazidi faith contains elements of Zoroastrianism, Manicheism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Gnostic and local pre-Islamic beliefs. It might have originally been based on the original religion of the Kurds. In about 1162, Sheikh Adii Ibn Mustafa radically reformed the religion, so that some believe the previous form was a different religion from current belief. Different clans may also have different interpretations. According to the Yazidi, Malak Taus is a fallen peacock angel who repented and recreated the world that had been broken. He filled seven jars with his tears and used them to quench the fire in Hell. Although primarily a monotheistic religion, Yezidism also includes minor deities and some clans venerate Sheikh Adii as a saint, subservient to Malak Ta’us. The Yazidi holy books are the Book of Revelation and the Black Book. The latter forbids eating of lettuce or butter beans and wearing of dark blue. The historical status of the book is questionable. Yazidi are exclusive and do not reveal most of their secrets to the uninitiated. The twice-daily prayer services must not be performed in the presence of outsiders, and are always performed in the direction of the sun. Wednesday is the holy day but Saturday is the day of rest. There is also a three-day fast in December. The most important ritual is the annual six-day pilgrimage to the tomb of Sheikh Adii in Lalish, north of Mosul, Iraq. During the celebration, Yazidi bathe in the river, wash figures of Malak Ta’us and light hundreds of lamps in the tombs of Sheikh Adii and other saints. They also sacrifice an ox, which is one reason they have been connected to Mithraism. Population and marriage customs Historically, the Yazidis are a religious minority of the Kurds. Purportedly, they have existed since 2,000 B.C.. Estimates of the number of Yazidis vary between 100.000 and 800.000. The latter is the claim of their website. According to the same site, refugees in Germany number 30.000. Feleknas Uca, a German Member of the European Parliament for the Party of Democratic Socialism is the world's only Yazidi parliamentarian. Yazidi are dominantly monogamous but chiefs may have more than one wife. Children are baptized at birth and circumcision is common but not required. Dead are buried in conical tombs immediately after death and buried with hands crossed. Yazidi are exclusive. Yazidi clans do not intermarry even with other Kurds and accept no converts. They claim that they are descended only from Adam. The strongest punishment is expulsion, which is also effectively excommunication because the soul of the exiled is forfeit. Accusations and stereotypes As a demiurge figure, Malak Ta’us is often identified by orthodox Muslims as a shaytan, a Muslim term denoting a devil or demon who deceives true believers, causing them to assign partners to Allah. Thus, the Yezidi have been accused of devil worship. Because of this and due to their pre-Islamic beliefs, they have been oppressed by their Muslim neighbors and the Ottoman Empire. Due to their alleged connection to the Devil, in modern times the Yazidi have been accused of Satanism (like the Process Church of the Final Judgment). As a distant religious belief, many non-Yazidi people have written about them, and ascribed facts to their beliefs that have dubious historical validity. For example, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft made a reference to "... the Yezidi clan of devil-worshippers" in his short story "The Horror at Red Hook". The Yezidis have also been claimed as an influence on Aleister Crowley's Thelema. Here are images of Melek Taus:

if there is any good news out of this, its that when this child grows up and learns of this he'll become pro-life. Thats what happened to the Roe vs. Wade lady. Her daughters became pro-life realizing they could have been killed and shunned their mother. Eventually she too became pro-life.

My comparisons are entirely valid. A book is used to convey or preserve information. Ok, we don't need that in the spiritual world according to you. Fine. You say "Take the cows. You cannot compare books with cows." Why can't I compare books with cows. If we are talking about things in the spiritual world that may or may not exist, then what need is there for cows? You don't need to drink milk in the spiritual world because there is no hunger. Do you need cows for companionship? Why? Shouldn't the spiritual world be blissful, with or without cows? If not, isn't that a deficiency of the spiritual world? You make an assumption that because Vaisnava theology says cows are in the spiritual world, that is therefore correct. But if Christians say books are in the spiritual world that is false. Why? You have no basis except speculation. Another example: Clothes are used for modesty purposes and for protection against the elements. So why do we need this in the spiritual world? Are spiritual residents immodest? Would they succumb to lusty desires if they didn't wear clothing? Or perhaps they are trying to stop from getting cold, because the spiritual world is subject to nature? You excuse these examples by saying something like "In the spiritual world your clothes and your ornaments are not different from yourself." Really? Pretty easy cop out. You simply make a statement, that is not philosophically neutral (ie. you take your Vaisnava view and assume it is correct) without proving why it is correct. Christians can say the same thing if they want. You continue to say "As for the spiritual world, there, there is no future and no past that one is concern on, no interests in books, but to live the reality, and no idea about maya." So you are telling me that if the gopis wanted to write poetry about Krishna in a book, and share that book with one another, that they are NOT ALLOWED TO DO THIS BECAUSE BOOKS CAN NEVER EXIST IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD? I'm sorry, I just don't think you know that. I think you are just speculating that books cannot exist in the spiritual world. By the way, good point Theist about the carrots. I remember some Gaudiya Math devotees making a big deal about how eating carrots is tantamount to eating cow flesh. Lets see, you can't have books in heaven, and you are never allowed to eat carrots. Odd philosophy /images/graemlins/smile.gif

It seems to me you are just grasping at straws Anadi. Like take this for instance: "Is it possible that in the spiritual world is a book (with 7 seals, that no one dares to look at it), or even in heaven?" So, heaven can't have books? We could ask why do heavenly creatures have clothes. Why are there cows in the spiritual world? Do we need milk to drink in heaven? What happens if we don't eat, will we starve to death in heaven? If not, then why is there food at all. Why are there clothes in heaven? Is it because immodesty is a concept in heaven, and so the naked spiritual body would cause lusty desires among spiritual residents? Thus they must wear clothes? Everything I've seen so far from you has just been cut and paste. Believe me, if you have questions about interpolations in the Bible, then it is definitely best not to look into books from India.

I got these from two different sites: 1) The most poetic version of the Hermopolitan myth reverts to creation coming out of the chaotic primeval ocean. Indeed, in this rendition of the story, it is a lotus flower that is said to emerge from the waters. The petals of the lotus flower unfolded and sitting on the calix (the centre / heart of the flower) was a divine child, the god Ra. A remarkable sculpture found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun shows the head of the young king emerging from a lotus flower, the petals fanning out around his neck -- an image that depicts the young king with the powers of the creator god Ra (see image left). 2)The lotus flower played a prominent role in the version of the creation story that originated in Heliopolis. Before the universe came into being, there was an infinite ocean of inert water which constituted the primeval being named Nun. Out of Nun emerged a lotus flower, together with a single mound of dry land. The lotus blossoms opened, and out stepped the self-created sun god, Atum, as a child. A slightly different version of the creation story originated in Hermopolis. In that version, the sun god who formed himself from the chaos of Nun emerged from the lotus petals as Ra.

It was either on like the Discovery Channel, the History Channel or such... Anyways, it had just a quick reference to the Egyptian creation story. As I recall, the sun god, was born from a golden lotus flower that emerged from the primordial ocean. It sounded exactly like Brahma, except it was the sun god. Egyptians were sun worshippers.

Just contemplating this chart some more. Right when Srila Prabhupada left India for America, its population was perhaps 450 million (1965). Today, some 40 years later, its pushing 1 billion.

So India's population in 1900 is a little over 200 million. Most likely in 1850 or so it would have been 150 million. Thats manageable. Today the world tends to think of Calcutta in a bad light, as being very dirty and poor. But I've heard during the British times (when Prabhupada was a youth) it was a beautiful city and very cosmopolitan. Anyways, here is the chart:

I saw Bono from the music group U2 on O'Reilly tonight. I must say, I tend to find celebrity spokes people to not be too bright. However, I thought Bono did a very good and convincing job in his presentation. I can respect him. Unlike most celebrities, Bono has realized that if the goal is to get something done then its best not to antagonize the other side. Rather he works in a bi-partisan manner to get his goals passed. And because of this he probably has done more for AIDs in Africa than the leftist screechers like Barbara Streisand and her ilk. What matters are the results not the rhetoric. If the rhetoric gets in the way of the results (such as antagonizing the other side) then what is the purpose? Anyways, here are his sites for his programs: www.data.org www.theonecampaign.com

I remember reading once (and I'll know I'll get the number wrong), but somewhere I recall the population of India when Bhaktivinode was around, lets say the late 1800s, it was something like 50 - 100 million people. India is like one third the size of the U.S. and three times the population. This gives a density of 9 times that of the U.S. Frankly I think if India had a population of 100 million, it would probably be close to paradise. But so many people its just very difficult to keep society organized. Second, I think during the Cold War India was a big supporter of the Soviet Union. So they did a lot of state control over industry. The problem with this is all the red tape stifles innovation and creativity. I remember seeing a 60 Minutes episode where they showed this one Indian entrepreneur who started a computer type business in India, but because of all of the regulation it failed. So he moved to the U.S. started the exact same business and now is a multi-millionaire. So much of the poverty in the world is due to poor economic programs. It is not due to natural resources. Japan is resource poor, Hong Kong is resource poor. Russia is extremely resource rich (more gold, oil, lumber etc.... than the U.S.). Argentina was once a very wealthy country in South America, now because of bad economic policies they are in debt to the hilt and have major problems.

This week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program looks at “Am I My Body?” Who are you? What is a person? Like most people you have likely filled out forms on age, color, and other identities. “I’m 30 years old, I’m black, I’m a librarian, I’m female.” All these different labels based on the body. We answer according to these labels. Most people identify with their physical body. What if I ask how old you are and you identify with your 2 year old shirt. Most people are like this and identify with their titles. Are we our bodies? Le me ask you three questions: 1) Do you know that you exist – Yes. 2) Do you know that you existed 7 years ago – Yes. 3) Are you your body? – Yes. Most would say this. The problem is that the body you have today is not the same body you had 7 years ago. That body no longer exists. Seven years ago you thought the same way. Each body is made up of countless particles of matter. These cells are constantly changing. Read here [handing a book to an attendee] . Audience Member [paraphrased reading of book]: “Dr. Paul C. Eversoll has recorded and is convinced that 98% of cells are replaced annually. The stomach lining is replaced every day. The liver, skin, hemoglobin replaces after X number of days… After five years one can consider the body completely new.” Srila Siddhaswarupananda: For people who identify with the body this is very heavy. Who are you? Some people say they are the brain. “I’m the center of the brain.” But all the matter in the cell has changed. The brain in the skull changes every three days. Here read this. Audience Member: “Recent studies of the turnover of the cells of the matter making up the brain is replaced every three days.” Srila Siddhaswarupananda: Your memories are supposed to be stored in the brain. But my brain is different. There is a constant change in the body. What am I? If a person answers their body then they are speaking out of ignorance. Most people understand this intuitively when they look in the mirror or look at old photographs. Sit down and look at the family album. They see the baby body, the boy body, the childhood body. “Johnny have you seen this picture of Linda?” It’s of a baby in diapers drooling. “Mom don’t show that picture.” We flash on this. Now we are bitter 60 instead of sweet 16. Where is the sweet 16 body? This is the way to appreciate that the gross physical body cannot be considered the self. Although you have a different body still you are you. Do you understand? I hope after this discussion, the next time you have to fill out one of those forms asking for your identity that you can dwell upon this.

India's 'lost Jews' wait in hope By Geeta Pandey BBC correspondent in Imphal, Manipur A team of senior Israeli rabbis is due to rule soon on whether thousands of Indians who say they are members of one of the lost tribes of Israel can settle there. Only 5,000 of the Benei Menashes have converted to Judaism Shlomo Amar recently led a delegation of rabbis to the north-eastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram where members of the Benei Menashe tribe live and practise Judaism. At the Beith-el Synagogue in the Manipur capital, Imphal, nine men wearing knitted skull caps read silently from the Old Testament. Four others stand on a wooden platform in the centre of the room as a young man reads from the holy book under the supervision of an elderly priest. These people claim to be one of the lost tribes of Israel. Recent discovery Tongkhohao Aviel Hangshing is the leader of the Benei Menashes in Imphal. We found that the stories, the customs and practices of the Israeli people were very similar to ours Tongkhohao Aviel Hangshing "We are Benei Menashe, because we belong to the Menashe tribe," he says. "Menashe is the son of Joseph, who was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. So we are the lost tribe of Israel." Mr Hangshing says for thousands of years they did not know they were lost. "We found out only 27 years ago," he says. "When the Bible was translated into our language, in 1970s, we studied it. "And we found that the stories, the customs and practices of the Israeli people were very similar to ours. So we thought that we must be one of the lost tribes." Saturdays are observed by Jews the world over as the Sabbath, the day of rest, and the members of the Benei Menashe community meet for morning prayers at the synagogue in Imphal. A lamb-skin scroll of the Torah, is unrolled and then rolled up again as each reader finishes his part. Hope There are more than 300,000 Benei Menashes in Manipur but most of them follow Christianity. Only about 5,000 have converted to Judaism, most of them during the 1970s. Mr Hangshing says although India has treated them quite well, they do not consider it their home. Lucy Vaiphei (right) is hoping to join her family in Israel The recent visit by a delegation of rabbis from Israel has given new hope to the members of this community. Caleb, a 24-year-old college student, wants to go to Israel because he says it is the land of his forefathers. Amram is studying to be a lawyer. He says Israel is the promised land, for him and the others too. "In Israel it will be easier for us to practise our religion." In a chamber partitioned from the main prayer hall, about a dozen women join in the Sabbath prayers. Lucy Vaiphei is the caretaker of the synagogue. Her parents and six siblings have emigrated to Israel in the last few years and she is now looking forward to making the move herself. Michael Freund, director of Amishav - an organisation that helps Jews move to Israel - says he firmly believes that Menashe is one of the lost tribes of Israel. "We have brought over 800 of them to Israel," he says, "and the remaining people also want to emigrate". Mr Freund says that last year the new Israeli interior minister, Avraham Poraz, suddenly declared his opposition to bringing the Benei Menashes into Israel. "But I'm confident that if the chief rabbi issues a ruling saying that the Benei Menashes are indeed descendents of the Jewish people and should be allowed back home, then he will have no choice but to let them in." So while the rabbis in Israel take a decision on whether or not to grant the right to emigrate to Israel to the Benei Menashes, this community here is waiting with bated breath - and praying.

I came across some articles stating that Joaquin Phoenix (Gladiator, Signs) is a Vegan. First article: He talks briefly about being a vegetarian "which I have been since age 7." He says that vegetarian cuisine has improved over the years, but the leather exclusions did complicate one of Joaquin's rare modelling gigs, he once recalled. "When I did the Prada campaign", he says, "The stylist wore the shoes. They did a separate shot of the shoes and it wasn't me. Fortunately for Phoenix, ex-girlfriend Tyler was also vegetarian "so food was the least of our problems" he chuckles. From a FAQ on Phoenix: Is Joaquin really a vegetarian? Actually, no he's not a vegetarian, he's a vegan. A vegetarian can eat eggs, chicken, use leather products, etc. A vegan doesn't eat or use any animal products whatsoever (no meat, no dairy, no leather products, etc). Joaquin has been a vegan since the age of three. Here's a quote from Joaquin about his families conversion to veganism (from POV magazine: Aug 98 Wild Child): "He swears he can vividly remember the day of his third birthday, aboard a freight ship hauling Tonka toys from Venezuela to Florida. 'The crew started pulling up nets with just thousands of fish and they`d be flopping on the deck,' he says. 'In order to kill them, they just threw them against the wall, which was utterly shocking.'" Joaquin also is a supporter of PETA (he has done several ad campaign's for them, and constantly refuses to wear any leather products for his movies.

There is nothing wrong with investing. If you diversify away the company specific risk with a balanced portfolio you can earn fairly good returns for relatively little risk. If you want to be real strict then only invest in hard assets like gold, real estate etc... However, you can also buy bonds and utility stocks that will return some steady income with no risk. Also, before you invest in a stock, look into Standard & Poors or Moody's to see the stock's Beta. Beta is a measurement of the riskiness of a stock and measures how a stock fluctuates in comparison to the overall market. For instance, a Beta of 1 means if the market goes up 10% it will likely go up 10% (1 to 1). However, a Beta of 2 is much riskier. It means if the market goes up 10% the stock will likely go up 20%. But that also works in reverse, so if the market drops 10%, the stock will likely drop 20%. I think you can invest without it being a gamble. Still, the stock market is odd because once you are on, its a bit like a roller coaster ride. Its difficult to jump out in the middle.

This week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program deals with the question: “Am I God?” Many people in the world teach that each of us is God. Just about every yogi and swami these days is putting forward this idea that we are each God but that we have forgotten that we are God and thus we experience this wheel of birth and death. This lecture will look at why this is flawed. First, here is a quote from Swami Muktananda from his ‘Siddha Meditations’. Swami Muktananda is very popular these days and he says [note: I’m paraphrasing as I couldn’t write the exact wording]: “Meditate on yourself, worship yourself, God dwells within you. God forgets his own nature and searches for God. God meditates on God, God is searching for God.” Now the process in which God forgets He is God is never exactly explained. However, he (Swami Muktananda) does try to describe it as follows: “The Supreme Lord separates into differences. When Shiva splits into the variegated entities, He creates a consciousness of imperfection. God is overcome by a sense of distinction. Now He can only accomplish certain things. Now He creates good and bad deeds. The highest consciousness becomes bound. Its omniscience, everlastingness, and perfection are reduced. He feels helpless and attached. The eternal being cries aloud from fear of death regard Itself as mortal. He grieves because of shakti-poverty.” This comes from Muktananda’s ‘Siddha Meditations’. He is saying that God becomes covered up. By differentiating Himself in the forms of a dog, a cat, a maggot in stool, He loses His perfection and because of differentiation becomes overwhelmed. These are Mayavadis. They believe that illusion is more powerful than God. They say that the origin of all loses His power. He comes under control. This is nonsense. That God comes under illusion. What kind of God is this, who is bouncing on his ass trying to increase his kundalini, regulating his diet, practicing breathing. You have God being hit by cars, chasing cats… What is this nonsense? This is not God. So many people are falling for this nonsense. “Swami such-and-such said that I am God.” They never stop to think “How am I God?” This is fatally flawed. How is it that God forgets? It means that illusion is more powerful. This is materialism. This is atheism. They try to say that God forgets until he goes to the guru who tells him who he is. The guru is God too but he knows he is God. If there is only one being, how is it that one knows they are God but the other doesn’t? So they are speaking nonsense. Absolute nonsense. The conclusion of all scriptures and saintly persons is that God is a person. Srila Rupa Goswami says [paraphrased] “God is always free of false ego. It is not possible for him to fall into misconception.” You are a spark of God. The same in essence – yes. I am part and parcel of the Supreme Soul. But to try to say that you will become God or were God, this is crazy. You cannot explain it. Now sometimes they try to explain this problem away. They say that God does it on purpose. Why? He can do whatever He wants. He wanted to become a dog or a maggot for His lila (divine pastimes). They say that God is not a person but rather an impersonal spirit void. So to enjoy Himself, He divides Himself into many differentiated beings. He creates this world for His enjoyment. There are important flaws in this. First, this world is not a place of enjoyment. It is mostly suffering, with a bit of enjoyment. Birth, disease, and death. There is so much suffering that these very Swamis are teaching that we should leave this wheel of birth and death. Why isn’t it a place of enjoyment? And why are they teaching that we should leave? They say that God was not happy when He knew He was God. So to enjoy He separates Himself. Then He suffers. Then He tries to remember that He is in fact God. What they are actually saying is that God is never satisfied. This is why so many yogis go up and down, up and down. They are never happy. This is the conclusion. God is a person. He never comes under His energy. We the living entities are not all powerful. We can come under illusion. So this teaching makes it possible to understand reincarnation. If a person denies a Supreme Spirit then they cannot leave this wheel of birth and death. You must give up your enviousness of God. The first step is to understand that you are spirit. The second step is to understand your position as the servant of God. God is the Supreme dominator. Anyone who tries to get off this wheel of birth and death must understand that they are not God. Anyone who teaches otherwise is guaranteeing that you will remain trapped on this wheel. This “I am God” philosophy must be given up. It is absolute atheism. Absolute nonsense.