Vanguard

Thanks for telling this story prabhu. Knowing Rosa Parks took Prasadam multiple times, and had darshan of the deities is quite heartwarming.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiice

I was on a train recently, and the in train food service only had dishes with meat in them.

I love the hackneyed mantra the Neo-Cons use to make their own ranks docile and make a feeble attempt to satisfy everyone else.

"If this war was about oil, why are the prices going up?"

Haha! To increase the profit margin of course! In addition, didn't Saddam Hussein sell oil very cheap as part of his vendetta against Kuwait and other oil rich nations he didn't like?

With Saddam Hussein gone, no reason to sell abnormally cheap anymore

No, but we have a World Health Organization.

Wouldn't you like that instead?

http://www.who.int/en/

The only place where color of your attire will be a problem as a devotee is in the temple room. I THINK black is not allowed.

Do you mean black shirt and pants, or black everything, goth style?

Black shirts and pants in of themselves are not offensive. Conservative Muslims tend to dress this way.

Becoming Sanyasi does not exempt you from interacting with the people of the world (whom according to you give you much pain), nor does it magically remove that pain and allow you to interact with the masses with impunity. It would probably increase your pain unless you're a mahabhagavat.

Babaji vesh is for those who don't want to deal with others

re.vangards negative comments-of course we have seen persons leave the sannyas order under unfavourable conditions and influence of maya, but - instead why not use Srila Prabhupada or Srila Bhaktisiddhanta as examples of the success of those that take the sannyas ashram with the utmost of seriousness to encourage others when the time comes to leave family life ?

Because every sanyasi and saffron clad brahmachari who has ever told me words to the effect of "time to take sannyas man", have since gotten married themselves. The steadiest, most devoted tyagis and acharyas encourage the sadhaka according to their path; not trying to derail that path to create some "sea of dandas" fantasy by "tyagis" who can't stand seeing anyone married.

Sri Bhaktivinode Thakur said the heart must be ready for renunciation. Instructing people to take sanyas as if that "instructor" is the telecourse jagad siksa guru for the greater internet population, is unsettling, and reminicient of a time not so long ago when being a "tyagi" meant nothing, between the many who freely took this commitment, and the many more who broke it in the same instance.

time to take sannyas man ! get serious there is no mystery to any marriage that long you can only do so much in household life

In my experience, those who make comments like that are usually the first to get married (i.e. quickie marriage), all while giving away their saffron dhotis, or breaking their dandas

mahaksadasa wins the thread /images/graemlins/smile.gif

It's good to have the mindset that "Hey, look all these devotees past and present, doing so much more service than I've ever done. I need to improve to truly be a devotee", but using this "I am not a devotee" mantra continually without limits can eventually make one feel that they're unworthy of anything.

At one point, I was like "Oh, I can't lead this bhajan, I'm not worthy!" (even though devotees kindly offered), or "I can't do this service, I am so not qualified" (despite having the opportunity). Best to avoid this way of thinking. Just like the previous poster said, no "paralysis by analysis", and look at yourself realistically.

I used to play a game called "World of Warcraft" which was online roleplaying, where you killed monsters, bad people, even animals (but you could avoid that). All in the computer game. I've played these games for as long as they've been around (although I've been avoiding them for almost a year now /images/graemlins/smile.gif ), and I've never felt compelled to hurt people or other living things in real life.

However, The problem that arises from these sort of games is the association you find. Most players are in very deep mode of ignorance, and speak about very tamasic things. The "sanga" you get playing these games can be quite detrimental to you.

RPG's are maya within maya. Maya squared Maya^2

Everyone has habits that aren't conducive to bhakti lata bij growing. Now that we are a younger generation of devotees, we can spend time on Maya^2, like video games, and RPG's

We can barely get various Vaishnava groups to get together and agree on at least one thing. We wouldn't be able to do this march until we can get that much done.

If we did have it scheduled for say, tommorow, one overzealous devotee will have a big picket sign photo of so-and-so Maharaj, offending 1-2 rival groups, erupting in one huge argument. That will look great for solidarity

"One of the things Krishna told me when he revealed himself to me was that I NEED him in order to deal with this. The thing is how do I use him?"

Allow Him to use you, is the Vaishnava way.

Jai, thanks for your update, gHari prabhu. Blockades and checkpoints and floods and roving gangs of looters can't keep the devotees away from Radha Krsna murti and other devotees. Please send more details if anything notable is found by you.

Dallas and New Orleans Yatra KI JAYA!

Any devotees in Lublin, Poland? I read Indradyumna Swami's diary entry about passing through. Sounds like the clergy doesn't like New religious, but nonetheless, it doesn't sound any more devotee-unfriendly than say, most cities in Spain.

http://www.prairieghosts.com/vishnu.html

http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/ihy020240.html

http://vishnusprings.com/

Did the devotees ever try to go to this place? It sounds vaguely intriguing. Unfortunately the article says it's private property now, but it sounds like anyone could have went there in the 60's and 70's.

Wondering if there are any Krishna devotees on the Caribbean isle of Antigua.

"What does it matter anyway? The point is, it is most likely true, and is disturbing on many levels for many of us who have either experiences or witnessed such cruelty in the name of "preaching"."

It matters because we've seen all kinds of highly dysfunctional behavior coming from people in power in our western Hare Krsna movement, especially since Srila ASBSP's leaving the planet, and politics is what excuses the worst, most powerful offenders. People in their own camp turn a blind eye, while people on the other end of the spectrum are looking for any way they can to denigrate the other side, under the sanctimonious guise of trying to help the abused.

I am a bit jaded, so when I see this being published on VNN, I don't so much see this as the hearts of the VNN staff going out to Rambhoru mataji, but rather an attempt to establish some moral superiority over ISKCON. If the shoe was on the other foot, and a member of Narayan Maharaj's clan had done something similar to Prthu, you can be sure VNN would refuse to publish it, but dipika.org would be all too happy to do so.

So as long as there's one camp that wants to establish PR moral superiority over the other, the truth shall be known, it's just a matter of frequent news website hopping.

I'm shocked by what I read. Not so much surprised, though. It's amazing that someone who built himself up to be such a maha preacher, the vanguard of ISKCON's ideals, and the preferred guru of grhastas, was a perfectly neglectful "Vedic" husband. Things like this really upset me about the movement. You think this is a rare occurance? Hardly. A lot of devotee families I saw are highly dysfunctional, for one reason or another. I see more decency from the so-called Karmis. But those grhasta families who are on track, and good people, they have my respect and undivided attention. My prayers go to Rambhoru dd and her sons. I even pray for Prthu's soul.

"We made it in the history books, Mister Frodo!"

I found him in the yellow pages

They make some nice leather loafer look-a-likes

http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/

Chastisement is the sweetest nectar the pure devotee can bestow upon you:

"Advaita Acharya being deprived of Gauranga's blessings devised a plan to obtain His favour. He retired to his house at Santipur where he began to expound Mayavada Jnana to his disciples. When Gauranga came to know of this, He hastened there and in a fit of rage began to give him blows saying, "What makes you, Acharya to establish the superiority of Jnana over Bhakti cult? Is it the reason for which you have invoked Me from My Supreme Seat Vaikuntha?" Advaita's desire was thus fulfilled, as he received the loving chastisement from the Lord Himself. By this Gauranga teaches us, that He has appeared to establish Bhagabat-Dharma of the religion of Divine Love all over the world."