suchandra

Comment posted by Krishna-Kirti das on July 1st, 2007, calling the Ritviks, unity in diversity. At least from the “rest of ISKCON” side, a precondition for full support will mean open, public discussion and some debate on an initiative whose apparent aim, among others, is the professionalization of ISKCON’s managerial and intellectual classes. Besides other important issues, perhaps the most important core issue that needs to be publically discussed is unity in diversity. The necessity for such a discussion is that presently under the banner of ISKCON there exists some understandings of Srila Prabhupada’s teachings that differ significantly on some important precepts, and each claims to be authentic. The coexistence of these different views is in some cases unhappy and sometimes forced. Regarding unity in diversity, the question that sorely needs to be addressed is are there views of Srila Prabhupada’s teachings within ISKCON that have significant differences yet can be considered authentic? One of the implications of the answer to this question is how an institution such as a leadership academy will treat devotees whose views of Srila Prabhupada differ from those of the institution’s incumbent leaders even if, begrudgingly, those views are considered authentic. If it can be presumed that those who eventually get to make the big institutional decisions, however advanced in spiritual life they may otherwise be, are not yet liberated from the influence of material nature, then fundamental philosophical and theological questions regarding authenticity are not trivial. Without regular discussion and open debate about such questions, a leadership academy like the one proposed could easily end up insular and ossified like today’s overwhelmingly liberal academy, where, for example, many of its incumbent academics openly say that conservatives need not apply. Vetting people from a young age for leadership positions, and entrance to the academy, implies that there will be a selection process. That process will be significantly influenced by the ideology of those making the selection. If those deciding who will and who will not join their ranks are themselves not yet liberated, then their ideology, however wholesome it may be to begin with, is subject to drift, subject to influence from outside ideas, and–if the decision makers are left to themselves–certainly subject to radicalization through group-think. When in general we’re not liberated, the element of diversity (as in diverse views), if allowed, increases the chances that someone will detect critical errors in our own beliefs and thinking before they have a chance to ruin us and those who depend on us. This is why open and public debate, which characterizes a vibrant and healthy intellectual culture, is absolutely necessary for the success of a project like the proposed academy. Such a debate is essential, and it would be a practical application of the principle of unity in diversity. Do our decision makers want this? <!-- end .comments-middle --> Comment posted by krishna-kirti on July 1st, 2007 <!-- end .comments-bottom --> <!-- end .comments -->

ISKCON's move towards installing diksa-gurus who start to initiate their own disciples although their spiritual master is still physically present. Interview with Bhakti Vijnana Swami, Chair of the Committee on Succession and Leadership: Long term: We need to identify and train the potential future leaders amongst the young generation of ISKCON devotees—both those born in the movement, and those joining. We need to provide them with thorough, systematic training in all areas of Krishna conscious leadership. Mid term strategy: potential leaders who are already engaged full time in our temples need more systematic training and consistent empowerment for their growth. Short term: Professional development and education and training of our present leaders on the ongoing basis. In present-day terms, this coresponds to talent scouting, systematic training, and professional development. Some of our present leaders are already doing this through courses and training processes. They need ongoing encouragement and support. In many other places this isn’t happening yet. What were some of the challenges you have faced? In the beginning we struggled to find consensus. We work in different areas and have different experiences and opinions; it took a lot of dialogue to come to a unified understanding and vision. ISKCON is so diversified, making it hard to design a system which works everywhere; we discussed the need for unity in diversity—teaching universal standards, but also allowing for regional adjustments. We concluded that the training should not be just academic, but something that changes the heart and facilitates transformative experiences so trainees “own” and realize the knowledge. Experience is key, and we hope the process will instil a strong allegiance and faith in Srila Prabhupada’s mission and goals. Academic knowledge is easier to teach, but that is not enough. We want to transmit values and spiritual culture. We identified one core element which helps transform the heart: the personal teacher-student relationship. We want this next generation of leaders to place a strong emphasis on spiritual care. Therefore, this educational system needs to reflect that care throughout its operation. We will need qualified teachers and trainers. Once established, we hope to have more qualified leaders—something that will be felt across the movement. A strong leader creates an atmosphere of inspiration and proper values, and a culture of spiritual care and empowerment. We want to try to recreate the mood of enthusiasm and commitment that typified much of the earlier days in ISKCON. We are talking about creating a leadership academy which would be a kind of graduate-level institution. We want to train both spiritual leaders and managerial leaders, in other words both brahmanas and ksatriyas. A challenge our committee faces is communicating this urgent need to the GBC body and the rest of ISKCON to get their full support. We need resources for this initiative and for this we have to elicit support from different sections of ISKCON. When the conceptual stage is finished we will next plan the specifics—the facilities need, the staff, etc. We are not certain of the exact location of this “ISKCON Academy for Leadership”, but we are leaning towards having it in India for reasons including Srila Prabhupada’s desire and the availability of resources.

Here it is said that, Krishna is directly asking us - directly - physical presence. Srila Prabhupada, Vṛndāvana, November 12, 1976, Srimad-bhagavatam lecture, 5.5.25: [...] So bhakti, devotional service, is not easy, but at the same time very easy, one moment’s business, one moment’s. But I must be willing. Krishna says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam śaranam [bg. 18.66]. If I do it, immediately… But that, I am not willing. We have seen so many persons. Krishna says directly that “You surrender unto Me,” sarva-dharmān parityajya. Still, he says, “When Krishna will be merciful, then I shall do.” What is this nonsense? Krishna is directly asking you. Again He has to become merciful? What kind of mercy? These are all pleas, different pleas. Actually He doesn’t want that “I shall not surrender unto You, sir. I shall place some pleas. That’s all.” In that way… When we become actually niskiñcana or akiñcana, then, as Caitanya Mahaprabhu advises, niskiñcanasya bhagavad-bhajanonmukhasya. Bhagavad-bhajanonmukha means niskiñcana. Param… What is that bhagavad-bhajana? Pāram param jigamir or bhava-sāgarasya. Bhava-sāgara. This ocean. Sāgara means ocean, and bhava means take birth, again die. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate. That is called mrityu-samsāra-vartmani, Krishna says. Mām aprāpya nivartante mrityu-samsāra-vartmani. This is bhagavad-bhajana. We do not know how many times we have taken birth and again died. That’s a fact. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir. Millions and millions, for years, we are doing that. Mrityu samsāra. Still, we are so shameless, we want to do again and again that thing. Punah punaś carvita-carvanānām [sB 7.5.30]. [...]

"Many foreign devotees of Indian Gurus like Amritanandamayi, Mahesh Yogi, ISKCON etc. enter the temple and offer worship." July 02, 2007 Page: 37/37 http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=191&page=37 <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td align="left" valign="top" width="100%"> Home > 2007 Issues > July 08, 2007 </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top" width="100%"> CPM war on Kerala Hindus Ploy to take over and loot temples Guruvayur chief priest says unholy actions of the CPM are the reason for controversy. “Temple is for all those who have faith in its purity and tradition.” All temple boards in Kerala have been packed with CPM men and the government is conspiring for entry of Christians and Muslims in temples of Kerala. It has been bad times for Kerala temples ever since the CPM came into power. The Party and its foul-mouthed and arrogant Dewasom (temple administration) Minister G. Sudhakaran have a one-point agenda of taking full control of temples and looting their vast properties and finances. The first target was Sabarimala. The controversial Devaprashnam, rumour of entry of Kannada actress into sanctum-sanctorum, tantri embroiled in a sex scandal were all part of this design. The next target was naturally Guruvayur, the third richest temple in South India after Tirupati and Sabarimala. The demand of G. Sudhakaran to allow famous playback singer Jesudas (Christian but lover of Hindu traditions and Guruvayur Krishna) despite his reluctance and minister’s uncultured and sub-standard attack on the tantri for conducting punyaham (purification rites) when Vayalar Ravi (central minister whose wife is a Christian) and his son entered the temple for giving choroonu (first food) for Vayalar Ravi’s grandson are all part of this conspiracy. All temple boards governing 1500 odd major temples were dissolved by an ordinance and new laws have been enacted for temple governance. Communist MLAs, who as atheists don’t take oath of office in the name of god, appoint presidents to the temple boards, who also take pride in their anti-god labels. But for looting poor Hindus’ money deposited in temple coffers, they are together. Moreover, all temple boards in Kerala have been packed with CPM men and the government is conspiring for entry of Christians and Muslims in temples of Kerala. In this context Special Correspondent S. Chandrasekhar spoke to the Tantri Chennas Raman Namboodiripad, whose family has been appointed by the Zamothiri King of Malabar as hereditary Tantri of Guruvayur temple for several centuries. Excerpts: A lot of controversy has been generated around Guruvayur due to the punyaham and demand for entry of non-Hindus like Jesudas. Moreover Minister Sudhakaran has used abusive language against you. Please comment. The puja, rituals and traditions being carried on in Guruvayur Krishna temple have been continuing for centuries. Irrespective of the number of devotees coming, continuous puja goes on in the temple for almost 17-18 hours a day. Purity of the deity and the priests gives power to the temple. This has to be maintained as per Tantra Sastras. It clearly defines that punyaham should be performed when children urinate, when vomit, spit or blood is seen or when non-Hindus enter. A person’s religion is determined by his mother and Vayalar Ravi’s wife is a Christian and hence his son is a Christian. Therefore, punyaham was performed. With regard to Jesudas, if he genuinely wants to enter Guruvayur temple, he can do so by obtaining a certificate from Arya Samaj stating he is a practising follower of Hinduism. For centuries temples in Kerala, except Sabarimala, are open to Hindus only. Foreigners, Muslims, Christians who wish to enter Guruvayur temple can obtain certificate from Arya Samaj and enter the temple. Many foreign devotees of Indian Gurus like Amritanandamayi, Mahesh Yogi, ISKCON etc. enter the temple and offer worship. A French woman Babita stayed in temple premises for three years, did extensive research and published her work. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi have come here getting Arya Samaj certificate. Hence if any citizen of the world wants to genuinely enter the temple, he can come. The CPM, DYFI etc. are hell bent on destroying the temple and looting its thousands of crores of assets. All these controversies are to create confusion and make the tantri and priests villains. With regard to the uncultured language of the minister, it is not my culture to reply in the same language. The minister is talking of new laws for entry of non-Hindus into temples and restricting the power of tantris. The LDF has a brute majority in the Assembly and temple boards are CPM dominated. Let them pass laws. The basic fact is government does not have the guts to enact such laws and it wants the priests and tantris to allow it. They want us to do as per their wish. We are against it. Hindus, especially women, maintain purity while entering temples. This cannot be expected of other religions. Moreover, the Church or Islam will never allow their people to go to temples. In Christianity a Catholic will not go to a CSI church. If he does, he will be excommunicated. The Shia-Sunni conflict is world over. Women are not allowed in several mosques. Why does not CPM or DYFI take up these issues? The annual income of Guruvayur temple is alone Rs. 80 crore, not to mention the gold, silver, diamonds etc. received. The fixed deposit of the temple is almost Rs. 1,000 crore. Similar is the case of Sabarimala and other major temples. All these controversies are nothing but conspiracy to loot poor Hindus’ money, divide Hindus and destroy temples. We are following the customs, traditions, rituals going on for centuries and if the LDF wants to change them, let it change them, but let leaders of other religions also give their opinion. In Sabarimala non-Hindus are allowed. Is there difference between temples? Please explain. Every temple has a different concept and significance. With regard to rituals, customs, traditions etc. Sabarimala and Guruvayur are totally different. Sabarimala is a forest temple and opens only two months in a year. Moreover, due to its peculiar geographic nature, all classes of people go there. In Guruvayur almost 17-18 hours of continuous puja goes on 365 days for centuries. In Sabarimala tantri is the main priest and the melshanti secondary. Here the tantri has only an advisory role whereas the melshanti is the main priest. Except Sabarimala, almost all temples in South India are restricted to only believers of Hindu religion. Hinduism is the religion of the nation and other religions came here due to trade and invasion. The late P. Madhavanji of RSS has explained the significance and importance of each temple in his classic book Shetra Chaitanya Rahasyam (Secret of temple’s aura). What about the minister, CPM charges that tantri, priest posts are dominated by Brahmins? This is total untruth. There are many non-Brahmins who pass out from the Tantra Vidya Peetam (founded by RSS Senior Pracharak the late Madhavanji) and become tantris and priests in several major temples. Shri Rakesh son of Parur Sreedharan Tantri (Hindu Ezhava), who is a tantri as well as a priest in a major Shiva temple, is a classic example. All this is CPM misinformation campaign to divide Hindus and defile priesthood. </td> </tr> </tbody></table>

What is totally obvious - he just cant understand how much back breaking suffering was inflicted upon so many devotees. His logic seems to just reach of how he feels - "for me it's ok, therefore in sum ISKCON is doing fine". This is clearly not the behaviour of a Vaishnava.

According Satsvarupa das Goswami, the best way to upgrade your spiritual life is to get into the mood of appreciating the late sunlight streaming through the temple window. by Satsvarupa das Goswami Dear ISKCON, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I don’t want to take on a huge topic in this letter, but let me make a few partial statements. Maybe later I can add them. You, dear institution, are such a complex entity that there is little I can say that everyone will accept as fact. I know your history, especially of the early days, and that’s always fun to describe. Prabhupada compared your birth to the appearance of Lord Varaha from Lord Brahma’s nostril. He was small and then grew quickly. You first appeared in Srila Prabhupada’s mind and then grew quickly in America, attracting dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of young men and women, Prabhupada was the magnet that drew us-Prabhupada with his Hare Krsna mantra, krsna-prasadam, and knowledge of Krsna. It’s safe to say, therefore, that you are a spiritual entity. Lord Krsna has appeared in you just as much as He has appeared in His other forms in Kali-yuga. The complexity comes when we start describing the wrongs that have occurred in ISKCON in the name of ISKCON. Are you, ISKCON, Vaikuntha or even a sample of Vaikuntha? Some say that the original ISKCON, Prabhupada’s movement, no longer exists. They think we are left with only a corrupt outer shell. Others say that whoever criticizes ISKCON is a demon. In other words, some equate you with the Krsna consciousness movement, the flow of Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana, and that you will always remain victorious despite all appearances to the contrary. Others don’t agree. They say that you are not the representative of pure Krsna consciousness, but an institutionalized, GBC-governed entity that moves along from year to year veering sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right, but not often resolving its problems. I said at the beginning of this letter that I wasn’t going to bite off more than I could chew and try to cut through the various opinions. What’s prompting me to write this letter today is that I just received a letter in which someone attempted to describe my own relationship with ISKCON. This person said that I seem to have major disagreements with the authorities of this movement. The letter implied that if I actually followed my own inclinations, I might leave ISKCON entirely. The person who wrote this letter is himself disgusted with ISKCON and has left in search of better association. That letter makes me want to address my own connection to you, ISKCON, Prabhupada’s movement. First, I do believe that you are still Prabhupada’s movement. I don’t think that I am just playing it safe in my lack of criticism of this movement. The person who wrote me criticized me for being apathetic toward the wrongs in ISKCON and suggested that if I were a real witness in truth, I would speak out against those wrongs. I have included a response to that: let me correct my own wrongs. That includes not getting entangled in what I may see as wrong behaviour of ISKCON. It’s a quiet method of reform; it’s nonpolitical, and it’s what I can do best. You are still Prabhupada’s movement. I don’t think the saying “ISKCON, with all thy faults, I love thee” is outmoded. If I can say it deeply despite the wrongs and by being persistently loyal, then it’s the best position I can take. What are these wrongs? You know the charges. We went wrong in drastic ways after Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance. The top leadership gets the blame for that. Some say there has been no reform of the basic wrong attitudes which drive devotees away–manipulative power-hungry leaders, branding as heretics devotees who have differing opinions, offending Gaudiya Vaisnavas from other camps, and so on. ISKCON, with all they faults I love thee. I have seen and felt how beautiful it is to be in a temple, gathering together with your members to see the Deities at mangala arati, or at an afternoon arati with only a few devotees present and late sunlight streaming through the window. I’ve seen the preaching drive in your members as they risk their lives to distribute Prabhupada’s books and maintain you in unsettled places in this material world. Sentimental? You could say so, but such a skeptic would think that devotion to Krsna was sentimental. Remember that sensational “true crime” book, Monkey on a Stick? The thing that horrified an ISKCON member on looking through that book was how they had distorted the quality of ISKCON life. The authors had distorted the facts and were even often mistaken. They did have the police records-who killed whom, who misappropriated funds, who misled devotees, who fell down–but even in those cases, their description of what it was like for the average temple devotee was bogus and based on no experience. The author couldn’t see into the devotees’ hearts and he couldn’t understand Krsna’s statement that even if a devotee commits abominable behavior, he is still rightly situated. They don’t know how precious and rare it is for someone in this world to render sincere service to Srila Prabhupada and Krsna in this movement. It’s true that one can render sincere service to Krsna and it is probably possible to render service to Prabhupada outside of ISKCON. But if it can be done outside of ISKCON, why can’t it be done inside ISKCON? If there are sincere persons both within and without ISKCON, then I choose to be within. That’s where Prabhupada wants me to be as far as I know. If ISKCON were devoid of sincere devotees and has actually become corrupt, then who could follow it and say that it was what Prabhupada wanted? But I would be very, very afraid of deciding that ISKCON was so corrupt that Prabhupada would no longer want me to serve here. When I meet up with Prabhupada again, how can I say “But Prabhupada, I thought ISKCON was completely bogus and that we should leave?” His voice echoes in his mind: “Who said? Who is that rascal?” I admit that I fail to face up to all of ISKCON’s faults. I feel too protective and loyal. I don’t want to make waves. Besides, it’s not my nature to find faults and then proclaim them. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. I am guilty of not being an all-out reformer, and thus I’m implicated in ISKCON’s wrongs by default. I also admit to failing in the second half of the expression, “ISKCON, with all thy faults-I love thee”. If I loved you, ISKCON, I would be more active and would try to make myself a more worthy member. If I loved you more, I would see the spiritual world in the movement as it exists in this confederation of temples, the ISKCON that publishes Back to Godhead magazine, the ISKCON that goes on Navadvipa and Vrindavana parikrama, and yes, the ISKCON that blows its own horn, sometimes in a superficial way, in the ISKCON World Review. The ISKCON of the businessman devotee cashing in on the market of devotional items, the ISKCON that also sells pure bhakti. Many, many ISKCON devotees love Srila Prabhupada and serve him with their body, mind, and words. I don’t think that this can be matched anywhere else in the world. That is what attracts me and binds me to ISKCON. One devotee was telling me how her co-workers discovered that she was a Hare Krsna. She told them that she sometimes meditates by chanting mantras. One of her colleagues queried her further, “What mantras do you chant?” She took a chance, smiled, and said, “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare,/ Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.” Her associate exclaimed, “You mean you are with those people who drive around singing from a truck?” (He was referring to the flatbed truck the New York devotees use to perform harinama.) The devotee blurted out, “Yes, the very ones!” George Harrison said something similar when he aligned himself with the devotees. He said that when it is time to be counted, he would prefer to stand with the devotees rather than with the nondevotees. I think like that to, that I want to be counted among the very ones, the Prabhupada fanatics, the devotees with all their faults-of ISKCON. “ISKCON, with all thy faults, please accept me.” EXTRACT FROM CHURNING THE MILK OCEAN

CANAKYA PANDITA Three things go to a rapid destruction: Trees on the bank of a river, a woman in the house of man other than her husband and Kings without Counselors = GBC without Brahmanas. Go out and preach - preaching means one thing only, to rectify Prabhupada's movement. In every second purport of SB, CC, BG you find Prabhupada saying, "this ISKCON movement is a purely transcendental movement meant to elevate humanity to the state of pure devotional service". Since this is written within the books we are supposed to distribute for the next ten thousand years, how someone can think of opening his own mission? And telling people, this is not right what is stated within the books, ISKCON doesnt follow Prabhupada anymore. Pretty much confusing It is rather the same like modern scientists teaching our children at school, everything started from a big explosion but we the parents are too dull to expose this rascal atheism and let our kids grow up uncommented in doggish atheism. The same with ISKCON, more Western Vaishnavas live outside of ISKCON than those within the movement, 99% of the devotees agree that the GBC doesnt follow Prabhupada's guidelines and even within ISKCON a great number of devotees also agree that the GBC doesnt follow, but still people cant unite to remove the present GBC and elect a new GBC.

A good question. This world is something like a playground for all those who desire to enjoy the material world and what you find equal in all living entities - they want to enjoy all those material pleasures. Human form means human brain - only the human brain is able to understand that the soul is different from the material energy and that we belong to the eternal kingdom of God and not to this world. All other species cannot understand this but are so strongly covered by the material energy that they can only aspire for material advancement/enjoyment. Differences among religions are there because at the beginning our realization of God is still mixed with aspiration for material advancement. As soon there's real God realization this will stop, because there will be no more different opinions about what is God.

Looks like scientists are getting greatly worried to tell us about the actual complexity of human brains they're gradually starting to discover. One Gene That Gave Human Brains The Edge... Humans have a unique variant of a gene linked with learning and memory. This may help explain how we rapidely cut loose in intellect and language from our closest relatives. The gene, KLK8, makes the protein neuropsin II, which in mice is vital for memory and learning. Bing Su and his colleagues at the Kunming Institute of Zoology in China had earlier demonstrated that neuropsin II is made by humans but not by lesser apes and old-world monkeys. Now they have shown that orang-utans and chimpanzees don't make it either (Human Mutation, DOI:10.1002/humu.20547). KLK8 is the first human-specific discovery of a "splice variant" - a gene that is roughly the same in different species but is "cut and pasted" differently when it is expressed, resulting in proteins with new functions. Su's team have shown that KLK8 arose through a single mutation in DNA when athymine nucleotide was exchanged for an adenine. This small change had a huge impact, causing 45 additional amino acids to be loaded into the protein that the gene expresses. The changes make humans' neuropsin II significantly different from the neuropsin made by other mammals. "It would be extremely exciting if the new form [of neuropsin] enhances learning and memory", says evolutionary biolgist Jianzhi Zhang of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In Boston, meanwhile other genes influencing brainpower have been revealed... Did Primordial Chefs Feed Our Giant Brains? A Harvard primatologist thinks that the invention of barbecue occurred 1.9 million years ago, fueling the expansion of the early hominid brain. By David Ewing Duncan http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/duncan/17626/ Around 1.9 million years ago, something extraordinary happened to the chimp-like hominids called Homo erectus. Their brains began to enlarge, becoming double the size of those of chimpanzees. Several theories are beginning to coalesce about why this happened. One is that early people began to eat more and better meat around this time, which allowed more calories to be consumed faster. This led to a shrinking of gastrointestinal organs and an increase in brain size that essentially traded guts for gray matter. Our big brains need this extra energy. Modern humans eat about the same number of calories as other primates that approximate their weight, but we suck up an average of 25 percent of our body's energy expenditure, compared with the 8 percent sucked up by apes. Human babies use 60 percent of their energy to feed their heads. Anthropologists have assumed that H. erectus ate their burgers and steaks raw, since most early fire pits discovered so far date back about 500,000 years, with the oldest, in Israel, dating back 790,000 years. Charred stones and tools associated with human sites have been discovered that date back as much as 1.5 million years, but these might have been naturally occurring fires. Now Harvard University's Richard Wrangham has provided some evidence that the very distant ancestors of America's top chefs indeed may have learned to cook their antelope and rabbit. Cooking makes both plants and meat softer and easier to chew, providing more calories with less effort. What's more, human teeth got smaller and duller at around this time, which is the opposite of what would have happened if people had had to rip and chew lots of raw meat. Wrangham worked with Stephen Secor, an animal physiologist from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, who ran experiments to test the energy required by pythons to consume cooked versus raw meat; Secor also ran experiments on mice to gauge the impact of cooked versus raw meat. The snakes used almost 25 percent less energy chowing down cooked meat; the mice gained more weight and grew slightly longer. The fast turnaround in the mice indicates that cooked meat might have had a quick and dramatic evolutionary impact on early people. Reducing the time and energy required to chew and digest raw meat means more energy available for other uses--such as feeding a voracious brain that's getting bigger and bigger. Wrangham also thinks that the modern rise in the consumption of cooked meat may contribute to the obesity epidemic; the same goes for processed food, which is even easier to eat and digest. Wrangham presented his findings at a recent paleoanthropology meeting in Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. Paleoanthropologists are excited by Wrangham's findings and provocative ideas, but the absence of definitive proof of campfires appearing at the same time that human brains doubled in size is a problem. Many still believe that humanity's first cooked meal came much later--about 800,000 to 500,000 years ago, when the human noggin began growing again, expanding by about 30 percent into the modern-size brain. One question that I'd like to ask evolutionary biologists and paleoanthropologists is why the huge expansion of our brains led to such seemingly unique traits in humans like advanced language skills and acute self-awareness. Would these same traits develop in other mammals if they were fed a diet of broiled beef over several generations? I wonder how many generations of mice it would take to replicate what happened to us--that is, I'd like to see if mouse brains double or triple in size, and also what our furry little friends would do with all that extra neural material. Citation: Science 15 June 2007:Vol. 316. no. 5831, pp. 1558 - 1560 DOI: 10.1126/science.316.5831.1558 Tags: neuroscience, primatology

YOUR WORDS: APRIL BOLAND http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/faith/06/30/0630words.html Finding inner space for meditation A little yoga can go a long way <!-- newsworthy --><!--endtext--> Click-2-Listen <!--begintext--><!-- http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/cnishared/newsworthy/statesman/life/stories/faith/06/30/statesman_life_stories_faith_06_30_0630words.mp3 --> Saturday, June 30, 2007 I didn't know quite what to expect when I crossed the threshold of the Austin Meditation Center for the first time. I slipped off my sandals and placed them neatly on the shelf available by the door for this purpose, then took a look around. The best way to describe the center is also the most clichéd: It was peaceful. I was greeted by the yogi, an older Englishman with a wide smile on his face. Richard Davis seemed to radiate energy and life. We sat down and talked for a while as others trickled in. After offering us water, organic cherries and whole wheat, sugar-free, homemade cookies, he led us into the next room, where seats and pillows formed a circle on the hardwood floor. The walls were lined with paintings of figures such as Krishna and Christ. We sat as he took his place in front, closing the circle. Richard took time discussing the concept of mantra meditation with us beginners. He told us that there are two worlds — the material world, and that of the spirit — and that we are "in illusion" when we believe that we are our bodies, and that we are of this material world. We wear our bodies like we wear a T-shirt, he said. The T-shirt is not us; we only wear it. We are "atma," the spirit-soul, that divine spark that differentiates between a living body and a dead one. He shared an analogy of a fish in the ocean. If you were to take such a fish and put him on the hot, sandy beach, would he be happy? No. He belongs in the ocean. Likewise we, as spiritual beings, can never find happiness in the material world, try as we may. We will only find happiness when we reconnect with our "atma." Happiness — pure bliss — is possible only through the sound vibrations of mantra. Mantra is the vehicle that takes us there, to that place within. Richard then taught us three kinds of mantra meditation. The first, "breathing meditation," consisted of saying a one-word mantra, "Gauranga," upon exhaling our breath. We inhaled deeply and when we could inhale no more, we began to push out each syllable: "Gaur ... Ra ... Ang ... Ga.Gauranga" means the "golden effulgence" or light that surrounds God, and can be used as a name for God Himself. Next we learned "japa meditation." We chanted a phrase as we moved our fingers along wooden beads to keep track. "Gopala Govinda Rama Madana Mohana," we repeated, which I soon learned were other names for God. Meditation and chanting form patterns similar to the worship I had experienced in Christian churches. The most striking similarity came when we did "kirtan," which was singing the names of God as Richard played guitar: "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." Despite the familiarity of the phrase from popular culture, to a Western woman who was raised within the Christian church, this was all so new and strange. Yet I had made a commitment to try it, and I wanted to see if it really did offer contentment. And so, I did it each day in my home, breathing and chanting and counting the beads. I was surprised to find that mantra had sneaked into my subconscious and was pervading my life: It was in my head at work and I would chant it under my breath in the car. In addition, I felt peace envelop me, as if nothing could harm me any longer. When I heard bad news, it did not break me. I felt above it, able to handle anything. I felt my anxiety and even some of my customary road rage dissipate. This was quite welcome. I am still new to meditation and to the doctrines of karma, reincarnation and the like that surround it, and I cannot honestly say that I believe every single one of these precepts. Maybe I will come to, and maybe I will not. I will, however, continue to make time and space for contemplation, silence and peace in my ever-whirling, ever-changing world. April D. Boland is a writer and editor from New York City who currently works in marketing as she completes her English literature degree.

According Ravindra Swarupa das (see below) any activity performed in this world is causing negative side effects - even activities of Lord Krishna and Lord Caitanya Himself. Transcendental activities causing material effects? Doesnt make actual sense - instead it is rather us, the living entities, who change the Lord's and His pure devotees activities into something mundane. Ravindra Swarupa das: "Krishna says in this world, any endeavour is covered with fault. Just as a fire is covered with smoke. So anything that you do in this world, it is always going to have its defects or its downside, even if it is done by Krishna Himself. Lord Chaitanya released confidential information into the world about Krishna's pastimes that were maybe not very well spread around so much. What was the result? A sahajiya movement, and you can say, well look what Lord Chaitanya did you know, He put this whole sahajiya movement here, He shouldn't have done that, it was a big mistake." (Ravindra Swarupadas, Issues in ISKCON Reform lecture)

Looks like even in Southern India things degenerate quickly (read below), some of my godbrothers claim that our bodies are made like that, that above 50 you need some medicine for the circular flow and because Ayurvedic medicines are not available in kali-yuga they take coffee instead. But surely coffee is an intoxicant, although Vaishnava priests in Tirupati dont consider like that. Interview, BHAKTI VIKASA SWAMI - MR. R. RANGANATHAN [...]MR. R. RANGANATHAN: Water was served before anything else. Then a little fruit and sugar and a few drops of milk would be placed on plates of freshly cut banana leaves—not the plastic and china rubbish they use today. Next came the vegetable preparations, usually one solid and one liquid, and cucumber mixed with curd. After that they served rice, the main item, a big pile on each plate, and they would pour a good amount of ghee on it. At this point we would all say various prayers and sprinkle water around our plates from our hands, drink a little water from the palms of our hands. Then sambar would be served and we would begin to honor prasadam. Everything they served was purely Vaishnava style food. People had not even heard about onion and garlic. No one in the whole agraharam knew even the smell of onion. BHAKTI VIKASA SWAMI: What about coffee and tea? MR. R. RANGANATHAN: No one had ever heard of it. We had milk. We didn’t want or need anything else. Plenty of milk was always there in the house. We never knew of shortages. Sometimes they also prepared milk with a mixture of a few powdered cereals, known as ‘dhanyam kanji’. Coffee only started penetrating around 35 years ago, when I was 13. I had not even tasted coffee until I was 17. BHAKTI VIKASA SWAMI: But now coffee is everywhere in South India. Pretty much everyone takes it, including Sri Vaishnava priests. MR. R. RANGANATHAN: Yes. BHAKTI VIKASA SWAMI: Were there certain vegetables that people didn’t use? MR. R. RANGANATHAN: They would not cook English vegetables like tomatoes, cauliflower, or potatoes. BHAKTI VIKASA SWAMI: Only the traditional vegetables. MR. R. RANGANATHAN: They were very particular about it. But so much variety was possible with the traditional vegetables alone. From just one vegetable, they could make three preparations, having three different tastes. They would make one thick curry, one a little liquid and another thin, like a soup. Also, they would use only vegetables that were picked the same day. Every household had a garden, from which vegetables were plucked early in the morning and then cooked and offered. Even today, in Srirangam , the vegetables sold in the markets are freshly picked the same morning.[...] Full article

ISKCON (Bhakti Kala Kshetra) presented Call Of The Mystic, a programme on Sufi music as a celebration in the International Year of the great Sufi poet Maulana Jellaluddin Rumi. The concert was performed by Kavita Seth, singer, “Maula Group” and musicians from Iran at Mumbai’s ISKCON Auiditorium on June 10. http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=16297 <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" vspace="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="bg2" colspan="2">Pancham’s 68th anniversary </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td class="links" colspan="2" height="5"></td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td colspan="2"> une 27 is the 68th birth anniversary of R.D. Burman and Shemaroo has released VCD & DVD value packs of his songs. R.D. Burman - The Immortal Collection is a 6-VCD Pack consisting of 72 songs under different categories like King of Romance, King of Melody, RD - Asha: The Magical Duo, King of Masti and assorted songs with rhythm and his various moods. There are 2-DVD Packs called Ultimate Unremix - Vol 1 & 2 respectively. Each DVD Pack consists of 2 discs and also contain interesting details about the year of release and song credits. The VCD Pack is priced at Rs.299/- and each DVD is priced at Rs. 299/- Anti-piracy raid Shemaroo’s Anti-Piracy team led by Gnanchan Maroo, head, anti-piracy team of Shemaroo Entertainment along with the Agripada police raided five stalls at Mumbai’s Lower Parel station on June 9. The raid went on till early morning the next day and 6500 DVDs and VCDs worth Rs. 20 lakhs were seized. Five persons were arrested, though the owner of the stall is absconding. Kavita Seth presents Call Of The Mystic ISKCON (Bhakti Kala Kshetra) presented Call Of The Mystic, a programme on Sufi music as a celebration in the International Year of the great Sufi poet Maulana Jellaluddin Rumi. The concert was performed by Kavita Seth, singer, “Maula Group” and musicians from Iran at Mumbai’s ISKCON Auiditorium on June 10. Kavita Seth has performed all over the world and has sung songs for Satish Kaushik’sWaada and Anurag Basu’s Gangster. </td></tr></tbody></table>

“It is only by the grace of the Supreme Lord that one can be protected from the allurement of lusty material desires. The Lord gives protection to devotees who are always engaged in His transcendental loving service.” (SB 3.12.32) For Vaishnavas it is always important to have the good association of fixed up Vaishnavas. Lord Sri Caitanya taught Srila Rupa Gosvami that a devotee must water the creeper of devotional service through the process of hearing and chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. If we allow weeds to grow unabated they will sap our vital spiritual energy. Therefore, the combination of both these activities of watering the devotional creeper and weeding out the unwanted habits are essential for our progress in devotional service.

Since they have today a science for almost everything there should be a science examining the amount of material pleasure enjoyed by the different species. Then it could be better understood why some desire within their minds to become something like a frog - not because they want to have a frog's body but to experience these enjoyments... O Lord Krishna, at this moment let the royal swan of my mind enter the tangled stems of the lotus of Your feet. How will it be possible for me to remember You at the time of death, when my throat will be choked up with mucus, bile, and air? Mukunda-mala-stotra 33

Dr. O.B.L. Kapoor, Adi Kesava dasa, a godbrother of Srila Prabhupada who assisted him in Vrindavana and contributed articles to the Back to Godhead magazine, once expressed concern that Prabhupada’s disciples might eventually suffer from insularity by not taking advantage of the association of other advanced devotees and the entirety of the Gaudiya scriptural cannon. Furthermore, he suggested, they might succumb to offensive thinking toward other advanced devotees, thinking only Srila Prabhupada as worthy of hearing from. Srila Prabhupada replied that he looked at his disciples as young trees around which he had built a fence to protect them in their early stages of growth. He said that as they grew to maturity they would naturally reach beyond that fence. Firmly rooted in one place in exclusive devotion to their spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, they would then also be able to take advantage of the association of others without being confused.

There're so many bodies with which to identify....

Well so far we had all over Europe since 20 years, ISKCON leaders who all fell down and left with our money, leaving behind huge signs of destruction. In many European countries ISKCON closed all its temples or sold its farms. Looks like nobody here feels addressed to join 13 week seminars in Mayapur and afterwards coming back to a spiritually ruined and abandoned region. If they realy would mean it seriously they would have taken proper care about Prabhupada's movement in Europe and not let it fall apart like a piece of junk. Can you imagine, no more Sankirtan vans in Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Norway? This move to invite devotees in large scale to come to Mayapur and attend seminars has to be investigated more thorougly.

Looks like the erstwhile staunch preaching movement, ISKCON, needs some good lessons from reverend Billy (Church of Stop Shopping, see below), who preaches quite similiar like Prahlada Maharaja: My concern is only for the fools and rascals who are making elaborate plans for material happiness and maintaining their families, societies and countries. I am simply concerned with love for them. Church Of Stop Shopping http://www.revbilly.com/events/ Finally someone who isnt in a blue funk to preach against the globalization elite billionaires - gig activist Reverend Billy: http://www.revbilly.com/ The Meek Shall Inherit by reverend Billy “The meek shall inherit the Earth.” Who said that? Emma Goldman? Or was it Subcommandante Marcos? Here’s another question. Who is the meek party in question? Who has been genocided and holocausted more than another victim in history? It’s a trick question. The Earth. The answer is the Earth. The Earth shall inherit the Earth. We are all the Earth ourselves, of course, but we’re a rogue species that may now be rejected by our fellows in creation, like the many once-dominating life-forms who have been returned to the dust. If we eventually get through this climate crisis and extinction epidemic and our rash of wars – it will be because we knew that we got really really MEEK. Reverend, are you asking for me to be powerless? – I’m supposed to be powerless on purpose? Yes children -- try meekness like this. Walk from where you are toward the greatest amount of nature – even if it’s just a tree on an exhausted traffic island. Go to the natural world and make no demand, have no statement. Let’s call it Radical Humility. Face the rest of life, leave your human power behind, and have no pre-emptive belief. Not even – “I want to save you!” Listen, see, and wait – without conditions. Take the non-human into us, in a way that we haven’t before. Let strange life systems come to us with our new instructions. The intelligence which flows in the rocks and grass and wind and birds is not hearable by 200 foot cell phone towers and does not register on picture-window size home entertainment screens. But you and I can hear it. What the Earth says to us is not vague at all. It is specific. It comes in subjects object and verbs set to a heartbeat. Officially, our governments regard nature as without language. Our scientists and – our culture generally – doesn’t think speech can come from rocks, or even chimps. But global warming, for instance, is coming to us as dramatic screaming monologues. Much of our population is spending some time every day translating the waves, fires, floods and droughts into the King’s English. It is so astonishing to us that nature talks. Nature is shouting with a whisper that can flood a continent. The End of the World is very exciting. It is like a gathering of Guernicas. So much drama. And so many swashbuckling celebrities and suddenly GREEN! corporations are finding the spotlight at the End. The increased compassion for nature by the famous is astounding, but Hollywood’s heavy-breathing love of the drama of the climate crisis leaves the impression that they love the apocalypse as much as their right-wing Christians, their opponents in the well-known cultural war. But very few commercial personalities seem to have the meekness to be in the other media – communications of wilderness, from the wild. Let me humbly propose some Inheritors, before we chase the Devils. Rachel Carson, author of The Sea Around Us, is a little woman who was hounded by the chemical companies but inherited the Earth. Wangari Maathai , the Kenyan planter of a million trees, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, has taught heads of state the humble on-your-knees-with-muddy-hands act of lowering a seedling into the ground. And the most effective image for Al Gore may be his long shots of simply standing at the edge of his river talking quietly. “We may lose all this” – he is opening the door for his public to the Aldo Leopolds and Walt Whitmans, who loaf and invite their souls but are American radicals of a type that wait within the environmental movement and have been there more deeply and longer than the new Green brat packs. With Reverend Billy, I mimic the least meek of our American iconic characters, the televangelist. I’m an Elvis impersonator with a secret. Somehow the transcendent moments of our “Fabulous Worships” come when I am “beside myself” -- stuttering haltingly toward a truth that comes from an unknown source, falling back into the wave of gospel. In our last show the whole lot of us whispered “Change-a-lujah!” again and again. If I judge anyone, I want to do it more carefully then I have in the past. We are all sinners doing the best we can and we are all forgiven. But – a commercial celebrity who is Green as hell will insist that it is best that the system of the present economy remain as it is. You can’t get these people to talk about globalization, sweatshops, or the Orwellian bleaching of our minds by the product monoculture. No – they have 2 movies a year to sell, with the flotilla of pixilated spin-offs. So, if the Celebs can’t look inward, they swashbuckle outward, flying into the old colonies and picking up orphans for the cover of People. The Devil here is not the celebrities, who are just people doing their best – it is a system where share-holders of their corporations demand ever-expanding returns for the money they move around. That cancerous per-share expansion is the thing that is not meek. And you don’t hear the public voices in the United States ever talk about this fetishistic love of growth. Hasn’t it been proven long ago that the GNP does not indicate real prosperity? Stop buying that! The gambling casino of the Dow Jones is still recited as received wisdom by our pretty TV anchors, yet another layer of celebritude. Each of us is a celebrity, down in our own world. Each of us should resist going to the horizon, away from where we are, to flashily show off our love. Each of us has to strip down to simple nature, get THAT radical. The Earth that inherits itself will do so by turning culture upside down and inside out. Commercial celebrities don’t have that option. They are the modern old priests that frowned on Rachel Carson and Wangari Maathi and Jesus and Malcolm… They must resist real change. Our new earth-inheriting leaders will instruct us radically - with a whisper, and then a long pause for the crickets and singing leaves to come through. Invite the Reverend to your town

Being in good hands in the Alachua community of grandchildren of Holocaust vicitms the network will hopefully always look after his well-being.

"It is said that Your Lordship, sitting in the heart of a devotee, gives him direction by which he can very quickly come back to home, back to You. This direct dictation by You reveals Your existence within the heart of the devotee. Only a devotee can immediately appreciate Your existence within his heart, whereas for a person who has only a bodily conception of life and is engaged in sense gratification You always remain covered by the curtain of yogamaya. Such a person cannot realize that You are very near, sitting within his heart." (purport of the Eighty-sixth Chapter of Krsna, "The Kidnapping of Subhadra and Lord Sri Krishna's Visiting Srutadeva and Bahulasva")

"I have personally undergone an intellectual transformation in the past years", writes Harikes last week. Looks like he will be back soon to complete his path of bhakti and not to go a long way round..... From his forum, discussion with Harsi: Harikes: Am I correct in assuming that your question indicates your discomfort with feeling you must believe something you do not really believe? If so, I think such discomfort is good. Regardless of the right or wrong of any point of view, human beings feel most natural when then are allowed to believe what they want. Therefore, governments, businesses, and even religions, work hard to present data and ideas in a form that is consciously or sub-consciously digestible to encourage people to think these things are good for them or, optimally, it is their own idea developed by their own free will. When you think it is for your benefit to believe something, you will do so, and when you think you created the idea or you embraced another’s idea as your own, you truly will own it. Sometimes people find themselves in a state where they desire to have someone tell them what to do to attain liberation from the unhappy existence within which they live. In such cases, even if they were to follow a philosophy that demands faith and acceptance of ideas that are normally difficult to believe, it is ultimately their free will which allows them to believe anything. Although we can be forced to act in ways against our will by greater powers, no one can force you to believe what you do not wish to believe unless they convince you to believe it. Considering that we all have the power to believe or not believe whatever we want, when such belief no longer fits within the scope of our intelligence we can change our belief to one more compatible with our present understanding or experience. Although this is a right we can exercise anytime, it is often not so easy to do or it is an unthinkable option! Some feel that once they have accepted something on faith, it would be blasphemy to think otherwise; contrary ideas would ultimately lead them to some kind of darker region and punishment. This fear of reprisal hinders transformation. Others do not wish to change, for although they know as well as anyone that some eccentric ideas come with the package of their belief system, there is enough good there to justify any strange position. For example, very few firmly believe that a King had hundreds of millions of wives who were all barren, or that the universe really is a bunch of flat concentric masses surrounded by tasty oceans, so they just let these topics flow by them, do not discuss them much, and rarely try to justify them. Some speak about the universe when they must, but the discussion is often either a fanatical demand that the statements are accepted as they are, or the scriptural descriptions are allegorically similar to modern observations. Difficult passages are generally read by most people in a neutral manner to avoid dealing with the subject. There are statements by authorities within the Hindu tradition that demonstrate the complexity of the belief system and the lengths scholars go through to deal with them. Bhaktivinode, one of the most respected scholars, stated that the hells described in the 5th Canto of the Bhagavat are allegorical. If you believe him, you now have the problem of maintaining the opposing ideas that the scripture is absolute and literal, yet allegorical and obtuse at the same time. Faced with such a choice, how does one decide which model to apply when one is within the confines of a belief system? If one were to follow previous authorities and accept whatever they said, one would also have to believe they had some superior connection to the absolute source of knowledge which gave them the right to declare what was literal and what was allegorical. Troubles arise when these authorities disagree with each other on meaningful details, as one saw in the discussion on namabhasa where authorities had different opinions, or even in the major disagreements between sects within the tradition. I bring up these points as an attempt to assist you in your struggle to decide what you believe or could/should believe considering your present intellectual development. The question then becomes: “Do I want to move down this path of doubtful questioning and expose myself to the potential of perhaps having to disagree with scriptural ideals?” You have the right to do this, obviously, but do you have the will? It depends entirely on how you feel about it. If you do not feel the gain you might make by stepping out into the wide world of making up your own mind is worth the risk you have to take, then do not do it. But if you feel it makes sense to you, or that you really have no other choice since you know too much, then when and if you find the courage to do what you know is right, go for it. No one but yourself can make that decision for you for no one can change your mind but you. The article quoted in your text refers to a mechanism whereby random events could selectively create chemical reactions that build molecules that could potentially build bodies. This is Darwinism from the molecular point of view and is nothing new. If you have dealt with Darwinism before, you can deal with this now. Although I have personally undergone an intellectual transformation in the past years and I have no qualms whatsoever to accept any idea if it is what I feel is correct, I cannot accept the idea that life is founded on chemical combination. I have personal experience of my life being beyond the chemical body and I have experience of others’ lives beyond their physical bodies. Considering my experience and my understanding of life, I am unimpressed by the attempts of scientists to ‘prove’ that life arose from matter. I am also not interested in their speculative ideas or their speculative experiments that are extremely primitive, even if on the molecular level. The idea that random chemical reactions can create within a physical body the alchemical capacity to create non-physical reality might be plausible from the science fiction point of view (as in robots gaining life symptoms and taking over the world a.s.o.) but it contradicts Occom’s razor for it adds layer upon layer of assumption to explain something that is easily is understood once one accepts the ‘spiritual’ nature of life force and living energy. When a plausible mechanism appears that demonstrates how living bodies came to populate this earth, we will feel better about the origin of human life on earth. Until that time, a religionist can either believe Brahma created our forefathers and put them on earth, or that our human ancestors arrived here from the stars, or our original parents were placed here in the garden of eden. And a scientist will believe life developed through a random chemical event that created something useful and the process of evolution took over from there. It is all a process of belief and we each decide how we answer our questions.

"India has untethered its currency", what does that mean (highlighted below)? Anyway as Prabhupada says in Srimad-Bhagavatam, one worldorder, one currency, it's all merging - this world is just very small. <TR><TD align="center">Why The US Dollar Will Collapse </TD></TR><TR><TD> FN Arena – Egoli.com June 15, 2007 Economists of the ilk of Nouriel Roubini and Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach have been pushing the line for at least a couple of years now that the US current account deficit, which has been creeping up consistently in the twenty-first century, is unsustainable. The world cannot continue to finance the US' insatiable appetite for consumer exports, and eventually something has to give. What is likely to give is the value of the US dollar. "The US dollar is akin to the promissory note of a defunct finance company", says M.R. Venkatesh, a charted accountant from Chennai, India. Is M.R. an authority on such matters? Not, indeed, a globally recognised one, but M.R. does have the capacity to encapsulate the problem in pretty simple terms - an achievement that often eludes macroeconomists. And it is simply the factual evidence that is damning. "Put modestly, Americans have been living way beyond their means, consuming much more than what they could possibly afford and, in the process, borrowing far beyond their capacity for too long." The reason the US has found itself in this position is, to a great extent, a result of the rise of China and other Asian emerging economies and their decision to keep their exchange rates pegged at low levels against the US dollar as a result of the region-wide currency collapse that occurred in 1997. However it must be remembered that China still represents only the third largest surplus on the other side of the US current account ledger. Germany is number one and Japan number two. When the Chinese economy began to accelerate the balance of currencies actually suited both parties. China was able to fuel a manufacturing surge that employed vast numbers of its peasant population, and the US was keen to voraciously consume whatever cheap exports came its way. But like any drug, it is often foolish to think that a little bit will do and the habit will never get worse. The trade imbalance with China has become much worse. If you buy a car from a dealer financed by the a loan from that same dealer - a transaction that occurs every day of the week in Australia - the amount you owe is fixed and as long as you can make the interest payments everything is sweet. What is unlikely to happen is that you would buy another car the next, year, and then another, without having disposed of or paid off the first. This would probably lead you into bankruptcy eventually were the car dealer not diligent with its credit assessment. The US is buying affordable export goods from China on credit. China lends the US the money to do so by buying US Treasuries. The money it lends represents the receipts from the sale of the goods. This seems like a fair arrangement, except that the amount of goods bought on credit never falls - it just rises year on year. And China is not the only country exporting goods to the US. The spark for the whole transaction lies in undervalued foreign currencies - those which make the exports appear cheap in the first place. And the US is hooked on a consumption drug. In mid May the US national debt stood at about US$8.85 trillion, or US$28,000 for every man, woman and child. The current account deficit - that which is financed by foreign rather than domestic reserves - stood at $850 billion or 7% of GDP at the end of 2006. The US is, on the other hand, having trouble with its own export economy. Traditional leviathans like General Motors are struggling to stay afloat in the face of global competition from countries with much cheaper labour. In order for the US dollar not to collapse as the country continues to move to what appears, from a corporate point of view, to be ultimate bankruptcy, the Fed has continued to raise interest rates. The US has been bankrupt once before - in 1971. It had reached bankruptcy by financing the long and painful Vietnam War (any analogies here?). But in order to avoid the collapse of the global economy at this point the world capitulated to the US decision to abandon the gold standard. The US dollar has not been backed by gold since 1971. It is simply a promissory note from the US government. All other currencies are measured against this global reserve currency. As inflation begins to creep back into the global equation - rather ironically as a result of rising commodity prices driven by China's all-consuming need for resources to make the products that it then exports to the world - the Fed is again looking at raising rates. The decision to do becomes far more onerous the larger the actual amount of debt involved. Were the US to cut rates to stimulate the economy and attempt to trade its way out of insolvency this would mean risking no longer attracting the lenders - foreign Treasury buyers - in the first place. On March 28, 2006, the Asian Development Bank is reported to have issued a memo, advising members to be ready for a collapse of the US dollar. The US dollar has been falling steadily, although a recent pick up in economic data suggests the end is not yet quite nigh. But the reason the Asian Development Bank issued its warning is because the Fed stopped publishing the quantum of M3 - the aggregate of all US dollars circulating in the world. If your car dealer asked you to outline your existing debts and you refused, would he lend you the money for the car? What have you got to hide? he would ask. The US dollar is merely a promissory note, an IOU. How many of them are out there? We don't know anymore. But we do know that the Treasury's printing presses do not sleep. M.R. Venkatesh has an interesting twist on Weapons of Mass Destruction. Did Saddam ever have any? We may never know, but the devastation would have been similar if he'd managed, as intended, to switch the trading of Iraqi oil away from US dollars and into euros. "Never in the history of mankind," says M.R., "has a national army protected the national currency so vigorously as the US Army has done in the past decade or so." Apparently Venezuela and Iran have similar ideas. Since the fall of the gold standard, the US has ensured that its currency is implicitly backed by crude. The US dollar is the global currency of oil exchange. To date OPEC has gone along with it. It's not hard to see why the US has strategic interests in the Middle East. But despite US efforts, the oil price has soared. All commodity prices, again traded in US dollars whether in New York or London or Kirkusk, have also soared. This is not supportive of the US dollar. And consider that a barrel of oil that costs about US$10 to produce is trading for over US$60. The world has found itself in a fight against inflation as a result of rising commodity prices. There has to date been commensurate deflation exported out of China along with the diminishing value of consumer goods. But labour costs in China will not get cheaper, so soon commodity price increases will be passed through to the world, if that isn't the case already. Central banks across the globe have been raising rates, providing good reason for global diversification away from the US dollar as the most sensible interest bearing deposit. The US has very little room to move. The only thing stopping the US dollar from collapsing is indeed the fact that so much of the world's reserves are invested in that very dollar. To allow its value to fall would be to cut one's own throat. Says M.R.: "While every central banker is conscious of this fact and thereby seeks to postpone the inevitable while nervously looking for his counterpart in any other country to break ranks and thereby trigger the collapse." However, the risks are building. Already many countries, enemies and allies of the US alike, are quietly reducing their risk against the US dollar by shifting into euros or other financial assets. There is no longer strident support for US bonds, and for the first time in a while US bond yields are creeping up, signalling perceived inflation. If there was a major shift toward trading oil in euros, the US dollar would surely collapse. In is unlikely that America's allies would precipitate such a move, but what of its enemies? There are only two possibilities from here on. Either the US dollar collapses or a controlled devaluation is allowed. A controlled devaluation means the revaluation of those currencies that are undervalued. Read: Asia. India has untethered its currency. When will China? To relieve this doom and gloom scenario somewhat, consider that there are those who believe that the US current account deficit is not a problem at all. The lateral thinkers at GaveKal have dismissed current account fears as old economics, having no place in a globalised world. A lot of the manufactured goods coming out of China are manufactured under licence from US companies. China may take collect the revenues, but US companies keep the profit. If the US continues to make strong profits, as the last few years' earnings reports would suggest, how can it be insolvent? The argument will continue, but suffice to say, even GaveKal is getting a bit nervous about the increasing yield on US bonds. </TD></TR>

Somehow couldnt immediately understand why ISKCON is being mentioned in context with this headline.... BUSINESS OF THE GODS http://www.tehelka.com/story_main31.asp?filename=Ne300607Business_Of_the.asp posted 22 June 2007 YOGA, MEDITATION, AYURVEDA, ART OF LIVING. HOLDING ON TO FAITH AND LETTING GO OF STRESS IN THESE TROUBLED TIMES COMES AT A PRICE. BUT MILLIONS ARE READY TO PAY. THE HEALERS, AMASSING FORTUNES AND BUILDING EMPIRES, SEEM TO BE THE HAPPIEST, WRITES SHANTANU GUHA RAY LAST MONTH, the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) received a strange complaint from disciples of one of India’s top godmen, a figure immensely popular for his crowded, five-star discourses in select farmhouses on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road on the Capital’s southern fringes. The bizarre incident revolved around a disciple who offered Rs 35 lakh in three installments as donation to gain instant access to the godman’s inner circle. Enthused by the donation and the disciple’s meteoric rise in his business, the godman requested his help in a personal investment that would guarantee quick returns. Rs 4 crore — the amount could even be higher — changed hands. The disciple disappeared overnight. No one knows why the godman and his followers did not press charges, but the general perception among those who attended that meeting at the EOW office, was that the issue was buried instantly because the complainants felt investigations would actually create more tensions for the godman than for the offender. What if the police asked about the source of that cash? “Obviously no one wanted to reveal the godman’s source of money, which is mostly in cash and collected after the discourses. The collections are just huge,” a top EOW officer told TEHELKA. SOLACE COMES FOR A PRICE As per estimates with the finance and home ministries, the total turnover of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s empire is approximately Rs 400 crore that includes his Art of Living (AOL) institutes, pharmacy and health centres, and a hill 40 km from Bangalore on lease from the Karnataka government for 99 years. In the same league are others like Asaram Bapu (turnover Rs 350 crore, includes the multicrore controversial ashram in Delhi’s Ridge area close to the Rabindra Rangashala); Mata Amritanandamayi, “Amma”, of Kerala (turnover Rs 400 crore, includes a virtual corporation that runs schools and hospitals and receives mega donations from all over the world); Baba Ramdev of Hardwar (turnover Rs 400 crore, includes pharmacies and land for two universities); Sudhanshu Maharaj (turnover Rs 300 crore, includes meditation centres across the country and special discourses at the homes of the rich and famous in India and abroad) and Murari Bapu (turnover Rs 150 crore, includes special discourses at political rallies and at private residences in India and abroad). “Godmen seem to be the biggest beneficiary of the economic boom,” says Pradip Ghosh of the Kolkata-based Science and Rationalists’ Association (SRA). His personal interaction with Baba Ramdev on NDTV some time ago ended in a virtual fracas when the self-styled healer refused to cure a bald man whose name Ghosh suggested. Writes Ghosh in his book Yoga: Control of the Mind and Meditation, “If Cadbury’s, Samsung or Maruti depended only on the quality of their product, and cancelled all their advertisements and promotions, we can imagine what would have happened in this era of competition. Indian yogis are men of clever business acumen." On the outskirts of Hardwar, the gigantic ashram of Baba Ramdev welcomes visitors with a huge board that has rates precisely cut out for those interested in his healing touch. Ordinary membership: Rs 11,000. Honoured membership: Rs 21,000. Special membership: Rs 51,000. Life membership: Rs 1 lakh. Reserved membership: Rs 2.51 lakh. Founder membership: Rs 5 lakh. Money talks, all the way. “Funds are required for a whole range of our activities because nothing is free in India,” explains Swami Balkisen, who is helping Baba Ramdev construct two of India’s biggest universities in Hardwar and in Madhya Pradesh on highly subsidised land offered by the state governments. This, he says, will become the central point from where the jet-set yogi hopes to cure millions of Indians from a host of diseases. “I am not saying I will do everything for free. It is not possible. The scale of the business will go. Our papers are all audited,” Baba Ramdev recently told a Hindi news channel. Adds Swami Tijarawala, the yogi’s repre-sentative in Delhi: “More than 3,000 patients visit us on a daily basis for treatment. Once we start this operation, the numbers will multiply. But if you are expecting it to be free, then it is like asking for the moon.” Glance through the price chart and you will have your answer. The rates of medicines and other products are sky-high at all these centres, the majority of which work through trusts that seek huge Income Tax (I-T) concessions. Recently, the I-T department revealed in a note that the Divya Yog Mandir Trust of Baba Ramdev has emerged in just a few years as one of the richest of its kind in India. Is the godman route the best to earn big bucks? Or to avoid the tax net? Consider the latest case in Delhi where I-T sleuths discovered 19.55 acres of prime land worth Rs 1,900 crore in the illegal possession of religious bodies ranging from the Sant Nirankari Mandal to the Jwala Mukhi Durga Mandir to the Sanatan Dharma Sabha Shiv Temple to the Asaramji Trust. “The Asaramji Trust has defaulted on tax payments worth Rs 2.15 crore while the Roman Catholic Church in India has not cleared dues worth almost a crore of rupees,” says Ashok Singh, a senior I-T official in Delhi, adding: “This trust business is becoming very, very murky. If the ownership of the trusts is kept among family-members, there will be no question of income tax.” On the southern fringes of Delhi, farmhouses routinely host discourses conducted by these godmen where devotees wearing spotless white pay an entrance fee of Rs 5,000 per head for a one-hour pravachan that comes with vegetarian dinner. CASH SPEAKS. CASH RULES No wonder, then, that business is booming. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has a sprawling, threestorey ashram on a hill 40 km from Bangalore. It comes with an artificial lake, a helipad, dining halls, cyber cafes, a bookshop, pharmacies, residential quarters and a dedicated channel on Worldspace satellite radio. Devotees from more than 125 countries came here to attend AOL’S silver jubilee celebrations. There are plans to start an online university to teach Vedic mathematics. And it is not cheap: delegates pay Rs 5,000 each to attend the annual AOL festivities. This year, nearly 5,50,000 attended. “You have to run it like a corporation to make it financially viable,” Sri Sri Ravi Shankar told TEHELKA in an interview (see box). Pune’s plush Koregaon Park neighbourhood is home to the 40-acre Osho International Meditation Resort (OIMR) that has white marble pathways, blackpainted buildings and landscaped gardens. “OIMR is run as a trust. It is a combination of meditation centre and resort, which makes it unique,” says Ma Sadhna at OIMR. Osho’s business has grown almost 300 percent after his death. Osho’s books are published by 49 international publishers in 55 languages — next only to Harry Potter (64 languages), and the website www.osho.com is among the world’s top sites with approximately six million hits last year. The Osho guesthouse has 60 air-conditioned rooms with double beds and attached bathrooms. Four are designed to accommodate people with physical difficulties. You can even book your room online. There is a special Amazing Weekend Package offered from April 1 to October 31 which makes the five-star facilities available at three-star rates: two nights and three days for one person at $184 (Rs 8,250), and for two persons at $ 268 (Rs 12,500). This covers registration fees, food, two robes, meditations, health club facilities (including an Olympic-size swimming pool), Buddha Grove classes and evening celebrations. “This is the best nirvana and it comes for a price,” says Ma Prem Usha, who heads the Delhi centre of OIMR. DESPITE HER lower-caste origins, “Amma” Amritanandamayi — the saint of Kerala who has hugged at least 21 million people over the past three decades — has a huge following. She runs her own Amrita television channel, as well as 33 schools, 12 temples, a state-of-the-art super specialty hospital, and a deemed university whose yearly turnover would easily touch the Rs 175-crore mark. As per home ministry records, she is the second largest recipient in India of foreign funds. In 1998- 1999 alone, she earned foreign funds worth Rs 51.55 crore ($11.5 million). When she celebrated her birthday in Kochi some years back, all Kerala dailies got a highly paid, four-page colour supplement. She spent Rs 100 crore for tsunami rehabilitation, helped victims of the Kashmir earthquake and donated $1 million to the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina fund two years ago. This year, she has promised Rs 200 crore for the distressed farmers of Vidarbha. Her ashram has a UN special consultation status for non-governmental organisations and she is firmly ensconced in the top echelons of the Sangh Parivar. “She is sitting pretty on an empire worth Rs 1,200 crore. Amma runs high-power institutions through which big favours can be distributed to people who matter. The payment for a medical seat at her super-specialty hospital-cum-medical college is Rs 40 lakh. There would be concessions in the case of children of VIPs,” says U. Kalanathan, noted Malayali atheist. “Amma’s benefits are going to the devotees. So where is the question of this huge annual turnover?” argues Swami Dhyanamrita, a long-time Amma confidant. Outside the huge complex in Delhi that houses the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple, a large billboard says, “Become a life member — all donations accepted here.” The price tag for a life membership starts at Rs 10,000. “We run 400 temples, 100 vegetarian restaurants, and a wide variety of community projects,” says Vrajendra Nandan Das, vice president of the million-member strong organisation that almost went bankrupt a decade ago. Today, new projects are being taking shape in Bangalore, Noida, Ghaziabad and Tirupati through big donations that come from an impressive list of donors, which includes veteran actor and Rajya Sabha MP Hema Malini and one of the sons of Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav. “ISKCON needs the cream, not the crowd,” says Das. Obviously, the crowd’s contribution is abysmal as compared to the cream. That’s the thumb rule if you are seeking solace, sorry, sampurna nirvana. With inputs from KA SHAJI in Kochi, SHALINI SINGH in Mumbai, and HARSIMRAN SHERGILL in New Delhi

Tasty food tempts prisoners to stay in Indian jail Thursday Jun 21 15:16 AEST http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=274515 Inmates at a prison in southern India are eating so well that many are reluctant to leave while other convicted criminals are trying to move in, a newspaper said Thursday. The Parappana Agrahara prison in Bangalore is crowded with 4700 inmates, more than twice its capacity, because small-time criminals are refusing to apply for bail, according to the Bangalore Mirror. Juvenile offenders are also overstating their age to qualify as adults and enter the facility, the newspaper added. The reason is the healthy food served by ISKCON, or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a Hindu evangelist organisation, said the paper, whose reporters visited the facility. ISKCON, commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement, started serving its pure-vegetarian fare in the jail on May 21 under contract from the prisons department. Lunch and dinner typically include piping hot rice, two vegetables and a spicy lentil dish called sambar and buttermilk. A dessert is added on festival days and national holidays like Independence Day, and also once a week. "When we are getting tasty, nutritious food three times a day here, why should we go out and commit crimes," said prisoner Raja Reddy, who has been arrested 20 times in 30 years for theft, robbery and burglary. "Our going out of the prison will only benefit pawnbrokers who purchase stolen items at a throwaway price from us, advocates who fleece us to fight our case and the police who collect bribes," Reddy was quoted as saying.