suchandra

Virachandra Gosai had two wives, Srimati and Narayani, but no children. So the Nityaananda Vamsis are related only in an indirect way.

Good point, "It has been misused in so many ways. In Bengal… Just like they say nityananda-vamsa. Coming from Nityananda. So Nityananda had one son, Virabhadra. But Virabhadra did not marry. So there is no dynasty by semina. By nityananda- vamsa means by disciplic succession. So sometimes extra advantage was taken as nityananda-vamsa. But people have got respect for such thing, dynasty. So not only it is now, from time immemorial, guru, guru’s dynasty… Even in Mohammedan religion there is such sentiment, Mohammed and his dynasty, Hussain, they are taken very respectfully."

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.7.45-46

by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

Vṛndāvana, October 5, 1976

Sorry, theist, I don't buy your argument at all.

Let's say you sleep in your bed and you dream while sleeping. Within that dream you act as a driving with your car. Aren't there two of you, one lying on the bed and sleeping, the other busy driving a car within a dream. Sometimes even so busy within a dream that you wake up. What more prove do you need?

We understand the limitations of all analogies but we still use them. The thing is an analogy is deemed good when it closely resembles the reality it is pointing to.

 

Why do you think the dream analogy has been so often used by Srila Prabhupada? I think because it is a good one.

 

So you say you are in the material world. And your original question was can a soul be in two places at the same time. So by saying you are now in the material world I take it you consider yourself gone from the spiritual world?

 

You also say "somehow" you are in material world which means you are not sure how.

 

My position is that you are in the material world and also in the spiritual world. This sounds contradictory until you understand that the spiritual world is free from the illusory sense of time namely past present and future.

 

The time in the spiritual world in always Now.

 

We have entered the material world by the same way we enter a false body when day dreaming or night dreaming...by projection of consciousness into that dream identity (ahankara).

 

And what is the material world if not a dream world? And how does one enter a dream world if not by dreaming oneself in?

 

And an important step in the awakening process is to become a lucid dreamer both in the sleeping state and the waking state. That we can gointo later but the first thing is to fully admit that we are dreaming and the dreamer (our true self) exists apart from the dream scenario.

 

Now the only places that are beyond the dream worlds of Maha-vishnu are the impersonal brahman and the Vaikuntha spheres. So we must be dreaming (projecting our consciousness) from one of those two "places".

 

Either are spiritual platforms therefore even though we are in the material world working through our maya bodies we have we are also still base in the spiritual world simulataneously.

 

Again, drop (at least theorhetically) the concept of material time which can't be applied here.

Very good points and finally all this makes perfect sense. Evolution of desire - what is not easy to understand is that everything happens due individual desiring, the jivas want to act out their material feelings. But because there are so many lifetimes we lose the context, how someone gradually developed such and such situation? We only see the result but not his 1000 lifetimes before who gradually brought him to that state. This would be an interesting topic for a movie, to depict the evolution of desire during the period of one thousand lifetimes.

Severed cables bring down phone lines linking Europe, Asia, Mideast

Internet and telephone communications between Europe, the Middle East and Asia were severely disrupted Friday after three undersea cables were damaged in the Mediterranean, France Telecom said.

"The causes of the cut, which is located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt, remain unclear," a statement said, while a spokesman said it was unlikely to have been an attack.

The company said it was sending a ship to fix the lines but that it would not arrive until Monday and that it could take until December 31 before normal service was restored.

Most business-to-business traffic between Europe and Asia was being rerouted through the United States, the firm said, but regular communications between Europe and several Asian countries has been disrupted since early Friday.

Sixty-five per cent of traffic to India was down, while services to Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Taiwan and Pakistan were also severely affected, a spokesman said Friday evening.

An afternoon toll released by France Telecom said that 100 percent of traffic was lost in the Maldives Indian Ocean islands, with the Gulf state of Qatar and Djibouti, on the Gulf of Aden, also losing over 70 percent of their traffic.

Egypt's state news agency MENA reported that the cuts happened off the coast of Sicily at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Friday, with Indian-registered Reliance GlobalCom directing a submarine cable repair company to head to the region to fix the cables.

The agency added that services were being rerouted to backup cables and satellites to compensate for the failures.

The cables are jointly owned by several dozen different countries. One of the cables is 40,000 kilometres (25,000 miles) long and links 33 different countries while a second is 20,000 kilometres long and serves 14 states.

"If there was just one cable down we could have used the other two," said France Telecom spokesman Louis-Michel Aymard. "But all three are down so this puts us in a very difficult situation.

"This is a very rare situation," he said.

The cables might have got caught up in trawlers' nets or there may have been an underwater landslide, said Aymard. One appeared to be fully severed, while the other two seemed to be only partially cut, he added.

Each cable has a "leader" country, he said. Egypt is in charge of the main cable and in this capacity commissioned France Telecom Marine, a subsidiary of the communications giant, to handle the repairs.

The boat, with 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) of spare cable on board, will leave very early Saturday and arrive Monday.

In January, five cables in the Middle East and Europe were cut, causing Internet failures in the region and damaging traffic through the region's important call centre industry.

France Telecom said it would publish updates on its website on the latest traffic disruption. Traffic from Europe to Algeria and Tunisia is not affected, it said.

www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iaJnYgyUpddYKhqJ2rfz295-8bxg

There are moments when we realize that we live in a world of merciless battles, and above all a world of spiritual battles. In those moments of lucidity we may understand the deep meaning of Rimbaud's conclusion, which states that the spiritual battles are as terrible as any war, and these, sometimes not well understood. Remember the words of Christ - I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

 

 

Richard Wurmbrand

 

Yes, we live in a world of permanent battles between two opposed spiritual powers -- the subtle power of good and the rough power of evil. The first one is life creative, and works with truth, honesty, harmony, love, pardon, compassion, good will and altruism, abundance, joy and happiness, and all positive energies that feed the universe and the life we know here on earth. Opposed to this spiritual power is the evil, the father of deceptions and lies, the first revolutionary and father of tyrannical hierarchy in the universe, the spiritual power behind destruction of life, cruelty, tortures, greed, selfishness, robbery, lust and madness, all sorts of crimes, including suicide, suffer and diseases, hunger and thirst, poverty... The list could be a very long one... Just think of the crimes committed during the Bolshevik revolution, the Communist revolution of China, the first and second world wars, and all the wars and revolutions there since, including the war in Afghanistan or the absurd war between Israelis and Palestinians, the tortures and murder of millions and millions of innocent children, and people of all ethnic origins and ages. Just think at the deceptive power behind all these crimes against humanity, and how we, humans, accept lies in our lives, that cut us from the truth, from the positive spiritual power, with all the disastrous consequences.

I consider myself a victim of the Conspiracy, being born in Romania, where the Communism robbed the hard work of several generations of my ancestors. I faced the brutality and the tyrannical Communist regime, but what I suffered is nothing when my thoughts go to other Christians, true martyrs that suffered tortures, prison and untold persecutions.

It was in 1964, just few months after the assassination of John Kennedy, when I learnt that Communism is a Satanic sect, a very evil religion tuned on the dark side of the spiritual powers, deceiving humanity with the struggle of social classes, the "champion of the poor, of the worker", for a better world, with more justice, on the way for the perfect human society. Yes, all these lies were the "worm on the hook to easy catch big fish". Marx was a priest of the Synagogue of Satan, and his mission and will was to destroy the Christian religion. He never attacked the Jewish credo in the Talmud and Kabala; nor did Lenin, Trotsky and even Stalin. Why? Because Communism is an offspring, a creation of the Talmudists, a tool intended to bring humanity in the net of the most racist, greedy, criminal and spiritually ugly concept, the people of Satan alias Sanat.

My parents were hosting for few days in our house a legendary man, reverend Richard Wurmbrand. I was only 13 years old, but I still have the vivid image of this tall man passing the gate of our courtyard and walking slowly and with difficulty. He was in company of a friend of my father, ------, who few years later was murdered by the secret police, the sinister "securitate" for his Christian credo.

Wurmbrand's whole body was covered with deep scars, reminders of the cruel tortures the communists inflicted to this man during fourteen years of jail for his Christianity. The bones of his feet were all broken while he was severely tortured; this was the reason why this man had such difficulty to walk.

Wurmbrand was born in a Jewish family in Romania. He was in a family of four children and he was still a little boy when his father died. He had a rather harsh childhood, because his mother was a woman of modest condition, widow with the hard charge to raise four little kids. They even tried a better life for few years in Istanbul, Turkey. They returned to Romania, and by the age 16 he was brought to Paris by one of his uncles, a USA citizen gone to Paris, France, for Communist activity. Wurmbrand was introduced by his uncle to the Soviet ambassador to France.

* Young man, said the ambassador, we need you for Romania. We shall send you to the Soviet Union to a special university to study politics. Once ready you will receive missions of high importance for the International Revolution.

He went to Moscow, and during two years he was inculcated the Marxism-Leninism in the presence of people coming from all countries, preparing the Communist revolution for the whole world.

Thus, between 1930 and 1940, he was engaged in the Communist revolutionary subversive movement in Romania. He was arrested and condemned. He was jailed at Doftana together with other Communist comrades. Following one rebellion, Wurmbrand was isolated in a cold and humid cell. Here his heart was filled with despair, and he made a try with a prayer: "God, I know that You do not exist, but if You do exist, take me out of here." He was taken out unhurt, but his fanatic attitude of revolutionary Communist was still unchanged. In 1939 he contracted lungs tuberculosis, and was released from jail. He lived for a while in the house of a Protestant family, where Wurmbrand had the opportunity to read the Bible and meet a Lutheran pastor of Jewish origin. This man gave to Wurmbrand the deep senses of what he read in the Bible. This was his conversion from Communism to Christianity, and he was baptized Lutheran. His wife, Sabina, Communist activist of Jewish origin also, after a short while became Christian too. Here is the mission of Israel - Christ came, and through Christ shall be saved the Jewish people, concluded the new Jewish Christianized couple.

In 1940, Wurmbrand became the pastor of the Lutheran Jewish community in Bucharest, organized by the Norwegian Mission for the conversion of Romanian Jews to Christianity. Wurmbrand was introduced to the highest levels of the cults, and had access to the minister of the religious cults in Romania. In this period was born his son Mihai, and the couple adopted also an orphan Romanian boy who they named Sandu.

In Romania the Sabatean/Frankist credo was adopted by a large number of Jewish people. They, as the Talmudists and Kabalists do, proclaim that the Jewish people is the long awaited Messiah.

One of Richard Wurmbrand's brothers attained the highest ranks in the Jewish lodges of the Masonry and became grand master. One day the two brothers, one Christian, the other Freemason, had a very vivid discussion.

* How could you conceive that the few millions Jews take over and control and govern the almost five billions non Jews?

* We have enough adepts, answered his brother. Some of them know they are our men, others do not, but all of them are at our disposal, and we will be their god. We created the Freemasonry and Communism; and through Communism, Capitalism, Materialism and Humanitarianism we already gave a Jewish spirituality to the whole world. Day after day the world is more and more Jewish. We, the Jews, we are the ferment of the 20th century.

* Messiah already came for us, replied Richard.

* No, answered the Freemason brother. That one was a traitor to the chosen people.

* Why then the Messiah doesn't come?

* Because the Jewish people even is the Messiah!

* The Jewish people is full of sins and disobey to the commandments we received from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, therefore this people cannot be Messiah, the saint and perfect. That perfect and saint was and remains only Jesus Christ.

* We hate you, the Christians, and you, Richard, you are a traitor to our people. When we shall build again the Temple of Salomon, we shall build in the city of Jerusalem the highest monument in the world, and on it shall be written: "Never forget what the Christians did to you."

* Your destruction by yourself, Israel, replied Richard to his Satanist brother. There is no more heaven for you, because beyond your materialism you have no other aim, no ideal.

In 1946, in Bucharest took place a conference of the Confessions in Romania. This was arranged by Ana Pauker, a high ranked Communist of Jewish origins, promoted by the Soviets of Stalin. During this conference, the Rabin Safran accused the Christians of anti-Semitism and of crimes against the Jews, and he promised revenge according to the laws of the Jewish people. In the same while he started to negate the divine nature of Jesus Christ. The only chosen people is the Jewish People, concluded the Rabin.

The Christians were frozen of fright, and nobody defended Jesus Christ. At the conference were also present Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand. Sabina said to Richard:

* You must tell the truth to the Rabin. Ask to speak!

Because he was the representative of the ecumenical movement, he was allowed to speak. Richard started by describing his Jewish origin, and then explained how he became a Christian. Then, he started to address his speech to the Rabin, with power and without being afraid of being accused of anti-Semitism, as only a Jew can do that nowadays.

* You are the guilty ones, said Wurmbrand. Your sins went up to the sky. You hate, you conspire, pile, you lie against Jesus Christ and his church. You lost your right of chosen people through the murder of Messiah, Jesus Christ, and you should ask for pardon and become Christians, because the one that you oppose is the one foretold to the patriarchs and to the prophets. Without Him you have no mercy.

Ana Pauker asked to stop the radio casting. In the vast room was chorus and loud applause. Richard Wurmbrand was taken out through a lateral door by his people, and protected against Jews who were waiting at the main entrance with the intention to slay him.

Shortly after these events, Richard Wurmbrand was arrested on the way to his church, and his martyrdom started in the Communist jails, as he so well described in his books published in several languages.

One of the most interesting of his books is titled "Marx and Satan". All the knowledge he gathered in his life out of jail and in the jail, conducted this brilliant man to the conclusion that Marx was a priest of the Synagogue of Satan, and his chief aim was the destruction of the Christian religion and the Christian civilization. He made a thorough investigation on the subject, and the documents he could find concerning Marx and Engels show the trajectory of these two men of Jewish origin from a Christian credo to the satanic credo. This is the best explanation for the deep hatred and genocides perpetrated by Communards and Communists against the Christians wherever they got in control. This is the hatred of evil powers against the positive good powers described at the beginning of this text. This hatred was also behind the massacre of the Tutsi Christians in Rwanda by the Utu animalists and pagans, programmed and assisted by high ranked personalities, such as the Satanist Madeleine Albright, and the leaders of the so called democratic western countries, deeply controlled by those who wish the destruction of a large part of humanity, and the total enslavement of the survivors.

There is a large number of Jews that gave up the teachings of the Torah and embraced the teachings of the Babylonian Talmud and of the Kabala, which perverted their spirit and acts. They want to dominate the whole world. They pretend to be the only ones the chosen of God, explained Richard Wurmbrand. They believe that their belonging to the Jewish people is sacred. Because the Messiah they were waiting for did not come, they arrived at the theory that the Jews themselves, in their totality, represent the Messiah. Therefore, they refuse to consider their sins, and they prohibit to be criticized or accused of whatever, be it the most justified criticism or accusation, turning the accusation against the accuser, as anti-Semitism, with much propaganda and turmoil in the whole world.

Besides this they made the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis during the war on Jews, a "holocaust", forgetting to mention the much larger victims among other peoples. They pass under silence the much more murderous holocaust perpetrated against the Christians during the Bolshevik revolution, and during the Communist tyranny. There is no other known mass murder and genocide in the human history that can be compared with the holocaust they perpetrated on Christians. They accuse the Christians of anti-Semitism but they are not accused of being anti-Christians. They consider their blood to be sacred, and only their's, and to be revenged with hundred for one, as they did in 1930 with the genocide of more than ten million Christians in Ukraine, and of whom we hear practically nothing.

After the war, they believed that there came the time for the International Communist revolution, and grab in their claws the whole planet. They underestimated the reality and had to pull back. Now they are massed in America, while still keeping in their control the ex-communist countries, and as well the capitalist countries, they dispose of much maneuverability. The Capitalist Jews, the International bankers and the Freemasonry financed the Communism. They controlled the Communism and what happened there. For example, the hate of Christianity is pure Jewish, and this hate was practiced under Communism. Only those satanic Jews hate with such absurdity and totality Jesus Christ and his church. The Freemasonry is their creation and they have total dominion and control on it. They are arrogant, racist and excessive in all what they do. In these conditions it is hard to hope from them the humility necessary for the acceptance of Jesus Christ. The radical Talmudic Jews work to convert the whole planet to their credo and be installed as grand pontiffs over the peoples of the earth. They cultivate solidarity among them with the purpose to attain their final purpose. But they are dominated by the satanic spirit of lies and deception, and they are the enemies of the whole humanity. Nevertheless, there are more and more Jews aware of this complot against the whole planet, and they feel concerned; they already organize the resistance against this madness. A significant number of Jews became Christians, and others get away from the Talmudists and return to the teachings of the Torah. It is probable that the last people to adopt the Christian religion are the Talmudists.

They accuse anyone that opposes their abuses of anti-Semitism and hatred, but in fact they are the real haters of the peoples of the earth.

These explanations of Richard Wurmbrand were taped on a TESLA tape recorder, so I could listen to it regularly before I managed to escape from the Communists of Romania swimming across the Danube in the night to Yugoslavia, and from there to Italy. I was only nineteen years old by then, but I never forgot the teachings of this man out of common, martyr of modern times.

This is contrary to the teaching of the Upanishads

 

And a person liberated in brahman is called, in Chaitanyadev's philsophy, a mukta

 

Now you want to convince us a mukta has not attained mukti

 

You are deceiving yourself and also attempting to deceive others. Shame on you.

Prabhupada's comments are self-explanatory, require no further interpretation.

Interpretation is required when things are not clear. When things are clear, no further analysis leads to a better result.

Yes I have made that point. My point is however that even the term eternal time is misleading. What is operating in the spiritual world is the ever present Now and not time the 25th element in the material world as melvin reminded us.

It says, "Lord Brahma, a human being and an ant all live for one hundred years, but their lifetimes of one hundred years are different from one another. This world is a relative world, and its relative moments of time are different. Thus the one hundred years of Brahma are not the same as the one hundred years of a human being."

This explains the illusion of time - it is like a script that runs on a server and no one except the admin can change it.

Therefore what is one hundred years for me, it may be one second for you. It is relative, all relative truth. In your calculation it is one hundred years. In my calculation it is one second. Therefore Brahmā’s duration of life is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ [bg. 8.17]. Brahmaṇe, Here also divyam. Sahasrābdam. Now divyaṁ sahasrābdam. Brahmā’s one day, one twelve hours, daytime, we cannot calculate. Our, according to our calculation it is… Sahasra-yuga. Sahasra-yuga. Yuga. Yugas means these Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara, Kali. That means forty three hundred thousands of years. And thousand times, forty three hundred thousands of years, that makes Brahmā’s one day of twelve hours.

Wednesday December 17, 2008

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<!--END story_navigation--> <!-- google_ad_section_start --> 4,000 Hindus take part in chariot procession

ABOUT 4,000 devotees took part in the annual Ratha Yathra (Chariot Festival) orga-nised by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) Penang recently.

The procession, which included two main chariots bearing the idols of Lord Jaganath (Lord of the Universe), Goddess Subadhra Devi and Lord Balarama, and a smaller cha-riot of Nitai Gauranga (the incarnation of Lord Krishna), left the Wisma Nattukottai in New Lane at 5.15pm.

The procession ended at the Penang Chinese Town Hall in Jalan Mesjid Kapitan Keling about 8.30pm.

Organising chairman Ramananda Dasa said the festival originated from India’s Orissa state where the celebrations were held over five days.

“The festival is held to signify how a group of gopis (Krishna devotees) pulled a chariot with Lord Krishna to welcome him to the holy land of Dwaraka.

Devotees and tourists following the chariot procession.

“ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada introduced this festival all over the world and here in Penang, we have been hosting this festival for the past 22 years,’’ he said.

Ramanda added that His Holiness Banu Swami from Japan, His Holiness Jananandasa Goswami Maharaj from New Zealand and His Holiness Bakti Vrjanandana Maharaj from Malaysia also took part in the procession.

There were also a kollatam (stick dancing) performance, a lion dance and Indian cultural dances at the procession. A fireworks display was also held.

Is this Prabhupada's prediction? Another terror attack could lead to war between India and Pakistan

I think it is Prabhupada's prediction. When there would be war starting between India and Pakistan it would turn out to become a world war.

"Prabhupāda: Yes, they are getting. They are already getting. The Pakistan will start the war with India. And then everything will be…"

And for the last time, there is NO MAYA in the spiritual world. It was not maya that brought you to the material world. It was your own desire to explore the dark bank of the Viraja River.

Since there's no sastrical reference/backup for this, it is an assumption based upon logic and reason of a material brain. With the same logic and reason you can say, if it was your own desire like stated above, there must be also this option - to desire to be in Vaikuntha.

In other words, Kulapavana suggests, no, all the jivas desire to explore the dark bank of the Viraja River? Since this is rather a stupid assumption the question arises, if a jiva can also desire to go to Vaikuntha and be eternally situated in devotional service, there must be full knowledge of both options.

Without full knowledge of both options your decision to go to the material world is not a deliberate decision but an error, a misstep out of ignorance. We came here because we guessed the wrong answer. These are the kind of statements that make the whole Vaishnavism look like featherbrained.

God casts his children into the material prisonhouse because they made a misstep out of ignorance, chosing the wrong lot.

Somehow you lost me here.

Understandig the complexity of only the walls of plant cells would certainly lead to the next step, there must be an intelligent creator!

<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="6" width="90%" height="1568"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" height="8">The walls of plant cells</td> </tr> <tr align="left"> <td colspan="2" valign="top" height="24">by Harm Geert Muller</td> </tr> <tr align="left"> <td colspan="2" valign="top" height="1215"> We developed a mathematical description of the process of growth of a cell wall around a long elongated plant cell. Many of the layered structures known to occur in real cells can be generated with this single mechanism.

This figure schematically shows how cellulose fibers wind around the cylindrical plant cell, layer upon layer (three layers shown), each layer continually changing the angle of its fibers with respect to the cell axis.

Wood is an amazing material, that has performed a key-role in human technology ever since we came out of the trees. Its popularity as a building material stems from a combination of stiffness, toughness and low weight that is amazing for a material this light.

Wood basically consists of the cell walls of dead cells, the space that was formerly occupied by the living protoplasm of the cells now filled with air. The cells from which the wood is formed are extremely elongated, which makes the wood look like a miniaturized bundle of straws. In a growing tree new cells quickly grow to such an elongated shape, and then start to secrete tough materials on their surface that give them their strength.

The cells that make the wood of tree trunks are extreme cases, and all plant cells have walls made of a strong material, just less thick. This distinguishes them from animal cells, in which the living protoplasm is separated from the outside world is just a (soap-bubble like) membrane. The plant cell walls derive their high strength from long fibrous molecules called cellulose, which are embedded in a glue-like substance and are wound around the cell in layers. It is thus a naturally occurring composite.

Cell walls have a layered structure, and in each layer the cellulose fibers all run in the same direction, nicely put down next to each other like the way a piece of rope is wound when you buy it in the store. From layer to layer the direction in which the cellulose fibers are wound around the cell can be different. Sometimes it alternates from layer to layer, in other cells each layer is rotated a bit compared to the one below.

That is about all that is known about the structure of these walls. It is not known if each layer really has its fibers in the same direction over the entire cell wall, or even if the layers do extend over the entire cell, or just part of it. It is not known how the cell decides in which direction to put down the fibers when it is building the wall.

At AMOLF we developed a theory about how a cell could do this, based on fairly simple means (after all, single cells can not be very intelligent!) It is known that the fibers grow by being extended at one of their ends by tiny bodies ('rosettes') floating in the cell membrane. The theory assumes that the direction in which these bodies move (and lay down the fibers) is determined by their number: If there is just a single one the fiber has to wrap around the cell like the thread of a screw, but if the whole circumference of the cell is crammed with rosettes, they have no room to move anywhere but straight along the axis.

The exact result then is controlled by how rosettes are inserted and retired from the membrane, and the assumption that the insertion occurs in 'waves' that ripple along the cell can explain many of the patterns of cell walls found in nature. The exact pattern one gets is determined by some simple parameters, like the length and repetition frequencies of the waves.<back to main> <back to top>

Protoplasm

The contents of a living cell is known as protoplasm. In very simple organisms like bacteria it is an unstructured fluid in which all molecules needed to sustain life just float around and randomly bump into each other to do their thing (which, in the end, leads to production of more protoplasm). Cells of higher organisms, such as animals or plants, are so large that they have to be highly organized to run their business, and to this end have all kind of specialized compartments. The cell nucleus, containing the genetic material (the DNA 'master tape'), is the best known of these so called 'organelles'.<back to main> <back to top>

Cellulose

A cellulose molecule is a nearly endless repetition of sugar molecules, all chained together. This chaining can be done in two different ways; one way of doing it produces cellulose, the other starch. Almost any living organism can digest starch, i.e. split the chain back into sugar molecules. Only few organisms can break down cellulose; humans have to rely on cooking their vegetables to break open the cell walls and get at the nourishing stuff inside it, and cows rely on certain microbes living in their stomachs. It seems unbelievable, but if you cook wood long enough in acid, you will get sugar (amongst a lot of other crap, so don't try to eat it!)

All plant cell walls are based on cellulose fibers; the material in which the cellulose is embedded can vary. Cells in wood uses the very tough substance lignin, but softer plant parts use other materials.<back to main> <back to top>

Composite

Composite materials consist of fibers of very rigid and strong material, embedded in soft glue-like stuff (called the matrix). A popular man-made composite is glass-fiber reinforced polyester, and the space-shuttle is made of carbon-fiber reinforced carbon.

A very stiff material, such as glass, is superb at resisting deformation, but shatters in a catastrophic way when overloaded. Soft materials, like chewing gum, do not break when overloaded but just flow into a different shape. The reason that glass breaks so easily is that at the tip of a crack the strong material acts as a lever to enhance the stress on the still intact material, overloading that as well and making the crack grow. (Tearing a piece of paper in two uses the same principle.)

Composites are nice because a crack in the hard material can not propagate very far before it reaches the end of the fiber (which is then broken). The soft material around it 'smothers' the stress, by flowing in such a way that is distributes the stress around the break in one fiber over a large part of the neighboring fibers, rather than concentrating it. This way composites can be tough (able to sustain a lot of damage) as well as stiff.<back to main> <back to top>

Illustration by Bela M. Mulder

</td></tr></tbody></table>

 

Here we go again the argument which came first, the chicken or egg. If we didn`t have our original spiritual bodies then there`s no substance to the statement that we are part and parcel of God. It was maya which made us forget we have an original spiritual body with the same Godly qualities as the Lord. We are the original spiritual bodies but just doesn`t know where and what they were because of forgetfulness.

 

-------------

There is a group of academic people who believe we dropped - without any reason - from the tatastha sakti factory into the material universe of samsara. Whenever these highly educated professors say something we have to learn to live with it.

So if you sell something for £100

meanwhile I don't think that you can actually sell something on ebay. If you want for example £100 you have to write: Sony notebook, new, original packaging / factory packaging, 2 years warranty claim, original price £ 1500 now, £100 only. Then you might "earn" £100 on ebay. But can this be called selling, rather to flog something, that's what ebay is all about.

Very, very good answers!

Just found this..."very small", should have posted the whole text......

"When he’s released from the hospital or jail, the same dress is again returned. Otherwise his present dress is taken and a separate dress is given. Similarly, we have got our spiritual body, not that we are zero, as the Mayavadi thinks. We are not zero. We have got our spiritual body but very, very small. Very small. The measurement is given: one ten- thousandth part of the tip of the hair, very minute. Aṇor aṇiyan mahato mahiyan. The Supreme Lord is great. “God is great.” He’s greater than the greatest, and He is smaller than the smallest. He is… The living entity is even smaller than the atom, but it has got a body. It is not that without body. We cannot imagine. Just like sometimes we see at night some microbic ant, very small, almost like full stop, but it is moving very nicely here and there. So the same physiological contruction, anatomy, is there. Everything is there. So this is God’s creation. Aṇor aṇīyan mahato mahiyan."

http://causelessmercy.com/t/t/760310SB.MAY.htm

mmmm, what about using my Paypal account, and putting paypal shopping cart on a site, and not going through ebay at all? I see the problem with the search facility, and ranking etc. But the good thing about having a site (or ebay) is that you can be anywhere in the world and still have a 'shop' but just online.

 

Imagine having a shop (rent, etc) Bills, electricity, council tax (uk), etc

If you can manage to set up an easily payable ebay shop in the long term without depending upon the sale figures ebay will still charge quite a heavy fee. To run a shop with all the work, shipping, mailing, writing, there should be an adequate earnings?

from internet forums:

"I remember when a month where my fees were consistently over $1,000. Paying that bill at the end of the month was always a painful experience.

These days, however, I sell a lot less on eBay (my business has changed). My bill last month was only $71 and it's not usually over $200. "

"My high watermark on the rewards scheme is around £400, but monthly varies from £100-£300, although I have backed off a lot in the last few weeks due to work commitments.

It's a big number and cost, but I ensure that my selling price and sell-through rate easily covers it."

"My monthly ebay fee, including the basic store, typically runs between 12% and 16% of my sales. I usually sell between $1200 and $1500 gross...my fees run $120 to $160."

"About $300 to $400 in a usual month, but I do a lot of selling."

"At the moment between £5 and £15 monthly. Not a lot & i easily make that back."

Amazing how many signed this letter.

North American Hindus call for a New Direction on Terrorism

North American Hindus Call for a New Dialogue on Terrorism. Several Hindu organizations gathered together for a traditional Vedic Shanti Homam (Prayer Ceremony for Peace) in the world, at the DFW Hindu Temple, Irving, Texas. They came together to condemn the Islamic terrorist attack on the city of Mumbai, and express their anguish and support for the affected families. Members from the Jewish and Islamic community also participated.

<table style="border-style: solid none; border-color: rgb(198, 213, 223); border-width: 4px; margin: 5px 12px 5px 5px; padding: 10px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; float: right; height: 100%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; color: rgb(116, 141, 167); font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: bold; z-index: -1;" width="250"> <tbody><tr> <td> We come together to look into the eyes of terror and say we stand together as one people of the world in support of humanity - Not in despair or hopelessness, but rather in love, strength, resolve, and peace for the present and the future </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table style="border-style: solid none; border-color: rgb(198, 213, 223); border-width: 4px; margin: 5px 12px 5px 5px; padding: 10px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; float: right; height: 100%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; color: rgb(116, 141, 167); font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: bold; z-index: -1;" width="250"> <tbody><tr> <td> Hindus and Jews have a lot in common. We both have suffered the travails of Partition and ongoing terrorism </td> </tr> </tbody></table> Dallas, Texas (PRWEB) December 8, 2008 -- The heinous terrorist attack on the City of Mumbai from 26 November, 2008 through 29 November, 2008 that claimed over 200 innocent victims and left over 300 injured is a stark reminder that Islamic Terrorism is one of the greatest dangers to the future of peaceful human existence in the world. This incident clearly exposes the fact that it was a cold blooded, well orchestrated attack, with months of planning and preparation behind it, and targeted at destabilizing the democratic and secular society of India in particular and the world at large.

Members of the Hindu community of North America came together to perform a Shanti Homam (ceremony of peace) to pray for peace for the affected families and also for the world. The Shanti Homam at the DFW Hindu Temple, Irving, Texas attracted members of over 30 Hindu organizations living in the DFW metro area. Members of the Jewish and Islamic faiths were also present at the ceremony where prayers for world peace and solace for the affected families were offered, in the Sanskrit language in a traditional Vedic ritual. Similar Homam ceremonies were also offered in many cities in United States of America, Canada, Australia and around the world. "We come together to look into the eyes of terror and say we stand together as one people of the world in support of humanity - Not in despair or hopelessness, but rather in love, strength, resolve, and peace for the present and the future" says Ranna Jani, President of the DFW Hindu Temple, Irving, Texas.

Nearly 3 million Hindus live in North America today. India is home to another 900+ Million Hindus. Pluralism or the ability to accept many different belief systems and pathways to God is not new to Hindus. Right from the early Rig Vedic era (5,000 BC), Hinduism aka Sanatana Dharma has upheld and valued the fundamental spiritual freedom and the right of the individual to believe and practice his or her faith. As a result numerous sects and sub-traditions within the family of traditions called Hinduism exist in harmony within India and across the world. Over the ages, Hinduism also welcomed many religions born in distant lands to come into her country to make a home, free from the fear of persecution. This has been the very core of the Hindu civilization for many millennia. In keeping with her ancient Hindu pluralistic ethos, India embraced a Secular Constitution after its independence in 1947 further affirming and accepting the co-existence of many diverse faiths in its land. As a non-proselytizing family of religious traditions, Ahimsa (non violence) being one of its core values, Hinduism poses no threat to any other faith community in the world.

However, this essential pluralistic tradition has made India vulnerable to threats that have come into its lands from afar and within. Since 2004 alone, nearly 7000 people lost their lives due to terrorist attacks. Behind every terrorist attack is the same ideology that sanctions violence against innocent people, in the name of a particular religion and its God. Among the guests who attended the Vedic Prayer at the DFW Hindu Temple, Rabbi Goeffrey W. Dennis of the Congregation Kol Ami said "Hindus and Jews have a lot in common. We both have suffered the travails of Partition and ongoing terrorism" while offering a Jewish prayer.

Hindus living in North America, are very concerned that the civilized world and India in specific, which are committed to democracy and pluralism, are increasingly under threat. "Hindus in North America speak in a united voice, when we say we are extremely disturbed by this horrible Islamic terrorist attack on Mumbai. Our hearts bleed for the departed souls and families who have lost their loved ones, and the injured. We need fresh thinking. We need an approach to resolving the problem of Islamic Terrorism that does not tip-toe around the hard issues, and keeps making practical compromises, leaving behind the infrastructure that graduates yet another batch of terrorists". says Kalyan Viswanathan president of Dallas-based Sanatana Dharma Foundation.

Signed by :

1. Sanatana Dharma Foundation, Dallas, Texas

2. DFW Hindu Temple, Irving, Texas

3. Vaishno Devi Temple, Ontario, Canada

4. North Texas Hindu Mandir, Dallas, Texas

5. Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism, (FACT), Houston, Texas

6. Kanchi Kamakoti Seva Foundation, New Jersey

7. International Sanatana Dharma Society, Omaha, Nebraska

8. Samskrita Bharati, San Jose, California

9. United States Hindu Alliance, Atlanta, Georgia

10. Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Vadtal Dham, Scarborough, Ontario

11. Kanchi Kamakoti Seva Kendra, Toronto, Canada

12. Global Hindu Heritage Foundation, Madison, Mississippi

13. Hindu Mahasabha of America, Houston, Texas

14. The Arise Arjuna Foundation, New Jersey

15. Indic Studies Foundation, California

16. Indian Intellectuals Forum, New York City, New York

17. Third Eye Meditation Inc., Dallas, Texas

18. Denton County India Cultural Association, Denton, Texas

19. SEWA International, USA - Dallas Chapter

20. National Federation of Indian American Association (NFIA), California

21. International Kashmir Federation (IKF), San Francisco, California

22. Global organization of the people of Indian Origin, San Francisco, California

23. Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, Dallas Chapter

24. Foundation for Hindu Religious Studies, Cleveland, Ohio

25. Forum for Religious Freedom, New York City, New York

26. Yoga Bharati, San Jose, California

27. Sri Kripalu Kunj Mission, Houston, Texas

28. Kashmiri Association of North Texas, Dallas, USA

29. Jagadguru Kripalu Yog, USA

30. Frisco Vishnu Sahasranama Group, Frisco, Texas

31. Sanatana Dharma School, Irving, Texas

32. DFW Hindu TRAC Group, Dallas, Texas

33. Vedanta Today, Boston, Massachusetts

34. American Telugu Association (ATA), Irving, Texas

35. Indo-Caribbean Cultural Council, Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean

36. Subhodhayam Group, College Station, Texas

37. Canadian Hindu Advocay, Toronto, Canada

38. DFW Gayatri Parivar, Arlingon, Texas

39. Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Sydney, Australia

# # #

Looks like it is being kept.

"By the result of our past lives’ fruitive activities we have got this body, material body. That is also not our real body. That is the body of the prison house, just like when a criminal is put into the prison house, he is given a different dress. In hospital, in prison house, when a man is there, his original dress is taken away. It is kept. When he’s released from the hospital or jail, the same dress is again returned. Otherwise his present dress is taken and a separate dress is given. Similarly, we have got our spiritual body, not that we are zero, as the Mayavadi thinks."

Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.32

by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Mayapur, March 10, 1976

The writer(the article quoted) was cleverly mixing up things

 

Mumbai attackers were identified as pakistanis .

Mariner, it appears that chopra etal are the conspirators paid by pakistan sympathisers to deflect attention from it's jihadi factories.

It is now established beyond doubt That pakistan is a worldwide training centre for jihadis .

google news search http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_enIN296IN297&q=pakistan%20training%20camps%20jihad&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn

google websearch- http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_enIN296IN297&q=pakistan+training+camps+jihad&btnG=Search

Old article:

Pakistan haunted by jihadis in the closet - http://www.arabtimesonline.com/kuwaitnews/pagesdetails.asp?nid=25622&ccid=11

Pakistan's Intelligence Chief says on tv, he's innocent!

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Basically the only one making money is ebay. There are so many sellers selling the same products that the sellers are dropping their prices. Buyers can do well tho. The fees ebay tacks on add up rapidly and then you have to figure in the fees for paypal and other payment methods.

 

Also, it is if a buyer complains you are out of luck and have to refund the money to them. I sold on ebay for years and did quite well. But like many sellers, I quit due to all the fee changes, feedback changes and the lack of respect for the seller.

 

The last time I put books on to sell, I made a whopping $5 and ended up owing ebay $15.

 

Too much competition and too high on the ebay fees. Buyers are getting wise to the fact that sellers can not give negative or neutral feedback to them and many take unfair advantage of that.

Seems like those ebay accounts which aren't used for a longer period of time are occasionally hacked. Once I got a mail, dear sir, thanks for showing interest to buy our products on ebay.....I immediately wrote ebay - ok this was settled quickly. Then I wanted to close my ebay account. It wasnt possible to close it. For 3 months they wouldnt close it, e-mails back and forth, reconfirm, please again re-confirm.

Interesting point being made, see below, people have to be engaged in charity. Of course, such a sannyasi must be really renounced and a Vaishnava.

"There is a story that some sannyasi went to a householder, because a sannyasi goes to householder for begging. They are begging also like that. They are not beggars, but they introduce as beggar so that the householder may receive and take some advantage of his knowledge. He is not beggar. So one beggar went to a householder, and the housewife said, “Oh, this beggar has come from door to door. Give him some ashes.” So the sannyasi replied, “All right. Give me some ashes. Just begin your charity.” Just begin your charity. So similarly, Krsna, when He wants, “Give Me a little flower, a little fruit, a little water,” it does not mean that He is begging. He is just inducing me to the practice of offering everything which belongs to Krsna."

Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.11

by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Montreal, August 17, 1968

I have an ebay account, and am considered a nice buyer. Could I start a small business? And what could I sell to 'try it out', so I have nothing to loose, basically. I have some ideas:

 

Miscro SD Memory Cards for Mobile (cheaply).

 

Some people get stuff from China, and sell it cheap. I bought a mouse from China on ebay for £1 with p&p, the scrool wheel is funny, but works other then that. Any advice on selling on ebay?

Ebay's trick is micropayment - charging a very small amount per day but at the end of the month it is x30. In order to make your ebay presentation look impressive, signaling that your are successful, you need at least 6-10 pics of your products. Ebay charges for every pic an extra fee. Ebay doesn't allow to post a link to your external internet shop so what Krishnadas and me did put the url to our oscommerce-shop on a pic. They didnt complain although it says no links permitted.

Next the ranking - it seemed that at the beginning we were ranked ok, when someone used the search button we showed up among the first 10. Later we gradually moved back and back till you hardly couldnt find our ebay shop with the search button anymore.

Another thing, it seems that ebay is checking those who are doing ok and then they do it themselves, via their own agents, and push your ebay-shop way back in the search ranking so new visitors cannot find you anymore.

Even google does it, manipulate the ranking, unless you pay them for a better position. Meanwhile ebay has all the details what people buy, how it has to be presented, pricing etc. Guess the only thing one can try is rarities.

 

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=er9_eM9_8Do

 

 

Thanks, this answers the question.

<param name="movie" value="

What does this mean?

More than 160 US, NATO vehicles burned in Pakistan

Militants blasted their way into two transport terminals in Pakistan on Sunday and torched more than 160 vehicles destined for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply line, officials said.

The U.S. military said its losses in the raid near the northwestern city of Peshawar would have only a "minimal" impact on its operations against resurgent Taliban-led militants in Afghanistan.

However, the attack's boldness will fuel concern that Taliban militants are tightening their hold around Peshawar and could choke the supply route through the famed Khyber Pass.

Up to 75 percent of supplies for Western forces in landlocked Afghanistan pass through Pakistan after being unloaded from ships at the Arabian sea port of Karachi. NATO is already seeking an alternative route through Central Asia.

The attack at the Portward Logistic Terminal reduced a section of the vast walled compound to a smoldering junkyard.

Terminal manager Kifayatullah Khan said armed men flattened the gate before dawn with a rocket-propelled grenade, shot dead a guard and set fire to a total of 106 vehicles, including about 70 Humvees.

An Associated Press reporter who visited the depot saw six rows of destroyed Humvees and military trucks parked close together, some of them on flatbed trailers, all of them gutted and twisted by the flames.

Khan said shipping documents showed they were destined for U.S. forces and the Western-trained Afghan National Army.

The attackers fled after a brief exchange of fire with police, who arrived about 40 minutes later, Khan said.

The nine other guards who were on duty but stood helplessly aside put the number of assailants at 300, Khan said, though police official Kashif Alam said there were only 30.

At the nearby Faisal depot, manager Shah Iran said 60 vehicles destined for Afghanistan as well as three Pakistani trucks were burned in a similar assault.

It was unclear if one or two bands of gunmen were involved.

The attack was the latest in a series that have highlighted the vulnerability of the supply route to the spreading power of the Taliban and other Islamic militants in the border region.

Suspected insurgents also attacked the Faisal terminal last week and burned 12 trucks loaded with NATO supplies, including several Humvees. Two guards were shot dead.

In November, militants made off with a Humvee during a raid on the treacherous road from Peshawar to the Afghan border and showed it off later to reporters at a militant stronghold further south.

The U.S. military in Afghanistan said in a statement that an unspecified number of its containers were destroyed in the attack but that their loss would have "minimal effect on our operations."

"It's militarily insignificant," U.S. spokeswoman Lt. Col. Rumi Nielsen-Green said. "You can't imagine the volume of supplies that come through there and elsewhere and other ways."

"So far there hasn't been a significant loss or impact to our mission," she said.

Pakistan halted traffic through the Khyber Pass for several days in November while it arranged for troops to guard the slow-moving convoys.

Shahedullah Baig, a spokesman for the interior minister in Islamabad, insisted Sunday that the extra security covered the terminals.

"They are fully protected, but in this kind of situation such incidents happen," Baig said.

However, Khan, the depot manager, said that was untrue, and there were only a handful of police at the terminals on Sunday afternoon.

Khan said his business, which handles some 600 truckloads a month for foreign troops in Afghanistan, had received repeated threats. He didn't want to discuss whom they were from for fear of incurring further wrath.

"We don't feel safe here at all," he said. "It is almost impossible for us to continue with this business."

Peshawar has seen a surge in violence in recent weeks, including the slaying of an American working on a U.S.-funded aid project.

The city lies close to the lawless tribal regions along the Afghan border, where Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding.

On Saturday, a car bomb detonated in a busy market area of the city, killing 29 people and injuring 100 more. The blast wrecked a Shiite Muslim mosque and a hotel, but the motive and culprits remained unclear.

The instability in Pakistan's northwest coincides with serious tensions with its eastern neighbor India in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

New Delhi blames the attack, which killed 171 people, on an Islamic militant group fighting Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region, heightening tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors that could distract Pakistan from its role in helping the U.S. fight terrorism.

www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkiMxbHNH0BqgpWA2ZG6VD6wVTmAD94TS0C80

Russians were supplying nuke reactors to india for a long time.

Same could be said about USA.

Introduction

http://www.cfr.org/publication/9663/

The U.S. Congress on October 1, 2008, gave final approval to an agreement facilitating nuclear cooperation between the United States and India. The deal is seen as a watershed in U.S.-India relations and introduces a new aspect to international nonproliferation efforts. First introduced in the joint statement released by President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 18, 2005, the deal lifts a three-decade U.S. moratorium on nuclear trade with India. It provides U.S. assistance to India's civilian nuclear energy program, and expands U.S.-India cooperation in energy and satellite technology. But critics in the United States say the deal fundamentally reverses half a century of U.S. nonproliferation efforts, undermines attempts to prevent states like Iran and North Korea from acquiring nuclear weapons, and potentially contributes to a nuclear arms race in Asia. "It's an unprecedented deal for India," says Charles D. Ferguson, science and technology fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "If you look at the three countries outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)-Israel, India, and Pakistan-this stands to be a unique deal."

What are the terms of the deal?

The details of the deal include the following:

* India agrees to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog group, access to its civilian nuclear program. By March 2006, India promised to place fourteen of its twenty-two power reactors under IAEA safeguards permanently. Teresita Schaffer, director of the South Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says these will include domestically built plants, which India has not been willing to safeguard before now. India has promised that all future civilian thermal and breeder reactors shall be placed under IAEA safeguards permanently. However, the Indian prime minister says New Delhi "retains the sole right to determine such reactors as civilian." According to him: "This means that India will not be constrained in any way in building future nuclear facilities, whether civilian or military, as per our national requirements." Military facilities-and stockpiles of nuclear fuel that India has produced up to now-will be exempt from inspections or safeguards.

* India commits to signing an Additional Protocol (PDF)-which allows more intrusive IAEA inspections-of its civilian facilities.

* India agrees to continue its moratorium on nuclear weapons testing.

* India commits to strengthening the security of its nuclear arsenals.

* India works toward negotiating a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) with the United States banning the production of fissile material for weapons purposes.India agrees to prevent the spread of enrichment and reprocessing technologies to states that don't possess them and to support international nonproliferation efforts.

* U.S. companies will be allowed to build nuclear reactors in India and provide nuclear fuel for its civilian energy program. (An approval by the Nuclear Suppliers Group lifting the ban on India has also cleared the way for other countries to make nuclear fuel and technology sales to India.)

What kind of technology would India receive in return?

India would be eligible to buy U.S. dual-use nuclear technology, including materials and equipment that could be used to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium, potentially creating the material for nuclear bombs. It would also receive imported fuel for its nuclear reactors.

What do proponents say about the deal?

Proponents of the agreement argue it will bring India closer to the United States at a time when the two countries are forging a strategic relationship to pursue common interests in fighting terrorism, spreading democracy, and preventing the domination of Asia by a single power. Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace-who was intimately involved in negotiating the civil nuclear agreement with India as senior adviser to the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs-said in congressional testimony in 2005 that the deal recognizes this growing relationship by engaging India, which has proven it is not a nuclear proliferation risk. Other experts say the deal lays out the requirements for India to be recognized as a responsible steward of nuclear power. "This is part of a process of making India a more durable and reliable nuclear partner," Schaffer says.

Other experts say the deal:

* Would encourage India to accept international safeguards on facilities it has not allowed to be inspected before. This is a major step, experts say, because the existing nonproliferation regime has failed either to force India to give up its nuclear weapons or make it accept international inspections and restrictions on its nuclear facilities. "President Bush's bilateral deal correctly recognizes that it is far better for the nonproliferation community if India works with it rather than against it," writes Seema Gahlaut of the University of Georgia's Center for International Trade and Security in a CSIS policy brief. IAEA Director-General Mohammed ElBaradei has strongly endorsed the deal, calling it a pragmatic way to bring India into the nonproliferation community.

* Recognizes India's history of imposing voluntary safeguards on its nuclear program. Proponents of the deal say India has an excellent record of setting credible safeguards on its nuclear program for the last thirty years. After the safeguards on the U.S.-supplied Tarapur nuclear facility expired in 1993, for example, India voluntarily established a new agreement with the IAEA to continue the restrictions.

* Recognizes that India has a good record on proliferation. Although it is not a signatory to the NPT, India has maintained strict controls on its nuclear technology and has not shared it with any other country. Proponents of the deal say this restraint shows that India, unlike its nuclear neighbor Pakistan, is committed to responsible nuclear stewardship and fighting proliferation. In May 2005 India passed a law, the WMD Act, which criminalizes the trade and brokering of sensitive technology.

* Rewards India's decision to adopt similar nuclear export standards as those imposed by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). India has thus far chosen to abide by the strict export controls on nuclear technology set by the NSG, a group of forty-five nuclear-supplier states that coordinates controls of nuclear exports to non-nuclear-weapon states. Experts say if India chose to lift these voluntary restrictions, it could easily sell its technology to far less trustworthy countries around the world. The U.S. deal would reward the Indian government for its voluntary controls and give New Delhi incentive to continue them, against the demands of Indian hardliners who question what India gets out of placing such limits on itself.

What are the objections to the agreement?

Critics call the terms of the agreement overly beneficial for India and lacking sufficient safeguards to prevent New Delhi from continuing to produce nuclear weapons. "We are going to be sending, or allowing others to send, fresh fuel to India-including yellowcake and lightly enriched uraniumt-that will free up Indian domestic sources of fuel to be solely dedicated to making many more bombs than they would otherwise have been able to make," says Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving awareness of proliferation issues. While India has pledged that any U.S. assistance to its civilian nuclear energy program will not benefit its nuclear weapons program, experts say India could use the imported nuclear fuel to feed its civilian energy program while diverting its own nuclear fuel to weapons production. New Delhi has done similar things in the past; India claimed it was using nuclear technology for civilian purposes right up until its first nuclear weapons test in 1974. A Congressional Research Service report (PDF) on the agreement states, "There are no measures in this global partnership to restrain India's nuclear weapons program."

Other objections raised by experts include:

* The safeguards apply only to facilities and material manufactured by India beginning when the agreement was reached. It doesn't cover the fissile material produced by India over the last several decades of nuclear activity. The CRS report says, "A significant question is how India, in the absence of full-scope safeguards, can provide adequate confidence that U.S. peaceful nuclear technology will not be diverted to nuclear weapons purposes."

* The deal does not require India to cap or limit its fissile material production. This comes at a time when nearly all the major nuclear powers-including the United States, France, Britain, and Russia-are moving to limit their production.

* The deal does not require India to restrict the number of nuclear weapons it plans to produce.

* There are more cost-efficient ways to improve India's energy and technology sectors. These could include making India's existing electricity grid more efficient, restructuring the country's coal industry, and expanding the use of renewable energy sources, Sokolski said in congressional testimony in 2005. All these steps would involve much less dangerous transfers of technology that would not be dual-use, and therefore not convertible to nuclear weapons production.

* The agreement takes unnecessary risks without adequate preparation or expert review. The agreement "appears to have been formulated without a comprehensive high-level review of its potential impact on nonproliferation, the significant engagement of many of the government's most senior nonproliferation experts, or a clear plan for achieving its implementation," wrote William C. Potter, director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, in Nonproliferation Review in August 2005. "Indeed, it bears all the signs of a top-down administrative directive specifically designed to circumvent the interagency review process and to minimize input from any remnants of the traditional 'nonproliferation lobby.'"

Who needs to approve the agreement?

The final terms of the nuclear deal were approved by the following bodies before they could be implemented:

* IAEA. India signed a safeguards agreement with the IAEA under which all nuclear material and equipment transferred to it by the United States as a part of this deal shall be subject to safeguards. In August 2008, the IAEA's Board of Governors approved an India-specific safeguards agreement (PDF). The IAEA said it will begin to implement the new agreement in 2009, with the aim of bringing fourteen Indian reactors under agency safeguards by 2014. The IAEA currently applies safeguards to six of these fourteen nuclear reactors under previous agreements. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei says the IAEA and India are in dialogue concerning an additional protocol to the draft safeguards agreement.

* India's Parliament. While the deal does not require a formal vote by the parliament, the coalition government has faced a confidence vote over it. Many parliamentarians oppose the deal, arguing it will limit India's sovereignty and hurt its security. Some Indian nuclear experts are protesting what they see as excessive U.S. participation in deciding which of India's nuclear facilities to define as civilian, and open to international inspections under the plan.

* The Nuclear Suppliers Group. In September 2008, after much lobbying by the Bush administration, the group approved the India-specific exemption.

* Congress. In October 2008, the U.S. Congress gave final approval to the bill. Under the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, which regulates the trade of nuclear material, congressional approval was needed to pass the exemptions to U.S. laws required for the nuclear deal to be implemented. Some members of Congress were resistant, and called for India to commit to strict limits on its nuclear weapons program before the deal went through. There is a potential area of dispute with India over the terms for suspending the agreement. Before clearing the bill, the U.S. Senate rejected an amendment that would require U.S. nuclear supplies to be cut off if India tests nuclear weapons. The deal does not explicitly impose that condition, though it is part of a 2006 law known as the Hyde Act, which gave the deal preliminary approval.

What effect will the U.S.-India deal have on the NPT?

It could gut the agreement, some experts say. Article I of the treaty says nations that possess nuclear weapons agree not to help states that do not possess weapons to acquire them. David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, says without additional measures to ensure a real barrier exists between India's military and civilian nuclear programs, the agreement "could pose serious risks to the security of the United States" by potentially allowing Indian companies to proliferate banned nuclear technology around the world. In addition, it could lead other suppliers-including Russia and China-to bend the international rules so they can sell their own nuclear technology to other countries, some of them hostile to the United States. On the other hand, experts like Gahlaut argue the NPT was already failing in its mission to prevent proliferation. She says many countries-including North Korea, Libya, Iran, and Iraq-have cheated while being signatories of the NPT.

What role does China play in the U.S.-Indian nuclear deal?

It is a motivating factor in the deal, some experts say. China's rise in the region is prompting the United States to seek a strategic relationship with India. "The United States is trying to cement its relationship with the world's largest democracy in order to counterbalance China," CFR's Ferguson says. The Bush administration is "hoping that latching onto India as the rising star of Asia could help them handle China," Sokolski says.

Some experts say the growing economic relationship between China and India is so critical to New Delhi that its interests in China cannot be threatened or replaced by any agreement with the United States. Other experts worry U.S. nuclear aid to India could foster a dangerous nuclear rivalry between India and China. Though India has a strong interest in building economic relations with China, New Delhi is still wary of China's military rise in the region.

What effect will the deal have on U.S. and Indian relations with Pakistan?

Pakistan has not received a similar deal on nuclear energy from Washington. Some experts say this apparent U.S. favoritism toward India could increase the nuclear rivalry between the intensely competitive nations, and potentially raise tensions in the already dangerous region. "My impression is that [the Pakistanis] are worried this will feed the Indian nuclear weapons program and therefore weaken deterrence," Blackwill said. Other experts say the two countries, both admittedly now nuclear, could be forced to deal more cautiously with each other. Pakistan is already a proliferation risk: Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan's illicit nuclear network, revealed in 2004, shocked the world with its brazen trade of nuclear technology. Some experts worry the U.S.-India deal could prompt Pakistan to go elsewhere, for instance to China, for similar terms.

What’s the history of India’s nuclear program?

In the 1950s, the United States helped India develop nuclear energy under the Atoms for Peace program. The United States built a nuclear reactor for India, provided nuclear fuel for a time, and allowed Indian scientists study at U.S. nuclear laboratories. In 1968, India refused to sign the NPT, claiming it was biased. In 1974, India tested its first nuclear bomb, showing it could develop nuclear weapons with technology transferred for peaceful purposes. As a result, the United States isolated India for twenty-five years, refusing nuclear cooperation and trying to convince other countries to do the same. But since 2000, the United States has moved to build a "strategic partnership" with India, increasing cooperation in fields including spaceflight, satellite technology, and missile defense.

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