suchandra

September 25, 2008

So in the end all ends up to be the representations of the same reality.

Lord Caitanya's philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva completed the progression to devotional theism.

Sri Rāmānuja had agreed with Śankaracarya that the Absolute is one only, but he had disagreed by affirming individual variety within that oneness.

Madhvavacarya had underscored the eternal duality of the Supreme and His expansions.

Lord Caitanya, in turn, specified that the Supreme and His expansions are "inconceivably, simultaneously one and different, acintya-bheda-abheda.

Example, police officer, he's government representative and in that sense identical with the government. Simultaneously he's also different, he's not the same person like the president.

September 25, 2008

<table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold;"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(2, 83, 183);">Orissa flood situation worsens</td></tr></tbody></table>

Press Trust Of India / Bhubaneswar September 25, 2008, 12:41 IST</td></tr><tr><td style="background-image: url(/images/common/gn_005.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x;">

</td></tr></tbody></table>Flood situation in Orissa worsened today after 43 new breaches on embankments in Mahanadi delta region submerged more areas even as the deluge claimed 48 lives so far.

"Fresh areas were inundated as the number of breaches in Mahanadi system, which stood at 100 till yesterday rose to 143 today," the flood control cell here said.

As village after village were swept away by gushing waters from the breaches, the plight of the marooned people were multiplied in the absence of proper relief and rescue operation due to inadequate manpower and boats, sources said.

What added to the agonies of the flood-hit regions was intermittent rains in most of the affected coastal districts including Cuttack, Puri, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur as most of the victims were still on highways and similar open areas.

Though around 40 lakh people in about 6,000 villages in 18 districts of the state were affected by the devastating floods, the administration had only 1500 odd boats at their disposal for relief and rescue work, sources said.

Recsus and relief operation with the help of choppers had limited impact as most of the materials were wasted as they fell into water and other wrong places, they said.

Naval teams and personnel of the central para-military forces continued to assist in the work.

Over 3.77 lakh people have been evacuated to safer places in flood affected areas so far with the help of air force choppers and boats, they said.

</td></tr> <tr><td class="msgText"> Click here to read Business news in Hindi and Gujarati </td></tr> <tr><td height="10">

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

September 25, 2008

Mayapur Academy Graduation Ceremony

By Syameswari_dd on Mon, 2008-09-22 14:29. www.mayapur.comarticlethumb.jpg Two months Deity worship course for Bengali speaking devotees took place from July 15- Sep 19. Fifty five devotees, mostly from Sridham Mayapur and two from Bangladesh and two from Kolkata attended the course, consisting from three modules - Archana, Deity dressing and Cooking. All the devotees are second initiated. Beside pujaris, Department heads and devotees engaged in other services in many different Departments of the Mayapur temple joined the course.Despite of their busy regular service schedule they very enthusiastically took part and successfully completed the course.

Their natural expertise and devotion were outstanding.

HG Pankajanghri prabhu and HG Jananivasa Prabhu distributed the awards and students spoke of their realizations. The program ended with a wonderful feast for all.

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Today, Sep 22, five weeks course for forty English speaking girls and ladies from Sri Mayapur Dham is starting. Girls from the International school are eager to spend their autumn holidays learning different aspects of Deity worship. It will be intense, morning & afternoon, course covering several modules - Archana, Deity dressing, Cooking, Deity dress & jewelry making, etc.

After this course, the main 4 months Diploma is starting on Nov 10.

Please read more about it on the Mayapur Academy web site: www.mayapuracademy.org

September 25, 2008

Three children were killed to transplant their organs to save the lives another three. They say these children would have died anyway, but still the question remains, was it ok?

Home / News / September 13th, 2008; Vol.174 #6 / News item

Heart to heart

By Ashley Yeager

September 13th, 2008; Vol.174 #6

http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/35229/title/Heart_to_heart

Three babies given chance at life, but transplant procedure raises ethical issues

THE DEAD DONOR RULEVIDEO: Moderator Atul Gawande of Harvard Medical School asks Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania about details on the dead donor rule (Flash required).New England Journal of Medicine

<o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com<img src=" http:="" www.indiadivine.org="" audarya="" images="" smilies="" redface.gif="" border="0" alt="" title="Embarrassment" smilieid="2" class="inlineimg"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com<img src=" http:="" www.indiadivine.org="" audarya="" images="" smilies="" redface.gif="" border="0" alt="" title="Embarrassment" smilieid="2" class="inlineimg"></o:smarttagtype>Three babies are alive after each received an unorthodox heart transplant, researchers report in the Aug. 14 New <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region></st1:place> Journal of Medicine. But the method has resparked debate about the definition of death.

The experimental transplant procedure marks the first time infants have received hearts from infant donors who had been taken off life support.

And had the transplants not been done, all six babies would have died, says the study's lead author, Mark Boucek of the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Fla.</st1:state></st1:place>

Boucek also says that each year, 50 to 100 infants are added to the waiting list for a heart transplant. A quarter of the infants die while waiting.

Boucek and colleagues at DiMaggio along with doctors from The Children’s Hospital in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Aurora</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Colo.</st1:state></st1:place>, wanted to provide more hearts. The team used hearts from three donor infants who had life-threatening brain injuries, had not been declared brain-dead and had been kept alive only through life support. The parents consented that the infants not be resuscitated and their organs be transplanted upon death, if possible.

The hearts were transplanted to babies less than one year old who had malfunctioning or diseased hearts. After the transplants, the health of the recipients was compared to that of 17 babies who received transplants in the standard way: from infants who had been declared brain-dead. Surgeries were performed in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Colorado</st1:state></st1:place> between May 2004 and May 2007.

THE ETHICS OF TRANSPLANTSVIDEO: Moderator Atul Gawande of Harvard Medical School asks George Annas of Boston University about details on the ethics involved in a recent transplant scenario (Flash required).New England Journal of Medicine

The three babies who received hearts from infants taken off ventilators are still alive compared to 14 of the 17 control infants.

“Our study is small,” Boucek says, “but it establishes that it is possible to transplant hearts from infants that die of respiratory failure that led to heart failure.” Previously, it was thought that this method would not work because once taken off life support, the donor babies’ circulation stops, causing possible damage to the heart.

If those hearts are restarted in other people, though, then are the individuals from whom they were taken really dead, asks James Bernat of the <st1:placename w:st="on">Dartmouth-Hitchcock</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Medical</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Center</st1:placetype> in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">N.H.</st1:state></st1:place>

“This experiment was bold. It worked,” he says. “But it highlights that question of death which needs to be answered before this experimental procedure makes its way into mainstream medicine.” And, that is probably part of the reason why the journal published it, Bernat notes.

The dilemma focuses on the dead donor rule, an ethical guideline stating that a donor must be dead before vital organs are prepared for transplantation. When the heart has stopped irreversibly, it is called cardiac death. Dead donor rule protocol, based on a 2005 consensus in the medical community, suggests waiting between two and five minutes after the pulse stops to declare death.

But more time between circulation stoppage and transplantation causes more damage to the donor organs, especially the heart, Boucek says.

So, based on the recommendation of an ethics review board, the final two experimental heart transplants were performed one minute and fifteen seconds after the donor’s pulse ceased. That shorter time period raises the issue of whether the donors were dead.

But the dead donor rule can get in the way of organ donation, says Dr. Robert Truog of Children’s Hospital Boston. “Parents in these cases want to make the best of a tragic situation. They want their children’s organs donated,” and the wait time can jeopardize that, Truog says.

He advocates getting rid of the dead donor rule. Donors’ prognoses and their or their guardians’ consent to donate would drive the donation procedure. But timing decisions would be made by the transplant team.

Jettisoning the dead donor rule is radical and risky, Bernat argues. He instead advocates developing a consensus-driven, standard time protocol to follow when handling cardiac death donations.

This discussion is making the transplant process more transparent for society, Boucek says. Nevertheless, his team saved three lives, and the method could potentially save hundreds more, he says.

September 24, 2008

I'm no Vaishnava; I'm trying to be one. Being Vaishnava in not cheap. I just remember your last attack on me when I criticized Kurma (not the chef) for his silly comments about Melbourne Temple.

However, you can see Kurma dasa ACBSP is not happy with him either.

If you genuinly made a mistake, then I apologise.

May be you go and get some lessons from the TP of ISKCON Melbourne, HG Sri Sriman Sitapati Prabhu, he writes at his website, http://atmayogi.com/node/538

"Last time I was in Melbourne I met up with Kurma das (not the chef), a regular Sun contributor and a nice guy, and we had a good time together. He is a god brother of my wife, so I guess that makes him my "godbrother-in-law"."

HG Sitapati Prabhu, editor of www.planetiskcon.com

September 24, 2008

Clearly I said - By Kurma dasa, the well known devotee cook from Australia

Suchandra, your an idiot.

Using such harsh profanity when someone misunderstood a post is not Vaishnava.

Vaishnava is something else, but not this.

September 24, 2008

September 24, 2008

Bush under pressure to condemn India's response to anti-Christian violence

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4819147.ece

Rhys Blakely in Bombay

President Bush is under pressure to use a meeting with India's Prime Minister tomorrow to press for urgent action to halt the anti-Christian riots that continue to sweep the subcontinent.

Tensions remain at crisis point in several parts of India. At least 45 Christians have been murdered by mobs of Hindu fanatics over the past month, according to church officials. An estimated 50,000 people have been driven from their villages and 4,000 homes destroyed amid an upsurge in Hindu nationalism.

Today one person was killed when police opened fire on a Hindu mob that stormed a police station in the eastern state of Orissa, demanding the release of extremist leaders held for attacking Christians.

Amid evidence that the violence is spreading, a US federal commission has called on Mr Bush, a Christian who has worn his faith on his sleeve while in office, to press the issue when he meets the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.

Felice D. Gaer, the chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, said: "If India is to exercise global leadership Prime Minister Singh should demonstrate his government's commitment to uphold the basic human rights obligations to which it has agreed ... The Indian government's response remains inadequate."

The criticism comes after condemnation of India's record in policing anti-Christian riots by the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Mr Singh will be hoping to use his meeting with Mr Bush to help ease a deal past the US Congress that will give India access to American civilian nuclear technology.

The White House has already been instrumental in ending India's decades-old status as a nuclear pariah, giving the country access to outside atomic equipment despite its refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The deal is regarded as an indicator of America's desire to nurture India as a counterforce to the rise of China in Asia.

But any notion that the US is championing a country that allows violence against Christians is sure to enrage millions of devout Americans.

In Orissa, the site last month of the worst anti-Christian violence in India since Independence, about 12,000 refugees remain in camps, unwilling to risk returning to their villages. As many as 40,000 are still hiding in the jungle.

David Griffiths of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a campaign group, who is in Orissa, said: "Anyone going back is either facing violence or coercive conversion to Hinduism. [And yet, the state government] continues to claim that everything is normal."

There are fears that without international pressure anti-Christian attacks will continue to spread as Hindu extremist politicians seek to mobilise voters before general elections that must be held before May.

In the past week more than 20 churches have been targeted in and around the southern city of Bangalore, the centre of India's flagship IT industry.

The unrest is thought to have been led by the Bajrang Dal, an extremist Hindu youth organisation that is opposed to the alleged conversion of poor Hindus by foreign-backed Christian missionaries.

Ms Gaer said that both Indian and the US are "joined in the battle against elements of extremism originating from religious communities".

The UN recently gave warning that a rise in violence against minorities by extremists among India's dominant Hindus risked sparking a repeat of the anti-Muslim riots that hit Gujarat in 2002, which claimed 2,500 lives.

September 24, 2008

Sundararupa Prabhu Has Left His Body

Posted September 24, 2008 Chakra has just been informed that Sundararupa prabhu, a founding member of Villa Vrindavan in Italy, left his body last Saturday (Sept 20), after being on life support. We will post more news as soon as we receive it, but wanted to post this initial brief announcement, so that the community of Vaisnavas could express their thoughts, prayers and condolences to Sundarupa prabhu's wife Sudharma Prabhu and his children.

September 24, 2008

Finally I get it, Sarva = Kurma dasa ACBSP. :rolleyes:

September 24, 2008

Spot on... The same group of people that now controls America tried to take over Russia as well. But the Russians knew what they were up to and foiled their plans. Alas, Americans are much dumber and bought the con game hook, line, and sinker...

First let's check if the whole credit crisis isn't yet another staged scenario to divert attention.

Merkel is known for never doing things on her own. She would never say anything unless she's got the order. If she makes a comment like below she must have been told to do this by an adviser of G.W. Bush.

Merkel Says Washington Helped Drag Europe into the Credit Crisis

Spiegel Online – September 22, 2008

The United States government is campaigning around the world for support for its multibillion-dollar Wall Street rescue package. The reaction has been skeptical at best – and in Europe the plan has been met with bareknuckled criticism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has accused the US government of serious failures which she believes contributed to the current credit crisis. In particular she blamed Washington for resisting stricter regulation.

On Monday she also said the crisis could hurt the German economy. "The whole thing is going to set the pace for the economy in the coming months and perhaps years," Merkel said at a meeting of her party, the conservative Christian Democrats.

Over the weekend the US said it would provide $700 billion to cover bad debt on Wall Street and ensure the survival of some financial institutions. On Sunday US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson then called on foreign governments to launch similar bailouts for their own banks. "We are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world and encouraging them to do similar things and I believe a number of them will," Paulson told ABC News.

But the governments of Germany and Great Britain have shaken their heads.

While her finance minister said German banks would not need a similar bailout, Merkel said the world community should react by forging international agreements that could be voluntary rather than anchored in law. "The crisis on the international financial markets shows us that you can do some things on the national level, but the overwhelming majority must be agreed to on the international level." Instead of codifying these deals in law, Merkel suggested binding agreements between major economic players. "This is about greater transparency," she said.

A day earlier, during a visit to Austria, the German chancellor had even firmer words. "I'm criticizing the self-image of the financial markets -- which have unfortunately resisted voluntary rules for too long with the support of the governments of Great Britain and the United States."

'This Cannot Be Allowed'

At a political rally in Linz, Merkel indirectly attacked US President George W. Bush. She suggested that American obstinacy had dragged other industrial nations into the credit crisis. Many European countries, she said, had already imposed stringent conditions on their banking sectors. "We dutifully adopted a nice EU directive into national law, and we had to deal with numerous complaints from small- and medium-sized companies in doing so. When the day came, the Americans said, 'We won't'," Merkel said. "That cannot be allowed in the international sphere." Merkel complained that taxpayers would be forced to foot the bill in countries far beyond the US and Britain.

She was referring to the "Basel II" agreement, a set of international standards which tightened capital requirements for credit institutions. Much of the EU has signed up to Basel II, and Germany codified it in 2007. But Washington still hasn't set a date for working its principles into American law.

Europe, she said, "must now push to get greater transparency on the financial markets and to get clearer regulations so that a crisis like the current one cannot be repeated."

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück of the left-leaning Social Democrats is also calling for tighter rules. In an interview with German television he said he wouldn't rule out the idea of an international authority to hammer out regulations – as opposed to the international agreements favored by his boss, Chancellor Merkel.

The European Commission in Brussels said it would announce its own plan for improved financial market regulation. EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is planning to consider the first measure on Wednesday, according to a report in the Financial Times Deutschland. On the agenda is a proposal that would require banks to disclose whether they are retaining a stake in loans they sell to other banks.

The requirement could serve as an incentive for banks to pay closer attention to the quality of the credit risks they pass on to others.

The $700 Billion Bailout

But Finance Minister Steinbrück said Monday there was no need for Germany to fall in line with the Americans in bailing out its banks. After a telephone consultation with the finance ministers and heads of the central banks of the G-7 states, he said no other member planned to follow the US example. He described Washington's program as "remarkable," but said the situation wasn't as grave in the other six G-7 countries as in the US.

The German government has officially greeted the US program, saying Washington "takes its special responsibility seriously" in the crisis unleashed by the American subprime mortgage problem. A government spokesman said the measures would help to defuse the crisis.

Others were less certain.

"I have doubts about whether this is the smartest way to deal with the issue," Michael Meister, the deputy head floor whip of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) told Handelsblatt, a business daily. Meister said the US could be laying a foundation for the next crisis with its multibillion dollar bailout -- mirroring the decision after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to massively lower interest rates, a move which he said triggered the current turbulence on the financial markets.

Joachim Poss, deputy parliamentary whip for the center-left Social Democrats, also rejected calls from Washington to participate in the bailout. "The Americans can't make Germany liable for their own failure and arrogance. A similar action is neither planned nor necessary in Germany," he said. However, he wouldn't comment on whether he thought the US bailout was necessary. "That's an issue for the Americans," he said.

In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC: "People were taking risks that were excessive -- and that was mainly in my view in America and we are paying a price for what has come out of America."

"We're not working toward implementing a US-style resolution regime,” said a spokesman for Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, Britain's finance minister. "But the prime minister and the chancellor have made clear that we will take whatever action is necessary in the interest of financial stability."

As a result of the crisis, European countries including Germany, Britain and the Netherlands have announced temporary bans on short sales, which many experts say helped bring Wall Street's powerful investment banks to their knees.

The global financial crisis could also have a stronger and lengthier impact on the German economy than previously believed. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, the German government plans to reduce its forecast for economic growth in 2009 from 1.2 percent to 0.5 percent.

www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,579707,00.html

September 24, 2008

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

UPDATE STATUS REPORT OF FLOOD SITUATION IN ORISSA 23.09.2008 from media, field and Non government sources further plz log on www.osdma.org

For government report

Heavy rain due to low pressure in Bay of Bengal making people more marooned. There is another low pressure expected as per media. Union minister Of Home Mr. SivRaj Patil visited the marooned area and announced Rs500 croes and Rs300 crores as fist phase as against 2500 crore from Orissa Government.

Military, ODRAF, CSOs Indian Redcross are on the rescue and relief work. There has a dissatisfaction that district administration is not including civil society organization . Civil society organizations have used only for consultation and coordination in this relief message from Kendrapada the worst affected district. Government is emphasizing to use local sarapachs for relief distribution.

o Districts Affected by Flood: 18

o No. of Blocks Affected: 114

o No. of Villages Affected: 10017

o Crop Area Affected: 41,007,123 Hector

o Population Affected: 38 lakh

o Animals affected: 8, 48,633

o People marooned-6 laks above

o Death toll- 39

o Breaches-73

o This flood havoc after 28 years

o 42 gram panchayats have disconnected

o Large numbers of houses have washed way

o Few deaths are expected due to snake bite

o Schools have closed till Tues days

o Movements have restricted in flood affected roads

o Damage has exceeded form recent Bihar flood

o Chief Minister asked centre from CRF worth of Rs1500 crores

o Initial estimate of damage may be worth of Rs 2500 crores

o Children, women and aged persons are in more distress as rain is continuing

Flood Kendrapara 2008

o Blocks affected: Gardapur, Marsaghai, Mahakalpara, Derabish, Pattamundai, Kendrapara , Aul, Rajaknika, Rajanagar

o No of breaches: 7

o No of People affected: 3 lakhs

o Animals affected- 1. 2 lakhs

Nayagada district

 Gania,Kantilo has disconnected, people are in higher places

 Large are have have been inundated,

 Nimapada , balipatana, balianta and low laying areas puri and Khurda district of also got disconnected, large numbers of Housed have washed

Puri district

 All the nine villages of Ganeswarpur G.P of Nimapara have been affected by flood. About 26,872 peoples of 785 house hold have been affected by overflowing water of Dhanua River. Puri,paradip, jagatsing pur,kujanga, astarang, niali, banki, and other laying areas have been disconnected by road. Trains from puri also cancelled.

(Sources: www.odishakhabar.com

Posted by Pranab at <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://river-basin.blogspot.com/2008/09/update-status-report-of-flood-situation_24.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" title="2008-09-24T02:03:00-07:00">2:03 AM</abbr>

Labels: orissa flood 2008

September 24, 2008

it is lacking in brahmanas and kshatriyas.

The European Renaissance of the 14th–17th centuries with its influence affected literature, philosophy, fine art, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual enquiry.

Actually these people wanted to establish that philosophy, religion and fine arts are the center of human civilization, a clear hint that this was Brahmana impetus.

Somehow because they didn't get real knowledge from the Vedas/Yuga Avatar, they were subdued by the vaishya movement who said, stop this nonsense, we need people to work in our industries, whole Europe plunged into industrialization under the dictate of a bunch of greedy vaishyas.

In fact these vaishya dynasties are still in control and basically it is them who fight against religious movements like the Sankirtan movement.

Renaissance architecture

Renaissance thinkers sought out learning from ancient texts, typically written in Latin or ancient Greek and surely would have also read Sanskrit literature but had no access..too bad!

Scholars scoured Europe's monastic libraries, searching for works of classical antiquity which had fallen into obscurity. In such texts they found a desire to improve and perfect their search for real knowledge.

They must have felt that biblical knowledge didn't answer so many questions and because vedic knowledge wasn't abvailable they were forced into a kind of empirical approach to search for the truth like jnanis, basically considering the spirituality stressed by medieval Christianity as leaving too many questions open.

There attempt to search for truth failed, they lost the men-in-the-street who rather walked into the manufacturies to earn their bread. Hence the powerful vaishyas took resolute control and started the global industry revolution.

With Prabhupada's literary presentation the global Vaishnava movement would have had a realistic chance to defy the present atheistic vaishya regime and once again make an attempt to restrain the vaishyas in their supremacy.

But what can be done if the Vaishnavas have problems to suit the action to word as given in sastra?

Identification of one's varna

Halaman Muka, 23 September 2008

: Jiva Gosvami, one of the greatest acaryas in our line of disciplic succession, recommended that one examine the motivation that causes one to join the Krsna consciousness movement. In his society of Vaisnavas, he had his leaders interview the new entrants and ask them why they wanted to surrender to Krsna. If they replied that they were distressed, it indicated that they were of the sudra category. If they were in need of money, it indicated that they were of the vaisya category. If they were curious to see what was going on, then it indicated that they were of the ksatriya category and if they were seeking wisdom it indicated that they were of the brahmana category. The four orders of social division in the varnasrama correspond to the four classes of pious men who surrender to Krsna.

source: http://all-about-krishna.blogspot.com/2008/09/identification-of-ones-varna.html

September 23, 2008

greedy and unscrupulous vaishyas..........

Good formulation! Now what do we have, a globalization movement of vaishyas without any control mechanism and governments installed by this globalization movement which simply obey the orders of the global players.

This worked so long the global players didn't go against each other because the huge profit kept them peaceful.

This seems over, global players no longer stick to fair play but go against each other and cause chaos. Once again it is proven that a regime of vaishyas cannot work without the guidance of real intelligence, the brahmanas.

The Vaishnava institutions kept silent and never commented about the regime of greedy and unscrupulous vaishyas, what does this say?

There're actually no real brahamans in the Vaishnava institutions.

Real brahmanas never keep silent but always preach the truth.

The truth is that vaishyas need control. They cannot be allowed to run their globalization regime according their own whims.

September 23, 2008

Sep 23, 2008

Rice and Lentil cake - Poda pitta

Last week I was extremely tied settling up our new place, lucky enough to have nestled in a cozy apartment and that too only five minutes drive from my son’s school. I am getting used to the new environment and new surroundings. It is exciting and at times a bit daunting to search for new shops that would to cater to our simple daily needs of vegetable and fruits.

I am quite used to traveling and setting up at a new place very frequently so this wasn’t new for me. I am quite glad that my son has started liking his new school and is well settled.

Last week before we moved I baked this traditional cake from Orissa, “Poda” means brunt and “Pitta” refers to cake. Basically the ingredients are not the usual plain flours but rice and lentils. Surprisingly this divine cake had never caught my attention until recently when my mom mentioned about it. My curiosity rose and it was a must on my baking list.

This cake is a unique combination of fiery pepper blended with aromatic cardamoms and crushed subtle ginger. Since this cake is always part of our festivals and offered to god, so it is absolutely vegetarian (free of eggs too).

In Indian cooking recipes have traditionally been handed down from one generation to another and is always modified according to one’s taste and generation and so as such no accurate measurements were ever recorded. This indeed helps to fire the imagination of every creative cook.

I love contemporary baking since it has accurate measurement and the success rate is higher if one follows the instructions well. I was rather confused when my mom shared her recipe and only place was my life saver Google. I found this recipe very similar and exactly the place it was meant to be at the this website “Hare Krsna”.

Ingredients

1 cup Urad dal

1 cup Rice

1 cup brown sugar/jaggery

1 cup grated fresh coconut

1 teaspoon black pepper crushed

½ teaspoon cardamom powder

1 inch ginger crushed

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ghee (clarified butter)

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ cup raisins

5 to 6 pitted chopped dates

Handful of nuts (cashews, almonds, and pistachios)

Method

Soak rice and urad dal over night. Grind them to a coarse paste and set aside for 2 to 3 hours. Sieve sugar, baking powder, cardamom powder, pepper, ginger and salt. Add them to above mix.

Add coconut, raisins, and nuts and mix well. Grease a baking pan (22cm) with ghee and pour the batter. Preheat the oven at 180’C and bake for 30 to 40 minutes till done.

Remove and let it cool down. Slice and serve.

Note – Traditionally dates are not used but I have used them to make the cake moist. You can substitute sweetened shredded coconut if fresh coconut is not available.

Posted by Pearlsofeast at <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://pearlsofeast.blogspot.com/2008/09/rice-and-lentil-cake-poda-pitta.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" title="2008-09-23T12:18:00+08:00">Tuesday, September 23, 2008</abbr>

September 23, 2008

who told you that only poorest of the poor are killed ?

what about the 9/11 victims

Read NY Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/world/africa/09cairo.html

Problem is that most of these terror attacks are not investigated due government order.

"First among these is that Jews did not go to work at the World Trade Center on that day. Asked how Jews might have been notified to stay home, or how they kept it a secret from co-workers, people here wave off the questions because they clash with their bedrock conviction that Jews are behind many of their troubles and that Western Jews will go to any length to protect Israel."

September 23, 2008

vedic ways to reduce stress

STRESS BUSTERS...

VEDIC WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS

posted September 23 2008

http://gurujiskripa.blogspot.com/2008/09/vedic-ways-to-reduce-stress.html

God says, 'Never borrow from the future. If you worry about what may happen tomorrow and it doesn't happen, you have worried in vain. Even if it does happen, you have to worry twice.'

1. Pray

2. Go to bed on time.

3. Get up on time so you can start the day unrushed.

4. Say No to projects that won't fit into your time schedule, or that will compromise your mental health.

5. Delegate tasks to capable others.

6. Simplify and unclutter your life.

7. Less is more. (Although one is often not enough, two are often too many.)

8. Allow extra time to do things and to get to places.

9. Pace yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over time; don't lump the hard things all together.

10. Take one day at a time.

11. Separate worries from concerns. If a situation is a concern, find out what God would have you do and let go of the anxiety. If you can't do anything about a situation, forget it.

12. Live within your budget; don't use credit cards for ordinary purchases.

13. Have backups; an extra car key in your wallet, an extra house key buried in the garden, extra stamps, etc.

14. K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut). This single piece of advice can prevent an enormous amount of trouble.

15. Do something for the Kid in You everyday.

16. Carry a good Book with you to read while waiting in line.

17. Get enough rest.

18. Eat right.

19. Get organized so everything has its place.

20. Listen to a tape while driving that can help improve your quality of life.

21. Write down thoughts and inspirations.

22. Every day, find time to be alone.

23. Having problems? Talk to God on the spot. Try to nip small problems in the bud. Don't wait until it's time to go to bed to try and pray.

24. Make friends with Godly people.

25. Keep a folder of favourite scriptures on hand.

26. Remember that the shortest bridge between despair and hope is often a good 'Thank you GOD '

27. Laugh.

28. Laugh some more!

29. Take your work seriously, but not yourself at all.

30. Develop a forgiving attitude (most people are doing the best they can).

31. Be kind to unkind people (they probably need it the most).

32. Sit on your ego.

33 Talk less; listen more.

34. Slow down.

35. Remind yourself that you are not the general manager of the universe.

36 . Every night before bed, think of one thing you're grateful for that you've never been grateful for before. GOD HAS A WAY OF TURNING THINGS AROUND FOR YOU.

'If God is for us, who can be against us?'

September 23, 2008

& don't give me this "terrorists don't have a religion"

Good point, terrorists would never intend to harm the poor like street children. But what we see lately is all these high tec bombs with high tec remote controlled ignition and special high tec plastic explosives only kill the poorest of the poor, street children. Any profiler would say no, these are not terrorists but paid intelligence services.

September 23, 2008

Think of America as a town with one casino, in which the only economic activity is gambling. Most people lose, but the casino keeps lending them more money to play. Eventually, of course, the casino must go bankrupt and with it the town...

Since Prabhupada solved this problem by instructing to set up self sufficiency where hardly any money is required, again we can say, the Vaishnava institution are responsible to not set a good example.

When the gamblers bail out the casino

By Spengler – Asia Times September 23, 2008

Why should American taxpayers give US Treasury Secretary "Hank" Paulson a blank check to bail out the shareholders of busted banks? Why should the Treasury turn itself into a toxic waste dump for their bad loans? Why not let other banks join the unlamented Brothers Lehman in bankruptcy court, and start a new bank with taxpayers' money? Or have the Treasury pay interest on delinquent mortgages, and make them whole? Even better, why not let the Chinese, or the Saudis or other foreign investors take control of failed American banks? They've got the money, and they gladly would pay a premium for an inside seat at the American table.

None of the above will occur. America will give between US$700-$800 billion to the Treasury to buy any bank assets it wants, on any terms, with no possible legal recourse. It is an invitation to abuse of power unparalleled in American history, in which ill-paid civil servants will set prices on the portfolios of the banking system with no oversight and no threat of legal penalty.

Why are the voices raised in protest so shrill and few? Why will Americans fall on their fountain-pens for their bankers? If America is to adopt socialism, why not have socialism for the poor, rather than for the rich? Why should American households that earn $50,000 a year subsidize Goldman Sachs partners who earn $5 million a year?

Believe it or not, there is a rational explanation, and quite in keeping with America's national motto, E pluribus hokum. Part of the problem is that Wall Street, like the ethnic godfather in the old joke, has made America an offer it can't understand. The collapsing the mortgage-backed securities market embodies a degree of complexity that mystifies the average policy wonk. But that is a lesser, superficial side of the story.

Paulson's dreadful scheme will become law, because Americans love their bankers. The bankers enable their collective gambling habit. Think of America as a town with one casino, in which the only economic activity is gambling. Most people lose, but the casino keeps lending them more money to play. Eventually, of course, the casino must go bankrupt. At this point, the townspeople people vote to tax themselves in order to bail out the casino. Collectively, the gamblers cannot help but lose; individually they nonetheless hope to win their way out of the hole.

Americans are so deep in the hole that they might as well keep putting borrowed quarters into the one-armed bandit. They have hardly saved anything for the past 10 years. Instead, they counted on capital gains to replace the retirement savings they never put aside, first in tech stocks, then in houses. That hasn't worked out. The S&P 500 Index of American equities today is worth what it was in 1997, after adjusting for inflation (and a pensioner who sells stock purchased in 1997 will pay a 20% capital gains tax on an illusory inflationary gain of 40%). Home prices doubled between 1997 and 2007 before falling by more than 20%, with no floor in sight.

As it is, many of the baby boomers now on the verge of retirement will spend their declining years working at Wal-Mart or McDonalds rather than cruising the Caribbean. Some of them still have time to tighten their belts and save 10% of their income (by consuming 10% less), plus a good deal more to compensate for the missing savings of the 1990s.

Altogether, they'd rather gamble, and if that requires a bailout of the house, they gladly will chip in to pay for it. After all, today's baby boomers won't pay for the bailout. The next generation of taxpayers will pay for Paulson's $700-$800 billion. If that enables the present generation to keep borrowing rather than saving, it is no skin off their back. If home prices continue to collapse, the baby boomers will die in debt anyway, working at low-paying jobs until the day before their funerals.

The homeowners of America hope against hope that somehow, sometime, the price of their one only asset will bounce back. The character of Mortimer Duke in the 1983 film Trading Places comes to mind. After losing his fortune in the frozen orange juice futures market, Duke screams, "I want trading reopened right now. Get those brokers back in here! Turn those machines back on! Turn those machines back on!" If a reverse takeover of the US government by Goldman Sachs is what it takes to turn the machines back on, the American public will support it. Sadly, there is no reason to expect the bailout of bank shareholders to have any effect at all on American home prices, which will continue to sink into the sand.

Contrary to what the Bush administration says, it is not the case that banks' troubled mortgage assets cannot be sold in the private market. Those are the so-called "Level III" assets that banks say they cannot value. But that is only a dodge that the banks use to postpone taking losses. There is a ready bid for these assets from hedge funds, in multi-hundred-billion-dollar size. The trouble is that the market bid is 25% to 30% below the prices that banks carry these assets on their books. Traders at Wall Street boutiques who specialize in distressed securities say that US regional banks regularly make discreet offers to sell private mortgage-backed securities (not guaranteed by a federal agency) at prices, for example, of 75 to 80 cents on the dollar. Hedge funds bid, for example, 55 to 60 cents in return.

On rare occasions, the bank seller and the hedge fund buyer will meet in the middle, although very few transactions occur. Although many banks are desperate to sell, they cannot accept the offered price without taking losses over the threshold of mortality, for write-downs of this magnitude would destroy their shareholders' capital. Investment banks typically hold about $30 of securities for every $1 of capital, so a 3% write-down would leave them insolvent. Lehman Brothers classified 14% of its assets as Level III at the end of the first quarter; Goldman Sachs was at 13%. Why is Lehman bankrupt, and Goldman Sachs still in business? If Secretary Paulson, the former head of Goldman Sachs, had not proposed a general bailout last week, we might already have had the answer to that question.

For the Paulson bailout to be helpful to the banks, it must buy their securities at much higher prices than the private market is willing to pay. Otherwise it makes no sense at all, for the banks could sell at any moment to the hedge funds. But that is a subsidy to private banks, administered at the whim of the Treasury Secretary, without oversight and without the possibility of legal recourse.

Some Democrats in Congress are asking for some form of oversight, but it is hard to imagine how they might use it, for a Treasury with $800 billion to spend would constitute the whole market bid for low-quality mortgage assets, and would set whatever prices it wished. Professionals with years of experience set prices on these securities with great uncertainty. How would an overseer determine if it had set the correct price? And if the Treasury decided to bail out one bank (say, Goldman Sachs) rather than another, how would the overseer judge whether that decision was judicious, politically motivated, venal, or arbitrary?

Opposition to the Treasury plan is disturbingly thing. Bloomberg News on June 21 quoted the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd, saying, "I know of nobody who is arguing over the amount of money or even about that the secretary ought to have the authority to purchase these toxic instruments, these bad debts."

Why the taxpayers of America would allow their pockets to be picked in this fashion requires a different sort of explanation than one finds in economics textbooks. My analogy of gamblers taxing themselves to bail out the casino is inspired, in part, by a remarkable new book by the Canadian economists Reuven and Gabrielle Brenner (with Aaron Brown), A World of Chance. In effect, the Brenners re-interpret economic theory in terms of gambling, showing how profoundly gambling figures into human behavior, especially in such matters as so-called life-cycle investing. The 50-ish householder who has not made enough to retire may take outsized chances, considering that as matters stand, he will work until he drops dead in any case. The Brenners write:

If people reach the age of fifty or fifty-five and have not "made it," what are their financial options to still live the good life? Except for allocating a few bucks to buy lottery tickets, it is hard to think of any other option. If people find themselves down on their luck and see no immediate opportunities to get rich, what can they do to sustain their hopes and dreams? Allocating a fraction of their portfolios with a chance to win a large prize is among the options. And when people are leapfrogged - that is, when some "Joneses" who were "below" them jump ahead - how can they catch up? They will tend to challenge their luck for a while, taking risks that they might have contemplated before in business, financial markets, and other areas but did not follow up with action.

A World of Chance undermines our usual view of "economic man" and substitutes the angst-ridden, uncertain denizen of a world that offers no certainties and requires risk-taking as a matter of survival. I hope to offer a proper review of the work in the near future. As my marker, though, permit me to leave the thought that for providing a theoretical foundation for the counter-intuitive behavior of American taxpayers, the Brenners deserve the Nobel Prize in economics.

Alas for the gamblers of America: they will tax themselves to keep the casino in operation, but it will not profit them. Where, oh where, is America's Vladimir Putin, who will drive out the oligarchs who have stolen the country's treasure and debased its currency?

www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JI23Dj06.html

September 22, 2008

a 30 feet deep crater & about 40 killed in few seconds in a country where 99% of the population is muslim.

full story

What Was Mysterious Activity Going on in the Marriott Hotel?

Pakistan Daily – September 21, 2008

Marriott Hotel has now become a ghost house which was yesterday the most beautiful and prestigious hotels in the Islamabad. While the condemnation of the blasts and the deaths and the loss of property is going on from all the quarters, some intriguing news is also pouring in.

Marriot CCTV still of the truck stopped at the perimeter before it exploded

After the blast, mysteriously fire was started at the fourth and fifth floors. It was said that this fire was the result of gas pipeline burst running through the hotel. The million dollar question is that was the gas pipeline not running through the other floors? Why the fire broke out from the fourth and fifth flours? That is the question which perhaps holds the key to the mystery as why the hotel was targeted yesterday, in which more than 60 people died including many foreigners.

Though it would never get confirmed but the fire on the fifth and fourth floor of the hotel broke out because those flours were housing the mysterious steel boxes under the heavy guard of United States marines and no one including the Pakistani security forces and the security men of the hotel were allowed to go near with the them. These boxes were shifted inside the hotel when the Admiral Mike Mullen met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad.

It is said that one member of parliament Mumtaz Alam who belongs to the PPP, the ruling party was there eye witnessed the whole scene when the white truck of US embassy came to the gate of Marriot Hotel and US marines themselves unloaded the steel boxes from the trucks and shifted them to the fourth and fifth floors without passing through them the scanners at the entrance of the hotels. When the truck was there, all the entrance and the exit passage way to the hotels were closed.

And now this blast has occurred at the Marriott, while that mysterious activity was going on.

www.daily.pk/politics/politicalnews/7422-what-was-mysterious-activity-going-on-in-the-marriott-hotel-islamabad-by-united-states-marines.html

The aftermath of the truck bomb explosion at the Marriot's security perimeter.

September 22, 2008

Looks like it is all about powdered milk.

Harikeśa: They have powdered milk.

Prabhupāda: That is simply cheating, powdered milk. It is white water, that’s all. Powdered milk means white water. It has no value.

Haṁsadūta: In Moscow too, Anand Shanti, he was telling. When we were there we wanted to buy milk, and they had milk in bottles, but he told me, he said, “This is not milk.” He said “First they dehydrate it, make it to powder. Then they again add water and put it in the bottle, because in this way they can keep it a long time.” So we couldn’t find any real milk even in Moscow, the biggest city in the country.

Prabhupāda: I think Moscow they have milk and butter.

Haṁsadūta: At least when I was there we couldn’t find any.

Prabhupāda: Oh, then finished. All cows finished, cutting throat.

Haṁsadūta: Butter they have, but it’s not very good quality.

Prabhupāda: Hm. Adulterate. I thought at least they have got little milk and butter, but that is also finished. [break]

Tejās: …the milkman tries to bring the cow to the āśrama, they arrest the milkman. They take his cow away from him. They don’t even allow that they can bring the cow to the people any more. They seized. He lost one cow. He has to sneak the cow down the back alley so that they can bring some cow fodder in.

Prabhupāda: [break] …zation will collapse very soon, all over the world. It will collapse. Either you may bring this ism or that ism, this civilization will collapse. People will become mad, being harassed in so many ways. When one is harassed in so many problems, he commits suicide. So that position is coming.

Morning Walk Conversation

with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

November 29, 1975, Delhi

Prabhupāda: It is very cheating. Any powdered spice is not good.

Harikeśa: Asafoetida also.

Prabhupāda: Everything. As soon as it is powder, they will mix with all rubbish things. And it is very easy to cheat you. You are susceptible for being cheated. So they take advantage and cheat you. So best thing is to import spices from India whole and either get it powdered or during time of cooking you make them paste. That is first class.

Morning Walk Conversation

with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

July 1, 1975, Denver

September 22, 2008

An Intellectual debate

The intellectual scene in Post-independence India

A speech of S. Gurumurthy given to IIT Chennai

posted Monday 22 September, 2008

http://hindutva.rediffiland.com/blogs/2008/09/22/An-Intellectual-debate.html

... Defeat and anger go together. Abuse and defeat go together. So, it is in this norm and with this understanding of what an intellectual debate means, I would like to place before you some of my thoughts today. Some of may find it provocative. I am confident that the audience is competent enough to absorb this and think rather than get into the mood which all of us have got used to in the last 30-40 years abuse.

Background: India before Independence

Let us see the pre-independence background, the intellectual content of India. See the kind of personalities who led the Indian mind Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Gandhiji, Tilak- giants in their own way. Most of them were involved in politics, active politics, day-to-day politics, handling men, walking on the road, addressing meetings, solving problems between their followers. And, meeting the challenges posed by the enemy, the conspiracies hatched against them. They were handling everything, yet, they were maintaining an intellectual supremacy, and an originality which history has recorded.

Let us look at the academic side. Whether it is a P.C. Ray who wrote on Indian

Chemistry in 1905 or Sir C.V. Raman who wrote about mridangam, tabala, and violin, and saw the physics in it (this was in 1913); whether it was R.C. Majumdar or Radhakumud Mukherjee who saw greatness in the Indian civilization; trying to bring up points, instances, historical evidence to mirror the greatness of India to the defeated Indian race, they were all building the Indian mind brick by brick.

Sri Aurobindo spoke of Sanatana Dharma as the nationalism of India. He didn't rank it as a philosophy. He brought it down to the level of emotional consciousness. Swami Vivekananda spoke of spiritual nationalism; it was the same Swami who spoke of Universal brotherhood. For them philosophy was not removed from the ground reality. The nation was at the core of their philosophy. Swami Vivekananda was called the"patriot monk".

Mahatma Gandhi spoke of Rama Rajya. Bankim Chandra wrote Bande Maataram. The song, the slogans in it, the mantra in it made hundreds of people kiss the gallows smilingly and many others went to jail. It transformed the life of the people. This was the intellectual scene, this was the content. This is what powered the intellectual as well as the mass movement in India. This was the core of India, the soul of the Indian freedom movement.

The symptoms: India immediately after Independence

Imagine what happened in 1947 and after, India was able to intellectually lead not only Indians but also the whole world because of the intellectual assertion that the freedom movement brought about. Let us look at post Independence India. The persons who led post-Independence India were also trained in the same freedom movement. They went to jail, but they were not rooted in the intellectual content of the Freedom movement!

The first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru was in jail for 7 years. He was a great intellectual, purely in the sense of his capacity to reason, understand, read, and expound a thought. He told Galbrieth once, "I would be regarded as the last English Prime Minister of India." See the intellectual capability of the man, the enormously competent mind.

But intellectualism doesn't exist in a vacuum. It has to be rooted in something concrete.Swami Vivekananda's universal brotherhood was rooted in India's greatness as a civilization. The concept of "Vasudaiva Kutumbakam" cannot exist without a living form, a population which believes in it and believes in itself. You need to have a society which believes in it.

That is why India could invite the Jews who were butchered, raped, all over the world. In 107 out of 108 countries, this race was butchered. At least they had the courtesy and the gratitude to publish a book. The Israeli government published a book that out of 108 countries that we sought refuge, the only civilization, the only country, the only people, the only ideology that gave us refuge was the Indian civilization. They published a book, which most Indians are unaware of.

And we invited the Muslims. The refugee Muslims first landed in Kutch. And they are called the Kutchy Memons even today but not the Memons who bomb Mumbai. But the Memons who lived with us.

In the year 1917, many of you might be aware, a case went to the Prey Council,

equivalent to the Supreme Court now. The Kutchy Memons went and told the Prey Council that we are Muslims for namesake, but we follow only the Hindu law. Please don't impose the Shariat on us. The Prey Council ruled that they are Muslims but the only sacred book they have is called "Dasaavathaara", it is not Koran. In fact they knew no language other than the Kutchy language.

And in the "Dasaavathaara", nine avatharas were common between Hindus and Kutchy Memons. We call the tenth avathaara "Kalki" and they call him "Ali". The Prey Council ruled that the Shariyat law is not applicable to them. The All India Muslim League took up the case, went to the British and told them that this finding is dangerous to Islam and requested them to pass a law which will overrule this judgment. The British government passed a law in 1923 which was called the "The Kutchy Memons Act" declaring, "If a Kutchy Memon wants to follow the Shariat, allow him to do so". It doesn't mean a Muslim must follow the Shariat. Between 1923-1937, before the All India Shariat Act was passed not a single Kutchy Memon filed an affidavit with the plea that he wants to follow the Shariaat. That was the integration prevalent in India. In 1937, when the All India Shariat Act was passed, the preamble to the act mentioned that this was being passed by a demand made by the AIML leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Today, the Shariat has become a part of Muslim consciousness.

The purpose behind making you aware of this background is that 99% of the people who speak about the constitutional rights of the minorities or the distinctiveness of Muslim life are unaware of the facts. Till the year 1980, in Cooch Behar district, the Shariat law was not applicable. In 32 instances between 1923 and 1947 by legislation, the Shariyat law was not applicable to the Muslims. This is the extent of the intellectual gap in India.

Secularism: A Reversal and perversion of the Indian mind.

And now, coming to what is the position today. Everything that drove the freedom

movement - everything that constituted the soul of the freedom movement, whether it is the Ram rajya of Gandhiji or Sanaatana Dharma of Sri Aurobindo or the spiritual patriotism of Vivekananda or the soul stirring Vande Maataram song, came to be regarded not only as unsecular but as sectarian, communal and even as something harmful to the country.

Thus, there was a reversal, a perversion of the Indian mind. How did it occur? Today, the intellectualism of India means to denigrate India. There are mobile citizens and there are non- citizens deriding India. Go to the Indian Airlines counter you will find people deriding India. Go to a post office they will deride India. Go to a railway station, they will deride India. It is the English educated Indian's privilege to deride India.When I was talking to postal employees in the GPO, Chennai (a majority of them were women). I told them the basic facts about the post office. I said it is one of the most efficient postal systems in the world, one of the cheapest in the world, one of the most delivery perfect postal systems in the world. For one rupee, you are able to transport information from one end of the country to the other.

And you have a postman, no where in the world this happens the postman goes to the illiterate mother and reads out the letter, he is asked to sit there and shares a cup of coffee and comes away. Money orders are delivered to the last rupee. It is an amazing system, one of the largest postal systems linking one of the most populous nations, one of the most complicated nations with so many languages.

Somebody writes the address in Tamil and it gets delivered in Patna! It gets delivered to Jawaan at warfront! When I completed my speech many of the women were wiping their tears. I asked why are you crying I have only praised you. They said, "Sir, this is the first time we've been praised, otherwise we've only been abused!"

You know how many people use the railways in India? A million people and that is

equivalent to the population of Australia! And we have only abuses for them!

Have we any idea of what this country is? India has been compared with Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. You can walk across many of these countries in one night (laughs)! The best politicians, intellectuals, sociologists in India have compared us with them because, we have never understood what we are and unless you do that, you can never relate us with others.

Demonising India: Projecting a negative image.

This enormous intellectual failure, to the extent of being intellectually bankrupt, did not occur overnight, it was no accident. There is a history behind this enormous erosion. And I told you about these mobile citizens, what they have done to us. Every country has problems. There is no country without any problem. Are you aware of what is one of the most pressing problems in America today? It is incurable according to the American sociologists; even American economists have begun to agree with them. American politicians are shaken, one third of the pregnant women are school going children. And mothers mix the anti-pregnancy pill in the food without daughter's knowledge everyday.

But this is not the image of America. The image of America is a technologically

advanced country etc. etc. Ours is the only country where the mobile citizens of India have transformed the problems of India into the image of India -its identity is inherently related with its problems.

Go to any country and the same negative stereotype is echoed that India is suffering from poverty and malnutrition. India has no drinking water. Indian women are burnt. If they are married, they are burnt, if they are widows, they are burnt. See the image that has been built about this country. Who did this? The English educated Indian.

And one Kaluraam Meena (have you ever heard of him? Asks the audience to raise their hands if they have), only a small fraction of this large audience has heard of him. When Clinton came to India, he went to a village called Nayla where the villagers interacted with him. And one of the panchayat board members asked him, "Sir, I am told that in the West, all of you believe that this country is a rotten country, a backward country, a poor, hungry country. Do you also think like that?"

Clinton was shaken, because he might have thought that this person might be

approaching him for some favour. I will relate my experience when I went to the Carter Centre in 1993. They were talking about dispute resolution and all that. I went there to meet somebody, if not Carter, somebody else at least. His Deputy, a lady, was very hesitant to receive me. "Mr. Gurumurthy", she said, "Mr. Carter is not around, anyway, I can spare seven-eight minutes for you." I said three or four minutes of your time would do. Even before I could start, she said, "Mr.Gurumurthy, we don't have funds, we will not be able to help" (laughter from the audience). I replied, "Let us assume you have a hundred billion dollars, how much will you give me? One billion? One million?" She kept quiet, I said: "I don't need your money. I came here to discuss whether community living is an answer to disputes. I have come to discuss this because you have suggested electoral means to resolve problems in communities which have no damn idea of what an election is; whether community living is an answer because you don't what that means. She sat and discussed this with me for two hours. This is the image we have projected that anybody, who comes from India, comes to beg. Ordinary Indians did not create this impression; educated Indians created it. This is the work of civil servants, NGOs. Christian missionaries during the freedom movement created this.

Indians are filthy, rotten, dirty and unhealthy, advertising abroad these are the people who need to be saved. We have to Christianise them, enlighten them, and give us money. I can understand that because it is their business. But what did we do after 1947?

We repeated the same mistakes. We projected India as a country of unending problems. As I said, every country has problems. Only in India, problems become identities. How many dowry deaths take place in India in a year? Yet, India is projected as a country burning its own daughter-in-laws. And we also talk about it. Every damn newspaper will be writing about it. We believe in self-deprecation. And this goes on in the guise of intellectualism in India. And one woman, she attempted to take a film of the widows. I wrote an article, asking her to go to Lijjat Paapad. A widow brought me up. Millions of widows have worked to bring up their children. It is a nation, which believes in Tapasya. You may not believe in it but you are an exception. Compare Deepa Mehta"s attitude with Sarada Maa's who was the wife, who became a widow after Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's passing away. She went to the very same place where Deepa Mehta went and saw the widows. Sarada Maa said, "These widows are so pure, they are an illustration and an example to me." Deepa Mehta saw them as prostitutes. The widows have already been hurt once. Why are you sprinkling salt on their wounds?

I am very sorry to speak about this, but I have to, this audience is enlightened enough to understand me. Indian women are sexually unsatisfied and so they are becoming lesbians? This is one bloody story against us, about us. This is the image of Indian men and women, and this film is in English. Catherine Mayo wrote a book and Mahatma Gandhi said about it, "I have no time to read this filth. But I am under a compulsion, under pressure because this has been published abroad. The image of India has been rubbished and I have to counter it." With this introduction, he wrote about the book and said that this woman is a gutter inspector (laughs).

The intellectualism in India is gutter inspection- people are of this kind etc. Understand the level of erosion.

Indian Politics: Weaknesses and Pitfalls

Let us look at the post independence scenario from the macro level. We installed a

system of governance and it postulated all the important goals for the Indian society and polity, which was gulped by the Indian academia, by the Indian intellectuals. We will have a classless society through socialism. We will have a casteless society through equality. We will have a faithless society through secularism. We will have a modern society devoid of tradition.

Instead of politics restructuring caste, caste has restructured politics today. Political

parties are talking only in terms of castes. Has any Indian intellectual come to terms

with caste? You must understand caste if you want to handle the Indian society. You cannot say that I want to have a very different kind of society. You have to handle the Indian sentiment, the Indian tradition and Indian beliefs. You can't clone a society of your choice in India. Social engineering has failed everywhere; the masters of social engineering have given up the Communists - whether it is sociologists or economists you have to accept a society as it is. You can only increase the momentum of evolution in the society; you can't forcibly bring about a revolution today. But, Indian leaders and intellectuals, till today, keep abusing caste. They don't know how to handle the caste. Let me narrate to you how a community in Karaikudi handled this issue. The Chettiyar community assembled top businessmen, professionals from all over the world for 3days to discuss their culinary act, how to construct houses, what languages they use,what old adages and stories their grand parents used to tell, what clothes they used to wear; not one word of politics, mind you. This was not even published in the newspapers. Intellectuals were not even aware of it. So, caste is a very important instrument in India, you may not like it. Unfortunately, every intellectual leads a caste life inside, but outside he is casteless! He is cloning an approach outside. There is no intellectual honesty at all.

And what happened in the case of secularism? In India, any one who is not a Hindu is per se secular. In the year 1947, just 10 years had passed after the Muslim League demanded and got the country partitioned, the leader who voted for the resolution for the partition of India was Quazi Millath Ismail, (who was leading the same Muslim League on the Indian side), the Congress certified that the Muslim League in Kerala is secular and hence it can associate with them. The Muslim League outside Kerala is communal with the same president! Three hundred and fifty crores are spent today for the Haj pilgrims out of the funds of secular India every year. No one can raise an objection. At least I can understand why politicians don't want to do that because they want the Muslim votes. But what about the intelligentsia. What about newspaper editors and journalists? And academicians? None of them speak out. The reason is that we have produced a state dependent intellectualism in India. We don't produce Nakkeerans anymore, our intellectualism is a derivative of the State and the State is a derivative of the polity. And in turn the polity is a derivative of the mind of Macaulay and Marx.

The Indian education system: A Legacy of Macaulay.

This Macaulayian system of education is a poison injected into our system. At least I had the opportunity of schooling in Tamil and hence could withstand the corruption that this English education brings with it. This corruption begins the moment the child steps out of the house. He is told to converse in English at home. This did not happen even in pre-Independence India, even when Macaulay wrote that notorious note sitting in Ooty. How many of you know Macaulay's formulation? Just those two or three sentences at least which form the crux - "We require an education system in India which will produce a class of interpreters, who will be Indian in colour and Englishmen in taste, opinions and morals."

This is the education system, which we have been continuing with, which was earlier conceived to produce clerks for the British Empire. If you have to differ from an English educated person you have to differ only through the English language. If you have to abuse somebody, even that has to be done in English! If you abuse the Anglicised Indian, he will not find fault with the blame but with the grammar in your language! This is the extent to which a foreign language has possessed us. But, we must master English, that is needed, but why do we have to become slaves of the English language? We must use that language as a tool, but why do we consider it as a status symbol? This is the influence of Macaulay.

If you want to understand the Macaulay/Marxist mix in India, you have to go a little back to see how Marxism grew out of the Christian civilisation. I recommend that you read the Nov 27, 1999 edition of the Newsweek, which describes how the Christian idea of the end of time called the "apocalypse", influenced the entire history, art, music, prognosis, sociology, economics, and the entire attitude of the Christian civilisation towards the non-Christian civilisations.

A Christian scholar who describes how Communism grew out of Christianity has

written it. In 1624, Anna Baptists, a group of Christians who believed in the basic tenets of Christianity seized power in a particular place, banned private property and use of any book other than the Bible. When Marxism came up later through the exposition of Das Capital, the Marxists began expounding their doctrine as an extension of Christianity.

The thesis, antithesis and synthesis of making Christianity acceptable to the age of

enlightenment was the Hegelian way demanded rationalisation of Christianity in the

days of the Protestant movement. Hegel began with a disagreement, then started

interacting with Christianity and ultimately ended up accepting Christianity.

You can see the same phenomenon with Marxist postulates- "capitalism is my enemy, we have to deal with capitalism" and finally "we have to find a synthesis with capitalism".

Marx on India

In fact in the year 1857, Marx wrote about India, " India was a prosperous civilisation. It had a very high standard of living. Their productivity was higher. India was an economic giant." It was so. If you look at the statistics in 1820, India's share of world production was 19%, and England's share was 9%, please note that Britain was deep into the industrial revolution at that time. 18% of the world trade was in Indian hands at that time whereas 8% was the figure for Britain and 1% for US. When 80% of the American population was engaged in agriculture, India had 60% of the population engaged in non-agricultural occupations. This is supposed to be an index of development. All these statistics can be found in Paul S. Kennedy's "Rise and Fall of Great Powers". So, Marx says, "This was a great civilisation which had produced prosperous communities." A prosperity which went deep into the villages. In the early stages, when the East India Company came to Murshidabad, an unknown name in Bengal today the Britishers were awe struck with its prosperity and wrote that it was more prosperous than London. This is no more disputed anyway, even by Indian intellectuals. Marx acknowledges the fact that this was a prosperous country and also had equality but unfortunately, he says for 2000 years the society did not change nor did it allow any revolutionary forces to enter! In his worldview human beings cannot progress without a revolution!

full article: http://hindutva.rediffiland.com/blogs/2008/09/22/An-Intellectual-debate.html

September 22, 2008

But why do then Srila Prabhupada say in his books that there is past, present and future here in the material world?

If there would be no present the jivas could not create new karmas. For the conditioned souls future karmic reactions are created now, in present. It might appear that the present instantly turns into past but still, when someone performs a sinful activity he does it in the present.

Above past, present and future is only transcendental activity.

September 21, 2008

Flood scene grave in Orissa, Yamuna crosses danger mark

New Delhi, Sept 21 (PTI) The flood situation in Orissa was grave today with surging waters snapping links with holy places like Puri and Konark while the Yamuna crossed the danger mark at Sonepat in Haryana following release of water by the irrigation department.

In Bihar, even though the waters are receding animal rights activists fear an outbreak of foot and mouth disease among livestock.

On the other hand, the met office has said that parts of northeast and west Madhya Pradesh continued to remain rain deficient regions while a late spurt in rainfall brought Marathwada and Kerala within the normal range this monsoon season.

The country as a whole received 820.7 mm rainfall this season, which was two per cent less than the Long Period Average.

In Orissa, the government has intensified air dropping of relief materials in marooned areas.

"Foodstuff were air-dropped at Banki, Bayalis Mouza, Baisi Mouza, Niali, Marsaghai and other places," said Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Manmohan Samal, who along with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made an aerial survey of flood-hit areas.

A huge breach of 400 feet on embankment of Bhargavi river near Pipili town caused disruption of road communication between Puri town and Konark.

In Bihar, relief materials worth over Rs two lakh meant for distribution among the flood victims of worst-hit Madhepura district were lost when a country made boat carrying government officials and relief materials overturned near Mojama village in Kosi river, officials said. PTI

September 21, 2008

That is a grand list of souls who have been touched.

Firstly I am an admirer of Iskcon (but not a functioning member). Iskcon is a wonderful contribution to the ongoing Vedic culture.

The diversity and complexity in this world is vast, and I agree with your point fully, that these saintly men may say things for a particular reason. Because their minds are seeing something bigger, a necessity, not seen by others. Their words are always open to reform by great thinkers to come after them.

In that regard I guess we are fortunate, that God, in manifold kindness...can re-instate Tulsi worship in a pure way. Srila Prabhupada contributed to this in the western world. I recall many years ago the devotion encountered in my first visit to a temple. The devotion to Tulsi was so pure at that temple, that I encountered a mystical experience, revealing such things I will never forget.

Only years later did I understand the meaning of Tulsi arati song, that Srila Prabhupada instituted. It is soft, it is gentle, it is beautiful...it is a wonderful contribution to this sometimes mad world of intolerance (division) and aggression. Just as Devi herself is soft and delicate.

We can see in scripture such as Srimad Bhagavatam, how all phenomenon is personalized. From the earth, the rivers, the mountains...even the all-devouring shadow Rahu!

As a westerner, the vedic culture has healed my soul. As a teen I recall feeling affection for books, written by Vivekananda, Yogananda...and eventually Srila Prabhupada (my eternal siksa guru). So it is evident to me that there is a progression of development involved for each of us. So it also is with the world and its unfoldment.

Thank you for your post I appreciate your perspectives.

Here is a beautiful poem from Rabindranatha Tagore for your pleasure. Taken from the intro to 'Vidyapati's Padyavali', translated by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy.

Thanks Bija, Just read through an article at the American Chronicle and the author tries to highlight a similar point to see things in a holistic approach - everything has to be seen as a combined effort.

Swami Viveknanda introduced yoga to the west during the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. Around 1920, Paramhansa Yogananda, author of ´Autobiography of a Yogi´, established his self-realization fellowship in Los Angeles. In the early 1930´s, J. Krishnamurthy and his expositions on jnana yoga became popular in the west. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, famed for his famous disciples, The Beatles, entered the picture in the 1960´s and introduced Transcendental Meditation. Around the same time another famous yoga guru, Swami Sivananda who is credited with modernizing yoga, opened ashrams in America and Europe. He propagated his modified Five Principles of Yoga that consisted of savasana or proper relaxation; asanas or proper exercise; pranayama or proper breathing; proper diet, and dhayana or positive thinking/meditation. He was blessed with some outstanding disciples. Disciples like Swami Satchinanda who initiated yoga chanting during Woodstock, Swami Sivananda Radha who investigated the relationship between psychology and yoga, and Yogi Bhajan who, in the 1970´s, introduced Kundalini Yoga. Another famous disciple, Swami Vishnudevananada wrote the book, ´Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga´. In 1965, Shrila Prabhupada founded the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in the US and popularized Bhakti Yoga (yoga of devotion). In the 1970´s, Osho Rajneesh became one of the most illustrious yoga gurus the world over. Sathya Sai Baba too is said to be one of the best-known living yoga gurus today. Another is of course, Swami Baba Ramdev, who is certainly the one most in the limelight at the moment.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/74945

September 21, 2008

Gandhi's Wisdom Lets Religion And Politics Mix

Academic puts forward quest for peace

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/city/story.html?id=bd38aba3-0160-4429-8924-ed9d7e5d234f

Wayne A.Hols, For the Calgary Herald

published Saturday, September 20 2008

The news from India has not been good. In the state of Orissa, Hindu groups accuse Christian missionaries of unfair recruitment tactics in their attempts to convert lower castes of society.

Last December, five Catholic churches, 48 village chapels, two seminaries, half a dozen hostels and four convents were destroyed in communal violence.

In August of this year, a Hindu religious leader, Swami Lakshmanananda, and some of his disciples were killed in their ashram.

This month, the Press Trust of India reported that several Hindu temples were attacked by Christian radicals.

In the land where Mohandas K. Gandhi, the grand mentor of peaceful religious coexistence, is venerated, sectarian violence spreads as each new provocation heightens bloody reciprocation. These tragedies mock what Gandhi envisioned.

Sectarian violence on the Indian subcontinent reminds us that the dangerous blend of radical religion and politics are not limited to places like the Gaza Strip or the Sudan.

Little more than a half-century ago, Gandhi ingeniously led his nation to independence from Imperial Britain as harsh political turmoil roiled the Hindu and Muslim communities.

In some ways, India is a very different nation today, but in others, it remains much the same. A big question of that time continues to haunt and intrigue people of good will in our time. Could the application of Gandhian principles that would knit political and religious factions into a common quest for peace reframe our vision for the world today?

A Calgary academic with a lifelong admiration for Gandhi believes they can, with a certain adaptation.

In his book Gandhi's Philosophy and the Quest for Harmony, (Cambridge University Press, 2006) Antony Parel, emeritus professor of political science at the University of Calgary, writes that contrary to commonly held views in western democracies, Gandhi believed religion and politics should creatively co-mingle and not be separate entities.

Gandhi demonstrated this truth could be practised in one's personal and communal life. By extension, it could also serve the best interests of people on a societal scale.

He learned from studies in ancient Vedic cosmology that right action could be aligned with the best democratic values he saw emanating from the West. Discoveries from his own culture's primal traditions contained universal values inherent to all humanity.

Balance and harmony -- where neither secular nor religious philosophies dominated but served each other -- formed his core principles.

He taught that ethical, esthetic and spiritual values must underlie our politics and economics. People of faith must learn to live in the real world; integrating the spiritual with the practical in their daily behaviour.

India has had a long history of inter-faith struggle. Now, however, Gandhi could serve as a fatherly inspiration; challenging his children to reclaim their ancient values.

Concurrently, Gandhi has a message for would-be "true" believers of all faiths. Go deeper than a shallow reading of your religious heritage. Use the primal values of your traditions to build bridges, not walls.

- The Gandhi Society of Calgary will hold its ninth annual dinner and lecture on Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. at the Inn on Crowchild. Tickets and information from 403-283-2004, 403-547-9879 or 403-220-7361.

Wayne Holst teaches religion and culture at the University of Calgary and co-ordinates adult spiritual development at St. David's United Church.

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