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suchandra

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  1. Guess there's nothing out of control but it is rather all planed by a couple of think tanks who consider this as only solution to stop overpopulation. Russian Scholar Says U.S. Will Collapse Next Year www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,504384,00.html – March 4, 2009 If you're inclined to believe Igor Panarin, and the Kremlin wouldn't mind if you did, then President Barack Obama will order martial law this year, the U.S. will split into six rump-states before 2011, and Russia and China will become the backbones of a new world order. Panarin might be easy to ignore but for the fact that he is a dean at the Foreign Ministry's school for future diplomats and a regular on Russia's state-guided TV channels. And his predictions fit into the anti-American story line of the Kremlin leadership. "There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010," Panarin told dozens of students, professors and diplomats Tuesday at the Diplomatic Academy — a lecture the ministry pointedly invited The Associated Press and other foreign media to attend. The prediction from Panarin, a former spokesman for Russia's Federal Space Agency and reportedly an ex-KGB analyst, meshes with the negative view of the U.S. that has been flowing from the Kremlin in recent years, in particular from Vladimir Putin. Putin, the former president who is now prime minister, has likened the United States to Nazi Germany's Third Reich and blames Washington for the global financial crisis that has pounded the Russian economy. Panarin didn't give many specifics on what underlies his analysis, mostly citing newspapers, magazines and other open sources. He also noted he had been predicting the demise of the world's wealthiest country for more than a decade now. But he said the recent economic turmoil in the U.S. and other "social and cultural phenomena" led him to nail down a specific timeframe for "The End" — when the United States will break up into six autonomous regions and Alaska will revert to Russian control. Panarin argued that Americans are in moral decline, saying their great psychological stress is evident from school shootings, the size of the prison population and the number of gay men. Turning to economic woes, he cited the slide in major stock indexes, the decline in U.S. gross domestic product and Washington's bailout of banking giant Citigroup as evidence that American dominance of global markets has collapsed. "I was there recently and things are far from good," he said. "What's happened is the collapse of the American dream." Panarin insisted he didn't wish for a U.S. collapse, but he predicted Russia and China would emerge from the economic turmoil stronger and said the two nations should work together, even to create a new currency to replace the U.S. dollar. Asked for comment on how the Foreign Ministry views Panarin's theories, a spokesman said all questions had to be submitted in writing and no answers were likely before Wednesday. It wasn't clear how persuasive the 20-minute lecture was. One instructor asked Panarin whether his predictions more accurately describe Russia, which is undergoing its worst economic crisis in a decade as well as a demographic collapse that has led some scholars to predict the country's demise. Panarin dismissed that idea: "The collapse of Russia will not occur." But Alexei Malashenko, a scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center who did not attend the lecture, sided with the skeptical instructor, saying Russia is the country that is on the verge of disintegration. "I can't imagine at all how the United States could ever fall apart," Malashenko told the AP.
  2. What you mean, it says it is posted by Jayadvaita Swami. Guess he wants to win the laughs over to his camp. Nice trial though. Since his site is linked via RSS-feed (Really Simple Syndication) the article appeared also on several other Vaishnava new sites.
  3. BBT publishes unauthorized changes in Vaishnava Calendar, concerned devotees say Submitted by jswami on March 2, 2009 - 1:21am <small>(Exclusive to the SAMPRAJALPA SUN)</small> “At first I couldn’t believe it,” said Rijidatma Dasa. “The books, yes. But who would ever think the BBT would start monkeying with the Vaishnava Calendar?” The Vaishnava Calendar has been the guide for ISKCON’s holy days and festivals since the early 1970s, when Srila Prabhupada first asked for it to be published. And for nearly two decades the BBT has published an annual BBT Art Calendar with a beautiful picture of Krishna-lila for each month. But ISKCON has now been plunged into turmoil by the discovery that the BBT, unannounced, has made changes in the dates. The changes were first brought to light by Sadhudvesa Dasa. “I was looking at the dates for January, and all of a sudden it hit me,” he said. “Last year August 2 was on a Tuesday, and this year? Their calendar says it’s a Saturday!” At first he didn’t know what to think. He just sat there, stunned. Then, he says, he checked September. “And it was the same thing! Last year September 10 was on a Monday. And this year—they’ve changed it to Wednesday!” Using a downloaded computer program, Sadhudvesa compared last year’s calendar with this year’s and was shocked by what he found: The BBT editors had changed the dates for literally every month in the year. The BBT office in Los Angeles says it knows nothing about any changes. “We just leave it to our editors,” said Svavasa Dasa, head of the BBT in LA. Dravida Dasa, chief editor for the North American BBT, insists the changes are completely authorized. Besides, he told the Sun, “The self-realized soul is not bewildered by any change.” Jayadvaita Swami refused to comment. But his secretary emphasized that Jayadvaita Swami is strict in his vows. He won’t even go out for a movie,” his secretary said, “what to speak of unauthorized dates.” Meanwhile, Rijidatma has taken the matter up with ISKCON’s GBC and says that if they refuse to act he’s considering a lawsuit. Last week a spokesperson for the GBC body confirmed that Rijidatma had brought the matter to the GBC’s attention. “The concerns of the devotees are our concerns,” the spokesperson said. “So we have assured him we will look into this matter very seriously. We feel responsible.” Since then, Sadhudvesa has alleged that some BBT devotees have lately been traveling through the Middle East, and this, he says, deserves further investigation. “Dates, Middle East… See? See the connection?” he said. “Dates, Middle East, terrorism… Can we just stand by while BBT editors under the sway of radical Islam make changes in the Vaishnava Calendar?” Responding to this new allegation, the GBC Executive Committee has called a special emergency meeting. “The EC will meet about this within the next few days,” an EC spokesman said. “Either Tuesday or Thursday, whichever comes first.”
  4. Today several devotees phoned me up since we have a HDG Srila B. Vaibhav Puri Goswami temple in our city. The question was raised if Srila Puri Maharaja has appointed a successor and how his mission will go on?
  5. “The great sage Narada said, ’My dear Maharaja Yudhisthira, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna is always ready to help you. He is your master, guru, God, very dear friend and head of your family. Yet sometimes He agrees to act as your servant or order-carrier. You are greatly fortunate because this relationship is possible only by bhakti-yoga. The Lord can give liberation [mukti] very easily, but He does not very easily give one bhakti-yoga, because by that process He is bound to the devotee.” "Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has freely given this love of Krsna everywhere and anywhere, even to the most fallen, such as Jagai and Madhai. What then to speak of those who are already pious and elevated?" "In the beginning one should very regularly chant Sri Gaurasundara’s holy name and then chant the holy name of Lord Nityananda. Thus one’s heart will be cleansed of impure desires for material enjoyment. Then one can approach Vrndavana-dhama to worship Lord Krsna. Unless one is favored by Lord Caitanya and Nityananda, there is no need to go to Vrndavana, for unless one’s mind is purified, he cannot see Vrndavana, even if he goes there. Actually going to Vrndavana involves taking shelter of the six Gosvamis by reading Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Vidagdha-madhava, Lalita-madhava and the other books that they have given. In this way one can understand the transcendental loving affairs between Radha and Krsna. Kabe hama bujhaba se yugala-piriti. The conjugal love between Radha and Krsna is not an ordinary human affair; it is fully transcendental. In order to understand Radha and Krsna, worship Them and engage in Their loving service, one must be guided by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu and the six Gosvamis, Lord Caitanya’s direct disciples." Sri Caitanya-caritamrita
  6. I'm strongly convinced that Prabhupada preached at the beginning in a different temper. Many lectures in 66 - 69 are like effervescent and very joyful. This changed abruptly around 1970. His mood while lecturing became more grave, earnest and yes, concerned. Somehow he must have felt that his worldwide movement could quickly go down the drain. Many leading disciples left and again indulged in the very same sinful activities. Not that he openly spoke about his movement might go to hell in a handbasket, but he wasnt really happy about the management. In this condition to see that his disciples were struggling hard to follow the brahminical standard, how could he lecture about confidential rasas? But just this very atittude to properly address and encourage a neophyte audience and at the same time not to become known as sahajia, this balancing act, walking on a tightrope, he is now blamed that he cannot have been established in the highest rasa? At the same time, he was already criticized strongly by many caste brahmanas in the Holy Dhamas about the way how he implanted Vaishnavism in the Western society. So in sum, there must have been tremendous pressure upon Prabhupada how to handle all these external impediments. And not to present himself like someone who lost contact with reality. Obviously main problem of his disciples was getting free from sexual attraction, so many sannyasis fell down. How someone can possibly lecture about madhurya rasa to such an audience? Well, yes sahajiyas are doing that. So Prabhupada is now blamed for not speaking about Krishna's pastimes with the gopis to his Western disciples who even couldnt remain celibate when having accepted sannyasa. Instead of analyzing the condition of this audience Prabhupada was lecturing to, people quickly conclude, no, he was not in the highest rasa. Very neophyte conclusion.
  7. Don't get me wrong but this doesn't sound like a humble Vaishnava is speaking but someone who is in the position high above........something like God.
  8. Clearly a topic Lord Caitanya never would approve to be discussed in public since He Himself would never discuss such topics even with Svarup Damodar Goswami, He only discussed such confidential topics with Ramananda Raya. Since the different rasas are in sum different forms of love to Krishna, the extent of how much a devotee is in love with Krishna has to be studied. Thus Srila Prabhupada's effort to establish bhakti-yoga on this planet in this Kali-yuga can be seen as an expression of his love to Krishna. If others at that time - 1966- would have experienced even stronger symptoms of love of God, this would have been become visible in their attempt to fullfill the desire of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and spread pure bhakti in every town in village. So far there's no report of somebody else directing his love of God into action of such kind and fullfilling the yuga-avatar's mercy of distributing the highest love of God on this planet to all of us. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the crest jewel-gem among all the divine donors. When Lord Chaitanya went to Vidyanagar and met Raya Ramananada, the latter praised the Lord as follows. “O lord, You are verily the Supreme Autocrat, who can understand the significance of Your acts ? You are the EMBODIMENT of MERCY as well as the REDEEMER OF THE FALLEN. Your arrival to this place is intended to save me from downfall. It is the nature of the great souls that, they tour to visit the fallen souls for delivering them, even without having to accomplish for themselves.”
  9. Thanks Andy108, great post - this is the writing of someone who's really connected with the parampara! Go on with the good work!
  10. This is of course a stupid idea to say that you can lie to a fully enlightened acarya. It might be true that people lie right to your face because you're fully under the grip of material illusion, but why you compare yourself with Srila Sridhar Swami who is supposed to be a liberated soul? Only conditioned souls fall prey to become lied to.
  11. There are still lots of Vaishnavas who are very concerned about the "inner life" of Srila Prabhupada and themselves. Meanwhile, the citizens of the ISKCON society are suffering terribly because Srila Sridhara Maharaja strongly backed the post-1977 guru appointment that has been forcing tens of thousands of innocent young Vaishnavas into the state of becoming ex-disciples and thousands senior Vaishnavas to become "home-based". This is because the GBC gurus and their chief post-1977 advisor Srila Sridhara Maharaja rubber stamp guru - acharyas without even making a preliminary study of their "inner" realizations. And while all of this was going on Swami BV Tripurari was also trying to get "voted in as guru" by the meanwhile infamous eleven, or else he threatened the eleven -- he'd go get voted in as guru by Srila Sridhara Maharaja if they wouldn't pacify his need to be also one of the next acaryas. That all those neophyte gurus were causing thousands of devotees to leave ISKCON was never a topic of those neophyte gurus. So there seems to be only concern for their own acarya's positions and not so much for the citizens. This is why some devotees are now writing their problems since they lost their jobs, their benefits are running out and etc and still there are no farms, no varnasrama, no place for them to go in ISKCON. One child who recently committed suicide in San Francisco left a note, "There is no place for me in ISKCON." Says it all! So this is the apparent problem, they are worried about their inner life, and their silk saffron clothes, golden Rolex watches, flashy new Volvos etc., and not so much for the ISKCON family of Srila Prabhupada. And ISKCON even admitting, 92% of our members are home-based. In other words, the Vaishnavas temples in the West are in a state to disappear.
  12. This is good news, Prabhupada is gaining popularity. The ISKCON GBC has a program to "make a book" about the process of "paralell lines" where their acharyas are working under the authority of their Governing Body. This is exactly what the Pharisees told Jesus, "You have to work under our Pharisee's administration." Jesus said basically, no thanks, since the guru is not under the control of a "GBC" or Pharisee administrator board. This was the first wrong idea in 1977, that the eleven gurus were going to be "administered" by the votes of a defective panel. Why would the guru need to be administered by the group votes of a panel in the first place? Modern ISKCON is very much in line with the siddhanta of the Pharisees, they also say the acharya has to work under the authority of their administration board. Srila Prabhupada says NO, that the guru gets direct dication from God -- not -- from some administration board or panel. The GBC says their guru gets dictation not from God but from the GBC Pharisee's board. So the good news is that more devotees are realizing, we are not followers of the Pharisees? As a matter of fact the Pharisees are not at all helpful to the acharyas, we reject their ideas. Basically, Jesus says in the Bible that the Pharisees are hyprocrites and vipers since Jesus also never approved of the idea that the acharya is subordinated to an administration governing body. Can any neophyte become guru? "Guru is most confidential servant of God", so, how can a neophyte be "most confidential"?
  13. They still insist upon interpretating the Gita like Kuruksetra is the body and the Pandavas are the five senses etc. Guest (Indian man): Could it be that there may be different interpretations? Prabhupada: No, that is not possible. That is not the process. You cannot interpret Bhagavad-gita. If you want to preach Bhagavad- gita, you must preach what Krsna has said. If you have got a different philosophy, you can say differently. You don’t cheat people that you take Bhagavad-gita and interpret in your own way and cheat others and be cheated yourself. You cannot do that. Guest: Well, for example, Tilak Maharaj… Prabhupada: Tilak may be, Gandhi may be, whoever may be. But the point is that you have to understand Bhagavad-gita according to the direction of the author. Because you are Mr. Tilak or Mr. Gandhi, you can do everything on Bhagavad-gita… Guest: No no, that is not the idea. But there are different type slokas. Prabhupada: Now how you have got a different types of… Just like the Bhagavad-gita begins, dharma-ksetre kuru-ksetre samaveta yuyutsavaḥ [Bg. 1.1]. So dharma-ksetre kuru-ksetre, how you can interpret in a different way? Kurukṣetra is already there. But how you can interpret, “Kurukṣetra means this, Kurukṣetra means that?” You cannot interpret. Guest: Yes, but who is decided what exactly the meaning… Prabhupāda: Exactly the meaning is there. Guest: Literal, literally. Prabhupada: Literally, yes. The thing is the interpretation is required when you cannot understand. If, if I say, “This is a stick,” everyone knows it is a stick. So I say, “Here is a stick.” So if you say, “No, I do not accept it is stick.” So what is that interpretation? Everyone knows it is stick. Similarly, Kurukṣetra means that the place, still existing. And in the Vedic sastra it is ordered, kuruksetre dharma yajayet. You go… From time immemorial it is a place of pilgrimage. Even Kṛṣṇa, during solar eclipse, Kṛṣṇa with His family, He came there, Jagannatha. The ceremony is there, Ratha-yatra. Because Kṛṣṇa, Balarama and Subhadra came in the same chariot. That is being performed. So Kurukṣetra, dharmaksetra, at least five thousand years ago the system was that people used to come to Kurukṣetra as a place of pilgrimage, dharmaksetra. And Kurukṣetra, the place is there. And the the two family members, the Kurus and the Pandavas, they fought. The Battle of Kurukṣetra took place. These things are evident. Then why there is need of interpreting? That is the first point. Guest: Those points are very clear. Prabhupada: Every point is very clear. In the Bhagavad-gita, every point is very clear, unless you interpret it in the wrong way. Room Conversation with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada December 20, 1976, Bombay full lecture: http://causelessmercy.com/t/t/761220rc.bom.htm
  14. I saw this many times that disciples of different gurus they cannot manage to work cooperatively. As soon you have within a temple/community disciples of different gurus they formate groups, excluding others. This went so far that those disciples who felt being in minority finally moved to another temple where more disciples of their guru were living. So instead of fighting to maintain local devotees and look for their well-being they felt mobbed and had to move to another temple. But when they moved to another temple the problem was also not solved since they felt pushed, didnt come there out of their own accord. Now, one may ask this question, aren't Vaishnavas supposed to get off the bodily platform and become situated on the brahma-bhuta platform? In sum, what we have here, Vaishnavas are so rare, this system of creating different mathas within a Vaishnava institution causes chaos. A spiritual master with his disciples is one matha, you cannot have many mathas within the same building, this is common sense. In Mayapur/Vrindavan you won't find any mathas with many gurus. But this is exactly what ISKCON became, a matha with 200 gurus.
  15. What people like Kulapavana and the sampradaya sun want to incite is that Western Vaishnavism is splitting into many fractions and become meaningless, thats all. Therefore they teach everyone should be guru, to be guru is also for neophytes, everything cheap, everybody acarya. To totally bring down Lord Caitanya's Sankirtan movement and destroy it in the name of defending it, that is their ambition. If anyone says, now just imagine the combined power of a global Vaishnava movement with Prabhupada as acarya and all affectionate Godbrothers, they immediately say, ritvik poison. They tell you directly, you're a demon. But writing articles about "Devotee Etiquette".
  16. Co-founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/arun_gandhi/2009/02/religion_and_violence.html Arun Gandhi is the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. He is co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, now at the University of Rochester in New York. more » Using Religion to Justify Violence is Always Wrong Posted by Arun Gandhi on February 25, 2009 12:03 AM My understanding of religion is that it can have no justification for violence of any kind -- domestic or general. Violence is justified by priests in all religions by misinterpreting and/or misunderstanding a philosophy. Added to this is the tragedy that that we approach religion dogmatically. For instance, in the case of Hinduism, those who justify violence say the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu sacred text, is all about a war between the forces of good and evil. According to my Grandfather, Mohandas K. Gandhi, this is a dogmatic approach. Firstly the text was written thousands of years ago and secondly it is written in the form of a poem and obviously the poet has taken literary license. The war depicted was not meant to be taken literally but it was to be understood in the figurative sense as the war (or turmoil) that we all face everyday when we are called upon to choose between what we know at that moment to be good and evil. Similar arguments can be made about the depiction of turmoil in other religious scriptures. Grandfather said: When imperfect human beings (there is no one among us who can claim to be perfect!) translate scripture we reach an imperfect understanding of religion. God and religion is, and can only be, about love, compassion, understanding and not someone who is blood-thirsty for revenge. Please e-mail On Faith if you'd like to receive an email notification when On Faith sends out a new question.
  17. Co-founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/arun_gandhi/2009/02/religion_and_violence.html Arun Gandhi is the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. He is co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, now at the University of Rochester in New York. more » Using Religion to Justify Violence is Always Wrong Posted by Arun Gandhi on February 25, 2009 12:03 AM My understanding of religion is that it can have no justification for violence of any kind -- domestic or general. Violence is justified by priests in all religions by misinterpreting and/or misunderstanding a philosophy. Added to this is the tragedy that that we approach religion dogmatically. For instance, in the case of Hinduism, those who justify violence say the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu sacred text, is all about a war between the forces of good and evil. According to my Grandfather, Mohandas K. Gandhi, this is a dogmatic approach. Firstly the text was written thousands of years ago and secondly it is written in the form of a poem and obviously the poet has taken literary license. The war depicted was not meant to be taken literally but it was to be understood in the figurative sense as the war (or turmoil) that we all face everyday when we are called upon to choose between what we know at that moment to be good and evil. Similar arguments can be made about the depiction of turmoil in other religious scriptures. Grandfather said: When imperfect human beings (there is no one among us who can claim to be perfect!) translate scripture we reach an imperfect understanding of religion. God and religion is, and can only be, about love, compassion, understanding and not someone who is blood-thirsty for revenge. Please e-mail On Faith if you'd like to receive an email notification when On Faith sends out a new question.
  18. I know many devotees who have no or little relation to the internet. This doesn't have anything to do with what is published on the internet, it is rather the very fact that some people just seem to have an animosity with modern technology. As soon they start reading things on the internet this animosity is always integrated. This leads to that point that they don't want to get involved and thus it is clear that there is no complete overview about what devotees are communicating past 10 years. They pick up fragmentary content and conclude from this platform. So it should be pointed out that without having a total overview about the ongoing reporting of Vaishnava news, people shouldn't come up with appraisals like above, "especially when posting on Internet forums such as this". Clearly a person who hates the internet in itself. Not that he cannot hate the internet, but he shouldnt comment or criticize since he has no complete overview.
  19. Monday February 23, 2009 The happy monk By MAJORIE CHIEW A Sri Lankan Buddhist monk is tickled as he recalls his early days in the United States. BHANTE Walpola Piyananda, a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka, arrived in the West Coast of America on July 4, 1976. He was 33 then. During his early days in the United States, people had never heard of a Buddhist monk. He was ridiculed, humiliated and ignored; at times, he was a victim of mistaken identity. However, all the nasty incidents did not deter Piyananda from settling down in the United States where he has been residing for 33 years. “I wanted to go to America for new experiences and to explore a way of life that’s different from conservative Asia,” said Piyananda, 66, during a short stopover in Malaysia en route to Sri Lanka. Opportunity came knocking when he was offered a scholarship to study Christianity at Northwestern University in Chicago. “It’s rare for a Buddhist monk to study Christianity. My (late) uncle Dr Walpola Rahula, a Buddhist scholar, suggested that I study Christianity to find out the differences and similarities,” said Piyananda. Distinguished monk and author, Bhante Walpola Piyananda. Today Piyananda is the author of two books, Saffron Days in LA (Shambala, 2001) and The Bodhi Tree Grows in LA (Shambala, 2008) which feature funny and poignant tales of his life as a Buddhist monk in the United States. His third book is in the works. Piyananda is the founder-president and abbot of Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles, California. It is one of the oldest Theravada Buddhist temples in North America. He is also president of the Sangha Council of Southern California, Chief High Priest in the United States, and advisor to the President of Sri Lanka on international religious affairs. Ordained at the age of 12, he took the name of his village, Walpola, and the Buddhist name, Piyananda, which means “pleasant joy”. It was written in the stars that Piyananda was destined to be a monk. When his parents brought him to register his birth at the temple, the high priest worked out his astrological chart. “It showed Saturn in Ninth House which meant that I was destined to be a famous Buddhist monk. So the priest convinced my parents that I had to be a monk,” said Piyananda. Piyananda has a BA (Hons) in Buddhist studies from Kaleniya University, Sri Lanka, and a Masters in Pali from Calcutta University. India. After his post-graduate studies in India, he returned to Sri Lanka to serve as a monk but felt the urge to go to the United States which he saw as a “great land of freedom, equality and opportunity”. Eventually, he realised his dream to go to the United States to further his studies and graduated from Northwestern University in Chicago in 1980, and the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1985. The books Bhante Walpola Piyananda wrote. Harrowing tales Piyananda recalled his early days in the United States which were fraught with challenges. There was the shocking incident at a bus stop in which a gentleman in a Mercedes Benz pulled up next to a curb, ran up to him and spat in his face. He was told to “go away cos he did not belong in the country”. The following year, in1977, five youths mistook him for a Hare Krishna devotee and accused him of being involved in the kidnapping of a girl. Piyananda showed them his Northwestern ID card, explained his monk’s robe and convinced the group that he was not a Hare Krishna devotee as he did not have a ponytail but a clean-shaven head. Perhaps the most amusing tale was when someone thought he was suicidal. A year after his arrival in Los Angeles, a Thai family had invited him to their apartment for dana (requisite offering). While waiting in the lobby for the driver to park the car, he decided to adjust his robe and wear it differently. Within minutes, the siren blared. He found policemen and paramedics rushing towards him. Apparently a woman had called the emergency line and reported that “an Indian guru was trying to suffocate himself with his long robe!” En route from Los Angeles to Berkeley, Piyananda was stopped from entering the men’s toilet in a rest area. Wearing a knit cap and in traditional monk’s robe, he was mistaken for an Indian woman in a saree! In another incident, while waiting to catch a flight to Minneapolis, Piyananda went up to a police officer and asked for directions to the departure gate after other people ignored him. He was threatened with arrest and had to produce his boarding pass. There was another harrowing incident he encountered while strolling along a pier in Santa Monica. Piyananda encountered a group of punks who taunted him for being “an alien” and “a shaved pumpkin”. Piyananda teased them and joked that he was the “new punk” with a clean-shaven head, while they only shaved the sides of their heads. Extending his hand in friendship, he told them that his name Bhante meant “spiritual friend”, piya for “pleasant” and ananda for “happy one”. Soon they were happily chatting away and he invited them to his temple. They have since become his students and one, a Buddhist minister. Piyananda also had brushes with women that probably left him red-faced. In August 1979, an American woman in her 30s sought his advice at the Buddhist Meditation Centre in Los Angeles, his home base then. She was misguided by her guru’s advice to have sex more often to lose weight. She put up two posters in the centre, offering sexual favours; this angered the abbot who chased her out. Piyananda listened to her story, helped her understand her foolishness and persuaded the abbot to allow her to stay on. While attending Vesak celebrations in Berkeley, a desperate woman outside the women’s toilet asked him to go into the cubicle to help her remove her pants! Piyananda later saw her predicament: both her arms were in plaster cast and she was unable to remove her pants to use the bathroom. He ran up the stairs to get a woman to help her out. On another occasion, a woman at a meditation centre where he taught gave him a generous donation of US$300. He thanked her and asked what she did for a living. She told him she was a hooker. Not understanding what “hooker” meant, he praised her for a “wonderful career” and added that she “must be very happy”. When he realised his blunder, he went in search of the woman and convinced her to turn over a new leaf. Eventually she became a case worker for the protection of abused children.
  20. This goes conform with a global trend to gradually shut down or block the internet because some people find that information and communication has to be kept under tight control. China tops world in censuring religious websites Access to AsiaNews also blocked Oslo (AsiaNews) China has set up the "most extensive and expensive censorship of any other country in the world" targeting foreign-based religious-oriented websites, this according to Forum 18, a Norwegian-based online Christian News Service which conducted a two-month survey of Chinese government's internet monitoring. Its findings show that Chinese authorities have placed a tight lid on sites which focus on Christian groups and other minorities persecuted in China because they are deemed a threat to the country's political and social stability and territorial integrity. The survey was conducted from mid-May to mid-July including the key date of June 4, 15th anniversary of the Tianamen massacre. It entailed checking internet access in different locations within China. It showed that China's Golden Shield Firewall prevented survey participants from accessing sites that dealt with the persecution of Catholics and Protestants, the Dalai Lama, the Falun Gong religious movement, and the Muslim Uygurs of Xinjiang. Here are some sites blocked because they expose persecutions against Christians in general and Catholics in particular. First of all, ● AsiaNews (whose blocking had already been reported); some US-based websites such as ● Free Church for China, ● Free the Fathers (which focuses on the conditions of Catholic clergymen who refused to register with the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association), ● China Aid Association, (which reports on the repression of local Protestant churches), ● and the Committee for the Investigation of Persecution of Religious in China (mostly in Chinese and English). The survey also showed that it was also impossible to consult the site of the Taiwan-based Society of the Divine Word (Verbites) or that of the Hong Kong Diocese. Sources indicate that this last site was blocked as soon as relations between Hong Kong's Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun and the Chinese government started deteriorating. Many other sites have been blocked because they report acts of persecution against other religious movements or groups; among them, those of Falung Gong: ● www.falundafa.org, ● www.faluninfo.net, ● www.falunjustice.org; those directly or indirectly linked to the Dalai Lama: ● www.dalailama.com, ● www.dalailama.org(this is a commercial site that has no connection to Tibet's spiritual leader); those linked to Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Liberation Party), an Islamist political movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the caliphate on the whole world: ● www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org, ● www.khilafah.com, ● www.khilafah.com.pk. The authorities have also blocked search engines like Google and web portals like to avoid unwelcome fact finding and information gathering in English or Chinese. The survey did find that access to apparently unthreatening religious-oriented or Catholic sites was possible. Among the latter: ● the site of the Vatican, ● the Vatican agency (which authorities had blocked in 1998 when it launched its Chinese version arguing that it was "interfering in the internal affairs, religious affairs included, of China"), ● the Chinese-language service of , ● Taiwan-based Radio Veritas. Despite the censorship, it is possible to visit sites that present the Holy Scriptures or sacred texts of different religions, those that speak positively of the status of religion in China, and those that expose religious persecution in other countries. None the less, the Chinese authorities have pushed web censorship a step further by launching in June a campaign urging netizens to turn cybersnitches and report "unlawful" websites to a sponsored by the Internet News and Information Service Working Committee of the China Internet Association. Would-be cybersnitches are asked to give their names and address and indicate the type of content violation choosing from a list of offences that includes ● promoting cults, ● violating constitutional principles, ● attacking the Communist Party and the government, ● flouting social morality. Internet censorship is part and parcel of the government's policy to keep information and communication media under its tight control and for this reason the authorities have more recently sounded the alarm against "subversive" cellphone SMS (Short Messaging Service) messages. (ThR)
  21. You might say this again and again, at least I don't believe what you're saying. You should at least show loyalty to all those not only ex-Harikes disciples but also others like Harikes' godbrothers who went through unbelievable damage, not only spiritually but also materially. A damage which can be numbered of at least 500 mio dollars to get it all repaired. To say now like you do, this is in no way anything mentionable, it is all a short laugh, to say this now to all the other victims, this is sheer rascaldom and makes you to the very same cheater like Harikes was. It is just unbelievable what is going on in the heads of so called Vaishnavas. For example some devotees became drug addicts or their kids became drug addicts, some commited suicide, many are dead and gone from grief at being removed from their service, there is no way to fully fix this mess at this stage, so these "guru's" karma is somewhat bigger than Mount Sumeru. In fact any karmi butcher is a saint compared to this crime.
  22. Thanks Ancient Mariner, well yes, due the Vaishnava instutions' madness of simply thinking of nothing but big positions, many devotees became drug addicts/alcoholics or their kids became drug addicts. At least Kamsa once in a while washed Devaki's feet with his tears of repentance, but how can you wash the feet of people who are dead and departed already? Present Vaishnava institutions are stuck with the offense, period.
  23. As band below highlights, even if you try, you cannot kill that beast ("But they just can’t kill the beast"). Once again, the non-Vaishnavas come up with real knowledge. And this seems the problem. Nobody understands that only Krsna can do this, fight the demons. Instead folks like theist teach, no not Krsna, everyone should sit on the vyasasana. Wasn't the performance we saw past 30 years not enough? These kind of soldiers are smashed left and right even when it comes to subdue their own minds, what to speak of changing this world into Vaikuntha. Another devotee called me and said that he saw Ramesvara recently and Ramesvara was crying and looking very morose. I said, no kidding, Srila Prabhupada used to say "Ramesvara is the most intelligent devotee I have got." Ramesvara has perhaps finally realized that his involvement in his false guru posturing, so he is sad about that. <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehvzbRIWPx0&hl=de&fs=1&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344">
  24. Could you please explain why worship of Lord Jesus what is an example of bona fide worship of a great devotee, is performed by those who are mentally defect? At least the great Vaishnava acaryas never would say such a thing, worship of Jesus is for those who are mentally disabled, handicapped. No Vaishnava acarya would ever teach this. Although we find that many present Vaishnavas slightly seem to consider like that, worship of Jesus is for lunatics, morons and maniacs - many are embodying this kind of understanding. And this hate and abhorrence against Lord Jesus was even intensified when finding out that he is an example that ritvik works. Or do you mean to say that this only works for Lord Jesus - only he's so powerful to still guide from within and absorb sins? And others, especially Vaishnava gurus are not able for this, are too weak?
  25. This is not Gaudiya philosophy that the Vaishnavas are the cause of action, Vaishnavas just do one thing only to worship Krsna always. Whenever things happen it is Krsna who does it. We cannot do anything. Only Krsna can manage things to happen. This is not our Vaishnava philosophy to say, I'm the cause of this to happen, no, it is all happening by Krisna's arrangement. We can only watch what Krsna is doing and perform our devotional service. What did we do? Krsna brought down false gurus, not the ritviks. Remember, the whole thing actually started around 1998 that people in large scale wondered if Prabhupada really ordered anyone to be the next acarya. So why blame the Prabhupadanugas for all that happened?
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