Jahnava Nitai Das

The problem is we have ecclesiastical gurus posing as nitya siddha gurus, pretending to be pure devotees and eternally liberated. If they just played their part, who they really are, less people would complain. Take Caru for example. As far as I know he lets people know he is just an ordinary guy acting as a priest. No big show. Maybe that's why you don't hear so many complaints about him, whereas other show men are always getting criticized.

What was the connection between that link and suspended acharyas? I went to it and it was a story about creation. Maybe I missed something. Is it something to do with Umapati Swami?

But this year ravindra svarupa is writing "a definitive 60 page paper on Srila Prabhupada’s unique position". So it really is a big change. He is going to write a booklet on the guru issue. Oh wait. That's what he has been doing for the last 20 years.

Here is a clearer video of it (not much clearer though): http://www.jayanews.in/detailpagenew.aspx?NEWS=c6416975-f487-4040-b2ca-462291496b9d

This was on today's news (Jaya TV). Supposedly there was a person doing parikrama of the sacred arunachala hill at Tiruvannamalai, and he saw a man with matted hair. He started filming him with his cell phone, and the man flew off like a rocket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DdkEWIwJtU To me it looks unnatural, because if you are filming and someone flies off, you are going to move the camera to follow the spot in the sky where he flew off too. But this person keeps the camera staight ahead. This makes me think there are equipments off to the side which he doesnt want to film. But who knows?

Here is a small dog story that happened today at our Ashram in Orissa. Somehow by fate our Ashram ended up with three puppies in 2004. A street dog who would visit the ashram for prasadam had given birth to 6 babies. There was another female dog in the village that had the terrible habit of hunting and eating puppies. She did it repeatedly for a number of years, and in this case our devotees witnessed it because these puppies were born so close to the ashram. Every day the evil dog would sneak up and attack and kill one of the puppies. After three of the puppies had been killed in that manner, the devotees decided to take the remaining three puppies in and protect them so they wouldn't be killed as well. Several times the evil dog still managed to sneak into the ashram and grab one of the puppies by the neck and run off with it, but the construction workers would chase it down and recover the puppy each time before it could be killed. So somehow these three dogs grew up in the ashram eating Jagannatha prasadam each day. Today a very nice thing happened to one of these dogs. Attached is a picture of him taken yesterday (his name was Brindavan). He had stopped eating about 10 days ago. Day by day he became skinnier and he was pretty "sick" in the sense that he hadn't taken food for so many days. Since he wasn't eating food he became weak and would just lie down at his place behind the ashram. He hadn't walked for a few days, and then today was Nityananda's appearance day. So at the temple they were having an abhisheka around noon, with fasting from morning, followed by a feast. The abhisheka started and there was a loud kirtan going on, when suddenly Brindavan stood up, walked across the yard to the door of the ashram and started barking. He hadn't eaten in 10 days and hadn't been walking around at all, but suddenly he was walking and barking. One devotee saw him at the door barking and thought it was odd and she felt she should give him some charanamrita. So she went to the Jagannatha temple and brought charanamrita from the abhisheka. She poured some into his mouth, and he left his body instantly with the kirtan still going on. It is really miraculous that he would leave his body the second he received charanamrita, and on the day of Nityananda's appearance as the kirtan was going on just 30 feet away. He wasn't really sick or old. He was only 4 years old (which in dog years would make him 28). He just stopped eating, so he became thin and weak. He was a fortunate dog. He was born at the ashram and spent his life guarding Lord Jagannatha's temple from thieves. His whole life he only ate Jagannatha prasadam, and in fact he would receive the rajbhog mahaprasadam from the deities plate every day after the noon offering. Funny how that happened, but somehow he was blessed to eat the direct remnants from Lord Jagannatha's plate every day. He fasted for 10 days, and on the day of Lord Nityananda's appearance he took charanamrita from the deities and instantly left his body surrounded by kirtan. We never know who may be a great soul or yogi. Here is a picture of him taken yesterday. His bones are really visible and his skin is hanging loosly over his body. Before he stopped eating 10 days ago he was fat and his skin tight.

For the record, I don't deserve any of the credit for this forum because I am hardly involved with it at all. Most of the time I don't even read it, as I have little time to be on the forums or to moderate them. The moderators are the one's who keep the forums together and clean, or as clean as they possibly can with so many differing opinions. They do this as volunteers and really have no reason to take the trouble to do it. If they weren't moderating, these forums would have been closed long ago. Their only real purpose in moderating is to try to minimize insults and arguing as much as possible. In an effort to head off such situations, they will also remove posts or threads that, from experience in the past, they know will go in such a direction. Sometimes they miss these, as they cannot follow the forums all day. I have agreed to let them moderate me as well, to make their job easier. Just today, I had one post removed and another edited. If you feel a post is offensive or should be removed, you should send a PM to "admin5" and it will be looked into by one of the moderators.

People who come to convert or intentionally offend people are removed immediately. That is regardless of what religion they belong to. I have never read any of his posts (maybe 5 altogether) so I have no idea whether he offended someone previously. I banned him not because of any philosophical opinion he had, but because he was insulting children whom he had no right to. It had nothing to do with whether or not he offended me. There have been members who have cussed me out here who never got banned. I really couldn't care less whether people congratulate me or offend me on this forum. I dont know what the post was about, but from the description it looks like you would be inviting people like Raghu to keep arguing with you if you posted something like that. We have all had posts disappear including myself. When it happens I just shrug my shoulders and move on. I could repost it and tell the moderators not to touch my posts, but I don't because I respect their opinion of what is appropriate and what isn't. They are doing the hard work of moderating the forums, so whatever they decide on I agree with it. Raghu has probably had more posts removed than others, and I am sure you see it as fair and he sees it as unfair. If a thread is closed you will complain. If a thread is left open and people disagree with you, you will complain. So basically you want a forum where no one can disagree with you. If Raghu's opinion on the connection between the bible and vaishnavism offends you then put him on your ignore list. He has his right to voice his opinion, and Shvu the atheist has his right to voice his opinion, and the madhva guy has his right to voice his opinion, and all the Gaudiya Vaishnavas have their right to voice their opinions. Thats what a forum is for. In the real world there is no moderator to censor people you disagree with. What do you do in those situations? You walk away and don't listen to them. So why keep listening to Raghu if he offends you so much.

Jesus Christ or Mohammad may possibly be Vaishnavas in disguise, but I have no real way of knowing if they worshipped Vishnu or not, so I can't say for certain. Their followers certainly do not. As far as Christianity, I see it as a step in the right direction to move society from barbaric to civilized, but I don't see it as Vaishnavism. I do not see any of the key teachings of Vaishnavism present in Christianity. There maybe some random things like "praise the Lord" which are present in every religion going back to aboriginees or African religions. Religion means to worship a God, and that "devotion" will be there everywhere in the world. But I don't see that as better or equal to the teachings of Vaishnava acharyas. When our acharyas refused to accept truth in Advaita, Buddhism, Jainism, Zaorastrianism, Karma-Mimamsa, Shakta, Saurya, Ganapatya, Yoga-darshana, and even Gaudiya Vaishnava Babajis in Vrindavan, I won't honestly think that Christianity is Vaishnavism. And we allow the offensive Hindus to disagree with the Vaishnavas, and the offensive Hare Krishna's to disagree with Sai Baba followers, and the offensive Swaminarayan followers to disagree with the Chaitanya followers, and the offensive Chaitanya followers to disagree with the Madhva followers, and the offensive Madhva followers to disagree with the Prabhupada followers, and the offensive Babaji followers to disagree with the Bhaktisiddhanta followers, and the list goes on forever. Philosophical disagreement is going to exist on a forum for religious discussion. No two religions are going to agree with each other. Even the "all religions are good" people don't agree when their beliefs are disagreed with. You can't have a religious forum without someone being offended. Raghu will complain that the moderator's are partial against him and deleting half his posts, and you will complain that the moderators are partial to him and allowing his "offensive" posts to remain. Neither side will be happy, but thats what happens in a multi-religious forum - and thats why such forums don't really exist on the net without massive moderation. As far as my views being the same as Raghu's, I doubt he would agree. I can appreciate the value of Christianity and all religions without trying to say they are actually following my religion. I see value in the teachings of Christ, and I can appreciate what the good Christians do in the world (minus the conversion and wars and stuff). Likewise I can see the evil in what some bad Hindus do. I am not attached to which religion they come from, but what actions they perform.

This is a good point. It cannot be that anyone in the world who worships "God" is worshipping Krishna by another name. If that were true then those who worshipped Shiva as "the supreme person" were actually Vaishnavas worshipping Krishna by another name. And those that worship Kartikeyya (Muruga) as the Supreme Person are also actually Vaishnava's worshipping Krishna by another name. There are in fact sects that accept Kartikeyya, or Shiva, or Durga as the Supreme Personality of Godhead - with their own versions of Vaikuntha, bhakti and eternal life. Now why are those people ridiculed by our Vaishnava acharyas, but we feel if you belong to any non-Vedic religion then you are "also worshipping Krishna". It doesn't matter that you eat cows, or that your religion has no concept of the soul, or that your religion curses other religions including Vaishnavism, or that in some religions the founders would kill all of you and break your temples if they were alive today. None of that matters... they are all Vaishnavas. But those who worship Shiva as the supreme personality of Godhead and follow Vedic culture, protect and worship the cow, etc., are demoniac mayavadis or whatever. There is an obvious double standard, which is, if you happen to worship a non-Vedic "God" then it can be Krishna by another name, but if you worship any of the Vedic gods as supreme, he isn't the same one supreme God.

The problem here is a westerner, Bhaktarupa Das, without having properly studied jyotisha, has created a new bizarre system of setting the lengths for the divisions of the day (muhurtas). No astrologer in India follows this made up system, so why make it up? As a result, ISKCON ekadashis have often been one day off from the Gaudiya Math and the rest of Indian Hindus, which is really embarassing for a temple.

But Christianity today universally accepts the old testament as the word of God. So it seems you are basically agreeing with Raghu that 99% of all Christians in the world follow a fake religion, as their religion in based on the old testiment. Also when you say you don't believe in the old testiment you are basically agreeing with Raghu that the bible is corrupted. The only difference in opinion seems to be the degree. He feels there is nothing valid, and you feel there are some things valid in the bible. As far as I am aware (and I could be uninformed) there are no well known Christian groups that only accept the new testiment. Indra is not God, nor a perfect being. So there is no comparison. You would have to cite cases of Vishnu acting cruelly in order for there to be a valid comparison.

I don't see them as contradictory. What we generally interact with is the world as described by National Geographic. The description of the universe in the Bhagavatam is a higher world view which needs to be interpretted and understood from another angle of vision.

Football (soccer) seems to be big in West Bengal. As far as health goes, its a better sport than cricket because everyone is constantly running and involved. But it will probably never catch on in India.

According to the Puranas the world has existed for billions of years and life has existed from the beginning. The presence of that life on earth is constantly going through cycles of manifestation and extinction through "pralayas", cyclic periods of cosmic destruction. These periods of destruction occur in varying degrees at the following times: 1) Change of each yuga (minor pralaya) 2) Change of chatur-yuga (larger pralaya) 3) End of Brahma's day (1,000 chatur yugas), massive pralaya 4) End of the Brahma's life and destruction of the universe There are other periods of destruction as well.

The realization above is seeing "Krishna" everywhere. Generally, the advaitins see the impersonal absolute truth (Brahman) everywhere, and Krishna is considered a manifestation of that higher truth. The Vaishnava's understand that there is no truth superior to Krishna (mattah parataram nanyat - "there is nothing superior to Me").

Everyone in this world commits mistakes. A child learns to walk by first falling, and gradually after falling many times he can walk without falling. So in this world we all start our spiritual journey by falling many, many times. Gradually, like the child, we get the hang of things and learn to walk. Once you have learnt to walk, you shouldn't be concerned how many times you fell as a baby. You are already solidly on the spiritual path having taken shelter of Lord Krishna. You are trying to live a noble life, so there is no fault in you. Just continue to chant Krishna's names, because they burn up all sinful reactions that we may have due. Not only for this life, but for millions of lives we have all performed countless sinful actions knowingly or unknowingly. Do not be so concerned about one action in this life. Rather work to purify your accumulated karma from all of your previous lives and escape this cycle of samsara. Krishna is unlimitedly merciful, and as soon as you turn to Him, He guides you and protects you. Have faith that he will take care of you. Try to read the Bhagavad Gita a little bit every day. It will help you understand Krishna's love for you and clear any questions you have about your future.

I think if someone even just accepted Mahaprabhu as a great saint and followed his teachings to chant harinama he would still end up perfect. Divinity is revealed to those who chant Krishna's name. We shouldn't hold that as a prerequisite for people to become devotees.

Unfortunately most people even in India never get to taste the real rasagulas from Calcutta. Only in Calcutta will you find the special super soft giant rasagulas that will amaze you. All the other rasagulas in India and the west are quite rubbery and lousy. The difference is so drastic that it can't really be explained. I didn't like rasagulas at all till I had one in Calcutta. And I'm not talking about the K.C. Das canned rasagulas. Those are terrible.

Unfortunately the world doesn't run on the "aparadha" belief system. From the beginning of these forums I have made it clear that this is not a vaishnava only forum. As such we do not ban people based on some "aparadha" that they have committed towards "vaishnavas", or towards a particular religion. In the world people are going to disagree with you and your belief system. We all have to be mature enough to accept their right to disagree with our beliefs, even if we think it is a "vaishnava aparadha". On this forum there is no ban on vaishnava aparadha, as it is all a subjective opinion. One's person's vaishnava is another person's rascal (just put a follower of Sai Baba, Swaminarayan and Prabhupada together in the same thread). There are bans for offensive statements in general (nothing to do with whether one is a vaishnava or not), and that is a higher morality whether you are able to understand that or not. Regulating offensive statements is more objective then regulating "vaishnava aparadha". Its basically the same with religions. If one vaishnava has the right to say Sai Baba is a rascal, then the Sai Baba follower has the right to say the vaishnava is a rascal. Unless one person is willing to apply rules to their own religion and own faith, they cannot expect other religions to be censored just because it offends them. With that in mind, I do not moderate what you consider to be vaishnava aparadha, or insult to vaishnavism. For that one would need to go to a vaishnava only website or forum, which at present doesn't really exist.

To make what "ayurveda4uall" said more understandable: In Ayurveda the treatment doesnt just depend on the disease, but on your body's constitution. Each body is classified based on combinations of "mucus", "bile" and "air" constitutions. The medicine prescribed is related to your particular constitution. So two people may suffer from the same sickness but may be given different medicines.

I never said what is nice or not nice, I simply said I won't interfere as a moderator when someone criticizes my religion, my "vaishnavas" or myself. Those things don't bother me at all. I really don't get offended when a follower of Sai Baba says he doesn't like Prabhupada's teachings, or when a shaivite says he doesn't like Krishna being called supreme. Those are opinions that everyone has a right to have. But when someone wants to offend starving children in India by saying his son's classmates in Santa Cruz are less healthy then them, at that point I won't let that person be around here. A little philosophy is dangerous in the hands of a fool.

Adios amigo. You have offended those children here for the last time. You can offend me, you can offend my religion, and you can offend "the vaishnavas", but when you want to offend starving children get out of here and don't come back. You are a disgrace to the Vaishnava religion.

These new "7 wonders of the world" won't even last 200 years, being made from concrete. No comparison to the ancient one's which have stood for thousands of years.

There are gradations of poverty in India and the Adivasi tribals are at the bottom of the ladder. This is a documented fact. It doesn't mean the children at ekachakra aren't poor. But your claim that they are more poor than adivasi tribals isn't accurate. From an objective point of view the Adivasis are the poorest class in India. I have researched and worked against poverty in India for more than 10 years. I am sure you feel you know more, but I am equally certain I have studied the details of poverty in India more than you. I am sorry if that hurts you. I don't say it to try to make your opinion lesser. It is just that it is inaccurate and there are studies that have been done that prove this. Poverty is everywhere in India, but even in that poverty there are gradations. For example those who are facing starvation are worse off than those who are just poor. Those who are illiterate are worse off then those who are studying in government schools, etc.