gHari

They're all nuts; loony God-boy religious zealots. How 'bout them Leafs!

I heard in the early 70's from some fellow dopers that Paul was the heart, John was the mind, George was the soul and Ringo was the body. The pipe concluded that was the perfect combination, accounting for their unprecedented success. [This message has been edited by gHari (edited 05-18-2002).]

We first heard of this study about a year ago on one of these forums. The same joke was atop the list then too. At that time they were rating the Germans as having the greatest sense of humour. Go figure.

Gauracandra Prabhu, Please remember that your first and foremost duty is to the Fellowship. I am sure your employer will understand that. We are becoming very jealous of these nights you are claiming to spend at work. And watch out; if Krsna becomes jealous too, He will likely take the job away. The Wives

Wow! If only the pentagon could convince brilliant God freaks like dasa to work for them, there would bee no jihad menace blackening the earth right now.

To combat this, the pentagon has developed bee-seeking bombs.

I'm going to wear a crash helmet just in case.

Of course. I see now. I must have seen some of that other stuff. My tolerance for pompous doubts is at an all-time low; now I'm even nuking the innocent. Sorry about the fallout. Something in my heart suggests that speculating about anything being above the Vedas is walking on pretty thin ice. Who knows the Vedas well enough to make such a brash postulation?

Jagat Prabhu, I like it when you get so enthused about a topic. Your posts become very wonderful and filled with wisdom. I might think, however, that a kripa-siddha would most humbly declare that he/she is a devotee. Otherwise, they would thanklessly be looking down upon the special mercy Sri Krsna has somehow afforded them, and down upon Sri Krsna Himself. I think the kripa-siddha would spend most of the rest of their life in absolute disbelief that such fortune has befallen them. Their left-over lives may not be pure like a polished sadhana sadhaka, but in their hearts they could not abandon their absolute indebtedness to Sri Krsna. Certainly they would be very humble, for indeed sincerity manifesting as humility and greed was their only qualification to attract Krsna's mercy. But deep inside, they can be nothing other than a devotee of Sri Krsna, as a diamond in a mud puddle can be nothing but a diamond, despite appearances. This was a tangent, but perhaps I can add something from another angle to the initiation topic. It is said that Brahman realization corresponds to sat realization, whereas Paramatma realization adds cit realization, and finally Bhagavan realization completes it with ananda. Sat-cit-ananda, our real nature. It is further said that the spiritual master is the external manifestation of Paramatma. Might we conclude that sat and cit are added to the devotee upon initiation? I have heard other sampradayas speak something of the cit passed to the initiate as part of the initiation process. This idea may dovetail with the quote from Jiva Goswami presented earlier: "'Because it bestows divine knowledge and destroys sin, it is called diksha by the learned scholars. Therefore one should humble himself before the guru, offer him all his wealth and take the Vaishnava mantra from him through the authorized process of initiation.'(66)" gHari

Asking this question suggests to me that Gaudiya Vaishnavism's understanding of the Vedas is superior to ours. No Gaudiya would ask this question, but then I would never ask "Is Sri Vaishnavism Superior to the Vedas ?", since who am I to conclude either way?

Islam has now destroyed itself. No sensible person on the planet will consider switching to this religion, and as a religion it offers nothing that Christianity doesn't. Were it not for its demonic force it would have died eons ago. Now it will die; or be killed. The modern world will not tolerate jihad anywhere. The desert will be nuked if necessary to save humanity from this plague. The jihadists in Pakistan have said in their statement of purpose that they will rid India of all non-Muslim religion. However, modern India is ready to stop all further Muslim atrocities. The Ram temple is only the beginning of the backlash of the hatred India holds towards the demonic past of the Muslim hordes. I expect to see the entire world unite to destroy all the jihad sentiments currently seething in Pakistan over the next few years. No Muslim in the world will be safe if the terror continues. They will all be sent back to the desert to await the bomb. Islam is dead.

Perhaps the question should be asked of those who are initiated: what effect did initiation have? Was there an immediate transcendental influx of cit? Was there a blinding light? Did japa suddenly become ecstatic, offenseless? Were all material desires vanquished? Bliss? A complete loss of anxiety? Unbearable happiness? You became situated in the atma? You got a new name? Perhaps the effect is different for everyone depending on their current level of delusion. After all, we have likely been trying for many lifetimes; and who knows who our last master was or to what level of realisation we were able to rise. Who knows what our next step is? Has our last guru returned? Does it matter, if guru is one? The seer of the truth can cut the knots that bind us. Then let us seek his help to the best of our ability; now, before he leaves us, like Srila Prabhupada did.

Sashi, I am Canadian too, eh. That's how I can understand Jagat's humour and the colours of his devotion when he's out and about. So, I was trying to be humorous, knowing he was either talking Inuit or Bengali or Hindi or Urdu or some language that you could understand.

There goes Jagat again, writing in Canadian.

So we seem to be salivating every time the bell rings? Kill the conditioning. Sublimate; create something - those juices are not just for creating progeny. One might try to rationalize all the pushings, but that is not tapasya. The mind is either our friend or enemy. Sex is really just disgusting.

Dasa, out of the 70,000 who have seen those super adventures, you and I are likely the only fans who can vote. Let's hope the kids take Johnnie's advice and seek the Path always; their lives will be miraculous! SK8 OM <img src=http://www.globalserve.net/~anni/superBIO17.gif width=555 height=500>

I liked them; I give the gallery a "cool" rating. Especially liked the Tied Down sculpture. Perhaps the Goswami is encouraging us all to paint. It was certainly more presentable than my Chaitya Guru cartoon skateboarding superhero series.

It's Canadian, not French. "Cheque" is Canadian for "check".

I have seen repeatedly the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into $8,896.66 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week. That's a mere $24.24 a day! Just over a dollar an hour. Still, you might think the best financial advice says don't have children if you want to be "rich." It is just the opposite. What do your get for your $160,140? Naming rights? First, middle, and last! Glimpses of God every day. Giggles under the covers every night. More love than your heart can hold. Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies. A hand to hold, usually covered with jam. A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sandcastles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain. Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day. For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch lightning bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus. You have an excuse to keep: reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies, and wishing on stars. You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day. For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, filling a wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless. You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel. You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match. In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

Fun knee.

More MP3 files: http://www.chantandbehappy.com/prabhupada/index.html

Raga, I see the purport to the purport as follows. Time - past, present and future which we cherish so in this world are not present in the spiritual world; everything there is experienced in the ever present. From one vantage point, our intellect who thinks in terms of past, present and future, a fall is perceived from there to here and back again, back to Godhead. However, from the other vantage point, which is eternal, in the eternal present, there is no fall, just here and now. Perhaps it is this second observing platform that is described by Srila Prabhupada in this Crow and Tal-Fruit letter. So sometimes the acaryas speak from each vantage point. Perhaps to fully understand this topic one must look at it from both vantage points. Maybe that is why Jaiva Dharma recommends that we wait for a stronger taste of this higher platform so we can truly understand things as they are: [from Jaiva Dharma Chapter 15 - "Deliberations on the Origin of the Soul ]" It almost seems that in those last two sentences, the Babaji is giving us the same advice: never mind about your origin. Wait for the chit to reveal that esoteric truth. From here I say it is round. From there he says it is triangular. We are both correct, since it is actually a cone. Both seemingly paradoxical perceptions were required to describe the true nature of the cone. gHari

The question on the table is The chanting of the Holy Names of God purifies the atmosphere. Even the plants and animals are benedicted. There is an urgent need to purify the atmosphere. Each of us can do our little part, until the whole planet can awaken to its relationship with Sri Krsna, the All in All, the only show in town. Lord Jesus told us to love God. But we needed more help, for our natural affection for Krsna was too covered. Now Lord Caitanya tells us how, wrapping the planet in a garland of the Holy Name. The world would be truly lost without Lord Caitanya. He summarizes it all Himself in His Siksastaka. We saw how Srila Prabhupada would encourage all religions to chant God's names, whether it be using the Mahamantra or simply their own revealed names of God. Glorifying God's names is the essence of the mission of Sri Caitanya. There is a reason it is known as the dharma of this age: there is no other way - there is no other way - there is no other way!

In one of my astronomy courses in the late sixties they were already professing that the Big-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bhang! theory is what really happens. It all confirms that science is all but laughable. It is unfortunate the way our arrogant minds trivialize it all, so we neglect the inconceivable nature of it all and then become bedazzled with mundane earthly affairs as though this world of concrete and pavement were the all-in-all.

No. We do not leave it up to the reader to decide. We accept the conclusion of Srila Prabhupada: "never mind what is your origin." That is his final conclusion on the subject. We still see the moon on the branch. Jaiva-dharma recommends not trying to understand the movement of the big fish (marginal jiva) from bank to bank until our cit is great enough. When we can see the moon in its true position, then it will be clear. Trivializing Sri Krsna to fit Him into our ego's intellect will continue to keep us far away from Him. The moon will remain on the branch, and our true selves will not be satisfied.