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Murali_Mohan_das

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Posts posted by Murali_Mohan_das


  1. JN's arrogance is plain to see for all. Clearly he has some delusions of grandeur.

     

     

    I don't doubt what you say actually. I don't feel I know more, but I feel I know something also. I do agree with everything you wrote in this last post. No need to get defensive.

    But I still think you should have some harinams in addition to toy giving. It is so satisfying to see smiles in the faces of these kids, isn't it?

    Hare Krishna and Jai Nitai

    indulekhadasi


  2. I don't see anything in the quote from Thakur Bhaktivinoda about buying toys for "starving" kids. You may think those kids are starving, but I can say, just from the pictures, they look a lot healthier than a lot of my children's classmates.

     

    BhaktiK Maharaj. I'm sorry if I have offended you. I have heard about your Republican, conservative viewpoints. I'm sorry if I don't share them.

     

    If I were to go to India to live in a mud hut, that would make me a poseur like JN Prabhu. I was born here. There is plenty of suffering here. Even *more* tragically, the people around me are suffering while believing that they are living the "good life".

     

    As for poverty, it's very relative isn't it? It has everything to do with how wealth is measured. I may make a comfortable salary (though I work for government and not private industry), but by the day before my next paycheck is due, I'm lucky if I still have $200 in my bank account. After paying for health care (which we almost never use), taxes, child care, auto insurance, food, rent, etc., there's almost nothing left.

     

    Who's rich and who's poor? Those who have a taste for the Holy Name are the richest of all.


  3. Is that the Vaishnava thing to do? What is my dharma? Would going to live in India be according to my dharma? It was my karma to be born here.

     

    *Everybody* who is not self-realized is suffering, whether they are rich or poor.

     

    After a full day's work (I *do* manage to get some work done between posts on Audarya), I go home and care for my kids. That's my dharma. I try to remind my kids that this material life is fleeting, and that true happiness isn't found in material objects, but in devotion and service to the Lord and the Vaishnavas.

     

    No doubt, I am an idiot, JN-ji, but that doesn't change the fact that buying toys for those kids does more for *you* than it does for them.

     

     

    Murali,

     

    Its time to put philosophy into practice. Take up the offer and go to India and work the fields. It will be a good learning experience. Without that all your words are simply rubbish. Anyone can sit and talk all day all sorts of philosophy on the INTERNET. Why not do what you say?


  4.  

    "Kids who include toys in their playtime are less imaginative than kids who do not have access to toys" have the tendency to be wrong, when such things are not based on evidence-based study.

     

    Your words, not mine. I'm saying that there's no inherent *benefit* over playing with sticks, coconut shells and mud to playing with flimsy Chinese made toys. That's all I'm saying.

     

    If we want to pat ourselves on the back for getting the kids some plastic toys, I guess it's no big deal. Sorry for making such a stink (though JN's response was revelatory, I believe).


  5.  

    Then you missed the entire point of the discussion as it is about right and wrong - not about usefulness or uselessness.

     

    I see theist is still sticking to his custom (secret dictionary) definition of Vaishnava and GHari is doing his usual thing. So what else is new?

     

    Cheers

     

    As if any of us know right from wrong? Puh-lease!!!

     

    Just a bunch of blind men describing the elephant.


  6.  

    Even the regular wealthy non tribals in Orissa have a life expectancy of just 57.6 years. Keep imagining that everyone is smiling here and the Americans are really the one's suffering.

     

    No doubt 1,000 years of Mughal rule and close to 100 of British rule had nothing to do with the plight of the people there today. Haven't they suffered enough at the hands of the imperialists?

     

    If you could stop sputtering in indignation for a moment, you might realize that I never said the kids need *no* education, nor did I say they ought to work day and night. I said working is often good for people and plastic toys are often *not* good for them.


  7.  

    Sure, its very funny. I don't have the patience to do it, if you want extensive literature on this subject , i suggest you contact someone who does this research or go google it or something. Peace!:sleep:

     

    Just like speculating that soma is a mushroom, much of what scientists think they know about human development is biased speculation.

     

    Well, I *have* come across some interesting information. The scientists in whom you seem to place so much trust didn't think that women's brains were any different from men's brains until about 15 years ago. They just assumed that they were the same.

     

    Here's something I had posted on another forum:

     

    ***

    Transcribed by hand from "The Female Brain" (page 2) by Louann Brizendine, M.D. (neuropsychiatrist at UCSF, former faculty member at Harvard Medical School, and graduate of the Yale University School of Medicine and UC Berkeley):

    "Until the 1990s, researchers paid little attention to female physiology, neuroanatomy, or psychology separate from that of men. I saw this oversight firsthand during my undergraduate years in neurobiology at Berkeley in the 1970s, during my medical education at Yale, and during my training in psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center at Harvard Medical School. While enrolled at each of these institutions, I learned little or nothing about female biological or neurological difference outside of pregnancy. When a professor presented a study about animal behavior one day at Yale, I raised my hand and asked what the research findings were for females in that study. The male professor dismissed my question, stating, 'We never use females in these studies--their menstrual cycle would just mess up the data.'

    The little research that was available, however, suggested that the brain differences, though subtle, were profound."


  8.  

    It is not a philosophy, it is modern medical science. It is up to you if you agree or not, the research and evidence supporting this science is overwhemling whether you agree or not.

    Also, suicide, autism, depression and drug abuse are more rampant in countries like India than here. The media is more prevalent here, so you hear about it more often in the news.

     

    That's good for a laugh! Can you present some citations in support of that?


  9.  

    Please see my earlier point where their brains are still growing and they are unable to process the information like an adult. therefore, it is best to let them develop and face the dissapointment when they are fully prepared for it.

     

    I don't buy that crap. People follow that philosophy in the West and look what's happening. Skyrocketing rates of teen suicide, autism, depression, drug abuse--how many grammar-school kids are on speed (Ritalin) right now? That philosophy simply does not work.

     

    Sorry BhaktiK-ji, I'm too emotionally-charged over this issue. I'm trying to back away--really I am.


  10.  

    Donate the extra toys. or better choice would be to make them donate their toys. Teach them about compassion for those who are less fortunate, turn it into a lesson in itself.

     

    I brought five 30 gallon trash bags to the Goodwill to donate--they would take them!!!! They are no longer taking toy donations because of the danger of lead contamination. So many of the toys from China have proven to be lead contaminated, that they want nothing to do with them.

     

    The toys are going into the landfill.


  11. OK, Prabhu. I'll back off. No doubt, I have a lot to learn about suffering.

     

     

    Murali I suggest you back off

     

    You made a few useful points and yes Chinese toys are not that good for anyone's soul

     

    But JNDas is definitely on the right track here. Those kids life is far removed from the frames of reference people live within in the West. A simple gift like a toy can really bring an overwhelming feeling of joy into their life

     

    When you haven't been to Orissa or rural Bengal or Kolkata and you haven't experienced the emptiness and futility of life that so many children are experiencing every day, then just be glad that someone else is doing something to help those little kids. I've studied the faces of little children living under the arches of Howrah bridge in Kolkata and I've given money to poor people, including men whose legs were amputated after road accidents, and I didn't give because I want to stroke my ego but because my heart told me I MUST GIVE. I've no doubt JNDas is sincere in what he's doing. Repect him for that. Even if you do happen to disagree (as I do) with his other beliefs.


  12.  

    I will take their word on what makes them happy over your word any day of my life. Your opinion as to what makes them happy has no value.

     

    My kids tell me that having ice cream for dinner will make them happy.

     

     

    These children had never touched a toy before in their life. They get to see all the non tribals playing with modern toys, and they naturally wish they could play with them. Once in their life let them enjoy themselves with a toy without some liberal wanna-be hippy in silicon valley telling them what will ACTUALLY make them happy.

     

    You're funny, Jahnava Nitai Prabhu. Yeah, I guess you have me pegged--wanna-be hippie, pining for my Dad's glory years. I'll refrain from saying what you appear to be.

     

     

    And your opinions that they really don't need education, and they really don't need to learn to read, and they really should go work in the fields instead of going to school, and they really should be learning the hard lessons of life can be kept for your family. Show your own family your kindness.

     

    Now, you're putting words in my mouth. I don't think anybody appreciates when somebody does that to them.

     

    "Need" is a very relative term. I didn't say that anybody "needs" or doesn't need education. I said that having an education doesn't make anybody better than somebody who is not educated.

     

    What is the rate of Alzheimer's disease in those villagers? Do any of them even know what it is? It's killing hundreds of thousands of Americans per year. You say they are starving, but haven't you heard that people who go through periods of hunger tend to live *longer*, healthier lives than people who gorge themselves on hamburgers and french fries every day?


  13. Most of the truly useful skills I myself use on a daily basis, I didn't learn in school--I learned them on the job. If anything, school was a set of hoops to jump through to prove to some manager that I'm capable of learning.

     

    As for buying toys for my children, I try *not* to do it. It's everybody else that keeps buying them the crap. I try to get them to get *rid* of as many toys as I can.


  14.  

    Just *why* should kids be going to school and playing games rather than working?"

     

    That is the most idiotic statement I have ever heard, and your replies have just reinforced that impression.

     

    Working/education is a false distinction. People learn by working. In the Western tradition, before "high schools" and "Universities" became mandatory for the middle classes, there was a tradition of *apprenticeship*. Children learned by *working* alongside craftspeople.

     

    Why do you feel so insulted by my questions? Have I called you an "idiot"? I'm questioning your motivations, and you provide no answers, just abuse hurled at me.

     

    Just why do you feel such an overwhelming need to buy toys for kids that were perfectly happy playing with mud and coconuts?


  15.  

    You will have to do better. Point out where he made such a statement. If he made such a statement, he would be an idiot for writing something that he knew was imperfect wasting his time and everyone else's time.

     

    And just for your information the context is your christian friends are claiming part of the bible is false and part if it is correct based on no evidence other than their own intelligence.

     

    You chide me for not reading carefully?

     

    Did you miss this:

     

     

    SB 1.5.11: On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc., of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world's misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.

     

    I believe it was Narada Muni who was speaking these words.

     

    As for "false" and "correct", I don't really care for those designations so much. I'm more interested in useful and useless. For instance, I find much of what HerServant, gHari, and Theist say to be useful, while almost everything you've written is useless.


  16.  

    He was writing about third world children who are dying of starvation. And that is really sickening in my view.

     

    To quote Sting, "One world is enough, for all of us".

     

    What's this "third world" crap? Jiva-souls are jiva souls. We're all living out our karma, both good and bad. Why get all sentimental about it?


  17. I'm not saying kids should be deprived of education. I'm saying that education does not, in and of itself, improve anybody's life in any significant manner. It's what people *do* with their education that makes a difference.

     

    I'm also not saying the kids ought to be slaving away in the fields from sunrise to sunset, but how is watching TV and playing video games all day any better?

     

    In your efforts to come across as kind, considerate, and compassionate, JN-ji, you end up coming across as smug, superior and condescending, to me, and to the people you profess to be trying to help.


  18. Here's an e-mail exchange with a friend on this topic. She's sympathetic to what JN Prabhu is trying to do. I think he's well-intentioned, but doubt the value of his gesture.

     

    ***

     

    Good points...I'm tempted to quote you (anonymously) on the thread I started on Audarya. May I?

     

    The key, to me, is being able to maintain one's sense of wonder *throughout* life, no matter *what* one eventually comes to see in the way of horrors and unpleasantness.

     

     

    On Feb 12, 2008 11:57 AM, XXXXXXXXXX wrote:

    hmmm...that's a really nice picture of the kid with the coconut shell.

    i think the point they are making is that childhood is very special. as they say, these kids may have been robbed of their childhood...i think having a period of time with no worries, just games, is something a child's psyche needs, as it matures.

    i don;t think these kids have seen images of toys- it mentions they were stunned etc...- but kids in the U.S. feel deprived if they don't have what they see other children playing with...that's the main issue. perhaps home-schooled kids, who rarely play with others, with little access to TV, wouldn't crave toys from factories.

    but poverty is really interesting, in that young kids don't really realize they are poor...if their parents tell them constantly they are poor and they worry and cry, of course they are then worried (and maybe ashamed) too.

    i think quantity is the issue. moderation has gone out the window. the amount of toys and clothes kids have these days in the U.S. is totally shocking to me. i was honestly happy with my brother with a handful of toys...and mostly using found objects to create little fantasy towns in our home and in the park...we never expected to be given anything except for a gift on our birthday or xmas. we made our own toys and it was fun.

    i think there's plenty of time and plenty of tragedy for kids to realize what the world is like...there's no need to speed things along to show them crushing disappointment. i think their minds need a period of wonderment and bliss...so they can have some hope for their futures. my bliss bubble popped when my parents split up when i was 13, i remember being so carefree before then, i appreciate feeling that carefree back then, because no matter how hard it is these days to forget my worries...when i am staring at the ocean...that's what i tap into....i can totally feel what that was like back then....it was amazing.

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