Murali_Mohan_das

A couple years ago, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada who is an astrologer was visiting the area with his Irish wife. She told us that her very wealthy father had paid $100,000 for a week-long meditation seminar with the Maharishi. When he and the other wealthy folk arrived, they found that they were being quartered in shipping containers and that the Maharishi wasn't even physically-present at the retreat--he appeared via closed-circuit TV. The Dad was quite peeved, but I found the situation to be hillarious!!

Didn't Srila Prabhupada himself say that many folks do not value something that is freely given? The Maharishi may have been an "uptown" Swami, but don't the (snobbishly) rich need spiritual nourishment as well?

Srila Gurudev, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, has arrived in Mauritius after visiting the devotees in Thailand, and Malaysia. http://www.verandaviews.com/grfx_inuse/0801_03_photopage_all/080206_photopage/source/20080204-dsc_0041.htm For info about the Mauritius leg of the 24th World Tour, contact: Jai Gurudev!!

"And life flows on within you and without you." --The Beatles

Note this key quote from the passage Beggar has presented: We accept the mantra only to help the nama-bhajana, the worship of the holy name. Otherwise, it may not be necessary at all. It has been judged in such a way. The name alone can do everything for a person. lt is full and complete. The mantra helps us to do away with the aparadhas, offenses, and the abhasa, or hazy conceptions in our bhajana. The mantra comes to help us only so far.

Brahma Gayatri (spelled differently than I've seen it). In the Gaudiya tradition, *in addition* to Brahma Gayatri, there is Guru Gayatri, Gaura Gayatri and Kama Gayatri. What does Brahma Gayatri mean to you?

I don't know much of anything about Sai Baba, personally, but, if you see your friend being duped by a charlatan, will you warn your friend, or will you let them be duped? As for Srila Prabhupada's departure, why not see it as Sri Krishna bringing him home after so many years of giving his heart and soul--his blood, sweat and tears for distributing the mercy of Mahaprabhu?

Also, there is more than one Gayatri mantra.

Why either or? Why not both! Does it really matter which is more powerful? Chant both of them (assuming you get Gayatri from a proper source).

Sripad Pusta Krishna Prabhu, prominent disciple of and one of the secretaries of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, discusses how we can view the less joyous of life's occurrences, in light of a recent "wave" of unfortunate incidents involving current and former Ashram residents. While the beginning of this talk (5 to 10 minutes) was not captured due to the director's late arrival (which was unrelated to the Superbowl), there is much of substance in what was recorded. Embedded: <embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=3487262613275880602&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed> Link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3487262613275880602

Those are good questions. Of course, you know how I feel about overreliance on books. That's not to say that I spend enough time reading shastra--no doubt I'd benefit from doing more reading.

I see the significant differences. Is there a problem? Would you prefer that the unedited transcript be published?

I believe so. That, and, as krishnaleela suggested, see everything coming to us as being the Grace (or mercy) of the Lord. Of course, it is said that we don't rise, but rather, we are lifted.

Thanks, suchandra, for the clarification. Truly, we are lost without good association.

Perspective?

O.K., I'll try to wade through it (dictionary in hand) when I've got the gumption. I think Popeye the Sailor Man did a pretty good job of summarizing Vedic thought.

Sigh!! The utterances of the pure devotee *are* scripture, more pure than any mis-copied, mis-translated, and mis-interpreted words on paper. Your assumption that a person is "arbitrarily designated as a 'pure devotee'" is disingenuous.

Nice thread. The original article is well-written and even anticipates the unease that it generates in me. I watch very little TV, though lately, I've been on a movie (home video) kick. In fact, in college, I did an installation art piece (inspired by a "kill your TV" installation on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley) where I recorded a half-hour long monologue from the perspective of the TV--similar to the one theist wrote--about how people can let their TV's do the thinking for them, raise their children, etc. In the background were sound effects and TV show theme music. This sound played from behind a TV with a smashed screen and a "bouquet" of jagged metal (from a discarded window blind) justting out from the front of it. On the other hand, as I was moving my father out of his L.A. apartment, one year after he had entered a period of deep depression, where he had been watching TV for up to 20 hours a day and hardly sleeping, I realized that there was a picture (a big poster, actually) of Sri Krishna up on the wall above the TV. I realized that, indirectly, my father had been meditating on the Lord while watching all of the horrors on the boob-tube. That thought was somewhat comforting.

Of course, the Lord can bless anyone as He sees fit. Sincerity is the greatest wealth. The question isn't: do we only need to read books? The question is: why would somebody not avail themselves of the personal association of the sadhus?

There's no way I'm a Vaishnava, then. I guess my body is pretty clean most of the time, but my house is a mess. That's as close as I get. Of course, these qualities all remind me of Srila Gurudev. Maybe they'll start to rub off on me.

Thanks for the additional insight, HerServant!

Why is it that threads about offense always end up as offense-fests? Let's think of this another way, shall we? Think of karma. Sri Krishna certainly mentions karma in the Bhagavad Gita. The word "offense" is a loaded one, since it implies all sorts of value judgements, doesn't it? So, let's put aside "offense" for a moment and consider karma--action and reaction. The action of harming *anybody* (but, especially a pure devotee) will cause some "negative" reaction, won't it (if karma is, indeed, a universal law of nature)? On the absolute level, certainly, Sri Krishna is infinite, and any minute action that we do here (which is still assuming that *we* are acting (which is an illusion of sorts), and not Sri Krishna) can in no way negatively affect Him. On the relative plane, on which we live, if we "offend" the Vaishnava--that is, if we defame or harm the Vaishnava, some reaction--unpleasant, perhaps--will come to us. I hope that helps.

Good question. I'm sure Beggar will be posting an appropriate quote from Srila Sridhar Maharaja in a few moments. The Vaishnava won't personally take offense, but the Vaishnava also will not stand by while another Vaishnava is being offended.

Yep. When people complain about overpopulation, I scoff at that. The problem is not overpopulation. The problem is population density (in certain areas) and over-consumption. Those of us who are piggish westerners cannot continue to live our horrifically wasteful and indulgent lifestyles. There's plenty of open space--why are most of our cities built on prime agricultural land?

None that will satisfy the rationalist/materialist. There are plenty of answers for the surrendered/faithful.