brajeshwara das

Yeah, I understand the whole mad cow disease, but the fact they have to advertise the cows they feed people were vegetarians is just incredible!

Can anyone else tell how they have dealt with this sort of thing and lessons learned? I think of Queen Kunti and the hardships of the Pandavas and of course this is minor in comparison. Just wanting to lear the best lessons from this.

Saddened to here this news. It must be awful for them to feel they have been invaded in this way. A difficult time for them for sure.

 

Just now I have finished watching the nightly news. Here in Melbourne thieves broke into an elderly 84 year old gentlemans house. Stole a couple of hundred dollars worth of things...then burnt the house up. The elderly gentleman (not wealthy) lost all his possessions including his treasured photos of his deceased wife and son. And his simple home.

Yes, but some debt has been paid, and some mercy is there if they can find it. I hope we can rejoice over this someday as fortune instead. They are Chinese and this happened right after the New Year, it is probably particularly inauspicious to them. Two other homes in as many days were robbed in the same complex, targeting Chinese since they keep a lot of money at home. My mother in law is very poor but frugal and helped us buy our home. If she hadn't that money likely would have been stolen as well.

Dayal Nitai, may we all escape this world and sing the names of the Lord together.

My inlaws' home was burglarized this evening, my wife is understandably shaken, not from the loss of property (including her wedding ring) but the invasion. I'm not disturbed, but I'm afraid my condolences are too detached for this emotional time for her and her family.

I found this by Srila Swami Maharaj:

There is a Bengali proverb that how God works, that one man, a householder is praying to God, "My dear Lord, there may not be any theft case, burglary, in my home this night. Please save me." So one man is praying prayer, praying like that. Another man is praying, the thief, "My dear Lord, this night I shall commit burglary in that house. Please help me to get something." Now, what is Kṛṣṇa's position? (laughter) Kṛṣṇa is everyone's heart. So Kṛṣṇa has to satisfy so many prayers. The burglar and the thief and the householder, so many prayers. So Kṛṣṇa's adjustment... But He's still... That is Kṛṣṇa's intelligence, how He adjusts. He gives everyone freedom. And everyone is given facilities, but still He's in botheration. Therefore Kṛṣṇa advises to his devotees that "Don't plan anything. You rascal, you nonsense, you don't give Me trouble. (laughter) Please surrender unto Me. Just go under My plan; you'll be happy. You are making plan, you are unhappy; I am also unhappy. I am also unhappy. (laughter) So many plans are coming daily, and I'll have to fulfill." But He's merciful. If a... Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs... [bg. 4.11].

It was funny that all yesterday and today I have been thinking of Jesus' teaching not to build your treasure on Earth where moths and dust corrupt, and theives break through and steal, but to build your treasure in the Kingdom of God. Then tonight there was a burglary where they broke all the material possesions of her materially poor family, ripped up all the furniture and every treasure was touched and stolen. My thinking turned to the Kingdom of God to give them comfort. I hope they can appreciate that. It feels like Guru had been preparing me for this, so much mercy is here, I just need to find the way to share it. Any advice is welcome.

A fewmovies I watched as a bramachari:

Bicentenial Man - Robin Williams is a robot with a heart, where he tries to become human and evolve over time. At the end of the movie he is finally really human because he is biologically recognized by humans as human. My Godbrother and I walked away thinking these people know nothing, the key is that he was conscious and that was above being human. That consciousness came from somewhere, where was that? It was never explored in the movie. It could have been a really deep movie but instead was a body-worshiping fairy tale. Pinochio for the modern age. Arthur C Clarke was the auther, or maybe Iassic Asminov, I forget.

The Matrix - really cool, reality is not what you think it is, everything is an illurion, you are a slave to the illusion, you must fight to be free. Once free you have to serve the highest good and free others from the illusion. You have to become a slave to the highest good, or ultimately the forces of illusion will kill you. There is the guy who would rather go back to the illusion because he would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. I was very impressed by this at the time, I thought it was a great way to relate Vaisnava concepts to a modern society that didn't have the 'ears to hear' without special effects and 5.1 surround sound.

Star Wars - Attack of the Clones - After an exhaustive sankirtan road trip vending food at a bluergrass festival, we went to see this, and though I have no real insight beyond the Guru/disciple relationships, ksatriya system, they did sport sikhas which we got a great kick out of, and Jar Jar reminded me of myself as a dreaddy hippy.

Yeah, Karna had a worm bore through his leg and didn't cry out lest to wake his Guru, or so I recall. That's the ksatriya mood, no?

braj, That old iskcon trip has been around for decades. It leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth even if they can pony up for the book. Something about making someone think you are giving them a gift as a way to obligate them into paying for it that really does turn everyone off.

Yeah, but I'm finding the environment very friendly, I just need to try and see Krsna there, playing tricks on me and teaching me lessons, even when they are what not to do. Maybe those are the most important lessons of all. I'm sure that prabhu was honestly trying to serve. It makes me think in a way of Srila Sridhar Maharaj's interpretation of Judas and Christ (not saying the devotee was a judas at all):

Srila Guru Maharaj: Do you know of Judas in the Christian

teachings?

Disciple: Yes, he betrayed Jesus.

Srila Guru Maharaj: When Jesus was praying in the garden before

his crucifixion, Judas approached him with the scribes and priests in

order to betray him, identifying that Messiah with a kiss. Suddenly,

Jesus cast his glance towards Judas in such an impressive way – he

penetrated Judas. And Judas thought to himself, “I am caught, I shall

be responsible for Jesus Christ’s demise,” but still Jesus’ vision to me

was something more like: “I am exploiting you Judas. It is not that

you are exploiting me, rather I am utilising you as a traitor to show the

greatness of my life to the future world.”

Jesus has already said (at his last supper), “Amongst these

twelve disciples one will betray me.” He knew. Judas had been there

then and Jesus had cast his glance towards Judas. Then later, when

Judas came with the soldiers and scribes to the garden of Gethsemene

to capture him, Jesus had cast his glance towards Judas once again and

was thinking, “You think you are exploiting me for some money but I

am exploiting you for eternity. You have to stand out as a sinful

person against me, I knew you were a traitor, but I did not disclose

you. I still took you within my group of followers knowing full well

that I am exploiting you.” The look of Jesus was like that.

Judas was crazed. He threw away the sack of silver. He ran to

the authorities and said, “I have committed the worst sin, I cannot

tolerate it!”

Judas’ energy was drunk, his spirit was drawn. Just like in

Jujitsu, when someone attacks the opposition with great force, but the

opposition suddenly withdraws, causing the attacking person to fall on

their face – Judas found himself in that sort of position. Jesus was

exchanging love for betrayal. It was the sort of love that disarmed and

sent Judas mad. “I treated him so wickedly, yet his look is not one of

vindictiveness but of infinite gratitude. That sort of look Jesus cast

upon me.”

In the perfect vision, in the full-fledged consideration, every

atom is helping the Pastimes of Krishna. Whether it is direct or

indirect – and although it seems to be indirect at present – a deeper

vision will reveal that it is coming towards direct service.

I get it, I like it. loved them as a kid, still now. But irrelivent as usual from (?)

 

CB-r

I think theist was saying it is Bhakta and Bhakta, a little humor. You guys are a team, nearly twins in your preaching of daiva varnashram dharma (I'm resisting shortening it to DVD from here on out )

Whalerider:click here

 

is a good New Zealand movie. It deals with the traditional values handed down

in old cultures. Not so religious in it's context...but spiritual in it's own way. Highly recommend this film. Check out the clip in the website for preview. The young girl is brilliant in this film.

Yep, saw it, wonderful film!

Shoreline Amphitheater. I was there in 93. Very nice crowd, Awesome shows. I miss those days, footloose and fancy free spiritwalking around the PNW.

 

Talk about a community vibe, and the family are nomads. Its all in the attitude really.

There are so many Deadheads in my Math, I'm sure in ISKCON too. The community was great that it opened up to any idea that wasn't outright violent.

I did have one very bad experience though with a devotee on tour: I was at Star Lake in Pennsylvania 92 Summer tour, and a devotee came up to me and gave me a book, asked me if I would read it and I was very happy and said yes, of course, I would be honored. Then he asked for a donation. At the time I was begging literally for my own food, relying on the kindness of others just to exist. I was in a sort of agnostic renunciate trip, though I would work when necessary and didn't want to stop being ala mayavadis. I just wanted to dance with God at a Dead show. But the devotee took back the book, upset at me that I couldn't pay for it, and I was like 'man, he has no clue'. Ever since then I have always bought the books I would distribute from the temple and give them freely, and any donation that could be given was great. The books themselves are like the remnants of my purchase, and I just want the recipient to get the mercy. That prabhu I guess was used in Krsna's sevice in a way neither of us saw that day.

The Cup is a light and warm family movie:http://www.siddharthasintent.org/Pubs/Phorpa.htm

 

 

Yep, saw it, very nice. Reminded me of my bramachari days with our nonsense, they have soccer to sneak out for in this movie, I had Grateful Dead spinner dances

OK, I'm getting it, but can someone tell me how you can copy/paste from it with the diacritics intact? Is that possible?

Can anyone recommend any good transcendentally- focused movies? I know some will be totally opposed to the idea, but hey, I'm definitely not a surrendered soul and my wife wants to sit with me and watch a movie regularly. She isn't very inclined to spiritual life so I'd like some recommendations on movies that may be good just from a God-consciousness platform, to help open her heart up a bit. I doubt I'll get her to sit through a Hindi movie unless there is Bollywood-type dancing etc so please keepo that in mind.

Anyway, I know it is nonsense but you have to start somewhere. I had blooped out for a long time, gotten married to a woman that wasn't on that trip, and can't really impose Krishna Consciousness forcefully on her. She is a good person and just needs some gentle encouragement.

Ah, memories! I better be careful or I'll come back as a bird.

No, I will not reveal any more of my heart here. I have SEEN, thats all. Ask how Mahaksa SEES Prabhupada the way he has SEEN.

 

I have given to much that is then taken cheaply. I'm going to be a little more reserve in my posts, selective as it were.

 

I select to not reveal more.

 

 

CB-r

Sure, understood.

Well Sir, if you carefully read what I wrote and the context, you would see that he doesn't have a leg to stand on, and in this respect he was just looking for a place to proclaim his lofty intellectual understanding of Bhakti, in order to try and dilute the function of DVD in our minds, by claiming it to be inferior to Pure Bhakti, when that was never an issue, and a claim was never made that DVD trumps pure Bhakti, no innuendo or implication either.

 

Sorry Prabhu, I got what you and he were saying a bit mixed up:

"When a (Gaudiya) Vaishnava speaks of bhakti he means always shuddha bhakti" doesn’t say that unpure bhakti doesn’t exist, but

when speaking of unpure bhakti, the (Gaudiya) Vaishnava don’t say bhakti,

but he defines them as a type of unpure bhakti he speaks of, or

when a (Gaudiya) Vaishnava speaks of the definition of bhakti he refers to shuddha bhakti, otherwise he says explicitly what kind of impure bhakti he wants to speak of.

You'll notice this was what I thought he was saying, but it was a quote from you. This thread is getting too long to keep track of.

BTW, speaking of cults, the CC has many instances where it says 'The cult of Caitanya Mahaprabhu' and a swami I know would skip over the 'c' word when reading from the CC.

Well, that wasn't what I said, but it makes perfect sense as a logical consequence, so it is a nice insight.

Ah, ok. Then I'll wait on your CC quote then

Thank you for this beautiful image of the Divine Mother and Divine Fetus!

 

Mary's rapt ecstatic joyful loving exchange with Jesus is revealed in the mystery of the Annunciation!

 

"Regarding the Christian's Trinity, I believe it is called God, the Holy

Ghost, and the son. Person in Krishna Consciousness accepts this by the

name Visnu, Paramatma, and Jiva. God is a Person, the holy spirit or the

supersoul is a person, and the living entity is also a person. Also,

Mary is the representation of the energy of God. Either as internal

energy Radharani or as external energy Durga, the energy of Godhead can

be considered the mother of the living entities. But there is no clash

between the Bible and the Vedas, simply some people formulate their

personal ideas and cause quarrelings."

 

============ REF. Letter to: Sivananda -- New York 19 April, 1968

 

"So, at the university, we dont fight. We speak our realizations without fear, and we try to soothe the disturbing concerns of our peers, but cmon, really, do we have the time to waste in disliking vaisnavas of a different flavor." - Mahak maharaja, circa 2007

Thanks for the quote

This is such a wonderful question I think because in the Caitanya Caritamrita, Srila Prabhupada tells us that we need to be able to identify the unwanted creepers growing in our heart's garden which compete with the Bhakti Lata Bija and its devotional creeper.

 

He says that chanting the Maha Mantra will water these creepers and make them stronger.

 

He says that we are each in charge of identifying them AND PULLING THEM OUT.

 

I have the chapter and verse buried somewhere on my computer, but you get the gist. I will post that later, but Great Thread!

 

Hare Krsna

Just to be clear, you are saying chanting the Maha Mantra makes the unwanted creepers stronger so we can identify them and pull them out? This makes sense to me because I know when I moved into bramachari ashram some tendencies that seemingly were gone became much stronger and I became aware that I has certain problems. It also makes me think of the analogy of boiling water, that the impurities come to the surface under the heat of devotional life.

A discerning person would read the above and see how you just want an arguement.

 

Because of course just tripping over yourself to disagree with me and to try to show my faults you forget the original statement I was contending.

 

I am just of a different opinion than you, that is all. You said anadi was wrong, and I disagreed. It wasn't hard to do at all. If it were anyone else I would have also made the same remark. It's not about you.

I actually don't want an argument at all, but since anadi is just like the rest of us, sometimes wrong, sometimes right, I think it is important to show him due respect when appropriate.

CB-r, could you describe how you have seen?

From the perspective of the duality of this world one would be deemed a "follower of a branch" of Gaudiya Vaisnavism. But if we are true to the real spirit of Krsna Consciousness then we will be seekers of the Truth. This is one idea I have had confirmed by Srila Sridhar Maharaja. I always felt this from the very beginning of my seeking.(Although such seeking is sometimes covered by the clould of sensuous desires). Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur was a revolutionary thinker who promoted daiva varnasrama dharma and opposed asura varnasrama dharma. Catur varnyam maya srstam guna karma vibhagasah (B.G. 4.13) Bhagavan Sri Krsna says that He established these varnas in terms of quality of work, not birth. In Sridhar Maharaja's words, "The preaching mission of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, the Gaudiya Matha, has declared totalitarian war against maya, illusion, and even all other existing conceptions of religion. And our authority is Srimad Bhagavatam, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu." But also Srila Saraswati Thakur established a society of vaisnava brahmanas and it seems apparent from the history of ISKCON that Srila Prabhupada followed suit. Yet the mid -1970s saw falldowns of sannyasis and big managers of epic and farcical proportions. Now the evidence which you an others have put forth shows that he began to adjust by trying to make ISKCON a society led by vaisnava brahmana's which would also take into account the other three varnas, who are also attracted to Krsna Consciousness on various levels. So after the first stages of Prabhupada's ISKCON experiment, as a spiritual scientist he began to adjust according to the results. Yet, its really how he saw the situation which led to his actions and words. He was seeing the Truth of the situation and that should be an example for all, despite their affiliation. In this way everyone in all the camps must proclaim from on high, "Ich bin ein ISKCONer!"

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/music/clipserve/B000002NQE001020/1

/ref=mu_sam_ra001_020/701-6021320-0283539

This past weekend I asked about daiva varnashrama dharma from a more senior SCSMath vaisnava, and he said the mission is intended to be the Brahman section of society, per Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati's misson. That Srila Swami Maharaj through necessity because of the scope of his mission and the challenges he encountered wanted the whole DVD system is understandable as you have said, and this harmonizes why the SCSMath mission and other Gaudiya Maths hasn't gone this way, being a much smaller missions with different dynamics.

I knew there was harmony there, just didn't know where to look. Dandavats Prabhu!

What are the sure signs that you are being 'puffed up' and thinking you are advanced? What sorts of meditations do others use to minimize these feelings? I'm not claiming to feel this way, I'm arrogant but know I'm low and unworthy. But you never know, maybe I am puffed up. Would I know if I were?

The real problem is that the Rtivks, "Prabhupadanugas" and their fellow-travellers who I call Prabhupada-Onlyites bring on attacks against Srila Prabhupada by their false propaganda of divorcing Prabhupada from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur and the entire Rupanuga guru varga. By doing so they sully reputation of the real ISKCON and Prabhupada.

If moderators were made for anything, I believe their best duty would be to channel someone like Anadi to a portion of the forum for recalcitrant neophytes who have yet to understand their own human self, but wants to condemn the perfectly valid points made by his seniors, just to get some undeserved attention.

 

Please already Anadi, get a job.

Also moderators are really here to handle this sort of personal attack, is there really a need for this?