realist

Such a wonderful story. How are we all going to face death one day? Will we be fortunate enough to be surrounded by loving devotees of Krsna?

Such a wonderful story. How are we all going to face death one day? Will we be fortunate enough to be surrounded by loving devotees of Krsna?

 

Yes, we were Australian pioneers of the Hare Krsna Movement and had this sense that Prabhupada’s ISKCON creation would eventually captivate ALL the world. We didn't just believe it, we new it. We new that gradually ISKCON would mature to become selflessly pure and committed to Kord Caitanyas Sankirtan all over the world, starting a Golden Age of Spirituality in every Nation on the Planet.

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Gauragopala dasa in background with his Spiritual Master Srila Prabhupada

The truth about the 5-second rule

Posted: Nov 26th 2007 8:30AM by Jacki Donaldson

Filed under: Food and Nutrition, General Health

 

Is there any truth to the five-second rule? You know, that guiding principle we use when our food drops to the floor and we pick it right back up and eat it. As long as it hasn't been on the floor for more than five seconds, we're safe. Right?

We actually have longer than five seconds, says Anne Bernhard, assistant professor of biology at Connecticut College, whose students put this rule to the test.

Bernard and her team dropped apple slices, a wet food, and Skittles, a dry food, on a cafeteria floor -- which incidentally had been smeared with E.coli -- and then measured the results. Their conclusion: Moist foods are probably safe for 30 seconds, and dry food can stay on the ground for one minute. And that's with E.coli in the mix.

So the five-second rule appears to be legit -- if you trust this study, that is.

Let's Get Small

Just how small is a microbe? If you happen to read a report written by a microbiologist, you might learn that a poliovirus is 30 nanometers in diameter and that an E. coli cell is 3 micrometers long. But does that mean anything to you?

Scientists use these measurement terms because microbes are so small, they cannot be measured using the more familiar inches or millimeters. (A micrometer is a thousand times smaller than a millimeter and a nanometer is one million times smaller than a millimeter.)

If you read What is a Microbe, you came across an illustration of microbial size that compared different microbes to common features of a baseball park.

Such comparisons can help you put into perspective how small microbes are compared to, say, a human cell using objects whose size is more familiar to you. That’s what this activity is all about.

You’ll compare the sizes of different microbes to the size of a very familiar item—a human hair.

Note: This activity will take about 1 hour.

You’ll Need:

• meter stick or ruler
  
• magnifying glass
  
• access to an empty parking lot, carport, patio, gymnasium, field or other large, open space.
  
• depending on the type of space you have, you’ll need either a box of sidewalk chalk (parking lot or patio), colored string (field or other grassy area), or colored tape (gymnasium)
  
• a hair pulled from your head or taken from your brush or comb
  
• Print-out of Microbe Reference Chart

Note: If you do this activity in a parking lot, choose a day when that lot is not being used. You should definitely have at least one friend with you if not a parent or other adult.

At least one person should keep a lookout for approaching cars at all times. Just be careful!

What To Do Kids:

1. Examine your single hair both with and without the magnifying glass. Note how thin it is if you hold it at one end and look down at the tip. Depending on how thick your hair is, you may just barely be able to see it without the magnifying glass.

The average human hair is 0.1 millimeters wide, or one-tenth of one millimeter wide. That’s pretty tiny.

2. In your open space, use your meter stick to measure out an area that is 10 meters long. Mark off this 10-meter area with your chalk, string or tape, whatever works best for your chosen space.

This 10-meter area will represent the width of your hair, that tiny width that you were barely able to see without a magnifying glass.

3. Choose one of the microbes from the first column of the Microbe Reference Chart. Think about how its size might compare to the width of your hair.

Using the model size listed in column 4 of the Chart and your meter stick to measure, draw a picture of this microbe (or mark off its length and width with string or tape) somewhere beside the 10-meter area you already marked off.

Once again, hold up your hair and see how tiny its width is and compare the actual size of the hair with the actual size (column 2) of the microbe.

4. Repeat step 3 with additional microbes listed in the Reference Chart. You can do as many as you like. Use different colored chalk, tape or string for each microbe so you can remember which markings refer to which microbe.

5. When you’re finished drawing as many microbes as you’d like, compare the sizes and shapes of the microbes you've drawn. You have just created a reference model for microbial size.

6. Clean up your remaining pieces of chalk and remove tape or string when you’re done.

Questions

1. Why do scientists need to use models? Why can’t they just look under a microscope to see what they need to see? Answer
   
2. Which kind of microbe is the smallest, a virus, bacterium or protozoan? Which is the biggest? Answer
   
3. According to the Reference Chart, an E. coli bacterium is 2 micrometers long. Assuming that it's 1.25 micrometers wide, could you determine how many E. coli could fit on the tip of one of your hairs? Answer

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I know a squid has three hearts. Actually in Sanskrit the heart can sometimes also be symbolic for the soul, 10,000th the size of a tip of hair.

Although one could argue there are viruses and bacteria bodies smaller than that, actually todays scientists say they are way smaller than 10, 000th the size of a tip of hair.

Any comments?

I'm playing devils advocate

Mystic Levitates From Building to Building

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlIwcVAxZsU&NR=1

Man mystically turns into 10 year old boy

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=1yUy34S_KAw

8 year old girl turned into a 20 year old women

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=R5f8X2zjgxk&feature=related

Mystic walks on water

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=sBQLq2VmZcA&NR=1

Mystic Levitates unknown women in crowd

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=jtR_Xk6g8yw

The point of all this is having mystical powers doesn’t make one a saint or spiritually advanced. Even if it is ‘real’, it is still a trick of the material energy

The real ‘mystics’ are those who can guide the embodied baddha-jiva back to serving and loving Krishna.

If we took our mobile phones, TVs, Cars and jumbo jets back to the time of Christ or the tribes in India, we would all be worshiped as mystics, saints and messiahs by the primitive superstitious ignorant minded people who lived around the mediterranean and in most of India at that time.

Where do the words "Hindu", “Hinduism” and “India” come from?

 

• Srila Prabhupada - “The Americans are very intelligent and qualified boys and girls so they understand the principles as genuine and thus they accept them. They understand that Krsna Consciousness Movement is neither Indian nor Hindu, but it is a cultural movement for the whole human society although of course because it is coming from India it has [an] Indian and Hindu touch.” Los Angeles, July 16th, 1970,

 

• Srila Prabhupada - “Regarding your questions: Hindu means the culture of the Indians. India happens to be situated on the other side of the Indus River, which is now in Pakistan, which is spelled Indus-in Sanskrit, it is called Sindhu”. Letter to to Janmanjaya and Taradevi in a letter from Los Angeles of July 9th, 1970

 

• Srila Prabhupada – “The Europeans misspelt the sindhu as Indus, and from Indus the word ‘Indian’ has come. Similarly, the Arabians used to pronounce sindhus as Hindus. This [thus] Hindus is spoken as Hindus. It is neither a Sanskrit word nor is it found in the Vedic literatures. But the culture of the Indians or the Hindus is Vedic and beginning with the four varnas and four ashramas”. Letter to to Janmanjaya and Taradevi in a letter from Los Angeles of July 9th, 1970

 

• Srila Prabhupada – “So, these varnas and four ashramas are meant for really civilized human race. Therefore, the conclusion is actually, when a human being is civilized in the true sense of the term he follows the system of varna and ashrama and then he can be called a ‘Hindu’”. Letter to to Janmanjaya and Taradevi in a letter from Los Angeles of July 9th, 1970

 

• Srila Prabhupada – “Our Krishna Consciousness Movement is preaching these four varnas and four ashramas, so naturally it has got some relationship with the Hindus. So, Hindus can be understood from the cultural point of view, not religious point of view. Culture is never religion. Religion is a faith, and culture is educational or advancement of knowledge”.” Letter to to Janmanjaya and Taradevi in a letter from Los Angeles of July 9th, 1970

These a very important points that tell us that the Hare Krishna Movement is not Hindu and Krishna is not Indian

Just spent some quality time with Maharaj tonight at the Melbourne Temple (great prasadam) , even though he was very sick due to ‘travelling’ and the very cold Melbourne evenings, we reminisced about the time we spend together as Brahmacaris in Mayapur and Vrndavana in 1978-9 and again in Mayapur in 1989.

I needed some direction now that old age was coming closer and he was someone I always admired, looked up too and trusted.

These days you have to be careful whom you open up to because advanced devotees who see you as the soul and not the material body, is very, very rare.. .

Bhakti Vidya Purna Maharaj had just come to Australia from a very hot climate in Mayapur, to a medico climate at New Govardhana, Murwillumbah, to a very cold climate in Melbourne.

He barely could move, yes, slowly old age is settling in with all of. I told him that when you come to Melbourne in July, always rug up. And then we then talked about Prabhupada’s visit way back in July 1976 and how freezing it was. I explained, due to climate change, Melbourne is nowhere near as cold now as it was in the 60s and 70s.

Anyway, we continued to discus Prabhupada, the ‘miracle’ of Internet preaching, and the Jaiva dharma that ISKCON-BBT will eventually bring out. That Maharaj humbly explained that even though Srila Prabhupada and Narayana Maharaja have different teachings about the original position of the jiva, we are all devotees of Krsna

I mentioned how I kept a three-year day-to-day diary wart and all from the end of 1985 til 1989, when we eventually meet all the Russian devotees in Mayapur for their first legal visit.

Maharaj found it interesting hearing the Australian devotees Contribution to the Soviet Hare Krishna International Campaign. It started when Srila Prahlada wrote the letter to Gorbachev, then sang the two songs to Mr’ Regan and Mr Gorbachev that was performed with his Gurukuli friends.

Then the EMI contact that lead to mass media exposure, to the mercy of Atmarama Prabhu, then to Ramai Swami’s Travelling Temple where we collected 1000’s of signatures. To the three day fast out the front of the Soviet Embassy in Canberra, to that day in May 1988 the Soviet Hare Krishna’s finally won their freedom and right to be a recognised religion in the Soviet Union

Bhakti Vidya Purna Maharaj had now greatly encouraged me, after all these years, to publish this story on the internet.

Hare Krishnas today in Moscow

......

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Sunday, July 6, 2008

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10.6MB

Also more nectar from Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 2, Chapter 1

"rishna acts according to scripture although He can do anything. The relationships described in the scriptures are how he likes relationships to go and if we follow the scriptural direction we will get the best out of a relationship.

If you think of Krishna as a big, nasty guy, then Krishna will act like a big, nasty guy. If you think He is adorable, like the residents of Vrindavana do, then he will be most adorable.

We are all goal-oriented, either to please ourselves, to please God, or to please others with the expectation that we will also become pleased.

Krishna is looking to see that one performs penance to benefit others.

Q: How are we supposed to relate to the people that we are preaching to?

A: You have to think about presenting the information in such a way that they will be interested to hear.

Most people would be willing to consider that they are lay people and a practicing spiritualist may have something to offer them, so that is not the problem, although often we think that is the problem. Generally we do not have a problem with the philosophy but with the culture of relating to people.

Once in America there was a poll taken about religion. It came out in the poll that millions of people identified themselves as Hare Krishna’s. They thought that the Hare Krishna’s had the best philosophy, but that they had the worst attitude.

First you have to be comfortable with yourself. No one will follow you if you are not comfortable with yourself. People comfortable with themselves are attractive to people who are not comfortable with themselves.

Maharaja was sitting on a subway car in New York City, happily talking with another devotee, when a man came up to them and asked them if they had some practice that made them so happy, which he could also follow. The person was so shocked to see people happily conversing on a New York subway!

In Srila Prabhupada’s books in many places, the superior position of a husband in relationship to his wife is mentioned. However, if you notice all the husband-wife dealings in the Srimad-Bhagavatam and Mahabharata, you do not see any macho, exploitative males, not even one.

So the literature also teaches the application in the culture, but unfortunately many people miss that. Krishna is masculine and His energies are all feminine, but how does Krishna relate with His energies, forcefully? No, sensitively.

Q: Is there a difference between penance, sacrifice, and austerity?

A: In all three there is restriction for some superior benefit. It could be said that penance is sambandha, sacrifice is abhideya, and austerity is prayojana.

Srila Prabhupada said that of mundane subjects, Sanskrit is the most important. Sanskrit can teach us how language functions. Knowing that, we can use English more effectively.

Later I mentioned what Maharaja said about Sanskrit to Vidvan Gauranga Prabhu, my Sanskrit teacher. He had mentioned that he had been to a Gaudiya Math to pick up some Sanskrit and Bengali commentaries on some Upanisads.

The person there said that actually you people from ISKCON are the only people who buy these books. Bhaktivinoda Thakura wanted Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura to write these books establishing Vaishnavism on the basis of these scriptures. Otherwise, the world will only have the Mayavadi misinterpretation of them.

The Gaudiya Math people are all into the rasika literature, which was around even then, but Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakura was more interested in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita, Vedanta Sutra, Upanisads, etc.

If it wasn’t for you people in ISKCON, this emphasis would be forgotten. Please don’t let it happen. It is up to you.

Vidvan said that in India no scholar takes you seriously as a Vaishnava scholar unless you are fluent in Sanskrit and have read the original texts and the commentaries on them"

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The paradox here is no one never really leaves Goloka, they only dream, think and imagine they do by falling out of sync with the 'eternal present' and enter the dreams of Maha-Vishnu within His mahat-tattva creation.

The only thing that has changed is the ones awareness of 'eternal time' in relation to 'divided time' - hence it is not a division of consciousness, but rather a division of time, just like when the concept of mundane time changes while one is dreaming.

Actually when one again becomes aware of their eternal nitya-siddha body in Goloka and the eternal relationship they have with Krishna, it will be as if their baddha-jiva dream state, that has entered the dreams of the sleeping Maha-Vishnu, then taking on the identity of one of His material bodily creations, never existed.

On return to the 'eternal present' it will be as if they never left because nothing has changed in Goloka.

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Maybe there are a few extremely rare souls who are here finishing up their jnana and mystic yoga practice and are coming to realize Krsna after many many lifetimes of such practice. But they aren't the ones that we know about. They are not on the traveling guru circuit with their traveling "I am God" sideshow or opening the hatha-yoga for a firmer ass studio on the corner.

 

Think a bit of what it takes. In the hatha-yoga pradipika it is instructed that one practice his asana's three times a day. And that just to prepare the physical body and it's organs to withstand the movements of kundalini once one has become adept at the prana-yama which takes place seriously once the body is made fit by asana's.

 

And who has the clarity of intelligence to distinquish matter from spirit let alone conquer all attachments and identification with that matter.

 

Let's be honest and serious in our appraisals of ourselves. We are helpless losers who have no chance. But this acknowlgement can be our greatest asset. It helps us see we have no other way, no other way, no other way but by the Lord's mercy, which we simultaneously call for and receive in the form of the Hare Krsna mantra.

 

Krsna explained other yoga systems to Arjuna who admitted they seemed more difficult to him then controlling the wind. Krsna then told him to just surrender to Him the Supreme Person and He would give Him all shelter.

 

We want to follow Arjuna's example in that.

THE YOGI'S WAGER

A servant of a very rich man came before his master one day and told him of an interesting yogi he had seen in the river.

The servant said that this yogi claimed he could stay in the water all night in the middle of the river without any outside heat.

The yogi was willing t take a wager with anyone to prove that he could do it. When the rich man heard this, he decided to wager against the yogi. So, the bet was made to see whether the yogi could stay in the water all night.

The yogi went into the water, and the rich man and his servant went home. The next day word came that the yogi had successfully stayed in the water all night.

The rich man went out to see the yogi, and indeed, he was still standing in the water. Therefore, by all rights the rich man had lost the wager. But then a friend of the rich man said,

"Wait! See that light?"

He pointed to a small flame far away in a temple. The rich man's friend said,

"By his mystic power, this yogi has been using the heat of that light to keep warm in the water. So he shouldn't be paid, because the bet was that he would stay in the water without taking any heat."

Taking advantage of this word jugglery, the rich man said,

"Yes I'm not going to pay you. You've tricked me"

Then the rich man and his servant went back to the house. The rich man asked his servant to quickly cook him a nice breakfast, but after waiting for some time, the servant had not produced anything. The rich man expressed his impatience, but the servant replied,

"Please wait. I'm cooking."

The rich man waited, but it got later and later and no food were brought. When he demanded food from his servant, the servant only replied,

"I'm cooking. It's going to be ready soon."

Finally, the rich man became angry and walked into the kitchen.

"What is this cooking?" he demanded. And there he saw that the servant had a very strange arrangement for cooking. He had a very small fire on the ground and a tall bamboo tripod to hold the pot he was supposed to be heating high near the ceiling.

Obviously, the small flame would never be able to reach the pot to heat it.

"What do you think you're doing?" demanded the rich man.

"Well," said the servant, if you claim that the yogi was keeping warm in the water by that light, then I am also cooking."

The man could understand that his servant was dissatisfied with the outcome of the wager with the yogi. And so, he went and paid the yogi the wager.

MORAL: If you want to get a result, you have to follow the process. What is the use of trying to chant God's name but at the same time doing all nonsense.

To illustrate the foolishness of becoming a blind follower, there is a story about the death of Sargal Singh.

Sargal Singh was very much loved by a merchant, and so when Sargal Singh died, the merchant shaved his head and wore dark clothes.

When another man came into the merchant's shop, he asked who had died.

"Sargal Singh has died," said the merchant.

The visitor did not want to seem ignorant and so did not ask who Sargal Singh was, but he also shaved his head and wore dark clothes. Other people in town began to follow, not wanting to appear ignorant.

When anyone asked who had died, they replied,

"Sargal Singh has died."

When a minister of the king saw so many citizens in mourning, he also wore dark clothes and shaved his head. But when the king saw this, he inquired,

"Why are you mourning, and for whom?"

"Sargal Singh," the minister replied. The king asked, "Who is that?"

When the minister couldn't answer the king told him to find out. The minister then inquired, inquired, and finally reached the merchant.

"Who is Sargal Singh?"

The merchant replied, "Sargal Singh was my donkey, whom I loved very much."

MORAL: Blind following is condemned here

THE OLD MAN, THE YOUNG BOY AND THE DONKEY

Once there was an old man and a young boy who were travelling with a donkey. The young man was leading the donkey and the old man was riding on the donkey.

When they passed through a small village, some of the townspeople yelled abuse,

"Look at this old man taking advantage of this poor young boy! What a rascal!"

After they had passed through the village, the old man said,

"We had better swap over, otherwise they will abuse us in the next village."

So then they swapped with the old man leading and the young boy riding. But in the next village also they got criticized,

"Look at this selfish boy, taking advantage of his grandfather. He should let the old man ride on the donkey."

So then they both got off and led the donkey, but in the next village the people yelled out,

"Look at these two stupid people! They have a donkey, but they are choosing to walk instead!"

Then the old man concluded,

"Actually, it doesn't matter what you do, people will always be critical."

ok...thx...I am going through a crisis spiritually the last few months. Please forgive me...it touches a difficult spot in my heart.

 

I thought I knew you...I must be mistaken.

http://www.salagram.net/parables.htm

I dont know who you are directing this at...if it is at my personal shortcomings...then I would consider you a nasty/hard person.

Prabhu, this is an old parable that has been described in this way for thousands of years, it is certainly not directed at you or anyone else, it just makes a point of the level of committment a disciple has towards his or her Spiritual Master.

Don't take any of these threads as directed at you, for starters I don't even know you so how could it be directed at you. From what I have read from your posts, you are a sincere seeker of truth

Always remember a humble' date=' selfless, prideless[u'] real devotee of Krsna is the servant of the servant of the servant of his Guru.

 

Hare Krsna

But as soon as the hole was big enough, the snake ate the mouse and came out of the basket.

 

MORAL: This is like a neophyte aspiring devotee of Krsna who selfishly goes off track and foolishly treats their Spiritual Master just like the impersonalists or Mayavadis who use the guru in order to come to a level of spiritual understanding, but then reject him for the latest fashion guru, or tries to become better than their Spiritual Master.

 

Always remember a humble, selfless, prideless real devotee of Krsna is the servant of the servant of the servant of his Guru.

 

Hare Krsna

A snake and a mouse were once caught in a basket. The snake said to the mouse,

"Look, I could eat you very easily, but it's more important for me to get out of this basket. Why don't you make a hole so that we can both escape?"

The mouse agreed and started working.

But as soon as the hole was big enough, the snake ate the mouse and came out of the basket.

MORAL: This is just like the impersonalists or Mayavadis who use the guru in order to come to a level of spiritual understanding, but then reject him for the latest fashion guru, or tries to become better than their Spiritual Master.

Always remember a humble, selfless, prideless real devotee of Krsna is the servant of the servant of the servant of his Guru.

Hare Krsna

Well yes, there're lots of honoured Vaishnavas who suggest that all cyberspace Vaishnava forums should be closed. Could be that if the global Vaishnava institutions would have been working accurate, error-free, exact, free from defects, no Vaishnava forums would have been opened.

At least it should be clear that when the leaders create chaos, the rank and file cannot be blamed.

I copied Sri Sri Radha Govindaji from your website prabhuji, hope you don't mind, I love the set up of that site. I even tried to add the music to this thread from your site. Can that be done? Don't worry about the arrogent fundamentalists in or out of ISKCON. If it wasn't for free thinkers, the chosen eleven would be running ISKCON like President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe runs his country.

Quote:

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So I, with all my weaknesses and faults and with my heart and soul - freely choose Srila Prabhupada's way.

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Quote:

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We ALL need the personal 'embodied touch of a Guru' as well, simply for the purpose of helping us with their personal association and instructions.

Krsna is in the heart that we must NEVER forget.

God’s representative will come to us in the embodied form if we want, if we pray unconditionally, if we learn to have faith in Krsna in the heart. We do not have to look for Guru, he wiil find us.

Why not? Krsna is standing always right in front of us. He is in our hearts and can send us an 'emdodied' Guru to help us understand Prabhupada's Books?”

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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare

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hare krishna

The Passing of a Vaishnava Family Member of the Gurukuli Community

BY: CHAITANYA MANGALA DASA

Jun 27, USA — It is with much sadness that I inform you of the passing of Gokulananda dasa (Kevin Michael Simmons), a member of the Gurukuli Community. On Friday, June 20th, 2008 Gokulananda died by suicide in Marina Del Rey, California, USA. The news of his departure was conveyed to his family and Gurukuli peers by his long-time girlfriend, Michelle LeMay.

There will be a memorial service to celebrate and honor his life on Sunday, June 29th at Michelle's place in Marina Del Rey. Gokulananda was 36 years old. He attended gurukula in New Vrindaban, WV and Mayapura, India. He had been living in Los Angeles for the past 5 1/2 years.

His mother is Mahidhara dasi, his sister Jayanti dasi and brother Nanda Kishore dasa.

Please join in remembering Gokulananda's bright spirit, wishing condolences to his family and friends, and offering him sincere prayers of peace and love on his journey.

The Passing of a Vaishnava Family Member

This is a great site and presented well