Krsnanatha

May experience has shown me that if something says it has an animal flavoring always just assume it is contaminated and move on to something else. There is such thing as imitation beef or chicken but unless it is listed as such give it a miss. Some time back I had a vegetarian friend who would eat the Oriental Flavored Top Ramen from a company called Nissin. Frankly it looked tasty and I wanted some but I wasn't sure so I contacted the company. I was handed off to a customer service person who told me that the Oriental flavor was the only completely safe for vegetarians ramen product that they make. She told me they make it vegetarian specifically targeting the (strict) Asian Buddist segment of the buying market. She was also kind enough to send me a bunch of coupons for free Ramen. I also researched a company I that makes ramen with a name like ?Maruchin? It is widely available but all, even their Oriental flavor have some meat contamination. Hope that helps.

I was inclined earlier in this exchange to offer the point of, "How many Einsteins, or Mother Theresas or Fredrick Douglases or Krsna forbid, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabupadas or B.R.Sridhar Dev-Goswamis or Visnu Jana Maharajas or Jayanadas or ect....ect....ect.... type souls have been amputated from human society as a result of abortion?" But I must confess I feared some cynic would conjecture "Yeah, but how many demons were dispatched at the same time?" A point not unworthy of mention. The 43,000,000 sighted by Theist is only calculating since 1972 or 1973 until present time, in America, what about the rest of the world, per legalized and illegal abortion, dating back forever, the implications of this slaughter are beyond comprehension. My only point is not one of weakness, it is only one of acknowledging the sorry social schematic we find ourselves in. If something is outlawed and the general populace is ignorant as to the relevance or importance for it to be outlawed the general populace will ignore it. From a real, practical point of view, all of us owe it to our ideals to go out into the public in some capacity and force, inject a notion of change based on the absolute knowledge we have causelessly recieved from the kind Acaryas. Time to give it out folks. This will invoke real change. And when that most heralded day comes to pass, when as a result of our Sankirtana, our canvassing on behalf of Sri Guru Gauranga our legislative houses here in America are majoritied by Vaisnavas and Vaisnavis who are respected and are seen as the standard bearers of human society can we take a break. We can then go to Vrindavana and swim in the Yamuna and take eight o'clock darshan of Banki-Bihari and eat Mahaprasadam and wake up for mangala artik knowing that we having fullfilled our mission and pleased the Sampradaya. Until that that day we have a job to do. Talking no, doing yes. Thank you for reminding me why I still continue to breath.

I fully agree, to assume someone has the right to murder a baby simply because a group of fools voted it to be acceptable is beyond unacceptable. Of course the problem is.... they did. We cannot reverse this legislation right now. I am convinced from a life in politics which goes back to campaigning for Eugene McCarthy when I was six years old that once legislatively, a Genie gets out of the bottle, God save us all. Trying to stuff that Genie back without a nearly one hundred percent concensus is not worth trying. For the record I am pro-education and more specifically pro-Sankirtana. Not pro-choice. I have just come to the conclusion that in this country until everyone comes on board with regards to a particular issue legislation simply creates black market and underground. That coming on board is the tall order of the Vaisnavas. Maybe not us but through the continued efforts of our children and their children I am convinced this will happen. To give a statistic which I recently read in a book by an FBI murder profiler, Robert Ressler, 69% of all murderers reported a problem with alcohol. A pretty strong satistical reality, yet do we see the producers of Budweiser going on TV to tell the public they are going to stop producing alcoholic beverages because there has been an overwhelming statistical connection between alcoholism and the murder of other human beings? Of course not, they are doing their jobs as materialist exploiting and exploiting and not caring about the result. And if tommorrow alcohol was outlawed it would continue to be produced and sold on an even stronger black market and the sighted statistic would unlikely change. The only that thing will change is when we the servants of Brahma-Gaudiya-Samprdaya convince the public at large through theory and practical example that Hare Nama beats the hell out of a six pack. That there are moral absolutes. That through Vedic knowledge that the lump of Tissue they are so ready to discard is only animate as the result of a living entity, identical to themselves being present. Hence the cliche; the only people in favor of abortion.....Have already been born.

I was at a temple once when an older Prabhupada disciple, a former sannyasi/GBC dropped in and began offering a veritable flood of unsolicted advice to the Temple President. When he was told moreless, "Thanks for the advice and when you do more around here than occasionally drop by to find fault we may take some of what you say seriously", this fellow took the opportunity to inform all who were there that he was our real GBC, that Prabhupada had appointed him for life. He then drove away leaving us to struggle without his direction. I always thought this statement to be the rantings of person who was still suffering from the skewer of the "Once honored/dishonor worse than death syndrome". Then, what I had dismissed as a delusion of some sort came up in this matter as a the back bone of a litigation strategy. I can't imagine one of Srila Prabhupada's students honestly asserting that Srila Prabhupada would be unconcerned if someone or something completely independent of the BBT was trying to gain control of the interests of His literature . The theory that someone could leave a post and the day to day responsibilties of that post (no intention to criticize but merely stating simple fact) and then at a time of their arbitrary choosing, many years later, come back and expect to take over where they last left off is ludicrous. Any assertion that this is a system of management Srila Prabhupada would endorse missed the history of how carefully he attended to detail. Having said this it seems to this small guy that the big guys at the BBT whose service it is to manage issues of this nature, require accountablity to the community of devotees they serve. Otherwise the crediblity required to do that service will elude them, and things will be hard for everyone involved. (For further clarification refer to definition of "tar baby".) From my experience both in material society and the society of devotees, as soon as I detect even a subtle hint of a "slight of hand" game, lights and alarms go off.

I recall when the BBT was gearing up to correct the Krsna books (I believe in '85) I was told by a person connected to the project that they were only going to be fixing errors made by transcriptionists. He gave the example of something like a passage that was to have read "Rukmini was Krsna's queen" was misheard and committed to type as something like "Rukmini had eyes of green". Or vice-versa I don't specifically recall but the point made (which seemed harmless and logical) was these were errors made in the course of processing words from Srila Prabhupada, to tape, to type, to proof, to published. It would seem these mistakes could be fixed without harm as the corrections only replace error with Prabhupada's actual intended words. Beyond that I am convinced that to alter anything else, on the plea of having a more qualified editor on hand now is to engage a tar baby of potentially epic proportions. I suppose it's quite possible I am just not smart enough to grasp the need to change beyond simple error, but a "better really safe than really sorry" approach seems most sensible to my simple mind.

It is beyond insane that children are allowed to be murdered in the womb because someone or someones don't want to be inconvenienced. In this society there is full facility to give the child for adoption. Although depending on health and family background issues the children's prospects for permanent placement will vary the government will always step in and take the kid off your hands. Granted, I am sure it is a pain to be pregnant for nine months, what to speak of having to curtail or at least slowed down the "big party" called material life. But how in the world can one come to the conclusion that it is it a well thought out option to execute someone whose crime is that of being a botheration. During my life I have had several women friends who have confided having exercised this "option" and all of them (some whom weren't of the Vaisnava mindset) expressed regret and varying levels of intuitive awareness afterwards that they had done something really wrong. We have all seen the very strident individuals who, claiming to represent womens rights on TV take the indefensible position that abortion is not much more than having a complicated sliver removed. Oddly enough these same folks can generally also be found protesting against war because it inevitably results in the death and wounding of children. An absolutely insane level of hypocrisy. 43,000,000; Kind of makes what Hitler did look like a misdemeanor.

I recall in the early eighties, Srila Prabhupada's disciple Bhakta dasa produced a mock radio show which spoofed modern material society's media and it's ability to sanitize or ignore some of the more tragic aspects of the material world. There was a game show spoof called "What's Your Karma" starring a "Don Yamaraja" and another skit called "Reality Tours" which imagined a bus load of ordindary folks touring some of the most hellish places imaginable (such as dropping in on the terminal wing of some cancer ward). It was both entertaining and quite strong in the message it was putting forth. It would seem someone in former President Jimmy Carter's group has decided to actually make an actual "Reality Tour" theme park of sorts as explained in this article. . http://boston.com/dailynews/152/technology/Habitat_for_Humanity_to_open_s:.shtml By the way does anyone else recall hearing this tape? I still have a copy floating around somewhere in my personal archive.

It would seem from the variety of responses that while we may try to trace the origin of various physical maladies ultimately sickness of any kind is bottom line a karmic event. I will not assert that certain afflictions are no question associated with certain behaviors nevertheless it is not absolutely catagorical. As a child I knew an old man who was fond of bragging that he had smoked cigarettes since he was a teenager and drank large amounts of hard liquor his entire life and despite his toxic life style he never suffered the results one usually associates with such behavior, i.e. cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, ect. Meanwhile Andy Kaufmann the comedian died of lung cancer despite having never smoked. It is the banyan tree of action and reaction which can never really be specifically resolved.

Some years back one of the head Christians, Pope John Paul II mentioned that his favorite meal would have to include vodkha and the most reprehensible food on Earth, veal. Not an acarya I am inclined to take example from. No offense intended toward him. I am quite sure if the teachings of his tradition frowned even slightly upon this activity he would faithfully discard it, but alas that is not the case. When one is determined to climb a steep hill it is never the recommended approach to put your momentum in reverse. In this small fact I have strong faith.

Over fifty percent of the world is vegetarian either out of ethical concern or out and out shortage. Oddly enough some parts of the world haven't been able to create and maintain the animal concentration camps which support the endless stream of slaughter currently known as Western culture. And if they try to argue that animals are unfeeling automatons placed here by God for our exploitation, propose that you can test their theory by punting their beloved cats across the street. (Disclaimer: No cats were actually harmed in this hypothetical. I have inherited two cats who eat vegan cat chow. They are my little friends on their way to human birth.)

Over fifty percent of the world is vegetarian either out of ethical concern or out and out shortage. Oddly enough some parts of the world haven't been able to create and maintain the animal concentration camps which support the endless stream of slaughter currently known as Western culture. And if they try to argue that animals are unfeeling automatons placed here by God for our exploitation, propose that you can test their theory by punting their beloved cats across the street. (Disclaimer: No cats were actually harmed in this hypothetical. I have inherited two cats who eat vegan cat chow. They are my little friends on their way to human birth.)

I feel like I just got slapped by the universe. Man, it's happening every day around us, this world. And I still immerse myself within an unending plethora of mundanity. (Shaking my head in embarrassment) There are Siksha Gurus lurking everywhere. Thank you.

Got some mudhas you need to set straight... Who you gonna call... Sure, I live to impose my sarcastic attitude upon the unsuspecting.

Got some mudhas you need to set straight... Who you gonna call... Sure, I live to impose my sarcastic attitude upon the unsuspecting.

"You were wrong!" "No, you were Wrong!" "No I wasn't!" "Yes you were!" Only children don't spend countless thousands of dollars while they do it. Meanwhile back at the Dham.... the pure devotees are chanting......... Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

I may have inadvertently portrayed the situation as one of frustration on my part. On the contrary because of societal concerns I had remained on many occasions far more reserved than my nature generally calls for. After my retort I must confess I felt like I had clubbed a midget but that didn't prevent me from having a hearty laugh driving away from their house.

I may have inadvertently portrayed the situation as one of frustration on my part. On the contrary because of societal concerns I had remained on many occasions far more reserved than my nature generally calls for. After my retort I must confess I felt like I had clubbed a midget but that didn't prevent me from having a hearty laugh driving away from their house.

Dandavat pranams Vaisnavi. Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Jayate. As a soul who has gone through what you are going through to the power of ten, I will offer a bit of wisdom I recieved from my Gurudev Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami. "The environment is friendly." Krsna, in the form of the environment around us will send, without cessation, an endless stream of emmissarys, friends and well wishers in unlimited forms both known and unknown to us to help us on the path toward Suddha Bhakti. Krsna will always be there hiding behind the screen making arrangement after arrangement for the obstacles on our path to be eliminated. The only price we must pay is an absolute sincerity in ideal. An absolute unshakeable faith that; "Our standard, our ideal, may be A, I may be at Z but I have no doubt, no remaining reserve that by the mercy of the Guru, the Vaisnavas and Sri Sri Radha Govindasundari all of these petty details which currently frustrate me so will go away and I will find myself, at some point, as a result of Pure Grace living that ideal every second of every day. Barring offense to His Dearmosts, Krsna will never let us go. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to remind myself of this.

I saw this devotee perform in LA around 86 or 87. He pulled out an stringed instrument the likes of which I had never seen before nor since and proceeded to do a stunning exhibition of musical skill. Not only in the sense of perfect technique but in terms of absolutely original style. Around the world people who deeply know and appreciate music, not just as some clanging hook that drones in the background as one pursues other various sense gratifications but as an art form, would surely have paid generous sums to see this display. Yet there he was at the temple, Sunday feast, playing, the pleasure of the vaisnavas his only fee.

My former sister-in-law and her husband own a large egg ranch in Southern California. It is a family run business which includes his mother Dee. They are very materially wealthy as a result of their business, yet they would always and I mean always pester my former wife and me why we did not eat eggs. Why our children did not eat eggs, over and over as if their million dollar enterprise was teetering on the edge of disaster because this lone holdout family of Hare Krishnas refused to buy and consume their eggs. After several Thanksgivings and Christmas family "get togethers" I had finally had enough of the subject. I had finally had enough of my usual gentle, diplomatic answers which never seemed to put the issue to rest. So When Dee, the mother, launched into her annual "Why don't you guys eat eggs?" speech, I let her have it. In front of her and I would guess about twenty of my in-laws, I said: (Best if read in the voice of Jack Nicholson.) "Dee, do you want to really know why, we don't eat eggs? I mean Dee, do you really, really once and for all want to know why we don't eat eggs.......? (The collective attention of the whole gathering now focused on the exchange.) Because..... they are the menstration of a chicken..... which I do not happen to find, in any way, remotely appealing to eat...... I, for one, am not inclined to eat anyone's or anything's menstration...... especially that of a chicken." Needless to say the ensuing atmosphere most closely resembled that of a funeral. My sister-in-law complained to my former wife for some time that their sons, young teenage boys were refusing to eat eggs any more, thanks to the vulgar statement I had made at Thanksgiving.

My former sister-in-law and her husband own a large egg ranch in Southern California. It is a family run business which includes his mother Dee. They are very materially wealthy as a result of their business, yet they would always and I mean always pester my former wife and me why we did not eat eggs. Why our children did not eat eggs, over and over as if their million dollar enterprise was teetering on the edge of disaster because this lone holdout family of Hare Krishnas refused to buy and consume their eggs. After several Thanksgivings and Christmas family "get togethers" I had finally had enough of the subject. I had finally had enough of my usual gentle, diplomatic answers which never seemed to put the issue to rest. So When Dee, the mother, launched into her annual "Why don't you guys eat eggs?" speech, I let her have it. In front of her and I would guess about twenty of my in-laws, I said: (Best if read in the voice of Jack Nicholson.) "Dee, do you want to really know why, we don't eat eggs? I mean Dee, do you really, really once and for all want to know why we don't eat eggs.......? (The collective attention of the whole gathering now focused on the exchange.) Because..... they are the menstration of a chicken..... which I do not happen to find, in any way, remotely appealing to eat...... I, for one, am not inclined to eat anyone's or anything's menstration...... especially that of a chicken." Needless to say the ensuing atmosphere most closely resembled that of a funeral. My sister-in-law complained to my former wife for some time that their sons, young teenage boys were refusing to eat eggs any more, thanks to the vulgar statement I had made at Thanksgiving.

"Well little partner what's seems ta be the problem here ta'day? "Well Doc, I got me a real bad tooth ache". "Well jus open'er up and we'll take ar'selves a little look. Hoooo dawggy boy!! ya shore got your self some kinda mean abscessed tooth there. Now, don't worry yer self none we'll jus' have ta administer a little Emirican dental justice on his behind, he he he". "What ya gonna do for it Doc?" "Well ginerally,... in these kinda cases,... I take my big sledge hammer over there and smash yer whole mouth in, ya know just knock them babies back in ta the stone age. I guarantee ya, you'll never have another problem with yer teeth again." "Uhh, nurse Rumsfield kin you kindly hand me my sledge, I guess the five pounder aw'ta do the trick here. Oh, uh, by the way little partner be sure and send yer friends to me, I'd be much obliged" Disclaimer: This joke is based on a true story, however all characters in this joke are purely fictional. Any resemblance or similarity to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

It seems odd that this lady would be sueing the state for a license to drive as one of the general tenets in fanatical muslim religious tradition calls for women not to enjoy a vast number of mundane freedoms, one of which is the driving of cars. It is also interesting that she has no problem interacting with the "filthy infidel" lawyer who has popped up on a number of TV news shows promoting this case as a vicious example of religious intrusion and bigotry on the part of the state government. I for one doubt this women is a potential criminal threat (although, come to think of it, John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer seemed quite normal and benign to everyone except those they chose to slaughter) but what if she did or someone following in her footsteps if she wins the case, did? I can hear the dispatch call from the 911 operator, "Roger all units we have a totally unidentifed suspect loose in the area of....... good luck catching her". Or the police line up "Okay Mrs. Johnson take a good look at persons one through six, which of those people with their faces completely covered is the person who robbed your store? She wants to live her quiet humble religious life and she goes about it parading on TV with her "I'll do anything for a pay check" lawyer. Suggestion to the state: Buy this person a fistful of magic markers, a bus pass and tell her to go to......Mecca.

Recently I went to visit one of our flagship ISKCON temples. I have not been there in some years and it was superb to see a great amount of visible progress in the way the facility was being used to embraced and encourage the public toward Krsna Consciousness. I currently reside far from a large temple thus to see this again, up close was very sweet. But when I went to the gift shop I was greeted by a large rack of key chains with a variety of images which sastra indicates should only be dealt with in a most reverential way. Included were key chains with the picture of Srila Prabhupada's Divine image. I say this only in the mood of hoping to discourage some inadvertant offense on the part of someone who might purchase one of these "icons" (somewhat) logically thinking that one should incorporate as many reminders of Krsna and His devotees into their daily routine as possible. I am not critizing the seller or the buyer simply mentioning that I know my keys are not always dealt with in the same way as, say, a Diety for example, so this might not be such a good practice. On a more positive side I was also reminded of when I lived at this temple nearly twenty years ago, a brahmacari friend of mine, and fellow sankirtana chela came back from a day spent distributing books in a community some eighty miles away. He pulled me aside and told me a quite wonderful sankirtana story. He had been inspired by two specific points made at that morning's Bhagavatam lecture. The first point which had struck him was the fact that Lord Nityananda would travel far and wide distributing the holy name of Gaura Hari. Thus this brahmacari decided to travel that day to a less visited part of the local to distribute some of this Gaura prasada on behalf of Sri Nityanada Prabhu. The second point this Maharaja made that morning was, while rather esoteric not outside of our ultimate philosphical conception. He proposed that "If" a devotee was totally immersed in the pure mood of sankirtana eventually he or she would find themselves perceiveing the direct presence of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and his associates. I know, a very high leap for someone who might still be struggling just to keep the rigors of being in a twenty-something-year old body at bay, but nonetheless something to shoot for. Since this devotee had a distance to travel he told me he set about focusing his mind and heart on the meditative prayer of "Please Sri Sri Gaura Nitia let me feel your presence". Something like this was his internal meditation. Sometime after arriving at the "ALL AUSPICIOUS K-MART" where he had selected to start his day of book distribution he came up to a car with an Indian gentleman sitting waiting for someone in the store. As he began to speak to this man he was astonished to see the man had a laminated photo of our Gaura Nitia deities affixed to his dash board. There They were, as if they had packed up and followed him out there to the K-Mart. The gentleman told him in course of their conversation that he had purchased the photo at the temple gift shop. When this Prabhu told me this story, aside from the immediate western response of "Man what are the odds?" We both concluded that once one plays even a little with this Krsna fellow, He makes it very hard to maintain any level of atheistic tendency.

Thank you Ghari Prabhu. I also laugh everytime I retell this story, despite the fact that I have done so numerous times. I remember a devotee once offered the thought, "If ordinary humans are capable of reducing us to tears of laughter can you imagine how funny Krnsa is?" That's an " act " I certainly hope to someday catch.