AncientMariner 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 and come to the conclusion that there is virtually no chance of converting the people around you into Krishna Conscious people what are you supposed to do? At that point is it alright simply to save yourself? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stonehearted 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 That's your first order of business anyway, isn't it? Our business is not so much converting people (from what to what?) as it is sharing Krishna consciousness with them. How you gonna give 'em something you don't have? It has long seemed to me that really effective preaching is sort of an overflow of realization. Anyone who gets too close gets some splashed on them. Preaching is not a sectarian or intellectual exercise. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
livingentity 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 that Srila Prabhupada did not think that way! Can you imagine how difficult it was to come over in a freighter in questionable health with only a few dollars and pocessions - to a completely unkown country to preach to people who most likely had never even heard of Lord Krsna? Save yourself, yes! But don't give up completely on others. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
livingentity 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 I like that!! Anyone who gets too close gets some splashed on them. Some have been caught in a downpour!! /images/graemlins/laugh.gif Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gHari 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 <A HREF=http://www.harekrishna.org.au/music/my_sweet_lord.ram>CLICK HERE FOR POST THEME SONG</A> I used to love it in the workplace when My Sweet Lord would come on the radio. I could sing my heart out and nobody would mind being splashed. I really want to see you, Lord. I saw their smiles, they were feeling it, escaping from the karmic drag. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
livingentity 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 that song still sends me soaring! I can listen to it over and over again. I have the album now on compact disk but I remember when it first came out and I hung the poster up on my wall! I had always felt an unexplained closeness to George Harrison but with the help of this song I finally figured it out. I was drawn to him when all the other little teenyboppoers were swooning over Paul. An embarrassing footnote: I played him in our 6th grade talent show - blush! He was a wonderful devotee and did so much with this beautiful song. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AncientMariner 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 Well to be frank with you the people I live around are more in need of a good spanking from Krishna than anything else. I don't think anything else in the world would wake them up. It's all good though. I am glad I have sanction to save myself because to be honest with you I wouldn't want to take on these people's karma for anything. Srila Prabhupada was truely incredible in taking on the karma that He did but He was one in a million. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 25, 2003 Or a hundred billion trillion... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gHari 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 Stuck in the Sargasso Sea, I see. We should all preach like Srila Prabhupada. He preached Lord Caitanya's message to Christians and Muslims alike: Chant the name of God found in your scriptures. In 35 years of working, I distributed only one Gita on the job, and when things turned for the worse I stopped speaking about Krsna entirely. When I worked for the Christian Church I just preached Bhagavad-gita through the words of Lord Jesus, and used generic nonsectarian Prabhupada quotes. The truth is the truth, but the idiom changes from culture to culture. But until Krsna makes your faith like iron, it is likely better to embrace the Panca Tattva mantra in your mind as much as possible while remaining silent about Sri Krsna (at least in the West now). Their doubts and crocodiles will only attack your mind and heart. Of course, there are always those wonderful innocents, and somehow that makes this hell almost liveable. gHari Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AncientMariner 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 but the Beatles are the ones that unleashed all this unwanted population on us. George Harrison turned out to be a pretty good guy but between the Beatles and Elvis they are the ones who opened Pandora's box so to speak and it is going to be a long time until the lid gets put back on the box. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 25, 2003 Factory and ugra karma: Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1: Chapter Eleven, Text 12 :PURPORT Human energy should be properly utilized in developing the finer senses for spiritual understanding, in which lies the solution of life. Fruits, flowers, beautiful gardens, parks and reservoirs of water with ducks and swans playing in the midst of lotus flowers, and cows giving sufficient milk and butter are essential for developing the finer tissues of the human body. As against this, the dungeons of mines, factories and workshops develop demoniac propensities in the working class. The vested interests flourish at the cost of the working class, and consequently there are severe clashes between them in so many ways. Herein of course we find a different description of the city of Dvaraka. It is understood that the whole dhama, or residential quarter, was surrounded by such gardens and parks with reservoirs of water where lotuses grew. It is understood that all the people depended on nature's gifts of fruits and flowers without industrial enterprises promoting filthy huts and slums for residential quarters. Advancement of civilization is estimated not on the growth of mills and factories to deteriorate the finer instincts of the human being, but on developing the potent spiritual instincts of human beings and giving them a chance to go back to Godhead. Development of factories and mills is called ugra-karma, or pungent activities, and such activities deteriorate the finer sentiments of the human being and society to form a dungeon of demons. /images/graemlins/frown.gif /images/graemlins/frown.gif /images/graemlins/frown.gif Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
livingentity 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 didn't say nuttin 'bout the beatles being an inspiration. Only George. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stonehearted 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 AncientMariner: but the Beatles are the ones that unleashed all this unwanted population on us. Hell, they must have been really busy! Do you think they invented illicit sex? (That's like 9-year-old-boys being surprised when they hear their dads say the F-word or the S-word.) This unwanted population is the result of Kali, not a couple of singers. In fact, John Lennon showed a great deal of interest in Krishna consciousness but wasn't able to follow through. Much later, McCartney and his wife Linda also took up practicing krishna consciousness, hosting devotees and chanting Hare Krishna. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
livingentity 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2003 Must have been Elvis, then, right? /images/graemlins/smirk.gif Hell, they must have been really busy! Do you think they invented illicit sex? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 26, 2003 Your vision for the next blossoming of Mahaprabhu's ISKCON movement. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gHari 0 Report post Posted June 27, 2003 And in that dream I awoke and found everyone outside singing kirtana, drums, cymbals, raised arms, everyone was chanting the mahamantra. I was incredibly happy and relieved, at home. When we all get on our old age security, the kids have grown up, and all there is is the mahamantra, we will forget the politics and just chant. ISKCON will welcome everyone. There will be sankirtana parties everywhere; no need for business, just Hari nama. The aging masses that have been secretly reading Srila Prabhupada's books on the outside, afraid of losing their jobs and social status will now come forward with nothing to lose. Gradually the PR will shift and Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya will be glorified in every town and village. Whether it happens or not, I am going to live my life as though it has. And every one of you will do the same, until it comes to pass. We will not waste this life and this inconceivable boon we have inherited from His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The mahamantra will receive absolute respect and play before I leave this planet. gHari Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guruvani 0 Report post Posted June 27, 2003 In my vision of the second coming of ISKCON, everybody will be guru and nobody will be disciple. At the festivals there will be thousands of Vyasasans for all of us to set on in front of Srila Prabhupada. We will all have our hoards of disciples and they will happily and harmoniously embrace each other in a spirit of brotherhood. When they offer the premadvani prayers it will take 48 hours to get through the list of gurus present and there will be no chanting of Hare Krishna because of the time constraints for everyone to get their Jaya this guru, Jaya that guru in. Oh yes, one big happy family of gurus and their disciples. All chiefs and no Indians, that is the way it should be! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gHari 0 Report post Posted June 27, 2003 I knew you'd be there, Ksamabuddhi, with your beautiful daughters. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 27, 2003 << All chiefs and no Indians, that is the way it should be! why no indians? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
livingentity 0 Report post Posted June 27, 2003 has nothing to do with India. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guruvani 0 Report post Posted June 27, 2003 I happen to believe that there are no special devotees amongst the disciples of Srila Prabhupada. Being aggressive to accept disciples and become prominent with a leadership position is probably a disqualification for being guru in ISKCON. I think that there are many obscure, humble and sincere disciples of Prabhupada just as deserving as those that have some charisma to attract disciples out of some aggressive nature to be so-called leaders. The real leaders are the humble, the timid and the self-deprecating. ISKCON leaders in the past have all had some problems with seeking power and position as a form of ego-gratification and they are actually unfit to be gurus really. I don't beleive that some elite click of disciples should take over the guruship of ISKCON. It should be open to all and not dictated by GBC politics or popular vote. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AncientMariner 0 Report post Posted June 28, 2003 I didn't mean to offend anyone with my statement. You are right it is all just do the effects of the Kali-yuga. The Lord wants to generate unwanted population in the Kali-yuga. Sorry for my misconcieved misunderstandings. George used his material position to achieve spiritual perfection through the grace of Srila Prabhupada. It's all in good fun blaming Elvis and the Beatles for all of the problems in the Kali-yuga. I know my sense of humor is warped but its the just the way I am. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
