Gaura Vani and Hari Kirtan joined Gladys Brooks for the From the Vault for the Community radio show on WPFW. What were they doing there? Kirtan, of course! Check out these pictures or download segments of the show.

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• 01 Hari Kirtan and Gaura Vani Speak 1 (0)
• 02 - Ram Ram Ram (0)
• 03 - Hari Kirtan - Hare Krsna (0)
• 04 - Hari Kirtan and Gaura Vani Speak 2 (0)
• 05 - Hari Kirtan - Govinda Jaya Jaya (0)
• 06 - Hari Kirtan and Gaura Vani Speak 3 (0)
• 07 - Gaura Vani - Jaya Radha Madhava (0)
• 08 - Phone Call Question (0)
• 09 - Hari Kirtan - Hare Krsna (0)

This is pretty pathetic but...

Vani, one of the smart, talented and beautiful kids from my recent cooking classes, sent me this lovely pic of a savory she made for her family's Christmas dinner. It is called "Peddaha", and this is what Vani has to say about it:

Vani also recommends using lots and lots of flour on your work surface and rolling pin when rolling out this treat. To view Aunt Rangavati's recipe, follow this link.

There is also a similar recipe in Sriman Kurma Prabhu's Great Vegetarian Dishes (page 100).

Maybe we will have a little peddaha tonite. It doesn't really go with what else I am serving (leftover birthday cake) but if I add a green vegetable to the menu and a little salad, everyone should be satisfied.

Basu Ghosh Das: On January 3, 2009, the fifty second Vyas puja of H. H. Bhakti Vikas Swami was observed by almost eight hundred disciples, Sriman Haripada Prabhu and his wife, Phalini Mataji, both disciples of Srila Prabhupada, congregational devotees and others.

In relation to my last post (The Story about the Gospels), Sita Pati prabhu had a comment and I thought this could be a post in itself. I have given below my response.

Q. Will you also publish an academic account of the origin of Vedic texts such as Bhagavad-gita and the Bhagavat Purana (Srimad Bhagavatam)? Or will you insist that they be understood from "within the tradition"?Because Western academics will be equally unkind to your story of the origin of your scriptures.Be careful to throw stones if you live in a glass house.

A. Dear Prabhuji

Thanks for your comments. Please allow me to respond.

My intention is not to throw a stone or for that matter support a western academic viewpoint. I am talking about the gospels not becuase it does not conform with a Vedic view or a popular academic view but questioning the gospels based on how it speaks for itself as a scripture or "word of God".

I do not take an evaluation stand on the Gospels or for that matter the Vedas simply because I lack the in depth knowledge enough to evaluate both. I also can care less on how scholars interpret data. I know this because I have seen how they work up-close. Vedas, according to them, is a mythology or mysticism. Therefore my post was not solely based on their interpretation of the data but rather on the scholarly presentation of the archeological finds and literature review of the old and New Testament. I framed my opinion based on that presentation.

My fundamental view point is this, if the people themselves who support the early Jesus Movement cannot ascertain the whereabouts of the authors of the gospels and thus establish their credibility, how then am I to understand (as a third person) after 2000 years that the canonical gospels indeed is the true representation of Lord Jesus. After all, Lord Jesus is the central figure in the entire New Testament.

One does not have to take any political position or any type of position (for or against) to pose some fundamental questions-

• who wrote the canonical gospels and why should I read or adhere to their interpretation of Jesus story and not the others (like the other Gospel of Thomas, or the Gospel of Phillip or Mary Magdalene or anybody else!)?

• Why did the early Church leaders only concentrate their story telling to the death and resurrection of Jesus (the Passion of Christ) and not giving equal importance to all of Jesus’s life teachings? If we look at the prominent gospels written at that time including the Canonical gospels, there is not only contradiction about when the incidents took place but also the entire image, persona and teaching of Jesus has been presented differently depending on the gospel.

If I am studying the Gita, it is one thing to interpret his words differently but it is another thing if I attribute a whole set of new slokas in the name of “Bhagavan uvaca”. I think this is a serious deviation and hence begs the question who wrote the Gita in the first place and the author’s original motivations.

This is the issue with the Canonical gospels. They all show Jesus and his teachings differently. The Gospel of Thomas completely shows the teachings of Jesus Christ differently from the other canonical gospels and better yet Thomas is characterized as a twin brother (Didymos) of Jesus and one of the 12 apostles who closely associated with the Jesus. The plot thickens, Thomas is called "doubting Thomas" because he questions the importance of resurrection of Jesus. If a close associate is questioning the canonical gospel central theme, then I am confused as an outside person intersted to know about Jesus Christ as to what he stood for and how he actually lived?

Therefore I would like to know the significance of the canonical gospels and its central themes but I am not able to find anything beyond human intervention. If the gospels are indeed just a story or just one version among the many, i rather be told as is and read it as such rather than the "absolute word of God".

Hare Krishna

Krishna consciousness is like a razor's edge. The proverb often quoted by Srila Prabhupada states, "Suci haya muci haya yadi Krsna bhaje, muci haya suci haya yadi Krsna tvaje?everyone
can become a devotee and anyone can fall." Here's an excerpt from a
Srila Prabhupada lecture in Boston on 26 December 1969: "So Vrndavana

read more

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction email and I will be happy to make you a member:

rasa108@gmail.com

ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

New Remuna Dhama, the temple in Toronto, holds a Prabhupada Festival on the 1st of January every year.
In a lot of temples, either there is a celebration at midnight or on the 1st itself, but rarely both! So it was great to bring in the New Year with darshan of Radha Damodar along with a sweet Guruvastakam kirtan at midnight, and then go on to associate with devotees and chant Hare Krsna later that same day.

We put on a drama, The 8th Boy, under Bhaktimarga Swami's direction. It was an updated version of the first one we put on on Janmastami. Unfortunately technology wasn't really on our side that evening, as the sound came and went as it pleased, and the audience missed some of the best music of the drama. Nonetheless, all the devotees worked really hard, giving up alot of their personal time to work on the drama and I hope that the devotees, along with Srila Prabhupada, were pleased.

1970 January 8: "There is no question of doubting, the whole world is in need of Krishna Consciousness. Krishna inspired My Guru Maharaja, and He inspired Me, and I am trying to inspire you all because Krishna wants it."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970:

1970 January 8: "My ambition is to open centers as many as possible. Now you have seen how practically our students are opening centers here and there. All the new centers recently opened are improving very much. It is very much encouraging."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1971 January 8: "To accept you as guide in spiritual matters is not objectionable if they are sincere. Best thing is you become a regular disciple of me and teach your followers the same principle."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

1970 January 8: "There is no question of doubting, the whole world is in need of Krishna Consciousness. Krishna inspired My Guru Maharaja, and He inspired Me, and I am trying to inspire you all because Krishna wants it."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970:

1970 January 8: "My ambition is to open centers as many as possible. Now you have seen how practically our students are opening centers here and there. All the new centers recently opened are improving very much. It is very much encouraging."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1971 January 8: "To accept you as guide in spiritual matters is not objectionable if they are sincere. Best thing is you become a regular disciple of me and teach your followers the same principle."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

1971 January 8 : "Chant Hare Krsna Mantra loudly and hear it when you may feel morose. That will reestablish you on the platform of transcendental bliss."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

Just as a man cannot escape the cruel hands of death, the cow-shaped earth could not escape the hands of the son of Vena (King Prithu). At length the earth, fearful, her heart aggrieved, turned back in helplessness.

Srimad Bhagavatam - Canto 4 Chapter 17 Verse 17

1970 January 8 : "There is a railroad station in Navadvipa Dhama called Samudragarh, and it is said that sometimes the ocean was there. So, on the Pacific Ocean, if you can establish New Navadvipa, that will be a great achievement."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1970 January 8 : "Krishna is very kind upon us. Actually, I was thinking of you from London and by the grace of Krishna my anxiety was televisioned to you in your dream."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1971 January 8 : "Chant Hare Krsna Mantra loudly and hear it when you may feel morose. That will reestablish you on the platform of transcendental bliss."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

1974 January 8: "Your emphasis on book distribution is quite right. Our program as we have received it from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is perfect, now you simply have to implement it without any changes."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 January 8: "My idea in forming the GBC is that I may be spared from the management and use my time for translating. So please continue to correspond and visit the centers in your zone occasionally to see how they are doing."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1975 January 8 : "I have no objection of your coming to India. But if you can stay there in England and continue your festival program, that will be best. You should increase it as much as possible."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

During Kartik month devotees offer lamps to the Lord…

There's no reason to suffer in material existence any longer. All we have to do to become free forever from all suffering is take complete shelter of Lord Sri Krishna, the original person, the source of all existence. He is our ever well-wishing benefactor. He wants only the best for us because His love for us is unlimited. Even if we are caught up...

December 31 2008 - January 1 2009

Another year gone, another year started. As the poet Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a changing…”

But are they?

Here’s a very appropriate question considering the time of the year. This is from Acyuta prabhu in the CIS:

“In the spiritual world there is no factor of time. In the material world there is a past, the present and the future.
In spiritual world only the present. I cannot understand it.”

“How it is possible to understand, that in the spiritual world there is no past and the future? For example, if I have drunk a glass of water, it means, that process of drinking has remained in the past! This process cannot be all time in present time?!… Even if this process will occur in the spiritual world, if I have jumped in water or I sit down on a chair, this action has already come to pass, that is remains in the past. How these actions can be all time in present time? Please, explain to me it is in the detailed image!”

(more…)

Please tell me you're Laughing Out Loud. 

[I am still looking for an editor! And whoever can help put paragraphs onto this blog for Planet ISKCON that would be greatly appreciated by the readers. Thank you. Hare Krsna.] Thursday, 18th Dec, 2008. I awoke with mixed feelings. The good news was it was Prasad and the bad news was Maharaja had left to New Zealand. Gaura had just released his blog in competition to mine (not really, he just wrote one for his friends). I was happy to have a chilled morning. I finally finished the first part of Lilamritta today and so was totally ecstatic. It was inspiring to hear the story of Prabhupada who struggled so hard with such fixed determination to create this wonderful movement. Midday was supposed to be when we left for our PARTY. It was a traditional food fest. After I had almost finished driving and dropping off the first crew I was asked to turn back, we had forgotten Tribi. I spent the majority of the food party driving…I must have killed a brahmana in a previous birth to suffer such treatment. My righteous sense of duty had me taking Tribi as apposed to the option of leaving him to totally miss out. When I FINALLY MADE IT Kusha was waiting at the door. I unofficially invited him. I constantly asked KK, the chef and a friend of mine from New Govardhana, where the chocolate moose was for me. I could tell by his reluctance that it was all but finished. I presumed if I hadn’t spent my time driving I might have got one. Apart from all the driving and complaining I still managed to feast. I gorged down on 2-3 servings of lasagne and curd steak, plus ice cream and gulab jamins. After the driving party..woops sorry I mean food party..I was off for another….DRIVE. Me and Tomtom. I was to drop off the alleged faulty 3 phase to single phase gismo back in its natural environment and ask for a full refund due to a phase failing in the show leading to a very worried sound technician (Domo). I returned to work on my diary while the boys (Domo & Gaura) were crashed out. After this it was the initiation ceremony of me into the bald clan and our new tour catch phrase “I shave you!” into action. I kneeled on a meditation seat while Gaura open razored all my pretty locks of dazzlingly shinny, immaculate hair off my scabby head. I now looked like a full blown fanatic cultist. On attempting to enter the bathroom we were in, Gaura would yell at people “I shave you!” and they would flee in fear of their life (or hair). I was pleased to finish the third part of the third canto of Srimad Bhagavatam today. It was a double whammy having finished Lilamritta part 1 this morning. After the good reading session I delved into the online forums for Kuli Mela 2010. I had much need to express my opinion and challenge the attempts to host it in cold and far away Sydney (current location). I put a serious show of inclination towards hosting the festival in New Govardhana. While delving online I managed to have my first solid encounter with Jammie Furgison, a net friend of mine from Cairnes and frequent reader of this epic diary. After this I spent a little time ease dropping Sri Prahlad and Domo’s conversations before finally admitting to the need to FINISH MY ROUNDS. I took some time off this to deliver the boys some burfis, Sadhu and Domo were pleased to accept. Before I could finish my rounds I found myself up late in a back room with 3 Polish men, non alcoholic beer (I skipped after being scarred from my 18th b’day) and a laptop packed with foreign camera pranks. This was not the expected ending for my night but an interesting one none the less. Friday, 19th Dec, 2008. I awoke to some sad news. The internet had been officially depleted of the 50 gig download limit for the month. We had managed to cause some serious carnage with our 4 laptops and constant usage. As soon as Gaura broke the news I got on and it was speeding along and I unofficially deemed it reset but it was totally questionable. The only thing I know is the whole ordeal has never been the same since. Today was beach day (yay) but for Gaura and I it was puss jewel popping time (blerk). We took Jhotis, the Manipuri boy to the doctor as he had developed an epic boil on his chin. The doctors were strangely nice and convenient, none like I have ever seen before. They seemed to care more about the patient than money, giving us a Medicare discount without a Medicare card. After quickly dropping Jhotis to the temple me and Gaura hit the road. We were packed in traffic. Gaura got confused in his role in life, normally Krsna in the play he became like Arjuna in the car and so I instructed him: “As the traffic continually passes from one set of lights to another similarly when we get to the beach we will continue from one wave to the next.” Gaura felt totally enlightened and so we cranked Transcendence and weaved through the traffic. Upon reaching the beach we were totally satisfied but just out of principle we had to get in. We jogged the whole beach looking for the gang and failed to find them. We surrendered to the surf before sacrificing ourselves to the sun. We caught a couple epic surfer waves and then got outa there. When we returned to our car we found the troop. They were hiding in the area with the lame waves and flags. It was questionable what fun they could have in such harsh material conditioning like this. I managed to loose the race home and we curled up in our room. After a short while Sri Prahlad had taken hold of my harmonium and began to play. I flipped Gaura a set of kartalas and I lazed behind on another set. Domo came in with two more sets of kartalas and handed one pair to Sadhu. Eventually it got a bit crazy. More guys came in, Dina and the twins. Me and Domo renounced our kartalas to them and started improvising instruments. Domo had plastic bottles on locker cabinets and I had my take away tiffins. It was a ruffle of sounds, clangs and high off pitch notes. We rocked Falcon street like it had never been rocked before. After the wild and inspiring bhajan we were off to the street for harinam. We were powering a long for a good time. I was struggling with some…battle wounds from the beach so had to conveniently retire as the parking meter ran out. I payed the van’s parking and sat in my car staking out parking attendants. After a strange session on skype, whence Gaura, Sadhu, Sri Prahlad and I chatted on a single forum, me and Gaura decided to take the level of insanity and pure internet nerdiness to the next level. I had previously passed on the knowledge to Gaura on how to comment bomb someone. Upon learning such skills he went from Jedi to Sith lord and used his new skills to attack me. We battled by depositing large amounts of pointless and lacking comments on each others internet profiles until we ran out of interest in the pointless pajalpa task. It became late all of a sudden. I was short with everyone. I wanted to, for once in my life, get an early nights sleep. I still had my reading to do. Domo was doing what he did best, engaging me needlessly and consuming my time (this is how I felt in that moment). Eventually after getting my reading done and hiding away I found I was a silly goose and missread a 24 hour clock (or something like that). Three cheers for being an idiot! I scored some early rest (or at least I thought that). Saturday, 20th Dec, 2008. I awoke after a fair bit of bhuta activity. My alarm woke me and I scuttled off to the shower. When I returned I found my phone dismantled on the ground. “Did I drop my phone?” I thought but then realised I had not switched it off properly after my alarm. I snoozed it! It would have went off 10 mins later while I was in the shower and, for once in my life, I was one of the first up. Domo had pulled my phone to pieces to end its reign of terror and I tread carefully around the troop for the rest of the early morning. Gurupuja was ecstatic. A Bengali brahmacari living in the temple was leading. He was singing all sorts of melodiour bhajans. I was totally transformed when he started to sing “Sri Krsna Caitanya Prabhu…Doya koro morrrrreeee”. I was whisked away to Mayapur within my mind and was so happy. I was singing loudly, with my eyes closed (looking like a fanatic) and blissing out on the nectar. Prahlad gave an uba class on different moral injunctions. He explained Artha Sastra, which is used to manipulate people into becoming your ally. He also told some cool Mahabharata stories on moral kings starving themselves and cutting off their own flesh for the name of duty and justice (I know the stories, just cant remember the names). Today was the nectar program. Could it get any better? Was breakfast going to let us down? No, of course it wouldn’t. Bhrigu cooked up another epic Saturday feast and the morning was totally complete. Today I was officially deemed “The Mind” although it was already obvious in tour that this was my title. Today was somewhat total unanimous agreement and acknowledgment of this fact. After a lazy morning in the temple it was time to head out and work off the Prasadam. We hurled out to harinam and belted out the good stuff. I had recovered from my beach “wounds” and was ecstatically pacing along. The boys noted I looked like a new fanatic cultist, with my bald head and robes and overly joyful smile. There was one cool looking guy who tagged along the WHOLE harinams. Chandra was talking to him and showing him a few cool books. We stopped at one point, across from the police station and positioned ourselves next door to a protest in progress. There was a large punk/emo crowd next to us with character masks and gas masks protesting towards to police station about Scientology. I was curious to get one of their fliers but didn’t seem to get the chance. Some of them joined in the dancing for a bit and seemed to be dancing along to the music a lot of the time also. It was a hungry scene back at the temple. Me and Dulaba raided the 4 o’clock food offering. We packed out the milk sweets and icing sugar. After an epic snack fest feast we rushed outside for a greetings kirtana. Indradyumna Swami was returning from New Zealand. When he arrived we took the kirtana into overdrive and then sat with him in the lobby for his New Zealand story time. Indradyumna Swami told his epic battle with customs. New Zealand has the harshest customs I know. I was stuck there for almost 2 hours on my first visit and I could imagine how he felt to a small extent. I had heard rumours previous from the boys about what had happened but it was much worse than I realised. First Indradyumna Swami was stopped. They claimed his passport was fake. They were threatening to deport him back to Australia (I will note this is not the most pleasant experience, especially after a late flight). After finally convincing them he went off. He went to the bathroom to put on some tilak. 4 police officers burst in and said they saw him on camera washing his drugs down the toilet. After another massive search and interrogation with dogs and everything they let him go. While still in the restricted area Indradyumna Swami opened his phone, a camera phone. They told him it was illegal to take photos in the restricted area and took him again. After searching his camera and laptop they finally let him go! Sorry guys in NZ if Swami doesn’t come back. Very soon after the arrival of Indradyumna Swami HH Bhakti Visvambara Madhava Maharaja arrived also. After some prasad and a bit to much pajalpa I came to realise he was giving his class EARLY, as in RIGHT NOW! I rushed in to catch some nectar. The class was all about tulsi and was told in his typical hilarious and light style. When I got back to the room Nitai had sent me a message with the sankrit maha mantra. He instructed me to comment bomb Gaura with it. Being my older brother and therefore in the position of a guru to an extent, I obeyed his order. I smashed Gaura with spiritual nectar. Just after this Dina did the same by smashing me with two maha milk sweets. I noted his amazing ability of scoring maha. The joy of the day just never seemed to stop. It was full of maha, kirtana and swamis. After all this joy I posted out a new diary entry for the people and finished off another for later, like I have just done now.

1975 January 7: "Distributing books is our real business. Has anyone ever become convinced in Krishna Consciousness by listening to this record? If he reads one of my books, he will be convinced about spiritual life. That is our success."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

1975 January 7: "We are not interested in these things like hatha-yoga and swimming. We do not encourage such useless activities. We would never take to such activities for earning money. We don't require to adopt any unauthorized means."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

1975 January 7: "He is giving stress to selling records by any means. This has caused havoc. It is hampering our reputation everywhere. I do not want this record distribution to continue. It must be stopped immediately."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

1974 January 7: "People may call this the primitive way but it is very practical. Use the bulls by engaging them in tilling the ground, have them work in cart loading, transporting, etc."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

This seems to be a recurring theme in my life. Krsna is constantly asking me "how much do you really want this?" "This" can refer to anything, to an intense desire, to a prayer or a just a fleeting "that would be nice..."

I feel very fortunate that Krsna is testing how much "I want" in Sridham Mayapur. It's true what they say...Mahaprabhu is very, very, very, very, very merciful with purifying you in Mayapur. It's actually very sweet and almost imperceptible at times. It's not the tough love that Srimati Radharani can sometimes give you in Vrndavana, which of course is wonderful in it's own unique and beautiful way as is Srimati Radharani. :D But here, Mahaprabhu, in the mood of Radharani, just melts away any stone-hearted blocks you may have.

So yesterday was ekadasi and I had a super intense desire to go to the Jagannath Mandir. So after our meeting with Rama devi with respect to the pushya abhishek that's happening here this weekend (YAY!), my friend Apurva and I ran to the gate to hail a rikshaw. It was just starting to drizzle a little bit but we thought nothing of it as for almost 2 months now there has been no rain here in Mayapur. As we continued along our bumpy path it started to rain harder and harder until it was so heavy that the rikshaw driver stopped off to the side to wait it out. So we waited and waited for at least ten minutes and every second we could feel, "Jagannath we want to come see you!!!! Please let us come. Please let us come. Please let us get your darshan." But the rain just kept coming down even harder!

So Apurva tried to arrange for a taxi to come pick us up from Mayapur but due to English-Bengali language barriers he never came! LOL! But Jagannath is so merciful and even though the rain didn't completely stop the rikshaw driver got back on and pedaled us to Jagannath. Next came the huge mud puddle in front of the Jagannath Mandir gate. Some thoughtful devotee had put some bricks to step on, but unfortunately it didn't help and both of us stepped almost knee deep into the muddy water! LOL! So we finally got through and there was Jagannath with a huge smile on his face and to me it seemed like he was laughing at us saying, "So? You came. :D I'm here for you." It's probably one of the sweetest darshans I have ever experienced in my life.

There's nothing that makes you value something like endeavoring and praying like anything to get it. To some small degree I can somewhat glimpse why Krsna keeps testing us over and over asking, "Do you really want me? Are you sure you don't want this last bit of maya?" So determination and prayer are the two ingredients to success. And how sweet is that goal? Well in this case it was the extremely sweet, beautiful, smiling face of Jagannath.

Until you decide what you want, even God cannot help you achieve it.

If you really, really want change in your life, first you need to change.

You need to change the way you think, the way you see yourself and others, and the way you act.

If you want to achieve results you've never achieved before, you have to start doing things you've never done before.

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.5.13 - The glories of Ekadasi.

If anyone has a pre-2004 edition pls let me know. I'm not sure if 2004 was the first printing.

I am collecting a few Prabhupada stories that have never been documented. Here is one: The last time that Srila Prabhupada visited New York was in July of 1976 for the wonderful Ratha Yatra down Fifth Avenue; Jayananda das was there that year too, and it was one of his last Ratha Yatras. Prafullamukhi devi dasi was with all the devotees in the foyer of the huge West 55th Street temple, greeting Srila Prabhupada when he arrived. They were all lined up to make way for Srila Prabhupada to pass them as he walked to the elevator. Her son Arjuna was one year, nine months old. As Srila Prabhupada was passing them the baby ran from his mother and grabbed hold of Srila Prabhupada’s ankles and feet. Prafullamukhi was mortified and thought it was a terrible offense. Srila Prabhupada was surrounded by sannyasis and some of them were poking at the baby with their dandas, trying to push him away from Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada corrected them: “Don’t disturb him, he is a great soul.”

The merry go round is picking up speed as the fuel of survival is poured into the fire of life.
Wake up, shower if you have time, if none, arm and hammer your underarm, gel your hair, smell for the freshest clothes in the pile and off you go. Your mind was at school before you got there, you already heard the teacher say what he just said, about what you'll never use when you get out of here, but who cares, when all this is done you'll be taking a break for a few minutes. The break was gone before you got there because you mind took it to your next class you'll have in an hour so you sit for a second to watch the world go by. She's cute, maybe I should talk to her, but the clothes you have on warn you that she might not wanna talk so you wait for tomorrow when you'll be all dressed up! before tomorrow comes your mind already fell in love and had the best time with the girl you saw on the break your mind took ahead of you- now you're preparing to dump her... whats her name again? So class is over and you head on home completely exhausted to do anything else because your mind just did ten million things you didn't get to experience. So you sit in front of the TV, no facebook, maybe you have an email or a post from that friend you haven't texted in-oh, 45 seconds? So you flip the channel, check facebook myspace and feel hungry. But the kitchen is 10 feet away and thats too far! AHHHHHHH


so you sit in slow motion as the world goes by fast trying to catch up with your mind who's now back in bed calling you but you still have to do that homework. So you start the homework which take a few hours in human time and a few ages in mind land and then its time to sleep. But you're hungry so you make something finally but then while eating you get a text from so and so to come to so and so party. I really should sleep you think but what will that friend think about you if yo sleep? So you smell more clothes, but it doesn't matter cuz you're going to be in an atmosphere where the smoke and everything else hides the smell. But did I mention how awesome and good you look today?
so its midnight and you really
should leave now cuz
you're feeling a
little sleepy
but
that cute girl from
earlier just showed up
so maybe you should talk to her now.....
Her boyfriends at the party! Dammmmm
ABANDON SHIP ! ! !

Slow down you crazy child
You're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart tell me why
Are you still so afraid?
Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
So many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you

Slow down you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight (tonight)
Too bad but it's the life you lead
You're so ahead of yourself
That you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong
You know you can't always see when you're right(you're right)

You got your passion you got your pride
But don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize
Vienna waits for you

Slow down you crazy child
Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
It's alright you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize...
Vienna waits for you.

"South Asians have long been anointed the model minority. Spelling bees, Pulitzers, now a young bright Republican governor and a young, personable Surgeon-General. There are 200,000 Indian-American millionaires and 41,000 doctors. Keeping up with the Patels can get a little harder each year."

Sandip Roy, "Who Wants to be Dr. Sanjay Gupta?", 7 Jan. 2009, New American Media, 7 Jan 2009 <http://blogs.newamericamedia.org/sandip-roy/1539/who-wants-to-be-dr-sanjay-gupta>

The rest of the article is entertaining, too. But if you're pressed for time or (more sensibly) you don't have time to read prajalpa, here's the Siddhanta-dot-com pithy subtitle summary: "Diwali Potluck Envy."

read more

Radhanath Swami's much anticipated autobiographical work The Journey Home is going to print right now.

If anyone is interested is getting a copy I suggest you pre-order them from mandala publishing before they sell out. There may only be a few thousand copies available from the first print run.

The book will be 24.95 retail and here are the rates for those interested in ordering multiple copies

If you are interested in pre-ordering get in touch Kat over at mandala publishing her contact info is below.

Kat Sanborn
Sales Representative
Palace Press International
Direct: 415.526.1383
Fax: 866-453-0052
Email: kat@palacepress.com

      

As most folks who read this blog probably know dairy has been on my mind for the last few weeks.  To drink or not to drink was the question at hand. In the end I’ve decided to remain lacto-prasadarian resultant from many conversations, vedabase searches and ultimatly inquiring from my Spiritual Master. The main argument which [...]

1974 January 7: "Things are in a crisis, with oil shortage and IRA bombings. Therefore, we have to take shelter of Krsna. Krsna Consciousness means the platform of deathlessness. If Krsna wants to kill us that is not wrong, if it is His desire."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 January 7: "People may call this the primitive way but it is very practical. Use the bulls by engaging them in tilling the ground, have them work in cart loading, transporting, etc."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1974 January 7: "Do not cause a crack with any fighting spirit. We have so much work to do, we cannot lose our solidarity. Please spare me from disturbance by cooperating all together Godbrothers and Godsisters."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1974

1975 January 7: "We are not interested in these things like hatha-yoga and swimming. We do not encourage such useless activities. We would never take to such activities for earning money. We don't require to adopt any unauthorized means."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

1975 January 7: "He is giving stress to selling records by any means. This has caused havoc. It is hampering our reputation everywhere. I do not want this record distribution to continue. It must be stopped immediately."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

1975 January 7: "Distributing books is our real business. Has anyone ever become convinced in Krishna Consciousness by listening to this record? If he reads one of my books, he will be convinced about spiritual life. That is our success."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1975

The gospels form the major part of the New Testament and tells stories about Jesus but here is a story about the gospels, told by scholars, and academicians and documented by Frontline. Following is a short excerpt.

A period of forty years separates the death of Jesus from the writing of the first gospel. History offers us little direct evidence about the events of this period, but it does suggest that the early Christians were engaged in one of the most basic of human activities: story-telling. In the words of Mike White, "It appears that between the death of Jesus and the writing of the first gospel, Mark, that they clearly are telling stories. They're passing on the tradition of what happened to Jesus, what he stood for and what he did, orally, by telling it and retelling it. And in the process they are defining Jesus for themselves."

These shared memories, passed along by word of mouth, are known as "oral tradition." They included stories of Jesus' miracles and healings, his parables and teachings, and his death. Eventually some stories were written down. The first written documents probably included an account of the death of Jesus and a collection of sayings attributed to him.

Then, in about the year 70, the evangelist known as Mark wrote the first "gospel" -- the words mean "good news" about Jesus. We will never know the writer's real identity, or even if his name was Mark, since it was common practice in the ancient world to attribute written works to famous people. But we do know that it was Mark's genius to first to commit the story of Jesus to writing, and thereby inaugurated the gospel tradition.

"The gospels are very peculiar types of literature. They're not biographies," says Prof. Paula Fredriksen, "they are a kind of religious advertisement. What they do is proclaim their individual author's interpretation of the Christian message through the device of using Jesus of Nazareth as a spokesperson for the evangelists' position."

About 15 years after Mark, in about the year 85 CE, the author known as Matthew composed his work, drawing on a variety of sources, including Mark and from a collection of sayings that scholars later called "Q", for Quelle, meaning source. The Gospel of Luke was written about fifteen years later, between 85 and 95. Scholars refer to these three gospels as the "synoptic gospels", because they "see" things in the same way. The Gospel of John, sometimes called "the spiritual gospel," was probably composed between 90 and 100 CE. Its style and presentation clearly set it apart from the other three.

Each of the four gospels depicts Jesus in a different way. These characterizations reflect the past experiences and the particular circumstances of their authors' communities. The historical evidence suggests that Mark wrote for a community deeply affected by the failure of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome. Matthew wrote for a Jewish community in conflict with the Pharisaic Judaism that dominated Jewish life in the postwar period. Luke wrote for a predominately Gentile audience eager to demonstrate that Christian beliefs in no way conflicted with their ability to serve as a good citizen of the Empire.

Despite these differences, all four gospels contain the "passion narrative," the central story of Jesus' suffering and death. That story is directly connected to the Christian ritual of the Eucharist. As Helmut Koester has observed, the ritual cannot "live" without the story.

While the gospels tell a story about Jesus, they also reflect the growing tensions between Christians and Jews. By the time Luke composed his work, tension was breaking into open hostility. By the time John was written, the conflict had become an open rift, reflected in the vituperative invective of the evangelist's language. In the words of Prof. Eric Meyers, "Most of the gospels reflect a period of disagreement, of theological disagreement. And the New Testament tells a story of a broken relationship, and that's part of the sad story that evolves between Jews and Christians, because it is a story that has such awful repercussions in later times."

The Emergence of the Canon

The New Testament, published in Christian Bibles used around the world, contains 27 manuscripts or texts. The most prominent of these are the four gospels known as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These texts are so familiar, that it is easy to assume that four -- and only four -- gospels ever existed.

This is not the case, and the story of how the four gospels became chosen as part of the canon, or accepted literature of the church, offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of the early Christians.

Early Christian communities produced many gospels. One was the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, in which Mary is regarded as a disciple, a leader of a Christian group. Another early Christian text known as the Gospel of Truth, reflects on the teachings of Jesus, but does not talk about his death and resurrection; and the Gospel of Thomas contains only sayings attributed to Jesus.

As the number of Christian communities grew, so did the number and types of gospels. During the 2nd century, writing gospels became practically a "cottage industry," for the audience and the appetite for the literature seemed unlimited...

But Callahan suggests that the choice of these four gospels reflects the preferences and practices of a growing majority of early Christian communities. There was a rough consensus about "literature that they want to read, that they want to hear over and over again. And other kinds of literature that they don't want to hear."

The canon imposed limits, but it also preserved a measure of diversity. As Helmut Koester has observed: "There is no claim that this canon represents four gospels that are all saying the same thing. It is rather an attempt to bring together as many Christian communities as possible into one major church."

The four gospels reflect diversity, yet they all share one key element: each tells the story of passion of Jesus, his suffering and his death. That story is intimately connected to the ritual that is the centerpiece of Christian worship, the celebration of the Eucharist, the Last Supper. Story and ritual are deeply connected. As Koester has observed, the ritual cannot live without the story. And, in the worship of the emerging church, the story was sustained and deepened by the ritual. – Frontline - From Jesus to Christ

Srila Prabhupada writes “Vedic knowledge is infallible because it comes down through the perfect disciplic succession of spiritual masters, beginning with the Lord Himself. Since He spoke the first word of Vedic knowledge, the source of this knowledge is transcendental. The words spoken by the Lord are called apauruseya, which indicates that they are not delivered by any mundane person. A living being who lives in the mundane world has four defects: (1) he is certain to commit mistakes; (2) he is subject to illusion; (3) he has a propensity to cheat others; and (4) his senses are imperfect. No one with these four imperfections can deliver perfect knowledge. The Vedas are not produced by such an imperfect creature” (Sri Isopanishad Mantra One Purport).

If we have to compare the New Testament gospels to the Vedic standards above, the gospels desperately fall short of any thing perfect let alone transcendental. The Christian religion and rituals, as we know today, is based on stories told years after Jesus. The stories are based on memory and second hand information on the life and passion of Jesus years after he was crucified. There is little to no evidence about the actual life of Jesus as of today. Fundamental Christians believe that the Gospels are the truth and word of God. How they come to this conclusion is open for question. The four gospels were picked so it can tell a common story - the story of the death and resurrection of Christ. There was premtpive thought by the early church leaders to limit the gospels to four that had a common thread. The other gospels were rejected as heresy as it did not conform with the passion story.

Based on the scholarly presentation, one cannot but help to think that the method of choosing the four gospels, little knowledge about the gospel authors and the environment in how the gospels were written force the reader to speculate that the religion as we know today for most part was based on forced human intervention far from any divine intervention or precedence. How then are we to accept the word of the gospel as the true representation of the life and teachings of Jesus or word of God?

The Jesus, the church portrays, may actually not be the actual Jesus who lived some 2000 years ago! What then to speak of his actual teachings!

The whole story (by Frontline) can be seen and read here.

Hare Krishna

Jusaniya devi dasi: Sangita devi dasi, RN, Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse, and Certified Hospice Educator, will present a V-CARE seminar at the ISKCON Houston, Texas temple.

Hare Krsna everyone. Reading a New Year's lecture from my gurudev Giriraj Swami, I felt touched by his explanations about what resolutions are. According to him it's nice to have resolutions, they are like sankalpa: intentions but there is also another thing more important than intention, vrata: vow, they are stronger and if we don't follow them there will be some consequences. 

1969 January 6: "This homeopathic medicine you mentioned is not genuine. The first medicine which you should be concerned with is chanting Hare Krishna and becoming increasingly steady in Krishna Consciousness."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1969

1970 January 6 : "Sriman George Harrison is a good soul and I am praying for him to Krishna, so surely he will make advancement. His book, Krishna, is ready for being sent to the press."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1970

1971 January 6 : "Distribution of books means propagation of our mission. May Krsna bless you for your growing enterprise to broadcast this Movement. This kind of transcendental enthusiasm is the basic impetus for Krsna Consciousness."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1971

1972 January 6: "If you sincerely engage twenty-four hours daily in devotional service according to the instructions of the Spiritual Master, then Krishna will reveal Himself personally to you."
Prabhupada Letters :: 1972