Life Comes From Life

The Nectar Chronicles: Part 11

2009-11-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Inspired by the "Nectar of Devotion" lecture series given by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada from October 20-November 13, 1972 at the Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana, India

All of these lectures are available for download at ISKCON Desire Tree.

11-2-72

We must have the constant meditation that we are stuck in a very unnatural state. The workings of the material body and mind do so much to convince us that we are shuffling along on the mortal coil, comfortable and content, following the society crowd to balls and bazaars selling only the flashiest kinds of "perfection."

But in our heart of hearts, we know something is drastically wrong. This inner imbalance creates in our flawed being of paranoia and fear, so deeply rooted into us that even when the best of our best friends-Krsna-arrives to bring us out of the ruts, we shun him and avoid his gaze and his loving embrace with all the muddled energy we can muster.

But for those of us who choose to face His gaze, we begin to rediscover our natural self-humble yet confident, dynamic yet simple, and understand of how to properly give and receive real love.

On this autumn Braja evening, Prabhupada, as always, has us start us from the ground up, by bringing the natural flavor of bhakti into our sensory engagements. He says:

"So Krsna consciousness movement means to purify our senses from the designation and engage the senses in the service of the Lord. Hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate [Cc. Madhya 19.170]. That is described here. That is wanted. It is called bhakti. "In our conditional state our senses are engaged in serving these bodily demands. When the same senses are engaged in executing the order of Krsna, it is called bhakti." This is bhakti."

What is our natural position? That we are the part and parcel of Krsna, the most intimate association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and this is eternally so. We've forgotten this intimate bond, and we yearn for it.

When we center our life in this way, taking spiritual pride in our oneness yet loving difference with Krsna, we see and feel and hear and experience our existence in its natural flow. Prabhupada says in this regard:

"We are part and parcel of Krsna; therefore our only duty is to serve Krsna. That is natural. There is no question about it. Part and parcel means helping the whole. As we have several times explained that this finger is the part and parcel of my body, so it is the duty of the finger always serve the body, whole body. It has no other occupation. As soon as I desire, "Finger, you come to this place," immediately it comes. "Finger, you come to this place," it immediately comes. So we can study. What is the meaning of part and parcel? Part and parcel means to serve the whole. Krsna is the Absolute Truth. We are relative truth. Therefore it is our duty to serve Krsna. That is our natural position."

It is the position of the pure devotee that he/she sees all living entities purely as spirit soul. In their consciousness, they are literally seeing through our material bodies and minds to our natural essence.

There are numerous accounts of devotees bearing the gaze of Prabhupada and having this distinct impression that he was seeing beyond and through all their nonsense, to who they really were and always are.

This, of course as we have mentioned again and again before, is one of the real revolutionary aspects of Prabhupada's mission. He says:

"This is the only platform, Krsna consciousness, where we can unite on spiritual platform. We cannot be united by resolutions. Just like the United Nations: they are trying for the last thirty years to become united -- simply resolution. On that platform we cannot be united. On political platform or social platform, that is not possible, because the designations are there. When we are free from designation, sarvopadhi-virnirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam, when we are purified, then we can unite in the service of the Lord, Krsna. That is real unity"
This leveling of the playing field, to the core of the spirit soul, is the natural equality that humanity will never find by artificial means. Indeed, it is Lord Caitanya's own mood:

"‘I am not a brahmana, I am not a ksatriya, I am not a vaisya or a sudra. Nor am I a brahmacari, a householder, a vanaprastha or a sannyasi. I identify Myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krsna, the maintainer of the gopis. He is like an ocean of nectar, and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He is always existing with brilliance.'" >>> Ref. VedaBase => Madhya 13.80
It is interesting to understand Prabhupada's direct context and application on this evening, as he had acutely taken notice that his young and sincere American disciples were not being accepted on various social and spiritual levels by the residents of Vrndavana.

Prabhupada is strong, unequivocal, and humble pleading and offering to the Brajbasis that they too should understand and realize their deep spiritual heritage, based on this platform of ultimate spiritual unity, and apply this vision to their dust-smeared eyes. He says:

"These are clear things. There is no hazy idea. Everything is clear. We have to become designationless, free from designation. We shall forget. Not that "Here are some foreigners. Pick up some quarrel with them and try to drive them away. Why they have come?" So many nonsense things are going on, for want of actual spiritual education. This is not good, at least, for Vrndavana. This is not good. People have not been educated properly with the Vrndavana spirit. Therefore things are happening like that. Sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam: [Cc. Madhya 19.170] how to engage the senses, being freed from designation, in the service of the Lord. That is Vrndavana life. That is Vrndavana atmosphere. If there is any other purpose than this, then it is very difficult to utilize the opportunity, the fortune of living in Vrndavana. One has to be designationless."

This equal vision purifies our purpose, and although it certainly seems abstract and distant to this neophyte, it is certainly attainable by a steady and certain test of our faith, a call to lay our roots down in the character building of the rules and regulations, strong association, and our sincere attempts to please the spiritual master.

Once again, by our effort, we come into the natural flow of bhakti, and we instinctively appreciate, honor, and deeply befriend all those on the same path. Prabhupada here again is speaking with a humble entreaty to his fellow Brajbasis when he says:

"Similarly, natural flow of Krsna consciousness is that as soon as one sees a person in Vaisnava symptoms, he should be eager to welcome him. He should be very much anxious to talk with him about Krsna, Krsna-katha. Bodhayantah parasparam tusyanti ca ramanti ca. Krsna conscious people should be so nice that as soon as they meet together, they talk about Krsna, they try to understand about Krsna, and they feel pleasure in that way. That is Krsna consciousness society. We are trying to make a Krsna consciousness society to give this opportunity to these people, how one should be engladdened by seeing one devotee and talk with them, one another, about Krsna, forgetting their designations. That is Krsna consciousness."
Krsna consciousness means this eagerness in three ways. Eagerness in our own personal effort and dedication, eagerness in our enthusiasm, confidence, and patience to pass this gift onto others, and our eagerness to share, love, and support our fellow Vaisnavas, creating the kind of community that sustains all of individually in this sometimes illogical and difficult task to be a spirit in the material world.

When we dive into this eagerness, we find that the material distresses that leave us stuck in the box of designations, illusions, and strife dissolve away, and we come to real love, to real happiness, as Prabhupada lovingly concludes on this evening:

"When actually one comes in the platform of devotional service, for him, there is no problem. The whole world is disturbed, agitated with so many problems, but for a devotee, there is no problem. Visvam purna-sukhayate. And they are trying, the whole world is trying to become very big man. Somebody's trying to be very big merchant or big industrialist, or minister, or this or that, and others, they are trying to occupy the post of Indra, Candra, devata. That is competition, going on. As soon as there is some competition, even persons, demigods, like Indra, Candra, they become disturbed, and they try to stop it. But a devotee has no such concern. He's not disturbed. Because he's engaged in the service of the Lord, he feels so much happy that he has no disturbance."

The Nectar Chronicles: Part 10

2009-10-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

Inspired by the "Nectar of Devotion" lecture series given by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada from October 20-November 13, 1972 at the Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana, India

All of these lectures are available for download at ISKCON Desire Tree.

11-1-72

Peruse through the spirituality/yoga section of your local bookstore's magazine racks, and you'll find a lot of theorizing, mind-bending and mind-blowing, about the actual nature of our place in reality.

A lot of very intelligent people, even labeling themselves "gurus" and "pandits", are using every inch of their brain muscle to figure out the fabric of the perceptions and experiences that surround us at each moment. But the questions are: Are they getting anywhere? Are their attempts at conclusions/ideas/pragmatic things to do really worth the spiritual salt that's going to get you out of here, out of this hellish place of suffering we call the material world?

On the other hand, there is the Krsna conscious personality, in his perfected state of consciousness, is free from material desires and free from philosophical speculation:

anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam anukulyena krsnanu- silanam bhaktir uttama "‘When first-class devotional service develops, one must be devoid of all material desires, knowledge obtained by monistic philosophy, and fruitive action. The devotee must constantly serve Krsna favorably, as Krsna desires.'

We have to understand that the path to Krsna, to the Truth, is through the humble heart, in loving submission to the spiritual master, and not solely through the mind muscle. These speculative gentleman inside the magazine racks may have their noble intentions, and they're certainly beyond the pale in terms of raw materialists, but they can only go so far.

In the introduction to the Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupada writes:

"Only rarely by philosophical speculation can one reach the conclusion of worshiping Vasudeva, Krsna. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad- gita itself. The ultimate end of philosophical speculation, then, must be Krsna, with the understanding that Krsna is everything, the cause of all causes, and that one should therefore surrender unto Him. If this ultimate goal is reached, then philosophical advancement is favorable, but if the conclusion of philosophical speculation is voidism or impersonalism, that is not bhakti."

As real pleasure-seekers, we are aiming to satisfy the self, and simply through mental gymnastics, we will not find the nectar lying in wait. In his purport to S.B 1.2.8, Prabhupada writes:

"The self is beyond the gross body and subtle mind. He is the potent active principle of the body and mind. Without knowing the need of the dormant soul, one cannot be happy simply with emolument of the body and mind. The body and the mind are but superfluous outer coverings of the spirit soul. The spirit soul's needs must be fulfilled. Simply by cleansing the cage of the bird, one does not satisfy the bird. One must actually know the needs of the bird himself."

While the Krsna conscious souls are there, who understands the real needs of the self and how to fulfill them, we can also see the widespread attempts at religiosity and morality, at least amongst the more human members of our society as a genuine reflection of our real nature.

But how do we separate the real "defenders of the dharma" from those who are ultimately insincere and/or incapable. The test is in their expressions, in their conclusions. We see in Prabhupada someone who understands what is truth, who is truth, and how to find this truth.

It is coming from him "As It Is", uncontaminated by imperfect mental speculations. It is the bhagavat-dharma, the sanatana-dharma, the eternal nature of us all. On this evening in Vrndavana, Prabhupada speaks thusly:

"There are so many different opinions, different philosophers, different religious system, according to the modes of nature. But actually every system must be targeted towards realization of Krsna, or God. Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyam [Bg. 15.15]. That is Bhagavata-dharma. Bhagavata-dharma means realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Prahlada Maharaja recommended culture of this Bhagavata-dharma from the very beginning of life: kaumara acaret prajno dharman bhagavatan iha [SB 7.6.1]. That is the success of human form of life, to execute Bhagavata-dharma."

The goal of our mental speculators is generally to create some "unified theory" which will encompass all experiences and possibilities, providing all opportunities for humanity to fulfill its full potential. What they don't understand, what they can't and don't place at the center is the actual center Himself, Krsna.

As bhaktas, we understand, on a very personal level, that it is not possible to unify, defend, or understand what is real dharma without placing Krsna at the center. Bhagavat-dharma is the fullest possible understanding of the Absolute Truth, and when we place this at the center of our own lives, we simply lose taste for any less complete, less realized speculation on the whole "meaning of life."

Prabhupada says in this regard:

"There are so many different opinions, different philosophers, different religious system, according to the modes of nature. But actually every system must be targeted towards realization of Krsna, or God. Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyam [Bg. 15.15]. That is Bhagavata-dharma. Bhagavata-dharma means realization of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Prahlada Maharaja recommended culture of this Bhagavata-dharma from the very beginning of life: kaumara acaret prajno dharman bhagavatan iha [SB 7.6.1]. That is the success of human form of life, to execute Bhagavata-dharma."

It is our great good fortune, by the mercy of Prabhupada's determination and effort, that the fact of Krsna, Who He is, and who we are in relation to Him, stares us straight in the face, demanding with a loving smile and glance to give up our wayward material paths.

It leaves us little choice. This boy Govinda, playing His flute on the river Yamuna, has captured our attention and soon our heart. Our full, loving surrender to Him is the real dharma.

Prabhupada writes of this in his purport to S.B SB 6.3.19

"That principle is stated in Bhagavad-gita. Sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja: [Bg. 18.66] one should give up all other duties and surrender unto the lotus feet of Krsna. That is the real religious principle everyone should follow. Even though one follows Vedic scriptures, one may not know this transcendental principle, for it is not known to everyone. To say nothing of human beings, even the demigods in the upper planetary systems are unaware of it. This transcendental religious principle must be understood from the Supreme Personality of Godhead directly or from His special representative."
Of course, one of the defects of a desire for a lifestyle of liberation is that it's very prevalent in the Kali-Yuga is that we cannot be sure how authentic or manufactured the process is that we choose to follow. "Hodge-podge" is easy to do and gives one a sense of control and comfort that precludes the necessary surrender and humility needed for real spiritual progress.

Prabhupada warns us in two different ways:

"Srila Jiva Gosvami has discussed this point in his Tattva-sandarbha, that we cannot accept any manufactured ideas. Because everyone is defective by the four defects of material life, we have to accept the version of Vedas"

And to those of us on the bhakti path:

"Without following these principles, the so-called devotional service, Hari-bhakti, utpata, simply disturbance, simply a disturbance. Therefore we have to follow the principles laid down by the Gosvamis, Sad- gosvamis. Vande rupa-sanatanau raghu-yugau sri-jiva-gopalakau. And then our attempt will be successful."

We must discipline our fickle and over-curious mind, with the nature of a excited toddler fresh to a fresh world, to remain steady in devotion, trust, and understanding to the road of the acaryas.

However much our mind and intelligence may be thirsty for jnani moods and our previous psychedelic-flavored conditionings, we must trust and know intimately that the process of Krsna Consciousness fulfills all the longings and needs of the self, from the body to the intelligence to the soul.

We should not commit offense against the sastra with a mood that it is not sophisticated, contemporary, or mentally engaging. It is all of this, and much more.

Prabhupada sweetly and simply concludes:

"The fact is that one should take simply to the devotional path, bhaktya mam abhijanati [Bg. 18.55]. If you are actually serious to know God, or Krsna, then you must take to this process of devotional service. Without this you cannot understand. Not through karma, not through mystic yogic exercises, but through devotional service."

The Nectar Chronicles: Part 9

2009-10-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

Inspired by the "Nectar of Devotion" lecture series given by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada from October 20-November 13, 1972 at the Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana, India

All of these lectures are available for download at ISKCON Desire Tree.

10-31-72

Good fortune often seems to be nothing more than an accident. Sure, according to material calculations, we can place ourselves, by working hard and with due diligence, into a situation where this fortune may be more available, but what is the ultimate benefit? What is the ultimate result?

The fortune we seek in stock markets, lottery tickets, slot machines, and random luck does nothing to satisfy the desires of our spiritual nature-the desires for real, permanent happiness and love that permeate through our material coverings. On this Vrndavana evening, Prabhupada defines for us who is the real fortunate person.

It is that person who comes in contact with the bonafide spiritual master. And how is he bonafide? He is the sold-out representative of Krsna, without deviation or adulteration, whose only mission is to canvass expertly for his sweet Lord. Prabhupada explains:

"So that is bona fide guru. Where is the difficulty to find out a bona fide guru? Just like Caitanya Mahäprabhu. Caitanya Mahäprabhu said, yäre dekha täre kara krsna upadesa [Cc. Madhya 7.128]. Caitanya Mahäprabhu says that "You preach the words of Krsna." Therefore He's bona fide. Similarly, anyone who is representing Krsna and canvassing for Krsna, he's bona fide guru. Where is the difficulty? Is there any difficulty? Anyone can understand that if Krsna is the original guru, and if somebody's canvassing for Krsna, he's bona fide guru. If somebody canvassing for himself, he's not bona fide guru."

We must be ready to accept Krsna in our heart, guiding us by His will, and by this readiness and sincerity we can understand who is the bonafide teacher who can guide us. In his purport to S.B 2.1.10, Prabhupada explains our qualification or lack thereof:

"For advancement of material knowledge there is a need for personal ability and researching aptitude, but in the case of spiritual knowledge, all progress depends more or less on the mercy of the spiritual master. The spiritual master must be satisfied with the disciple; only then is knowledge automatically manifest before the student of spiritual science. The process should not, however, be misunderstood to be something like magical feats whereby the spiritual master acts like a magician and injects spiritual knowledge into his disciple, as if surcharging him with an electrical current.

The bona fide spiritual master reasonably explains everything to the disciple on the authorities of Vedic wisdom. The disciple can receive such teachings not exactly intellectually, but by submissive inquiries and a service attitude. The idea is that both the spiritual master and the disciple must be bona fide."

Krsna knows our heart. He knows and sees the sincere desire for His love and His service which is like bright, stark sunlight somehow covered over by the clouds of our material desires and conditioning. As soon as we show Krsna we want Him in a serious way, He is duty bound to deliver to us the bonafide teacher who will open the door for us. Prabhupada explains:

"So Krsna can understand. We cannot hide anything from Krsna. That is not possible. Because Krsna is sitting side by side, just like two birds, sitting side by side. One bird is eating the fruit of the tree. Another bird is the witness. That is the Vedic version. So as soon as I become serious to know about Krsna, Krsna can understand, "Now My friend is very serious." So He will find out a bona fide guru for him."

Krsna's personal direction, through the via medium of the spiritual master, is the most intimate and loving guidance we can ever have. It gives us our real intelligence, unstained by the mental machinations and imaginations that can only lead us further down the rabbit hole.

The matter is surrender to Krsna: sarva-dharman parityaja. It is a matter we should consider and strive for with our utmost sincerity and effort. As Prabhupada describes in the purport to this verse:

"As soon as one seriously engages himself in devotional service to the Lord in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, at once he becomes freed from all contamination of material nature. There are different processes of religion and purificatory processes by cultivation of knowledge, meditation in the mystic yoga system, etc., but one who surrenders unto Kṛṣṇa does not have to execute so many methods. That simple surrender unto Kṛṣṇa will save him from unnecessarily wasting time. One can thus make all progress at once and be freed from all sinful reactions."

It is a simplicity which includes everything. For myself, having what you might call an "activist" history and tendencies, or a deep-rooted but not always well-expressed desire to change our collective human situation for the better in a moral and just sense, I begin to understand that the umbrella of Krsna's mercy, the "house the whole world can live in" that Prabhupada built, is the shelter that can satisfy anyone's desires for peace, equality, and happiness without fail.

So it is also for the spiritual seekers. One-pointed focus and surrender to the loving will of Krsna quicky, simply, and sublimely brings us to the goal, back to our natural condition. It's all-inclusive and the summit of all spiritual benefits, as Prabhupada speaks this evening:

"If one understands Krsna, then Paramätmä and Brahman becomes automatically known. Just like if you have got 100,000 dollars, ten dollar is within it, fifty dollar is within it, five hundred dollars is within it. So in the Bhagavad-gitä everything is discussed there, jnäna-yoga, karma-yoga, dhyäna-yoga, buddhi-yoga, so many yogas. But Krsna says, sarva-dharmän parityajya mäm ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66], ultimately. That means, "If you surrender unto Me, all these yogas are included." All these yogas, karma- yoga, jnäna-yoga, dhyäna-yoga, all yogas are included. Yoginäm api sarvesah [Bg. 6.47]. That we have to understand. We have to become fortunate to understand this philosophy."

It is our great good fortune to have Krsna in our life. He is the loving father, the head of the family of devotees who keep us close and make us whole. It's a wholeness that comes not from impersonal oneness, but from oneness of purpose, oneness of determination, a purity and clarity that unites and brings real peace. Prabhupada says:

"Oneness does not mean that all these individuals become one, homogeneous. No. They keep their individuality, but they become one in the service of Krsna. That is oneness. Now everyone is working for his sense gratification, personal. When everyone becomes agreed that "We shall satisfy Krsna," that is oneness. That is oneness. One nation. We can understand: one family. One family means they're individual persons, but they're working for the interest of the family—all of them combinedly, conjointly, working."

Or as Prabhupada continues to plead with us: "Your love for me will be shown by how much you cooperate with us." One thing I personally realize as I grow up and out in the Krsna Consciousness movement is that differences of opinion are ever-present, so we must embrace the dynamic opportunities within this dichotomy to fully embrace what Prabhupada has given us.

Working together brings about success or failure, and success only comes when Krsna remains at the center of our deliberations. Krsna, as the best friend of each and every one of us, should be the center of all we do, think, and feel. This is a natural feeling of absorption that we can experience in a limited way with loved ones in our own life.

Our unity of purpose, in Prabhupada's mood, is to gives Krsna's sublime friendship to everyone we can. Prabhupada says in this regard:

"If one preaches Krsna consciousness and teaches everyone that Krsna is your best friend... He does not say, "I am your best friend." "I am your best friend in this sense that I am giving you this information." Actually, Krsna is your best friend. What can I do? I am a teeny living entity. What can I do for you? I be..., may become your friend, but when you are in danger, I cannot give you any protection. Krsna can give you protection. This is real friendship. He does not take himself. He always carries the message only."

The spiritual fortune is rare to have and hold, but it is the liberal mercy of our mission that its rare nature does not preclude its full accessibility to every living entity, everywhere, and at all times. We must try to understand simply how to be a humble, empowered instrument of this mercy and fortune.

Man vs God

2009-10-11T08:00:00.002-04:00

From the September 12, 2009 edition of the Wall Street Journal

We commissioned Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins to respond independently to the question "Where does evolution leave God?" Neither knew what the other would say. Here are the results.

Karen Armstrong says we need God to grasp the wonder of our existence

Richard Dawkins has been right all along, of course—at least in one important respect. Evolution has indeed dealt a blow to the idea of a benign creator, literally conceived. It tells us that there is no Intelligence controlling the cosmos, and that life itself is the result of a blind process of natural selection, in which innumerable species failed to survive. The fossil record reveals a natural history of pain, death and racial extinction, so if there was a divine plan, it was cruel, callously prodigal and wasteful. Human beings were not the pinnacle of a purposeful creation; like everything else, they evolved by trial and error and God had no direct hand in their making. No wonder so many fundamentalist Christians find their faith shaken to the core.

But Darwin may have done religion—and God—a favor by revealing a flaw in modern Western faith. Despite our scientific and technological brilliance, our understanding of God is often remarkably undeveloped—even primitive. In the past, many of the most influential Jewish, Christian and Muslim thinkers understood that what we call "God" is merely a symbol that points beyond itself to an indescribable transcendence, whose existence cannot be proved but is only intuited by means of spiritual exercises and a compassionate lifestyle that enable us to cultivate new capacities of mind and heart.

But by the end of the 17th century, instead of looking through the symbol to "the God beyond God," Christians were transforming it into hard fact. Sir Isaac Newton had claimed that his cosmic system proved beyond doubt the existence of an intelligent, omniscient and omnipotent creator, who was obviously "very well skilled in Mechanicks and Geometry." Enthralled by the prospect of such cast-iron certainty, churchmen started to develop a scientifically-based theology that eventually made Newton's Mechanick and, later, William Paley's Intelligent Designer essential to Western Christianity.

But the Great Mechanick was little more than an idol, the kind of human projection that theology, at its best, was supposed to avoid. God had been essential to Newtonian physics but it was not long before other scientists were able to dispense with the God-hypothesis and, finally, Darwin showed that there could be no proof for God's existence. This would not have been a disaster had not Christians become so dependent upon their scientific religion that they had lost the older habits of thought and were left without other resource.

Symbolism was essential to premodern religion, because it was only possible to speak about the ultimate reality—God, Tao, Brahman or Nirvana—analogically, since it lay beyond the reach of words. Jews and Christians both developed audaciously innovative and figurative methods of reading the Bible, and every statement of the Quran is called an ayah ("parable"). St Augustine (354-430), a major authority for both Catholics and Protestants, insisted that if a biblical text contradicted reputable science, it must be interpreted allegorically. This remained standard practice in the West until the 17th century, when in an effort to emulate the exact scientific method, Christians began to read scripture with a literalness that is without parallel in religious history.

Most cultures believed that there were two recognized ways of arriving at truth. The Greeks called them mythos and logos. Both were essential and neither was superior to the other; they were not in conflict but complementary, each with its own sphere of competence. Logos ("reason") was the pragmatic mode of thought that enabled us to function effectively in the world and had, therefore, to correspond accurately to external reality. But it could not assuage human grief or find ultimate meaning in life's struggle. For that people turned to mythos, stories that made no pretensions to historical accuracy but should rather be seen as an early form of psychology; if translated into ritual or ethical action, a good myth showed you how to cope with mortality, discover an inner source of strength, and endure pain and sorrow with serenity.

In the ancient world, a cosmology was not regarded as factual but was primarily therapeutic; it was recited when people needed an infusion of that mysterious power that had—somehow—brought something out of primal nothingness: at a sickbed, a coronation or during a political crisis. Some cosmologies taught people how to unlock their own creativity, others made them aware of the struggle required to maintain social and political order. The Genesis creation hymn, written during the Israelites' exile in Babylonia in the 6th century BC, was a gentle polemic against Babylonian religion. Its vision of an ordered universe where everything had its place was probably consoling to a displaced people, though—as we can see in the Bible—some of the exiles preferred a more aggressive cosmology.

There can never be a definitive version of a myth, because it refers to the more imponderable aspects of life. To remain effective, it must respond to contemporary circumstance. In the 16th century, when Jews were being expelled from one region of Europe after another, the mystic Isaac Luria constructed an entirely new creation myth that bore no resemblance to the Genesis story. But instead of being reviled for contradicting the Bible, it inspired a mass-movement among Jews, because it was such a telling description of the arbitrary world they now lived in; backed up with special rituals, it also helped them face up to their pain and discover a source of strength.

Religion was not supposed to provide explanations that lay within the competence of reason but to help us live creatively with realities for which there are no easy solutions and find an interior haven of peace; today, however, many have opted for unsustainable certainty instead. But can we respond religiously to evolutionary theory? Can we use it to recover a more authentic notion of God?

Darwin made it clear once again that—as Maimonides, Avicenna, Aquinas and Eckhart had already pointed out—we cannot regard God simply as a divine personality, who single-handedly created the world. This could direct our attention away from the idols of certainty and back to the "God beyond God." The best theology is a spiritual exercise, akin to poetry. Religion is not an exact science but a kind of art form that, like music or painting, introduces us to a mode of knowledge that is different from the purely rational and which cannot easily be put into words. At its best, it holds us in an attitude of wonder, which is, perhaps, not unlike the awe that Mr. Dawkins experiences—and has helped me to appreciate —when he contemplates the marvels of natural selection.

But what of the pain and waste that Darwin unveiled? All the major traditions insist that the faithful meditate on the ubiquitous suffering that is an inescapable part of life; because, if we do not acknowledge this uncomfortable fact, the compassion that lies at the heart of faith is impossible. The almost unbearable spectacle of the myriad species passing painfully into oblivion is not unlike some classic Buddhist meditations on the First Noble Truth ("Existence is suffering"), the indispensable prerequisite for the transcendent enlightenment that some call Nirvana—and others call God.

—Ms. Armstrong is the author of numerous books on theology and religious affairs. The latest, "The Case for God," will be published by Knopf later this month.

Richard Dawkins argues that evolution leaves God with nothing to do

Before 1859 it would have seemed natural to agree with the Reverend William Paley, in "Natural Theology," that the creation of life was God's greatest work. Especially (vanity might add) human life. Today we'd amend the statement: Evolution is the universe's greatest work. Evolution is the creator of life, and life is arguably the most surprising and most beautiful production that the laws of physics have ever generated. Evolution, to quote a T-shirt sent me by an anonymous well-wisher, is the greatest show on earth, the only game in town.

Indeed, evolution is probably the greatest show in the entire universe. Most scientists' hunch is that there are independently evolved life forms dotted around planetary islands throughout the universe—though sadly too thinly scattered to encounter one another. And if there is life elsewhere, it is something stronger than a hunch to say that it will turn out to be Darwinian life. The argument in favor of alien life's existing at all is weaker than the argument that—if it exists at all—it will be Darwinian life. But it is also possible that we really are alone in the universe, in which case Earth, with its greatest show, is the most remarkable planet in the universe.

Charles Darwin

What is so special about life? It never violates the laws of physics. Nothing does (if anything did, physicists would just have to formulate new laws—it's happened often enough in the history of science). But although life never violates the laws of physics, it pushes them into unexpected avenues that stagger the imagination. If we didn't know about life we wouldn't believe it was possible—except, of course, that there'd then be nobody around to do the disbelieving!

The laws of physics, before Darwinian evolution bursts out from their midst, can make rocks and sand, gas clouds and stars, whirlpools and waves, whirlpool-shaped galaxies and light that travels as waves while behaving like particles. It is an interesting, fascinating and, in many ways, deeply mysterious universe. But now, enter life. Look, through the eyes of a physicist, at a bounding kangaroo, a swooping bat, a leaping dolphin, a soaring Coast Redwood. There never was a rock that bounded like a kangaroo, never a pebble that crawled like a beetle seeking a mate, never a sand grain that swam like a water flea. Not once do any of these creatures disobey one jot or tittle of the laws of physics. Far from violating the laws of thermodynamics (as is often ignorantly alleged) they are relentlessly driven by them. Far from violating the laws of motion, animals exploit them to their advantage as they walk, run, dodge and jink, leap and fly, pounce on prey or spring to safety.

Never once are the laws of physics violated, yet life emerges into uncharted territory. And how is the trick done? The answer is a process that, although variable in its wondrous detail, is sufficiently uniform to deserve one single name: Darwinian evolution, the nonrandom survival of randomly varying coded information. We know, as certainly as we know anything in science, that this is the process that has generated life on our own planet. And my bet, as I said, is that the same process is in operation wherever life may be found, anywhere in the universe.

What if the greatest show on earth is not the greatest show in the universe? What if there are life forms on other planets that have evolved so far beyond our level of intelligence and creativity that we should regard them as gods, were we ever so fortunate (or unfortunate?) as to meet them? Would they indeed be gods? Wouldn't we be tempted to fall on our knees and worship them, as a medieval peasant might if suddenly confronted with such miracles as a Boeing 747, a mobile telephone or Google Earth? But, however god-like the aliens might seem, they would not be gods, and for one very important reason. They did not create the universe; it created them, just as it created us. Making the universe is the one thing no intelligence, however superhuman, could do, because an intelligence is complex—statistically improbable —and therefore had to emerge, by gradual degrees, from simpler beginnings: from a lifeless universe—the miracle-free zone that is physics.

To midwife such emergence is the singular achievement of Darwinian evolution. It starts with primeval simplicity and fosters, by slow, explicable degrees, the emergence of complexity: seemingly limitless complexity—certainly up to our human level of complexity and very probably way beyond. There may be worlds on which superhuman life thrives, superhuman to a level that our imaginations cannot grasp. But superhuman does not mean supernatural. Darwinian evolution is the only process we know that is ultimately capable of generating anything as complicated as creative intelligences. Once it has done so, of course, those intelligences can create other complex things: works of art and music, advanced technology, computers, the Internet and who knows what in the future? Darwinian evolution may not be the only such generative process in the universe. There may be other "cranes" (Daniel Dennett's term, which he opposes to "skyhooks") that we have not yet discovered or imagined. But, however wonderful and however different from Darwinian evolution those putative cranes may be, they cannot be magic. They will share with Darwinian evolution the facility to raise up complexity, as an emergent property, out of simplicity, while never violating natural law.

Where does that leave God? The kindest thing to say is that it leaves him with nothing to do, and no achievements that might attract our praise, our worship or our fear. Evolution is God's redundancy notice, his pink slip. But we have to go further. A complex creative intelligence with nothing to do is not just redundant. A divine designer is all but ruled out by the consideration that he must at least as complex as the entities he was wheeled out to explain. God is not dead. He was never alive in the first place.

Now, there is a certain class of sophisticated modern theologian who will say something like this: "Good heavens, of course we are not so naive or simplistic as to care whether God exists. Existence is such a 19th-century preoccupation! It doesn't matter whether God exists in a scientific sense. What matters is whether he exists for you or for me. If God is real for you, who cares whether science has made him redundant? Such arrogance! Such elitism."

Well, if that's what floats your canoe, you'll be paddling it up a very lonely creek. The mainstream belief of the world's peoples is very clear. They believe in God, and that means they believe he exists in objective reality, just as surely as the Rock of Gibraltar exists. If sophisticated theologians or postmodern relativists think they are rescuing God from the redundancy scrap-heap by downplaying the importance of existence, they should think again. Tell the congregation of a church or mosque that existence is too vulgar an attribute to fasten onto their God, and they will brand you an atheist. They'll be right.

—Mr. Dawkins is the author of "The Selfish Gene," "The Ancestor's Tale," "The God Delusion." His latest book, "The Greatest Show on Earth," will be published by Free Press on Sept. 22.

2009-09-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

Inspired by the "Nectar of Devotion" lecture series given by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada from October 20-November 13, 1972 at the Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana, India

All of these lectures are available for download at ISKCON Desire Tree.

10-30-72

On this autumn Vrndavana evening, Prabhupada reveals to us the essential nature of Krsna: He means everything and He includes everything, He is never alone, and all of various and wonderful expansions, as numerous as the waves in the ocean, and as perfect, cognizant, and eternal as He is.

He is the most wonderful person, the most beautiful and charming bluish cowherd boy. Just look at His pictures, His face, His expressions, His poses, His charm. Only the hard-heart turns away, back into the material pool of blood and suffering, of shadows and menace.

He is the original purusa, the all-encompassing enjoyer whose enjoyment we participate in, feeling a bliss that is beyond the comprehension of blunt senses and over-philosophized mental platforms. By serving His enjoyment, we become happy with such a variety of tastes that can never be experienced through the travails of selfish endeavor.

Prabhupada says tonight:

"We living entities, if we simply try to serve Him and make Him happy, as the gopis did, then it is very congenial atmosphere as it was in Vrndävana. Everyone is serving Krsna. Everyone is trying to please Krsna. The birds, the beasts, the trees, the land, the water, the cowherd boys, the gopis, Krsna's father, mother, elderly people—everyone—the central point is Krsna. That is Vrndävana. So we can have Vrndävana anywhere and everywhere. Vrndävana is not that limited. It is not material."

The practices of bhakti make possible the Vrndavana mood anywhere, from the middle of Manhattan to the Amazon jungles. It is not a material consideration, and therefore we must be careful to rid ourselves of the offensive attitudes of poor faith that prevent us from diving into the nectar that is always there for us.

To find this constantly, we must rid ourselves of the insidious and deep-rooted conditioning that we are the enjoyer, the producer, the doer, and the predominator. As the marginal potency, we dive right into our inferior nature if we decide to become absorbed in our own "God-project."

Prabhupada speaks of this as the absence of Krsna Consciousness, when he says:

"Inferior means not actually inferior, because they, there cannot be anything inferior which is emanating from Krsna. The inferior in this sense: by our absence of Krsna consciousness. Because we have come here, in this material world, to enjoy to satisfy, sense satisfaction, sense gratification, we have made it inferior. Otherwise it is not inferior. One who knows how to utilize this energy, for him, it is not inferior. One who does not know how to utilize this material energy for the purpose of Krsna, for them, it is inferior."

Our developed intelligence, through the processes of humble purification and realization, gives us the proper knowledge of using the principle of yukta-vairagya in such a way as to pleasing in our thoughts, words, and deeds to Krsna and His pure devotees.

Ultimately, this means anointing the eyes with the salve of love for Krsna. This is the vision of the pure devotee, which Lord Caitanya shares with Ramananda Raya in the Madhya-Lila:

“The mahä-bhägavata, the advanced devotee, certainly sees everything mobile and immobile, but he does not exactly see their forms. Rather, everywhere he immediately sees manifest the form of the Supreme Lord.”
Madhya Lila Chapter 8: Verse 274

In the purport to that verse, Prabhupada writes:

"Actually nothing is separate from Kṛṣṇa. When a devotee sees a tree, he knows that the tree is a combination of two energies — material and spiritual. The inferior energy, which is material, forms the body of the tree; however, within the tree is the living entity, the spiritual spark, which is part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. This is the superior energy of Kṛṣṇa within this world.

Whatever living thing we see is simply a combination of these two energies. When an advanced devotee thinks of these energies, he immediately understands that they are manifestations of the Supreme Lord. As soon as we see the sun rise in the morning, we arise and set about doing our morning duties. Similarly, as soon as a devotee sees the energy of the Lord, he immediately remembers Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa."

It is the chanting of the Holy Name that sets us on the path to this pure devotional service. If we allow this sweet, blue boy to dance on our tongues, and if are able to taste that His name and His substance, His personhood, are the same, then there is no doubt that we will understand exactly what to do to please Him and receive the graces from Him that will restore us back to our original condition.

We must approach Him through His name with an attitude of deep respect and humility, born out of our sincere love that yearns to get closer, to become more intimate when we ourselves are more worthy of it. This begins at the fundamental level of our attention to the Holy Name, as Prabhupada relates:

"Therefore, if we are sensible, then we should take very much respectful attitude to the name, because name and Krsna, the same. Suppose Krsna comes here. How much respectful we shall be, immediately. So similarly, when we chant Hare Krsna mantra, we should know Krsna is there. Therefore we should be very much cautious and respectful, not neglectful. That is offense. That is offense. If you become inattentive, that is offense. You should know this. Try to avoid."

If we are going to strive to see the holy dhama everywhere, then it is essential we take this concentrated effort to avoid offenses and apply to it ourselves and the environment we interact with. Impurities are everywhere, and they stain our consciousness with the misplaced desires and misconceptions that lead us to the offensive attitude.

Seeing Vrndavana everywhere, Prabhupada instructs us:

"Those who are living in Vrndävana, they should try to understand Krsna tattvataù. That is their business. Not that take advantage of Vrndävana and make some jnäna-karma. No. That means we are wasting time. You'll get the chance because you have come to Vrndävana. Vrndävana's so powerful. But if we commit offense and sinful activities, it will be delayed. My Guru Mahäräja used to say that "Don't waste time. Don't wait for another life. In this life, finish this business, to understand Krsna, and go back home, back to Godhead."

That is required. But if it is done not willingly, but if you commit sinful activities willingly, daily, then you'll be punished. That is laws of nature. Even if you are bhakta. You'll be given chance, but you'll have to be punished. So therefore we must be very careful. We are chanting Hare Krsna mantra means dealing with Krsna directly. Therefore we must be very careful, cautious, respectful. Then it is nice, it is success."

A loving relationship begins with the development of trust, with a respectful formality that shows our sincerity and most of all our humility and our willingness to

learn, hear, and submit to the higher authority that is via medium of all transcendental knowledge.

The little blue cowherd boy will then embrace us and take our own warm embraces, and offer us everything we have ever wanted and ever needed. This is true love, much more than the fictional cinematic variety. Let us move our life and being in such a way towards this direction, by our sincerity, humility, and respect.

The Right Way To Pray?

2009-09-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

From the Sept 20th edition of The New York Times Magazine

"Most people don’t live in churches. And these days, most laypeople tend to do more contemplative prayer and less confession. The sacrament of penance has radically diminished since Vatican II.” In today’s American Catholic Church, in Rabbi Gellman’s terms, Oops! is being replaced by Wow! There is a renewed popularity to the mystical component of prayer, and it is found especially in the retreat movement.

Ruffing explained to me that retreats, particularly for laypeople, are like marathons; you have to train for them. Beginners usually start with a weekend. Eight-day retreats are the next step, and for those with sufficient spiritual stamina, there is a full month of exercises. One technique used on some of these retreats comes from the Contemplative Outreach movement. Retreatants are given a single word, “like a mantra,” Ruffing says, and urged to return to it when their minds wander from prayer and contemplation. Some Catholics (and many Episcopalians) use the John Main method, named after a Benedictine monk. This is essentially Hindu chanting, which Main, who introduced the method, learned in Kuala Lumpur in the 1950s from a swami who gave him what Main called a “Christian mantra.”

“There has been a watershed recovery of mystical theology in our lifetime,” Hinze says. “The church is experiencing globalization. Buddhism and other Eastern practices are increasingly influential, and we are at an early stage in our understanding of them. The fear among some is that Christians will develop an enthusiasm for Eastern traditions without discovering their own mystical sources. Still, this is the way a significant portion of American Roman Catholicism is moving. The old us-versus-them doesn’t work anymore.”

Click here to read the full article "The Right Way To Pray", on the practice and theory of contemporary prayer, by contributor Zef Chafets

The Sweet Savor Of Liberty

2009-09-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

From The Seven-Story Mountain by Thomas Merton

The monastery is a school-a school in which we learn from God how to be happy. Our happiness consists in sharing the happiness of God, the perfection of His unlimited freedom, the perfection of His love.

What has to be healed in us is our true nature, made in the likeness of God. What we have to learn is love. The healing and the learning are the same thing, for at the very core of our essence we are constituted in God's likeness by our freedom, and the exercise of that freedom is nothing else but the exercise of disinterested love-the love of God for His own sake, because He is God.

The beginning of love is truth, and before He gives us His love, God must cleanse our souls of the lies that are in them. And the most effective way of detaching us from ourselves is to make us detest ourselves as we have made ourselves by sin, in order that we may love Him reflected in our souls as He has remade them by His love.

That is the meaning of the contemplative life, and the sense of all the apparently meaningless little rules and observances and fasts and obediences and penances and humiliations and labors that go to make up the routine of existence in a contemplative monastery: they all serve to remind us of what we are and Who God is-that we may get sick of the sight of ourselves and turn to Him: and in the end, we will find Him in ourselves, in our own purified natures which have become the mirror of His tremendous Goodness and of His endless love...

The Nectar Chronicles: Part 7

2009-09-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

Inspired by the "Nectar of Devotion" lecture series given by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada from October 20-November 13, 1972 at the Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana, India

All of these lectures are available for download at ISKCON Desire Tree.

10-29-72

Krsna Consciousness is the art of all work. On the most practical level, we learn how to act and how not to act, what to do and what not to do, in the context of a real, eternal culture.

We are able to rise above the constraints of our contemporary, morally relativistic society to live and love God in such a way that gives the tangible life, the authentic spiritual experience, free of hypocrisy and duplicity and duality if we take the charge of ridding ourselves of these things.

We no longer are caught up in our own "God project", in following the post-psychedelic mantra of "if it feels good, do it!". We learn the proper purports of positive and negative action, moving well beyond the "shades of grey" in our thoughts, feelings, and actions. We learn how to think properly. We learn how to feel real bliss. We learn how to act in such a dynamic way to please each other and the acaryas.

On this evening, Prabhupada clearly lays out the path to this most valuable of education, of knowing what to do and what not to do, and it is a path which lands squarely at the lotus feet of our spiritual master.

In the Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupada writes:

"Those who are cultivating spiritual life and executing devotional service are always engaged in activity. Such activity can be performed with the mind or with the, with the body or with the mind. Thinking, feeling and willing are all activities of the mind, and when we will do something, the activity comes to be manifest by the gross bodily senses. Thus, in our mental activities, we should always try to think of Krsna and try to plan how to please Him, following in the footsteps of the great äcäryas and the personal spiritual master.

There are activities of the body, activities of the different senses, and activities of speech. A Krsna conscious person engages his words in preaching the glories of the Lord. This is called kirtana. And by his mind a Krsna conscious person always thinks of the activities of the Lord as He is speaking on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra or engaging in His various pastimes at Vrndävana with His devotees. In this way, one can always think of the activities and pastimes of the Lord. This is the mental culture of Krsna consciousness."

This mental culture is a most valuable part of our sadhana. It is the source of our sincerity, and it takes our external activities off the mundane plan and makes them valid, real, and beyond going through the motions.

We must think of Krsna at the time of death. As Bob Dylan said "he's not busy being born/he's busy dying." Our meditation should be that we are rapidly approaching the time of death, that we are walking "the green mile" and we don't know how far the end is from us. It could be just around the corner.

Diving into the mental culture of Krsna Consciousness, diving into His pastimes, His qualities, His lovely personality, at least trains us for the pivotal change of bodies and gives us the chance to achieve the perfection of liberation. At most, it places our whole being back into its natural state, into a blissful life beyond our present imagination.

It is about a respiritualization of our whole existence. Spiritual life does not merely begin or end with certain rituals, initiations, or baptisms. These are the springboards to the real internal change, to the necessary, blissful, and glorious struggle to get back home.

We must give up the chains to the dictates of our own selfish will, our false ego, and give ourselves fully and without hesitation into the loving arms of Krsna, doing what pleases Him.

Prabhupada says in this regard:

"The thinking, feeling, and willing... This thinking, feeling, and willing now polluted on account of material coverings. Therefore we have to revert to the thinking, feeling, and willing by Krsna consciousness. As it is explained here, that we shall always think of Krsna's activities, we shall always feel for satisfying Krsna, and we shall always will to enact as He desires."

The formula is the intelligent use of yukta-vairagya, under the guidance of realizes, trustworthy, experiences souls. In this way, we can learn the most valuable art of transmuting the material energy into the spiritual, of not abandoning the world, but using its resources to reveal the divine reality of Krsna.

Prabhupada says in his lecture:

"Actually in pure Krsna consciousness there is nothing material. I have several times explained. Material activities means activities without Krsna consciousness. That is material activity. Just like we are speaking through this microphone. We do not reject it as material. We take it as spiritual. Because it is being used in spreading Krsna consciousness. Therefore if Krsna is spirit, then these so-called material elements, they are also spirit. But it is used as material because we do not remember the relationship of these material elements with Krsna.

Therefore the conclusion is when we are forgetful of Krsna, then it is material. Otherwise, there is nothing as material. Everything is spiritual. So if we think in that way, thinking, feeling, and willing, if we utilize our psychological activities in Krsna consciousness, then we keep steady in attached with Krsna. Yukta-vairägyam ucyate. Vairägya means renunciation. We do not require to renounce anything, provided we see everything dovetailed in Krsna consciousness."

It is so very important that we do not manufacture our own ways and speculative realizations in this regard. The principle of yukta-vairagya is a slippery slope that can be easily taken advantage of by the immature sadhaka, who uses the improper application of this principle in such a way to justify their continued attachment to various kinds of sense gratifications that do nothing to actually serve the Lord and His devotees.

This unfortunate bond can be broken by making the order of our spiritual master our life and soul. In the Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupada writes:

"Similarly, we can offer many services with our bodily activities, but all such activities must be in relationship with Krsna. This relationship is established by connecting oneself with the bona fide spiritual master who is the direct representative of Krsna in disciplic succession. Therefore the execution of Krsna consciousness activities with the body should be directed by the spiritual master and then performed with faith."

The essence of this mood is expressed in verse 80 from the 13th chapter of the Madhya-Lila:

"'I am not a brāhmaṇa, I am not a kṣatriya, I am not a vaiśya or a śūdra. Nor am I a brahmacārī, a householder, a vānaprastha or a sannyāsī. I identify Myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the maintainer of the gopīs. He is like an ocean of nectar, and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He is always existing with brilliance.'"

When we actually feel this mood, and dovetail our living, loving activities in this way, then we can understand that the spiritual energy is actually interacting with and influencing our lives. We become absorbed in the order of the acaryas and there is no danger of becoming mistaken in our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

It is this shelter, this actual productive and positive comfort and protection, which is the aspiration of our devotional creeper. Our creeper must cling to the order and protection of the guru in order to survive and thrive. Prabhupada says in this connection in his lecture:

"Bhakti-latä seed. Bhakti's compared just like a creeper. The creeper does not stand alone. It embraces another tree and then it grows. Similarly, bhakti-latä, bhakti always embraces the lotus feet of Krsna, and then grows. Therefore it is called bhakti-latä. So bhakti-latä-bija. If one is fortunate, by accumulating this imperceptible good activities, by association with devotees, then he gets this bhakti-latä-bija, the seed of bhakti-latä.

Just like you get some nice seed of rose flower. So if you sow it on the ground, just becoming a nice gardener, and pour water, then it gradually grows. So we have to take the bhakti-latä-bija from the bona fide spiritual master, and sow it within the heart. And pour water. Just like simply sowing the seed is not your business is finished. You have to sow, you have to pour water."

Through this connection, we get the strength of the spiritual energy from our guru, and the knowledge of how to use it. We learn, in a very scientific and practical sense, how to use our energy and who to use it for. It becomes inspired by Krsna, for Krsna. Prabhupada concludes:

"This is spiritual energy. Just like Arjuna is fighting. That energy is inspired by Krsna. So Arjuna took it, "I must fight. Krsna wants it. I must satisfy Krsna." This is spiritual energy. Just see. The other party, they are also fighting in the same energy, but they have no Krsna consciousness. So to act in Krsna consciousness is nothing wonderful. Simply you have to divert the energy for Krsna. This is Krsna consciousness. Everyone has got energy, but when it is enacted for one's sense gratification, that is material. And when it is enacted for the satisfaction of Krsna, that is spiritual."

The Wisdom of Radhanath Swami: The Power of Music

2009-09-02T08:00:00.001-04:00

Music is the exaltation of the mind derived from things eternal, bursting forth in sound. Thomas Aquinas

Orsino: If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night Act I, sc. i

"The Power of Music"

from a 1993 lecture in West Virginia

What is it about the power of music that touches our very soul, that shapes and molds our living and breathing perceptions of the world, and which creates the very fabric of our being. The Vedic scriptures describe that our reality is created from sound: the omkara, the first primeval vibration of the universe, the voice of God in which everything else flowed out of in all its dynamic varigatedness.

In describing the life of the great sage Narada Muni, Radhanath Swami gives us his understanding, rooted in the great teachings of the Vedic tradition, of music's utmost importance in our acts of spirit and faith. As Radhanath Swami tells us, Narada Muni is a personality with great vibes: spiritual vibes, or vibrations, which he shares with great and equal aplomb with all the souls within our universe.

When our Vaisnava tradition was in its early days of being transplanted here in the Western world, the figure of Narada Muni was very attractive to the heady young devotees of the sixties and seventies. He is the "transcendental spaceman", flying through the cosmos, his stringed vina pulsing with the hymns of the Supreme designed to liberate the heart and soul from the chains of the body and the mind.

The attractive nature of Narada Muni is a combination of his free-spirited mode of life and his real devotion to sound. Any one of us who has either played music or listened to music with a whole-hearted fervor can understand that the sounds that thrill us, move us, inspire us, and give us shelter are treasures in our lives that we hold dearer than most anything else we can think of.

As Radhanath Swami relates, music is the most attractive and influential process of communication that we have ever known, and it is also, when used in the service of the Divine, of God, the purest and most powerful gateway to direct realization of our true, essential nature and of our relationship with the Divine.

This is Narada Muni's mission: In the vibrations of the Holy Names of the Lord that he resounds with constant enthusiasm and nectarine vigor, he provides for us the example of how best to hear and to express ourselves in this most potent medium. To chant the Holy Names, in whatever tradition one may follow, is a sublime service, a devotional offering of love from the core of our hearts that allows us to glorify God and to help others to come closer to Him.

Indeed, the essential spiritual use sound, of music, is to glorify the Divine. Indeed, it is the highest qualitative representation of sound, a quality that allows the hearer/chanter to transcend one's temporary limitations and come to his/her eternal state: as spirit soul living in a blissful, all-knowing loving relationship with the Divine.

This devotional use of music is present in all traditional spiritual cultures. Radhanath Swami shares the examples of the baroque stylings of Bach, in which his complex and beautifully surcharged compositions invoked the presence and pastimes of Christ, and which have thrived and survived through numerous centuries, as well as the traditional ragas of India, in which the scales and notes used are said in scripture to have come from the lips of God Himself.

Beyond the varied sense perceptions we experience from music, the Vedic scriptures also tell us that music, or sound itself, is responsible for creating the atmosphere around us that we live in. The sounds that we hear, and the sources of those sounds we hear from, create the favorable and unfavorable situations and experiences that we deal with in our lives.

If we want to live in a hedonistic, materialistic way, there is plenty of music we can hear to create and motivate us to line in this kind of environment, and in contrast, if we want to live in a selfless, spiritual way, there is also a whole tradition of chants, hymns, and simple, beautiful songs which can bring our soul to the surface.

A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Radhanath Swami's teacher, and the main acarya of the contemporary Vaisnava tradition, reveals the truth from his translation of the Bhagavat-Purana, or Srimad-Bhagavatam. There he writes:

"It is stated also in the Vedānta-sūtra that sound is the origin of all objects of material possession and that by sound one can also dissolve this material existence. Anāvṛttiḥ śabdāt means "liberation by sound." The entire material manifestation began from sound, and sound can also end material entanglement, if it has a particular potency. The particular sound capable of doing this is the transcendental vibration Hare Kṛṣṇa. Our entanglement in material affairs has begun from material sound. Now we must purify that sound in spiritual understanding. There is sound in the spiritual world also. If we approach that sound, then our spiritual life begins, and the other requirements for spiritual advancement can be supplied. We have to understand very clearly that sound is the beginning of the creation of all material objects for our sense gratification. Similarly, if sound is purified, our spiritual necessities also are produced from sound."

This power of music brings with it also a great responsibility. To attain a musical communion with the Divine, we must get out of the way, or in essence, we must remove any selfish or overtly egoistic motives we have for chanting or hearing the Holy Names.

In his lecture this evening, Radhanath Swami instructs that must not become distracted by the instruments or by the sounds of the instrument themselves, forgetting the sound of the Holy Name. The Holy Name must remain in the forefront, or our musical expression may fall into the mere gratification of our senses and material selfishness.

Our material musical qualifications also may become a distraction if not used properly in the service of the Holy Name; they may make us proud. We must remember that any qualifications that we have are simply gifts from God. We must simply glorify and be proud of God, chanting with great humility, in order to properly perform kirtana, or the congregational glorification of God through music.

In the bhakti-yoga tradition that Radhanath Swami is an integral part of, the chanting of the Holy Names of Krsna (Hare Krsna/Hare Krsna/Krsna Krsna/Hare Hare/Hare Rama/Hare Rama/Rama Rama/Hare Hare) is offered to us as an easy, sublime, and direct way to get in touch the with spiritual energy of the Divine.

These Holy Names of Krsna are non-different from Krsna Himself, from the Personality of the Divine. As Radhanath Swami relates to us, the Holy Name enters into our heart as a passenger on the vehicle of spiritual sound, and clears our heart of all the dust of illusion, misconception, greed, and selfishness that we desire to be free from, the shackles of material bondage, so that we can remember who we actually are, a dynamic, free, loving spirit soul.

Spiritual music is the very life force of our soul. It is said that in our original spiritual state, as we exist eternally in bliss in the spiritual world, every step is a dance and every word is a song. How we long to return to this state of being! Even if we don't know this, it is the deepest desire of our heart, always beating even under so many clouds of unnecessary material desires.

If we absorb ourselves in spiritual sound, we create the spiritual world around us, immediately, in the here and now. Let us dive deep into whatever tradition we follow, following in the example of Radhanath Swami, to find the essence of sound, the ecstasy of music, that is there for our heart's content.

Radhanath Swami is a spiritual leader, author, and public speaker. A practitioner of bhakti-yoga for almost 40 years, he helps individuals find greater inner fulfillment through devotional service. “He sees life as a continuous blessing of God’s grace,” one follower says, “and yet he never loses his humanness. His accessibility leaves people feeling that, with a little sincere effort, they too will find the path to inner peace and God realization.”

For more...
http://www.radhanathswami.com/
http://www.thejourneyhomebook.com/
http://www.radhanathmaharaj.net/
Radhanath Swami's Facebook page
His MySpace page

What Is The Matter With The World?

2009-08-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

"WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE WORLD?"

an essay by A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

On the 16th of February 1957 a meeting was held at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to discuss the above subject matter. Distinguished gentlemen from different categories spoke on the subject, but practically nobody could give us a definite direction as to what actually the matter was that was troubling the whole situation.

This feeling of pinching in the existence of our life is a good sign for progress. It is an urge for enquiry what is the wrong in the world that gives us trouble? This trouble is not a new thing but it is a matter of permanent settlement in all the days of life, but it may be felt at different times in different colour. The troubles are in varieties in relation with our mind and body, in relation with our dealings with other living beings and in relation with natural phenomenons.

The present pinching trouble of our political leaders in the matter of Kashmir affairs is a trouble in relation with our other friendly nations. Kashmir is a part of India, not only at present but it is so from a time immemorial but the Kashmir problem has arisen as a matter of course because the world is so created that must there exist some sort of trouble, may be it is in relation with the body or other living beings or the natural phenomenon.

These troubles are like the forest fire. Fire takes place in the dense forest without any attempt by any living being. Nobody in the forest do want such fire, but it takes place without any demand. When there is fire, the living beings in the forest are put into trouble and sometimes it so happens that most of the forest creatures die in that havoc. There is no fire brigade in the forest or on the top of a forest mountain and there is no hope for of extinguishing the fire by any human attempt. It takes by the natural laws, and it is extinguished by natural laws also, that is, when there is torrent of rains in the forest. That is the natural law and these laws are so rigid and stern that no human brain, however it may be powerful, can solve these problems of natural laws.

An intelligent person, who has actually developed some finer qualities of human consciousness, can understand that every law is made by an intelligent brain and behind every law there is the lawmaker who makes the law. So for all these natural laws, there is the Supreme Lawmaker, who is the Absolute Personality of Godhead. In the Bhagavad-gétä we have, therefore, information that natural laws are so stringent that they cannot be overcome by anybody. But whoever surrenders unto the Supreme Lord can overcome them.

The king is the lawmaker and if he likes he can forgive a law-breaker by special prerogative of the king—by the 'king's mercy,' but the king can do no wrong even if he sometimes breaks the law. That is, an experience of a common man in the phenomenal world and the same thing is applicable in the matter of Supreme laws also.

The natural laws are like police actions by the agents of Godhead. Men, who are too much captivated by the glamour of material beauty and tries to enjoy it falsely without acknowledgement of its Creator, are called demons. The stringent natural laws are meant for the criminals but not for the law-abiders. Therefore, the perfect answer to the question "What is the matter with the world?" is that men have become demons by breaking laws of God, and therefore they are being punished by the police action of material nature. That is the verdict of all scriptures and that is our day-to-day life's experience.

In the Bhagavad-gitä a vivid description of the law-breaker demoniac men are given in the 16th chapter and such men are punished by the laws of God—are also maintained.
Human civilizations are conducted in two ways. One type of civilization can make every human being as much qualified as God is. And the other type of civilization can make every man no less than a jungle beast and thereby making this world unfit for human habitation.

A human being is called a rational animal. When rationality is destroyed, the human being is left an ordinary animal. The difference between a human being and an animal is based on the strength of human being's being above the animal propensities. The animal part of a human being necessarily require food to eat, shelter to live in, protection from fear and gratification of senses. These four principles of life are common both to the man and the animals. But there is another thing which is specially meant for the human being. This is God-consciousness. This God-consciousness is conspicuous by absence in the animal life, while in the human life this God-consciousness is in dormant stage even in the society of the aborigines.

This God-consciousness develops in different grades of human civilization in terms of particular place, time and persons. This God-consciousness is called Religion or Culture of Life without which no civilization can stand.

The present day civilization is trying to avoid this God-consciousness of human life by artificial method of material science and forcible atheism. It is learnt from reliable sources that in an atheistic state, the village people were called in a meeting and were asked to pray in the church for daily bread. The innocent villagers prayed in the church for daily bread, and when the prayer was over the state officers asked them whether breads were supplied. The village men replied that there was no bread. The atheist politicians asked them again to pray for bread from them (the statesmen) and bread was at once supplied. And by this method the innocent villagers were made victims of propaganda by atheistic politicians with the result that all the villagers became gradually faithless in God, because wrongly they accepted that the bread was supplied by the politicians and not by God.

The poor victims of such propaganda did not understand that the breads supplied by the politicians were not made by the father of the politicians but actually they were sent by God. No politician can manufacture bread without wheat. No wheat is produced without sun rays or rains from the sky. No rains are possible without obedience to God. No atheist can live and decry God without eating bread. And therefore whoever eats bread without acknowledging in gratitude of his indebtedness to God is certainly a demon and for such demons the stringent natural laws are meant for punishment. A time is nearing when there will be no wheat paddy in the field and no politician will be able to make a quick supply of bread. The food problem is already acute.

The atheistic civilization is to be troubled more and more with the progress of materialism. We have such foretellings in the pages of Srimad-Bhägavatam. The more the people are turning to the atheistic, the more things of disturbing elements do appear before us. And that is the thing which matters at present. This is a wrong type of civilization.

The Nectar Chronicles: Part 6

2009-08-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

"This service should be spontaneous, not forced. Just like a father loves his son spontaneously. A young man likes to love a young girl spontaneously. So bhakti should be like that. As soon as one hears the name of Krsna, immediately, spontaneously, he should be ready to serve Him. That is pure devotion. Not that forced. In the beginning, we have to force, that "You rise early in the morning. There is mangala ärätrika. You have to perform it." But when this function will be done spontaneously, "Oh, this is the time to offer mangala ärätrika to my Lord..." That is wanted."

Fake it until you make it...become conscious before you come Krsna Conscious. We have to force ourselves in the beginning because we are in such an unnatural state of mind, so far from and so much covered from our original state. Our meditation on chanting the Holy Name must be to train our unwieldy mind to always think of Krsna. We must fill our mind, our intelligence, and our very being with the Holy Name.

And in our sincere efforts to serve His devotees, our fellow spiritual warriors in this great battle of our times, we will learn humility, we will face the necessary purification, and we will taste the bliss of authentic loving exchanges and relationships, a taste that is truly beyond this world.

Further from the Nectar of Devotion:

"This devotional service is a sort of civilization. It is not simply inaction for people who like to be inactive or devote their time to silent meditation. There are many different methods for people who want this, but civilization of Krsna consciousness is different. The particular word used by Srila Rüpa Gosvämi is this connection is anusilana, or cultivation by following the predecessor teachers, or äcäryas. As soon as we say 'cultivation,' we must refer to activity. Without activity, consciousness alone cannot help us.' "

Prabhupada adds:

"I have to do this. My Lord will be pleased. So I have to do this." Activity. But if I have no idea what is Lord, what does He want, how He's pleased, if we do not know all these things, naturally there will be no activity."

The method is simple: to know Krsna we must simply hear about Krsna from the authorized source, the book bhagavat and the person bhagavat, then our dormant natural state of attraction to Krsna will arise. Prabhupada concludes with these words:

"So anyone who is working for spreading Krsna consciousness, he has no other motive than to satisfy Krsna. He has no other motive than to satisfy the representative of Krsna.

The Wisdom of Radhanath Swami: The Sincere Footsteps At Our Doorsteps:

2009-08-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

"The Sincere Footsteps at Our Doorstep"

From a darshan with the monks of the Bhaktivedanta Ashram, NYC, on 7-23-09

As our humble temple here in the East Village blossoms into The Bhakti Center, a front-line dynamo of progressive outreach and spiritual shelter for the denizens of the universal capital of the material energy, Manhattan, we look for guidance to the realized teachers whose vision propels us forward in a task with so many sublime qualities spiced with grand challenges both expected and unexpected.

The path we must tread is a careful one, requiring the balance of a tightrope walker with the sincere open-bigheartedness of the selfless saint, complete with the layered and authentic sophistication demanded here in one of humanity's most vibrant aesthetic playgrounds

His Holiness Radhanath Swami is one of the great inspirations behind the expansion of our project, following firmly and with great devotion in the footsteps of his beloved spiritual master, our eternal well-wisher and original neighborhood spiritual pioneer and patron, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.

In this very same neighborhood where Srila Prabhupada's mission first took root, where the timeless practice of loving devotion to God, bhakti-yoga, first made its presence felt in the contemporary Western world, Radhanath Swami now offers us his energy and presence to fulfill a promise he sees coming over the horizon.

It is a new wave of seekers, a renaissance of authentic children of the Divine ready for real spiritual culture, looking for a community of selfless love, deep wisdom, intelligent realizations, and total mind/body/soul connect that could change the shape and course of the world.

It is our duty to serve this new movement with open hands and hearts, with the warm family atmosphere of a delicious dinner topped with soul-stirring music, with the space to allow tired bodies to stretch out and become renewed, and most importantly of all, with the gift of the soul's eternal life of bliss, the art of bhakti.

Radhanath Swami, in his discourse with us, revealed that we carry within our hearts the deposit of Srila Prabhupada's mission here in NYC, a mission whose depth and openness is so rare in today's world that thrives and collapses in on itself in the name of strife, ruthless competition, and immoral and impersonal understandings of our relationships with each other.

We live in a city that has tasted the terror of what happens when faiths collide with one another, seemingly because of spiritual differences but actually based in the economic, political, and social realities of our time that never seem to fail in causing us to gnash and bear our teeth at one another like wild animals desperate to protect their territory.

The rare depth and openness of our mission, Prabhupada's mission, comes in the desire to help everyone, without discrimination, reach to their spiritual core. The bhakti tradition tells us that this core, the essence of our soul, is a condition of eternal knowledge and bliss, in service to the Divine, to Krsna, and to each other.

It is a condition which belongs to everyone equally, and which is beyond all sectarian strife and material misunderstanding. Radhanath Swami explains this eloquently himself in describing his first encounter with the mission and words of Srila Prabhupada in Bombay in 1970, in this excerpt from his biography The Journey Home.

Radhanath Swami writes:

"He confidently explained how true religion was not the property of any sect, caste, or creed, but the nature of all living beings. Our nature, he said, is to love God, but this love has been forgotten since time immemorial. Such love of God must be unconditional to completely satisfy the self.

'We are spirit souls,' he said, 'but in ignorance, we identify this temporary body with the self.' He went on to explain how the cause of all suffering was forgetfulness of our relationship with God, and how this consciousness could be easily awakened by the chanting of God's names.

In a voice brimming with compassion, he pleaded with the audience to take this message seriously. 'This process,' he said, 'which revives our dormant love of God, is called bhakti-yoga.'"

Srila Prabhupada himself explains this essential nature of his mission in a 1968 letter to Roland Michener, the governor-general of Canada. Prabhupada writes:

Our society (the International Society of Krishna Consciousness) is a non-lucrative organization, whose purpose is to promote the well-being of human society by drawing its attention to God. We are a non-sectarian society, and our members include people from Christian, Jewish and Muslim as well as Hindu faiths. The aim of our society is not to found a new religious sect, but to invoke the living entity's dormant love of God, and thus provide the human society of all faiths with a common platform of clear theistic knowledge and practice.

Members of our society may retain their own respective religious faiths, as our society is meant to establish a clear, practical common formulation of the common ideal of all theists, and to defeat the unnecessary dogmatic wranglings that now divide and invalidate the theistic camp. This common ideal of theism is to develop love of God.

In my own experience so far here in the city, encounters with the spiritually inclined have revealed a real eclectic mix of philosophical and practical viewpoints. It leaves me alternately enthused and confused, excited knowing that so many are ready and willing to bring real spiritual change into their lives and into the lives of others, but also wondering what is our specific approach, true to our tradition, that we can give and serve to this eclectic bunch of seekers.

I asked Radhanath Swami about this concern, and in his typical sweet simplicity, he told us that we should simply have faith that the attractiveness of bhakti, the attractiveness of the essential universality of the soul and its relationship to the Divine that we all share, will break and shine through any ideas that we are too different or specific to be able to share what we have.

In his own words, Radhanath Swami says we should, with taste and discretion, "love them for who they are." It will not do us any good to wage any theological battles, to establish some kind of supremacy in the turf war of religions big and small.

It should not concern us to try and prove that we have the right message and understanding. If we know, and if we feel, that the fruits of bhakti have sprouted and warmed our hearts, and have filled our lives with immense meaning and satisfaction, no matter who we are and where we come from, then it is just simply our own personal example and the example of our community that will allow our new friends to enter into a relationship of trust with us.

In this way, we can begin to serve them with the jewel-like gifts of the bhakti atmosphere, the life of selfless devotion that is the foundation of the real spiritual life and the key to the door that gives our full relationship with God and with each other.

As Radhanath Swami concluded with:

"Our anesthesia is making friends, and the bridge will be hospitality and friendship. Unless people open their hearts, our philosophy does not enter. We have to show people that we care about them.

There will be an explosion of Bhakti in Manhattan. We have to stay together and work together."

By his blessings, and by our effort, and by your support, we can begin to soak the streets of NYC in the essential understanding of the real bliss of a life centered on the soul and on service. And if it happens here in NYC, the hub of the wheel of anything that happens on this Planet Earth, it will happen everywhere else.

http://www.radhanathswami.com/

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http://www.radhanathmaharaj.net/

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...not like the land of Egypt from which I had come out...

2009-08-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

In the light of wisdom, we are able to honestly, with courage and clarity, at the previous foibles of our lives in such a manner as to express and instruct others so that they may not make the same mistake.

In this excerpt from "Seven-Story Mountain", Thomas Merton reveals to us that in our spiritual lives, we must dive deep within, with the desire for a wholesale change to turn our face to God, as we cannot live in the same way, in the same land, as we have done before....

"I had come, like the Jews, through the Red Sea of Baptism. I was entering into a desert...where I would have a chance to give God great glory by simply trusting and obeying Him, and walking in the way that was not according to my own nature and my own judgement. And it would lead me to a land that I could not imagine or understand

It would be a land that was not like the land of Egypt from which I had come out: the land of human nature blinded and fettered by perversity and sin. It would be a land in which the work of man's hands and man's ingenuity counted for little or nothing: but where God would direct all things, and where I would be expected to act so much and so closely under His guidance that it would be as if He thought with my mind, as if He willed with my will.

Baptism had brought with it the obligation to reduce all my natural appetites to subordination to God's will: 'For the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh, cannot please God...and if you live according to the flesh, you shall die, but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.'

It took me time to find it out: but I write down what I have found out at last, so that anyone who is now in the position that I was in then may read it and know what to do to save himself from great peril and unhappiness.

And to such a one I would say: Whoever you are, the land to which God has brought you is not like the land of Egypt from which you came out. You can no longer live here as you lived there.

Above all, eat your daily Bread without which you cannot live, and come to know Christ Whose Life feeds you in the Host, and He will give you a taste of joys and delights that transcend anything you have ever experienced before, and which will make the transition easy."

The Nectar Chronicles: Part 5

2009-08-09T08:00:00.000-04:00

Inspired by the "Nectar of Devotion" lecture series given by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada from October 20-November 13, 1972 at the Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana, India

All of these lectures are available for download at ISKCON Desire Tree.

Lecture #6
10-27-72

In these lectures by Srila Prabhupada, he is laying out the strongest of all foundations for the endurance and well-being of his neophyte disciples, a foundation firmly rooted in the timeless and inescapable wisdom of the Vedic sastra.

The essence of the Vedic way is to follow the parampara, to be formally and intimately linked up with this chain by the process of diksa, which allows one to transcend all external and internal obstacles, by the fire of one's own enthusiasm and faith, to be restored to one's original, natural spiritual position as the loving servant of Krsna and His devotees.

Prabhupada uses a wonderful analogy in describing the experience of someone who merges into the Brahman effulgence, showing that the Vaisnava is not someone who is interested in simply merging into the ocean, merging into the light, etc. Prabhupada says:

"So the rivers merging into the ocean. Then you must take further consideration that the superficial water mixing with the ocean is again evaporated. The water is evaporated by scorching heat of the sun. Just like now we see cloud in the sky. This is nothing but evaporated water from the sea. So the water which merged into the water and into the ocean of the, water of the ocean, now it is evaporated in the sky. And again it will fall down. And then again glide to the ocean. So this is called avagamana, coming and going, coming and going. But our Vaisnava philosophy is not to merge into the water, but keep your identity and go deep into the water. So that you may not be evaporated."

As a fully cognizant, independent, blissful, eternal drop of the Supreme, it is our greatest pleasure to enter the ocean of the spiritual world and dive deep into it, relating with Krsna and His devotees in this sublime "underwater" atmosphere in endless and increasingly pleasurable loving exchanges of service.

The key to the exchange and enjoyment of these exchanges in our eternal individuality, the personal character we bring to it. The varieties we share which make the "pleasure" of only merging into this ocean look cheap and thin.

Prabhupada continues:

"So our philosophy is that once going into the ocean, no more coming back.

janma karma ca me divyam

evaḿ yo vetti tattvataḥ

tyaktvā dehaḿ punar janma

naiti mām eti so 'rjuna

[Bg. 4.9]. That is our philosophy. If we once go in the spiritual world, we do not like to come back. We stay with Krsna and dance with Him, or play with Him, or serve with, serve Him as tree, as plant, as water, as cows, as land, as cowherd boys, as father, mother, or as gopis. This is our philosophy. Once we go to Krsna, we live forever with Him in either of these capacities. Let me live at Vrndavana in any capacity. It doesn't matter. But live there."
And Prabhupada writes in the Nectar of Devotion:

Let us offer our respectful obeisances to all the great devotees and äcäryas or holy teachers, who are compared with sharks in the great ocean of nectar and who do not care for the various rivers of liberation. Impersonalists are very fond of merging into the supreme, like rivers that come down and merge into the ocean. The ocean can be compared with liberation and the rivers with all the different paths of liberation. The impersonalists are dwelling in the river water, which eventually comes to mix with the ocean. They have no information, however, that within the ocean, as within the rivers, there are innumerable aquatic living entities. The sharks who dwell in the ocean do not care for the rivers which are gliding down into it."

"The devotees eternally live in the ocean of devotional service, and they do not care for the rivers. In other words, those who are pure devotees always remain in the ocean of transcendental loving service to the Lord and have no business with the other processes which are compared to the rivers that only gradually come to the ocean."

This simple grace cannot be found in the halls of speculation, logic, and argument. It is to be found and followed in the example of the acaryas, who stress the importance of mastering the art of the loving exchange, of becoming an adept in giving and receiving the highest sensation, the highest gratification.

Anything less, anything impersonal, is dry and desert-like in comparison to the dance of the Vaisnava sharks in the ocean of prema.

Again we return to the essential foundation to stand on: the inestimable and fully practical wisdom of sastra. Prabhupada quotes from the Caitanya-Caritamrta:

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu continued, "'Dry arguments are inconclusive. A great personality whose opinion does not differ from others is not considered a great sage. Simply by studying the Vedas, which are variegated, one cannot come to the right path by which religious principles are understood. The solid truth of religious principles is hidden in the heart of an unadulterated, self-realized person. Consequently, as the śāstras confirm, one should accept whatever progressive path the mahājanas advocate.'" CC Madhya 17:186

It is Rupa Goswami's specific example that gives the heft, the bricks, the weight, the solidity to our foundation. Prabhupada shares with us two specific aspects of the words and examples of Rupa Goswami in relation to our duty.

First he shares Rupa Goswami's simple advice that our mind and activities should be satisfied and should not feel any unnecessary need or curiosity to devote time to other paths:

As Prabhupada shares:

"But Rüpa Gosvämi recommends that we should not be deviated by the arguments, karmis, jnanis and yogis. Let them do their own business. We do not care for them. We give them respect as far as possible, but we don't, don't accept the path of karma-jnana-yoga."

And from the Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupada shares with us the most essential point of Rupa Goswami's example; to think of ourselves as humble instruments in the hands of the acaryas with the only goal in mind as to how to best benefit our suffering brothers and sisters in all walks of life. Prabhupada writes:

"The author of Bhakti-rasämåta-sindhu, Srila Rüpa Gosvämi, very humbly submits that he is just trying to spread Krsna consciousness all over the world, although he humbly thinks himself unfit for this work. That should be the attitude of all preachers of the Krsna consciousness movement, following in the footsteps of Srila Rupa Gosvämi. We should never think of ourselves as great preachers, but should always consider that we are simply instrumental to the previous äcäryas, and simply by following in their footsteps, we may be able to do something for the benefit of suffering humanity."

We all look up to those who inspire us, who set the stage, who hit the game-winning shot, who perform the most courageous, impossible, and meaningful acts that last through the generations.

In Krsna Consciousness, this propensity can be dovetailed to the infinite degree. Let us always meditate upon and follow in the footsteps of those great teachers and personalities who acts and words are truly immortal, and who give us the nectar of immortality and the ability to give it to others.

We should simply pray for the determination, faith, and constant opportunity to engage in their service for the real benefit of ourselves and all living entities. There is no higher or better occupation in all of existence.

The Contemplative Side

2009-08-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

"Contemplation is the highest expression of man's intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness, and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source. Contemplation is, above all, an awareness of the reality of that Source."

Thomas Merton
New Seeds of Contemplation

The Merton Institute For Contemplative Living
The Thomas Merton Center and International Thomas Merton Society

The Nectar Chronicles: Part 4

2009-07-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

Inspired by the "Nectar of Devotion" lecture series given by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada from October 20-November 13, 1972 at the Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana, India

All of these lectures are available for download at ISKCON Desire Tree.

Lecture #5
10-26-72

Never was there a time...the eternal gift of our individuality is that it allows us the chance to participate in the acts of loving exchange. It is these exchanges which are the fountain of meaning in our lives, and which become perfected as we enter into the spiritual atmosphere.

Today, Prabhupada mentions the importance of rasa, the taste or mellow which allows us to relish and become fully and personally involved in the activity or relationship in which we find ourselves at present.

The application of rasa can be very direct and understandable, as we see in the affection a young boy and young girl feel for each other, or it can be esoteric, as Prabhupada relates by using the beautiful but ghastly example of Bhismadeva pouring arrows into Krsna's body during the Battle of Kurukestra. Prabhupada says:

""Bhisma was also piercing His body with arrows. And Krsna was accepting the arrows move lovable than the flowers. This is the dealing. Therefore that is a rasa, ghastly rasa. Apparently it appears to be very severe, that Krsna is being pierced by the arrows. But Krsna was feeling pleasure.

So Srila Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur has explained this portion very nicely, that he has given the example of kissing. Sometimes there is hard pressure of the teeth, but still it is pleasurable. He has given this example, that although Krsna was being pierced by the arrows of Bhismadeva, still Krsna felt very pleasing."

Krsna is ready to respond to any rasa in which we want to deal with Him. These exchanges of pleasure, of love, of service, are very dynamic. It is not always just flowers. Sometimes it is arrows, although we must remember that these more esoteric rasas, including ones of lust, are only for the very advanced sadhakas.

We should simply desire to learn how to become the steady and loving servant of Krsna's devotees, and by our sincerity and determination, our original relationship, our original rasa, will be revealed in due time.

The beginning of our committment and engagement in the art of bhakti-yoga comes as we learn to control and dovetail the activities of our minds and senses in devotional service.

Prabhupada speaks that "if your mind is fixed up always in Krsna, then your senses will be also engaged in Krsna's service. Because mind is the center of all activities of the senses"

This engagement of the mind in bhakti-yoga begins with the tongue, tasting Krsna's Name and His prasadam. Prabhupada writes in the Caitanya-Caritamrta:

“‘Therefore material senses cannot appreciate Krsna's holy name, form, qualities and pastimes. When a conditioned soul is awakened to Krsna consciousness and renders service by using his tongue to chant the Lord’s holy name and taste the remnants of the Lord’s food, the tongue is purified, and one gradually comes to understand who Krsna really is.’ CC Madhya 17.136

The further effect of this is that by purifying our senses and our mental activities, we can begin to see who we actually are: the eternal spirit soul, freed from the cumbersome designations of body, mind, nation, society, family, etc that seem so natural but which yet are the very chains of our bondage to the material world.

In the Caitanya-Caritamrta we further find:

“‘Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.’ CC Madhya 19.170

Simple for the simple...The key to unlocking the door of eternal answers to our persistent problems is found in the vessel of service, in selflessness and devotion to our friends and loves ones on the spiritual path, to stepping outside the doors of our temporary designations and breathing the fresh air of bhakti.

Stepping out into this sunshine means we are acting in such a way as to be seen by Krsna, and also to be seen by and to please Prabhupada himself. HH Satsvarupa Maharaja writes about this in his Prabhupada Meditations, Volume III:

"If you could be in the same place with Prabhupäda, then your reward was to see his actual lila. On the other hand, if you served him anywhere in the world, you had the advantage of actually attracting the pure devotee. By that attraction he would come to you. Prabhupäda said that we should not try to see Krsna, but act in such a way that Krsna sees us.

He gave the example of an office worker in a big company who does his job very nicely. One day the president of the company examines his file and is impressed at the man’s work. Then the president comes to that man’s desk and congratulates him. We attract Prabhupäda by carrying out his orders. Let us make our hearts pure and enthusiastic to receive him."

Prabhupada says in his lecture:

"You cannot see Krsna, but by being satisfied with your service, Krsna sees you. Just like you cannot see sun at night. But when the sun sees you, you can see the sun and yourself, both. Similarly, when Krsna sees you, being satisfied with your service, then you can see Krsna, you can see yourself and you can see the whole world."

Being able to see the whole world means being able to see the brahmana and the dog-eater with the same vision, as spirit soul, not as the outward dress.

The sincere effort to purify our senses, cleansing our hearts of material dust alongside this, is the foundational prerequisite to this kind of vision, to becoming worthy of being seen and recognized by Krsna.

Krsna can only be served in a spiritual way, therefore we must have purified senses in order to truly serve Him. Prabhupada says:

"And Krsna, being Supreme, He's Supersoul, we cannot approach with our material consciousness. Therefore the consciousness has to be changed. Then we can approach Krsna. That is Krsna consciousness movement. Unless we change our consciousness... Just like, without being fire, you cannot enter into fire.

If you simply see Krsna with your eyes, then your eyes will be purified and spiritualized. Because you are touching... Just like if you keep yourself always in touch with fire, you become warm. Warm, warm, warmer. If you put one iron rod in the fire, it becomes warm, warmer, warmer, and at last, it becomes red hot. When it is red hot, it is fire. It is not more iron rod. You touch that red hot iron anywhere, it will burn. Similarly, if you keep always in touch with Krsna, you become Krsnaized, and you can appreciate what is Krsna."

From One Who Turned The Corner...

2009-07-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

Excerpted from "The Seven-Storey Mountain" by Thomas Merton

"We refuse to hear the million different voices through which God speaks to us, and every refusal hardens us more and more against His grace-and yet He continues to speak to us: and we say He is without mercy!

'But the Lord dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance.'

Mother of God, how often in the last centuries have you not come down to us, speaking to us in our mountains and groves and hills, and telling us what was to come upon us, and we have not heard you. How long shall we continue to be deaf to your voice, and run our heads into the jaws of hell that abhors us?

Glorious Mother of God, shall I ever again distrust you, or your God, before Whose throne you are irresistible in your intercessions? Shall I ever turn my eyes from your hands and from your face and from your eyes? Shall I ever look anywhere else but in the face of your love, to find out true counsel, and to know my way, in all the days and all the moments of my life?

As you have dealt with me, Lady, deal also with all my millions of brothers who live in the same misery that I knew then: lead them in spite of themselves and guide them by your tremendous influence, O Holy Queen of souls and refuge of sinners, and bring them to your Christ the way you brought me.

Show us your Christ, Lady, after this our exile, but show Him to us also now, show Him to us here, while we are still wanderers."

The Nectar Chronicles: Part 3

2009-07-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

The method is very simple, but one has to understand it with a cool head. The Nectar of Devotion teaches all men how to perform the simple and natural method of loving Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If we learn how to love Krsna, then it is very easy to immediately and simultaneously love every living being."

If Krsna is at the center of our life, and all its dealings, then whatever field of activity we are in will be enhanced by being anchored to His foundation. The petty conflicts and other traps of the modes of nature will not have as much influence, if they even have any influence at all, which depends on our purity, honesty, and humility.

Prabhupada quotes Rupa Goswami when he says: "Rüpa Gosvämi says, nirbandhe krsna-sambandha. You can deal in politics. Then politics will be perfect. Krsna-sambandha, you can make a circle of scientific knowledge. Then it will be perfect. Making the center Krsna, either in politics, sociology, philosophy, religion, whatever it may be. It will be perfect."

The transformation of these material energies into a spiritual use doesn't require any external magical tricks, pay-offs, or lobbying. It is all about a change in consciousness, the essential internal change within our own being that must prelude and support any external difference to be made.

And it is so possible for all of us to be able to change our consciousness in such a way to make this difference in the world today. We have no disqualifications because of any previous position we've taken in our lives, as long as we choose now to sincerely follow in the path and the mission of the acaryas.

Prabhupada says:

"On the spiritual platform means to understand the Science of Krsna, the Supreme Spirit. Then if we are conversant with the science of Krsna, then anyone who is such enlightened, he is perfect spiritual master. It doesn't matter what he is."

"But the universality of Caitanya Mahäprabhu's movement is such that anyone can become Krsna conscious, and anyone can accept or be elevated to the exalted post of gosvämi, namäcärya."

"If one is elevated to Krsna consciousness, even he's born in the family of dog-eaters or he is a dog-eater... Of course, he cannot remain dog-eater. After coming to become a Vaisnava, he does not remain a dog-eater. But dog-eating is not disqualification. That is Caitanya Mahäprabhu's specific contribution. Nothing is disqualification to come to Krishna consciousness, provided one is serious to come to this platform."

Prabhupada further warns that we shouldn't take advantage of this unique qualification of Mahaprabhu's blessing. We must become sincere and do all we can to come to the platform of living as a qualified brahmana.

This sincerity is the foundation of any effort we make to please Guru and Gauranga. Without this sincerity, we are only a pretender.

Hard Times Are Jamming the Ashrams

2009-07-16T09:46:00.002-04:00

"The Himalayan Institute is one of many retreats where cash-strapped spiritual seekers can participate in work-study programs in which they pay typically $300 to $900 a month in exchange for a few hours a day of service, like washing dishes, cleaning rooms or weeding gardens.

As the unemployment rate has risen and people have sought refuge from the harsh economy, these work-exchanges have become a hot commodity. The Himalayan Institute received twice as many applications for its summer work-study programs this year as last — its August session is full, with 22 people, compared with 11 last year — and so did two similar retreats, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in Carmel Valley, Calif., and Satchidananda Ashram in Buckingham, Va. (which is better known as Yogaville).

The people who run these programs say there seems to be a link between the troubled job market and the rising popularity of yoga retreats. Todd Wolfenberg, director of marketing at the Himalayan Institute, said he has seen an increase in applications from recent college graduates and people with professional careers. “I suspect that is due to the fact that they haven’t been able to find a job after college or are leaving a job,” he said. The center has traditionally attracted people whose lives permit extended time off, like writers and entrepreneurs."

Click here to read more from the 7/16/09 edition of the New York Times

The Nectar Chronicles: Part 2

2009-07-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

Inspired by the "Nectar of Devotion" lecture series given by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada from October 20-November 13, 1972 at the Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana, India

All of these lectures are available for download at ISKCON Desire Tree.

Lectures #2 and #3
10-21-72 and 10-23-72

It was a great gift of Prabhupada's transcendental timing that his arrival in the West came during a day in which a wholesale abandoning of contemporary values by the youth of the day was catching fire.

No longer were the visions and lifestyles of good ol' ma and pa something that would give satisfaction to these driven and daring seekers-through the help of a very flavorful cosmic soup, they had begun to see through the illusions of a mass-production, mass-consumption society that had little heart to offer.

The "Leave It To Beaver" aesthetic did not compute to many of these young men and women-some of whom would become Prabhupada's dear followers. They had the inkling of a realization about the real nature of the "reality" that faced them.

In his purport to verses 11-12 from the chapter "Departure of Lord Krsna to Dvaraka" from the First Canto of the Bhagavatam, Prabhupada writes:

"Material society, friendship and love are all different phases of lust. Home, country, family, society, wealth and all sorts of corollaries are all causes of bondage in the material world, where the threefold miseries of life are concomitant factors. By associating with pure devotees and by hearing them submissively, attachment for material enjoyment becomes slackened, and attraction for hearing about the transcendental activities of the Lord becomes prominent."

Speaking to his students this evening in Vrndavana, Prabhupada is giving the sastric weight to their frustrations and revolt against the values of contemporary society. He is confirming their frustration and, more importantly, telling them how to find the real peace and happiness that will end this frustration.

How to do so is by linking up with the merciful process of devotional service, with the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, by answering the plea of Lord Nityananda as he rolls in the dust before in you, straw in his mouth, begging you to become absorbed in the Holy Name.

In the preface to the Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupada writes:

"When the purified senses are employed in the service of the Lord, one becomes situated in bhakti-rasa life, and any action performed for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa in this transcendental bhakti-rasa stage of life can be relished perpetually. When one is thus engaged in devotional service, all varieties of rasas, or mellows, turn into eternity. In the beginning one is trained according to the principles of regulation under the guidance of the ācārya, or spiritual master, and gradually, when one is elevated, devotional service becomes automatic and spontaneous eagerness to serve Kṛṣṇa."

Clinging to the lotus feet of our spiritual master, and of all those who take it upon themselves in their mercy to guide our fragile journey into spiritual life, is the only valid ticket to the "automatic and spontaneous eagerness to serve Krsna" that is our truest birthright and most natural condition of the soul.

Saksad-dharitivena samasta sastre...The spiritual master is as good as the Supreme Person. Because he is the most humble, the most merciful representative of the Lord. He is completely qualified and completely able to give the Lord's mercy to the conditioned souls.

Prabhupada says in his lecture: "He does not think himself as spiritual master. He thinks himself their servant. Because they have to be trained. Krsna has appointed him to train them. Therefore he thinks himself as servant of the disciples. This is the position."

Prabhupada's position, his service in teaching the practical application of the Absolute Truth to his young students, was to help them understand their frustrations with the "status quo" had a deeper taste to them.

They did not want to identify with the designations of a hypocritical society based on greed and hatred. It is a craziness that the sanity of their heart's calling prevents them from giving into, and Prabhupada confirms this when he says:

"But in my opinion, every man is a crazy man." So this is a fact. This is a fact. Anyone who is under the control of the material energy, he's a crazy man. He's thinking "I am this, I am that, I am this," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Hindu," "I am a Muslim," "I am so on, so on, so many things." But he's nothing of all this. These are all creation of mäyä."

Real self-realization means a personal identification beyond these mere material designations. Going beyond these unhealthy identifications means going beyond hankering and lamenting, and it also means going beyond harmful conflict, destroying the very source, the ahankara, of all war and conflict.

We can share in Prabhupada's service by our eagerness to share the message of Krsna Consciousness. Our eagerness to share is the fee for the valid ticket of attachment to the lotus feet of Guru and Gauranga mentioned above. Prabhupada says in his lecture:

"A devotee should not only give respect to the devotees, but he should try to make others a devotee. That means preaching. What is the meaning of this preaching. People are engaged in material activities, and the preacher should approach them that 'You are spoiling your time, my dear sir. You become devotee of Krsna.' This is preaching. 'You are simply spoiling. You have got this human form of life, but you are utilizing like animals—eating, sleeping, mating and defending.'"

Ultimately, it is about love. It was love, after all, that the heady youth of the sixties were after in all their perverted guises and methods. It is, in fact, what we are always after in our words and deeds, but we tragically have little clue how to find the real, everlasting love of legend, fable, and fame.

Here again is where Prabhupada swoops in with the straight dope. In the preface to the NOD, he writes:

The basic principle of the living condition is that we have a general propensity to love someone. No one can live without loving someone else. This propensity is present in every living being. Even an animal like a tiger has this loving propensity, at least in a dormant stage, and it is certainly present in the human beings.

The missing point, however, is where to repose our love so that everyone can become happy. At the present moment, the human society teaches one to love his country or family or his personal self, but there is no information where to repose the loving propensity so that everyone can become happy.

That missing point is Krsna, and the Nectar of Devotion teaches us how to stimulate our original love for Krsna and how to be situated in that position where we can enjoy our blissful life."
It is a pure love, the nectar of our hearts, covered over by our moldy, rotten conditioning, that is to be uncovered by our fealty, our devotion to Prabhupada and to Krsna. By our love, our commitment in this duty, then it is the service of the acaryas to help us to uncover this original pure love in our hearts.

What is the substance of this pure love? Prabhupada says:

"In the material world field, we love somebody for getting something in return. That is not love, pure love. Pure love is different. Pure love, as it is described by Lord Caitanya, in the, in His mood of Rädhärani unto Krsna:

aslisya va pada-ratam pinastu mam
adarsanan marma-hatam karotu va
yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato
mat-prana-nathas tu sa eva naparah

This is love, Rädhärani''s, that 'You either embrace Me or trample Me down under your feet, neglect Me, or make Me broken-hearted, not being present at any time throughout My life, life after life, it does not matter. Still I love you unconditionally.'That is real love. And that love is existing in everyone's heart."

We can reawaken this love by following in the footsteps of the great acaryas, in the methods prescribed to us by Rupa Goswami.

C/O President Obama Part 2

2009-06-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks to our dear friend Ananda, we have Vol.2 of Leadership For An Age of Higher Consciousness ready to be sent to the White House.

We're now looking for a kind soul to donate Vol.1 All the info is below

There is a desperate need for spiritual leadership. There is desperate need for the leaders of our world to know how to care for their constituents, to know how to inspire others to serve and sacrifice for the greater good, and to bring people back to their awareness of the Supreme, the Divine, to Krsna.

In this mood, I am hoping someone will sponsor a copy of the timeless tome from HH Bhakti-Tirtha Swami, Leadership For An Age of Higher Consciousness, so that we can send it to the White House in the hopes it will reach the hands of President Obama, and enhance his already sincere style of leadership, and take it and us to a higher level.

This is real "shoot the rhino" strategy, in the mood of Prabhupada, who would always try to contact big world leaders like Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, the Pope, and even Richard Nixon.

If you would like to help, either leave a comment with contact info, or write us at nvclub108@gmail.com.

Beefing Up Appeals To Save Cows

2009-06-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

From the 6-23-09 edition of the Wall Street Journal

NEW VRINDABAN, W.Va. -- Saving cows, the Hare Krishnas in this village have learned, is a lot easier in India.

Created four decades ago, New Vrindaban was the first cattle sanctuary in the U.S. At its peak, it had 434 bovine refugees. Today, the cattle population is down to 80 because there's not enough money to support more. So the Hare Krishna community is borrowing a tactic more commonly used by charities that try to save people.

In New Vrindaban, Hare Krishnas have built a sanctuary for cows, which they consider sacred. The 80 beloved bovines here are treated by their Hindu caretakers like members of the family.

For $51, you can feed a cow for a month, while $108 would "provide special care for retired cows who can no longer breed or give milk," the group says in one appeal. "In one selfless stroke, you are sending a valuable message to our children and to a troubled world which sees today's gentle cow as tomorrow's dinner."

The adopt-a-cow effort promises bovine photographs and updates for donors, along with an open invitation to visit the cows in this village, near Moundsville, W.Va. The village is modeled after the childhood home of the Hindu deity Krishna, who taught his followers to revere cows.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, a Hindu group that grew out of a movement to ban the slaughtering of cows, has joined the Hare Krishna effort with its own appeals to help raise the roughly $1,000 needed to support each cow for a year. "It is needless to mention that by taking special care of Lord Krishna's cows you and your family will definitely receive His special blessings," reads another appeal, targeting the estimated 1.5 million Hindus in the U.S., recently posted on the group's Web site.

'Party Animal'

Other Hare Krishna groups in the U.S. also offer adoption programs, including one just up the road, called the International Society for Cow Protection. It posts names and profiles of cattle available for adoption on its Web site, calling one a "party animal and break-out artist" and another "Mister Handsome Heartbreaker."

Cows are sacred to Hindus, a status allowing them to roam the streets of India untouched. Most Indian states prohibit their slaughter, although an illegal beef trade thrives. Krishna is believed to have encouraged the people of Vrindaban, India, to worship the land and animals that support them, preaching the power of cows to provide everything from milk for children to manure for farming.

The cows at New Vrindaban -- from the oldest of the herd to the youngest calf, 6-month-old Rama -- are doted on, often getting hugs and kisses. Devotees offer the cows' milk to Krishna in religious ceremonies and use it to make butter, yogurt and sweets.

"We look at them like our own mothers," says Ranaka Das, 54 years old, a cow caretaker. Once known as Doug Fintel, he worked at a Coors brewery in Colorado before joining the Hare Krishna movement and moving to New Vrindaban in 1977. "You take care of them like your own family," he said. "In a regular dairy operation, cows are like any piece of machinery."

Milind Bharambe, a Pittsburgh software analyst who immigrated from India nine years ago, initially sought a reward of sorts for helping to save the animals. "Cows are very dear to Krishna," he says. "If I help someone very dear to Krishna, maybe I might benefit," he thought.

But today, Mr. Bharambe -- who donates about $800 a year to New Vrindaban, half earmarked for the cows -- says his motivation is more spiritual. "I'm supporting someone very dear to Krishna. That thought itself gives so many things. You feel happiness. You feel better."

Many of New Vrindaban's cows were born on site. Devotees occasionally rescue doomed cows from slaughterhouses and bring them to the sanctuary.

"Slaughtering an animal is not natural for human beings," said Rishi Shinde, a Dallas businessman who donates about $360 a year to sponsor one cow. "It affects one's consciousness, makes one violent and makes one lose contact with the emotional self."

New Vrindaban's cow farm, or goshala, includes a giant barn for the cattle -- as many as 200 -- which spend most of their day grazing on the pasture. Only half a dozen of the 80 cows still produce milk, about 50 pounds of it a day. The rest of the cattle are left to carry out their natural lives -- as long as 20 years -- far longer than the life span for many U.S. cattle raised for slaughter.

Seventies Devotees

At the top of a winding West Virginia road, New Vrindaban was established in a small farmhouse in 1968 with 100 acres by two American disciples of Swami Prabhupada, an Indian who moved to New York City to spread his love for Krishna. As the Hare Krishna movement expanded with hippies-turned-devotees in the 1970s, hundreds of Americans -- 700 at one point, the group says -- moved to New Vrindaban, took up robes and Sanskrit names and assumed a mission of protecting cows, growing their own food and building temples.

They raised money selling wares at street corners and airports nationwide, pouring their funds into materials to build, by hand, an ornate temple for Prabhupada on the site of a former trash dump. Completed in 1979, two years after his death, Prabhupada's Palace of Gold became a shrine. Tourists came by the busload, drawing more publicity, devotees and money -- millions of dollars a year. New Vrindaban grew to 3,000 acres.

A 1986 murder of a former devotee sent the community into turmoil. Authorities raided the community, sparking years of investigations into allegations of murder, racketeering and child abuse. The New Vrindaban founder who was alleged to have ordered the murder eventually went to prison for racketeering. He received a 20-year prison sentence, which was then reduced to 12 years due to poor health. He served eight years.

New Vrindaban's cow sanctuary sits alongside communities that raise cattle for other purposes.

Today, the New Vrindaban area has fewer than 200 resident devotees, about a quarter of them of Indian descent. The site still draws about 25,000 visitors a year, the group says. A donation of $6 is sought from those who visit the Palace of Gold. Visitors of Indian descent take special interest in the cows, often bringing their children to pet the animals.

That doesn't produce the $100,000 a year needed to pay for hay, the barn, workers and property taxes. Hence the adopt-a-cow fund raising. The leaders of the community say only a few of the cows are sponsored in full for life by the donations, which are tax-deductible. But they are clear about one thing: None of these cows ever leave for the slaughterhouse.

"We've kept that promise to Pradhupada and the cows since we first came here," says Nityodita Das, one of the community's current leaders.

The Hare Krishnas' cow-protection campaign doesn't seem to be getting much traction with some neighbors. "There's not much of a push around here to save cattle," says Allen Hendershot, Moundsville city manager. "Cattle are raised for a reason."

Indeed, drivers exiting Interstate 470 in Bethlehem, W.Va., to reach New Vrindaban recently were greeted by a giant sign in the median featuring a bovine cartoon, promoting a nearby event. It read: "Bethlehem Steak Fry."

Write to Sudeep Reddy at sudeep.reddy@wsj.com

A Righteous Escape

2009-06-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

From the Sunday, June 21st edition of the New York Times

The government limits the number of monks allowed to live in the monastery, they said. Officials cracked down on festivities honoring the Dalai Lama. When the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama visited Labrang several years ago, monks were forced to stay indoors to prevent disturbances.

Last year, when monks in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, began leading peaceful protests on March 10, word spread quickly to Labrang.

Thousands of monks and lay people in Xiahe marched to government offices demanding the return of the Dalai Lama. Some protesters broke into buildings and threw stones at riot police officers.

From then on, the government tightened the screws on the monastery, the monks said. A curfew was imposed. Security officers arrested several monks each night. The monastery began to empty out.

“Some monks ran off to their homes in the countryside,” said Jamyang Jinpa, 24.

The authorities began holding daily hourlong patriotic education classes, in which the monks were forced to read tracts denouncing the Dalai Lama and pledge loyalty to the Communist Party.

“As a Buddhist monk who believes in the Dalai Lama as our foundation, it was unbearable to read this,” Lobsang said.

On the night of April 8, some monks heard on the radio that foreign journalists were to arrive in Labrang the next day on a government tour.

“We immediately stopped what we were doing that night and started discussing the protest,” Jamyang said.

A half-dozen monks brought out a Tibetan flag and scrawled slogans on three white banners. “We have no freedom of speech,” read one. They wrote their wills on the back of the flag because they thought there was a good chance they would be killed by Chinese security forces, Jamyang said.

When they went to the main temple the next morning, they were struck by a strange sight: Hundreds of people were milling about the square outside. Most were plainclothes Chinese security officers.

“We knew then that the journalists were coming,” Jamyang said. “We pretended to visit the temple.”

When the journalists and their government escorts pulled up in minivans, the monks dashed across the square, unfurling their flag and banners. A few words were exchanged in Chinese. Some monks draped white ceremonial scarves around the necks of several journalists.

“The Chinese people in plainclothes took photos of us, but they dared not stop us in front of the journalists,” Jamyang said.

That night, security officers searched the cells of the monks involved in the protest, but the monks had hidden elsewhere. The next night, Jamyang slipped into the mountains and kept walking until dawn.

“After the protest, I felt I would be arrested at any time,” he said.

Jamyang spent the first two months mostly sleeping outdoors, he said, sometimes in ditches that he had dug himself. He tossed away his red robes and began growing out his hair. In the summer, he wandered to the high pastures and slept in the tents of nomads.

“In my dreams, sometimes I would see myself getting shot and dying,” he said.

Two other monks from the protest, Lobsang and Jigme Gyatso, also fled the monastery in the days after Jamyang left. The three stayed apart. After nearly a year in hiding, the monks learned of a guide in Lhasa who could smuggle them into Nepal.

Using fake identification cards, they boarded the new high-altitude train to Lhasa. A driver then sneaked them past checkpoints to the Nepal border, where they crossed a river on logs.

Of the 15 monks who took part in that protest in front of the journalists, only these three have escaped to India. That they made it here is considered extraordinary given how tightly Chinese authorities clamped down on Tibet. The refugee center here usually gets 2,500 to 3,000 Tibetans per year, but that dropped to 550 last year. By the end of May, only 176 refugees had arrived, said Ngawang Norbu, the center’s director.

The monks say they have no regrets about holding the protest — to them, there was no other way to show the world their true feelings about Chinese rule.

“I miss my friends and family in Tibet, but I try to bury my feelings,” Jamyang said. “At the moment, I can’t return to Tibet, and I don’t know about the future.”

The Nectar Chronicles: Part 1

2009-06-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

Inspired by the "Nectar of Devotion" lecture series given by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada from October 20-November 13, 1972 at the Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrndavana, India

All of these lectures are available for download at ISKCON Desire Tree.

Let me set the scene...

It is autumn in Vrndavana. The clouds have broken in the rainy season, a natural metaphor of the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu that has broken through to the Western world.

Prabhupada describes it thusly in the "The Description of Autumn" chapter of Krsna book: "As clouds sometimes clear, even in the rainy season, and sometimes the moon, stars and sun become visible, so even in this Kali-yuga there are sometimes advantages. For example, sometimes Lord Caitanya’s Vedic movement of distributing the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra is heard. People seriously eager to find real light should take advantage of this movement instead of looking toward the light of mental speculators and atheists."

Surrounded by a transcendental gaggle of his young, eager,confused, and very sincere disciples from the mleccha-lands, the acarya, the best friend, the magnificent personality that is Srila Prabhupada expounds on the basics of Krsna Consciousness, laying the literal foundation for the worldwide spreading of his mission for the benefit of all living entities.

Thanks to the minor miracles of modern recording technology, we, as his disciples and grand-disciples and so on, have the unique situation of having the sound of the acarya, the words of the acarya, and the presence of the acarya available freely at our fingertips and eardrums at any given moment.

These are my humble reflections on these timeless and priceless lectures, the words of Srila Prabhupada, the parampara passing through him and in him, to us now and forever.

Lecture #1
10-20-72

Srila Prabhupada knows that his young disciples, those his spiritual master has sent to him to help him fulfill his mission, are raw and prone to easy and heavy misjudgement and misunderstanding.

So, although he is speaking from the very exalted platform of the Bhakti-Rasamrta-Sindhu by Srila Rupa Goswami, which has been translated by Prabhupada, who like Srila Vyasadeva is very kind to the ignorant masses, into The Nectar of Devotion, we are really here in Krishna Consciousness 101, and we should relish every moment.

This is our chance to stand on the firmest ground, to build the strongest foundation, simply by our attentive and respectful hearing.

Rupanugas...Who is the personality behind this foundation? It is Srila Rupa Goswami. Prabhupada says our aim of life must be to serve the mission of the acaryas. By this service, in its many dynamic forms and expressions, we actually associate with Rupa Goswami and all the acaryas personally

Another brick in the transcendental wall of our foundation is the association of the devotees, the cypher and medium through which we gain the opportunity for loving service exchanges wherein this personal association of the acaryas lies, waiting to bear its fruit.

Siddhanta...the conclusions of the acaryas are the lighthouse of clarity in the dark sea of the Kali-Yuga. Prabhupada says to the assembled Vaisnavas:

"Those who are advanced devotee, they know siddhänta, the conclusion. In the Caitanya-caritämåta, therefore, it has been advised, siddhänta baliyä citte nä kara alasa ihä haite krsna läge sudrdha mänasa [Ädi 2.117]

If you neglect siddhänta, conclusion, given by the äcäryas, then you will misunderstand Krsna. Krsna, therefore Narottama däsa Thäkura says... These are the evidences. Narottama däsa Thäkura, such an exalted äcärya, he's teaching us, "Don't try to understand yugala-piriti, the love affairs between Rädhä and Krsna, concoctedly, by your own concoction." No.

You should first of all try to serve the Six Gosvämis, rüpa-raghunätha-pade haibe äkuti, how they are directing. Just like this Bhakti-rasämåta-sindhu. Srila Rüpa Gosvämi is not teaching in the beginning the loving affairs of Rädhä-Krsna. No. He's training, first of all, the reader, the devotee, how to become first of all pure devotee."

If we jump, we shall fall...fall right off the cliff. Prabhupada warns his young disciples, he warns us, that we shouldn't take off the training wheels until we know how to balance ourselves, until we know how to ride the bike of Vaisnava etiquette, until we have real, honest, active faith in the siddhanta of the acaryas.

We cannot re-establish our relationship with Krsna artificially, or as Prabhupada reveals by metaphor, we cannot force the sun to rise. It is revealed gradually, with proper training. Svarup-siddhi, our natural position, is revealed gradually.

Prabhupada also knows that some of his young disciples are still impressionable to the impersonalist gobbly-gook they discovered in their psychedelic journey to the promised land.

Similar to the "stay high forever" rhetoric of the 2nd Avenue days, Prabhupada relates that the impersonalist may shoot into the effulgence like a rocket, buoyed by his austerities, but like the rocket, unless it finds a planet to land on and engage, one cannot float forever. One must come back down.

Whether its psychedelic seasoning or millions of lifetimes of cold-cave austerities, without Krsna in the center, the results are not permanent. The fruits eventually become dry, spoiled, and rotten.

Prabhupada is very careful to make clear that artificial bhajan invariably leads back to sense pleasure. It does not lead to Krsna. If we jump, we will fall down.

***

Our training ground is our preachings. Our college classrooms. Our bhakti-vrksa gatherings. Our festival delights. Our subway book distributions. Every inch of the globe stands ready to be used to rescue our faltering excuse of an civilization to the feet of the acaryas.

Prabhupada's encouragement is simple but completely rock-solid. We should just try to preach this message, and the more strength we will get to go on further and further, reaching more and more people, entering into newer and uncharted territories.

This is the best welfare activity for everyone. Better than political rallies, petitions, and seditions. The welfare it gives is free and real.

It hits the soul, like a Trane refrain, and brings the love so lacking, filled in its void by a hatred, a collection of aparadhas, that sears the very idea of our actual identity, of the peace and self-realization that is our eternal birthright.

Anyone who is preaching the message of Lord Caitanya is most, most dear to Krsna. It is His desire, His will, and His greatest pleasure that we preach the siddhanta of the acaryas to our fellow uncovered devotees and covered-over devotees, whomever we know and whomever we will meet.

And preaching is not difficult. We are simply to establish that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Isvarah paramah krsna. We must become sincerely convinced and then we can also convince others.

Prabhupada says the test of advancement of our sincerity as we build our foundations in Krsna Consciousness, is to experience oneself as different in mood, thoughts, and actions from the karmis, jnanis, etc.

If we walk down the street, and we feel different from those around us, if we don't desire the mundane that surrounds us, then we are pushing through. The rainy season is beginning to clear, and the sunlight of the Supreme Lord is beginning to shine through

(Of course, if we walk down the street, and we feel different from others, yet don't feel proud or superior because of it, then that is a further, higher level of advancement)

Another example is our willingness to give up the non-essential comforts in our life (Speaking from the brahmacari side is the clear realization that we don't require furniture) to find the better engagement.

Letting go of our lesser tastes makes room for the higher tastes. It makes room for the real bricks, the real spiritual cement we have to have in place to survive and thrive as the servants, the personal associates of the acaryas.