Planet ISKCON

Answer Podcast

Answer Podcast

Niranjana Swami — Lecture on Queen Kunti’s Prayers at Baltic Summer Festival — 24 July 2013

If we had to do everything that everyone wanted us to do, we would soon become exhausted. That’s why we learn to say no to those things that aren’t high on our priority list.

This principle of learning to say no applies to our inner life too. Most of the desires entering our mind are intruders that prey on our time and mental energy. But because they seem to come without anyone’s external persuasion, we tend to think of them as our own desires. Frequently however, they are not our own desires; they are simply delayed external persuasions.
Our past exposures to external temptations have created impressions in our mind. When we are off-guard, those impressions impel us to do things that are unimportant, unnecessary or even undesirable. When our energy gets dissipated on such things, then we find ourselves overworked, stressed and frustrated. In one word, weary.
To minimize such weariness, we need to maximize our wariness about inner desires and outer temptations.
1. Inner desires: Instead of uncritically identifying the desires coming in our mind as our desires, we can cautiously evaluate them: “Is this important for me? If not, let me neglect it, or better still, reject it.”
2. Outer temptations: Even when external temptations don’t seem to provoke us, still we can minimize our exposure, knowing that the consequent impressions may provoke us in the future. Why court trouble?
The Bhagavad-gita (02.58) recommends such wariness when it urges us to withdraw our senses from the sense objects.
Over time, the struggle to be wary may itself make us weary. That’s why we need to complement our wariness of the negative with eagerness of the positive – devotional stimuli centered on Krishna. The resulting remembrance of Krishna will fill us with spiritual energy and drive out our weariness.

**
One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws its limbs within the shell, is firmly fixed in perfect consciousness.

At the time of death, the mind and intelligence of a living entity create the subtle form of a certain type of body for the next life. If the mind suddenly thinks of something not very congenial, one has to take a corresponding birth in the next life. On the other hand, if one can think of Krishna at the time of death, he can be transferred to the spiritual world, Goloka Vrndavana. This process of transmigration is very subtle; therefore Srila Rupa Gosvami advises devotees to train their minds in order that they will be unable to remember anything other than Krishna.

Nectar of Instruction 8 purport

I’ve spent the past few weeks quietly reflecting on things which I do from time to time

During a visit to a sanga in London several upon seeing me asked one question, are you doing the transfers in the morning? It made me smile for the past few years during my visits to The Manor the devotees have allowed me to do the early morning transfers something I’ve grown fond indeed look forward to doing.

I’ve been pondered the fact that when first taking up on this seva their was a promise added, sadly that promise never transpired but there is some confusion as I’m not bitter; indeed I’m a little relieved although there is again a conflict as I’ve also not hid my desire to become a pujari at The Manor.

As I reflect it occurred to me that those unqualified like myself believe wrongly that their most qualified, unchecked this can cause problems; indeed I started to question my ulterior motive is the desire enough to justify being able to take up the pujari service?
What is my true qualification?

Not based upon my own appraise of self but upon those whom know the standards, indeed there is one thing doing these early morning transfers and having the amazing association of extraordinary devotees is that in my own case there is plenty to be desired, many gaps in knowledge and understanding, and many gaps in practice of Krishna Consciousness.

I’m pleased that for the second year running their will be a Diwali celebration held for the local community groups I’ve been working with and pondering also how best to give them the best experience of Krishna consciousness this year we will also be sending out a flyer again a challenge for me; my realization is in both cases I’m out of my depth.

My aim is to increase the school visits in the local area, it was nice during the holidays to have some of the children I’ve visited shout out “Hare Krishna” much to the amusement of the parents which has actually led to some interesting conversations and Yes they took a book; but again my realization is that I’m lacking key skills and organization in this it could be much better.

Looking more closely at the seva done at The Manor there is a desire to increase which is always a fine balancing act between that of the needs of work and that of spiritual progression; and in many ways I’ve been fortunate in getting the extra time off for community/school visits and monthly visits to the Manor which is negotiated at the start of each year. And so looking and planning for next year’s negotiations which we will enter into in December, this means that as in the past two years my visits to the Manor will be agreed and I’m hoping to be able to continue with those wonderful early morning transfers.

But more so the time pondering has reminded me of the importance of reading, listening to Srila Prabhupada’s tapes, taking association of devotees and diligent and attentive chanting.

I hope that you’ve also enjoyed the postings I’ve put up on behalf of HG Parsharam Das theirs been some amazing videos to view along with a small story behind them and HG Vicaru Das which always includes wonderful passages to reflect on. It is nice to have to wonderful devotees sending me such wonderful e-mails and engaging me in such an amazing way.

I’m also sure it gives good balance to my blog. And pray that by the loving care of the devotees I will be around and continuing making good progress for many many years to come.

Would you want to live forever?

Okay, maybe not forever. But what do you think about what’s called “radical life extension?”

The Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project recently polled Americans about how they feel about efforts to keep people living well past 100. Not so surprisingly, the answers broke down into different categories when the researchers looked at this question by religious group.

For example, more than 50 percent of white evangelicals, white mainline Protestants and white Catholics thought “radical life extension” was a bad thing. But more than 50 percent of black Protestants thought it was a good thing. And 49 percent of those who believe in an after-life also thought this was good.

To me, that latter finding was the most interesting part of the survey. More people who believe in an after-life liked the concept than those who don’t believe in an after-life. (Fifty-eight percent of the latter thought extending life up to 120 years or so is not a good thing.)

So, what do you think of “radical life extension?”

Are we “cheating death” as the title of an Atlantic piece suggests? Or are we merely availing ourselves of all the advancements in science and medical technology?

NITYANANDA CHANDRA DAS, minister of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Dallas 

I am sorry to say, but this is a scam, a post-dated check and a grant plea.

The science community would like us to believe that they can solve all problems of life including the major ones such as death, disease, and old age. This is much like the Ford horseless carriage advertisements of the 1900s that claimed automobiles could solve America’s pollution problem. It would rid the streets of horse manure. Yet still people will invest and despite scientific advancements the death rate in America remains a steady 100%.

Back to the question. In the ancient Śrīmad Bhāgavatam it is stated. “What is the value of a prolonged life which is wasted, inexperienced by years in this world? Better a moment of full consciousness, because that gives one a start in searching after his supreme interest.”

This material world is like a hotel. When staying overnight at a hotel a wise person does not remodel his room. Similarly those who are wise to not try to make permanent plans to stay in the temporary material world. They are invested in the eternal for they are eternal. That which is eternal can never be satisfied with the temporary.

This issue of chasing after the temporary goes back to the root problem of life: People misidentify the self/soul with this temporary ever changing material body, this is called ignorance.

To see all responses of the TEXAS Faith panel click here.

extra comments:

"49 percent of those who believe in an after-life also thought this was good."
I would like to add in regards to this excerpt. That most people who believe in the afterlife do not have a very clear picture as to what it is. If you were ask those believers what exactly is the afterlife like? What does that place look like? How do you spend your time there? What are the relationship between the various persons who are there and what exactly is one's relationship with God there? Would most people be able to answer?
Therefore because most religious people do not have scriptural details of the afterlife it would seem better to invest in that which we know something about, this life. It is like spending money to go on a vacation to an unknown destination.

It is like the bird who is afraid to leave his cage (the temporary body) because it is fearful of what is beyond the cage.

The post August 15th, 2013 – Darshan appeared first on Mayapur.com.

ECOV: A Dynamic Solution to a Modern Dilemma

By Madhava Smullen

The world—and the USA in particular—seems determined to murder as many cows as possible. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 35 million of the mild-mannered creatures were slaughtered in 2010 in the USA alone—that’s over 95,000 cows killed a day and nearly 4,000 per hour.

During their short lives, these cows live on factory farms in cramped, concrete-floored milking pens. When they give birth, their female calves join the ranks of milk producers, while males are taken from their mothers within 24 hours of birth and sold at auctions to beef producers.

Cows in a typical commercial dairy lot.

Within sixty days, the cow is impregnated again, and milked for seven months of her next nine-month pregnancy. According to the animal rights organization PETA, this cycle is repeated until her milk production wanes, and she is sent to slaughter between five and eight years old. She could have lived more than twenty.

But the world wasn’t always so keen on exploiting cows. Before the industrial revolution in the 1700s, most people were dependent on them. In ancient India in particular, the cow was deeply respected as the mother of mankind, and the bull as its father, as taught by the smriti scriptures. For just as a child is fed with its mother’s milk, the cow feeds human society her milk; and just as the father earns for his children, the bull tills the ground to produce food grains.

Cows and bulls were thus cared for as part of the family, and were the very backbone of society. Oxen pulled the plow so that people could grow vegetables and grains, and transported the food wherever it needed to go. The dung of both the cow and the bull was used as an excellent fertilizer, and even their urine was known to have medicinal and insecticidal purposes.

And of course, the cow needed to eat only grass to produce milk, an opulent and nutritious drink that could be used to make countless types of food. Cow’s milk was even cited by scriptures such as the Srimad-Bhagavatam as essential for developing the finer tissues of the human brain, enabling one to understand the intricacies of spiritual knowledge.

As Gandhi wrote in his periodical Harijan: “The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection… Man through the cow is enjoined to realize his identity with all that lives… The cow was in India the best companion. She was the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she also made agriculture possible.”

Thus people in India lived localized, independent lives, and had a symbiotic relationship with the cows and the land, in which all their basic needs were fulfilled.

Until the British arrived. To take away the people’s independence, they realized, they had to break the backbone of Indian agriculture. And to break the backbone of Indian agriculture—and Indian culture in general—they had to start slaughtering cows.

Today, generations have been cut from their relationship to the earth and driven to the cities. The number of slaughterhouses in India has grown from one—established by Governor Robert Clive in 1760—to 36,000. In 2001 CNN called India “The second largest producer of leather goods in the world,” a position it still holds now.

But there’s still hope for India, and for the world. Some have retained India’s ancient culture of cow protection and living in harmony with the land, and have attempted to transplant it to the West. One major such proponent was A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a Vaishnava holy man who traveled from the sacred village of Vrindaban, India to New York City in 1965.

With his spiritual movement, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Prabhupada launched farm communities with cow protection programs all over the world. Encouraging a ‘simple living and high-thinking’ lifestyle, he taught that all animals were also souls, and children of God, or Krishna—and that just like humans, they deserved love, care and protection. In his purports to the ancient texts of India, Prabhupada explained how Lord Krishna came as a cowherd when he appeared on Earth 5,000 years ago in the village of Vrindaban. And he wanted his disciples to follow Krishna’s example.

The first cow protection program that Prabhupada established in the Western World was in the rural community of ISKCON New Vrindaban—named after Krishna’s village and nestled in the hills of West Virginia. “Krishna by His practical example taught us to give all protection to the cows and that should be the main business of New Vrindaban,” Prabhupada wrote to his disciple Hayagriva in June 1968. He suggested a life close to the land, similar to that which Indian villagers had enjoyed before the invasion of the British: “So these duties are there in New Vrindaban, and we shall live there independently, simply by raising cows, grains, fruits, and flowers.”

In May 1969, Srila Prabhupada visited New Vrindaban, and met its very first cow—and only cow at the time—a black Jersey named Kaliya. Prabhupada would drink a little of her milk morning, noon, and night. “I haven’t tasted milk like this in sixty-five years,” he said. Looking around at his disciples, he told them that he wanted New Vrindaban to demonstrate to the world the social, moral, and economic advantages of protecting the cow and utilizing her milk, rather than killing her and eating her flesh.

When Prabhupada visited New Vrindaban for the fourth time in 1976, the cow protection program had grown to include many cows, including Kaliya.

“The cows would graze up on the hill,” recalls Kuladri Dasa, who has served at New Vrindaban since 1970. “One day, as Prabhupada was walking up the road with a group of devotees, Kaliya came ambling down the hill towards them, all by herself. Prabhupada immediately recognized her from his first visit, and addressed her, ‘Ah, my dear old friend Kaliya.’”

Kaliya walks with Srila Prabhupada in New Vrindaban, 1976.

In those early days, devotees would milk the little herd twice a day, and the milk would be more than enough for the small, dozen-strong community. “We would have two devotees milking the cow by hand at once—one on each side,” says Kuladri. “Radhanath Swami, now a major spiritual leader in Mumbai, was one of the cowherd boys then, and I would milk with him. I remember he was a strong milker—our cow would always give the most! Altogether, four or five of us would team up and milk all the cows.”

Devotees milking cows by hand at the Bahulaban Barn, 1976.

The cow protection efforts continued, and the herd began to grow. In the 1980s, when the New Vrindaban community expanded dramatically, it reached an incredible 400 cows with 160 of them being milked, twelve at a time and twice a day. The surplus beyond what was needed to feed the community was sold.

But the large-scale effort was unsustainable, as New Vrindaban discovered when it encountered community and financial struggles throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Times became more difficult. Funds and manpower were scarce.

Yet although they could not keep breeding and maintaining the size of their herd, those New Vrindaban devotees who remained, kept their firm commitment to the cow protection mission Srila Prabhupada had held so close. They continued to provide for the food, shelter, and medical needs of the herd no matter what. Each cow was lovingly cared for, living out their natural lives in peace and quiet, and receiving a spiritual funeral fit for a saint when they passed away.

In the late 1990s, New Vrindaban’s leadership decided to create separate entities for different areas of focus—including cow protection. And so, in March 1999, the non-profit organization Gorakshya- Seva Environmental Education Trust of America (GEETA) was born, and all New Vrindaban’s cows and grazing land were entrusted to it. Gradually, the cow protection program’s infrastructure was repaired; and today — while there is much work to be done—the future looks bright.

In February 2011, GEETA changed its name to ECOV, an-all inclusive moniker that stood for the entire agrarian lifestyle surrounding cow protection. The acronym, which stands for Earth, Cows, Opportunity and either “Village” or “Vrindaban” depending on the audience, also appeals to a broader cross-section of people, including eco-friendly Westerners, the Hindu community, and ISKCON devotees.

The organization immediately got down to practical work. It recently replaced much of the New Vrindaban farm’s twenty-five-year old equipment with brand new equipment, including two new tractors to harvest hay for feeding the cows every winter.

“Right now we are taking care of sixty-five cows—mainly Holsteins, Brown Swiss, and Jerseys,” says Ranaka Dasa, who is ECOV’s general manager, and a member of the board. “Every year, we harvest about one thousand 1,500 pound round bales of hay for them to eat during the winter. They are protected from the cold in a clean and spacious barn, which we’ve also recently renovated.”

During the summer, the herd is taken down to the lush, green pastures in Bahulaban, were the New Vrindaban community was centered in the 1970s. Today, ECOV has 640 acres of land—some of it forest, but much of it grazing land for the cows, who always get to eat their fill.

“The difference between a regular farm and New Vrindaban is like night and day,” says Ranaka. “Rather than being exploited and treated like machines, here they’re part of the family.”

Six of the cows are milked twice a day, by devotees that have become their friends over the years. And they give an average of 15 gallons per day, which is used to make curd, sweets, and other dishes for New Vrindaban’s residents and temple Deities, Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra.

“Optimally, we would like to have a herd of eight to ten milking cows in their prime, each of whom could yield about six to ten gallons of milk a day,” Ranaka says. “And we plan to gradually increase our overall herd to a sustainable size of just over one hundred, which our barn and other current facilities are already large enough to accommodate. Finally, we aim to re-establish New Vrindaban’s ox teamster program.”

Properly caring for and utilizing oxen is a vital part of ECOV’s cow-protection plan—after all, a balanced approach requires placing equal importance on both the mother and the father of humanity.  “The cow is so wonderful and valuable in society,” Srila Prabhupada wrote to his disciple Kirtanananda in January 1974. “But you should also use the bulls by engaging them in tilling the ground. People may call this the primitive way but it is very practical for engaging the bulls—have them work in cart loading, transporting, etc…”

On a broader level, ECOV is putting infrastructure into place to create a cow protection model that’s sustainable long-term. Part of this is attracting a new generation of cow lovers.

“The devotees that have protected the cows at New Vrindaban for the past forty years, and are still maintaining the program, are now in their late 50′s to 60′s,” says ECOV board-member Chaitanya Mangala. “So we need to attract skilled young families to move here and dedicate themselves to agriculture and cow protection.”

ECOV hopes to do this by helping to provide environmentally-friendly housing, educational facilities for children and adults, and ecological career opportunities for residents to make their livelihood.

ECOV main barn and office

“We also want to create financial viability, by setting up a cow protection endowment fund,” says Madhava Ghosh, another ECOV board member and long-time cow protection activist. “Since we don’t slaughter cows but support and care for them throughout their entire lives, we can’t hope to compete economically with mainstream farms—so our cow protection must be based on broad community support.”

Ghosh acknowledges that some may wonder how much their small effort would really help, when an ocean of slaughter surrounds us, and millions of cows are being killed around the world every year.

In response, he tells the famous Srimad-Bhagavatam story of the sparrow whose eggs were swept away by the mighty ocean. Rather than despairing, she bravely attempted to dry it up by picking out the water with her tiny beak. When Garuda, the gigantic carrier bird of Lord Vishnu, heard of her determination, he came to help his little sister, and the sparrow’s eggs were returned.

“In the same way, if we put all our heart, soul, and actions into trying to make a difference for Lord Krishna’s beloved cows,” says Madhava Ghosh, “He will surely come to our aid, and wonderful things will happen.”

HH Bhakti Vidya Purna Maharaja, Soho, London

What was formerly a rice field near Gianyar, Bali, has been transformed into a beautiful temple, ashram, goshala and gardens for Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Madhava. The devotees still grow vegetables, fruits and grains but instead of it being a commercial venture, all activities are offered to Their Lordships.

In all, around one hundred and fifty devotees make up this dedicated community of servants of the Lord.

Attachment makes us blind – blind to everything other than the object of our attachment.

The Bhagavad-gita (01.01) indicates this blinding power of attachment through its starting question, its only verse spoken by the blind Dhritarashtra. His biased enquiry about the fate of his forces reveals that his blindness went far deeper than the physical. He couldn’t see the obvious reality: the inevitable futility of defying the will of the Supreme. Hoping to avoid the unavoidable and attain the unattainable, he led his whole dynasty to an unnecessary fratricidal war that left millions dead and many more wounded or bereaved.

Dhritarashtra heard from his assistant Sanjay the same message of the Gita that Arjuna heard from Krishna. However, due to his attachment, he couldn’t be illumined. It was only after the war when he lost all his hundred sons and after many years of aging when he lost his dignity that he became receptive to hearing a similar message from his younger brother, the wise Vidura. He had to lose everything before he lost his blindness.

Might we be choosing a similar fate for ourselves? Obviously, we won’t condone anything as vicious, as did Dhritarashtra. But if we let ourselves become attached to worldly things, especially anti-devotional things that defy the will of Krishna, then we may have to lose everything. Not just once but maybe over many lifetimes. Till we agree to give up our blindness.

Gita wisdom offers us a far better alternative. If we give its profound message an open-minded hearing, we will discover therein a world of love centered on an all-loving Supreme. When we direct our love towards Krishna, then the resulting devotional attachment far from blinding us illuminates us. And it liberates us into a life of eternal fulfillment.

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Dhrtarastra said: O Sañjaya, after my sons and the sons of Pandu assembled in the place of pilgrimage at Kuruksetra, desiring to fight, what did they do?