Lecture – BG 9.22 What Are We Prepared To Do For Krishna? – Video
→ Prahladananda Swami

Bhagavad-gita 9.22 by HH Prahladananda Swami (Health Resort Vita Mores, Saint Vlas, Bulgaria, July 21, 2012). from Lilasuka Das on Vimeo.

Our ability to understand spiritual life depends on our engagement in Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan Movement. Very nice question & answer session in the audio not available on video.

BG 09.22 What Are We Prepared To Do For Krishna? 2012

Lecture – SB 1.4.3 Lost In The Philosophy, Lost In The Story – Video
→ Prahladananda Swami

Srimad Bhagavatam 1.4.3 by His Holiness Prahladananda Swami, 21 July, 2012, Health Resort Vita Mores Saint Vlas. from Lilasuka Das on Vimeo.

Srila Prabhupada Never Really Left Us.
When Mickey and Mini Fail, What to Do?
What When All the World Became Ritviks?

World domination with Mickey Mouse and Coca-Cola

SB 01.04.03 Lost In The Philosophy, Lost In The Story 2012-07-21

Initiation Lecture Sudama & Loka Guru Das – Bulgarian Camp – Video
→ Prahladananda Swami

Initiation Ceremony at Health Resort Mores Vita, Saint Vlas, Bulgaria on the 18th of July, 2012 – PART 2 from Lilasuka Das on Vimeo.

Initiation Lecture Sudama & Loka Guru Das – Bulgarian Camp 2012-07-18

Initiation Ceremony at Health Resort Mores Vita, Saint Vlas, Bulgaria on the 18th of July, 2012 – PART 2

Initiating Guru: His Holiness Prahladananda Swami

Initiates: Sudama Das (Bhakta Slavi) and Loka-guru Das (Bhakta Lenk0 (book distribution, history)

I Have No Time To Chant
→ Japa Group

I was reading an interesting article today....it talks about how we should organise our time around our Japa and not organise our Japa around the time that we have left in the day. Here is a quote from the article:

I Have No Time to Chant

Most of us who are raising families are challenged to find two undisturbed hours a day to solely focus on our rounds. Yet many of the activities that take our time away from chanting are activities that we specifically have chosen to do. Afer the second retreat I thought that the reason I have so much on my plate that takes me away from chanting is simply because I don't like chanting enough. It's what Prabhupada calls the "self created burden." If I am finding it difficult to finish my rounds because of a lack of time, I am ultimately the one who chose to do all the activities that are getting in the way of my chanting. Even when I can't really avoid all the work and responsibilities, still I am the one who is organizing those activities in a way that chanting often takes a back seat to the other things I do.

http://www.harekrsna.de/artikel/japa-chanting.htm

I Have No Time To Chant
→ Japa Group

I was reading an interesting article today....it talks about how we should organise our time around our Japa and not organise our Japa around the time that we have left in the day. Here is a quote from the article:

I Have No Time to Chant

Most of us who are raising families are challenged to find two undisturbed hours a day to solely focus on our rounds. Yet many of the activities that take our time away from chanting are activities that we specifically have chosen to do. Afer the second retreat I thought that the reason I have so much on my plate that takes me away from chanting is simply because I don't like chanting enough. It's what Prabhupada calls the "self created burden." If I am finding it difficult to finish my rounds because of a lack of time, I am ultimately the one who chose to do all the activities that are getting in the way of my chanting. Even when I can't really avoid all the work and responsibilities, still I am the one who is organizing those activities in a way that chanting often takes a back seat to the other things I do.

http://www.harekrsna.de/artikel/japa-chanting.htm

burning like fire
→ everyday gita

Verse 3.39: Thus the wise living entity's pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.

Very often readers of the Gita pose this question: "If I'm an eternal soul which is always blissful and full of knowledge, then why don't I experience those qualities?" It's a great question and one which is answered here today-

When the pure consciousness of the soul is covered by lust, the soul forgets who it really is.

This lust is what causes us to feel empty and lonely. As a quick reminder, lust is the negative transformation of love and compels the covered soul to seek enjoyment in all that is temporary. That search for pleasure outside of ourselves in temporary material things is what often leads to great frustration.

Makes sense if you think about it. If we are eternal, then how can we be satisfied by impermanence? It just doesn't work.

The thing is, although the soul has forgotten its eternality, its inherent pleasure seeking characteristic still remains. That's we continue to try to seek eternal happiness despite all our failures. In fact, it is this lust which continues to burn within us and fuels our desire to keep trying to find that pleasure - just in all the wrong places!

That's where the Gita provides the solution. The Gita doesn't promote that we just ignore our inherent nature to desire pleasure. Instead, it teaches us how to transform our lust into its original state of love. Specifically, it teaches us:

We're searching for pleasure in the wrong places.

See the difference? The search still remains...it's just that it becomes transformed. Instead of seeking pleasure in the temporary, material world, instead we are directed to seek pleasure in that which is eternal - our relationship with the Supreme.

It is this relationship which will revive our pure consciousness and which will transform all the lust in our heart to pure love.

burning like fire
→ everyday gita

Verse 3.39: Thus the wise living entity's pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.

Very often readers of the Gita pose this question: "If I'm an eternal soul which is always blissful and full of knowledge, then why don't I experience those qualities?" It's a great question and one which is answered here today-

When the pure consciousness of the soul is covered by lust, the soul forgets who it really is.

This lust is what causes us to feel empty and lonely. As a quick reminder, lust is the negative transformation of love and compels the covered soul to seek enjoyment in all that is temporary. That search for pleasure outside of ourselves in temporary material things is what often leads to great frustration.

Makes sense if you think about it. If we are eternal, then how can we be satisfied by impermanence? It just doesn't work.

The thing is, although the soul has forgotten its eternality, its inherent pleasure seeking characteristic still remains. That's we continue to try to seek eternal happiness despite all our failures. In fact, it is this lust which continues to burn within us and fuels our desire to keep trying to find that pleasure - just in all the wrong places!

That's where the Gita provides the solution. The Gita doesn't promote that we just ignore our inherent nature to desire pleasure. Instead, it teaches us how to transform our lust into its original state of love. Specifically, it teaches us:

We're searching for pleasure in the wrong places.

See the difference? The search still remains...it's just that it becomes transformed. Instead of seeking pleasure in the temporary, material world, instead we are directed to seek pleasure in that which is eternal - our relationship with the Supreme.

It is this relationship which will revive our pure consciousness and which will transform all the lust in our heart to pure love.

Liquid Beauty
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Liquid Beauty

Never Mind the Vomit

The “Liquid Beauty” photocomic is loosely based on this story.

Once a man who was very powerful and strongly built, but whose character was questionable, felt attraction for a beautiful girl. This girl had great philosophical insight and was thus aware that she was actually the nonphysical conscious self, which is inherently different from the physical body. Therefore she did not like the man’s advances. The man, however, was insistent because of his lusty desires, and therefore the girl requested him to wait only seven days, and she set a time after that when he could meet her. The man agreed and with high expectations began waiting for the appointed time. The girl, however, adopted a method to instruct him about the actual nature of the physical body. She took strong doses of laxatives and purgatives and for seven days continually passed loose stool and vomited all that she ate. Moreover, she stored all the loose stool and vomit in suitable pots. As a result of the purgatives, the so-called beautiful girl became lean and thin like a skeleton, her complexion turned blackish, and her beautiful eyes sank into the sockets of her skull.

Thus, at the appointed hour she waited to receive the eager man. The man appeared on the scene well dressed and well behaved and asked the ugly girl he found waiting there about the beautiful girl he was to meet. The man could not recognize the girl he saw as the same beautiful girl for whom he was asking; indeed, although she repeatedly asserted her identity, because of her pitiable condition he was unable to recognize her. At last the girl told the powerful man that she had separated the ingredients of her beauty and stored them in pots. She also told him that he could enjoy those juices of beauty. When the mundane poetic man asked to see the juices of beauty, he was directed to the store of loose stool and liquid vomit, which were emanating bad smell. Thus the whole story of the beauty liquid was disclosed to him. Finally, this man of low character was able to distinguish between the shadow and the substance.

This man’s position is similar to that of every one of us who are attracted by false, material beauty. The girl mentioned above had a beautiful physical body, but in fact she was apart from that temporary body. She was in fact a spiritual spark, and so also was the lover who was attracted by her false skin. Mundane intellectuals and aesthetics, however, are deluded by the outward beauty and attraction of the relative truth and are unaware of the spiritual spark, which is both truth and beauty at the same time. The spiritual spark is so beautiful that when it leaves the so-called beautiful physical body, which is filled with stool and vomit, no one wants to touch that body, even if it is decorated with a costly dress. Many are pursuing a false, relative truth, which is incompatible with real beauty. The actual truth, however, is permanently beautiful, retaining the same standard of beauty for innumerable years. That spiritual spark, which is who we actually are, is indestructible. The beauty of the outer skin can be destroyed in only a few hours merely by a dose of a strong purgative, but the beauty of truth is indestructible and always the same.

Consciousness In a Simulated World
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asimo

Living in our high-tech world, it seems today almost anything is possible. We are creating not only the new and improved, but are becoming exceptionally good at mimicking life itself. Many are familiar with our new digital friend “Siri,” and other similar examples of technology known as “artificial intelligence.”

However, I, like others, quickly found out the human-like “intelligence” of “Siri” is not at all the “intelligence” we’d like her to be. She is a nice gimmick at best. Users start to notice her limitations, once the seemingly witty remarks become noticeably redundant as she provides her often irrelevant pre-programmed answers. How many times did you shout “Dammit Siri!” as she again directed you to an old abandoned warehouse, instead of a supposedly existing gas station? Perhaps AI (artificial intelligence) is not what it is all cracked up to be. But, perhaps we haven’t yet seen its full potential?

THE WORLD’S MOST ADVANCED

Meet ASIMO, the world’s most advanced humanoid robot. Initially introduced way back in October of 2000 by Honda, ASIMO is a robot designed to be a multi-functional mobile assistant. ASIMO was designed with very advanced recognition technology, giving the robot the ability to move objects, exhibit various postures and gestures, and be aware of the surrounding environment. ASIMO can even recognize faces, even when ASIMO or the human being is moving. It can individually recognize approximately ten different faces. Once they are registered, it can address them by name and distinguish them by sound.

Many people at the exhibition are astounded upon first seeing a robot of this caliber. Many of the typical responses included things like:

“ASIMO’s capability is truly outstanding!” said one.

“Wow, it looked like someone was actually inside that thing,” said another.

One participant even stated, “I feel an emotional connection; I feel a kinship with Asimo and could easily see how a person could get attached.”

Many people there also stated that they felt a great sense of human accomplishment, in addition to the astonishment, and are happy that we, as a civilization, could create such a “life-like” piece of technology.

Is the simulated world itself conscious without the conscious actor using the interface technology?

Is the simulated world itself conscious without the conscious actor using the interface technology?

While ASIMO and others are already being prepared as personal assistants for home and commercial markets, many are asking a more philosophical question, which also happens to be the biggest question regarding AI. Will we ever be able to create a computer that will be truly conscious and self-aware?

HUMAN BRAIN: ANOTHER COMPUTER?

Since the rapid technological development of the 1980’s, many things are now possible. But, the question remains, can you have consciousness in a simulated program?

one participant even stated, "I feel an emotional connection, I feel a kinship with Asimo.."

one participant even stated, “I feel an emotional connection, I feel a kinship with Asimo..”

Actually, the same question comes up in the real world. In the real world you have molecules and different constituents of matter sitting together in different relationships. Many AI proponents argue that if you capture the different relationships that go into the brain, the process of thought occurring in the physical structure in the body, you capture the very essence of thoughts and self-cognizance, and can then produce a simulated conscious actor.

Is computer-simulated consciousness truly ‘alive’?

If you could capture inter-relationships and duplicate them in a computer, would the resulting model be self-aware? Right now I am writing and have a conscious perception of what is going on. You can imagine a robot speaking as I am, but there would be no actual consciousness, it would merely be a structure going through the programmed motions. Just because a computer program is simulating all the behaviors of a living conscious actor, it still is not enough to give the computer self-cognizance.

John Searle is an American philosopher and currently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. Among his notable concepts is the “Chinese room” argument against ”strong” artificial intelligence. Searle states: “Just because a computer program simulates all the different relationships that go into conscious thought that doesn’t mean it will be conscious like you or I.”

The Chinese Room argument
The Chinese Room argument, devised by John Searle, is an argument against the possibility of true artificial intelligence. The argument centers on a thought experiment in which someone who knows only English sits alone in a room following English instructions for manipulating strings of Chinese characters, such that to those outside the room it appears as if someone in the room understands Chinese. The argument is intended to show that while suitably programmed computers may appear to converse in natural language, they are not capable of understanding language, even in principle. Searle argues that the thought experiment underscores the fact that computers merely use syntactic rules to manipulate symbol strings, but have no understanding of meaning or semantics. Searle’s argument is a direct challenge to proponents of Artificial Intelligence, and the argument also has broad implications for functionalist and computational theories of meaning and of mind.

Because it is merely a program that is being executed, there is no actual conscious awareness on the computer’s part. But when it comes to studying the human brain, bio-chemists may argue that consciousness exists in the brain because of the presence of basic brain molecules, and that when you have specific combination of polypeptides in the brain, that combination will generate the conscious experience. And if you ask a bio-chemist, “What is it about these polypeptides that generate consciousness?” He will likely say that it is the structure and the relationship of its molecular components.

HOW REAL CONSCIOUSNESS WORKS WITHIN UN-REALITY

So, what you have in the human brain is a relationship between molecules, just as you have the relationship of electrical currents following the pattern of a computer program!

Other than sophistication, what is the real difference? There is none actually.

If the brain is merely a hyper-complex machine, then by the same logic, we must question as to when and where consciousness actually arises in the machine of the brain. Does this mean our personality is nothing more than an evolved computer simulation? It may be that modern computer science has handed us the answer to this question.

We have already seen a similar instance where a real conscious actor is existing and acting within a simulated program. It is known to those in the computer world as “virtual reality.” In a virtual reality environment there is consciousness because there is an actual human being who is experiencing the simulated world through the medium of a virtual reality interface, which in this case would be the hardware interface, i.e. the head gear and gloves that hook up to the computer to allow the participant to interact with the virtual world.

Although there is sentience within virtual reality because of the human participant, is the simulated world itself conscious without the conscious actor using the interface technology? The obvious answer would be no. The simulated world is only a show of movement as long as there is a real user present. Similarly, if our brain and body is merely another machine, then could it be that we are non-material conscious actors experiencing a simulated world through a more sophisticated type of virtual reality hook up, such as the human body and brain?

“The Prime Living Entity is situated in everyone’s heart and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy [the human body]” Bhagavad-gita 18.61.

In a virtual reality simulation, the participants are all linked in the simulated world with a technological sensory interface. In the ancient Indian Sanskrit texts, Vedic science informs us that in real life we are conscious, non-physical entities; yet, we are linked to this world through an external sensory interface of the subtle intellect, mind, and gross physical senses. In this way many parallels can be made with sankhya-yoga, a classic philosophical system of India.

In Sankhya yoga texts, this world is described as the world of maya or the “illusory” world. It is here that the “atma” or non-physical spirit soul accepts a material body, mind, and senses and partakes in a simulated identity in a continual evolution of life and death. In this way the soul is reincarnated through a variety of different species of life, each new life being a kind of simulated or virtual reality.

A computer simulated consciousness is in the realm of this maya, this illusory exhibition of consciousness arising solely from mechanical events. Although there is no conscious entity in a computer or robot, it seems that the robot is real and living, because of the apparent operation and behavior of the computer. In the same way, it only appears that the body is itself alive, with the chemicals in the brain enacting the conscious experience. Rather, the body is merely an instrument for an incorporeal, transcendental entity.

This is the beginning of all the spiritual understanding that has been discussed in the Vedic literature in the land of India and civilizations abroad for thousands of years; we are not our physical bodies, but rather spirit souls using bodies as temporary vehicles.

It may be that computer science is giving us clues to understand our reality and the true nature of consciousness, which has already been described so nicely in the advanced Sanskrit records of human wisdom. There is a real want for this scientific spiritual knowledge today, and the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam are important works in the study of consciousness.

Read the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and other preserved Sanskrit records at (QRC Link: http://vedabase.com)

The only end we would gain through this current technological showboating is that of an imitation. We can only imitate consciousness, and never create it, simply because of the fact that consciousness is not material.

Escondido Farmers
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By the will of providence, for the last seven years I have been trusted with the service of president of a spiritual community. Two years ago our community was able to procure land suitable for farming. However, I am embarrassed to say, none of us knew much about farming. Our prayers were answered when we met Shawn and Susan, who are now running our farm.

Over the years, I learned that farming is an important step towards a more simple and natural life. Without a simple and natural life, spiritual life becomes difficult. My spiritual master instructed me to try as far as possible to adjust to a natural way of life, free from dependency on machines. He also said that we need not be against anything or for anything. We are simply interested in spiritual life and farming is an important step towards simplifying the complicated, modern civilization to allow for decent human and spiritual life.

THE FARMERS

Shawn and Susan have been married since 1994. They are both from Riverside, California, where they grew up and eventually met.

Shawn was born in 1969. He lived with monks in a monastery for a year, in 1993, at the ISKCON temple in Laguna Beach, CA. In 1999, Shawn and Susan moved, with their two daughters, to New Vrindavan, a rural community in West Virginia, where they stayed for one year. During this year Shawn and Susan were learning how to farm. Their teacher was a swami (!), Varshana Swami. The swami has been their spiritual guide and teacher from the early days of their spiritual interest. Since the beginning he was encouraging them to learn how to grow food.

First time Shawn grew plants was when he was a monk at the ISKCON Laguna Beach temple. (Correction: As a teenager, Shawn once grew a ganja plant, which should not come as a surprise to anyone living in California.)

Shawn says that his interest in farming certainly did not come from his family. He always felt farming is a most natural thing to do. By reading the books of his spiritual teacher’s teacher, Srila Prabhupada, he learned the importance of simple living in order to allow for higher or sophisticated thinking. The books taught him that buying food from corporations is neither necessary nor exactly natural.

For a few months in 1991, when he was 21, Shawn lived with Rastafarians at Trinidad, who grew their own food. That is where Shawn received his first book, The Science of Self Realization, by the author who was later going to profoundly influence his life – Srila Prabhupada.

Susan grew up on her family’s three-acre property in Riverside. She helped her parents with gardening. As a child, she had a pony for a pet…as well as ducks, chickens, bunnies, a cow, and you name it. On the property were also fruit orchards. That was her lifestyle growing up.

“Shawn and Susan now laugh about watching the TV series Little House On The Prairie as juveniles.”

Shawn and Susan now laugh about watching the TV series Little House On The Prairie as juveniles, but also recognize how it helped stir their interest in farming and living closer to nature.

Shawn and Susan have always been looking to find ways to farm in Southern California. When asked to help get an organic farm going, they saw it as an opportunity to make their dreams come true.

Now they are happy managing a farm in Escondido. However, this move involved taking some risks. They left a large and comfy house in Riverside, in exchange for a shabby structure in Escondido, which they eventually, little by little, renovated. They left their connections to the network of people that was their economic base, including job opportunities. Their kids left their friends who they grew up and went to school with. That was pretty difficult for them.

Living in a farm setting with animals and plants in nature is sattvic and allows for development of deeper interpersonal relationships with the surrounding environment. Shawn considers farming as a participation in the natural cycle of biological existence, which ultimately brings them closer to their deepest and truest self, the soul and God.

Living on a farm makes it easer to cultivate one’s spiritual life and spare one’s children the gross materialistic influences, which are otherwise very common in the modern “Babylons.”

To keep a job in the corporate environment so that a few can hoard gold, or whatever the standard of money might be, does not work for Shawn and Susan. Even though simple farm life can at times be physically demanding, they are happy to pay that price in exchange for freedom, at least relative freedom, from the tight grip of the cruel and unnatural, vicious corporate cycle.

“Buying food from corporations is neither necessary nor exactly natural.”

Producing one’s own food is additionally challenging in the industrial economic system, which does not support that kind of independency, which rather favors industrial farming, a demonic perverted reflection of what is supposed to be the most natural lifestyle. The cost of city water is especially challenging, but Shawn and Susan hope to dig their own well soon. Experiencing just mentioned challenges, many aspiring farmers are forced to take out loans to get their farms off the ground; but, then they find themselves in debt and forced to be profitable in terms of the modern commercial society; thus defeating the essential purpose of farming.

When farming is done for the sake of integration into the natural cycle of life, it is healing both spiritually and physically. Furthermore, to be able to work from home is ideal, as opposed to daily commuting, which creates numerous difficulties.

Now Shawn and Susan’s son is twelve and the two daughters are fifteen and seventeen. The parents had hoped to migrate onto a farm when their children were younger, but an opportunity didn’t arise until now. Nevertheless their children have integrated into farm life remarkably well. Their daughter recently wrote a school paper on the topic of danger of genetically modified seeds, a paper that was based on a workshop that Shawn and Susan taught at the farm.

This spring, Shawn taught a seven part workshop, teaching people how to grow food. Students learned composting, soil preparation, planting, harvesting, and even the yogi way of offering produce to God. The workshop was free, while most attendees gave donations to support the farm project. Next workshop will be taught in the fall and the reader is invited to attend.

Shawn and Susan’s work on the farm is a service to humanity in general and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in particular. They consider this service so important that they don’t mind the lack of pay. For their financial needs, they do extra work outside of the farm project. Shawn is an excellent handyman. The produce from the farm is distributed to two ISKCON temples, Laguna Beach and San Diego. However, since the amount of produce grown on the farm exponentially increases, very soon Shawn and Susan will be able to sell enough of it to cover their needs. “After all, that is self-sufficiency,” says Susan.

On the farm’s four acres grows a large variety of vegetables alongside recently planted fruit trees. When growing such a wide variety of produce, unlike in commercial farming where cultures are planted uniformly, there is no need for use of pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides (read poison). This appears like a natural lesson which teaches us that serial production of any kind is not desirable.

Use of insecticides gets rid of all the insects. But a farmer should not want to get rid of all the insects; some insects are good because they eat the “bad” insects. Susan remembers when their produce was being attacked by aphids, and how all of a sudden millions of ladybugs came and ate all the aphids. One reason why Shawn and Susan plant flowers is because flowers attract bees, which help pollinate the summer squashes. Nature is truly one big cycle. There is no need to use poison. (Especially not the one produced by giant corporations such as Monsanto.)

KYLE

Kyle is 26 and is living on the farm, helping Shawn and Susan. Kyle was born and grew up in Orange County in an upper-middle class family. Having given up his $100,000.00-a-year job with an electrical company, Kyle now lives in a trailer on the farm. He actually sleeps outside, not in the trailer. Sometimes he crashes in a hammock and sometimes in a tent. He likes to see the stars at night when going to bed.

Kyle was pursuing a degree in environmental sustainability, but now he is finding practical farming to be more important. Besides, why spend up to $100,000.00 to get a degree from a group of people who are trying to monopolize education and institute a system of indentured servitude? Education is, after all, about getting educated rather than receiving a diploma. In many traditional societies, if you wanted to learn an art, you went to someone who knew how to do it and became their apprentice. The teacher would thus be grateful for the apprentice’s help, would transfer the knowledge to the apprentice, and would even pay him.

Payment of credit card debts, mortgage debts, etc., can be evaded by filing bankruptcy and other such methods. However, the student loan seems to be the only debt one cannot get rid of. Chanakya, a royal advisor who lived a few hundred years before the Common Era, said that disease, fire, and debt need to be dealt with immediately, as their presence reduces one’s life span. What, then, to say about the modern system where almost everyone lives most of their life in debt?

Kyle’s long term plan is to center his life on farming.

THE FUN DAY

The fun day on the farm is usually Tuesday when the monks come from the San Diego temple. It is a full day of communal farm work, which also includes a farm fresh midday lunch, and chanting in kirtana – the week’s highlight.

A special event occurs twice a month, every other Saturday, when Shawn and Susan host a sat-sanga, a home gathering of spiritual aspirants and savants. The reader is invited.

For info regarding the courses, donations, home gatherings, or anything else related to the farm, feel free to contact Shawn at ahringhoff1169@gmail.com.

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meet Susan

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meet Kyle

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meet Shawn

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I graduated from school! Now what?
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now-what

Choosing a career path, or a job, can be a difficult and overwhelming task. In our modern American culture, the challenge begins during the school years; as in the American public school system, children and teens are expected to learn the same academic standards, regardless of their future work goals. Students who have less academic and more technical talents may experience frustration from the academic pressures of school. College is also an expected path for many students in America. One selects a major of interest, and while sometimes this major can lead to a practical career, other times it does not, and one graduates wondering, what next? Sometimes one graduates and struggles to get any job simply to pay the bills, rather than selecting a job relevant to one’s studies. The period after graduation can become a confusing although exciting time.

Other countries and cultures have different systems of education. In Germany for example, there are three different educational roads, and the path is chosen when the child is around age 11, based on his/her interests, academic skills, and natural abilities (it is not set in stone however, and can be altered later). One option is the university path for future scholars, researchers, professors, etc., whereas the other two options end earlier (around tenth grade) and prepare students to enter technical or vocational schools, or apprenticeships to become, for example, a nurse, carpenter, or other specific trade. It is recognized in such an educational system that not everyone needs to focus strictly on academics to achieve success, but can start training for a practical career earlier in life.

Ayurvedic philosophy and traditional Indian culture in general, similarly recognize that each person has a unique dharma, or calling in life, and that strict academia is not necessary for everyone. One chooses a career and education based on one’s dharma (doing what comes naturally). According to this system called varnashrama dharma, there are four general categories of varna, or work. First are the brahmanas who are intellectuals, priests, teachers, and academically inclined folks. They are considered the head of society, as they can offer wisdom and guidance for others’ wellbeing. Next are the ksatriyas who offer protection and security, keeping law and order, and are akin to the arms of society. The vaisyas are the farmers and businesspeople. They grow food which we need for survival, and conduct other forms of business, and are the stomach of society. The sudras are the legs of society. They assist and offer manual labor for the other three classes. All four varnas are equally important for the functioning of society, just as a human body functions best with a head, arms, stomach, and legs. Varnasrama dharma is not a caste system in which one is born into a profession, or in which the sudras are treated poorly and the brahmanas treated with respect. Rather, varnasrama dharma recognizes individual differences in people’s strengths and skills, and offers a path for each person, with all working cooperatively for the smooth functioning of society. According to this system, like the one in Germany, not everyone is expected to follow a strict university/academic path. Rather, each student is to be trained in a path that is well suited for his/her future goals.

Although our public education system encourages more of the one size fits all approach, we can still make ourselves aware of the concept of dharma when choosing our career path (whether immediately after graduation or later in life). Dharma involves choosing a career based on your genuine calling in life, rather than giving into society’s subtle messages that we are to choose the job with the most money or best benefits. The word vocation comes from the latin root “vocatio” which literally means a calling. A job need not be something you simply do from 9-5 so you can come home, pay your rent, and enjoy some food and a few hours of relaxation or entertainment after a long day. People who have jobs that are just “to pay the rent” are often looking forward to Friday and regretting Mondays. This is not how life has to be! If you find yourself suffering through each work week, perhaps you have chosen a job that is just a job, rather than a vocation. Each of you, yes even you, has a unique talent, skill, or purpose that can be used to offer service to others while earning you a living that you truly enjoy. A vocation is a place of happiness, not just a place to get a paycheck.

How do you know what your vocation or dharma is? A vocation is that which you love to do. You feel like your genuine self when doing it, and are not looking at the clock waiting for the day to end. Deep down, you know what it is. It may take some courage, it may take some breaking out of the comfort zone, it may carry a reduction of salary, but everyone can work a vocation instead of a job. If doing so would lead to a reduction of salary, one must ask, does earning more money actually make me happy? We have all heard stories of people who were earning more money than they ever thought possible, but were not necessarily happy. I met one such lady who quit her high paying job and followed the path she genuinely wanted to follow, and is now more satisfied. If your dharma involves earning large amount of money, that is fine. The point is not to put down riches themselves, but to emphasize that riches alone, at the expense of following your true path, is not enough to bring satisfaction. If you spend 40 hours a week doing something, that something should be meaningful to you.

Whether you have recently graduated from school, or are contemplating a career change, I encourage you to ask yourself, what is my vocation, or dharma, rather than what job is easy to get and will pay my bills? Just think – if we were born to do something, won’t our basic needs be provided for if we do that which we are truly meant to do? It is a matter of faith, but talk with those who have taken that leap of faith and chosen the road of vocation and you will see the results for yourself. Choose Dharma, choose happiness!

Model of Main Altar
- TOVP.org

Our head of Research and Development, Parvata Muni Das, has been steadily working in his workshop for the past several months.

His project? A small scale model of the TOVP. His current focus is building a model of the main altar. The purpose of this time-consuming endeavor is to give the art department a visual aid by which to understand the placement of the main altar in the temple room. Variables that can be viewed and adjusted include the position of the deities, the distance between the pilgrims and the deities and the actual position of the altar in relation to the design of the temple room.

Capturing the intricacies of the altar design as well as translating the actual proportions into a small scale model require dedication and focus. Parvata Muni Das has brought his years of experience and qualifications to this strategic occupation. The staff at the TOVP are grateful to have him and his talents.

Is he a kind man?
→ Servant of the Servant

On my work desk, I have a photo frame of Srila Prabhupada gifted to me by my wife. Once one colleague of mine looked at Prabhupada and asked who he is? I said he is my spiritual teacher. Then she starred at the picture intently for a second and asked me a question - Is he a kind man? I did not expect that question but I could understand as Prabhupada was grave in the picture. I replied that he is indeed very kind and compassionate.

Krishna consciousness, however fully spiritual, is a personal philosophy which means it is all about loving relationships. Kindness is the beginning of love and Srila Prabhupada was hard as thunder and soft as a rose with his disciples and both characteristics was a display of his compassion.

The colleague of mine like everyone in this world has a material understanding of love and kindness which pertains solely to the body&mind and hence would not understand such transcendental expressions of kindness and love.

Below is a video that depicts his loving relationship with his disciple that is purely on the spiritual plane.




Hare Krishna

Is he a kind man?
→ Servant of the Servant

On my work desk, I have a photo frame of Srila Prabhupada gifted to me by my wife. Once one colleague of mine looked at Prabhupada and asked who he is? I said he is my spiritual teacher. Then she starred at the picture intently for a second and asked me a question - Is he a kind man? I did not expect that question but I could understand as Prabhupada was grave in the picture. I replied that he is indeed very kind and compassionate.

Krishna consciousness, however fully spiritual, is a personal philosophy which means it is all about loving relationships. Kindness is the beginning of love and Srila Prabhupada was hard as thunder and soft as a rose with his disciples and both characteristics was a display of his compassion.

The colleague of mine like everyone in this world has a material understanding of love and kindness which pertains solely to the body&mind and hence would not understand such transcendental expressions of kindness and love.

Below is a video that depicts his loving relationship with his disciple that is purely on the spiritual plane.




Hare Krishna

TEXAS FAITH 105: Was it moral to shut down the Texas Senate?
→ Nityananda Chandra Das' Blog, ISKCON Dallas

Dallas Morning News,
Each week we will post a question to a panel of about two dozen clergy, laity and theologians, all of whom are based in Texas or are from Texas. They will chime in with their responses to the question of the week. And you, readers, will be able to respond to their answers through the comment box.

Last week’s week’s filibuster in the Texas Senate stopped an abortion bill and catapulted Sen. Wendy Davis to national political attention. Television stories beamed pictures of hundreds of cheering, jeering protesters who shut down Senate business while Republican leaders struggled to regain control. In the end, the bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy failed and Gov. Rick Perry called the Legislature back into another special session on Monday.

The protesters – criticized as a mob by some and hailed as heroes by others – were very much a part of the story, if only because it’s rare democratic institutions in this country are brought to a halt by people chanting from the balcony in a legislative chamber. The episode has been the focus of heated debate in terms of politics and ideology. Set aside which side you’re on. What if the roles were reversed. When is it ethical and moral to shut down a institution of government?

The question: Was it moral to shut down the Senate? Not whether it was politically successful or tactically expedient or even whether your side prevailed or not, but was it moral?

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

First of all, it needs to be pointed out that morality is a metaphysical concept. Morality cannot be established by science.

On the relative platform there was no moral issue with citizens using deceptive means when they are ruled by a deceptive government. It would not be the same if modern government were led by those who are not self interested.

On the absolute platform there would be a moral issue of disturbing government processes. Provided that government actually worked for the metaphysical rights of all of living beings without prejudice. Whether they are Black, White, animal, or even in the fetus stage. But that is not the case.

The metaphysical notion of morality can only be fully established when one understands the metaphysical. As long as one cannot see the soul there will be victims. Because of seeing African Americans as soulless beings we had slavery. Because seeing women as half souled beings we have exploitation. Because of seeing animals as soulless beings we have billions unnecessarily painfully slaughtered. And because of seeing the helpless unborn children as soulless beings their own mothers are being endorsed for murder.

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