Why good people suffer

I was thinking the last week of the coming weekend and the threats of more terrorist strikes. All Americans are watching the news, listening to the radio in trepidation. We are afraid of more multiple deaths at the hands of the fanatics. I was thinking how depressing it is that someone or many people are going to have to die a pointless death because of religious bigotry and ignorance of the real principles of religion.

Americans have shown their piety very graphically in the recent crisis. Candles and flags and signs of  “God bless America” are seen everywhere. People are gathering together in churches and on streets, singing of God and America. We have heard so much talk of God and Him blessing our country. In times of great danger it is natural that people turn to God. But when they are enjoying life and prosperity they tend not to think of God or talk of Him so often.

We can well imagine that Christians are certainly perplexed on why this is all happening. After all, they have been good, upright, God-fearing people for so long. President Bush was saying how Americans are such good and compassionate people. And now, after so many scores of years, they are in disbelief of how God could allow this to happen. Not only the sudden death of 7,000 people, but the stark possibility of more mass deaths on the coming weekend or any time. They are thinking, “Why is this happening? So many of us are Christians who believe in God and are good people, we are good compassionate people, why? What did we do so wrong - to deserve this?” Yes, even the Bhagavad-gita confirms this point, “One who does good, is never overcome by evil.” So how is it that good Christian people are being killed and threatened like this?

Those fortunate people who have open minds and has examined the books of Srila Prabhupada, like the Bhagavad-gita, they can understand what is happening. What the Christians don’t know - is that the laws of nature are very subtle and exacting, and the laws of karma will not change even for so-called good people. Even when a child or a “good person” sticks his hand in the fire, the fire will not excuse that good person, the fire will still burn them regardless of how good or innocent or young, he or she is.

So it seems that Christians are doing something that they are unaware of. Is it that they just “think” they are good? Is this what they’ve been taught for so many centuries? They know nothing more than what they’ve been told, so in that sense – they are good people. They are following what they’ve been taught. Still, ignorance is no excuse in the laws of karma. Karma acts regardless of what people know and don’t know. Are they living pure lives, with pure diets? They’ve been taught by Church forefathers that a meat diet is sanctioned by the Bible and early authorities and the commandment “Thou shall not kill” is only applicable to the killing of human beings. Therefore so many fast-food places are serving out tons of meat day after day, year after year, the slaughterhouses are going full force, and Christians are not even slightly thinking that anything is wrong. But the students of Bhagavad-gita know that war and suffering will accrue when animal slaughter is practiced.

This is all due to the beginning philosophical and theological formats created at the inception of the Christian religion. It is extremely important for new religions to establish a bona fide siddhanta at the very beginning. Otherwise, the whole spiritual and karmic equation will be off from the beginning. And history has told many a sad story of early deviations of the Christian church from the original pure teachings of their founder acharya, Jesus Christ. We know from history of Emperor Constantine and also the council of Nicaea where parts of the Bible and the philosophy were discarded. There were early fathers like Origen who taught reincarnation and vegetarianism. But he and others were denounced as heretics for such beliefs.

So, if major tenets of the spiritual siddhanta of Christ were deviated from - in the very beginning of the church, then it can be understood that generations of Christians have NOT been following the pure teachings of Christ for many centuries, and therefore the law of karma will still act in exacting terms, regardless of how faithful they have been to the so-teachings they received from their past theologians and clergymen.

In my household, we have a book [which is hard to find right now] of a rare document, or manuscript that has been in the Vatican archives for centuries. Somehow someone liberated this book from the dungeons of the Vatican and published it. It is called, “The Essene teachings of Christ” [something like that].  This small book reads like a chapter out of the Bible. It perfectly sounds like the teachings of Christ, and he denounces the practice of eating flesh, attributing meat eating as evil, and the work of Satan. We also have a small volume called, “Jesus was a vegetarian” which makes a very strong case for this subject. It was published by an old organization called the Edenite society, which has unfortunately been out of operation for some time. Years ago, we procured many copies of this book and distributed some. Anyway, the case is strongly made by these two books for Jesus being a vegetarian and preaching that way.

We have learned from history that much of the fault lies with the early theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas. He made the major philosophic mistake that cemented the future of bad karma to all Christians. He borrowed his philosophic format from Aristotle, instead of Plato, which was a great mistake. He conceived of a mechanical view of the universe, how animals have no souls, how they are mere mechanical machines. When an animal is cut or killed, he said that the sounds of terror that we hear from the mouths of these animals are nothing more than the squeaks and squeals of a machine, and that there’s no soul inside them to feel the pain and terror. Therefore it’s all right for Christians to kill and eat animals. Unfortunately, he established the siddhanta format for the whole of Christianity for centuries to come.

So here we can see that it is very crucial for the forefathers of a new religion to establish the whole and pure teachings of that particular founder acharya. Whatever siddhanta they establish, that will be responsible for the collective karma of many generations to follow. This is a very heavy responsibility for the beginning forefathers. Therefore they should be very careful of the purity of siddhanta they establish. It is also incumbent for all disciples to have constructive discussion on the siddhanta and establish conclusions based on extensive collective research and debate.  Unfortunately, history shows that after the departure of a great acharya, there is great confusion and chaos. And often we see that motivated so-called followers have the potential for distortion of the pure teachings of the departed acharya.

Could this very thing be happening in our own institution? Are we at the cross-roads of decision making that could effect the future of countless people? Are we establishing the whole and pure teachings and orders of our founder acarya, Srila Prabhupada? Many devotees contend that some major mistakes are being made in the siddhanta of the leaders. There have been bitter debates for many years on this subject. We hear of accusations of heresy, which has an uncanny familiar ring to the scenarios of the early fathers of Christianity, like father Origen, who was denounced as a heretic for teaching vegetarianism and reincarnation. Therefore, it is inevasible for us to continue the cause for open and extensive communication and discussion and research into issues, which affect the final establishment of siddhanta, which will determine the fate of the future generations of devotees.

Submitted by Visoka dasa

It's World Wide Harinama Sankirtan or -

Reflections on Prabhupada's Brilliance

by Dinadayadri Dasi

Hare Krishna! In celebration of the blessed revival we see taking place in

our Prabhupadanuga community of the true preaching spirit of Srila

Prabhupada's mission - i.e., to deliver the teachings of Sri Caitanya

Mahaprabhu to every soul on the planet - I'd like to offer a few reflections

on the brilliance with which Srila Prabhupada addressed the masses whenever

he had the opportunity.

On numerous occasions in the early 1970's, I had the great good fortune to

observe His Divine Grace give lectures at programs where many members of the

general public were present, and I clearly remember that most often the

themes of those lectures were threefold: 1) the principle of aham brahmasmi,

or the living being as a discrete entity from the physical body, 2) the

principle of transmigration of the soul on the wheel of samsara, which

remains ongoing as long as one is materially conditioned, and 3) that God,

Krsna, is the original and actual proprietor of everything that be. Srila

Prabhupada certainly understood that as materially conditioned souls, most

members of his audience were slaves to the three modes of material nature and

were motivated primarily by envy, lust, and greed. But instead of throwing

fire and brimstone at them as they would likely hear in their churches and

temples ("You are all sinners and you're going to hell unless you surrender

to God's will!"), Prabhupada most often employed the brilliant tactic of

appealing to their real self-interest as eternal living entities temporarily

trapped in the "incompatible predicament" of material embodiment. This same

tactic can be applied with great effect when considering the problems facing

the world today.

Consider, for example, the decades-long conflict going on in the Middle East

between the Israelis and Palestinians, which appears to be on the verge yet

again of heating up into full-scale warfare. How much easier it would be for

them to make peace if they understood the above-mentioned three principles

elucidated by Srila Prabhupada so many times in his lectures. Both sides

assert their ownership of the land and holy places in that part of the world

based on ancestral ethnic and religious claims, which are temporary bodily

designations only. The Palestinian "suicide bombers" who think they are going

straight to Allah bathed in the blood of their enemies...well, if they

understood the principle of transmigration of the soul and that whatever one

is absorbed in thinking of at the time of death determines where they will go

next [Bg 8:6], they would realize that if they die being absorbed in so much

hatred for the Israelis, they're far more likely to be coming back to this

world, but as an Israeli - the very enemy they are sworn to destroy. So what

kind of progress have they made in this world or the next? None whatsoever!

They have simply defeated their own self-interest, which is to make progress

back to their real eternal home where they will no longer have to suffer the

unnatural impositions of repeated birth, death, old age, and disease. The

same principle holds true, of course, for the Israeli death squads. An

interesting side note is that when former U.S. president Bill Clinton was

working on helping to negotiate a peace settlement in the Middle East

conflict, which was focused at the time on who would control Jerusalem, at

one point he made the truly inspired proposal that all sides give up their

claims of ownership of the holy city and declare it as belonging solely to

the one God of all. Unfortunately, with no true wise men on the negotiating

committee, this surprisingly brilliant proposal was quickly dismissed.

As far as the grave concerns many thinking people have over the foolish

abuses to our collective natural environment by selfish, greedy

corporate-types and the politicians who sell them their souls, perhaps a more

effective approach than the scare tactics employed by most of the "green

groups" would be to convince them that they are actually working contrary to

their own self-interest. Since they are creating the future they themselves

will either suffer or enjoy in their upcoming incarnations in this world,

perhaps they'd think twice before polluting the very waters they will be

drinking and the air they themselves will be breathing. Then that would be a

good launching pad for bringing them to the higher platform of understanding

the principles set forth in Sri Isopanisad, Mantra One:

isavasyam idam sarvam

yat kinca jagatyam jagat

tena tyaktena bhunjitha

ma grdhah kasya svid dhanam

"Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled

and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things

necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not

accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong."

Humbly submitted,

Dinadayadri dasi

NASA wants to play billiards with the Universe

Hare Krishna, This news clip below pretty much says it all. We are continually astounded by the audacious arrogance of the scientists in their never-ending megalomaniac manipulation of the material energy, thinking they are the supreme controllers and Lord and master of all they survey. We can only hope that they restrain themselves from using our planet as their next guinea pig for another one of their "mad scientist" experiments, of what they have not the slightest idea of what the outcome will be. This is the eternal disease of wanting to be God, wanting to be the controller of God's energy. 

Krishna alone controls the "heat and drought" of the earth. He sets all the planets into orbit with such precision that any deviation can cause havoc. Srila Prabhupada writes-

"But if you are intelligent you will compare the sputnik to the millions and trillions of planets and stars. Just on this tiny earth planet there are so many oceans, so many mountains, so many skyscrapers. But if you go above this planet a few million miles, it will look just like a small spot. You will see it as just a spot in the sky. And there are millions of planets floating in the sky like swabs of cotton. So if we give so much credit to the scientists who have manufactured a sputnik, how much more credit we should give to the person who has manufactured this universal arrangement. This is Krsna Consciousness - appreciating the greatest artist, the greatest scientist." from JSD p. 68. 

And they usually do things to our planet without the consent  of the inhabitants, like how they have messed around with our food plant genes with DNA modification on such a large scale, with no experimental studies of what such results will yield in the long run.  

So now they want to divert the path of some comet or meteor, which (by their calculations) will pass closer to the earth and by gravity pull, it will modify the earth's path of trajectory into a new orbit which is slightly farther away from the Sun (by their guess) and thus we will enjoy some cooler climate, and thus they will save the day once again, as they rescue mankind from the madness of the industrial revolution which has polluted the earth and sky. Stop the industries that causes pollution? Unthinkable! No, they would rather play billiards with the planets. And they also admit that if their calculation is slightly off, then the meteor or comet may slam into the earth and wipe out all life, except for the bacteria. Same thing that happened to the dinosaurs, they claim.

This reminds me of the old TV series of "The Twilight Zone" where they once had an episode which resembles this scenario. The show was about how the earth was getting hotter and hotter each day, the thermometer was about to burst out from the top, and men and women were getting weaker and sweating profusely and dehydrating, and then they somehow discovered that the earth was getting closer to the sun. I forgot exactly how it went, but in the end, somehow the earth changed her course and started to orbit further out into space, and the "eternal winter" began as endless snow started to fall and the people thus resigned themselves to a frigid fate. 

So, as we said in the earlier article on this subject matter, we devotees cannot know the plan of the Lord, we can only surrender ourselves as instruments in His plan, and try to push on the Sankirtan Movement of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada. Somehow by divine intervention, the problems of the earth may be adjusted by Krsna, and He will save the day from the mad scientists and the patch-work solutions which often prove worse than the problems. 

NASA Wants to do What? - Posted Jun 14, 2001

Is Mankind committing Ecocide?

The following is an exchange between Dinadayadri dasi and myself.

She wrote-

It seems that those of us who have even a little sincerity in our desire to keep Srila Prabhupada's mission alive are being inspired by Supersoul in various ways on how to keep at least one little finger in the fire of Krsna consciousness.

Do you think there is really much interest amongst devotees to practice seeing current events "through the eyes of shastra"? I find that it helps me get away from being so myopically focused on the seemingly unsolvable dilemmas of our struggling Vaisnava society that I forget the real mission of our sampradaya, as handed to us by Srila Prabhupada: to deliver the message of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu to every village and town on the planet. This is what I see as the greatest difference between Srila Prabhupada and his godbrothers - his selfless serving spirit as opposed to their self-serving spirit. If we focus only on saving ISKCON so that we will have a nice, pleasant place to enjoy each others' association, then we are falling into that same Gaudiya Matha trap. We need to save ISKCON so that we can use it as a vehicle to save the whole world at this crossroads in time when technological advancements in the hands of ignorant monkey-men have created a very dangerous situation indeed! Life in the material world is always going to be miserable - basically birth, death, old age, disease, and the threefold miseries caused by nature, other living entities and our own minds. But if we stick to the "intelligent design" of Lord Krsna for nature's arrangement, at least we won't make it any worse than it has to be. We can "live nicely and peacefully and then go back to home, back to Godhead," as desired by all the great compassionate masters in our illustrious Gaudiya-Vaisnava sampradaya.

One thing I heard on NPR recently was that some scientists think that by using cloning technology, they could actually grow slabs of meat for people to eat instead of having to grow and kill a whole animal.  Would we consider this a step forward or backward for meat-eating society? I'm also fascinated by the whole principle of this cloning technology - apparently they can create new living beings without the use of sperm cells, and I always thought the Vedic version was that the unborn living beings were residing in sperm cells. So how is it possible to start a life without using sperm cells? These are fascinating questions to me, and I wonder if other devotees ever think about these things.  (my answer- Krishna inserts the jiva soul into the clone, even without sperm, etc.)

As far as global warming goes, it's a fact that they have the technology to produce vehicles that produce zero pollution but because of the greed of the fuel and auto industries, which pay off the politicians, these technologies are not seeing the light of day. The damage to the environment is on the verge of becoming irreparable, so these issues need to be dealt with right away. I viewed the last presidential election in our country as sort of a "demigods vs. demons" battle (a very loose analogy!) in which the demons stole power and have been working for their own selfish interests ever since. Their attitude seems to be "to hell with the rest of the world, we're going to do whatever it takes to keep in power and make ourselves even richer."  This all adds up to a formula for global disaster, and I think devotees need to wake up to the fact that we have a great responsibility to help with this world situation. But what are we doing? Spending the last 25 years squabbling endlessly over internal matters. I get so frustrated with this and fear that it may already be too late for us to have an impact, even if we were able to miraculously get it together and try to do something. So that's why I keep falling back on this idea of the importance of reconnecting with the full potency of the Holy Name as delivered through the lotus mouth of our beloved Srila Prabhupada.

My comment so far- This is a good point, and I just read some passage from Srila Prabhupada which confirms this- 

Srila Prabhupada writes - "Neither spiritual retreats, churches, mosques, temples, karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, dry empirical philosophy, nor imitation devotees can save humanity from the jaws of death. What they offer as spiritual succor is limited by their sectarian vision, a set of do’s and don’ts, and a rigid approach that simply further entangles humanity in the material energy. What is needed are exemplary spiritual actions and espousal of the genuine path of self-realization, but these have not been properly instituted. Just as Bhagiratha brought down the Ganga and liberated his forefathers, similarly, we must bring a deluge of love of Godhead that can extricate the conditioned souls from the clutches of gross materialism. At least FOR SOME TIME, we must CREATE Satya-yuga, the age of reason and piety. We can easily accomplish this Herculean task simply by reintroducing Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement of the congregational chanting of Lord Krishna’s name and thus flooding the world with Krsna-prema.  All living entities – the human beings, who are afflicted by Kali-yuga, as well as sub-human beings – must be drowned in the floodwaters of Krsna-prema."

My note – Please note that Srila Prabhupada says “imitation devotees” here, and “saving from jaws of death,” i.e., this also implies that imitation devotees cannot save our planet from death by the hands of these greedy rich people, so here Srila Prabhupada gives the solution, and he also says "FOR SOME TIME" meaning at least try to create Satya-yuga, even if its for a short time.

Dinadayadri dasi continues-

If we connect with and surrender to that power, the Holy Name will guide us in what to do - of that I have no doubt. Maybe the way it will play out will be that the earth will soon become uninhabitable for humans and the devotees will band together and lead masses of people in glorious Hari Nama sankirtan, following the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada back to our real home, back to Godhead. But it doesn't have to be such a horrific scenario. I think because of our free will, we have a choice whether we will create a more heavenly or hellish future for the planet, at least during the Golden Age of Kali.

My reply to Dinadayadri dasi-

She said- Do you think there is really much interest amongst devotees to practice seeing current events "through the eyes of shastra"?

I said- Sure, I think that devotees do this and its important for us to give our KC solutions to the current news. I think that's what I had in mind when I thought of the "current events" category on the Srila Prabhupada Ezine. Yes, the problems of our society should not suck up all our energy, we have the internet and this is a way for us to preach the message of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada. Some of us go out and distribute books and some of us do this net preaching, it is all absolute and every service rendered to Krsna and His pure devotee is valued service in Krsna's eyes. But the result of our net preaching is not merely to type forever on our keyboards, but the aim is the restoration of the actual sankirtana  movement of Lord Caitanya, as per what Srila Prabhupada wrote- “We can easily accomplish this Herculean task simply by reintroducing Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement of the congregational chanting of Lord Krishna’s name and thus flooding the world with Krsna-prema.”  You are right, we should go outside our sphere of problems and talk about world problems and KC solutions.

Dinadayadri dasi said- We need to save ISKCON so that we can use it as a vehicle to save the whole world at this crossroads in time when technological advancements in the hands of ignorant monkey-men have created a very dangerous situation indeed!

I said- Yes this is true. Sometimes I wonder how it all can be reversed, how this movement will save the world in it's darkest hour, and how the golden age of 10,000 years will happen. I wrote a novel a while back on this very point and gave a hypothetical scenario on this point. I’ll give a passage on that later. It had to do with a spiritual coalition and how the Holy Name made a spiritual revolution in Russian (as said by Nostrodamus) and then the world. I also gave a short essay as appendix to the novel explaining how KC or Vedic truth can solve the world's problem of pollution. Like Bhismadeva said while lying on the bed of arrows; he said how it was inconceivable how the sons of Pandu were put through so much suffering, how it was all due to inevitable time factor, how no one knows the plan of the Lord, how philosophers inquire exhaustively but are bewildered, and how we can only surrender to His plan.

So, what is His plan? His plan was to send Srila Prabhupada and propagate the sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya and begin the golden age of 10,000 years. But sometimes it seems that the world is “going to hell in a hand basket” much faster than we can solve our own internal problems and “reintroducing Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement of the congregational chanting of Lord Krishna’s name” as Srila Prabhupada has written. The cure is right there in front of us, but we are hung up on our problems. All we have to do is to reintroduce the movement that Srila Prabhupada gave us. And maybe a part of the plan is what Dinadayadri said, “the earth will soon become uninhabitable for humans and the devotees will band together and lead masses of people in glorious Hari Nama sankirtan.”

So-called experts and crystal-ball gazers are saying so many things. They say the weather patterns are completely messed up. They say that winters will get very severe with –70’s in northern states like Wyoming and Montana. Some say that the Great Lakes will freeze over next winter. And they say that summers will get very hot. They say that atomic bomb testing has damaged the magnetic force around the earth, and the poles are not stable. Some say that the proverbial waste-matter will hit the fan around 2005, and some say 2011. I could go on and on with so many of these predictions and things happening already.

Maybe destruction could happen before we see the Golden Age? Could it be that the cosmic plan is to raze civilization to a rubble?, and put the human race into the caves? This may sound very unpalatable for most of us, but then again, here are a few points;

First point, we must first accept the plan of the Lord, and face the facts that there is an end to all ages as per the Lord’s plan. All four ages come to an end, and maybe Kali has different destructions, and perhaps this Kali-yuga degradation has gone on too long and this is a part of the plan. Maybe this is the last of the Mohicans, maybe the fat lady has begun to sing. And maybe it won’t be that bad, we just don’t know. It may be a partial destruction, and they say it may not happen for another 10 years. It may be that the super rich, (the ones who control the whole planet and who continue this industrial ugra karma, making slaves out of men, which pollutes the earth and sky to dangerous proportions), will never be reasoned with, and brute force is all they understand. So we must accept the plan of the Lord, and ask only to be instruments in His hands to execute His plan.

Secondly we must also become self-realized, or realize our true spiritual identity, factually instead of theoretically. And by true self-realization we become fearless. To be “self-realized” by Srila Prabhupada’s definition - is simply to have the strong conviction that we are “not these bodies.” Srila Prabhupada says that if our sock is torn, then how are we effected? We are within the sock, we are not the sock. Similarly, if we are fully convinced that “we are not these bodies” then being killed or not being killed, Srila Prabhupada says that we are not attached, because we know we are spiritual and eternal, and we are fearless of this dangerous material world. If our planet is “going to hell in handbasket” and the end seems to be in sight, and the fat lady is singing, then we devotees must be fearless, knowing we are not these bodies, not really a part of this world. Our eternal souls will go on to our next service, whether it be this planet or some other planet. Yet we cannot be fatalistic or give up in despair. So being fearless, we must continue to execute Srila Prabhupada’s plan until our last breath. Srila Prabhupada once said (when he was sick and the devotees were urging him to take it easy,) that he demanded the right to fight for Krishna until his final breath. So we should take up his mood, and try to revive the movement so that Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya can save humanity and begin the Golden Age. We may fail or succeed, that is up to Krishna, we can only be His instrument. We should “fight for the sake of fighting, not considering loss or gain, victory or defeat” as per the words of Sri Krishna in His Bhagavad-gita.

Here follows the novel that was written years ago, and this is the passage which addresses this discussion. The novel timeframe is 9,000 years from now, and here is the part in the novel where Satram reveals how the devotees saved the world in it’s darkest hour-

Novel-

“Indeed, eventually the irrational theory (evolution) was proven to be mathematically impossible ... still, like herds of sheep, they prolonged their blind madness of accepting this defunct theory. The result was wholesale destruction of human qualities, and society sunk into the most unspeakable degradation of all times.

The karma surely came. Deadly incurable diseases afflicted the people, as they choked on the acrid stench of industrial pollution.  The earth became a literal hellhole, and ecological disasters threatened to finish it all. Thereafter, the dread of world war III threatened colossal destruction, as some stupid missile mishap begged to begin the holocaust. Those persons who were most intelligent ... they lost all faith in the so-called leaders and Cyontists and defected over to the spiritual decree of the Coalition. 

Just as Nostrodamus predicted, Russia and India combined to spearhead a spiritual revolution and conquer materialism on the planet. All due to the grace of the great Guru who sailed the Jaladuta ... that master at whose feet all masters sit.

The world then united and rallied under the banner of the Coalition and religions gave up petty differences and united on a common spiritual platform. The world council of Brahmins formed and rearranged the global hierarchy, and all its laws - it was as if the cosmic brain of the world became conscious again and wrestled away control from the insidiously greedy and gluttonous stomach.

The Coalition began to de-tech the entire planet - by pulling out the fangs of the nuclear monster, and smashing all the bombs, missiles and other cowardly war machines. 

Men then lived in simple villages, depending on organic farming and the cows.  The only people who still desired to eat meat, were of a low class of people who ate the animals after natural death, and tanned the skins for sale.”  (So it goes on….)

So, this is a scenario of how it should be, how it could be. It is possible to reverse the hell-bound ways of the world, only with Srila Prabhupada’s movement.

Next- This is the appendix to the novel which explains how Krishna consciousness can solve the ecological problems of the world. This passage was written years ago, and it echoes the fears expressed above.

A SOLUTION TO POLLUTION

            What does the story have to do with the environment? Everything. Our environment and the world suffers because the big decision makers are all motivated by greed and profit. They will do anything to cut a profit and so there's cheating all over the world. The leaders of the world should be self-satisfied and above this exploitive mentality for self-aggrandizement. Thus in our story we have the council of Brahmins, who are such a class of men who have a vision with everyone's welfare in mind.

            The point is, pollution is caused by greedy men who exploit their fellow man and thus exploit nature and world resources, which causes waste and pollution. We need a philosophy and a lifestyle which gives self-satisfaction without the need for mutual exploitation.

            The Vedic way of life is designed to maintain the delicate balance of man and animals and vegetation. For example, in India, the cow is the great source of energy. The cow dung is the best natural fertilizer, (whereas our chemical fertilizers only destroys the soil in the long run). Also, the cow dung is used for fuel, saving the forests and maintaining air quality. The Vedas have said for centuries that cow dung is pure and antiseptic, and only recently have scientists proved this in their laboratories. So, by a proper relationship with the animals, especially the cow, man can perpetually maintain the eco-system.

            They could stop the pollution, and it is possible. The main reason that they can't stop, is because of uncontrolled senses. For example, we could gradually replace cars with electric cars and other similar inventions, or bicycles, carriages, etc., but people are too reluctant to give up their immediate pleasures. If Cars cause a major amount of pollution, then they must be renounced to a certain degree. The same is with chemicals, we must learn to renounce them and the so-called benefits that they give us.

            The people cannot learn to renounce the sources of pollution until they have good leaders, who are themselves capable of some sense control. We must have leaders who care about the welfare of the world and cannot be bribed by lobbyists and industrialists.

            Leaders cannot learn this quality of renunciation, unless they are surrounded by advisors who are "wise men", or men who are highly learned in renunciation and are interested in the higher values of life instead of the exploitation of the people in the form of bribes and high salaries.

            In ancient times, such men were called Brahmins. They were the intellectual class of men who were dedicated to teaching higher values and how to avoid the exploitation of material resources, which is the cause of our pollution and woes. They were advisors to the "King", or the leader of the people.

            The practical solution, is to facilitate such wise men, to propagate this idea to the people, on a mass scale, so that everyone can realize the possibilities of man returning to a natural way of life and existing on earth in a natural environment.

            Men lived for thousands of years without such machines and chemicals, they can do so again. The idea of a "New Age" simply means a return to the "Old Age."

            Mere technology cannot save us, for that's what got us in this mess. We must change our philosophy of the world, and how we relate to it. We need a class of men who are philosophical and can give us real answers on how to be happy, and how be in harmony with our delicate environment. They must show us how to change from a consumer, exploitive society, into sensitive society of human beings with higher values of life.

            We need a real, practical philosophy, not sectarian dogmas, not airy-fairy new-age jargon, nor do we need technological patchwork solutions. We must have the real thing, a time tested philosophy that has worked before, and will work now, and will always work.

            Science and Technology are advertised as wonderful, yet they are the root cause of our woes. They have taken this naturally balanced planet and turned it into a hellhole, and still they, (the scientists) want us to have faith that they will fix it all! They can't!

            This is an emergency situation with no time for legislation and promises. We need real leaders and advisors who can lead us out of the hell-bound suicide course the planet is on, before it is too late.

Thank you for the discussion, Dinadayadri dasi,

Your servant, Visoka dasa

note- This may appear at first glance to be like some cheezy headline from the National Inquirer, but the reader will readily see that it's a very believable story, and I hope this following article does not touch on some devotee's sensibilities of thinking this is too new-agey, or too airy-fairy, it is just that this man's story so much confirms the Bhagavatam that I felt compelled to include it in this "current events" section. 

Man goes to Hell and comes back, story confirms the Bhagavatam 

Hare Krishna, the topic of the phenomenon of "near-death-experiences" is very popular all over the world, and we can utilize this trend to support many of the important tenets of Vaisnava philosophy, like reincarnation, and the existence of Yamadutas, and statements of the Bhagavatam. In the following story we see how a confirmed atheist has a near-death-experience and comes back with a story that confirms the Bhagavatam. 

Before his near-death experience, Howard Storm, a Professor of Art at Northern Kentucky University, was not a very pleasant man. He was an avowed atheist and was hostile to every form of religion and those who practiced it. He often would use rage to control everyone around him and he didn’t find joy in anything. Anything that wasn’t seen, touched or felt, he had no faith in. He knew with certainty that the material world was the full extent of everything that was. He considered all belief systems associated with religion to be fantasies for people to deceive themselves with. Beyond what science said, there was nothing else. His website url- http://near-death.com/storm.html

Howard Storm was an extremely unpleasant fellow, mean and atheistic and exploitive of all his fellow creatures. But after his NDE, he was profoundly changed and resigned as a professor, and he became a servant of God as a church minister. His story tells of how he was tormented by persons resembling the Yamadutas, "I was forced by a mob of unfriendly and cruel people toward some unknown destination in the darkness.  They began shouting and hurling insults at me. A wild orgy of frenzied taunting, screaming and hitting ensued. I fought like a wild man. All the while it was obvious that they were having great fun. They seemed to want to make me hurt – by clawing at me and biting me. Whenever I would get one off me, there were five more to replace the one."  

His story goes on to relate how he was "saved" by some angels, and he asked many questions and they gave answers. One question he asked was "Is there only one good religion?" They answered that "Any religion is good, as long as it brings one closer to God, or causes one to love God." This is exactly what Srila Prabhupada and the Bhagavatam says!! He asked what happens after death, and they said that if the person was going nearer to God in his life, then he/she will be taken closer to God, and if the person was not going nearer to God, then he/she goes the other way. They said that there are good and bad people in every religion, not that the religion is bad or good, just the people. 

Here is a website of some Hindu NDE's and discriptions of Yamaraja- http://near-death.com/hindu.html  

Here are websites confirming reincarnation, especially the case of "Shanti Devi"- http://www.childpastlives.org/library.htm

More NDE experiences that have changed lives- http://near-death.com/index.html

Now its Grey Goo, just when you thought…

Some people have nothing better to do with their lives but sit around and think of how to destroy the environment, or how to wipe out a species, or how to exterminate other races or nations, or just how to bring the world to a final end, period. Bhagavad-gita explains to us how the demoniac mentality is always scheming “Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.”

We all thought that nothing could ever exceed the threats of world destruction that scientists have already given the world, namely nuclear holocaust or chemical warfare or biological terrorism.  As Srila Prabhupada has said, that these scientists are so proud of their discoveries, thinking they will create life soon, but they only accelerate the process of death. The human mind certainly has the uncanny ability to imagine the most sinister scientific ideas, which begin as “promises for progress” but end up to be a threat to all life on the planet. But, we could not image them to outdo themselves beyond the threats of nuclear or biological, chemical disasters. It was inconceivable that they could come up with anything more horrible, but they’ve done it!

Now they have something called “Nano-technology.” They are making these minuscule machines, something not easy to explain in a sentence or two. But they say its not science fiction, but happening right now. And in 5-10 years they will be able to make a nano machine, which is capable of taking raw material and duplicating itself into other nano machines, and they will make other little nano machines, on and on, sort of like amebas, or bacteria reproducing. What they mean by converting raw material into nano machines, is all the raw material energy there is, things like people and animals and plants and rocks and plastic, and cars and buildings, anything there is. What they claim is that these little nano machines will reproduce themselves so rapidly that if one such machine was programmed to do this reproduction thing, then so many little nano machines would multiply and multiply so rapidly that quickly the whole area would turn into this “grey goo.” And this area would expand in all directions so fast that the world would turn into grey goo in 3 days or so. Sounds fantastic, but this is how these scientists are talking. They say that nobody will do this, but there’s never a guarantee that some mad scientist in Switzerland or somewhere will just go off the deep end, some unstable person who’s been jilted by a girlfriend, or something, and decide to take the world out. He’s going down, so he’s going to take everybody and everything with him.

Who could even THINK of such a thing???

This is the ultimate expression of envy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna. This is envy of the most amazing and wonderful creation of God. Just like some envious person can go into a museum and slash a famous painting, out of sheer envy, this kind of thinking is the ultimate envy of God and His creation. These scientists think they are so smart, so genius, big big know-it-alls, and yet, in the final analysis they cannot create anything beautiful, like Krishna does, but all they can do is screw up the natural harmony of the world and accelerate the process of death, as per the words of Sriman Bhagavad-gita. 

submitted by Visoka dasa

email-   vishoka@juno.com