namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

A hard rain fell, pounding the asphalt, collecting here and there in puddles and running into streams, and without a bus in sight. Five men stood forlorn, lost in their thoughts, waiting and wondering. Somehow it surfaced that they were all trying to get to the polls in time to cast their votes, and so they all decided to chip in for a cab. There was Joe the Plumber, Joe Six Pack, Joe Camel, Joe the Bartender, and Joe Mamma. The cabbie also happened to be a Joe – Joe Biden. But he was a strange guy in a Stephen King sort of way.

“What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.” Bhagavad Gita 2:69

During this last school year, New Vrindaban was visited by first time college groups from West Virginia University, Denison University, and Wheeling Jesuit, Bethany, Marietta, and Belmont Technical Colleges, with repeat visits from Ohio University, Hiram College and Hanover College. Three of the groups stayed overnight. I’d like to thank all the devotees who helped make these visits memorable for the college groups. Below are some comments and observations from professors and students.

Did you live in New Vrindaban or visit here when Srila Prabhupada visited the community? If so, I need your help.

Over the years I’ve been asked to develop an oral history of New Vrindaban. This would be an enormous undertaking. But with a new blog I would like to humbly begin this endeavor by first focusing on Srila Prabhupada’s visits to New Vrindaban. He visited on four occasions in 1969, 1972, 1974, and 1976.

Prufrock had had enough. He couldn’t take it another moment. He fled the room with all women talking about the New York Times article, “Some Ignorance Can Cure Chronic Buyer’s Remorse,” by Alina Tugend.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/business/15shortcuts.html

Student papers at the Global Leadership Center at Ohio University profile the conversion experience of some of the residents of New Vrindavan Community. The students broke into groups and interviewed devotees on the phone a couple of times, spent a month doing research into the community, and then actually came to visit for a weekend last Oct. Now their papers are ready for viewing at Harvard University's Pluralism Project website. The Pluralism Project is dedicated to the study of religious diversity in America.

(or Shell Game Passes For Tough Love)

New York Times - Huckabee proposes his idea of a “fair tax” as Chuck Norris looks on admiringly. See http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/us/politics/15campaign.html

This last week the media was buzzing with the results of Iowa caucuses. Ten months earlier, Rory Steele, a 29 year old former marine, had arrived in the state. He was a man on a mission, sent there to organize the Barack Obama campaign in 21 counties. He did whatever it took. No job was too big nor too small for him. Steele, a friendly guy who can talk with anyone, says, “We don’t give up on people.” On January 3rd his efforts paid off.

For Gita Jayanti I’d like to share my opening of Mahabharata, (Copyrighted, 2007). I’ve been working on the manuscript over the last couple of years. It’s a fast paced, cinematic rendition and is a product of my work in the field of storytelling. Actually, my book is geared toward the storytelling community. Storytelling as an art form is lean and action driven. For a storyteller too much description or embellishment is gratuitous and indulgent. A story unfolds like a Zen painting where so much is suggested by one stroke of the brush.

My Holiday Sale

All items below are written and produced by yours truly , recipient of WV 2005 Artist Fellowship Award.

Shipping in USA is $3 for 1st item and $1 for each additional item, or $5.00 max on one order. Contact me at story108@juno.com

***1) The Fish Who Wouldn't Stop Growing And Other Wisdom Stories From Ancient India ( 12 Stories) - Book $8

On Sept 10 MoveOn.org ran a full page add in the NY Times. There was a picture of General Petrarus, the man who’s heading up the military operations in Iraq, with the caption: General Petraeus or General Betray Us?

Back in the July 7th edition of the NY Times an article appeared called Scientists Urge A Search For Life Not As We know It by Carl Zimmer. A report published by the National Research Council explained that scientists are looking around the planetary system, and even on our own planet, for “weird life.” Surely, they surmise, there must be life forms that can function in bodies and environments totally different then our own.

Don’t we just delight in books and movies wherein destruction wreaks havoc in one form or other, be it by nuclear bombs, disease, twisters, volcanic eruptions, giant creatures or alien invaders. If you do, then you’ll love The World Without Us, authored by Alan Weisman. Reviewed by Janet Maslin in The Arts section of the August 13th NYT, the book is a “what if” account of what would happen to the world if mankind would suddenly disappear.

It’s Summer: Isn’t Anyone at Work by Lisa Belkin (NYT - August 9th) chronicles the author’s struggles to interview people and to write an article about the lack of motivation to do any work during the sweltering summer heat. During the summer more people seek diversions through online games or they call in sick on hot days. Another obstacle to getting anything done is that the youngsters are on summer break and the adults have to spend more time in tending to them and organizing activities for them.

It struck me like a sad little song. The article was only a measly paragraph, giving the bare facts, not saying much about the victim nor her killers. Maybe any more would have been just too much to bear. The piece, on page 6 of the July 27 NY Times, told of an ‘honor killing.” The culprit was a 70 year old grandmother of 16. I guess she thought she was doing right by her family.

People, we’re all being manipulated. It’s like right out of some horror movie. Our minds are controlled. Our bodies no longer belong to us. We are incapable of acting in our own self interest. We’re like the proverbial lemmings heading for the cliff.

"Not Buying It" is an article from NY Times House & Home section of June 21 reported by Steven Kurutz. It’s about a new movement which has cropped up during the last decade in New York, and perhaps a few other cities, which rejects the consumeristic life style of buying the things we normally need and want. These folks merely live off the fat of the land; that is, off what other people or supermarkets or companies throw out.

In Pursuit of Story: Coaching with Sankirtana Das

For writers, actors, storytellers, students and anyone wanting to explore
the use of STORY in their field:
*Guidance from the page to the stage
*Dramatic tension in performance & writing
*Help in refining your writing
*Voice and relaxation work
*Get proven rehearsal techniques under your belt
*Creativity through STORY

In the Science Section of the New York Times of April 24 an article appeared entitled Treating The Awkward Years, describing a slew of physical and emotional issues which may beset kids during their adolescent years, ranging generally from ages 10 to 19. There’s even a new field specializing in adolescent medicine dealing with anything from shyness to sexual activities to eating disorders to pimples. During those years kids are “mystified and embarrassed by their changing bodies.”

A New York Times article of June 21 entitled “50 Years of Heavy Reading” reported on a book club called the Friday Workshop, a group of ladies who had been gathering in Long Beach, NY for over 50 years. It started when they were in their 20's & 30's with small kids. The ladies "yearned for something more than just kitchen table conversation." They were determined. They set their mark high. Plato, Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Faulkner, Shakespeare. A laudable list. Sometimes they even invited a college professor conversant with the author to lead the discussions.

The people in the companies never see the people who make the products. And the people that make the products will never have to face the people who use them. And the people who use them are not being protected by the people they’ve elected to do precisely that. People, there’s something very wrong with this picture!

In the Science Times section (June 5) there’s an essay entitled The Universe, Expanding Beyond All Understanding by Dennis Overbye. He quotes an article (authored by Lawrence Krauss and Robert Scherrer) in The Journal of Relativity And Gravitation which states that in 100 billion years from now we will be “incapable of understanding the true nature of the universe.” By then, they argue, all but a few of the galaxies in our ever expanding universe will have moved beyond our vision. And the further away the galaxies get from one another the faster they travel.

Several months back the Times ran an ad for a DVD of the book The Secret. The Secret is newest sensation and darling of the New Agers. It's beyond the New Age. I'm sure the Neocons are reading it behind closed doors. It's a hot seller with the Walmart crowd. Oprah, on her show, made a big deal about it.