namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

by Vasu Murti das

In your book "They Shall Not Hurt Or Destroy” you say a few years ago Norm Phelps came to the conclusion, such as I myself have, that the animal rights movement will never succeed until we 'convert' the churches, mosques and synagogues to our cause. Is this also your point of view?

Yes. I would like to see organized religion take up the struggle for animal rights. Religion has been wrong before. It has often been said that on issues such as women's rights and human slavery, religion has impeded social and moral progress. It was a Spanish Catholic priest, Bartolome de las Casas, who first proposed enslaving black Africans in place of the Native Americans who were dying off in great numbers.

The church of the past never considered human slavery to be a moral evil. The Protestant churches of Virginia, South Carolina, and other southern states here in the U.S. actually passed resolutions in favor of the human slave traffic.

by Ravindra Svarupa das

In the last two postings we have been considering a letter Srila Prabhupada wrote in 1972 concerning the nature of power. A devotee had written Prabhupada with misgivings about competition in activities of preaching. To this apparently simple and down-to-earth question, Prabhupada gave a reply that rose quickly to ultimate philosophical principles. Prabhupada's presentation is brilliantly compact; I have been unpacking it somewhat.

H.H. Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami gave this very insightful and thought-provoking class on the grhasta ashram (married life) when he visited Brisbane a few months ago.

It is full of examples and analogies that I had never heard before, which is unusual for a class in an ISKCON temple, which usually consists of refreshing and reinforcing things that are already in my head.

I like the feeling of neural rewiring, so I enjoyed it. Useful information too.

Credit goes to Pandu Prabhu for pointing this out: "I’m reluctant to accept HH Bhakti Caru Swami’s view that we should 'go along with the time' with regard to women working side-by-side with men." Maharaja's words? (bolding added)

"The weak must serve the strong, that we see everywhere, is it not? Who can deny?"

Well, true enough—we do see it everywhere. But is it right? Is it just? Is it fair?

In the letter before us, Prabhupada so far seems unfazed by such doubts. The domination of the weak by the strong is, in his eyes, dharma—part of the unalterable nature of reality, and he goes on to extol it as immediately beneficial: "So that competitive spirit makes us strong, otherwise it is a society of weak men only, and what is the good of such society?"

HH Bhakti Raghava Maharaja sent a Position Paper on varnasrama development, passed by the Regional Governing Body (RGB) for India, to several PAMHO conferences:

"For everyone's information, this is the Position Paper passed by the Regional Governing Body (RGB) for India on varnasrama development. This came about as the result of recommendations presented by the Varnasrama Development Committee for India (of which I am a member) established in September, 2007 by the RGB India body. I believe this document is of relevance to all devotees around the world."

by Sita-pati das

In the Vedic conception of marriage, which is the social model used by ISKCON, marriage is not simply a commitment or contract between two people—it is a contract between two people and the community.

Especially when people are married in the temple in front of the Deities, the spiritual master, the sacred fire, and the devotional community.

Later on, if they decide to get divorced they are not simply breaking their commitment with each other, they are breaking their contract with the community—effectively they are excommunicating themselves from the community.

Were I to name the one human act most responsible for the wrongs in this world it would be, hands down, the abuse of power.

As far back as our history books can relate, the strong have exploited the weak. From time to time, the exploited, energized by resentment, rise up and overthrow their exploiters. In this way, the strong and the weak periodically exchange places. Even so, the principle of exploitation remains inviolate.

Although Balabhadra of ISCOWP still thinks he is 29, his body begs to differ. It is manifesting a life time of hard work and sending messages he has to slow down.  To help him make the transition from hardy outdoorsman to the more sedentary life that fills his future, I gave him a tie. A tie with cows on it. I even got him to sit on justnowcoming firewood for a while instead of cutting it to pose for this picture.  While I offered to tie it for him, he surprised me by tying it himself.

by Kaunteya das

At times the standards of our "grihasthas" are so low and disfunctional (ethically, spiritually, economically, etc.) that I am thinking of starting a campaign to promote grihamedhi consciousness, in the spirit of "something is better than nothing."

In ISKCON's pshyche the word grihamedhi represents (and with reason) an unacceptable social stereotype. "The grhastha means he is making the best use of a bad bargain. And the grhamedhi means he is animal. " Srila Prabhupada said in a Gita lecture in London, on 20 August 1973. Such references have created an impression of the grihamedhi as an unspeakably corrupted being, a detestable individual functioning on a level of debasement to which devotees could never possibly plunge?

"Child-worship is more important than deity-worship. If you cannot spend time with your child, then stop the duties of pujari. These children are given to us by Krishna. They are Vaisnavas and we must be very careful to protect them. These are not ordinary childern, they are Vaikuntha children, and we are very fortunate we can give them chance to advance further in Krishna Consciousness. That is very great responsibility, do not neglect it or be confused."

Letter to Arundhati, July 30, 1972

I lifted this from the excellent Krishna Kathamrita Bindu eMag:

by Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami

In his blog View From a New Vrindaban Ridge Madhava Gosh Prabhu quotes a conversation between Srila Prabhupada, Hari Sauri Prabhu, Ramesvara Prabhu, and Jagadisa Prabhu during a train-ride in India. In this conversation Srila Prabhupada esplains how he expects his disciples to create a Krishna conscious society based on varnasrama-dharma.

This week the ISKCON New Govardhana farming project in Australia received organic certification from the national Organic Growers Association. After several rigorous inspections, the farm was granted a certificate of compliance which allows all fruit and vegetables grown to carry the official OGA logo.

Any student of Srila Prabhupada will at once recognize the phrase “plain living and high thinking.” It occurred frequently and memorably in his discourse. It functioned as kind of motto or slogan to epitomize Prabhupada’s vision of a natural spiritual culture, an alternative to our modern, “soul-killing” industrial civilization.

Commitment is an essential feature of all devotee relationships, especially the marriage relationship.

All of us have ups and downs, periods of craziness, and periods of clarity. Of course, as we become purified, situated in goodness and, ultimately, transcendental, we fluctuate less and less in our mood and character. But while our material conditioning still has a grip on us we experience periods of more or less Krishna consciousness.

This been said, devotees who have seriously committed themselves to applying the process have in effect declared, by this demonstration of commitment, that they deeply value purity of heart and aspire for it themselves. When a person shows such commitment and dedication, Krishna takes a personal interest in them and is committed to them in return. As devotees we must do the same for each other.

[Video about a Buddhist couple's marriage experiment inside.]

It's me, leading a discussion on "The Real Cost of the Necessities of Life".

I'll be using these two articles:

• Walking to the shops ‘damages planet more than going by car’
• Why walking to the shops might not damage the planet "more than going by car" after all

...In a study involving Dutch, American and Kurdish students, psychologists in the Netherlands found that...young people invariably considered [their] potential mate's attractiveness the most important quality, whereas parents uniformly paid more attention to the suitors' social background or group affiliation -- race, religious background and social class...

...Parents and offspring clash, the researchers argued, because their genetic self-interests, while overlapping, are not identical.

I actually wrote this article 9 years ago, in 1999, so times were changing then and have continued to change since then…. Although some aspects of it are dated, when I found it in a box of old papers I thought enough of it was still relevant to feel inspired to share it. :-)

[Comment to his own post on www.dandavats.com]

From the Article:

Similarly, men have to a large degree lost the good quality of their greater capacity for intelligence and retained a superiority complex through social conditioning. Along with this is a concomitant lack of humility that characterizes all interactions in Kali-yuga; this is the age of quarrel and misunderstanding.

Amongst all this, men have insisted that women live up to the Vedic standard of submission, chastity, and obedience, without insisting that they themselves live up to the terms of their varnasrama contract: providing protection, well informed level-headed guidance, and support. Varnasrama is a social contract—all parties have to fulfill their obligations under the terms of the agreement.

I am starting to spread the news, promoting the concept of if you aren’t a vegan, and you drink milk from commercial sources, you are contributing to a system that slaughters cows. To offset that, you need to donate regularly to cow protection programs.

Visitors to my blog may have noted that I have added a widget in my sidebar where the connection to my fundraising page for GEETA ( an organization that protects cows) can easily be gotten to. GEETA is one of many cow protection programs that will accept your donations.