namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

Here's my album review for AC/DC's latest album "Black Ice". This is the first AC/DC album that I've ever "owned", although you can't own a music album, only the physical media it's distributed on - and in the age of digital downloads you don't even get that.

As a prelude - I lived in Lima, Peru for three years. I was a bus ride away from the mysterious ancient city of Macchu Picchu, but I never got to see it. I was busy holding down the fort in an inner city ISKCON temple and restaurant, and trying to resuscitate a BBT that had gone into cardiac arrest.

At the time I took inspiration from H.H. BV Narayana Maharaja. Maharaja spent 7 years serving at a temple in Mathura. Every week he would have to take the train to a nearby city to do some business of the math. One stop before Mathura on the line was a famous place of pilgrimage, however Maharaja never visited it because he didn't have any service there.

That's why I've never been to see Maharaja, although he has visited Queensland practically every year since I've been here. I've always been occupied in my service maintaining some kind of program when he comes. That's also why I never visited Macchu Picchu while I was in Peru.

I remember sannyasis passing through Lima on their way to visit Macchu Picchu, and now I've seen Kurma's photos of his visit(s) there. If I could go back and do it again, would I go to Macchu Picchu? Not if I were the same person - but if it were me now, probably.

I'm not sure what happened, but I used to be a pure devotee - now I'm just struggling to be a human being.

I don't want to die with regrets. If I get the opportunity I'll go to visit Macchu Picchu. I'll take my son Prahlad back to Peru, where he was born, "para que conozca a su tierra". And while I'm here in Australia I'm to check out some of the national monuments - AC/DC concert next year here I come.

In the meantime, here's my review of the first AC/DC album I've ever owned:

It's AC/DC. If you've ever heard AC/DC then 'nuff said.

Here's Param Satya's review:

"What is this? It sounds like Country & Western."

Favourite song: Rock N' Roll Dream

Dear Prabhus,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The annual Prabhupada Marathon is here again, this is a great opportunity to spread the glories of Sri Krsna and His dear devotee Srila Prabhupada.

Sankirtana is the Yuga Dharama and brings good fortune to all.

There is no doubt about it. The performance of Sankirtana is the panacea for all the problems of the world.

All our earthly problems are due to ignorance of our eternal spiritual nature.

Sankirtana, the group chanting of Krsna’s holy names is so powerful that it pierces the thick layers of ignorance that cover the souls in this world.

Rupa Goswami says that those who hear the Sankirtana party even once immediately become washed of sins and gain an inkling of their spiritual identity.

And as we’ve already seen, people who are especially fortunate also eagerly join our Sankirtana party upon seeing and hearing it.

Furthermore, Srila Prabhupada made it clear to us that books like Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita are written kirtana. Those who receive these literatures, reading from them even one word, become eternally benefited.

Distribution of books is Sankirtana.

When we distribute transcendental literature, people take it home to read and to share with others. These books last for decades and are slowly infiltrating homes, libraries, schools, motels and are slowly becoming popular (as is the practice of Bhakti Yoga).

Every despot and tyrannical leader in the world knows that books change people’s lives. This is why historically a dictator’s first order of business in assuming power is in censoring written material, sometimes even burning books.

During our visit to Vietnam in April of this year we became quickly acquainted with the Communist policy prohibiting the distribution of literature not edited and sanctioned by the government.

Books are powerful. And Srila Prabhuada’s books are the basis of our ISKCON movement.

What to speak of ordinary books, the Srimad Bhagavatam — which is an incarnation of Krsna is revolutionary and will eternally benefit all who read it.

Prasadam distribution is similarly potent. People everywhere appreciate receiving tasty food given out of friendship and love getting even small treats. Distribution of Krsna prasadam creates goodwill and the recipients of it make permanent spiritual advancement just by accepting it. No matter one’s present condition — human, animal or lowly insect a soul who accepts prasadam gets benefit.

In the Gita Krsna lauds those who do good to others.

For instance, in the Bhagavad-gita 5.25, Krsna says, “Those who are always busy working for the welfare of all living beings achieve liberation in the Supreme.” And in Gita 16.3, Krsna cites “daya bhutesu,” the showing of mercy to other living entities, as one of the primary transcendental, divine qualities. And again in Gita 11.55 Krsna says that those who are “friendly to every living being,” certainly come to Him. Regarding this last statement, Srila Prabhupada comments:

“A Krsna conscious person knows that if a man is suffering it is due to his forgetfulness of his eternal relationship with Krsna. Therefore, the highest benefit one can render to human society is relieving one’s neighbor from all material problems. In such a way, a pure devotee is engaged in the service of the Lord. Now, we can imagine how merciful Krsna is to those engaged in His service, risking everything for Him. Therefore it is certain that such persons must reach the supreme planet after leaving the body” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, pp. 609-610).

By Krsna’s mercy, those who perform Sankirtana gain clarity and spiritual health. They quickly become spiritually advanced and find an inner fulfillment that is not available anywhere else in the universe.

Krsna is a wish-fulfilling tree. He gives everyone what they desire. As we perform Sankirtana, Krsna personally clears our hearts and minds, allowing us to desire our highest benefit in life. Indeed, those who perform Sankirtana live with Krsna constantly. And as Sanjaya says in Bhagavad-gita for such persons there is always opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality.

Those who perform Sankirtana to please the transcendental senses of the Lord never tire of it nor are they restricted in their ability to perform Sankirtana. As they desire to increase the Sankirtana yajna by spreading it all over the world, Krsna gives them facility. Such persons factually swim in the anandam buddhi vardanam, the ever-expanding ocean of happiness.

So, let us focus on saving one living entity at a time, beginning with ourselves. As we do so, let us continue refining and increasing our practice of Sankirtana, investing in new tools, inviting new members to join, employing everything at our disposal for increasing this yajna.

With deep gratitude,

Your humble servant,

Vaisesika Das

So you have an iPhone, Hum!
The probability then is that your female, up to 70% of iPhone sales reportedly is by female customers. No one quite knows why but women say its down to being able to multi-task and the iPhone assists in this.
Read more here:
news.com.au

I'm on way to the airport to fly to Melbourne to collect my National Yoga Asana Championship title. Param Satya is driving. atmayogi.com now has a mobile interface that works well with the bandwidth and screen of my phone. I'm using the new Opera Mini java-based web browser for mobile phones and it rocks out - great performance and features, very well thought out.

What else is news? I'm travelling with my full-scale computer rather than the eeePC. During the recent storms some water got into the eeePC's keyboard. Now some keys give two different characters when pressed. The guys at work recommended using a hairdryer, or storing it in an airtight container for a few days with some dessicating packets from snacks. I'm trying that first, before attacking it with a hairdryer, so it's sealed up at home while I'm away.

I need a computer to keep in touch with some projects I have going at work. "Work like a rockstar, get paid like a roadie" is our tongue-in-cheek (though not inaccurate) motto.

I have some management posts to share. Recently I hired four new people (after months of interviewing candidates), helped one guy decide to quit, and helped one of my new people deal with an office psychopath.

OK, I'm at the airport. L8rz.

Update: I just checked in, and realised that I don't have a single cent on me. This is going to be interesting...

You can read about it, here. One thing is the Indian sources have more info on this than the Western ones. Nevertheless, these are making world headlines, especially since it appears that Western hostages were sought.

It's a war between radical islam and the secular West. That it happened in Mumbai is because it is an easily accessible outpost of Western, hegemonic, civilizational influence. Aside from the unfortunate fact that many defenseless people will suffer and lose their lives, in the long run, secularism is probably destined to lose.

That is, unless a credible, non-secular solution and counterforce can be found.

read more

My daughter Jahnavi reached South Africa safely this morning. She’s over there for two weeks to take part in a Vaishnava youth kirtan event. She’s happy to be out of the dark British winter and, south of the equator, to be playing her violin in the African sunshine. She’s never been to Africa before so it will be a completely new experience for her.

I Iived in Africa for two years - and spent several months right on the equator by Lake Victoria in northern Kenya - but I never went down to South Africa, so she’s travelling further than me.

When I was just a very young boy I sat on my grandfather’s knee and heard about his exploits on the ‘dark continent’. He’d fought in the Boer War in South Africa, been captured, held prisoner and almost starved, and lived in Alahabad, India. At the time, I  was slightly more interested in playing with his enormous waxed moustache, twirled into spikes at either end. A proper Victorian soldier, he’d retained the hallmark of a military youth in his bearing, voice, and fashion. 

When I was nine my father asked me if I wanted to go to East Africa to live since he was interested in serving in the police force down there. Kenya was still a colony of Britain but because the Mau-Mau rebellion was taking place we didn’t go. Kenya gained independence that same year.

I still didn’t know too much about Africa but the following year I discovered everything I needed to know. I was ten and it was 1964 and the film Zulu was released. Suddenly, everything became clear. Africa was a very big place where the British soldiers were always being attacked by the local natives. Now why would they do that?

I thrilled as the film, starring a young Michael Caine, told the story of Rorke’s Drift where a gallant 100+ red-coated infantry men held off over 4,000 Zulus armed with spears. It was a terrifying film and I was glad that Michael Caine won and beat off the natives. And I’m glad that my brave grandpa was there too.

Unfortunately, my 10 year-old’s imagination was matched by the creativity of the Victorians, as the substance of the battle at Rorke’s Drift was enhanced for the English public to compensate for the stinging loss of many British soldiers at Isandhlwana, where the Zulus triumphed. And the Boer War, 1899-1902, fought 35 years after ‘Zulu’ was between the British and Dutch settlers. That too resulted in many British losses and was the beginning of the end of the British Empire.

Still, it wasn’t the end of my grandfather. He was rescued in a daring raid by General Sir Redvers Buller, and went on to fight again. I appreciate Buller for that. Unfortunately, Buller was not so helpful in Ireland, but that’s another story and I don’t want to lose any Irish friends.

Empires, conquests, freedom struggles, battles, independence, apathy, exploitation of the populace -followed inexorably by more empires and more conquests; drawing and re-drawing lines on maps. The only revolution we can create on this Earth which will endure is the Empire of Emperuman, the divine community made of those human beings who have regained their experience of a higher happiness.

May all the kirtans in South Africa serve to give everyone who hears them a taste of that happiness.

The late, Hon. Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, once famously said in a ruling,

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."

So it happens over at soithappens.com that Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu gives us a similar I-know-it-when-I-see-it characterization of what he calls "Srila Prabhupada's voice," for similar reasons.

“Voice” is the aspect of a literary work which conveys the distinct power and flavor of the narrator’s personality. Voice is different from style, although it depends on style for its realization. . . . Voice is difficult to define, and evidently even more difficult to teach and cultivate. They say the writer has to “find her voice.” . . . However resistant to definition, voice is unmistakable when you hear it.

And then RS goes on to talk about Srila Prabhupada's unfiltered voice and the consequent aesthetic effect RS himself experiences:

If voice requires “passion, plus belief, plus desire,” we encounter it here, in full spiritualized force, energizing Prabhupada’s writing. In this passage, Prabhupada speaks of the urgent need for the Bhagavatam. At the same time he acknowledges his own shortcomings in presenting it and makes the case why the reader should overlook them. Almost magically, he transforms his imperfections into perfections.

To what extent does Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu's own life experience and perspective contribute to his own experience of Srila Prabhupada's text? If someone unfamiliar with Krishna consciousness were to encounter the book, would he experience it the same way? However, RS mentions that this was one of the first books he had ever read, and at that time it, too, was a source of inspiration. Indeed, it is the experience of devotees that, as they read texts such as the Bhagavad-gita, it is almost as if they are reading a new text. New realizations ensue, the experience is somehow wonderful yet different.

Although much more could be said about voice of the author, and about SP's voice in particular, RS's social status at this point in time raises another interesting question. As a senior member of ISKCON's Governing Body Commission, of which the majority voted to annotate SP's very text, is RS's appreciation of SP's voice a sign of a moving towards apprehending SP's intent or a sign of moving away from apprehending, or covering, SP's intent?

In university religion courses, sometimes the Bible is taught as a piece of literature--"voice" and all. "Bible as Literature" the course is sometimes titled. It is often found that such courses that teach the bible in this way often teach it in a way that is at odds with the various religious traditions that have preserved and promoted the Bible.

Although we do not know how RS voted in the GBC on this matter, the question of how he voted is important to understanding his take on "voice." In the BBT's response to the GBC on the matter of annotation, BBT trustees noted that annotation amounts to a softening, or an "explaining away" of Srila Prabhupada. If RS voted against annotation, then it is likely that he regards "voice" as a significant factor in determining the original intent of the author. But if he voted in favor of annotation, then it is likely that he sees voice more as something more subjective--how one feels about an author's text is regarded as more important than the effect and understanding the author intended.

Will it come to pass one day in ISKCON that his closest followers will one day teach SP's books just as secular professors teach the Bible as literature? The consensus amongst members of the GBC indicate that this is more likely than it is unlikely.

read more

I have added a few new features. Users who sign up, register (see login / create new account), will be able to see a search bar on the left-hand side bar. They will also be able to post comments without having to use the CAPTCHA (solve math equations). Anonymous users who wish to leave comments will not see their comments immediately posted. Those will be moderated.

Battlefield Bhajans Vol. 29

written on Ft. Lewis, WA

Dedicated to HDG AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Army Descion Received:

I went to the office that was processing my paperwork to make sure all the mistakes were corrected and it was forwarded back to Department of the Army.  I was called to go see Bill (he handles my chapter) and as I walked in, he looked puzzled. He said didn’t you get the email I sent. I said no, he asked me to sit down. He started to explain that the packet was resubmitted about one week ago, and they expected the disapproval or approval to come in eleven months. He said, in the twenty years he has been processing separation for the Army, he never saw this. With that he reached in a draw and handed me a piece of paper. The paper said “Approval of SFC Ari Sonnenberg’s chapter 5-3 discharge is approved, he will receive an honorable discharge and his separation date is now 01 March 2009. I was amazed and almost started crying. Just last week, I was preparing myself for Afghanistan, now the Lord changed it. Bill went on to explain that his supervisor and him have been meditating on my packet. The more they read the paperwork, the ore and more interested they had become. He reached in his brief case and pulled out a Bhakti book. He passed by one of the smart boxes on the base and realized this was the spiritual path I am traveling. He took a small book and recommended others read these books also. He stood up and thanked me for my service to my country and went on to tell me, that this was God’s plan.
So now, I am counting down the days, with a month in India, then January I will travel within North America, then 10 February I start out-processing the Army.  I am amazed, the Lord heard the prayers of many. He used this period for me to develop more faith in Him, more faith in the power of prayer. I feel I am not worth all the prayers said on my behalf. I am a fallen soul, and have no good qualities. But by the mercy and blessings of the vaisnava’s, I can possibly accomplish something for Srila Prabhupada. Again thank you all, for all the mercy, I fall at all of your feet over and over again.

Sankritan:

85- small
10- maha big

Yours in Srila Prabhupada’s service,
Partha-sarathi dasa

“Voice” is the aspect of a literary work which conveys the distinct power and flavor of the narrator’s personality. Voice is different from style, although it depends on style for its realization. Here is the writer Holly Lisle attempting to capture the idea of voice:

. . . .you have to put yourself on your page. This is what is known in the writing business as developing your voice. Voice isn’t merely style. Style would be easy by comparison. Style is watching your use of adjectives and doing a few flashy things with alliteration. Style without voice is hollow. Voice is style, plus theme, plus personal observations, plus passion, plus belief, plus desire. Voice is bleeding onto the page, and it can be a powerful, frightening, naked experience.

Voice is difficult to define, and evidently even more difficult to teach and cultivate. They say the writer has to “find her voice.”

In Philip Roth’s novel The Ghostwriter, Nathan Zuckerman, a novice writer, has submitted with trepidation his four published stories to his hero E. I. Lonoff—“the great man”—for judgment. Zuckerman is thrilled when Lonoff eventually remarks:

“Look, I told Hope this morning: Zuckerman has the most compelling voice I’ve encountered in years, certainly for somebody starting out.”
“Do I?”
“I don’t mean style”—raising a finger to make the distinction. “I mean voice: something that begins at around the back of the knees and reaches well above the head. don’t worry too much about ‘wrong.’ Just keep going. You’ll get there.”

However resistant to definition, voice is unmistakable when you hear it. Here are the opening of two renowned novels. The voices of the narrators are remarkably different, yet each immediately takes possession of the reader:

Herman Melville, Moby Dick:

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.

Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”

I first read Prabhupada’s presentation of Canto One of Srimad Bhagavatam in 1971. At that time the work was available only in the three volumes of the League of Devotee edition that Prabhupada had published in India and brought with him to America in 1965.

It was in these volumes that I encountered Prabhupada’s voice.

The thick, cheap paper of the books were crudely bound. The text was riddled with typos and solecisms. The writing was certainly not “standard” English, but more like what the British called, disparagingly, “Babu English,” the ornate but imperfect English of Indian clerks.

Recognizing the shortcomings of his work, Prabhupada directed his American disciples to edit the volumes to meet the strict requirements of standard English. Even the Sanskrit transliterations had to conform to the established academic usage. This normalized version of the first canto was published in the West under the imprint of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.

I am grateful that I was able first to read Canto One in the original India version. True, it presented a challenge to me when I quoted from it extensively in a paper for a course in graduate religious studies. Standard practice demanded that I put “[sic]” after every single anomaly. It didn’t take me long to forswear that practice, and I simply presented in a footnote my reasons for not salting my quotation with sics. To tell the truth, I was a little embarrassed. So it is not that I did not welcome the BBT edition when it came.

At the same time, something precious to me was lost with the rectification of Prabhupada’s text to standard English: His voice was muffled, muted. And that voice appealed powerfully to me during my first reading; it moved me profoundly. And I missed it later on. For that reason, I return regularly to the original. And I was glad when the BBT published in 2005 a facsimile edition of the original three volumes.

In the excerpt below from the original edition, Prabhupada writes of his own project of presenting Bhagavatam in English to the Western world. If voice requires “passion, plus belief, plus desire,” we encounter it here, in full spiritualized force, energizing Prabhupada’s writing. In this passage, Prabhupada speaks of the urgent need for the Bhagavatam. At the same time he acknowledges his own shortcomings in presenting it and makes the case why the reader should overlook them. Almost magically, he transforms his imperfections into perfections.

Here it is. (You can compare this version of Bhagavatam 1.5.11 to the normalized version here.)

You can see how the energy of Prabhupada’s voice is conveyed by the way his sentences advance through long, rhythmic rhetorical periods, building up power.

Let me illustrate this by graphically rearranging some sentences:

For those of you who want a further taste of Prabhupada voice, here is the Preface to the second volume of the Bhagavatam. Prabhupada again speaks of his mission of propagating Bhagavatam to the world and urges its necessity. “Voice is style, plus theme, plus personal observations, plus passion, plus belief, plus desire.” All are displayed by Prabhupada in full:

News report - my commentary follows.

(Canberra) The Australian government has passed legislation recognizing same-sex couples under a large number of laws, but the measure falls short of granting either marriage or civil unions.
The omnibus bill mounted its final hurdle Monday, winning approval in the Senate. The legislation passed the House in September. It still requires the signature of the Governor General, a formality, before going into effect.

The Same-Sex Entitlements Bill removes discrimination against same-sex partners in areas such as immigration, taxation, veterans’ pensions and aged care. It also abolishes discrimination against children of same-sex couples by granting equal rights to both parents.

In total, it amends 68 Commonwealth laws.

“They deliver on a very important election commitment on an important day for us,” Labor senator Penny Wong, who is openly gay, told the Senate during Monday’s debate.

“They will deliver the sort of equality before the law that same-sex couples have never previously experienced.”

Green Party Leader Bob Brown, who also is openly gay and a long-time campaigner for same-sex rights, called passage of the bill a major step forward.

“This is, indeed, historic legislation and the government is to be congratulated for putting the legislation to this parliament within 12 months of it’s election, to remove a great sway of discrimination laws against same sex couples,” Brown said

But he added that discrimination against same-sex couples would only end when they were legally able to wed.

Passage of the legislation was a campaign promise of the Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, although Rudd refused to repeal a law passed in 2004 by the former Liberal government that bars gay marriage

Prior to losing the last federal election, Prime Minister John Howard used the law to overturn a civil unions bill passed by the Australian Capital Territory.

Howard’s action resulted in the federal Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission launching a national investigation into inequities faced by same-sex couples. The commission held hearings across the country.

Commissioners heard from dozens of gay couples in hearings across the country of how partners have been cut out of wills because they have not legal status, how children in same-sex relationships are harmed, and how federal pension law hurts one partner when the other dies.

In its report to the government last year, the Commission made more than 50 recommendations and urged the passing laws guaranteeing rights for same-sex couples.

After Rudd’s government was elected, the Australian Capital Territory reintroduced its civil unions bill. After amending it to prevent public ceremonies to be held in government facilities it passed, making the ACT the first area in the country to allow civil partnerships.

A third of Australia’s eight states and territories have varying laws providing some benefits to same-sex couples.

Among Australia’s population of 21 million people, more than 40,000 are in same-sex relationships, a government report found last year.

Sitapati's Commentary

I saw this in the GALVA (Gay and Lesbian Vaisnava Association) mailing list, of which I'm a paid-up, card-carrying member.

The progress of history is inevitable. Those of an agrarian mindset are backward-looking, and see a golden age in the past. Those of a post-industrial mindset see a possible golden age in the future. Contemporary socio-political events are to a large degree the story of the clash between these two mindsets / worldview.

Vedic culture has a place in it for everyone. It assimilates all other cultures into it. There is a Vedic way to eat meat, to drink alcohol, and to take drugs, and there are Vedic ways to have sex, both hetero and homo, as well.

For those who invoke a past Vedic culture which is utterly intolerant of homosexuality, I can only respect their stance if they are consistent in their attitude toward black people, also demanding that their freedom and enfranchisement be revoked. Otherwise their perspective seems to be more the contemporary pro-heterosexual/homophobic mindset masquerading as Vedic Fundamentalism, rather than a genuine "back to the good old days!" one.

Amara das' book Tritiya Prakrti "People of the Third Sex" is an interesting read, and gives another perspective on the broadness of Vedic culture. After reading that book I went back and re-read the Kama-sutra with more attention (it was the first Vedic book I came into contact with). It makes for an interesting understanding of what the actual overall Vedic culture is like, rather than just one small slice of it.