namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

In the 70's pundits were repeating the refrain: "Computers are going to revolutionize human life. In the future people's biggest problem is going to be 'what are we going to do with all this leisure time that computers have created for us?'"

Does anyone else remember this?

At some point this meme quietly dropped out of existence. No one mentions it as a future promise, and no one explains why it never happened.

Yesterday I had an epiphany. I know what happened.

The article that I linked to the other day, Why I changed my mind about Water Fluoridation poignantly illustrates the dynamic that I described in my 2006 article What's really going on?

Most people are innocent and easily mislead. They in turn mislead others. A "conspiracy" doesn't require people to keep a secret, it just requires them to truly believe in what they are doing, even though it's wrong.

I wrote an article, Beyond Conservative and Liberal three or four years ago explaining that devotees are neither "conservative" or "liberal". Take a look at it.

Krishna asks us to see the world is many different ways—for example: in terms of the three modes of material nature (tri-guna-mayi), the eight separated elements (prakrtir astadha), the two energies (para and apara-prakrti). Acaryas teach us to see three types of people (demoniac, devotee, innocent), three types of devotees (kanistha, madhyama, uttama), two types of devotees (saragrahi, bharavahi), two possible applications of any thing in bhakti (anukula, pratikula).

Another ad in the NY Times caught my attention. It runs for a full three pages in the Sept 25th issue, touting the glories of India’s contributions to the world. There’s a bold headline: Experience India In New York, announcing a series of cultural events and conferences. The ad has its token images of sitar players and Bharatnatyam dancers along with pictures of business exec’s in ties. The ad’s real intent is not to introduce Indian culture to the West, but rather to broadcast how India is adapting to Western culture so magnificently.

On September 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?"

It seems the ad unleashed an outburst of criticism against both the Times and MoveOn.Org. And I also say, why pick on the General? He seems to be a decent guy. Aren’t we just making him the scapegoat? Indeed, the real culprit all along is not the General, but something far more sinister. The big news, which no one dares to consider let alone print, is that we are all being betrayed by our own senses.

Bhakta Corey wrote a post over at Sankirtan Diary with a lot of good points in it. Dandas and props for speaking up prabhu. There was one aspect of it that jumped out at me, however, that made it a little harder for me to extract the nectar out of it. It seems to be a common phenomenon when discussing philosophy with American-born and bred devotees.

Today's the anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Here are a few things to think about:

One who is making false statement,
he'll suffer for that.

- Srila Prabhupada, San Francisco, September 11, 1968

Did a Boeing 757 really hit the Pentagon?

Why did WTC Building 7 collapse?

By Satyaraja Dasa (Steven J. Rosen)

The recent tragedy at Manipur touches me deeply in several ways. At least two immediately spring to mind: As a devotee, I am horrified that people would try to harm defenseless Vaishnavas, particularly on a holy day. Surely, if this is the work of terrorists (who often claim to be religious people), they should be able to empathize with the heartfelt devotion of believers, whatever their particular religion. But, no. Their sectarianism borders on insanity, for they harm worshipers of Allah, even if those worshippers glorify Him by using a different name. I am also horrified as a New Yorker, with September 11th 2001 looming large in my consciousness. The events of September 11th are indelibly etched on the world’s collective heart. For many, as the twin towers came crashing down, so did Western innocence, or the illusion that the world is a safe place and that America is as loved by people of other lands as it is within its own borders. Inescapably, “violence and religion” are the new twin towers, replacing the old because the perpetrators claim that their crime was not only sanctioned by God but commanded by Him.

September 11 will mark the fifth anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Nine days after the attacks, President George W. Bush, speaking to a joint session of Congress, said this about the attackers:

We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century.

By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions—by abandoning every value except the will to power—they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism.

And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends: in history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies.

Srila Prabhupada:

“Perhaps you may know that there are many political parties in a country but when the country’s total responsibility has to be executed, they become combined. To have some little disagreements among yourselves is not very unnatural because we are all individual beings. But as we are working on behalf of Krishna, we should always forget our personal interests and see to the prime cause.”