namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

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Too funny!

So what are intelligent responses to our predicament? First, we’ll have to dramatically reorganize the everyday activities of American life. We’ll have to grow our food closer to home, in a manner that will require more human attention. In fact, agriculture needs to return to the center of economic life. We’ll have to restore local economic networks — the very networks that the big-box stores systematically destroyed — made of fine-grained layers of wholesalers, middlemen and retailers.

An interesting article from a recent edition of Leadership Wired, on the subject of Criticism. Here's an excerpt:

Americans have a warped view of criticism. Unfortunately, most of us see criticism almost exclusively in a negative light. We dish it out tactlessly, use it to tear down rivals, and attack others with it even when we have no authority to do so.

In the different yugas different conditions prevail.

In Satya yuga, the "age of truth", conditions are such that the balance of power lies with the brahmanas. Everyone is a paramhamsa in this age and there is no varnashram, so everyone is a brahmana. In this age the process of self-realization is meditation.

In Dvapara-yuga, the "second age", which usually follows Satya-yuga, the process of self-realization is Deity Worship. In this age the balance of power lies with the Ksatriyas.

Here is an example of applying some of the principles employed by Bill O'Reilly in his Sunsara Taylor / Ron Luce interview [link] to the recent "Hare Krishna Diary" incident. It would not placate the cries of the lynch mob for blood, but it wouldn't absorb the agenda of the complainants into the GBC response either; and it would focus on process, maintaining a metastructure that can accommodate diversity within it, and raising the tone of the debate.

At the root this is a discipline issue.

Vedic Civilization means both Manu Samhita and Kama Sutra.

Trying to implement a "Vedic civilization" with only either one or the other is a fantasy and is "the logic of half a hen" ardha-kukkya nyaya.

That's why this "men and women" is the province of grhastas and adminstrators, not brahmacaris and sannyasis.

• Bhakta Corey (aka Caitanya das) mixes his own adolescent immaturity and lack of real life experience with his promotion of Srila Prabhupada's statements on social issues.
• His detractors mix their own dislike of Srila Prabhupada's statements on social issues with their critique of his presentation.
• The GBC statement fails to make a distinction between these things.

A couple of weeks ago Madana Gopal das and Asi-kunda devi dasi were married here in Brisbane.

Janakaraj prabhu just sent me through some photos, and I retrieved a couple that I took. I forgot to put the SD card in my camera that day, so there were only a couple of photos, which I found on the internal memory of the camera.

Just after the wedding ceremony. I arrived toward the end, as I was setting up the sound system and instruments in the reception hall.

Actually Rick's talking about "renewal", but points number 5 and 6, in fact all of them, relate to my recent piece on ISKCON Constitution.com

Here are Rick's points, via Dave Ferguson:

When God wants to renew a church, a country, a movement he always takes you through five moves:

Last night Prahlad and I dropped by Warrior Shabazz's studio. I took nine videos, which I'm currently uploading to his Youtube channel. Last week Shabazz was getting over a flu, so he wasn't 100%. This week he was in full effect.

Check out the movie on the Russian Kuli Mela website

Part of being "inclusive", innit? :-)

To relieve that "burning of the universe" feeling... here's something about what I've been up to.

On Tuesday night Prahlad and I dropped by the Shabazz School of Self Defense, run by local Master Warrior Ali Shabazz. Ali Shabazz is also known by the name Abhilasa dasa. In addition to being a student of martial arts traditions he is also a student of the ancient Vedic spiritual tradition, and was one of the youngest of the disciples of the great world teacher Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Madhava Gosh's piece on annotations got taken to pieces by Pandu [1 and 2] when it appeared on Dandavats.com in the context of the resolution 311 conversation.

Here is one of the unpublished comments that I submitted to Dandavats before commentary was officially closed:

This is not about the 4th Canto’s rape quote. That one was selected as the least controversial, from a devotee point of view, to make the proposal more easy to defend in public debate.

A few weeks ago I had a realization that it's healthy to be proud of something that's worth being proud of. That's kind of axiomatic, isn't it? Pride without something worth being proud of, however, is pathological, and that's the kind of unrealism that gets people into trouble.

Here's something worth being proud of:

Staff Sgt Aristotle Sonnenberg, aka Partha-sarathi das, a US soldier deployed in Iraq, was recently awarded a medal for exemplary bravery and leadership in combat conditions. This award recognized his pivotal role in saving the lives of 56 injured Iraqis while under fire.

It wasn't breakfast, but it was good. Vegan pizza and roasted sweet potato wedges with pesto.

It's a yoga retreat, but the food is a big part of it - you are what you eat! Here's Chris getting dinner.

Nerina came on Saturday morning.

Hey, congratulations Ali Krishna dd! And congratulations also to Arca das (formerly Bhakta Oliver). Australia represent! :-)

This is a photo of my homeboy Raivata das with Ratnabhusana prabhu, shot in New Dwaraka, Los Angeles, a few years ago.

Ratnabhusana prabhu is the devotee who makes the Balaram mrdangas. He made the yellow mrdanga that you see me playing on harinam and in kirtans. I picked it up from him when I passed through New Dwaraka in 2001, on the way to South America.

Prahlad gets some instructions from H.H. Indradyumna Swami

Corey, it's not that there are people called "liberals" in ISKCON who think that everyone is equal. If you read Srila Prabhupada's books you'll find out that these people are called "impersonalists". They are the kind of people who think that there is no difference between, say, a new bhakta and a twice-initiated brahmana.

Bhakta Corey missed the post where I explained why his blog feed was dropped.

The format here is accountable authors who talk about what they are doing and what they are thinking.

I specifically set up and structured the policies of Planet ISKCON to make it speak with a whole person, human voice.

Monday night I went to Atma Yoga. I didn't go for the yoga class because I was wiped out after the weekend - Param, Prahlad, and I just dropped by for dinner. There were only five people for the class (there is usually 18 or so), and Prem had 5 people helping him in the kitchen!

Here's the menu:

by Sudevi dasi

Dear devotees,

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

I have put together a list of books that are helpful in understanding everything to do with your child and the positive alternatives available to mainstream parenting and schooling. I have spent a bit of time researching how to raise a child like the native cultures of the world, especially Indian culture, as I have always noted that Indian children act very differently to their western counterparts and I always wondered why, since having a child myself I have found many reasons why western children are different, some answers were obvious and others a great discovery for me.

Recently I've been involved in some discussions about Vaisnava satire. There are a few sites around that specialize in Vaisnava satire, and others that frequently use satire as a rhetorical device.

From the Wikipedia entry on satire: