namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

About 60 million CAPTCHAs are solved by humans around the world every day. In each case, roughly ten seconds of human time are being spent. Individually, that's not a lot of time, but in aggregate these little puzzles consume more than 150,000 hours of work each day. What if we could make positive use of this human effort? reCAPTCHA does exactly that by channeling the effort spent solving CAPTCHAs online into "reading" books.

Read more about it here.

"What if people don't want to hear our message?" Pradyumna asked.

"The people might not understand our message, but Krsna will be pleased," Prabhupada replied.

Embedding is disabled but here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQMTWAMNt3Y&feature=related

The Hare Krishna connection is about 1/2 way through.

So Arjuna's position is very precarious. There is a Bengali proverb naste bose bhunkata.(?) A girl, he, she is very famous dancing girl. So it is the system... As we have introduced, the girls and ladies, they have their veil, gunthana. It is called gunthana in Indian language. So a dancing girl, when she was on the stage, she saw that so many of her relatives are there as visitors. So she began to draw the veil. So this is not required. You are a dancing girl. Now you have to dance. You cannot be shy. You must freely dance. That is your duty.

It is hard to follow every world news issue but there are some that I keep up with. In the mid 90's one of the most grotesque massacres of our times of over 800,000 men, women and children took place in Rwanda, Africa. The degree of human brutality that was exercised during this period of genocide is riveting for even the most war-hardened heart. The Hutu militia had a shortage of resources for equipment such as ammunition so they used machetes to slay Tutsi families in the street.

"I am a little temperamental," said Srila Prabhupada. "I used to use words like rascal and so on. I never compromised. They used to call it "A club in one hand and a Bhagavatam in the other.' That is how I preach."

from Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta

"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

All the cowherd men, including Nanda Maharaja, used to talk of the wonderful activities of Lord Krsna and Balarama, and they were always so much absorbed in those talks that they forgot the threefold miseries of this material existence. This is the effect of Krsna consciousness. What was enjoyed five thousand years ago by Nanda Maharaja can still be enjoyed by persons who are in Krsna consciousness simply by talking about the transcendental pastimes of Krsna and His associates.

From Krsna book Chapter 11

Modern psychology uses the term 'messianic complex' to describe the phenomenon where individuals claim self-awareness of their proclaimed role as a 'savior'. I find this tendency of lower human nature fascinating.

What makes people convinced that they are 'the chosen one'? Even more interesting are the mechanics behind what makes sometimes large numbers of people convinced that a particular person is the messiah?

[Watch Video]

By Andrew Drummond
July 04, 2008 11:44am

THE majority of Australians consider themselves religious but say faith does not play a big part in their life, according to a new survey showing few regularly pray or visit church.

The news comes less than two weeks before the world's Catholic leader, Pope Benedict XVI, heads Down Under for World Youth Day.

The survey of 21,000 people from 21 countries, which names Australia as one of the world's least religious countries, was conducted by the independent, not-for-profit, German-based Bertelsmann Foundation.

"God is everywhere, but He has got a special planet, which is called Goloka Vrndavana. You can enter there and mix with the Supreme Lord just like we are here, mixing one another. I can see you, you can see me, similarly, you can go directly, see God and live with Him, dance with Him, play with Him, eat with Him. That is the perfection of life."

- Srila Prabhupada's Class on Bhagavad-gita 7.1-3 -- Paris, June 13, 1974

For western readers of this blog this song may be an acquired taste. It has a beautiful melody and rhythm though doesn't it?

Watch video

Yes. I grew up in this kind of environment.

Now that I'm an expatriate for over a decade I can see the oddity of the Texan way. I could imagine this kind of thing being a hit on local radio there. I do agree with most of the message in this video, but rather then treat gays as if they are freaks I try to show them respect even though that may be from a distance sometimes.

Watch video

If you look to the left here on my blog you will see the Google Reader generated .xml feed presentation of articles from ISKCON News Weekly.

Please copy the code in this file to put a block on your site and help promote this resource.

While it is normally only considered cliché that "laughter is the best medicine," specific medical theories attribute improved health, increased life expectancy, and overall improved well-being, to laughter.

[Video]

The BBT directors and trustees have turned down the GBC's recommendation that the BBT add endnotes or appendices to explain potentially off-putting statements in Srila Prabhupada's books.

You can find the BBT's official statement here:

http://www.jswami.info

or (permanent address)

http://www.jswami.info/bbt/editing/no_notes

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

Why This Site Exists

Source

This website was developed mainly so that I could have an outlet to express what little devotion I have for Sri Sri Gopala-Douji. I am of the opinion that the allurement exhibited by these two Brothers is self-evident and that They require no assistance, by my own conditioned effort, to perform Their eternal function of attracting living entities throughout the universe.

Excerpt from The Bhagavata: Its Philosophy, Its Ethics, and Its Theology by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura

"The Bhagavata teaches us that God gives us truth as He gave it to Vyasa: when we earnestly seek for it.

This may not even be helpful but, since it seems to be the only organized effort for us to have a say in the matter, please sign this petition.

I suspect that there are many members of ISKCON who aren't aware of an alarming decision made at this year's Mayapur meetings by the GBC. The entire list of resolutions was released on their website Dandavats.com. Buried in the lengthy formal parliamentary legalese was Resolution 311:

Whereas some of Srila Prabhupada's books contain sentences such as the following, which when taken in isolation may be considered derogatory to and offensive against women:

** update - in case it isn't obvious, this is an image of Jesus Christ with Obama's (US Presidential candidate) face superimposed.