Monday, March 13, 2006

VW Fields

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Compost for Mother Earth's worship

Sripad Paramahansa Maharaj has developed composting techniques in

India

at Vrindakunja, Vrindavan during the last ten years, he is always ready to promote and support environmental care cooperating with anybody interested in intelligently dealing with wastes like plastic, paper, recycling and specifically with the useful organic materials.

Why Make Compost?

Compost is one of nature's best mulches and soil amendments. It can be used instead of commercial fertilizers. Best of all, compost is cheap. You can make it without spending hardly a cent. Compost forms humus, the soil’s life, the most valuable fertilizer, which when added to the soil makes it more fertile.

Using compost improves soil structure, texture, and aeration and increases the soil's water-holding capacity. Compost loosens clay soils and helps sandy soils retain water. Adding compost improves soil fertility and stimulates healthy root development in plants. The organic matter in compost provides food for micro-organisms, which keeps the soil in a healthy, balanced condition. Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus will naturally be made available as a product of the feeding of micro-organisms.

Understanding how to make and use compost is in the public interest. The problem of waste disposal climbs towards crisis levels, landfills are brimming, and new sites are not easily found. For this reason there is interest in conserving existing landfill space and in developing alternative methods of dealing with waste. Don't throw away materials when you can use them to improve your lawn and garden. Start composting instead.

Tips for better composting

1. Don't throw away your kitchen scraps - add them to the compost pile. Kitchen scraps are typically high in nitrogen, which helps heat up the compost pile and speed up the composting process. But, avoid putting cooked food in the compost.

2. If you're composting with a compost pile, bigger is often better. Heat builds up with a big pile. A maximum height is about 3 feet (1meter) by 3 feet (1m) wide.

3. Keep your compost aerated. If you are composting with a tumbling composter, make sure you turn it whenever you add new materials. If you are composting with a pile, or in static (non-tumbling) compost bin, be sure to mix up the contents so that the pile gets oxygen and can break down effectively.

4. Don't let the compost completely dry out. A compost pile needs moisture to keep the composting process active.

5. Don't keep your compost too wet so that it gets soggy and starts to stink. Just as too dry is bad, too wet is also something that you should avoid.

6. Too much of any one material will slow down the composting process. If you have all leaves, all grass clippings, or an overload of any other single type of material, it can throw off the balance of the pile. In general, it's good to keep a mix of green and brown material.

Composting Methods to Try at Home

The art of compost-making has progressed rapidly. In heaps or bins, underground or on top of the soil, today's composting methods provide the key to building soil fertility for future crops. Development of composting techniques was well developed in ancient India, and was given scientific support in the occidental world by the British scientist Albert Howard in the year 1905 who showed how a method of composting used in Indore, India, was highly efficient and productive. During the early days of organic gardening, the Indore method was the most widely known way for the home gardener to convert waste materials to humus. With this method, a compost heap is built in layers, using first a 6-inch layer of green matter like weeds, crop wastes or leaves. Next, place a two-inch layer of manure, which is in turn covered by a sprinkling of topsoil. The layers are repeated until the pile reaches a height of about 5 feet, and the heap is watered. The pile is turned after 6 weeks and again after 12 weeks to allow air to penetrate so that the heap will heat up properly. After 3 months, the compost is finished and ready for application to the soil.

Simple as it now sounds, these instructions revealed to thousands of gardeners a way to prepare homemade fertilizer. And while these people started using the Indore-heap method, leaders in the organic gardening field were already making changes to the original plan. One improvement was that the materials be mixed as they go into the heap. Instead of sandwiching them, thereby keeping the soil, vegetable wastes and animal wastes separated, they are mixed as one goes on. If we start with a six-inch layer of vegetable wastes, put on a two-inch layer of farmyard manure, and a sprinkling of earth, and then fork up the layers; they get mixed up quite a lot and decomposition is very much better and more complete than if the material is left as separate layers. By doing this, we need only turn the heap once instead of twice.

Compost can be developed in a ground of three square meters (according to necessity) where separated divisions for the decomposition of organic wastes will take place. Each division, or bed, will be about 1.5 m in height, 1 m in length and 1 m wide. The first bed can be filled up to 1.30 m with all kinds of organic wastes (except acidic wastes like lemon, orange, etc, to avoid bad smells), including about 20 cm of dry grass, husks, wood shavings and earth; this will need around two months to decompose. Then the mass can go to the second bed, where it should be mixed with ashes and dry manure. Start to fill the first bed again to repeat the same process. When the second mass becomes three or four months old take out the stones, wood pieces, big sticks, etc which have remained unprocessed. Then pass the pure humus to the third bed, which is the place of this first class fertilizer that can be applied to the soil when required.

Another way of composting is by using a stick, two meters high and 50 cm wide, fixed vertically into the ground; start to deposit around it the organic wastes on a basis of dry grass. When the heap reach up to 30 cm, cover it with 2 cm earth and repeat the process until a tower is created. After 4 – 6 months, humus is ready to be applied. In the meantime other compost towers can be prepared.

Important

The compost must be watered in dry climates. In rainy, humid climates watering is not necessary and covers are needed in order to avoid waterlogged conditions. The mass needs to remain undisturbed as much as possible during the period of decomposition. It does not matter if it has developed in layers of different kinds of organic materials, or if they have become mixed by natural processes. Worms are very favourable and need to be brought into the compost mix through animal manures or from other mature composts.

Compost Boxes and Bins

You can actually use just about any compost container you can think of. This includes "cages" made from woven wire fencing, picket fences, cement blocks, wooden planks, bricks, stones, or whatever else is available. You are limited only by your imagination and the materials you have handy. Such compost containers make a neat, firm compost pile — especially suited for backyard suburban gardens. You can make them with little expenditure (a ton of compost needs a space of only 4-cubic feet). By having one side open, or an easily-removable side, it's simple to turn the heap or remove finished compost.

Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting, or worm composting, is different than traditional composting. Worm composting is a process that uses red earthworms, also commonly called red worms, to consume organic waste. Worms produce castings (an odour-free compost product for use as mulch), which act as a soil conditioner. Naturally occurring organisms, such as bacteria, fungus and millipedes, also assist in the aerobic decomposition of the organic material. For domestic use in small gardens, make a box or bed of 2m x 1.20m and no more than 60cm high. Fill a quarter of the box with earth and drop the red worms inside. They can be collected from the soil or acquired in nurseries; the most commonly used are the Red Californian Worms. Deposit inside the box directly all organic wastes including cow dung, etc. After 4 – 6 months the humus will be ready. A trick is to hit a few times the box’s surface so that the worms fall to the bottom in order to not kill or take them out from the box. Only then, about 15 cm of humus may be taken out of the box to be used in the garden and orchard.

Using Compost

Finished compost is dark brown, crumbly, and is earthy-smelling. Small pieces of leaves or other ingredients may be visible. If the compost contains many materials which are not broken down, it is only partly decomposed. This product can be used as mulch; though adding partly decomposed compost to the soil can reduce the amount of nitrogen available to the plants. The micro-organisms will continue to do the work of decomposing, but will use soil nitrogen for their own growth, restricting the availability of nitrogen to plants growing nearby. Allow partly decomposed compost particles to break down further or separate them out before using compost on growing plants. Or add extra nitrogen such as manure, to ensure that growing plants will not suffer from a nitrogen deficiency.

Compost serves primarily as a soil conditioner, whether it's spread in a layer on the soil surface or is dug in. A garden soil regularly amended with compost is better able to hold air and water, drains more efficiently, and contains a nutrient reserve that plants can draw on. The amended soil also tends to produce plants with fewer insect and disease problems. The compost encourages a larger population of beneficial soil micro-organisms, which control harmful micro-organisms. It also fosters healthy plants, which are better able to resist pests. Compost one-inch thick is enough to spread on your garden beds. Compost continues to decompose, so eventually the percentage of organic matter in the soil begins to decline. In temperate climates, compost is mostly decomposed after two years in the soil. In tropical climates, it disappears even faster and should be replenished every year. A garden soil that has been well mulched and amended periodically requires only about a half-inch layer of compost yearly to maintain its quality. Some people recommend late fall as a good time to spread compost over a garden bed, and cover it with winter mulch, such as chopped leaves. By spring, soil organisms will have worked the compost into the soil. Others recommend spreading compost two weeks before planting time in the spring. There is really no wrong time to spread it, the benefits remain the same.

If your supply of compost is really limited, consider side-dressing, a way to use compost sparingly by strategically placing it around certain plants or along certain rows. This is best done in late spring and early summer so that the rapidly growing plants can derive the maximum benefit from the compost. To side-dress a plant, work the compost into the soil around the plant, starting about an inch from the stem, out to the drip line, taking care not to disturb the roots. For shallow rooted plants, leave the compost on the soil surface. A 2" layer works best when left on top. For new lawns, a 2 to 3" layer of compost is best when planting. Once the new lawn is established, a ¼ to ½" layer yearly will maintain the quality of the soil. A compost/mulch can benefit trees and shrubs just as it does other plants. Spread a ½" to 1" layer of compost on the bare soil under the tree as far as the drip line. Then cover with a 2-3" layer of some other kind of organic mulch, such as chopped leaves or pine needles. The mulch will hold the compost in place and keep it from drying out.

Compost is the ultimate garden fertilizer. It contains virtually all the nutrients a living plant needs and slowly releases them over a period of years. Compost made with a wide variety of ingredients will provide an even more nutritious meal to your growing plants. Compost is the best material available to enliven your soil no matter where you live. Farmers around the world will testify that healthier soil grows healthier plants that naturally resist diseases, insects, and environmental pollution. Adding compost to your garden is a long-term investment - it becomes a permanent part of the soil structure, helping to feed future plants in years to come.

Compiled by Gopini
Editor: Gopananda dasa

Conscious Scientists

“The sincere search for love necessarily brings us to Shri Krsna.”

Conscious scientists unite to bring together discoveries for the development of a new criterion for humanity.

Here we present ‘Super God’ – the creator of televisions, computers, cars, planes, rockets, etc, but also he has contaminated rivers, lakes, seas, the air, and has invented cigarettes, alcohol, and chemical drugs for when we become ill because of it all.

Dear scientists: physicists, biologists, chemists, doctors, etc, who have all studied for years in universities and have acquired a degree which gives one a certain importance in this confused world. What is the purpose of science if it is not to consecrate one’s work to better the overall welfare of all living beings? What purpose has science if it only increases the sophistication of a system to exploit the environment and the living entities on the planet?

If you want to be a conscious scientist it must be recognised with all humility that modern science has no absolute answer to the most important questions concerning where we have come from, why we are here or where we will go upon leaving this material body. Neither does the scientific world view have knowledge about whom or what created and maintains the material universe.

As a scientist, we must try to free ourselves from all prejudice and arrogance. The scientific mind is contaminated in asserting as fact that which is theory. Presently, contemporary science adheres to the theory of evolution; that the world is a product of casualty, an accident, and that life is a sub-product of a causeless evolution of matter that somehow inexplicably arose to create the diversity of living species. A scientist must be sufficiently open-minded in not taking the theory of evolution as fact by considering the possibility that the human being is not the most developed form in this universe, having nothing above us to thank for our existence. We must unite all wisdom at our disposal to discover the truth; meaning ancient knowledge, such as found in the Vedas, as well as modern empirical investigations must be admitted into the overall scientific understanding. No stone must be left unturned.

Beyond the known laws of physics, the Vedas talk of superior laws, such as the law of Karma. A Vedic master upon being questioned what is intelligence would answer that it is the power to see the connexion between cause and effect. The speculation that the creation of the universe has no cause from a superior intelligence, that it is a cosmic accident, completely ignores the opposite theory, that all activities produce an effect and that the causes were planned in such a way to give a specific result. For example, we can observe that all living beings come from other living beings. Never have we seen anything living coming from something non-living, as is the theory of evolution.

Thus this temporary universe and our temporary bodies have a causal factor of which we are the effect.

We must study, for example, the effects of factory farms, the indiscriminate killing of farm animals and the mass consumption of animal flesh on our minds, our health and the environment. We must study the effects on the mind of a continuous exposure to violence, irresponsible sensuality and sexuality in the media, to the consumption of inebriating intoxicants of alcohol and recreational drugs. Scientists must have the duty to show discoveries that favour a holistic, healthy lifestyle; whereas sadly the majority only serve the consumer society in developing and promoting products that produce deleterious effects on the population, which distance people from the true purpose of life.

Conscious scientists are those who stand up against abuse and ignorance, uniting to form pure criteria for human development. As such, this collection of Vedic wisdom is developed for the great souls, philosophers and scientists of humanity; those who have developed the fields of science, architecture, astronomy, astrology, the vastu sasta and ayurveda amongst others. The Vedic scholars have studied and preserved for humanity the deep psychology of how each entity interacts in its own nature within the environment, and explored how the spiritual spark, the living force, is exhibited within every being, and how it is within and beyond the material karmatic situations that engulf us. Such great personalities have given us our language, with Sanskrit being the mother tongue of all Latin languages. They have given us the oldest codes, or laws, for mankind and all living beings in the Manhu Samhita. They have given the decimal system in mathematics and the divisions of tone and rhythm in music,. We have so much to be grateful about for Vedic wisdom, whose practitioners could all be called Conscious Scientists. In a similar way, modern thinkers and scientists must acquire the impartiality and purity of a conscious scientist so that they can become servants of humanity.

The workings of the modern world are based on erroneous theories of its creation and the responsibilities we have in life. Strangely, the contemporary so-called intelligent scientist has no basis of knowledge that that which permeates the body giving it life and consciousness is in fact the spirit soul, which is independent of the material physical and mental bodies. There is no knowledge about how the subtle mental (astral) body, which is made of mind, intelligence and false ego, survives the physical body when it ceases to function, when it ‘dies’. This can be envisaged as when we are asleep and our external senses are inactive, yet we can see, hear and talk with our internal senses of the astral, mental body in what we would call the dream state.

The conscious scientist must have a great compromise to humanity and all of life, to have scientific fundamentals that evolve our comprehension of how to minimise suffering and ignorance with a basis in spiritual truths. At vedicwisdom.org we offer a web page for conscious scientists where such understandings are discussed, conferences are organised and new discoveries shared. This offering is in an attempt to expose to an ignorant humanity fundamental spiritual realities within a scientific basis and lexicon, thereby enthusing more people to be benefited by the richness of a spiritually enlightened conscious science.

There are so many anomalies to the contemporary atheistic paradigm which will not only cause havoc to the present erroneous theories but will also bring light to ancient, eternal facts. Recent literature, such as “Forbidden Archaeology” and “Human Devolution”, are making enormous headway in the modern scientific community which can but only destroy the theory of evolution. Discoveries in India which confirm the existence of the ancient Vedic culture, such as the underwater discovery by NASA of the bridge that was constructed between India and Sri Lanka by Sri Rama, or the ancient city of Krsna, Dwarka, in the Arabian sea off the north-west coast of India.

Conscious scientists, in what ever field of study, taking a theistic approach to science can find theories and resultant proofs, which are in the large ignored by atheistic science, to show a new paradigm to the public so that they can form their opinions. Money can not solve the problems of our bad conscience, and it can even less bring us the truth and self-realisation; yet knowledge based in spiritual truths can. Every type of article which supports this programme of conscious scientists is welcome at http://vedic-wisdom.org where we hope to organise projects for the betterment of all humanity.

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami
Editor: Gopananda dasa

Reincarnation Proven

“Rest your mind in God and live in the truth.”

As reincarnation is a verifiably concrete reality, the most commonly used method today to show us this proof is with past-life regressions under hypnosis. But this is seen as a controversial and somewhat dubious method. The best way to prove it is through the use of rational logic, because reincarnation is self-evident.

Life is an eternal flow; the only things that change are our minds and bodies being the dresses we change into in each existence.

Krsna says in the Bhagavad Gita: “Just as in this body, the incarnated soul passes continually from birth, youth, maturity and old age; similarly the soul passes to another body at the time of death.”

Bhagavad Gita 2.13

“Always have a goal in your life and proceed towards it very carefully.”

Every day there are more people who express in full faith their belief in reincarnation. Whilst there are others who with equal faith say they do not believe in reincarnation and that upon death everything finishes. Others still say that we live only once and that on death we go to an eternal heaven or eternal hell. Thus without mentioning them all, it can be seen that there are a variety of ideas to choose from. Yet if there is an absolute reality, not just a soup of relative viewpoints, then we need to analyse the evidence. We hope to show that the evidence clearly comes out in favour of reincarnation. After having read our presentation, it is up to you to decide on your relative viewpoint. If you then take reincarnation as fact, then it would be advantageous to understand the implications of our eternal life and its evolutionary spiritual voyage through all the different species, or forms, of life. If you take reincarnation as fallacy, then it is wise to note that if there is an absolute truth that includes reincarnation then you will keep reincarnating over and over again in the illusion that you create through your own activities.

Reincarnation can be seen in that all the cells in our body in which the soul resides are completely renewed every seven years. In spite of inhabiting a new body we still remember being ‘us’ seven, fourteen or however many years before. This shows that we are the same entity yet with many different bodies in only one lifetime.
There are many recorded proofs from hypnotic regression. Respectable scientists from many universities have carried out controlled experiments of hypnotic regression. The hypnotised subjects have revealed facts from their past lives which have been verified from recorded facts; though these facts could not have been known to the subjects, with many of them talking in different languages or dialects from countries where they have never been before.
There was a famous case, brought to mass view audience on Discovery Channel, of a young Indian girl who remembered being murdered in her past life by her former husband who wanted to live with his lover. So detailed were her memories that her parents found the house in a nearby neighbourhood and called the police to investigate. The police took down the evidence from the child and on interviewing the man who still lived in the house he confessed to the murder on the basis of evidence from a reincarnated person.
Child prodigies also show proof of reincarnation. Children who from a very young age show exceptional talent compared to others of age whom have studied for years, for example geniuses in their fields like Mozart, can be seen as evidence for reincarnation. In a past life they had no doubt received such knowledge or abilities and now in their new life were capable of continuing with their gift.
Ega Kesi was a famous North American doctor who performed hypnotic regressions curing traumas and illnesses that came from experiences in the patients past lives.
The most important evidence comes from sacred scriptures.

The Bhagavad Gita, in many verses, elucidates on many aspects of reincarnation, how it works and how it is the practical result of the actions and reactions throughout many, many births that continue into this life. Sastra Pranam is the Sanskrit term meaning the proof that comes from the sacred scriptures. It is the most important truth as it is absolute, and it is very wonderful to see it coming to light in the relative view of the speculative science of today, which is coming to see the truth of the scriptural affirmations.

The Greeks were firm adherents to the science of reincarnation, they called it metempsicosis. To try to show proof of reincarnation, they showed an example of the rhinoceros who upon birth runs away from its mother as they have soft skin that the mothers tongue would damage. After 24 hours the baby rhino’s skin toughens up and it returns to its mother. The Greeks asked “from where does the baby rhino get its knowledge to run from the mother to wait for its skin to change?” Also, it can be seen that even within one physical lifetime a caterpillar will dissolve its body and then reform to reincarnate as a butterfly. Voltaire, in a very beautiful way, said “what is there so amazing in the fact of being born again after considering the wonderful nature of having been born this time?” There exist so many proofs. It is incredible how the subconscious is full of past-life impressions.

The living force in all life forms is the spirit soul, which is the eternal travelling essence of our being. The soul in its false egoistical state is covered by an astral body (made of mind, intelligence and subconscious sense of ego) and a physical body. The soul is equipped with a marvellous cognitive facility to enter a material environment to use and enjoy it. This physical environment is made of solid, liquid, energetic, gaseous and ethereal states of matter. The physical body must be entered and then left by the soul and astral body whilst in the egoistical, exploitative state of existence. To finish with this repeated state of births and deaths the soul must not be polluted by the exploitative tendency by finishing with the false ego with its speculative intelligence and the desire for sensual enjoyment. One must focus on the Lord with all one’s conscious ability and ask for His mercy so that He may liberate one from the material condition.

Evidence for reincarnation is also found in other scriptures. For example, in the bible there is reference that saints have appeared many times over the ages; but what is important is to know that the soul is eternal; it has existed before we were born and will exist when this body dies. If we place all emphasis on enjoying this short life in this temporary body, totally ignoring where we are going, then we act against our nature. Whenever we travel we have a destination and understanding of what to expect in our destination. Our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, has given us the information and the key to release ourselves from our ignorance of repeated births and deaths by invoking the sweet protection of God via the sacred Mantras and the culture of purity.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami

Editor: Gopananda dasa

We are not this body

“Stay hopeful and be patient in your attempt to serve”

“At the time of death the soul passes to another physical body along with its mental and intellectual identifications. The individual acquires different types of body, but the person is the same one.”

“As a person changes old clothes, putting on new ones, in the same way the soul accepts a new material body, giving up the old, useless one.”

(Bhagavad Gita 2. 22)

“Human life is too short to be wasted in doing nonsense things. Always try to be intelligent: give the best of yourself with love.”

“By growing up, a child becomes a young boy, who later becomes an adult and then an old man. During this time of life, even though the child’s body becomes that of an old man, the person feels that he is the same person with the same identity. The body is changing, but he who is inside the body, the soul, remains the same. As the soul is separate from the body, we can logically conclude that when our body dies, we will receive another one. This is called reincarnation or transmigration of the soul”.

In reality, the body is a bag of bone, meat and skin, and the self is to be found within it. But is the body our real identity when nowadays it is almost possible to replace each part? What makes us think we are the body, or the heart, the brain tissues, or any other bodily part? What, or who, is it that we really are?

Those who have sought self-realization have, on direct perception, stated that we, the conscious individual, are beyond the gross and subtle elements of the body and mind. They have concluded that we are the finite eternal conscious soul, the jivatma, which is part of the infinite Supersoul, the Paramatma; our Eternal Father. Our consciousness is our greatest treasure, for only through consciousness can we relate to the Supreme Conscious Being.

The body is a very interesting object to study; it is a bag of bone, meat and skin, and we inside of it are connected to the outside world through the holes within the body. In the Vedic paradigm, the body is called “The City of Nine Gates”. These gates, or holes, connect us with the external world. There are two holes that see, two that listen, two nostrils that breathe, a multi-use organ that eats and talks, another multi-use organ is the genitals, and the last gate is the evacuating organ, the anus.

According to those with spiritual vision, the individual consciousness, the soul, keeps the body alive for a period of time. But the body and soul is a seemingly incompatible unit. The proof is that sooner or later everyone has to leave the body, as nobody can remain forever in this physical body.

We need to take advantage of this knowledge to understand that our body is not our true self. In order to understand and realise this knowledge of our real spiritual identity, we need the guide of the sacred scriptures and a spiritual master, for they are able to directly perceive the spiritual identity as fact, not just theory. Upon discovering our eternal spiritual identity a person must fully practice those teachings in life and upon death. One must be able to face the moment of passing away with spiritual maturity, receiving death as a wonderful chance of transformation, being able to welcome the Divine Will. In life and in death, we must cultivate the full desire to relate to and serve God and the people around us in this very life. This is a truly meaningful realisation.

As well as the physical body, our self is also covered by a subtle body: mind, intelligence and false ego. Even more essential and subtle is the eternal soul, the self. When a person dies the soul carries with its subtle body a conscious imprint, its generated karma of gross and subtle past actions and desires that need to be fulfilled. Our next birth is in accordance with this subtle imprint. There are many cases of people remembering their past lives.

To advance spiritually, we need to understand that we are spiritual souls, dependant on God. It is our true, higher nature that leads us towards spiritual progress; we are seekers of the truth. We have a body and mind, but our spiritual identity is eternal and divine. Any deviation from our true spiritual identity will only entangle us in temporary mental and bodily sensations. The essential function of the Self is Divine Service to the common central cause of God. This is the correct way to live.

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami

Editor Gopananda dasa

How can we recognise false masters and prophets?

(second edition)

“Under whose guide do you search for God?”

There does not exist false masters, gurus or prophets, because is they are false they can not be called a master, guru or prophet.

All the lies in this world are hidden behind some wonderful announcement

The true masters are humble not arrogant, they do not treat people badly; to the contrary, they are full of universal love.

Don’t take refuge in materialism. Don’t be fooled. Find a spiritual guide.

In the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 16, text 4, it is said: Pride, arrogance, anger, laziness and ignorance; these are the qualities of the demonic nature.

We must protect ourselves from those who have an interest in exploiting us. We must be wary of those who say there is no one superior to them; wary of those who profess monism, who say that we are God.

To be on the path of spiritual realisation is the greatest thing in life

The spiritual master has the most elevated thought, aspirations and ideals. C.C. Bhakti Yoga

There are many people in this world who conceal their personal motivations behind marvellous signs that appeal to the religious sensibility of humanity. Virtually all the lies in this world are secretly hidden behind some beautiful signs and diverse fragments of truth that are universally attractive and accepted. We rarely find someone who says: "watch this film and you will become more violent", "smoke this cigarette and you will have cancer", "accept this philosophy so that I can take your money", "accept this political leader so that he can enjoy the glory of his false ego and not serve the public as he promised".

In order to recognize the truth and to be able to protect ourselves from the false invitations and deceit that this world offers, we have to go deeper and not only see what the diverse groups and persons promise and say. First we should analyze the character and the results from the teachings of the master or school, in the persons that sincerely follow this path. We should see, for example, their sexual conduct; if extramarital sexual relations are permitted, we can already reject this teaching as counterproductive to advancement.

If some type of intoxication is permitted that simply damages the brain causing chemical dependence, drug addiction or alcoholism we should not accept this as something truthful. If we find some message in it, where it is permitted to kill or mistreat animals, we should immediately understand that on the path, there is very little love, and therefore there is nothing of interest to us. If it promotes deceiving others and gambling, if there are lies, then this is not going to be something that brings us to the truth.

In India, there are many criteria given by the scriptures in order to recognize a true spiritual master. First, a spiritual master comes from a chain of spiritual masters and he teaches and practices what he learned from his spiritual master. The master is not attracted by opulence or money; everything that he receives, he immediately uses for the good of others and for the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

With much mercy, they teach us in order to uplift the fallen from their conditioning, so that they can take refuge in spiritual amnesty. Spiritual masters teach their pupils that the revealed authorized scriptures are the real guidelines to determine whether a person can be accepted or not as a spiritual authority. Their teachings should coincide with the sacred scriptures and they should also be endorsed by the practices of those who follow their instructions and who can be seen as positively transformed persons.

Additionally, one should check one's own heart to see if one feels inspiration and positively guided after having visited the guru; and whether the guru, scriptures and other masters agree and harmonize their teachings. If we see this to be so, and the heart also feels something positive, we should follow his teachings, because in this world the only thing that we can do is to make our best effort; and if we decide to put into practice the good that we have found with all sincerity, this attitude will guarantee that we get ahead. And if, in some moment, we are mistaken, the Lord Himself will protect us from these false paths.

The false teachings of materialism that are promoted in modern schools, universities and in the media are very dangerous. They have engendered pure materialism into a majority of humanity. Consumerism is dedicated to making the system wealthier, but without consciousness and sensitivity to the individual. And the great necessity, the great desire of the people, to leave this completely disagreeable situation is taken advantage of by unscrupulous people with hidden agendas.

Really, they do not teach the complete truth, because God is He who maintains everything. If we can not even easily maintain ourselves, how can we say that there is no one above us? Mother Nature is above us, and if there were no God, we would have to give thanks to her, who provides for our bodily needs. Since we all have a gigantic false ego, we like it when someone tells us that there is no one above us, that we are all part of the Supreme; but as Schopenhauer calls it, this is “friendly” atheism. Instead we should search for the humble masters who give recognition to, and who are grateful for, the teachings and illumination they have received, and who feel true compassion for all living entities. These should be the stars that teach us the light of the way to universal love; until we can find a personal relationship with the Lord of the Universe, the friend of everyone.

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami

Translation: Erica Wolski, Gopananda dasa

How to find a spiritual master

(second edition)

The final religious activity for all human beings is devotion for the Supreme Lord, Whom is found way beyond empirical speculation.

The revealed truth comes without contamination through a particular process called, in Sanskrit, Parampara, meaning disciplic succession. We must connect ourselves with a trustworthy succession. Only then can we find what is truly genuine. Authorised association is necessary. The spiritual master is necessary.

We must receive true knowledge from the appropriate source, in the disciplic succession that starts with the Lord Himself; Whom is the Supreme Spiritual Master. Such knowledge has been passed down through a succession of spiritual masters.

“Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master, inquire from him and serve him in a submissive way. The self-realised soul can pass on to you true knowledge because he has seen the Truth.” Bhagavad Gita, chapter 4, text 34.

To error is human, and inevitable for all of us, as we are not perfect. Without a doubt, no one wants to stay imperfect. There exists an element within all of us that is animated towards perfection. If this were not so, we would not have aspirational desires. Our tendency towards perfection is certainly very weak and limited; if not, we could easily acquire to out goal of perfection. Thus, our limited capacity towards our goal of perfection means that there is a need for a spiritual master.

Dear friend, a spiritual master is the person that teaches us the Truth. In Indian culture, having a spiritual master was so important, so basic, that every person when they reached 12 years of age, searched for their spiritual master and received the sacred mantras. The spiritual master gave instructions, based in the Vedic culture, on how to attain self-realization and how to practice the sacred science of yoga.

The spiritual master is a great necessity for all of us. In our modern society, we have a master for everything: a master for computers, a master for marketing, a master for mechanics; but we do not have masters that teach us the science of the soul and how to awaken the eternal love in our heart.

In order to find a spiritual master; the principal requirement is a desire to find him. This means that one should be ready to eliminate our errors made in life and accept the virtues that bring one to spiritual perfection. The process of finding a spiritual master is explained in the Vedic scriptures; we start with a prayer asking that the Supreme Lord guide us towards the master that will teach us how to come to Him. The original spiritual master is in our heart; he is the Supersoul, Paramatma. He is the internal voice, our intuition, the guardian angel. He knows everything and everyone, and is always our protector, instructing us on our path towards the Light. When we desire to have a spiritual master, we request assistance from Paramatma, so that He will give us intelligence and show us the way towards Him.

The first prayer that we should make is taken from the Ramayana, an Indian classic: "Oh my Lord, I do not know who You are, or where You are, but You, who are omnipotent and omniscient, please hear my prayer. Today I beg You to take charge of my life, I surrender myself to You; but I have a great problem, I don't know what You want from me. From now on, my life will be Yours. I am going to eliminate everything from my life that I understand that You don't like, and am going to try to apply and practice in my life everything that my heart tells me that You do like!" When a devotee, a yogi, a sincere spiritual soul, prays in this way, the Lord from there on takes charge of his path.

The spiritual master is called "guru"; "gu" is obscurity and "ru" means he who removes it from us. He tells us the Truth even if it hurts us, and he keeps us occupied in the common cause, in loving service to God. He also shows us the path of yoga, teaches us the techniques of meditation, and allows us to enter his family. We are able to find a spiritual master solely due to the infinite mercy of the Lord who knows everything. The spiritual masters come from a chain of masters in a disciplic succession; they practice spiritual life, humility, simplicity and they are always ready to help their disciples. When the devotee finds his spiritual master, he prays to him in this manner:

om ajñana timirandasya jñanam jñana salakaya
caksur unmilitan yena tasmai sri gurave namah.

"I offer my most humble obeisances to my spiritual master who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by ignorance, with the torch light of knowledge."

In order to accelerate the process of finding a spiritual master, we should become vegetarians, refrain from intoxicating our bodies, be chaste, meaning to be faithful to one's wife or husband, and to eliminate all useless gambling games. In addition, we should try to dedicate ourselves during the day to chant the Mahamantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. We should read the "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" and join with persons who have a spiritual master, or who are also searching for one.

We should offer our food to God. We can do this with the same Mahamantra; in this way, we can ask Him to help us with the details of our spiritual path so that everything that comes to us, allows us to advance spiritually. A person that searches for a spiritual master with sincerity is going to find him, one way or another. He manifests himself in a dream, in a personal encounter, in a book, or in any form that God chooses to send His confidential representative to guide him, or her, to you.

Spiritual masters establish a common cause and allow us to enter into a family of devotees, where there are many persons struggling for the same cause, in harmony, without selfishness and without competition; giving each one of their members a refuge, a place of enthusiasm, that is an oasis in the middle of the desert of material existence. Life without a spiritual master is like a beautiful home, but without a roof. I hope that you are successful in your search, and in your encounter with your spiritual master, and that you are serious, so that you will be able to take advantage of this gift that you will receive by the mercy of God.

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami
Edition Gopananda dasa

Balsam For The Soul

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami

Editor Gopananda dasa

Guru Mahraja, called this way by his disciples, is a writer, poet, publicist, educator, philosopher and architect of temples. He is a disciple of the renowned master A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Guru Maharaj is a renunciant of the Vaisnava order, stemming from India. He is a spiritual master and founder of his own mission. He has hundreds of disciples, in more than 20 countries throughout the world. He has written and edited many books, of which many have been translated into other languages.

He has many web pages dedicated to the community, and is the founder of the Vedic Wisdom collection.

Peace, without God in the centre, is a dream.

He, who abuses the essence that inhabits the depths of our being, condemns himself.

Rest your mind in God and live the truth.

You must be prepared to support pain in the path to God.

The planet should be managed by those who accept the laws of Mother Nature.

Raise yourself to a superior state of consciousness.

Stop leaving the earth arid and dead, and using her as a source of illicit income.

The true revolution is spiritual in kind.

Think twice before speaking, and thrice before acting.

Today’s society lacks a basic fundamental, which is that the soul exists.

Dedicate all your energy in serving God, humanity and all living beings.

Purity is obtained through sincerity.

This body allows the possibility to acquire knowledge and to render service to everyone.

When one surrenders to the Lord, all divine help descends.

Maxims:

If you do not belong to God, to whom do you belong?

The path towards the supreme abode is by loving God and feeling compassion to all living beings.

Balsams for the soul

You become strong when you understand that you do not have any strength. You become wise when you are conscious that you are ignorant.

When you give riches to other, you become rich. When you give love to others, in the same proportion, you will receive love.

If you want to teach others, be a good example, and conquer your heart.

Only in being kind with others, will you receive God's mercy.

Even though God is the Supreme owner, there is still something that He doesn't have, but He wants. What is it? Your heart.

So that the heart is captivated by Him, reduce to the minimum your need to enjoy that is separate from the Supreme.

Adapt to every circumstance without complaint. See everything as God’s mercy.

Never become attached to anything material that would halt your spiritual progress. Share what you have with others. In this way, you will understand that nothing is yours.

Be ready to serve. Do not lose this opportunity; serve with all your being.

Always meditate that God is in everything and that He controls everything.

Speak in an agreeable way, and use kind words at every moment.

Have an ardent thirst to obtain Love for God.

Renounce all your attachments, surrender yourself to God and use everything that you have in His service.

Having patience and perseverance in your intent to serve the Lord will please Him..

Don't leave your spiritual exercises even for only one day.

Life is short and the moment of death is uncertain. Therefore, dedicate yourself seriously to spiritual life.

Allow the thought of God to keep the thoughts of the world distant.

Never postpone something until tomorrow, if you can do it now.

Don't boast or make a demonstration of your skills; be humble and simple.

Be happy always, leave your anxieties behind.

Be indifferent to things that concern you, keep yourself busy with others, and learn to depend on the mercy of God.

Abandon gossip, slander, criticism and fault finding in others.

Only see the good in others and practice their virtues.

Flee from anger, lust and selfishness, which are like the venom of a serpent.

Always carry some spiritual maxims and/or verses from the scriptures. See God everywhere and in everything.

Confront obstacles valiantly and seriously.

Do not be worried by criticism when you are on the correct path.

Admit your own faults patiently, and ask for advice to overcome them.

Expand your heart by giving the best that you have. Be extraordinarily charitable.

Desires multiply misery. Try to be satisfied with everything that you receive.

Carry on working on the path of perfection and honesty.

Always have an objective in life, and proceed forward very carefully.

The benefits of divine love are infinite. Never leave this practice.

Be moderate. Extremes are always dangerous.

Be introspective and analyze yourself every day. Observe your growth.

How can I increase my service? This thought increases the happiness of our being.

Do not impose your opinions; better still, express your wisdom.

Do not demand respect; instead, you should earn it through your own example.

You cannot doubt God only because there are some things that you cannot understand.

Behind each suffering, there is something to learn.

Faith is an eye that guides us towards the Supreme Lord.

To be happy, you only have to learn to love.

Criticizing those whom we have no opportunity to help is like spitting into the wind.

Laziness is the demon, who destroys our aspirations.

Our own fortune is in our own hands.

Always make something beautiful to save this world; to not care, indicates a lack of compassion.

There will only be peace in the world when we have internal peace.

When you depend on God, you alleviate all suffering.

It is necessary to change this world, beginning with ourselves.

He, who is dedicated to the good, is never defeated by the bad.

God is not interested in your money or in your property. He is only interested in your heart.

You must be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Religion means to obey God’s way.

You must have the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the number one priority in your life.

Your heart in this world feels abandoned; it is necessary to approach God. In this way, all of your problems will end in the enjoyment of spiritual life.

The true Saint concludes that, for him, God is everything.

A better servant means to face bigger conflicts.

The rich have more fear in losing their riches than the poor in obtaining them.

Give love if you want to obtain love.

See that your thoughts are sublime and pure.

Conscious Doctors

“Pride is our most subtle and greatest enemy.”

A perfect business – to go to hell:
In the ‘developed’ country of the United States of America, 4000 abortions are carried our on a daily basis. In New York City, the number of abortions is higher than the number of births. 33 million legal abortions are carried out yearly in the world, which together with the illegal cases makes an estimated 60 millions children aborted per year. In 6 years, the Nazis killed 20 million people. Yet now, 60 million children are killed every year! Is this not more than a great injustice and a serious holocaust?

Why should experiments with animals be stopped? Based on a hypothetical model that animals can faithfully reproduce the human physiology, for over a century vivisection (experimentation on living animals) has been practiced under the guise of medical progress.
Every year five hundred million animals are bread, captured or stolen to become victims of this ‘necessary experimentation’. Yet, with all its tortuous investigations and sacrifices of living entities, vivisection has not given a single discovered benefit for mankind; rather to the contrary it has postponed medical progress.

“Don’t show off or try to demonstrate your abilities, be humble and simple”

The organization of Conscious Doctors is one of friendship and the inter-exchange of medical experiences between doctors with the purpose of purifying professional medical activities by supporting spiritual consciousness. As a result, conscious doctors will have a forum to enable a greater understanding and to better the practice of holistic therapeutic systems, such as: Ayurveda, naturopathy, chiropractics, homeopathy, bioenergetics, acupuncture, etc.
Thus, the spiritually conscious medical professional, with proven results, will become as distant as possible from modern allopathic medicine, which has its basis in modern pharmacology; a purely mechanical, bio-chemical approach to the body and its functions. Allopathic medicine can have so many negative side effects, which even after extensive investigations in many cases it is difficult to know up to what point the effects are beneficiary or negative to the patient.

A conscious doctor is a person who knows that we are not the body but the living soul. S/he knows the body is a gift from God, a divine instrument apt for spiritual progress and to become a first-class human being.

A conscious doctor has the responsibilities to be fixed in spiritual truths, and to be a real well-wisher of patients. In India they are called the “Vaidyas”, who administers medicine like a Brahmin priest administers prayers. Conscious Doctors must be totally committed to the well-being of their patients. As well as material medical knowledge, they must have spiritual wisdom, especially guided via the Bhagavad Gita, to treat and orient the patient as a whole person.
They are thankful to Mother Nature for giving us all that is required to maintain life, and to the Supreme Lord for allowing us the chance to discover all that there is to discover and to appreciate the invitation He gives us to enter the world of real love.

The Conscious Doctor is eager to offer their healing knowledge and practice to all whose lives are dedicated to the unmotivated service to God; for example within our Vrinda School of charitable conscious doctors.

The conscious doctor finds opportunities to give conferences promoting a healthy vegetarian diet as one of the best measures that exists within preventive medicine. The conscious doctor guides his patients so that they become compromised to a healthy life, because it is sad to heal people’s illnesses that were caused by their unhealthy lifestyles for them only to return to such unhealthy ways and then again to return to the doctor.

A conscious doctor is a person who knows the valuable contribution of the Vedas, of the process of yoga, and the need to associate with natural energy (clean water, healthy breathing, natural spaces, etc,). The conscious doctor defends the environment, advising the avoidance of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and genetically-modified organisms. They inform their patients to eat fresh, organic food; to avoid tinned or frozen food, which loses its natural vitality; and about toxins found in processed foodstuffs, such as preservatives, colorants, added flavours, salt and flavour enhancers, etc., which are all injurious to the health of customers.

Conscious doctors have a leadership responsibility in society. Therefore, in as much as they gain spiritual knowledge and a readiness for loving sacrifice to God, to the selfless saints and to humanity in general, their treatments and education about conduct and healthy lifestyles is a most valuable contribution.

Conscious doctor keeps absolute distance from any situation that risks the respect for life and the birth chance of a human foetus. Thus, he is opposed to the abortionists, who do not respect life, which only God can create.

Conscious doctor first explore all the possibilities of natural medicine before choosing any kind of surgery to patients. They must not be driven by money, as in the oath of Hippocrates it is said: “A doctors looses professional rights if by lack of generosity he negates first aid to a needed patient who is devoid of money”.

The conscious doctor is an excellent representative of God’s will and the teachings of the spiritual master. The Vrinda Family welcomes those conscious doctors, nurses and health workers who are touched by the desire to help others with in the healing process.

Conscious doctors support peoples’ spiritual education and meditation in sacred mantras as the best healing vibrations in the present age, especially the group chanting of the famous great mantra:
“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”.
This is the special mantra to save people from the conditioned life in this actual contaminated age of Kali Yuga, the age of argument and hypocrisy.

The Conscious doctor always recommends that people seek refuge in God, to see that all the bodily and mental sufferings are reactions from our wrong doings in this and past lives; that they are little bells to wake us up to the reality that we should not live away from His Will. Above all material suffering there exists a benign invitation to the spiritual world, for bodily suffering, whilst physically painful, really is not the most important things. It is most important to awaken spiritual consciousness in each and every person, for we are soul, mind and body in that order of importance.

The Vrinda Family facilitates association of Conscious doctors with a web page where they can exchange experiences and encourage each other in their loving sacrifice for God and mankind. All doctors who want to be affiliated to this group and who would like to participate in seminars with other doctors can do so via the webpage. This way, we envisage more clinics dedicated to the holistic medicines of Ayurveda, naturopathy, etc.; and that with their mutual association, within their medical clinics a service of spiritual education will be brought to humanity.

Devotees of the Lord will then have a list of conscious doctors, offering holistic treatments, to turn to when in need. Whilst the average working individual or family can pay in full for such services, it is to be hoped that monks, nuns and renunciates in spiritual communities, who neither have health insurance or adequate financial resources, will be looked upon favourably, as such spiritually dedicated people are fully in the Lord’s service.
A valued reference from the sanyasi (renunciate) order will be needed to prove the dedicated nature of the individual.

In the name of my spiritual master, of Sri Krsna, and all the Vaisnava preachers, I would like to thank all conscious doctors who in their selfless service help the preaching efforts of Krsna Consciousness, just as it was in the time of Sri Krsna Caitanya (16th century) with the existence of the Vaidyas.

Welcome to the group of Conscious Doctors.
Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami
Edition Gopananda dasa

Principles of Universal Love

An educational guide for our well being in order to help us live together better.Please accept our presentation of Universal Love as a conceptual basis for a universal spiritual guide in life in order to help alleviate vacuums left by a predominantly secular education.
For it has been seen that education orientated to a particular religion may be in conflict with believers of another religion and at the same time will be rejected by atheists. Thus, in reaction to such religious sectarianism, secular, non-religious, education has flourished, which has resulted in an education without transcendental understandings being reflected in cultural, moral and ethical dimensions.
Yet eliminating religion, as seen as some type of spiritual tradition, does not mean to eliminate understanding our identity, whether physical, mental or spiritual. We can make scientific enquiries into our identities, into that which is not externally visible to our senses, such as our internal consciousness - feeling, thinking, willing, memories, intuitions - without recourse to religious dogmas or accepted belief systems.
Universal Love, therefore, is a list of issues to consider which may bring us closer to a higher state of conscious awareness and an elevated morality without restricting us or imposing on us that which is above basic common sense. Universal Love is backed by the World’s sacred scriptures, and verified by modern scientific enquiry into, for example, the impact of a carnivorous diet, the deleterious impact of the use of intoxicating drugs, the social upheaval caused through liberal promiscuity, etc.

The principles of Universal Love can hopefully enrich all cultures, serving as a basis in which to understand the solutions to conflicts existing on the Earth. · Universal Love illuminates our relationships with all living things. By seeing everyone and everything as sharing in the life on the same planet, as children of the same Mother Nature, Universal Love allows us to feel that spirit of union and drives us to not cause unnecessary pain to the planet or its inhabitants – humans, plants or animals.

Universal Love illuminates our relationship with Mother Nature. Seeing that we are all dependent on the Earth we ought to study and apply our discoveries to protect and preserve the biodiversity and welfare of the natural environment, such as rivers, forests, mountains, etc., and to ensure the purity of the water and seed bank diversity of wild and domesticated plants and animals. We should also be careful to check the influence of potentially dangerous inventions, such as transgenic food from genetic engineering.

Universal Love illuminates our relationship with other human beings. Keeping in mind that all human beings, regardless of creed, race or sex, can be educated and elevated both materially and spiritually, we must discard all prejudices and antipathies against all unknown peoples and embrace everyone with an open heart.

Universal Love illuminates our relationship with the animal kingdom. In becoming aware of the cruelty committed to farm animals as they are used in various abusive ways, and ultimately killed to be eaten, it should be understood that this shows a lack of compassion, a lack of love, and also it will cause terrible reactions for humanity, both immediate and over time. To use the bodies of animals which have died a natural death is acceptable, but the killing of animals should be avoided. Meat, fish and eggs may well need to be seen as food not fit for a healthy diet.

Universal Love illuminates our relationship between the sexes. With the understanding that only in a harmonious marriage can children feel protected, there is a need to strengthen the family unit, bringing harmony to all family members. To bring harmony to the family the centre of attention should be Universal Love, not competition between feuding partners for their own selfish means.

Universal Love illuminates our compromise with children. Understanding how easily children are moulded by their surroundings and how fragile and defenceless children are, they should be offered an education within the parameters of Universal Love and protected from contaminating influences which contradict these values.

Universal Love illuminates our understanding of our own self. Observing the changes of our body, from infancy to youth, to maturity and old age, it is clearly seen that our conscious self is independent of the different changes of the body. As a conscious being, we should open our minds and hearts to the possibility that we have bigger works than just feeding the body, sleeping, working, etc. Discovering our eternal intrinsic position, realising our true conscious nature, should be seen as being an essential part of our lives.

Universal Love illuminates our realisation of the responsibility we have for all our thoughts, words and actions. With the understanding that every action in this world produces an equal reaction, for our own good we should seek to avoid everything that can produce a negative future effect. We must attempt to perform acts that better the world, offering a positive future for everyone.

Universal Love illuminates our relationship with the media. It can be seen that in promoting greed, lust, anger and violence in its varied forms in the media, we contaminate the minds of children and adults with terrible consequences. It would be most wise to avoid contact as much as possible with these gross and subtle sources of degradation.

Universal Love illuminates our vision of the United Nations. Before the necessity of a world body to protect the rights of the defenceless, we propose to increase the appreciation of the rights of all living beings, and to include the values of Universal Love in the educational programmes of the United Nations in order to better the world situation

Universal Love illuminates our understanding of the dangers brought to the word by the intoxicating effects of all drugs, including alcohol. Knowing that intoxicants destroy important capabilities in those that use them, losing the ability to sincerely love those around them, we must consider these substances a grave danger to humanity. Universal Love allows one to feel a natural happiness, which is much more attractive and substantial than any intoxicant.

Universal Love permits us to see ourselves as happy servants, not tyrannical masters of those around us. Envy and taking advantage of the weaknesses of others shows how the exploiting spirit leads to indifference to others sufferings, thus increasing the feelings of frailty in the world. Serving others is a great experience which allows us to feel useful and full of self-esteem; whereas subjugating others only produces hate, rejection and loneliness.

Universal Love allows us to give thanks with humility for being maintained by nature, and allows us compassion to help those less favoured than ourselves. Upon observing that living beings on the planet are maintained in their necessities of water, air, food, etc., we should feel grateful for this beautiful creation. It makes us humble to realise that we are always dependent on the mercy of this creation. Thereby, we can more easily be compassionate to all those less fortunate than us; it is our chance to show our happiness through our generosity.

Universal Love illuminates our understanding of the many beliefs of the many peoples of the world. Seeing that there exist many forms of religious faith, of cults of thanksgiving to Mother Nature and her controller, we should respect all those types of faith, especially those that do not cause suffering to others. Those who badly treat men, women, animals, plants, and nature in general, are hiding behind their faith and tradition; whilst they are to be understood, it must be asked if they really do fit into the precepts of Universal Love.

Universal Love illuminates our vision towards the pre- and post-existence of consciousness. Upon observing that there exists a lot of evidence for the pre-existence of the conscious being, such as spontaneous past-life memories, prodigal children, hypnotic regressions and near-death experiences, amongst others, it may be seen as conducive to Universal Love to allow the possibility that consciousness is the basis of life, not matter. This continuity of conscious existence brings more clearly to light the responsibility we have to develop Universal Love in all of our activities. All of the original traditions of humanity believed in the existence of the conscious being independent of the present body.

Universal Love illuminates our understanding of the energies that constitute the world. Observing the great quantity of physical forces that constitute the creation, and how living beings are provided for, we can develop Universal Love for this same cosmic energy; both to its origin and its varied manifestations.

Universal Love illuminates our understanding of the cause of our existence. Observing that our individuality allows us to be conscious of our existence, this indicates that the source of everything has individuality and intelligence, and that this source may well have a conscious reason for each of our lives. We may call this source the Supreme Conscious Being, understanding that something inferior does not produce something superior. Thus, it can be said that it is not by accident that something so perfect exists as the material creation.

Universal Love illuminates our mystic vision through the phenomenon of the ‘internal voice’. Understanding that we all have an internal voice, which guides us for example to not bring suffering on others; we can appreciate that mystical part of nature. Known in different cultures by different names, such as intuition, we may accept it as a helping hand in life to each of us from the Supreme Conscious Being.

Universal Love illuminates our understanding of sacred sound. On observing that our consciousness is altered by disagreeable sounds and purified by spiritual sounds, it is to be recommended to associate with sounds conducive to meditation and prayer in order to increase our ability to love.

Universal Love illuminates our understanding of the sexual impulse and its importance in seeking an agreeable reality for humanity. It can be understood that whilst it is through sexual union that we are all brought into this world, the sexual act can also be the cause of much degradation and cruelty. It would be wise for the sexual act be managed by humanity under the clear understanding that it should not cause suffering to others. As an example, unwanted and unloved progeny are the result of a selfish world orientated towards egoistical pleasures with no consideration for others, what to speak of the ideals of Universal love.

Universal Love illuminates our understanding of the risks we take in life through gambling and the pursuit of wealth, fame and name. Gambling opens one up to risks, leading to anxiety, the tendency to cheat others, and often into financial and family problems. We should seek to better ourselves by working ethically and maintaining a consciousness that is positive and progressive; thus aiding the individual, the family and society in general.

Universal Love illuminates us about the need to love and be loved. Perceptive to the fact that the heart of all living beings is positively affected by loving relationships, it would be an appropriate understanding to believe that the source of life is amorous. If we ignore the possibility that there is this source of Universal Love we may find ourselves somewhat deprived of this love. By each of us becoming the centre of attention in our relationships, creating egotistical conflicts, we tend to lose this contact with the loving source and many things in our life may break down and fail us. If we place the greater ideal and practice of Universal Love in the centre of our lives then not only will we minimise the sufferings of others due to our actions but also we will engender sincere relationships and even prepare ourselves for an eternal loving position with the Supreme Conscious Being.

Universal Love illuminates us about the nature of our true ego, and the cause of our false ego due to false and temporary identifications. On concluding that our existence is a real phenomena, as conscious beings we need to free ourselves of false and temporary bodily identifications with our skin colour, social class, national identity, beliefs and ideologies, etc. and establish ourselves in our true conscious ego. To argue and fight with others, arrogantly believing one to be superior due to these false ego identities, is the cause of all problems in this world. The wise, who have been seen to live in this state of Universal Love, claim that the true ego only responds to the flow of Universal Love and in reality has no connection to the aforementioned false ego identities.

Universal Love allows us to understand bodily death as a natural process permitting the evolution of our conscious selves. Understanding that in any minute we could face death, we may well be wise to realize the importance of our state of consciousness at each and every moment. Thus, at death, by being established in Universal Love we could well guarantee the success of our conscious evolution. In this form of understanding, death is seen as a door which allows us to enter into the next class of conscious growth and learning on the road to truly loving life and living love.

Universal Love shows us the origin of our true nature as part of the will of the creator. On seeing this, if can be appreciated that our freedom to choose, our liberty, is the greatest gift from the Supreme Being to all of us. To learn to make the best of this liberty is said to be the purpose of life, thereby attaining to Universal Love and entering into the mysticism of eternal love.

Universal Love considers work as a sacred duty for the soul’s evolution. Seeing how all human beings must work to live, thus participating and contributing to society, Universal Love allows us all to discover how by working with love, dedication and responsibility our work can be a celebration, which gives dignity to our lives. With increasing sacrifice in our work, we can develop the capacity to perform even more valuable services for all of humanity and the natural world. Thus, Universal Love is activism for the welfare of all beings who are within our environment.

Universal Love considers the adoration of the Earth, of Mother Nature and the planet’s ecology with all its living beings, of natural forces such as the moon and the sun, of the existence of time and its presence as death, as evolutionary stages in the understanding of the transcendent and of pure love for the Supreme Being, which is the fundamental basis of Universal Love. Seeing that all culture express their respect and veneration to the Supreme controlling natural forces in one way or another, we should allow ourselves to accept this appreciation for these greater forces as part of our identity. By evolving this attitude we develop humility which brings us towards realising Universal Love. Yoga, meditation, fire sacrifices, religious rituals and the chanting or mantras should become instruments by which we celebrate our search for meaning in life and for pure love.

Universal Love recommends to all human beings that we live with beautiful principles that respect all of life and give us a superior taste of what liberty really means. By not consuming the results of violence, like meat, fish and eggs; by discarding the promiscuity of permissive sexual relationships; by not gambling; by not intoxicating our bodies; and by avoiding all contact with negative elements, such as violence and promiscuity, as shown in the various forms of media (especially via the television) we can attain to the beautiful values of Universal Love.

Universal Love allows us to establish the purpose of life. To attain to Universal Love, we must become amorous, sincere, serving, just, merciful, generous, etc.; we must love and be thankful towards the creation, its creator, destroyer and maintainer, its energies and diverse brothers and sisters of all species; we must comply with joy, happiness and excellence in our diverse positions such as fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters; and in our work and social positions we must be ambassadors of the values as expounded by Universal Love.“Universal Love illuminates our sensitivity to the need to love and be loved that we all have as a priority in our lives.”

"Love Life, Live Love"

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami
Editor: Gopananda das

The four principles of Dharma

(pending edition)

Vedic culture teaches that society can be really civilized by following four basic regulative principles which, develops virtues to harmonize life and to maintain pillars of a healthy society.

Those principles are:

1. Compassion. 2. Cleanliness. 3. Austerity. 4. Truthfulness.

Compassion or mercy towards all living beings, including animals and plants, is one of the main symptoms of a real human. Compassionate people help others to get free from the material entanglement, (samsara). For that reason no body have the right to kill other living entity, neither to interrupt their progress and natural transmigration from one body to another, which, is the chance of improvement from existence evolution. Humans shall avoid guiltiness from the egotistic misdeed to satisfy the tongue. Human being shall not only be vegetarian, but every one shall offer first own food to the Supreme Lord.

Those people who are involved in killing animals are unnecessarily cancelling their spiritual capacity of love and compassion, which characterize a human being.

So great is that love and compassion from a human being for other creatures, that by ignoring it or violating own sentiments, a person become insensible, cruel, violent and degrade own best feelings, qualities and best capacities.

Nevertheless, the real compassion would be to help others to keep eternal relationship with God. The principles of bhagavat-dharma are merciful and by following them, a gentleman will be situated in the platform of mercy and loving service to the eternal souls and the Supreme Lord, enjoying fullness and happiness, which is constitutional to each spiritual soul nature.

Cleanliness.

It is another one of the constitutional characteristics of a human being, which means to be clean internal and externally; cleanliness from heart, mind and intelligence; from the place of living and working, from own personal dealings in family, friendship, business, etc. Every thing clean!

Cleanness from mind and heart is the more important and essential. In order to attain it, the glorification of the Absolute One is most indispensable and without counting with Him, no one can clean the dust of desire that covers the heart and mind.

An atheistic civilization with all its material equipment is not capable to clean the mind and heart, because it is void of the purity conception of a divine sphere. Those people are devoid of divine good qualities, pure sentiments and what to say of respect before the most sacred function of the human body: the sexual relationship and procreative capacity.

During the last years the sexual promiscuity disguised the big disturbance and abuse which, results from egotistic, unclean and disgusting sexual dealings that affects the integrity of a dignified human being; because according the principles of a civilized society like the vedic culture, a sexual intercourse is performed only exclusively among husband and wife with the only purpose of producing children that will be educated in God consciousness.

Liberal sexuality and its free practice bring as result physical, moral and spiritual sickness. Mental capacity get lost, and the person indeed suffers from a constantly obsession to obtain a pleasure which never concretes and never get fulfilled, because the self is even much more than that. Consciousness and the need of the heart do not get satisfied only with the bodily sexual act. Is compulsory to avoid those disgusting sexual relationships which involves following consequences: abortion, illnesses like AIDS, legality of divorce, suicide and violence, alcoholism and drugs addiction, pornography and the premature dissolution of families due illicit sex from young boys and girls.

Cleanliness of consciousness or spirit helps to understand the reality that the Self-identity is not the body, by giving greater possibilities of satisfaction in developing spiritual consciousness. That is why impure means to act against God’s consciousness. Any dirt in heart, mind or body will be an impediment to approach God.

Austerity.

A genuine human being does not act after the impulse of own senses, forcing own self unnecessarily to poison the body with alcohol, drugs, etc. which produces lost of self-control and mental equilibrium; and the person become an incoherent fool, a sentimental or violent individual. While sensitiveness of a gentle human being implies much more then only peaceful equilibrium of mind, due to the realization of Self-identity, essentially as an eternal loving servant of the Supreme Divine Master. Such a person is free from the demented vision of being self-centred in the universe, expecting everything in life to fulfil the own sensual pleasure. For a self-realized person, even the attachment to family members is first connected with the Absolute truth and struggle to serve It. She or he try to reduce material necessities, keeping a balanced life, avoiding hankering for superficial pleasures, becoming a sample of moderation, good judgment and equilibrium. A person who is struggling to get out of material illusion (samsara) and discover the internal Self, can’t attain to spiritual realization if deviate by satisfying low appetites through drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, or by poisoning the blood with caffeine, tea and other wrong habits of drinking and eating. Because by consume of all that stuff the capacity for austerity and will power gets lost. For that reason a true human being keeps mind and body in equilibrium, brilliant and healthy; otherwise access to higher truths and understanding will be denied and impossible.

Truthfulness.

It does not only mean to avoid lie. To be truthfull a person must first knows the truth, which starts by accepting God as the Supreme Absolute Truth as confirmed by revealed scriptures.

The honest people, seeking for the Absolute Truth, approach genuine authorities to start spiritual understanding in the system of disciple succession or guru-parampara.

Once the Absolute Truth is understood as God Himself, then there is a serious responsibility to diffuse this truth in order to diminish falsehood in the world. Knowing that everything is Divine Energy and that the Supreme Being is the Lord and Controller of universe as His Own belonging; this Supreme Truth bring that desired peace and prosperity to the society, protecting men from violating the divine laws of nature.

Knowledge from truth grants freedom. The body is not the real Self, but it is a vehicle, which transport a driver, the soul.

Srila Prabhupad use to ask: “If we are eternal beings, why to get interested in temporal things?” Reality means existence, which can’t disappear; reality means eternity. We shall use our time inquiring on this subject. Srila Atulananda Acharya says, “We forgot that human life is to cultivate Divine Love, Love of God; to purify the heart and create and environment of peace, wisdom and brother-sister –hood.”

It is very painful to see children and young people wasting time in video games, putting coins to the machines in noisy places, saturated with passion and violence. From very childhood they are learning to look for satisfaction in machines and senses objects, but very rarely they receive information on own constitution and spiritual nature. In that way they forget own fortune and wealth of having a human body and the chance to develops spiritual consciousness, which assures happiness, peace and ecstasy. They forget God in their hearts as a friendly well-wisher, ready to grant all the benedictions, relief and perfection. Surely that to be truthful also means to be honest and tell the truth about God.

Conclusion.

From that four principles of a civilized society, only truthfulness remains in this age; which means that even if people is living a sinful life and hedonist way, even so they have a desire to hear about Truth, about God.

In that way, a miracle will take place in a single of this qualities that a person may develops; all those qualities will appear in the activities of the individual, increasing day by day like the moon. Individuals will become finally merciful, clean, austere and truthful; and will climb to a superior mindfulness stage to be able to conceive the last perfection of life as pure love of God.

“When these four principles are missing, society falls down and enters in chaos”.

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami
Editor Gopananda das

Where is there refuge?

Fight for a beautiful cause: “Universal Love”.

Now, there is hope, we can go back to Godhead; the true home.

The consumer society in which we have been born into is full of lies, tricks and false promises. We can not pretend that happiness lies in having and enjoying something external. We must find a place with saintly persons who are looking for God. There, the idea is to fill ourselves with inspiration and spirituality to take with us in life, with renewed vigour.

Three classes of suffering:

Those caused by diseases.
Those caused by other living entities.
Those caused by natural disasters.

Spiritual Oasis

We are all members of a great spiritual family, and through spiritual refuges it is possible to realize this reality in its tangible form.

Become part of these oases. Maybe you can not live permanently in one of them, but you can be part of it in some way: in a yoga ashrama, where young students are trained, or where defenceless women and children, who want a spiritual life, are mutually cared for. Be come part of these oases in some way, and see how your life takes deeper meaning in such a place that we really have so much need for, and that allows us to enter into its protective circle.

The refuge is real; try it out, get to know it. Contact the closest ashrama to you, or participate in a Mela (a spiritual gathering) of the VRINDA family. Get to realise that a common cause is a reality when one has a message to show what God’s cause in this world is.

Are you looking for a refuge?

In this material world there are many places of entertainment: clubs, theatres, sports halls, etc, where people gather for some reason that they value. But what there is there is the consumerism of the market place, raw competition, and the many means of cheating and being cheated that the world has to offer. Over and over again we find there is no refuge for the heart.

And the television is still worse. Soap operas only show sensuality, frustration, mundane things; again no refuge. In one’s house is found the atmosphere of competition, lies, promiscuity, and so many other elements such as intoxication, violence, laziness; and again no refuge for the sensitive heart.

In schools and universities there is so much contamination. Modern education only teaches the need to earn money to enjoy life to the maximum; that life is a casual accident, missing any superior meaning. Again, no refuge.

In the churches, mosques or temples we hear nice things that no one really puts into practice. There is so much religious rivalry, in and between religions. They do not really offer a true refuge.

Therefore, we find the institutions of the world lack any real refuge for the sincere searcher of truth and harmony.

Beyond human misfortune, we find that the natural world, even with all its beauty, is full of danger. There are bodily diseases, dangers caused by other living entities, and natural disasters, such as earthquakes.

Finally, we realise that this material world offers no refuge. And what do we do when no refuge is offered? Do we stay in a desperate state or hold onto a little hope and keep looking?

True refuge is an internal spiritual affair, of one’s relationship with God and His creation. But still, on the path to God, we can now offer you refuge in the ashramas of Vrinda. These ashramas are places where people gather who are really interested and dedicated to the search for truth, in an unconditional way.

Ashramas are places with sincere people who do not break the regulative principles of dharma, God-given human duties; where people live the natural religion of the soul, of the heart, in friendship to all living beings.

Ashrams are places where people do not eat meat, fish or eggs, do not intoxicate themselves, are not promiscuous, and where they do not gamble, cheat each other, or lie. Such places are full of people studying Sacred Scriptures to unite behind a common cause of a beautiful reality, which is Universal Love.

The VRINDA family have these ashrams in many parts of the world. In many cities are centres established to study the Vedas, and classes for people who want to study yoga, including Hatha Yoga.

VRINDA has some beautiful farm properties, where those who are seriously devoted live, that can be visited at the weekend, or to go for a spiritual retreat in the holidays. We have established Melas in many countries, where yogis meet to share devotional life. There, one can change the monotony of one’s life by having the beautiful association of saintly people; renounced monks, exemplary married couples, and students on the path of yoga and meditation. We offer conferences with full audience participation; where one of the principal aspects are the questions from the audience, and the answers that are given, hopefully to clarify the spiritual path by eliminating one’s doubts through discourse and debate in an open atmosphere without the imposition of dogma.

“Loving and serving the Supreme, our heart will be full of love and happiness.”

Teachings of Sripad Paramdvaiti Swami

Editor Gopananda dasa

Say “NO!” to the TV

“Desires multiply misery. Try to be satisfied with all that you have.”

Children who see violence on the screen behave more aggressively, regardless of country, sex, socio-economic position, or even if they have emotional problems. The effects of television are interdependent: aggressive children choose violent programs and those who see these programs become more aggressive.

You should not have a TV in your house. The TV produces loneliness and TV-addicts, which is contrary to a communicative family life. We need to understand that addiction to the TV is an obstacle to daily family life and in the creativity and spontaneous ability to play of our children.

Aggressive behaviour, obesity, the use and abuse of alcohol, tobacco and junk food, are all the negative results that children suffer by watching too much television. The TV also has a major influence regarding sexual behaviour.

“Care more for other people and less your own self-centred concerns. Learn to depend on God’s mercy.”

The television has become one of the main forms of entertainment in the modern world. For the majority of people in today’s society, the TV has invaded our lives and privacy in such a dramatic way that in many places it remains on 24 hours a day. In America, people watch TV an average of four hours daily. This dependency, or addiction, to watching TV, and its creation and promotion, exploits some of the most basic conditions of the human existence.

The first condition is laziness, which make people think that whilst watching TV they are learning something, or that they are being entertained. Actually, neither of these is effectively happening. The reality is that the mind is being polluted with all kinds of garbage. This stimulates in the Tele-viewers the desire to break the principles of Dharma, the religious duties prescribed for humankind. This is achieved by the constant bombardment of all types of violence, through promoting the killing of defenceless animals for the consumption of their cadavers, of endless lustful desires, of pornography and illicit sex, of gambling, greed, envy and jealousy, etc. All these are no more than the promotion of a path leading to a hellish life.

As fallen, conditioned souls, we are highly inclined to easy pleasures, to laziness, gossip, criticism, and to blame others for the problems we face in life.

The process of spiritual education in the Vedic culture has the following fundamentals:

I. To learn to be grateful for everything beautiful and special that we have received in life.

II. To feel compassion to all those who suffer due to the ignorance of our own misdeeds.

III. To understand that human life is a school of love and that in all circumstances we are servants in some way or other. Therefore, it is best to voluntarily serve the purpose of the Creator, by being useful in this life in order to grow spiritually.

IV. To understand that the principle of egoistical pleasure is lust, selfish desire, and that this constitutes the real human illness. The cure is to live for God’s pleasure, according to His Will, the Supreme Truth; thereby living in a way that unconditionally benefits all living beings on this planet that we share.

As you can see, not one of these values is commonly promoted on the TV. To the contrary, the TV keep us confused with the false idea that that out true identity is the material body, and that we are owners of temporary worldly things. In this way, we forget, again and again, our greater responsibilities as human beings.

Knowledge of the Truth starts by appreciating one’s identity as anti-material consciousness; not a body of flesh and bone that is conditioned to sickness and old age. By studying the Vedas under the guidance of a genuine spiritual master, a second understanding arises showing the whole world as being controlled by the Supreme Lord, and that He is situated within the heart of every living entity as the Supreme Controller and witness of everything we do. As such, we need to recognize the existence of the natural law of action and reaction for each thought, word and action we make.

Finally, we arrive at the understanding that there exists an eternal world where we can go to live once we have arrived at the perfection of our existence; having now overcome the cycle of repeated birth and death. There, we can live in our own pure spiritual nature, which is Sat – eternal, Cit - full of knowledge, and Ananda – in a blissful state. These qualities of the soul arise on developing a loving relationship of service to God.

Everything that informs us against this understanding and that inspires us contrary to such illumination is a dangerous pollution for an individual. Television is so dangerous because of its ease of access, with its power to influence easily the population, and for its methods in which it appeals to the lower instincts of the conditioned soul, with its gossipy nature and its sensual, violent images.

Television is a perfect instrument of manipulation for unscrupulous governments devoid of spiritual vision. In this way, the individual and collective problems of today’s civilization are only liable to get worse.

It is also undeniable that the same technology can be properly used to watch programmes that develop our consciousness. Even so, it is to be understood that the TV contaminates more than it benefits. That is why the first step to keep a nice atmosphere at home, for our children and our own well-being, is to remove the television from one’s home, or to keep it in a secondary place exclusively to watch videos and documentaries that promotes spiritual values.

People in today’s world treat the TV as their Guru, their teacher, where everyday they sit in front of “him” to fill their heads with garbage. This takes up all the time in which a person should be listening to the spiritual master and the sacred scriptures to fill one’s life with positive energy to do beautiful things.

It is also clear that the majority of people no longer have an altar (place for prayer) at home, nor do they sanctify their food as an offering, giving thanks to God. The majority of people aspire to a sensual and superficial “Hollywood” lifestyle, even if this means that others suffer.

Even then, it is not enough just to take the TV out of the home; one must remove all kinds of alcoholic beverages and intoxicating substances. One should desist from using all products that involve the killing of animals and eat a strictly vegetarian diet. Even more, one should practice and promote chastity, having sexual relationships only within marriage whilst maintaining a sacred consciousness. It is also recommended not to gamble. All the above will protect a person’s religious principles of compassion, austerity, cleanliness and truthfulness.

We must look for a higher taste. It is not difficult. Simply by keeping the company of people who struggle for a better world, then we will have higher goals in life, deep friendships and support to help maintain our families with a high quality of life. Otherwise, the TV will continue to be the family Guru and its contamination will assure a miserable end to the family atmosphere. I request you from my heart: be brave, make the difference and discover the wealth of a dynamic life with transcendental values.

Srila Guru Maharaj

Editor Gopananada dasa

AIDS – The plague of the century

“When we can not control someone, we stop treating them amorously.”

“Infected children with the HIV virus rapidly develop AIDS. Since that beginning of the epidemic, about three millions children under the age of 15 have been infected with the virus. The majority of those children have developed AIDS and died.”

“AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is an illness caused by a virus called HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). When the virus enters the human organism, different to other viruses, no symptoms are recognized. What occurs is a slow, progressive destruction of the body’s immune system.”

“There is no danger of AIDS infection except through sexual relationships without precaution, the sharing of infected syringes, through blood transfusions, and the transmission of the virus from mother to fetus in the womb”.

“Always do something beautiful to save the world, a lack of caring shows a lack of compassion.” – Srila Guru Maharaj

The theme of AIDS has the whole world in fear. Most important organizations debate what to do with this disease that is killing a large part of humanity. On the other hand, drugs are injected with shared syringes, and societies promote free sex and homosexuality. AIDS, in a large part, is caused by wrong sexual dealings. Whilst every person has the free will to choose their type of sexual life, we should carefully discriminate to get a clear understanding on the issue of AIDS and what part we play in it.

Almost all over the world, governments are promoting the use of condoms as a way of avoiding the spread of AIDS. It is not an intelligent solution; and it is wasting time and resources. The broadcasting of a free and uncontrolled sexuality is misleading society into indiscriminate promiscuous sexual activity, without recognizing its severe consequences. It ignores that AIDS is only one symptom of such erroneous social behavior. Publicity to propagate “sexual freedom” devoid of moral principles is the cause of abortion, the killing of children (infanticide), divorced families and street children. This comes a result of a wrong mentality; AIDS is only the monster, putting fear into mankind, which has come from such “sexual freedom”.

All sexual activity that does not have as its end means the procreation of a child within a family unit is seen as a backward act, not very developed or elevated, within the parameters of the spiritual culture of Yoga. As part of Yoga, the Vedic scriptures are studied to extract wisdom and orientation for the whole of humanity. In relation to AIDS, which is a relatively new disease, we can conclude that homosexuality is a highly dangerous activity. The homosexual act, in itself, just stimulates the senses; it can not produce children, engendering no responsible outcome, as it is does not entail creating a family and sacrificing oneself for it; though children can be, and are, adopted,

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, a great Master from India, declared that the family unit is the best way to learn to work, and sacrifice oneself, for others; and that the sequel to this is Universal Love, which is taught in the sacred teachings of Yoga. The lust that drives us to carnal desires is an excessive identification with the material body. Such lust is best controlled within a monogamous relationship, in a home, where one sacrifices to care for its members.

The argument that the formation of stable homosexual couples avoids the propagation of AIDS, whilst based on good arguments, ignores the fact that homosexuality does not comply with the principal function of the sexual act, which is to bring children into the world. There exist so many ways to be entertained. May people consider sex, pornographic movies, homosexuality, masturbation etc., as major forms of entertainment. They do not take into account that the higher reality of human life is found in the search for Truth and Self-realization. People are confused about the meaning of life and they waste this rare form of human life by looking for temporary pleasures; stimulating the senses of the body through the sexual act, or with a new drug that excites the nervous system, producing strange and interesting sensations.

The perfection of life can never be found in artificial sensual sensations. It can only be found in surrendering to God. The prayer to get out of the problems we encounter in life should be:

“O my Lord, please let me be an instrument of your Love. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.”

If we practice celibacy, or are faithful within our couple, we can avoid a lot of suffering. If we use the sexual act only to engender children into a family unit we can bring in to the world great souls, thus aiding to arrive at Yogic perfection within married life. The promotion of free sex and drug addiction are activities produced through degradation, which take place in a very contaminated world without spiritual values. Remember Sodom y Gomorra. How many times were they warned? And yet they did not want to learn.

How many more people shall die from AIDS, until society again accepts virginity and the purity of men and women as something very sacred? One’s virginity should be protected in order to dedicate ourselves to family life upon marriage. This way, our children can be happy with the mother and father working together for a common cause. Not the opposite, wherein a dysfunctional family is threatened by a newly-born child infected with AIDS, who will die within its infancy.

The debates that presently take place concerning the medicines to relieve the effects of AIDS, the help given to those with the illness, the tolerance of society towards its victims, etc, are surely full of goodness, with a sincere desire to help those who are suffering; but it has to be noted that the most important needs are beyond these. The most needed debates are those that bring forth spiritual education, engendering superior values so that the entire world follows good examples so as not to be led into such a fallen position.

Those with AIDS are in a situation very difficult to imagine, but they should now be more stimulated to look for God through self-realisation, and to take the sacred mantras that can give them a progressive, positive understanding of their existence. It does not matter is such an understanding comes to them even at their death, because the Vedic understanding takes us beyond the bodily concepts of birth and death. It opens up the doors of our lives to a permanent existence, where there are no more afflictions caused by ignorance and egoism.

Please, seriously take into account these words, and take this understanding to all the places you can.

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami
Editor Gopananda dasa

The illness of the century - Depression

[disclaimer:
our spiritual advices are not intended to replace the help of psychiatrist, professional treatment and prescribed medicines.]

“Depression is the product of no knowing what our real identity is.”

“All the problems in out life only exist due to our egoistical desires.”

Victims of consumerism

A person who sincerely seeks the truth, even if they have not yet found it, now have the maximum justification and validity that is needed on the path.

Fear of failure.

How can we leave the concept of taking and learn the way of giving?

“Life is very difficult, there are problems at each step; but the biggest problems are found within ourselves.” Srila Guru Maharaj

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently published a report that brought to light the fact that depression is the fastest-growing illness in the world, representing a grave threat to humanity. Depression is a product of not knowing correct action or thought due to a false perception of our true identity. In today’s society, from a very young age we are brought up in an environment of competition. We are told that we must consume all that we can, which for a person of few resources becomes a mental torture. We are told we should be like the super stars, even though we generally do not fit their aesthetic parameters. Thus society feeds us a goal that can not be met, which is far from the day-today realities of life. There is a gulf of difference between expectation and reality.

In accordance with the most ancient scriptures of wisdom, the Vedas, the purpose of life is to understand and realise our eternal spiritual identity - atato brahma jijnasa – wherein our self esteem finds rest in the purity of its true nature. We are temporarily living on this planet in order to fulfil a sacred work. All that God has created and all that He has given us is sacred. For that reason, it is wrong to deviate from His purpose for the common good; such a way is a defiant position. As members of an organic whole we must gain our satisfaction by fulfilling our God-given humble and beautiful role. To do otherwise, would be a rebellious, separatist act, leaving us like a non-functioning organ or sense. The perfection of the hand is in feeding the stomach; the organic part serves the organic whole. If it were not so there would be problems and the whole organism would die due to lack of nutrition. Likewise, if someone in a group puts himself against the common purpose he will cause problems and will be seen as a rebel opponent. Contrary to the theory of evolution, life is not an accidental product from matter where all ecological niches are ordered solely due to chaos. There is a given niche for all life forms, as life was created in an ordered form.

The purpose of life is to fully determine the appropriate niche service one has in this world; how you as a part fit into the complete whole. Just as there is no need to give to a mother a book of rules and regulations of how she should be with her baby, because in her heart her intuition tells her what is natural as her duty, in the same way we must seek out are natural function in this world and human society. Inevitably, we must share ourselves with the world, its environments and people by always looking for natural harmony as part of our spiritual growth.

When we fall into the illusion of exploitation and think that we must favour our interest at the cost of the rest, this causes depression. By harming others we will receive the same sufferings that we are causing, first in a subtle form and later in a grosser form. By being surrounded by and part of the exploitative tendency we will always live in fear of failure, in fear that someone else will come along and take what we have, and in fear that our future progress will be threatened. This fear causes depression.

Self esteem which is dependant on the pride of what we have, not what we are, creates other problems; pride comes before the fall. Material acquisitions, such as a nice house, expensive car, social position, etc, are just temporary and bring an illusory sense of wellbeing. Such things can be easily lost within this life, and will certainly be lost at our death. By putting emphasis on valuing a person by what they own, people show that they do not know the mystic reality of the beauty of our God-given life. Under the illusion of material wealth, or lack of, it is easy to become depressed and to fall into intoxication as an escape from facing our true nature. Pride from the falsity of ownership does not satisfy the soul. Once a person becomes habituated to falsely identifying happiness in external criteria then intoxication, from alcohol, pills or powder, is often used to cover the emptiness, and the situation gets steadily worse. Destroying the brain’s neurons and with the deterioration of mental health and will power the person lives an unnatural reality wherein they can not determine the factors that are perturbing them. They may believe that their unhappiness is due to a lack of intoxicant, material possessions, social and career positions, or a host of external factors based on social, political, economical or environmental criteria.

One such deceiving factor about depression was given to society through the theories of Sigmund Freud, who claimed that our traumas and neurosis are because we have restricted and inhibited our sexual lives. The Vedas teach us that sex desire needs to be regulated, controlled and channelled. Sex life should never cause pain or anguish to another person; it should be protected within a sacred marriage bond. The satisfaction of family life depends on understanding that the sacredness of sex life is in the ability to bring to the world another living being and in the responsibilities this entails. The logo therapy of Victor Frankl annulled Freud’s theories by demonstrating that a person will only maintain a sense of wellbeing and have the capacity to resist the many tests in life when s/he feels s/he is being responsible for his or her part as part of the common good. This is enhanced when the common good is seen as absolute and God-given, not only as a relative humanistic supposition.

We should not think that depression can be counteracted by the invention of new psychiatric medicines. Depression must be dealt with at its roots, where for the majority of people it is difficult to get to as they are not prepared to question their concepts about existence and the meaning to life. When the underlying philosophy of material evolution is atheistic, lending an utterly meaningless interpretation to why we are alive, would it not be better to take another look at a spiritual perspective on life?

Some basic questions for a person who wants to get out of depression:

How can I manage the resources that God has put at my disposal so that they can really benefit everyone?

How can I contribute to something that benefits me and all who surround me?

How can I achieve the position where my activities are in agreement with my heart-felt ideals?

Upon acting on the answers to these types of questions, personal wellbeing will start to manifest itself. Depression is not an incurable illness, but our materialistic society is very far from knowing how to cure it because it is materialism that is the very cause of the illness. The cure is in the timeless, deep wisdom that is found in the company of those who have dedicated their lives to spiritual understandings and practices. So that this medicine becomes tangible to each of us, the Vrinda mission offers retreats in their country communities. Thereby those who are depressed due to the materialistic vision of this present world, not knowing the real reason to live, nor what to do, can immediately experience, within a monastic environment, the beauty of being a contributor and servant to the spiritual cause. With the help of mantras, the chanting of God’s names, one can experience a spiritual awakening and come to know our true inner knowledge, affinity and beauty.

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami

Editor Gopananda dasa

About Abortion

All about Abortion

“Abortion brings misfortune”.

“Don’t kill the children; let them be born to live”.

“Unborn victims of violence (Fetal Homicide)”

“Wake up! Say NO to abortion!”

“Only God creates life, and only God has the rights to end a life”.

“The seed of cruelty is budding in front of our eyes by killing those that have been trusted to our shelter”.

“Change your life, become a messenger of love”.

“Since when did we give rights to a mother to kill her children, born or unborn?”

Friend of my soul, aborting a child is like loosing our own fortune in life; it is an invitation to misery. After abortion, a person will not be able to look at a child without remembering the creature that was denied the right to live. It was eliminated, assassinated, by your decision; only you have the power to receive your son or daughter with full affection as did your parents receive you. In the same way you can kill your self, because this embryo is your own self, like your brother or sister, with the same desire to live. If you participate in this crime, you will repent it later; you will never forget what you did. Consider it. Wake up!

Dear friend, in the case that you have committed such an atrocity and you want God to forgive you, totally dedicate yourself to stop others doing the same mistake. Talk to everyone so that no-one around you kills a poor child still in the womb.

There is no sin that Got cannot forgive, but abortion is a very serious matter. It is probable that the child that is being aborted was once involved in abortion, and that the mother who is aborting will in her next birth be aborted – “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Nature’s law of action / reaction confirms that crimes like abortion the reaction is very strong; only God can forgive it. This means we must change our life and become messengers of love, offering protection towards children and animals. First, men cruelly kill animals. Later, they start to kill children in the mother’s womb; and finally they destroy themselves on the battlefields as well. That was the view of the philosopher and poet, Tolstoy; and that is the way nature works.

Wake up for once, become messengers of love, don’t kill unborn children. Become excellent parents who are able to care for your children, to show them the way to truth, to spiritual life, to universal love with an understanding of the true meaning to life in divine connection with God. In this world we need to be an instrument of God’s love, so repeat this daily prayer to stay in contact with God’s Love:

“Oh my Lord, please let me be an instrument of Your Love”.

Srila Guru Maharaj

Edition Gopananda dasa

Letter from a child. “I want to live”.

Thank you mother for giving me life. Thank you mother for this opportunity. I want to see the world where you live; but you know mummy that I am weak and defenseless. The fortune of my existence depends upon you.

How I would want you to see my happiness when I hear your voice, when you caress me tenderly; like saying to me that you are also very pleased. That’s why, from my very humble condition, I want to scream that among all mothers you are the best one. I don’t yet have my full senses and body, but I can just about understand that I cannot pay you for all that you have done for me; not even with the whole universe.

If you allow me to born, I promise you Mum that I will make all efforts to fulfill your desires. Don’t spend your money to get rid of me…

I am blood of your blood, body and soul of your soul;

I want you to weep joyfully that day when I will be born.

Thank you mother for offering me your womb, where you conceived my essential nature. There I feel myself protected and safe. It is my warm and sweet nest, my crystalline stream, where I dream, dance and laugh; and my worries are whisked away.

Some thing I want to remind you of is that I am part of you; when you weep, I weep; when you suffer, I suffer; but when you smile, you make me the happiest being.

Lord of infinite Love and peaceful countenance, I surrender at your holly feet. I offer you my soul; singing your Holy Names.

Composed by:

Inain Castaneda (Akarma das)

Yoga Vs. Drugs

Yoga versus Drugs

“People intoxicate themselves because they can’t stand their state of consciousness.”

“There is nothing more dangerous than liberty without responsibility. To appreciate and look for responsibility is to mature.”

Srila Guru Maharaj

Drugs, in their many forms, are not only obstacles to our wellbeing in the way that they affect our body and mind, but they prevent us from attaining the true purpose in life, which is self-realization. Drugs make it impossible for a person to find his or her true self, the permanent and natural happiness that is our eternal true nature, which is to be found beyond our relative, temporary understandings derived from our range of sense experience.

When we talk about drugs we refer to any stimulant, whether it is from a herb, synthetic chemical or fermented liquid, that influences our nervous system after being drunk, eaten, injected or smelt, which cause a change of consciousness in the consumer. This artificial and temporary change in consciousness manifests many symptoms, which will in general lead to an addictive nature in the consumer. One symptom is that the drug addict looses a principal characteristic of humanity, which is the ability to discriminate between right and wrong; someone under the influence of any type of drug will have the tendency to loose the reasonable conduct that is expected in a civilized society. How many people due to the influence of drugs cause family breakdowns because of lack of care? How many young people, including from well-to-do families, become delinquents just to finance their habits?

Drugs are an escape, a refuge in the darkest ignorance. The reasons to consume drugs may be many, but can be resumed into one simple reason – the inability to find happiness in life in its normal state. The consumption of toxic substances and stimulants is nothing new; it was always the symptom of decadence in an opulent and materially successful population, wherein intoxication just increases. The Romans are a good example of this.

Traditionally, intoxication has been in conflict with genuine religions who have denounced drugs as obstacles on the spiritual path, and as a destructive force to the mind and body which God gave us. Our contemporary materialistic and atheistic society is based on a philosophy which states that when the body dies everything is finished for that individual. Due to this viewpoint, all religious morality is seen only as a social construct which impedes our ability to enjoy life to its fullest. The modern world view negates any type of responsibility to a divine will. It does not try to free us from the excesses of something, which at the start may seem to be pleasant but in the end binds us in its intoxicating grip. It doesn’t try to free us from an erroneous concept which leads us to lose the precious opportunity the human form of life allows us. For intoxication is wholly negative; it leads us to be ungrateful, irresponsible, animalistic and barbaric.

We must seek values free from the tendency to exploit others. Although the modern world is forming based on universal rights as proclaimed in the United Nations, the underlying trend is that of materialism, which teaches us that might is right, not that to do right gives us might. This can not be the basis for a truly civilized society. On the contrary, it is the law of the jungle where fists and claws replace goodness and justice. There is, as ever, a contradiction between our higher goals and our more animalistic instincts. In this contaminated state, it is easy for us to question why we should seek higher values instead of just being hedonists, enjoying the moment to the maximum. In this sense, drugs offer us instant, intense enjoyment now. “Enjoy now, for tomorrow you may die” is the hedonists’ motto, “do what everyone else is doing and make life into a non-stop party”.

Another justification often used by the drug addict for their continual intoxication is due to their knowledge of ancient cultures where drugs, such as yahe, mushrooms, coca, mescaline, etc, formed parts of their cultural rituals, wherein they assigned, or made contact with, supernatural forces due to the drugs effects. But we must be honest to see that drug taking in the modern world is mostly just for sensual pleasure or to be drowned in an anesthetised ignorance.

To understand this theme scientifically, we must look to information given to us by spiritual masters, like Srila Prabhuapda. He came to the West to open our eyes with the torchlight of knowledge, and he inspired us to seek a pure life in the service of Krsna (God) without discriminating against race, sex, religion and all types of ‘isms’ that are not the true ‘the’ ism of pure theism. In the Bhagavad-Gita, one of the oldest books in the world, it explains that our being is made of three parts. The first part is the soul that animates our existence with conscious feeling and is part of the superior energy of anti-material spirit. The two divisions of the material body are known as the gross body and the subtle, astral body. The gross body is made of the five elemental states of solid, liquid, fire, air and space, which combine to form the physical bodies we inhabit. The astral body is made of a sense of false ego, intelligence and mind. Generally, the subtle, astral body is trapped by the demands of the gross body for its preservation and sensual enjoyment, especially of food and sex life.

These days, the existence of the astral body is not really recognized; we are led to believe by modern atheistic science that the mind is a product of the brain’s chemical reactions and that thought, emotions, etcetera, do not exist in and of themselves but are just an accidentally formed by-product of chemical bodies in their search to reproduce themselves. But as there is a physical reality, there also exists a mental reality, and this is called the astral world. There are many non-incarnate entities who have lost their physical bodies and in the process of transmigration are waiting to attain another body. Certain drugs, for example those used by indigenous Americans, open one to communicate with the astral world, as is the case of those gifted as spiritual mediums. Due to their incomplete understanding of the eternal nature of the spirit and the possibility to be freed form the bind of our material existence, it is often the case that by having a superior connexion with the astral sphere they can be deluded into believing they have a purely divine connexion, which is mostly not the case.

The Vedas emphasise the point that we are not the body, neither the physical or mental (astral) body, for we are the eternal feeling soul. In as such as a fish out of water can not be happy with a big bank balance, neither can the soul be happy via material means, not in this life or any other. When the soul discovers its eternal nature and becomes established in pure goodness it becomes liberated from the repeated cycles of birth and death and returns to its sweet spiritual home in the spiritual world. The astral body, especially the mind, causes us many problems in attaining to spiritual life. Notwithstanding, if out intelligence comes into contact with spiritual education and appropriate guides, especially in the form of a self-realised spiritual master, then we become capacitated to control our mind and senses and use them in marvellous ways in the function of the heart-felt spirit by helping others, especially in the spiritualization of their lives. In this way, someone who at the moment is a drug addict can come out of their desperate state and come to have extraordinary enthusiasm through spiritual love.

The question ‘why are we alive?’ can be answered – we live for Him, God, the Great Spirit. This is called a positive alternative to today’s egoistical answer of living for oneself alone. Above all, chanting the names of God, as in the Mahamantra Hare Krsna, connects the aspiring spiritual seekers to the spiritual platform and gives them strength of will power to beat the vices of our mental and physical bodies. Without having a strong will power it is very difficult to give up drugs.

So it can be seen that materialism is to blame for drug addiction. By bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion, in giving real spiritual knowledge we hope to awaken the consciousness of all that can be reached; so that the sober person or the drug addict can find solutions to resolve all of lives problems. Drugs are our enemies, even though at the start it may seem very friendly. Drugs bring so many problems; our mental and physical health deteriorate; our responsibilities in society are left uncared for; and in so many cases, there are left so many of our children uncared for or badly treated due to drugs of all kinds.

Deeper still, there are more serious effects of the drugs menace which are revealed in the teachings of yoga from the Vedic scriptures of India. According to the Vedas, our life is great lesson in the school of life. There are lessons of love, goodness, compassion, purity, sacrifice, honesty; and above all, to arrive at the realisation of our true, eternal nature. Self-realisation is to understand, to realise, one’s eternal, intrinsic position in the spiritual reality by being established in the correct relationship with God as an eternal servant. By arriving at this saintly position one graduates from the school of life, finishing with the hard school of knocks of repeated births and deaths and becomes eligible to enter the spiritual realm. This is the perfection of life, and if we do not strive to attain this position in this life we will have to keep being reborn according to the law of karma of an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, receiving both good and bad reactions accordingly. If we think that others should suffer so that we can enjoy, then we will be put into the opposite situation as divine retribution, whether in this body or another. This is the law of karma, the infallible justice; we will get what is coming to us. Karma and reincarnation have been accepted doctrines for thousands of years by whole cultures and by many well known figures in the West, such as Socrates, Plato, and even the famous father of the Christian church, Origenes. But karma and reincarnation can be put to an end when we end our exploitative tendencies and surrender to Divine Will.

The use of drugs in life can be compared to using them in school; nothing is understood and the course is lost; another lost opportunity. And it is the drug taker who will suffer; someone who uses this valuable human life for the sensual pleasure derived in drug use may well not even receive another human form of life, having to be lowered into animal forms of consciousness in inferior species. We do not know the value of something until we lose it. If we do not value the precious gift of life we have by not seeking spiritual realisation then we are guaranteed to suffer. And what of those who die whilst intoxicated? The Vedas state that they will remain as ghosts for a long time; deprived of a physical body in which to enjoy they will seek ways to influence those in bodies, many on drugs, so as to try to have some physical enjoyment. The same is true for those who commit suicide. This information is not taken into account in the modern thinking of today’s society. Drugs symbolise escape. Escape from an ordinary, boring life, one without dynamism and real philosophy. Instead of having a spiritual perspective on drug use, the materialists try to discriminate between one drug and another in consideration of their effects. Legal drugs bring in tax revenues for the government, and illegal drugs bring in revenues for the traffickers; but both bring misery for the consumer.

Today, I was meditating on the people I know who still do not fully understand what danger drugs bring. Drugs damage ones self, and therefore they damage those around you. A damaged person can not be a good parent, brother, friend or partner. Drugs drive people to do such terrible things, violating the feelings and rights of those around them; they can steal from close relations as well as the general public, and they can easily lose the human qualities we would like to see in all of us. Many who take drugs also take anti-depressants, or one drug to counter the effects of another drug in a spiral of desperation. Even worse is drug use in those who have received spiritual knowledge, for the effects are even more serious; as a child who commits a crime is less punishable due to their ignorance than an adult who should know better. So many cases have been seen. Those with Vedic knowledge who then fall into drug use often become offensive to devotees, then even when they want to escape from the clutches of drug use, Krsna may not accept them back for a long time.

Drugs and drug addicts are a scourge on the planet. They are a sign of deviation from the path to God. The desire for instant enjoyment brings them to destroy so much in their lives, what to speak of true love, which is the most precious aspect of each of us, allowing us to be truly thankful to God and all life. Love conquers the wayward mind and sense of false ego. In a drug addict this true love becomes less and less attainable. He, in a drugged state, with a hungry child and a crying wife, laughs in his disgrace as all rots around him. Drugs or Krsna? There is no comparison. Krsna is the only one who can save us. Be aware that in the material world almost everyone takes some type of drug, escaping into the drugs effects. Very few live sober lives and face up to the ignorance of our exploitative egoism, which binds us to the material condition. Also the television is another form of drug, allowing us to live without thinking, without taking responsibility.

Therefore, friends, decide now. Nobody knows anything about God whilst continuing to take drugs. They become drowned, lost souls. Still I love them, but I beg them from the bottom of my heart, rid yourself of this horrible illusion, do not lose yourself in drugs repressive grip, but find yourself in God’s caring embrace. Do not trick yourself thinking that it is not so bad, that it is only a natural herb that helps in relaxation, that there are studies that show it is good for so and so, or that it takes away headaches, or that a little alcohol is not so bad, etcetera. Whoever intoxicates themselves is far from the correct path. Even if they correct themselves and recover, it may only last a few years as they do not really appreciate the negative nature of what they have become involved with. People become crazy, without intelligence; they can not and do not want to open their eyes to the truth. And as a half-measure they pretend to be adorers of Siva, who drank an ocean of poison to please the Lord; but he chants Hare Rama and protects the Dhama, the holy places; that is what is to be adored.

Who ever has a faithful captain has a way out of the dangerous ocean of drugs. A ship without rudder is a life without paramparar, disciplic succession. Therefore I beg you to your soul, to your consciousness – “get out now, associate with firm devotees and recover yourself”. Just a little time consuming drugs is enough to lose yourself. Do not play with your life.

Teachings of Sripad Paramadvaiti Swami
Editor Gopananda dasa

Monday, March 06, 2006

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