last updated 3rd October 2007
 

Kazakhstani online petition

Kazakhstani online petition

By Radha Mohan Dasa

Please visit http://www.krishnatemple.com NOW and click the link to the new petition, or go straight to the petition webpage:

http://harekrishna.epetitions.net

Please sign it soon as you can, and please tell as many people as you can about it.

Background: Workers and police arrived on 15th June at the village near Almaty, Kazakhstan, where the embattled Hare Krishna commune is based to demolish twelve more Hare Krishna-owned homes. “The houses were literally crushed into dust. By ten o’clock it was all over,” said ISKCON spokesperson Maksim Varfolomeyev.

The temple, which the devotees have been ordered to destroy, has not been touched but the devotees fear it could be the next target. Human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis is outraged at the continuing destruction. “The authorities are showing that they will do what they want, despite the international outrage at the earlier demolitions of Hare Krishna-owned homes.” He believes the local administration chief “doesn’t care about the political damage to Kazakhstan’s reputation – or to its desire to chair the OSCE.”

ys Radha Mohan das

Groups Strongly Urge U.S. to Remain Opposed to Kazakhstan's Leadership of OSCE
http://news.iskcon.com/groups_strongly_urge_u.s._remain_opposed_kazakhstan%2526%2523039%3Bs_leadership_osce

By Amanda Abrams on 25 Sep 2007

Police in Kazakhstan bulldoze the home of devotees.

The future of Hare Krishna devotees in Kazakhstan is still in doubt months after the government demolished two dozen homes of believers. Widespread human rights abuses by the government have mobilized human rights organizations in the US to oppose the Kazahk bid to chair an important international organization, the OSCE.

Freedom House, together with six of the U.S.’s most prominent human rights organizations, issued a letter today to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, urging her to strongly oppose a bid by Kazakhstan to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2009.

Despite a well-documented record of undemocratic governance, Kazakhstan has continued to push to lead the OSCE, an organization with a respected track record in human rights promotion and election monitoring. After years of lobbying by the Kazakhstani government, most European countries now support Kazakhstan’s bid. Only the U.S. and the U.K. are still in opposition, and a change of position by the U.S. may be imminent.

“A chairmanship by Kazakhstan would irreparably damage the OSCE’s legitimacy and ability to defend those working on the front lines for democratic change,” wrote the groups in the letter. “It would render the organization powerless in promoting vibrant civil societies and human rights, and will assure a solidly undemocratic government that democratic credentials do not matter. We strongly urge that the United States government reconsider a tacit endorsement of Kazakhstan’s bid.”

The letter was signed by representatives of Amnesty International USA, Global Rights, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, and Physicians for Human Rights, as well as Freedom House.

The text of the letter is below.

September 21, 2007

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Rice:

We understand that a U.S. decision to concur in the selection of Kazakhstan to preside over the Organization for Security and Cooperation during the 2009 term is imminent. Due to the Kazakhstani government’s poor record on democracy, we believe that its chairmanship will be a disaster for the OSCE’s ability to be a guarantor of human rights among its member states and that the U.S. should therefore continue to oppose it.

Kazakhstan’s anti-democratic record is well-documented. Kazakhstan has yet to hold a national election that meets OSCE standards. President Nazarbayev’s sweeping victory in the December 2005 presidential election came against a backdrop of government pressure on the country’s civil society and political opposition, charges of electoral fraud, and a highly critical report by poll monitors from the OSCE. The brutal February 2006 murder of opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbayev highlighted the country’s disturbing tendency toward political violence. President Nazarbayev’s welcoming of the single-party parliament that resulted from the August elections as “a wonderful opportunity toi speed up our country’s economic and political modernization" speaks volumes to his respect for institutions promoting pluralism.

Over the years, the OSCE has established a respected track record of credibility in election monitoring and human rights defense. In fact, it is one of the few remaining serious intergovernmental bodies that advocates for democracy and human rights. A Kazakhstan chairmanship would irreparably damage the OSCE’s legitimacy and ability to defend those working on the front lines for democratic change.

In 2005, President Bush said that “one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world.” Kazakhstan is one such dark corner that remains. Rewarding Kazakhstan with the OSCE chairmanship will only serve to assure a solidly undemocratic government that democratic credentials do not matter, while sending a stark message to human rights defenders around the world. At this crucial time, the countries of Europe cannot afford to ignore the defense of liberty and human rights, nor can the U.S. We strongly urge that the United States government reconsider this tacit endorsement of Kazakhstan’s bid.

Sincerely,

Robert Arsenault, President
International League for Human Rights

Mr. Salih Booker, Executive Director
Global Rights

Ms. Maureen Byrnes, Executive Director
Human Rights First

Ms. Felice D. Gaer, Director
Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights

Mr. Tom Malinowski, Washington Advocacy Director Human Rights Watch

Robin Phillips, Executive Director
Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights

Len Rubenstein, President
Physicians for Human Rights

Ms. Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director Freedom House

27 Sep 2007

Warsaw--ISKCON Leader, BB Govinda Swami, addressed an international conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), commonly known as the Helsinki Commission, on September 26th. The Swami is the spiritual head of the Hare Krishna community in Kazakhstan, where repeated abuses of believers by the government authorities have drawn international protests [see article here].

The issue is drawing increased attention at this time, because Kazakhstan is up for election to the Chair of the OSCE, and many governments are opposing due to the poor history of humanitarian rights in Kazakhstan.

The speech is printed below in its entirety.

Thank you Mr. Moderator,

Yesterday there was fine discussion on combating intolerance and discrimination.

I would like to present examples of how governments quite unfortunately use intolerance and discrimination to impede the freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief.

Since the 2006 HDIM (Human Dimension Implementation Meeting) the Kazakh Government has destroyed the Krishna commune in Kazakhstan.

Demolition of 14 homes of Krishna Hindu practitioners, and eviction of families, took place in November 2006.

Homes were destroyed one by one. Mothers with infants were thrown from their homes into the snow. Family belongings were loaded on trucks and driven away.

Kazakhstan has been requested by numerous organizations to address the issue of those who suffered due to demolitions. But nothing has been done to improve the situation.

The situation has become worse. New cases, and, another demolition conducted in June 2007, at 5 AM while people were still in bed. Twelve more homes destroyed, bringing the grand total of 26 homes.

Now, that's quite an alarm to wake up to, and, I feel it is a strong alarm that we should all be hearing today.

Only Krishna homes were targeted. Other homeowners with identical legal status, but different religious affiliation, have not had their ownership disturbed.

The government calls the issue a "property dispute," citing infractions committed by the community. But there are more than 40 examples of violation of due process and rule of law, committed by the government. This is never acknowledged.

Mr. Moderator, when a religious community is targeted by a campaign to prevent them from privatizing their land, drive them from their residences, seize their rightfully purchased homes, community land, and place of worship, it is more than a "property issue".

It is an example of an OSCE state using the nation's laws and judicial system for implementing discrimination and violence against a minority religion.

After procuring the list of names of the Krishna Hindus, authorities began selective discrimination stopping privatization of their residences and land plots.

Read HERE how the original issue began in Kazakstan

Read HERE what the previous articles from November 2006 were

Iskcon Kazakstan
http://www.palaceofthesoul.com/news/index.php

PLEASE VISIT THIS PAGE
http://kazakhkrishna.com/en-main/

Kazakh
http://vedabase.net/kazakhstan/

Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:53 pm ((PDT))

We are extremely concerned about the continuing reports in the media related to the determination of Indian government especially Ministers of Shipping Mr. Balu and Ambika Soni of Cultural Ministry to the destruction of Ram Sethu (Adam's Bridge) by continuing the sethusamudram project.  The project is fine, but the present route is not, as it involves destruction of the Adam's bridge (Ram Sethu).

The existence of Ram Sethu (Adam's Bridge) has been proved by the satellite pictures of NASA. Details may be seen and read at: http://history.nasa.gov/SP-168/section3b.htm

Foreigners and Indians alike have described it as Rama's bridge since ancient times in their maps and travelogues. The first time someone called it Adam's Bridge was in 1804 by James Rennell, the first surveyor general of the East India Company. Even if the Government of India prefers to use the name Adam's Bridge, it simply proves that not only Hindus but Muslims and Christians too have a reverence for the bridge it is going to destroy.

The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the bridge thus, 'Adam's Bridge also called Rama's Bridge, chain of shoals, between the islands of Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka, and Rameswaram, off the southeastern coast of India.' Read at:
http://www.britannicaindia.com/duk_det_inside.asp?art_id=28

The Ram Setu or Adam's Bridge connects India's Rameshwaram to Sri Lanka's Talaimannar. A movement has begun to safeguard it at the shores of Rameshwaram on April 18. Two former judges of the Supreme Court, Justice K T Thomas and Justice V R Krishna Iyer, none of them close to any political party, have warned the government against destroying the Ram Setu.

Ramasethu acted as 'barrier' during tsunami: ADB expert

A former Asian Development Bank expert has urged for preserving the legendary 'Rama Sethu' bridge of 'Ramayana' times now immersed under sea waters, saying it had protected the entire South and South-West of Nagapattinam when the Tsunami struck the coastlines of several countries in the Indian Ocean.

After the Tsunami struck the Indian coasts in December 2004, shoal accumulations of the Rama Sethu acted as a barrier in protecting the coastline on the South and South-West of Nagapattinam.

The devastating high tides caused by the displacement of tectonic events near Banda Aceh in Indonesia circled the entire Sri Lankan Island and partially moved to Kerala and towards the Rama bridge.

''If the bridge is breached for Sethusamudram, the waters would directly gush into the entire peninsular region beyond Dhanushkodi and the coastline in Kerala to Konkan regions in Karnataka-Goa and Maharashtra and the devastation would be incalculable,'' he said.

Even Geological Survey of India in its logo, which describes India in this line etched at the bottom of its insignia -- Aasetu Himachal, meaning India is spread between the Bridge and the Himalayas.

Millions of families of fishermen, Hindus, Muslims and Christians who eke out a living by the sea have formed a protest group under the banner Tamil Nadu Fishermen Sangh headed by Shri Kuppu Ram.

This is comparable to a recent news story from the USA which we highlighted here in HHR
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1505736.ece  where the American courts disallowed the use of sewage for artificial snow on a sacred mountain used as a place of worship and pilgrimage by the Native American people.

Why has the council rejected the alternative plans put forward by the various organisations?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the Sethusamudram project on July 2, 2005. The present route of the project essentially requires the destruction of the Ram Setu (Adam's bridge) is intentionally being adopted, while other options, closer to Dhanushkodi, which did not touch the Ram Setu were ignored?

And why is the Indian government hesitating in consulting the issue related to the safety of Ram Sethu (Adam's bridge) with the organizations want to save Ram Sethu (Adam's bridge), scientists and NASA?

We of the following signatures look forward to hearing from you or saving the world heritage Ram Sethu *Adam's bridge) ­ and, we hope, that Indian government will adopt a more responsible attitude to its own country heritage, as well as world heritage.

By Premendra Agrawal
Please sign on the petition to save Ram Sethuby visiting at:
http://newsanalysisindia.com/ramsethu.htm

Date: Sun Sep 23, 2007 11:01 am ((PDT))

Taken from http://www.Chennaionline.com

Mutt chief invites MK for Ram debate

Chennai, Sept 22: Flaying Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for his remarks on 'Lord Rama', Vishweswara Theertha Swami of Pejawar Mutt in Karnataka's Udupi district, today invited him for a public debate on the issue.

"If he can have a debate with (senior BJP leader) L K Advani on Ramayana, why can't he have one with me?" he asked while adding that he will be sending a letter to the Chief Minister today inviting him for the debate.

The Swami said that though there might be a difference of opinion, the debate would be very "friendly and peaceful".

"Though Karunanidhi might have his own opinion on God and Ramayana, he should respect the Hindu sentiments as a Chief Minister", he said while speaking to reporters here.

"Karunanidhi may not have belief in God and may deem God to be imaginary, but will he agree to demolish temples, mosques and churches to build industries?" he asked.

The Swami said he was not against the Sethusamudram project but was only against the demolition of the Ramar Sethu, which was a "holy shrine" to many Hindus.

On Karunanidhi's comments quoting Valmiki that Rama was a drunkard, the Swami referred to actor and politician, Sarath Kumar's words that 'madhu' in Tamil meant 'honey' and not alcohol, as mentioned by Karunanidhi.

When his comments were sought on Union Transport and Shipping Minister, T R Baalu's remarks that the Ram Sethu never existed, the swami said it (Ram Sethu) has been mentioned in Ramayana authored by Valmiki, Tulsidas and Tamil poet, Kambar. "The name Adam's bridge may have been given later to the Ramar Sethu," he said.

On another comment by Baalu that those who took up this issue were religious fundamentalists, the Swami said it was all about faith and there was no inter-community rivalry or clash of faith.

He said as a minister, Baalu should respect the sentiments of crores of Hindus. He also termed the proposed demolition of the Sethu as 'undemocratic'.(Agencies)

(Please pray for the well being of these devotees)

Syamasundara Dasa: We did not intend to make this journey from Delhi to Vrindavan. It was not a planned trip. In July we had applied for a viza for my wife to go to Canada (She is a Croation citizen). They rejected her visa application. In response I (an Indian citizen) wrote a letter to the Canadian embassy, politely indicating that they had made a big mistake. I was awaiting some type of written response but suddenly on August 22nd we got a call from Canadian embassy, requesting that she should come for interview in Delhi within next two weeks. They gave us just 15 minutes to choose the date for the interview within that two week period. So since we had to come to Delhi anyway so we decided to go to Vrindavan for Janamashtmi.

On the morning of September 3rd we arranged for a car from the Delhi temple to take us to Vrindavan. We left the temple at exactly 11.20 am. My wife became agitated because the driver is going too fast. I told the driver to slow down and drive at a moderate speed, which he did. It is a three hour drive to Vrindavan. After 2 hours of the journey I became very tired as I got up early in the morning. So I stretched out at the back of Tata – Indica and put my legs across my wife laps and took a nap.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: There were two lanes in each direction of the road. When my husband fell asleep, the driver started to speedup. He literally passed all the vehicles in front of us driving zig zag in a high speed as if he was in a race. There were four young men in another vehicle and he was competing with them. At one point they gave it up because he was driving so fast. When I turned my head to see at back the vehicles he had crossed I could see none because he was driving so fast. Then, in front of us there were two big trucks in each lane. Taxi driver wanted to go between the two trucks to cross them over although there were just two lanes and no space for him. I stopped him to do such thing because we will be sandwiched and smashed. He listened to me. Left truck passed the right one. The taxi driver was already driving at 100km/hour and in order to pass the left truck he started to increase his speed even more. Because the left truck was still very close in front of us and at the same time he tried to pass the right truck. Because he was in a high speed so, just to avoid going on the right track he suddenly decided to make a turn to the right although he still didn’t passed the right truck. He didn’t have the side windows on the car so he misjudged the distance between car and the right truck. At that point I already noticed what would happen in a few seconds because car and truck both were on a very high speed. At that moment I loudly shouted ‘Don’t do it!! Go left. The truck will hit us’. My shouting woke up my husband but before I finished my sentence, truck hit my door at the back. I was sitting behind the driver. After truck hit the car, car started to spin in circles over the road and in a high speed hit the wall. At that time we already lost our consciousness. At one moment I regained my consciousness and I noticed that someone was doing something on me from the front seat. Driver and his brother tried to pull my mangla sutra(is equal to wedding rings in the west) from my already broken neck. I was in extreme pain and requested them ‘Please stop it! Don’t do it’. They broke my mangla sutra but not completely so it stayed on my neck. They stole the pendal of Balaji from my mangla sutra. Then they pulled their hands in handbags of me and my husband that were lying in between us. In those bags we had all private documents, passports, visas and money. So I put my hand on bags and requested them ‘Please don’t touch our bags’. Inspite of my requests they were able to steal our digital camera. Next what I remember is that I said ‘Don’t touch my husband. He is in great pain.’ And then out of pain, I fainted again. Next what I remember were a few seconds, when I noticed that people were pulling me out of the car through my husbands door. Before they pulled me completely out of the car I again fainted. Next thing I remember was that I was lying down in the dirt but my back was supported by some people holding me. A kind elder woman was fanning me with her sari. That was moment when I again regained my consciousness and was able to see the smashed car and my husband laying down literally on ground in dust. Lots of blood was coming from his head. He was lying in curled position on his right side. I could hear his painful sobbing. It was obvious that he could not move. His dhoti was red. We were surrounded by around 15 to 20 people. I tried to make a move to reach my husband but I felt such a strong pain in my neck that was stopping me to move. People were stopping me to move which I didn’t mind. It was mid of the day around 2.30 pm and it was very high temperature. We were exposed to hot sun. I requested people to please go and put some cloth on my husband’s head to stop the bleeding. But they didn’t do it. Probably they couldn’t understand English. Within 5 minutes, one policeman came in jeep and those people first put me in the jeep at the back seat. I was able to sit on seat. On the next seat they put my husband which was really sad to see. For the first time I saw that my husband’s face was full of blood. He could not open his eyes because blood was going into the eyes. He was in lying condition on the next seat holding his japa beads in his hand. We were both having our japa beads in our hands at the time of accident. More and more blood was coming out from my husband’s head and it was all over the seat. Although in great pain my husband reminded me to check if our luggage was in the jeep with us. If he wouldn’t do so I would completely forget, because I was afraid that he could leave his body so I wanted to reach the hospital as fast as possible. I pointed with my finger towards the car to those people and said ‘Please bring all our luggage here’. Those kind people were literally running to bring all our luggage from the smashed car to the jeep. Because we were helpless and unconscious they could have stolen all our luggage but they did not. They were very simple and honest people. The only things stolen were my pendal from Mangla sutra and my husband’s digital camera by the taxi driver.

Sayamasundara Dasa: When I regained consciousness I found myself faced down on the dirt. I could not understand how I got there. Later, by observing my injuries, I suspected that I had been thrown from the vehicle. Later, I also had the recollection of waking up just before the accident when I heard my wife shouting. But at that time I could not remember these things and I was just lying in dirt. For few moments I tried to understand that how is it that I got there, but I quickly moved on to other things because I found myself in extreme position of great pain and agony (Those people debating “ fall of the soul” ). Therefore how I got there no longer matter because my attention was focused on the fact that my body was wracked in pain. Infact the word pain does not do justice to what I was experiencing. I tried to get up but my right arm was broken and my left wrist was also broken so I couldn’t support myself. My left hand was the most painful part of my body. When they touched my left hand it felt as if skin was being very badly torn off. When I looked at my hand I could see no visible wounds despite the terrible pain. And when I tried to rise my head there was tremendous pain in my back because my back was broken. Pain was overwhelmingly intense. So I just focused on chanting. Somehow I had japa mala still in my hands. The problem was that it was extremely difficult to breathe therefore it was hard to chant. The reason being that I had a broken rib, may be bruised rib and five fractured spinal vertebrae which were connected to my ribs. The effect was such that when I tried to inhale, my ribcage would expand and thus interact with the spine causing too much pain. So I was just struggling to chant mahamantra- one word at a time, because my breath was so shallow. As I was struggling to get up I could see blood on my arms and clothing which indicated me that something very serious has happened. But within a few minutes there was so much blood in my eyes that I became blind. So I just focused more on chanting. I don’t know how much time was passing but it seemed like a very long time because I was in so much pain. At one point some unseen person said “Your luggage is safe”. As soon as I heard that I felt that it was not safe so I began arguing with the person to leave my luggage alone because I was concerned that my future devotional service would be disturbed if my documents and computer was lost. But after a few minutes I gave up that struggle as futile realizing that I was completely helpless and if they wanted to steal I could not do anything. So I returned my attention with full concentration on chanting. It seems strange that I did not seem afraid to die and this worried me because considering that how much pain I was in and how much blood was flowing that thinking that I would survive seemed to be foolishly over optimistic. Just like when Yamaraja asked Yuddhistra what is the most amazing thing, Yuddhistra replied that even though man sees that everybody is dying around him he foolishly thinks that he will live forever. So I also thought my not being afraid of death was a symptom of foolishness which leading me not to take the situation seriously and cause me not to focus on the holy name when death might be a reality as indicated by my injuries. By this time I realized that I had very serious injuries. I was blinded by my own blood and unable to move myself. Even breathing was a source of pain. I realized that death could be eminent at any time. I was not afraid of death. Infact death would have relieved me of my pain. What I was afraid of was that I may not forget Krishna at the time of death. so I was focusing on chanting with as much concentration as I could. After a while I noticed my wife’s voice from somewhere behind me. She seemed to be in much better condition than I was. Next thing I remember is the police coming. They wanted to put me in the back of the jeep. I proteststed. I wanted to be put on the stretcher and put in the ambulance . because of previous first aid training as a life guard I knew that with the back injuries that I had improper handling of patient in my condition could lead to dangerous complications or making the condition worse such as severing the spinal cord. In any case the police ignored my protests for ambulance and picked me up like a sac of potatoes and put me at the back of the jeep. Then we started moving driving on some road. The balancing in the vehicle made my pain even more intense than it already was. I thought that if I sat up I would feel better. So somehow I struggled to get myself in the more vertical position. But when I did that I could feel a great discomfort in my back. So I decided to lay down again on the bench of the jeep and just focus on chanting thinking that I may die at any moment.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: when we were in the police jeep some man came inside and he sat right next to me appearing to be very well wishing. I was afraid that my husband may die because of excessive bleeding so I tried to get up from my seat to my husband to put a part of his Dhoti over his head to stop bleeding. But when I tried to get up I felt such a strong pain in my neck and head that I couldn’t move. Man who was sitting next to me took my hand very gently telling me not to move from my seat. So I told him being completely in panic to do the same instead of me to stop his bleeding. But he refused. He said to me trying to calm me down “ No No everything would be fine. We would reach hospital now.”
I immediately became very angry thinking what’s going on here? “ Man is dying. Go and put the cloth on his head!”. Then policeman noticed that I was upset. At the same time my husband asked me in all that pain “Sundari how far is the hospital?” Then policeman said 10 minutes more but my husband didn’t hear that. For me 10 minutes were like eternity considering his condition. So in order to give some mental strength to my husband I told him that we may reach any moment. He tried to chant but to me it was painful to listen to his chanting as each word was filled with so much pain.. There was no need to say “ I am in pain”. His voice and bleeding was telling everything. During the drive in the jeep on the way to hospital I felt very strong urge to vomit. So I asked the man sitting next to me to give me some bag so that I can vomit. Somehow I got the plastic bag but when I tried to vomit nothing happened. Just that urge and strong nausea. So finally we reached hospital in Koshik. They immediately shifted my husband inside. After that they helped me to come out and they took our luggage. They immediately put my husband on operation table and they put me in another room on some metal table. Because there was not much staff in that hospital so all the doctors were with my husband and I was left alone in that room. In the jeep and here on the table I was constantly chanting and praying at the same time to Krishna, to please save my husband’s life. I had only few external bruises which were minor and there was nothing dangerous externally on my body. So when I was alone in that room the man from the jeep who appeared to be well wishing and helpful person tried to rape me. First he asked me “Give me 200Rs.” I didn’t react. My eyes were closed and I couldn’t move from that table. I remained silent of his demand. Then he came close to me. He put his hands on my face and tried to kiss me. Then he started to touch on all private places on my body. I couldn’t shout because I didn’t have strength. I couldn’t move due to intense pain in my head and neck. And I was not able to protect myself. I told him “please don’t do it. Leave me alone.” Then he said to me “ you look good now. After accident you look so pale and without life. So you will be fine”. So I said him “ Go. Just leave me alone”….because he continued to touch me. At that moment a nurse came in and that man stepped back from me. He put an angelic smile on his face like ……nothing happened. So the nurse didn’t notice anything and I didn’t tell her in front of him. I noticed that the man was obviously evil and mean. After doctors gave the first aid to my husband they put him in an airconditioned room. Then they transferred me in the same room just next to his bed. When I looked at my husband he was connected on infusion and oxygen along with oxygen mask on his face. On his face were visible only two ‘hills’ his swollen cheeks. Then the man who tried to rape me entered the room and sat down on the chair next to my husband. When I noticed that, fear entered my heart as I thought that the man can do something harmful to my husband, like disconnecting him from oxygen and infusion. I struggled with my pain in neck which was constantly increasing but was keeping an eye on that man and another eye on my husband checking if he was breathing. Then that man took his chair and sat in between me and my husband. After 10 minutes or so he took his chair to my side of the bed and sat next to me staring at me, far from the sight of my husband. I didn’t want to be rude and to tell him to go away, but was waiting for a better opportunity to get rid of that man because I was afraid that he may do harm to my husband. We both could not protect ourselves and were lying alone in the room with that man. Finally the nurse came in the room. I gave her a sign to come closer to me and I whispered in her ear “Please tell this man to go out of this room. I don’t know him. He is nobody to us and I don’t want him to be here with us.” Then nurse went to him on the other side of the bed and I just noticed that the man left the room and I never saw him again. I didn’t tell to nurse or doctor that the man tried to rape me. Because I didn’t want my husband to hear what happened as he was in dangerous condition himself. Then suddenly several men literally barged into the room with digital camera approaching to my husband’s bed and started to take photos. The other men started to approach me with pen and a copy ready to interview me. So I immediately concluded that they were journalists from the local area. I got upset considering their barging into our intense care room to be rude. The last thing what I wanted at that time was the digital cameras, reporters and the interviews. So I requested them to immediately stop with all this and move out which they immediately did. But that was not the end of the visitors. Immediately after them, police came, again several men. They presented in front of me a sheet of paper on which was written number of the truck who hit the car, so I asked policeman “ What was it and what should I do?”. So he dictated to me what I should write explaining that we should take action again the truck driver. Then I stopped to write and said “ But that’s not really correct. Because it didn’t happen like that”. I told him that we should take action against the taxi driver who caused the accident by reckless driving. It was the taxi driver who hit the truck not the truck hitting the taxi. But policeman said very mildly with a smile to me calming me down “ No No just write what I have told you to write” . so I wanted to cooperate with the police but after his words suspicion appeared and I noticed that something is very wrong here. Because he didn’t want to listen to the facts that I presented as the witness. He wanted to put the blame on an innocent party. Being new to India I was not aware of the fact that police officials could also be corrupt. I believed in their protection and integrity to be fair and honest. Trusting the police officer I foolishly signed the police document and he left the room in a second after he got the signed paper.

Sayamasundara Dasa: When we arrived at the medical facility they carried me in and put me on some sort of table. I was surrounded by people who were doing all kind of things to my body. They began cleaning dirt and the blood off my body and it was very painful with all the wounds because they had not given me any anaesthetics yet. They were rubbing the dirt out of my head and the blood out of my eyes which hurt a lot. All the while I was talking to the doctor and preaching to him about the miseries of material life. He told me not to talk too much because it will tire me out but I didn’t listen to him and I kept talking. Because as long as I was preaching I was focusing on Krishna I did not feel the pain so much. So after cleaning my body doctors began to stitch up the wounds beginning with the gash on the left side of my forehead. He told me it was a very serious wound because my skull was visible. He had to do two layers of stitching. One underneath, of the muscles and then on the top of the skin. It was very painful with all those stitches on my body so I asked for some kind of pain relief. He didn’t want to give me any pain reliever because he said that I may have brain damage because of serious wound on my head. The standard procedure is that in such a state doctors don’t give any pain reliever because the person may go into comma. I did not think that there would be any serious trauma to the brain because I felt completely lucid and not disoriented about the situation. At first, he didn’t want to agree to give me any pain killers and continued stitching the wounds on my face without any type of painkiller. I asked them if they could atleast give me a local anesthetics. I think when doctor saw me having reasonable discussion with him he realized that I actually did not had any brain trauma. Some time after completing the stitches on my face he decided that it was now safe to give me some pain reliever. Also by this time the pain in my back subsided. Before I could not even breathe but now I could. I had bandages all over my face and I was under oxygen mask. Then they wanted to take my X-ray which was extremely painful especially when they slide the X-ray plates under my back. At this time I started to feel the effect of the pain killer.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: After the operation I spoke to the doctor about the situation of my husband. Doctor told me that my husband is severely injured, in great pain but is now out of danger. Although from perspective of my husband it seemed that he was present in the room with us. Most of the time he was silent or as doctors said semi conscious. On his face I couldnt read any signs of presence in his body because his face was totally covered and immovable with oxygen mask. So I was looking at his chest to see if he was breathing. Approximately 2 hours after arriving in hospital my husband finally started to move his lips and we exchanged few words. So I asked him if I can now inform our devotee friends and relatives about the accident. So he said “Yes do it.” So I called Radha Shakti mataji in Banglore requesting her to inform about the accident in Delhi, Vrindavan and Banglore tempe and she and her husband did it. Then I phoned Hari Sauri Prabhu but he was not there. I spoke to his wife. So later he called us back informing us that he will arrange with Pankajangri Prabhu and Jannaniwas Prabhu to do Yajnas in front of Lord Nrsimhadev for both of us. Then I called Murlidhar bhatta. He is head pujari in sri Rangam. My husband suggested to perform homa for Lord Danvantari. Murlidar said that he will do Danvantari homa for next 48 days for both of us. Then I phoned Varada Krishna Prabhu, who is a leading devotee in the legal office in Banglore. He already heard about what happened to us. So he arranged his uncle who is a competent doctor in Chicago to come and visit us in Koushik from Vrindavan. So I called several other devotees and our relatives in Canada and Croatia. Then my husband started to talk to the doctor, but doctor got really upset and told to my husband stop talking and just rest and no talks. Actually doctor was really excellent because when we arrived to hospital he took all his stuff and he somehow related to my husband as his own personal property coming now and then in room checking his condition, behaving in an authoritative and protective manner making sure that everything is under his competent control. It was obvious that he put all his energy and concenteration to help as best as he could to my husband. So in one sense I was very glad that he behaved in this way but although it was funny for me how he treated him like a child. Because actually he needed that kind of care in that condition. When my husband regained consciousness he asked me various things like- Where is our luggage and what actually happened to us. Luggage was on and under my bed and it was safe. Then I told my husband about the guy who tried to rape me. My husband told this to the doctor so the doctor came to me asking me –“ Was that man from hospital staff?” So I told him about that guy and about the incident. When he heard it he became enraged with anger and he also became upset with me that why didn’t I tell him when that guy was here. He said if he would have get hold of that person he would have finished him.

Sayamasundara Dasa: After this I remember that I was alone and everything was quiet. The pain medicines started to show its effect. Still I didn’t know if I was going to live or die. I just remember repeatedly praying – I just want to serve Krishna, I just want to serve Krishna.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: At that time devotees from Vrindavana- Devananda pandit arrived with maha garlands, maha tulasi and photos of Krishna Balarama, Radha Shyamasundara and Goura Nitai. I was still dressed in sari and I didn’t get any medical aid- nothing. I complained to the nurse for my more and more intense pain in my neck and head. So they put me on infusion and gave me pain killer injection. I couldn’t move my body at all. So we spend that night in the hospital in Koushik. It was night of pain. Pain killers didn’t help me and I remember that it was a terrible night.

Sayamasundara Dasa: I remember at 3 o clock in the morning because the pain came back. So from 3 ‘o’clock to 7 o clock I was in agony and nobody came to help me. Then finally some nurse came and at my request she gave me another injection.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: So next morning devotees from Vrindavan- Devananda pandit Prabhu, Annanta Lila Prabhu, Vraja Bihari Prabhu and Varada krishna’s uncle( a doctor) came to visit us. Varada’s Krishna’s uncle talked to me and examined my physical condition saying that I was in more serious danger than my husband. He told me that I should not move at all as it may cause worse damage to the point of being paralyzed and that he worries a lot about my condition. He repeated it several times pointing his finger towards me trying to convince me how serious it was. Ofcourse his words really frighten me as I was not really aware of my real situation until he told me.

Sayamasundara Dasa: Next thing I remember was speaking to Varada Krishna’s uncle and after some discussion I could see that he was competent and I decided to accept his best judgment on what we should do next. Then I recall waking up to having 2 doctors arguing over what should be done with me. Then I realized that 2 ambulances have come from Delhi to pick up me and my wife to bring us back to Delhi. But they had somehow forgotten to inform the dr. whose patient I was. I felt very bad about this because this man has literally saved my life. I spoke to the doctor from Delhi and I told him that how this man has saved my life and I feel bad that he was feeling insulted. I requested to see the doctor from Koushik before I left. When he came I took his hand and I expressed my sincere gratitude to the bottom of my heart. He told me that he has personally attended me from 3 pm till 1 am.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: So the situation was tragicomical for me. In the sense that doctors from Delhi wanted to take us out in the ambulance but the doctors from Koushik started to yell at the hospital staff from Delhi-“What are you doing here? Who are you? These are my patients.” Then ofcourse I and my husband didn’t know about this arrangement. So in one sense I felt very bad in front of doctors from Koushik that nobody informed him about our shifting to another hospital. I felt deeply grateful to him. So I just thank him with my words for taking care of me and my husband. So then he started to shout again on the staff from Max hospital from Delhi, pushing them out of the room-“Get out from here, Get out from here”. And then doctor from Delhi hospital said “Why should we go outside. We came to take them to our hospital.” Then doctors from Koushik said “Who allowed you to come inside with your shoes on. So all of you either take off your shoes or get out.” So the staff tried to calm down both the doctors and to separate them to avoid the physical fight. So somehow it was decided that we would be shifted to Max superspecial Delhi hospital. Doctor from Koushik finally agreed to let the Delhi doctors do what they have to do. So then we were shifted to Max superspecial hospital which is the best hospital in Delhi.

Sayamasundara Dasa: Then I recalled being put into the ambulance and driving 2 hours to Delhi. All along I was talking to the doctor about different philosophical topics and preaching to him. Then in the hospital I recalled going through series of diaganostic tests of X-rays, CAT- scan and MRI’s all in a semi conscious state. Next thing I recall is that I was in the ICU with several physicians and one of them being Dr. Sandeep Vaisya. They were glowing because they were able to give me some good news. Because often in such cases they have to give very bad news to the people. So they told us that I had serious injuries but they were happy to say that we would have 100% recovery within 90 days. I was definitely happy to hear that. Dr. Vaisya also suggested that after approximately one month they might give me treatment called wibroplasty procedure in which cement is injected in the broken vertebrae to give it strength to carry weight. But they would only decide to do that after one month. Then I inquired about my wives condition. One doctor very bluntly said “She has a broken neck”. And then they suggested that she had this halo put over her neck as the only possible treatment to immobilize her neck to prevent any serious consequences such as paralysis. I immediately agreed and instructed them to “Make it happen”.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: Same day I was sent on X-rays and I was diagnosed that my neck was broken. Doctors told me that Krishna personally saved me from being paralyzed from neck down. So they decided that I should not move my head and neck. Otherwise paralyze may happen. So in order to prevent the condition worse than that they decided that I had to go for an hour’s operation where they had to put halo which is literally bolted into my skull connected with a jacket on my upper part of body. It is meant to immobilize my neck from moving. Operation was under local anesthetics and when dr. put me on my feet after operation I started to faint and doctors lay me down on bed. When they put halo on my head I had a feeling that 5-10 kgs of weight was pushing me down and I couldn’t keep my balance. My body was weak because I didn’t eat for two days, due to pain and whole stress about accident. So my first night with halo on my head I felt pain, pain, pain and discomfort. I couldn’t take any tablets or pills because I had a sensitive stomach- high pitta. My head was not supported by the pillow but suspended by four metal bolds screwed into my skull. In my mind grandfather Bhismadeva appeared laying down on the bed of arrows. I started to pray to him to give me relief and tolerance. At the same time I felt ashamed to be in such condition to due to my sinful reactions.

Sayamasundara Dasa: We stayed in the hospital for 9 days from 4th Septemper to 12th September. We spent approximately 2 days in ICU( intensive care unit) and then we were transferred to a private room. I was suffering from tremendous pain. For example, even under heavy sedation, even a feather like touch to my left hand would have been screaming in pain. I didn’t want to eat because the food was tasteless. It was as if I was eating dry wood. The doctors became worried that I was not eating anything and I also noticed that I turned very week because of it. So I forced myself to eat to get strength. We were both in extremely humiliating position. I could not even perform the simplest bodily function without somebody else’s help. I have to answer the calls of nature in front of other people. Without their help I couldn’t do it. I was wearing adult dippers. I couldn’t be out of bed so they were giving me what was called sponge bath but no sponges were involved. Part of the bathing process they had to turn me on to my side very carefully in what is called as “logroll”. At that time they would wash my back. Because I had been lying on my back for 24 hours it was extremely pleasant to have somebody touch and massage my back. I was actually feeling ecstasy and I didn’t want to stop it. I was joking with the nurses that my wife should not hear me making such ecstatic sounds by being touched by another women. My wife was just on the next bed beside me. I even had somebody to brush my teeth because it was extremely painful for me to hold my toothbrush.

Almost all the nurses were Christians from Kerala particular Kotayam. They liked me very much because I had lived in Kerala earlier for two years and I knew the place. I often preached to them starting with the premise that God was not a Christian or a Muslim or Hindu. Just keeping in at the level that we are all servants of God, trying to keep it away from either Christianity or Hinduism. I often asked the nurses if they prayed. Surprisingly many of them were very serious and some of them chant their rosary several times a day. Because they have to see the horrible things at the work on daily basis. Returning to my point when I asked them if they prayed, I said that they should do so with full concenteration. Because the world is a dangerous place. Same thing which happened to me could happen to them. They could find themselves placed down in the dirt, covered in blood, body smashed, struggling to pray. So now was the time to practice. They could appreciate my words. Although that was not the temple, I very much appreciated that all the doctors, nurses and staff were very religious people.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: Doctor Divya, my physiotherapist told me once “I am going to chant on my mala now and will come to visit you in 1 hour after I finish my chanting.” So I had a feeling that I was surrounded by such pious people which was really nice. By performing their job of serving other people they were constantly accumulating good karmas.

Sayamasundara Dasa: I found all the staff specially the nurses to be very kind, caring and compassionate. Several of the doctors and staff regularly went to Vrindavan. One of them told me how he was a devotee of Govardan hill. So I was preaching to him and say that you should visit our ashram near Govardhan hill and get a copy of Brihad Bhagvat Amrta. I explained that Srila Prabhupada said that if one wants to understand what is devotional service and Bhakti yoga it has to be this book. Then I gave him the concise description of part I of Brihad Bhagvat Amrta.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: Standing beside my husband’s bed was one of the Hindu nurses. She was attentively listening to everything he said. Later after he had finished speaking she told me that he was speaking as if he was in Dwarka seeing all those things. He is not from this world.

Sayamasundara Dasa: In this way we had many opportunities to preach. Still I was anxious to leave the hospital and come to the Raadha Paarthsarthi temple’s guest house. My wife and me came from the hospital to the temple in ambulances and were carried by strechers to our rooms, which had an outfit like hospital with hospital beds and all required paraphernalia. Being in the temple was a great relief. I personally felt that we were being embraced by Sri Sri Radha Parthsarthi, Sita Ram Lakshman Hanuman and Gour Nitai and were now under their personal care and protection. They send so many wonderful and nice devotees coming to take care of us. We were both personally touched by the warm and loving treatment that we are receiving even though we practically knew no one in the Delhi temple before this time. But now we are making many new friends and establishing new relationships and we feel personally deep gratitude to all kind of services provided to us when we were so helpless.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: I was born the day after Radhashtmi according to lunar calendar. So on that day at morning I said to my husband “ This will be first time that I will not celeberate my birthday”. Conditioned as I am, I felt a little bit sadness in my heart. So I said to my husband “ This year I didn’t deserve any celeberation so I just have to accept it in this way.” And I forgot about my birthday. Almost before I went to sleep at evening somebody was knocking on our door. When door was opened it was a whole group of devotees matajis and prabhus, some of whom I never met before. They came with smiling faces, nectarian cake beautiful framed picture of Sri Sri Radha Parth sarthi and best wishes and prayers in all respects. We had very sweet kirtan and I felt very surprised and deeply touched. So I would like to thank to Amrita kanta mataji and her husband Prem kishore Prabhu, Guru Gauranga Prabhu, madhu mangla Prabhu, bhaktin Arpita and Rati presta devi dasi and other kind devotees from Delhi temple and congregation who are extended mercy of Srila Prabhupada, Krishna and Srimati Radharani. We would like to thank mother Rati presta for very patiently coming for several days and transcribing our story.

Sayamasundara Dasa: I received several telephone calls from concerned God sisters and God brothers. Eventually they asked how is it that the ‘astrologer’ could not foresee this accident and avoid it? This question reveals that people in general have a misunderstanding of the life style of the astrologer and thus they make several assumptions. The first assumption is the assumption of time. They assumed I spent all my time studying my own horoscope. I stopped studying my own horoscope about 1987. I do spent a lot of time looking at horoscopes but other people’s not my own. Even my wife complaints that I don’t read her horoscope. She met an astrologer who doesn’t read her horoscope. It’s like a case of a shoe maker whose children are without shoes or a sweet maker who doesn’t eats sweets.

The second assumption was that I could be objective in reading my own horoscope. It is very difficult to be objective to read the horoscopes of people whom you love and people whom you hate. That is another reason why I don’t read my wife’s horoscope. She is my wife and how can I make objective reading of her horoscope. For the same reason a physician would not give treatment to a close family member and hands them over to another physician.

And the third reason is explained in the 15th chapter of the Bhagvad Gita by Lord Krishna. It is stated that there are two types of living entities- Fallible and the infallible. In the spiritual world everybody is infallible and in the material world every body is fallible and above these two is Krishna as a supreme person. Therefore as a resident of material world I am fallible that is why I say “ astrology is perfect astrologers are not”.

According to the medical diagnosis my wife and I would have 100% recovery but I will have to remain in bed for next 9 weeks. It is still very painful specially muscles pains in my back. But I am told by the doctors that the pain should subside in two or three weeks. So considering the seriousness of the accident I feel very lucky because the results could have been much worse. We could have been killed, paralysed or horribly disfigured. Instead I can expect 100% recovery after 9 more weeks as a guest of Radha Parthsarthi.

So at this time we would both like to thank all those devotees who have kept us in their prayers and their thoughts. It means a lot to us . every moment we say, “ Vaancha kalpa taru bhaiyas cha kripa sindu bhayiva cha patitaanama pavanaibhayo vaishnaivaibhayo namo namah” so we are literally surviving by the mercy of the vaishnavas. And we would specially like to acknowledge and thank all those devotees who gave practical assistance of the critical nature, to Hari Sauri Prabhu and Gopal Krishna Goswami for working out an arrangement by which Delhi temple is giving us a 90 days loan of 1.5 lacks as well as accommodation in the guest house. As well as providing us with hands, legs and eyes of wonderful devotees like Guru Gaurang Prabhu who is practically serving us 24 hours a day and other caring devotees in the Delhi temple.

Madusudan hari Prabhu and his wife Radha Shakti immediately flew up from Banglore day after the accident on Janamashtmi day to come to help us on our time of need and rendered valuable service to us. They also lent us 70 thousand Rs. of his own money for medical cost. When Dayaram Prabhu found out what happened he gave 1 lakh Rs to Madhu sudan Prabhu to bring to delhi for our medical aid. So we are really indebted to these devotees and also my friend Vikas sharma in Africa who also gave a sizeable donation to help us . I also want to thank Bhaktin Anita for the invaluable service that she rendered to my wife. I would also like to mention my special thanks to Nrsmhananda Prabhu and HH Danavir Goswami and Gour Gadhadar Prabhu who is handling my emails.

Sundari Radhika devi dasi: Also I would like to thank to Bhaktin Anita from Banglore. At the time of accident she was studying Bhakti Shastri in Vrindavan. When she heard about our accident she immediately came to Mangal hospital in Koushik. And decided to be with me as long as I will need her help. Then she moved with me to Delhi hospital and was available to me 24 hours a day by being in the same room with me. Nursing me as the best nurse, friend and mother. She was very tender, gentle, humble, tolerant and compassionate. Although she didn’t hesitate to do anything even things which nurses would hesitate to do. Although I was in pain and some times half conscious due to pain at the same time we were able to laugh and feeling good inspite of the circumstances. Another person I feel grateful is to my Guru maharaj HH Bhakti Vikas Swami who came in contact with my husband and myself immediately after he heard about the accident. His words were like a balm on my wounds. He gave me instruction how to use this situation for preaching instead of lamenting.

Sayamasundara Dasa: Because we were both in great pain and under heavy sedation and in semi consciousness most of the times we may have forgotten some of the people who helped us. Please forgive us for that. If any body wants to contact me, my number in Delhi is: 91-9953002971. They should call between 11 am to 7pm according to Indian time. If anybody would like to offer any practical support they can contact Hari Sauri Prabhu at his email id : Hari.Sauri.ACBSP@pamho.net

(in the original article there are many pictures also)

Using modern imaging technologies, RIT scientists have digitally restored a 700-year-old palm-leaf manuscript containing the essence of Hindu philosophy.

The project led by RIT professors P.R. Mukund and Roger L. Easton Jr. has digitally preserved the original Hindu writings known as the Sarvamoola Granthas, attributed to philosopher-saint Shri Madhvacharya (1238-1317). This collection of 36 works written in Sanskrit contains commentaries on sacred Hindu scriptures and conveys the scholar’s Dvaita philosophy of the meaning of life and the role of God.

Dvaita is one of the three major schools of thought related to Hindu philosophy. According to Mukund, this philosophy stresses “monotheism and the concept of one God who is the supreme Lord of all beings.”
Dvaita philosophy differentiates between souls, God and matter,” Mukund says. “God is all knowing, all powerful, all pervasive. He is even beyond nature.”
Each leaf of the manuscript measures 26 inches long and two inches wide. The leaves are bound together with braided cord threaded through two holes. Heavy wooden covers sandwich the 342 palm leaves, which are cracked and chipped at the edges. In its current condition, the Sarvamoola Granthas is difficult to handle and to read as the result of centuries of inappropriate storage, botched preservation efforts and improper handling. The passage of time and a misguided effort to preserve the manuscript with oil have turned the palm leaves dark brown, obscuring the Sanskrit text, and the aging leaves shed bits of the sacred scriptures every time it is touched.

Palm leaves were commonly used as a writing material before the advent of printing due to their abundance throughout the region and durability once dried and polished. Monasteries across Southeast Asia house stacks of decaying palm-leaf manuscripts of varying importance. Mukund is seeking funding to image other Dvaita manuscripts in the Udupi region written since the time of Shri Madvacharya. He estimates the existence of approximately 800 palm-leaf manuscripts, some of which are in private collections. None are as important, however, as the decaying Sarvamoola Granthas.
“It is literally crumbling to dust,” says Mukund, RIT’s Gleason Professor of Electrical Engineering. According to Mukund, 15 percent of the manuscript has already deteriorated.

“Every time the manuscript is opened, some more of the palm leaves disintegrate, leading to further loss of the manuscript,” he says. “This has resulted in the manuscript being sequestered in a matha, or monastery, thereby making it inaccessible to scholars. After this digital restoration is completed, there won’t be a need to open the manuscript again.”
Preserve and protect
Mukund first became involved with the project when his spiritual teacher in India brought the problem to his attention and urged him to find a solution. This became a personal goal for Mukund, who studies and teaches Hindu philosophy or “way of life” and understood the importance of preserving the document for future scholars.
The Sarvamoola Granthas contains commentaries on various important scriptures and analysis of the holy texts such as the Vedas, Upanishads and other Hindu scriptures. Shri Madvacharya’s writings are upheld as the definitive interpretation of the Vedas and of the structure of the spiritual world. Preserving a record of the Sarvamoola Granthas in its original form is intrinsically important for future scholars, especially since the accuracy of existing printed copies is unknown.
“Society depends upon scholars for strength,” Mukund says. “All people of faith depend upon scriptures for strength. Where do the scriptures get their strength? All scriptures get their strength from God. This is much more important than, say, a temple. In these works, God is residing in His true form, whereas a temple is only manmade.”

For advice in preserving the writings of this valuable document, Mukund sought the expertise of RIT colleague Easton, who imaged the Dead Sea Scrolls and is currently working on the Archimedes Palimpsest (see accompanying article page 11). Easton, a professor at RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, brought in Keith Knox, an imaging senior scientist at Boeing LTS, as a consultant. Mukund added Ajay Pasupuleti ’06 (Ph.D., microsystems engineering), to complete the team.
“The literature we are trying to preserve has tremendous impact on society,”Ajay Pasupuleti ’06.
The scientists traveled to India in December 2005 to assess the document stored at a monastery in Udupi. Sponsored by a grant from RIT, the team returned to the monastery in June 2006 and spent six days imaging the document using a scientific digital camera and an infrared filter to enhance the contrast between the ink and the palm leaves. Images of each palm leaf, back and front, were captured in eight to 10 sections, processed and digitally stitched together. The scientists ran the 7,900 total images through various imaging processes using Adobe Photoshop and Knox’s own custom software.
“This is a very significant application of the same types of tools that we have used on the Archimedes Palimpsest,” Easton says. “Not incidentally, this also has been one of the most enjoyable projects in my career, since the results will be of great interest to a large number of people in India.”

Deeply Meaninglful
The processed images of the Sarvamoola Granthas will be stored in a variety of media formats, including electronically, in published books and on silicon wafers for long-term preservation. Etching the sacred writings on silicon wafers was the idea of Mukund’s philosophy student Pasupuleti. The process, called aluminum metallization, transfers an image to a wafer by creating a negative of the image and depositing metal on the silicon surface.
According to Pasupuleti, each wafer can hold the image of three leaves. More than 100 wafers will be needed to store the entire manuscript. As an archival material, silicon wafers are both fire- and waterproof, and readable with the use of a magnifying glass. No other technology is required to access the information recorded on the wafers. Transferring the Sarvamoola Granthas to silicon wafers is the next phase of the project, pending future funding.

“It was a fantastic and profoundly spiritual experience,” said P.R. Mukund, Gleason Professor of Electrical Engineering .
“I feel blessed to get this unique and wonderful opportunity,” Pasupuleti says. “The literature we are trying to preserve has tremendous impact on society. As a result, I am extremely thrilled to contribute my time and technical knowledge towards this project.”
Pasupuleti is a native of India who came to RIT in 2000 to begin work on a master’s degree in electrical engineering. He recently earned his doctorate in microsystems engineering and plans to continue working on the Sarvamoola Granthas project.
“ We feel we were blessed to have this opportunity,” Mukund says. “It was a fantastic and profoundly spiritual experience. And we all came away cleansed.”
The professor and his student returned to India at the end of November with two bound copies of the Sarvamoola Granthas. The books were printed at RIT with the help of John Eldridge, digital printing technologist, and his colleagues in the School of Print Media in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences.
“ They went out of their way to help,” Mukund says.
Mukund presented the books in hand-carved teak boxes to his spiritual teacher and to the head of the Udupi monastery in an emotional public ceremony covered by The Times of India.

Unexpected developments
News of RIT’s efforts to digitally restore the Sarvamoola Granthas has led serendipitously to two developments. The first opportunity came from Charles White, professor emeritus at American University, who had traveled extensively throughout India in the 1980s on behalf of the Smithsonian Institute and microfilmed more than 1,000 Hindu manuscripts, including palm leaves and printed works.
Impressed by the Sarvamoola Granthas project, White offered Mukund his own microfilm collection to digitally restore. The American University gave Mukund a copy of White’s 76 reels of microfilm containing more than 20,000 pages of Vaishnava literature. The collection contains Hindu sacred literature dating from 100 to 1,000 years ago, including hymns and prayers, as well as extensive commentaries on the Sarvamoola Granthas by various scholars.
The original document, comprised of palm leaves, is in badly deteriorated condition.

Mukund traveled to Washington, D.C., twice in December, first to meet White and to accept the first installment of microfilms, then to pick up the remaining reels.Mukund is stunned by the overture. “It would be as if all the Catholic literature was handed to someone,” he says. “It’s that big.”
The collection is not in outstanding shape due to the condition of the original works and aging of the microfilm. The imaging team will scan and digitize each reel, then process and enhance the images. The digital documents will be printed on archival paper and bound into books. Mukund anticipates the microfilms will yield approximately 1,000 books that scholars lack access to today.
The larger aspect of the project will include creating a detailed catalog of the hard copy and digital documents according to schools of thought. The digital documents will remain at RIT. The hard copy documents will be housed at the Sri Venkateswara Central Library and Research Centre in the town of Tirupati, an ancient pilgrimage destination in southern India.
A senior government official who had learned of White’s gift to Mukund offered to dedicate a wing of the library as a repository for the collection. This second unexpected development has pushed the project forward and given it a tight deadline coinciding with the inauguration of the dedicated library space in August. To complete the project in time, Mukund and Easton will establish a lab at RIT and hire two full-time post-doctoral fellows.
The realization of both projects – transferring the Sarvamoola Granthas to silicon wafers and digitally preserving the vast collection of Vaishnava literature – depends on adequate funding. Mukund is currently accepting donations for both efforts. Mukund, his students and Easton have personally donated more than $25,000 to the project and seek another $75,000 to cover expenses. Interested donors can contact Mukund at prmeee@... or at 585-475-2174.

http://www.rit.edu/gcr/umag/spring2007/08_features_Leaves_of_gold.html

Kindly allow us to give you a quick update from our website. We want to share with you two recently uploaded audio recordings of Sanatana Goswami's Brihad Bhagavatamrta, a beautiful recording of Bilvamangala Thakura's Sri Govinda Damodara Stotra and the amazing story of how Sri Giriraja came to Bless us with His Presence at the Hare Krishna Centre in Leicester. Please visit our Audio Page and our Newsletter Page for more nectar.

http://www.gauranga.org/sound/bb_2_1.m3u
http://www.gauranga.org/sound/bb_2_2.m3u
http://www.gauranga.org/sound/govinda_damodara_stotra.ram
http://www.gauranga.org/sound/giriraja_story.m3u

I hope this meets you well and happy

With affection and love

Your servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada

Gauranga Sundara das

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/21/asia/india.php

MUMBAI, INDIA, September 21, 2007: If you are vegetarian and live in Mumbai, you would most likely live in an apartment in one of Mumbai's strictly vegetarian only residential complexes. "While Mumbai is one of India's most cosmopolitan cities, much of its housing is splintered along ethnic and religious lines. There are predominantly Muslim, Roman Catholic and Hindu areas. And then there are extensive vegetarian-only stretches, some of which occupy desirable patches of real estate along the waterfront. Such divisions have long been a feature of life in Mumbai, where around a third of the city is estimated to be vegetarian-because they are Jain by religion, members of the Hindu Marwari business community, or Hindus originally from northern state of Gujurat, all groups that renounce meat, fish and eggs," the news release explains.

The article points out that,"Vegetarianism in India is far removed from the animal-rights vegetarianism of the West. It is usually a marker of religious identity, handed down over generations, inherited at birth, rather than adopted for reasons of personal health or concern for animal welfare. "

Up until the last fifteen years, vegetarianism was part of a family's tradition and children followed their parent's example. However with the rise in income published government research says that, "Households eating chicken increased threefold in urban areas and two and a half times in rural areas between 1993 and 2005."

In an effort to stop the trend, Mumbai's vegetarian sector has become more militant and has been known to do such things as "organizing visits to slaughterhouses, to persuade flesh eaters to return to the fold." Nirmala Mehta, a Marwari housewife who lives in another apartment block with 200 fellow vegetarians, a few kilometers away in north Mumbai, adds, "I'd have issues living next to a non-vegetarian person. The smell would be a problem, but it's more than that. A non-vegetarian person eats hot blood and it makes him hot blooded; he might not keep control of his emotions. "

However Majeed Memon, a leading Muslim lawyer adds, "They should be discouraged. It's very sad if, under the guise of vegetarianism, residents are excluding people of a particular religion."

Mahendra Jain, a lawyer and vegetarian activist concludes, "There is a lot of false publicity coming on television, saying that non-veg food is better than veg. It's part of the process of Westernization. There are advertisements for McDonalds everywhere.It's like drug addiction. You taste it, once or twice, and then you get an idea that you must have it. We have to fight this."

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

Krishna and His name are non-different. (1)
The Lord's name has descended from Goloka. (2)
Krishna's name is iInvested with the Lord's spiritual potency. (3)
Krishna's name purifies the heart and mind. (4)
The chanting process is simple, sublime, and all-auspicious; even a child can take part.
It frees one from sinful reaction and material bondage. (5)
Chanting "Rama" gives the same result as chanting the 1000 names of Visnu. (6)
Chanting "Krishna" once has the same potency as 3,000 names of Visnu.
The Lord's holy names are even effective for someone not even aware of their potency.
Chanting contains the benefits of all other Vedic rites; to chant is the same as having performed all the Vedic processes of purification. (7)
Chanting is the means for attaining pure love of God (Krishna-prema) in this age.
It protects you from maya and falldown.
It purifies the atmosphere.
It yields the same results as the processes of previous yugas.
It elevates one even from a low background.
Chanters are the most attractive to Krishna.
All the Vedic knowledge is contained within the maha-mantra, the essence of the Vedas is to chant, and by chanting one realises the meaning of the Vedas.
Chanting is the ultimate means to attain the ultimate success.

Vedic verses glorifying the holy names

By once chanting the holy name of the Lord, which consists of the two syllables ha-ri, one guarantees his path to liberation.
(Skanda Purana)

Simply by chanting one holy name of Hari, a sinful man can counteract the reactions to more sins than he is able to commit.
(Brhad-visnu Purana)

If one chants the holy name of the Lord, even in a helpless condition or without desiring to do so, all the reactions of his sinful life depart, just as when a lion roars, all the small animals flee in fear.
(Garuda Purana)

Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Visnu, in Treta-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvapara-yuga by serving the Lord's lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 12.3.52)

To say nothing of the spiritual advancement of persons who see the Supreme Person face to face, even a person born in a family of dog-eaters immediately becomes eligible to perform Vedic sacrifices if he once utters the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or chants about Him, hears about His pastimes, offers Him obeisances or even remembers Him.
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.33.6)

O King, constant chanting of the holy name of the Lord after the ways of the great authorities is the doubtless and fearless way of success for all, including those who are free from all material desires, those who are desirous of all material enjoyment, and also those who are self-satisfied by dint of transcendental knowledge.
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.1.11)

Those who are actually advanced in knowledge are able to appreciate the essential value of this age of Kali. Such enlightened persons worship Kali-yuga because in this fallen age all perfection of life can easily be achieved by the performance of sankirtana.
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.5.36)

Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krishna, which is feared by fear personified.
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.14)

Read more on Chanting Hare Krishna HERE:

Rajesh, the wonder boy, speaks fluently in English and has suddenly acquired knowledge of physics and mathematics.

LUCKNOW: A 14-year-old Dalit boy, born and brought up in a remote village of western Uttar Pradesh, has suddenly turned angrez . Rajesh, without any evident help, has started speaking fluently in English and does so with a proper American drawl. And that’s not all: He seems to have forgotten how to speak Hindi.

Wonders do not cease with this: His knowledge of physics and mathematics has left engineering students baffled. Having already penned three books, Rajesh is now looking forward to some research work.

All of this may sound like a Bollywood script on one of its favourite themes, reincarnation. However, Rajesh, a resident of a nondescript village 40 km from Saharanpur, refuses to call it so.

In his words: "There is no concept of reincarnation. It is just that memory can’t be destroyed till there are sound waves in the world."

And this is the area of science that interests Rajesh the most. "He has already written three documents, one on memory, the other on sociology and the third on liberalisation," said an excited Shishu Pal Singh Verma, principal of Willian Jefferson Clinton Science and Technology Centre, where Rajesh was enrolled last year.

"I did not take him seriously for a few months but on Republic Day, while the students were reciting poetry before the entire college, Rajesh took the mike and addressed the gathering in fluent English. This left us almost shell-shocked," says Shishu Pal.

Rajesh’s mother Omkali and 16-year-old brother Kaluwa are daily wage labourers who earn just enough to manage two square meals a day. His father Sompal is mentally-challenged. Asked how and when these changes came into Rajesh, Omkali said that it happened almost a year ago when Rajesh was helping Kaluwa erect a wall.

"Every time the brothers brought the wall up to two feet, their father would smash it. Irritated, Rajesh threw a brick at him who was hit in the head and began to bleed.”

This left Rajesh dumbfounded. "For the next three months, he did not utter a single word. When he did, it was not in Hindi," said Jamal, a resident of Saharanpur.

Read more on Reincarnation HERE:

On the morning of Monday August 6, 2007 I began my day of work at the Hospice. After our daily report, medical staff check each patient and we begin doing our usual tasks of caring for each patient. Given that this is a small 10 bed facility it allows for us to give loving  care to everyone. Often while I care or bathe patients who are unable to do these tasks for themselves I chant or sing the Maha Mantra. On this particular morning I was caring for one woman who had been with us for almost a week. She was a kind and polite person and I enjoyed the time I had spent with her on her previous days.

Around 8 a.m. on August 6th I entered her room and found that she was getting closer  to leaving her body. She was unresponsive to verbal cues and her body was quite limp. I took this opportunity to sing the Maha Mantra one last time while she received her final bath. Hospice staff called her  family. Her family was always very friendly and appreciative for all of her care. When I finished with her care I spoke with some some family members in the hall. Jane's (our patient)  grandson approached me to thank me. He then pointed at his forehead, pointed out my tilak and asked if I was a Hare Krishna. I smiled and said that I am a devotee of Krsna! He said , "Well then maybe you know of my uncle , Jayananda?"
I asked,"The Jayananda?" He said, "Yes." He told me how his uncle had built the carts we use in festivals (for Ratha Yatra). He then walked in to inform his mother that I was a Hare Krsna. Gaynelle (Jayananda prabhu's sister) then walked out of the room and said she was so happy that a Krsna devotee had cared for her mother. The whole family expressed that it meant so much to them. Gaynelle kept saying that she couldn't believe that I was a Hare Krsna.  She said she told her mother but she wasn't sure that her mom could hear her. I said I have a feeling she already knows and I laughed. Jane (granddaughter) mentioned that she remembers her uncle making really great Indian food, offering it to God and the family sitting on the floor and eating it. She remembers his robes and how happy he was. Jane said that he had been pretty depressed before meeting devotees.

I let Jayananda prabhu's family know that during the Ratha Yatra festival that we hang a nice photo of him next to Srila  Prabhupada's photo. They told me that an old friend of    Jayananda's (who is not a devotee) who happened to be in Africa several years ago saw his first Ratha Yatra festival there and to his astonishment there was a huge photo of Jayananda prabhu on the front of the cart! He called Gaynelle to share the news. They told me Jayananda was always so kind even as a child he never spoke badly of others. From the many stories they told me his saintly qualities shined through even as a child. Gaynelle told me that her brother once spent hours on a family vacation at the beach picking ticks and fleas off of a homeless dog. He couldn't stand to watch its suffering. Jayananda's nephew then told me he remembers running around the kitchen  table as a small child with his uncle laughing and chanting Hare Krsna.
Late morning I entered Jane Kohr's room. Her family was beautifully gathered around her bed holding her hand. Respirations were becoming faint and she was about to leave the body in which she inhabited. I stepped out, giving the family their space and about 5 minutes later they came to the front desk and asked for me to look at her. When I opened the door I saw her body lying there yellow and waxy in color. It was apparent that the soul had left and the physical body was all that remained. The RN reported that  she in fact had passed and family although sad also felt relief. Gaynelle told me that she had asked her brother for support. Since he couldn't physically be at their mother's passing she had been looking for a sign that her brother was supporting her.  She felt that  a devotee being present and caring for her mother was not a mere coincidence. I believe it was Krsna's endless mercy! I thanked them for allowing me to serve their family and offered my pranama's and said " Hare Krsna."

Gaynelle then asked our Hospice chaplain if I could please speak at Jane's memorial service on August 15th. She wanted me took speak a little bit about her mother and also about her brother, Jayananda. I felt that this was a good opportunity to share Krsna Consciousness with some people who otherwise would never hear about Lord Krsna. I was really touched by their request.Below is the short talk I gave. Please forgive me if I misspelled any words or if I committed any offenses.

Your servant,
Kalindi devi dasi

Jane's Memorial service-Wednesday August 15, 2007

I want to begin by saying thank you for the opportunity to serve your mother and family.  It is a real honor. Like Gaynelle, I don’t believe this happened by “chance.”  Bruce commented to me that Gaynelle had asked/ prayed to her brother Jim (a.k.a. Jayananda Prabhu) for support. So I can only draw the conclusion that her prayer was heard.  Given that Jayananda Prabhu was a great devotee of the Lord, Krishna reciprocated quickly.  It so happened that Gaynelle’s son noticed that Jane’s care was in the hands of many caring individuals and amongst the nursing team was a Hare Krishna.

When asked to speak today, I wanted to talk about something that would be relevant to all of us.  What I came up with is the part a mother plays in one’s life.  To begin, in most traditions mother’s are to be honored and respected.  From Mother Earth to our birth mother, there is a special loving reciprocation.  In ancient Indian culture the birth mother is revered as one of seven worshipable mothers.  Not God, per se, but she is to be treated with the respect that one would give God. By the gathering of loved ones at Jane’s side during her passing on August 6th, one could see she did her loving duty as a mother and in exchange her children returned that love while supporting her during her transition from this world.

It is said in Bhagavad Gita, one of India’s holiest books: palena pariciyate. “One should judge the merit of an action by the fruits, or results, of that action.” The fact that Jane once had within her womb someone as saintly as Jayananda (Jim) is no coincidence.  It must have been do to her previous accumulation of good merits.  We can all see with our own eyes in this world that every action in life has a reaction. One may call this karma, fate or destiny, but I can only draw the conclusion that Jane had been truly blessed.  A Krishna devotee and good friend of mine who kept in touch with Jane after Jayananda’s passing, Nidra Devi, confirmed that the parents of saintly personalities receive special mercy and blessings.  I feel nothing but gratitude at being able to have been present along with your family during Jane’s final hours.

I also wanted to take the chance to honor and speak a little bit about the person and character of Jayananda Prabhu.  To begin with family members told me that he never spoke ill of anyone, even as a child.  Krishna devotees also attest to this wonderful attribute.  In the book Radha Damodar Vilasa, a biographical account of Jayananda’s life with the Hare Krishnas, Kalakantha Das writes, “one remarkable quality about Jayananda was he could not criticize others.” If one devotee was criticizing another within earshot Jayananda would simply leave. I recently spoke with Nidra and Jayo Das, another Hare Krishna acquaintance of Jayananda’s, at Govinda’s Buffet in Denver.  I asked if they could share a sweet story or remember any time they spent with Jayananda. Nidra said, “he had compassion in the heart for every person. He was willing to share the love of God and the chanting of the holy name with every person. He would engage any type of person from the most elegant to the most degraded.” Her eyes teared as she made this statement.

Just recently we celebrated the Ratha Yatra festival in Denver. (Ratha Yatra literally means Festival of the Chariots.)  This is a large festival held for centuries in the East Indian coastal town of Jagannath Puri.  The festival annually attracts millions of pilgrims and is broadcast live nationwide.  In 1967 Jayananda was inspired to inaugurate the first Ratha Yatra in the western world.  Year after year, with enthusiastic energy, sweat labor and organizational skills he pulled together a team of devotees and others (including the homeless and outcasts) to build chariots and organize the parade. When we celebrated Ratha Yatra in Denver on July 29, a large photo of Jayananda was hanging next to a photo of Jayananda’s spiritual teacher, Srila Prabhupada. Both were bedecked with flower garlands and were prominently placed on the front of the chariot.

The impact that Jayananda made during his short time on this planet is simply amazing.  Jayo tells of how Jayananda had so much devotion.  While preparing for a Ratha Yatra festival Jayananda would rise daily between 2:30 and 3:00am.  He would then gather up the young men saying, “Get up, it’s time to do service for the Lord of the Universe.” He would let devotees and the homeless alike stay at the site where the chariots were being built and would always be the first up and last to bed.  He also managed to cook for all present. He would do service and often would wear tattered dhotis (devotional robes) or old worn out blue jeans. He was so humble that he was reluctant to spend money on new clothes when it could be otherwise engaged in the Lord’s service. He was once asked to do service on the temple altar, but because his hands had so much cumulative dirt, cracks and calluses from his hard work, he declined because he felt he was not fit or clean enough.  Examples of his pridelessness and humility are endless.  You are all so fortunate to have such a family member amongst you.

I want to close with these timeless words from Bhagavad Gita:
man-mana bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yaji mam namaskuru
mam evaisyasi satyam te
pratijane priyo 'si me

“Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.”

Jayananda truly embodied this verse wholeheartedly. Once again, thank you for inviting me.

By Taraka das

Recently I have travelled to a number of ISKCON centres. The place that stood out for me as welcoming and warm was New Vrindavan. Every devotee that I encountered said, “Haribol. How are you?” or similar or just smiled. This really warmed my heart as I have often been to a new place and devotees did not acknowledge my presence At all. I know I am not alone in this experience, and may even be guilty of ignoring guests myself from time To time.

The question to ask ourselves is - what impression do we give our guests? Devotees in our ranks are surrendering to distribute books on the street and are inviting people back to the temple for a festival or weekend program. Some Of the people they contact, actually take up the invitation. Some people read a book or go to one of our restaurants, or yoga classes, meet a devotee or read Something on the internet to find out about our temples. There are many ways people contact the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. So when they pluck up enough courage to visit a temple, and then they spend some money and time getting there and walk in the door, if they are ignored it may result in them never coming again. If they are met by a new devotee and told they should give up everything and move into the temple (I heard a new devotee tell an elderly couple this at his first meeting of them as the couple were putting on their shoes, oh so slowly. I knew they were regular attendees and home worshipers) this could also result in guests never coming again, or finding another place to go. Of course there are other experiences in between these two extremes.

It comes down to understanding the needs, interests and concerns of those whom we are “ministering” to. Some people need a lot of space when they come for the first time and don’t want to be bombarded with philosophy or interrogation, some people need to feel included and some require information and association.

In doing some quick research I found a PowerPoint presentation from a church website outlining various methods for church services that could be adopted by those wishing to share the “gospel”, which is what we are trying to do as a movement. It suggests a consistent approach for church services, with a trained team, with a strategy.

Thinking about having trained devotees, a strategy and consistency is important as the reason I was pushed to write this article was due to consistent behaviour, not so conducive to our mission. A senior devotee from Bhaktivedanta Manor told me when she visited two temples in Australasia,
(one temple she visited every day for a week), not one devotee approached her, although she was wearing Vaisvana dress and attending the program. This made my heart sink, and I Wondered if she was wearing saffron with a danda, would it have made a lot of difference? Had she been featured in BTG or any other publication, would it have made a difference? Are we really so busy or unhappy that we don’t have the time to smile or greet newcomers to our temples? It appears that it is not only the guests from the public that we can ignore, but our own devotees - our extended family members.

What are the obstacles we face as an organisation to this problem?

Some of the problems I see are that most devotees have a major duty to do within the organisation, perhaps pujari, cook, Manager, book distributor, teacher etc. When the devotees are doing their services, there may not be time to spend on a new guest, whether devotee or not. The other difficulty is that unlike Churches, our temples are open from 4:30 am to 9:00pm and this means guests can come at any time during this period. We have a variety of guests, from various backgrounds with a multitude of needs. Another challenge is that many devotees live on the property or in the building, so that means they live, worship, do seva (work), and socialise all in the same place. This causes the boundaries to be quite blurred and sometimes to “be on duty” twenty-four hours a day can be overwhelming, especially in times of stress, or Ill-health. And suffice to say, other factors.

What are some of the solutions? Having a point of entrance where all the people come into a building does help this situation because someone may be situated at a reception or information desk. Then the responsibility of greeting guests is predominantly the devotee’s responsibility who is at the desk. Make a strategy for greeting guests when there are a lot expected, like at Sunday Feasts or Festivals. Have a team of trained devotees who like greeting guests. This is not natural for every person, so best to engage those who like new people.

Train devotees to greet guests, and to learn how best to meet their needs. And finally, we are supposed to be happy Hare Krishna, that means, we can at least give a smile to new people, even if we don’t have time to greet them, and treat them like bhagavan.

The next time you visit the hill top shrine of Lord Venkateshwara at Tirumala, you can be sure of getting a better quality or tastier laddu -- the lord's prasad.

The  Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) has installed a conveyor lift to carry the laddus from the kitchen where it is cooked to the sales counters outside the temple, in the same pristine condition without any human touch on the way.

The conveyor lift costing Rs 1.5 crore will now obviate the need of manually sorting the laddus into steel trays and then getting them carried by loaders, who have to negotiate through the surging crowds entering the temple to reach the counters located near the maha dwaram (main door).

The conveyor lift, installed over  the outer compound wall of the temple, will carry 450 boxes containing 150 laddus each at a time. Chief Minister Y Rajasekhar Reddy formally launched the conveyer lift on Saturday.

"The lift will save us a lot of space as there would be no need to keep so many vessels and trays to carry the same. The space will be used more efficiently. In the process we can make more laddus keeping in with increasing the demand. Besides it will now reduce the crowd at main entrance and make it easy for pilgrims to enter the temple," TTD Chairman Karunakar Reddy told the Hindustan Times.

He said the laddus usually lost its shape and size, as well some flavour, because of human handling at different stages of transportation. Now it will retain the pristine quality.

TTD produces around 1.40 lakh laddus on a normal day, which is stepped up to 3 lakh and more in festival times like the Brahmostavam. The conveyer lift will take the burden off 24 staff members, including 20 tray loaders. TTD plans to use their services productively elsewhere.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=03ee218d-70b8-4395-b9d8-443efdff8d63

Delivered as a lecture at the Fourth European Communications Seminar at Radhadesh, Belgium, in January 1993.

I think we actually enjoy being broke. We are the wealthiest people with the best product in the most profitable market, and yet we are keeping ourselves broke. I am afraid that I don’t know how to talk about this. I don’t want to be offensive to sadhus (my audience) but some people need haranguing to get the message. I know we have God on our side; I know we are the only pure ones; I know that Srila Prabhupada’s books will be the Law Books for the next ten thousand years; I know that all we have to do is chant ‘Hare Krsna’ and distribute books, and everything will happen automatically, mystically. But I also know there are a few details that we have to attend to. Srila Prabhupada once asked, ‘What is the qualification for becoming Krsna conscious? A devotee replied (sincerely), ‘Sincerity, Srila Prabhupada.’ ‘No!’ said Srila Prabhupada, . sincerity and intelligence.’

We have intelligent and, more importantly, committed people in our movement. That alone is the greatest factor in building a successful team. Corporations literally spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to instil a spirit of commitment in their leaders and subordinates. From top to bottom, we have people who are committed to the same goal. So the question arises: ‘Why can’t we develop a secure financial base by which we can escape from the crisis management trap and engage in our real business - preaching, teaching, book selling, counselling and ministering to the fallen conditioned souls?’ The answer is: ‘It beats me!’

The money is there: we just have to put our hands out and pick it up. ‘When you have money in the bank, management is easy.’ Prabhupada told reporters: ‘If I just sat underneath a tree here in Juhu beach, Bombay, nobody would come to listen to me. Therefore I have built this grand temple.’ Shall I explain to you the greatest ‘get rich quick’ formula for ISKCON: in America we say, ‘It don’t exist!’ As Henry Russo, a leading guru in the 135 billion dollar a year non profit-making sector, says ‘Fundraising is not easy’! No magic formula has ever been devised to transform a fervent, even desperate, wish into instant results. There is a discipline to gift development that progresses in logical order from preparation to planning, from programme execution to control.

This sequence of orderliness is depicted in a continuum often referred to as ‘the cycle of fundraising’. Successful non profit-making organisations are as concerned about marketing techniques and their ability to prepare wise marketing plans as any profit-making corporation. The non profit-making - or social purpose - organisation must critically assess its worth and examine its mission, to determine whether this mission is being interpreted properly through measurable objectives and meaningful programmes and to evaluate its overall impact on the market area. The cycle can serve as an effective instrument to help executives of non profit-making agencies visualise the relationships of fundraising elements. It permits them to see the sequence to follow from preparation, or definition, of case through to the solicitation and annual renewal of gifts. Fundraising cannot be an haphazard impulsive action, improvised at the last moment in response to a crisis situation: fund-raising is an exercise in discipline.

But don’t lose hope folks, there is still a chance. We are disciples and we can become disciplined. The International Membership Ministry and the ISKCON Foundation have been formed to teach devotees the skills and techniques of fundraising. Naveen Krsna Dasa, the personnel of the ISKCON Foundation and myself have studied and tested modern marketing methods such as direct mail, telephone campaigns, capital campaigns, special events, etc. I have complete confidence that ISKCON can succeed in a very big way. Techniques and skills are not enough, however. First you and I must create a paradigm shift. From where we are now, I would say it would require a revolution in our consciousness and the way we deal with our congregation. Based on the experience gained from my travels, and on a scale of one to ten, I would have to rate most of our temples at about three for ‘quality customer care’. In addition, London Soho Street temple has recently conducted a survey, first with the devotees of the temple and later with the congregation. To everybody’s surprise, both gave the temple a rating of three to four out of ten. Obviously you can’t preach to, or solicit funds from, a congregation when your attitude towards them is negative or at best indifferent.

The first area where vast improvement can be made is in our dealings with devotees. We have to learn to treat the devotees the way we want the devotees (preachers) to treat the congregation. For example, meet with devotees on a regular basis and discuss the twenty-six qualities of a pure devotee; discuss problems in devotee relationships and ways they can be solved by proper Vaisnava etiquette. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura had a system in his math that every brahmacari would try to render five kinds of service to other Vaisnavas in the math every day. Therefore, think of ways to reward devotees who are good examples. Now, some people might think that this has nothing to do with building a congregation and collecting and paying the bills. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! In the business sector where people are paid to work and give service, the leaders of the Fortune 500 companies still strive to establish good relations with their employees: ‘Motivate them, train them, care about them and make winners out of them … we know that if we treat our employees correctly, they’ll treat the customers right. And if the customers are treated right, they’ll come back.’ (J. W. Marriott Jr., Chairman and President, Marriott Corporation).

How to motivate devotees? In a five-year survey of workers in America, results indicated that being able to exercise creativity, obtain recognition for achievements and the feeling of being useful both to the company and society were the most powerful motivating influences in employment, with salary at number four or five. Managers and team leaders must constantly encourage the devotees and thank them for their service. Are these things Srila Prabhupada did? You bet your life they are. Even in his last days in Vrindavan when a disciple would arrive His Divine Grace, while lying on his bed, would cry out names, saying what a nice devotee they were and how he was indebted to them. You can perhaps understand what this did to the hearts of everyone present. When Srila Prabhupada was asked how his disciples would be recognised, what was the answer? They will wear dhotis? They will have large neck beads? They will have a big halo? No! He said they will be perfect gentlemen. Are our devotees perfect gentlemen when guests come to the temple or when they meet a congregational member? I don’t know - you will have to be the judge of that. Soho Street devotees concluded not. Here’s the secret: please think about it. ‘What gets rewarded gets done.’ Devotees will listen to what you tell them; they will believe what you do; but they will do what you reward.

In ISKCON at present, we only reward quantity. The number of books sold; the total money collected; the number of Life Members enrolled; the number of plates of prasadam distributed. We only strive for quantity and neglect quality. However, after reading one of those millions of books distributed, our congregation and people in general think: ‘Oh this is a nice philosophy. After following it I wonder what kind of a person one becomes. Are they polite, courteous and attentive to my needs or will they just ignore me because they have something else to do at the time. Let me go to their temple and see for myself.’ So we have to reward the devotees for what I call ‘quality customer care’ (the congregation, readers of our books and visitors to our temples being our customers).

Here’s another truism: people do what gets measured. I cannot stress that point too strongly. Every important goal needs to be accompanied with a way to keep score so that you and your team of devotees can measure the progress towards reaching your objectives. Additionally, keeping score and letting devotees know how they are doing is a tremendous motivational tool. Just like in the non-devotee world, would people enjoy playing golf, tennis, soccer or whatever if there were no way of keeping score? Here are some things to look for:

1. Number of congregational complaints received every week (every temple should have a suggestion/complaint box)

2. Number of complimentary letters received every month

3. Number of square feet cleaned per day

4. Percentage of donations coming from repeat donors

5. Number of congregational devotees involved in service

I would also suggest you follow these guidelines when attempting to measure progress:

Don’t let anybody con you into believing that you can’t measure what they do. If what they are doing can’t be measured, they aren’t contributing.

Keep it simple. Otherwise, devotees will spend too much time measuring, rather than pursuing, their goals.

Measure progress toward goals achieved and not activities performed.

Remember that it is far more important to measure group than individual goals: team performance counts the most. We have a tendency in ISKCON to reward the top man without considering the team that backs him up.

Finally, remember that the best performance measures give devotees frequent feedback so that they can see how they are doing and adjust their performance accordingly. Put up a highly visible chart, poster or scoreboard and update it regularly. There are many different ways you can reward devotees - personal thanks, a trip to Mayapur, recognition in front of the community. I am sure you can use your imagination.

The second area we can immediately improve is the Sunday feast. I remember that in Los Angeles in 1970 the Sunday feast was a gala event, and we usually made five to ten new devotees each week. Many of those stayed to render years of devotional service. We actually started planning the Sunday feast on Monday. Every devotee had some duty … from serving prasada, to watching the shoes, to sitting with guests and preaching to them. Devotees spent all week rehearsing plays and dramas. On Sunday, all visitors to the temple were greeted, given a tour and preached to.

Today we go out to distribute books, preach in colleges, etc., but when people come to our temples they often get indifferent treatment. Reception of guests is given a low priority. Srimad Bhagavatam 8:16:6 and 8:16:7 states that any guest in one’s house (even an enemy) should be treated royally even if he comes unannounced. The homes where this kind of treatment is not given are considered to be homes of jackals. Obviously some temples are better than others, but my honest opinion is that we have fallen a long way from the standard. Managers must organise the training of devotees in this area and recognition should be given for outstanding service in ‘quality customer care’.

Let me leave you with a few statistics to think about regarding what happens when someone comes to our temple and has a bad experience, and what factors contribute to a bad experience:

1. A typical business hears from only four per cent of its dissatisfied customers. The other ninety-six per cent just quietly go away and ninety-one per cent will never come back. That represents a serious loss for temples that don’t know how to treat guests and a tremendous gain for those that do.

2. A survey on ‘why customers quit’ found the following:

Three per cent move away

Five per cent develop other friendships

Nine per cent leave for competitive reasons

Fourteen per cent are dissatisfied with the product

Sixty-eight per cent quit because of an attitude of indifference toward the customer by the owner, manager or an employee

3. A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to ten people about his problem. One in five will tell twenty. It takes twelve positive incidents to make up for one negative incident.

4. Seven out of ten complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favour. If you resolve it on the spot, ninety-five per cent will do business with you again. On average, a satisfied complainer will tell five people about the problem and how it was satisfactorily resolved.

5. The average business spends six times more to attract new customers than it does to keep old ones. Yet customer loyalty is, in most cases, worth ten times the price of a single purchase.

6. Businesses having low service quality average only one per cent return on sales and lose market share at the rate of two per cent per year. Businesses with high service quality average twelve per cent return on sales, gain market share at the rate of six per cent per year and charge significantly higher prices.

Maybe we do have God on our side, maybe devotees are pure, maybe our book distribution is powerful, but maybe we should also use our intelligence and see how we can improve our preaching rather than rest on our past laurels and old paradigms. We are not the first group to try to spread a spiritual idea: Srila Prabhupada told us to take note of the management techniques of the Rama Krsna Mission, Tirupati Devasthanam and the Catholic Church. Maybe we have to take Rupa Goswami’s advice - copy success and use it in Krsna’s service. Perhaps our fund-raising will be then become ‘fun-raising’.

To experience ceaseless spiritual happiness Chaitanya Mahapra-bhu advocated "Being humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree and offering all respects to others and expecting none in return, chanting the holy names of the Lord constantly".
He explained that we are spiri-tual beings, eternal loving children of God. We can find lasting happiness — not in acquiring material positions and possessions, but in reviving our innate love of God.

Humility and tolerance, virtues essential for achieving endless bliss, are also valuable assets for living peacefully and successfully in this world. Humility, sometimes misconstrued as a weakness, is actually a power that few people tap.

Srila Prabhupada, founder of ISKCON, explained humility as freedom from "the anxiety of having the satisfaction of being honoured by others". Pride, the opposite of humi-lity, makes us crave for honour from others as our source of happiness.

When a proud person is disrespected, his lack of freedom becomes appallingly obvious; he is forced by pride to lose his prudence and explode with words and actions, often hurting the other person and even himself far beyond what the situation warrants.

Humi-lity, on the contrary, brings freedom from the craving for external honour and empowers us to act for our and everyone's long-term good. Humility doesn't mean that we let others trample upon us without protesting, but that we don't let others' (mis)behaviour determine our decisions and lives.

Humility allows us to calmly consider the cause of disrespect and maturely adopt a principled course of action to clarify the situation and rectify the misdemeanour. Tolerance too is an underutilised power.

A relative behaves unreasonably, a colleague speaks impolitely, a power cut upsets our plans, another vehicle cuts across our path — such daily situations offer rich premiums for the tolerant.

Tolerance empowers us to not let irritating circumstances steal our peace of mind. Lack of tolerance makes us a victim of our circumstances, whereas tolerance brings the freedom to choose an intelligent response and stay fixed in our values and goals, irrespective of our circumstances.

Prabhupada summarises, "One's greatness has to be estimated by the ability to tolerate provoking situations". When people lack tolerance, they respond to adverse situations and inimical people in one of two ways: depression or violence.

Chronic depression, self-martyrdom, inferiority complex, addiction and even suicide are fallouts of the first response, whereas divorce, larceny, murder, and even war are results of the second. Our biceps protect us from physical dangers.

Similarly, humility and tolerance protect us from internal over-reactions to externally distasteful situations. Thus they constitute our inner muscles, which we can increase by the spiritual bodybuilding exercise of chanting the holy names of God.

God is the reservoir of all powers and when we connect ourselves to Him through mantra meditation, we gain access to the divine powers of humility and tolerance.

Let us therefore chant Hare Krishna (or any other bona fide name of God) with devotion, empower ourselves with inner muscles, find peace amidst the ups and downs of life and contribute towards building a peaceful planet.

http://www.iskconpune.com. International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Pune.

Chaitanya nitai dasi: Hare Krsna, we are opening up a garden cafe soon in Shri Vrndavana Dham. This garden cafe will offer an opportunity for devotees to eat healthy prasadam in a beautiful atmosphere.

We will have a juice bar, salad bar, sandwich bar, and a breakfast bar that will cater to the needs of all the devotees who are visiting Vrndavana, but have no options for breakfast or a place to sit and read a book while drinking herbal tea or juice. We are praying to Krsna to send us the right devotee team to bring it all together.

If you are a cook and or have managing experience in a restaurant and are looking for an opportunity to serve the vaisnavas and maintain you and your family here in Vrndavana, this is your dream come true… please contact us at mailto:tulsicafe@yahoo.com

NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 13, 2007: When they think of India they think of Gandhi and Taj Mahal, but when they think of Pakistan they think of nuclear, poverty and cricket, the people across the world said in a survey conducted by BBC. In the survey conducted on the socio-economic perception on India and Pakistan after 60 years of independence from the British rule, the BBC found that the world also associated both countries with poverty. The survey, conducted in collaboration with international research company Synovate across 20 countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia Pacific and Australia, questioned 12,670 respondents about their perceptions of India and Pakistan. " It was conducted to coincide with the celebration surrounding India and Pakistan's 60th year of independence from Britain," the BBC said.

Interestingly, where French, Spaniards, Italians and Danes thought India topped in poverty on the planet, their Eastern counterpar ts Singaporeans, Japanese and Hong Kong nationals thought India to be a modern nation, high on development and technology. British Americans and Australians also voted in favor of India for its Bollywood, cricket and outsourcing industry. Asked to rank India from a global economic standpoint, the survey drew in some interesting responses from the respondents. Americans ranked India 10th from a global economic perspective, as did the British and Singaporean. As many as half of the respondents chose Hinduism as a predominant religion in India. But "unexpectedly" however, Buddhism ranked second as the principal religion in the country. BBC said it was "perhaps due to the increased media coverage and awareness in the West following, for example, Hollywood actor Richard Gere's public devotion to Buddhism."

courtesy of Hinduism Today  http://www.hinduismtoday.com

By Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D. (Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya)

Om Hari Om

By the year 2058,

We will witness that Sanatana Dharma has become the preeminent world-view, religion, and philosophy of the entire earth.

Hindus themselves will work with unbridled dedication, energy, enthusiasm, and self-sacrifice to make the above a reality.

One-billion Hindus in South Asia will have renewed their personal commitment to Sanatana Dharma with an enthusiasm and sincere fervor the likes of which all of Hindu history has never seen before.

The world will see Sanatana Dharma as a religion that fosters strength, fearlessness, healthy assertiveness, and excellence in all its followers.

The day of the passive Hindu will be over.

Ten-million non-Indians in America will have converted freely and joyously to Sanatana Dharma, conducting pujas in their homes, being strict vegetarians, following the precepts of Sanatana Dharma, and proudly proclaiming to the world that their religion is Sanatana Dharma.

Twenty-million non-Indians in Europe will have similarly converted freely and joyously to Sanatana Dharma.

We will see a White Prime Minister of Britain who is an openly practicing and proud Hindu.

Marxism will remain only as a horrific memory in the minds of humanity, and will have ceased to exist in every corner of the world, replaced by the life-affirming and spiritually empowering ideology of Dharma.

The paper tiger of Islam will have been diminished to only a mere 10% of its current perceived power and strength as tens of millions of Muslims renounce their destructive ideology and come to the light of spirituality without hate.

Tens of millions of Muslims will have abandoned Islam ­ the "Religion of Submission" ­ and have joyously converted to Sanatana Dharma ­ the Eternal Natural Way.

The artificial national construct of "Pakistan" will have ceased to exist, torn apart by its own internal political and cultural contradictions.

There will be over 1000 Hindu temples across the length and breadth of China, with millions of enthusiastic native Chinese filling these temples to overflowing.

We will witness multiple Dharma Nations emerge onto the world scene as powerful and prosperous nations that will serve as examples to the rest of the world of what nations look like when governments truly reflect the sole interests of their people.

India will not be the first of these Dharma Nations.

This will all have occurred by the year 2058.

Om Hari Om

Vedic World Heritage links:

See our pages supporting these views HERE:
http://www.hknet.org.nz/VWH.html (Vedik World Heritage)
Western Indologists been exposed page:
http://www.hknet.org.nz/WesternIndologists-page.htm
How British Misguided the World on Vedic History
http://www.hknet.org.nz/MotiveBritishRajMissionaries.html

By HH Sivarama Swami (from a recent podcast on http://www.sivaramaswami.com)

Question: Vegans claim that we are contributing to factory farming and calves being deprived of their mothers’ milk. How do we address this argument?

Answer: There are two points here, first that a cow gives more milk than a calf can drink, so it’s not necessarily that they’re being deprived. However a calf should be able to drink its mothers milk, and that happens when they’re being taken care of in a natural way in a gosala. The calves drink their mothers’ milk and the cow gives more milk. Also, if you just let a calf drink as much as they wanted, they’d get sick.

However, the modern system of simply farming cows, inseminating them so they’re constantly milking rather than allowing it to take place in a scheduled way — which is good for the overall health of the cow, so it’s not always giving milk, and it’s not always inseminated — that is certainly violent, and the answer to that is not to become a vegan, or to stop drinking milk. The answer is to drink milk procured only by the proper means. Reason being is Krishna drinks milk, it is part of our diet, and go brahmanya hitaya ca — a whole culture is based on drinking milk. It’s not something we are willing to sacrifice. Therefore, we need to have farming communities as Srila Prabhupada established, where cow protection is a priority. For this reason Srila Prabhupada said to keep as many cows as possible, which is a tall order.

But if we do keep as many cows as possible, and if we have cow protection, and if devotees and congregation members are actually protecting those cows and maintaining them, then we can have enough milk to provide temples and congregation members and everyone with milk.

Then you’re above this kind of criticism. You don’t need to say, “Oh well, I’m a Hare Krishna, I’ve offered it to Krishna, and therefore I’m free from the reaction.” It is questionable if you’re free from the reaction. Why? Srila Prabhupada has made it clear that our duty is cow protection. Krishna set the personal example of cow protection. Therefore, just because we are devotees, just because we offered some milk then we think we’re free from the reaction for the violence that’s involved in procuring that milk­and remember that the cow, the bull, and the calf are later all slaughtered, and that’s something you’re also involved in when you’re drinking milk­then you have a very hard argument to try to defeat. In fact, it’s not an argument you can defeat.

Therefore Srila Prabhupada gave us a very simple formula to defeat that argument, so that we don’t have to fall back on strawman tactics and arguments: he gave us cow protection, which is a completely friendly, non-violent, and inoffensive way to provide milk.

So therefore, I ask again: what are you doing about cow protection?

See our World Vegetarian Day Newsletters 2004 - 2005 - World Vege Day

See similar articles at Vegetarianism & beyond:
http://turn.to/Vegetarianism

A simple village man once wanted to serve the greatest person.  He approached the mayor of his town and asked to be given some work.  While serving the mayor, the village man noticed the mayor giving tax money to a visitor.  He asked who the visitor was, and the mayor told him that he was a representative of the governor.  "Is the governor greater than you?"  "Oh yes, he is greater than me," the mayor said.  "Then I want to serve him," said the village man.  The appreciated the man's honesty and recommended him to the mayor.  The village man served the governor for some time.  Then one day a visitor arrived accompanied by some horsemen.  The governor welcomed the visitor graciously and treated him with all respect.  When he had a chance, the village man asked the governor who the visitor was.  "He is the king's viceroy," said the governor.  "And who is the king?" the man asked.  "He is the ruler of the whole land," said the governor.  "He is very great."  "Is he greater than you?" the man asked.  "Oh yes, I am just his servant."  "Then I would like to serve him."  The village man was talented and so, to please the king, the governor sent the village man to him.  The man served the king for some months, and then one day the king told him to ready the chariot.  A great sage had arrived in the kingdom and the king wanted the sage's advice on how to rule.  The village man watched as the king approached the saintly person and offered respect.  The king then sat and listened to the sage discourse for some time.  Then, as the king was preparing to return to his palace, the village man approached the sage and asked if he were the greatest person.  The sage said, no, he was only a menial servant.  "So please tell me, who is the greatest person?"  "To find the greatest person, you must go to the temple of Narayana," the sage told him.  Without a moments delay, the man set off walking.  It was evening when he arrived, and the temple doors were closed.  The man knocked on the door for a long time.  Finally a temple priest came and told him to go home and return the next day.  Not having any place to go, the man lay down by the gate and went to sleep.  Before sunrise, some brahmanas from a nearby village passed the temple and saw the man sleeping.  They noticed that covering the man's body was one of the Deity's chadars.  "He is a thief!" they said.  In anger they woke the man and asked them where he got the chadar.  The man was mystified and told them he did not know where the chadar had come from.  The brahmanas then tried to open the temple door and discovered it was locked.  They then realized that Lord Narayana Himself had placed the chadar over his servant to keep him warm while he slept.  The brahmanas asked the man where he came from, and he told them his story.  The man was then accepted into the temple and trained to serve the Deity.  In this way the man came to serve the greatest person.

MORAL:  We should understand what we are doing in this Krsna consciousness movement, and that this is the culmination of all work and endeavour, devotional service to Lord Krsna.

See similar inspirational snippets HERE:
http://www.hknet.org.nz/parables.htm

The phaomnneil pweor of the hmuan mnid: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig!
Mybae the I can sotp slpel ckchenig?

http://www.gaura-gambhira.com/

Written by HH Bhakti Purusottama Swami

Dear Maharaj/ Prabujis/ Matajis,

It is my great pleasure to inform all the devotees of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that a great service opportunity has been offered by the temple authorities of Gambhira, in Puri dham, where Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spent the final years of His manifested pastimes on this earthly planet. Kasi Mishra's house, also known as Gambhira, and the Radha Kanta math, were both under the care of the Orissa government due to 20 years of litigation. Finally, this litigation problem has been resolved and the management of the institution has been returned to the temple mahanta.

The temple has sustained much damage over the years due to lack of proper maintenance. The whole place is very dirty and the roofs and walls are falling down. The temple roof is also cracking. Additionally, the temple has a lack of proper income for the maintenance of the devotees and for deity puja—and, of course, the more the Gambhira is allowed to deteriorate, the fewer visitors it will have.

At this crucial point, the mahanta of Gambhira has requested ISKCON to extend kind assistence to him in order to protect and maintain this most holy place. Devotees from all over the world come to offer their prayers and obeisances at Gambhira. This is one of the most important places for the followers of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and must be maintained nicely.

Thus, this is a golden opportunity for devotees to render service to this most sacred cause. I request all devotees to kindly donate towards this purpose. There are many things to be fixed at the place. For the time being we have prepared a rough budget, for whatever the most urgent needs are, just to bring the situation up to  survival position. Later on, we will let you know about further opportunities for service in the development of the Gambhira.

For further information contact

Bhakti Purusottama Swami

Phone: ++ 91 9434506434

E mail: bps@pamho.net

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Vegetarianism in the major Religions - All manner of religions
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Myth of the Aryan invasion by Dr. David Frawley: - http://www.hknet.org.nz/Aryan-invasion-mythDF.html

The Peace Formula - (By HDG Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada) http://www.hknet.org.nz/PeaceFormula.html

.........many other articles - http://www.hknet.org.nz/index-articles.htm

and from there go to the Main Index http://www.hknet.org.nz/index.htm

Iskcon News Articles now available - many topical insights
http://www.iskcon.com/new/index.html

Paradigms - where things are not all they seem

 The Peace Formula
http://www.hknet.org.nz/PeaceFormula.html

The Real Peace Formula
http://www.hknet.org.nz/PeaceRealF.html

See more on Yoga and Meditation HERE:
http://www.hknet.org.nz/index-yoga.html

World Vegetarian Day October 1st yearly &
World Vegetarian Awareness Month of October yearly
...please visit our links and see what you can do to help

World Smoke Free Day
31st May Every Year 

http://www.be-free.org/b-media/market-bfree03/cinema.php

yeah kick the butt
...and remember from 10th December 2004 no more smoking in public places in New Zealand by law