last updated 4th September 2008
 

 

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

Almaty regional Public Prosecutor's Office seems keen to seize property from religious communities, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Six property cases against Christian and Muslim religious organisations in the region are known to have been initiated since mid-June. Amongst them is Agafe Protestant Church, the regional Economic Court ruling ­ despite numerous violations of due process ­ that the Church's building and land should be confiscated. A defence lawyer has received anonymous death threats, and an appeal will take place on 27 August. The regions' Hare Krishna commune also continues to struggle to retain its property. Similar attempts to seize religious property continue elsewhere in Kazakhstan. Near the north-western town of Alga, New Life Protestant Church has been evicted from its building. Grace Protestant Church in Semey, eastern Kazakhstan, has been forced to brick up windows, as the Fire Brigade insists on this "in case there is a fire in the neighbouring property." The Church has also been prohibited from using its own building.
 
Almaty Region, the area around Kazakhstan's commercial capital, seems to be keen to seize property from religious communities, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Ninel Fokina of the Almaty Helsinki Committee told Forum 18 on 14 August that she knew of six property cases against Christian and Muslim religious organisations in the region, initiated by the region's Public Prosecutor's Office, between mid-June and mid-August.

Zhangazy Kunserkin, a defence lawyer who has acted in these cases, told Forum 18 on 15 August that one Protestant Church ­ which wishes to remain unnamed ­ was given a small fine in June for allegedly misusing land. Kunserkin, based on his experience, suspects that this will not be the end of the matter. "In six months the authorities will fine the Church again, and then they will try to confiscate the building." He also knows of some religious organisations who have reached agreements with the authorities that they do not wish to make public.

Rashid Abekov from the Almaty regional Public Prosecutor's Office told Forum 18 on 14 August that each case was considered on its own merits. He would not discuss why all the property cases are directed against religious organisations.

Similar attempts by the authorities to seize religious property continue elsewhere in Kazakhstan. In the small town of Alga, near the north-western city of Aktobe [Aqtobe], the authorities have been trying to seize the New Life Protestant Church's building (link - http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1120). On 12 May, Alga District Civil Court decided to evict the church. "We could not appeal against this, because the building was not listed as belonging to us on the official documents," Vasili Kim of the Church told Forum 18 on 20 August.

In 2005 the Hakimat (district authority) of Alga district decided to strip the church of its building, but church leaders did not want to challenge the authorities in the courts. The Hakimat took the case to Alga District Court ­ without the Church knowing of this ­ and the court decided that the church building was "derelict." Because this was not legally challenged, there are no grounds to appeal against the eviction.

The authorities did not offer any compensation to the Church, but said they might allow the Church to ­ at its own expense ­ buy land at commercial rates on the on the outskirts of the town. Kim explained that this would be too expensive, so they are trying to rent land.

"We are preparing all the necessary documents to rent land, but it's not going to be easy," Kim explained. "We have to overcome all kinds of bureaucratic barriers, including getting documents from officials responsible for electricity, architecture, public health, water and sewage," Kim complained. Once all these documents have been obtained, the land then has to be registered with the Hakimat.

The Deputy Akim (Head of Executive Authority) of Aktobe, Nurkhan Agniyazov, told Forum 18 on 20 August that he did not want to talk about the eviction. "I am not entitled to report to you what we do or do not do", he stated angrily.

The Agafe Protestant Church in Almaty Region is also struggling to retain its property. On Wednesday 27 August, the Region's specialised Economic Court is due to hear an appeal against the Court's 12 June decision to expropriate the church building and the 0.44 hectares (1 acre) of land on which it stands in the village of Pyramoy Put.

The Karasai district Public Prosecutor's Office brought the 12 June case before Judge Sholpan Murzekenova. District Prosecutor Kenjaly Usipbaev claimed, in a legal statement seen by Forum 18, that the Almaty regional Department of State Property Management and the Karasai district Hakim did not "appropriately organise" the transfer of state property to the Church. In October 2007, the Department of State Property Management gave the village's House of Culture to the Church free-of-charge, the Hakimat having in October 2004 sold the land on which it stood to the Church.

Vladimir Sadykov, a defence lawyer working on the case, told Forum 18 on 11 August that the church had invested much time, energy, and resources in the building, which was derelict for two years before the transfer. The heating, electric wiring, sewage and plumbing systems were ruined. The roof was totally ruined, and the façade of the building was partially destroyed. Sadykov stated that the Church had completely overhauled the building.

Another defence lawyer working on the case, Olga Parfyonova, told Forum 18 on 13 August that the Economic Court's expropriation decision "was done in haste, without proper questioning of witnesses." The people who transferred the building to the Church, Vyacheslav Filatov the former director of the House of Culture and Nasreddin Tusupov the Hakim of Irgeli rural district (now the Deputy Hakim of Karasai District) were not questioned by the Court. Parfyonova stated that courts of first instance often make such decisions in favour of the State or some influential persons without due process.

The Church's legal appeal of 26 June, which Forum 18 has seen, also notes that:

- the Court went beyond the stated case in questioning the legal status and "missionary activity" of the church's leader Ee Syn Bok;

- the Court did not investigate the circumstances of the case;

- the Court accepted testimony from a prosecution witness who had not been named in the Public Prosecutor's claim, Smagul Sadyrkuliuly of the village's Council of Veterans, without giving due notice of his testimony to the defence;

- the Court did not make Sadyrkuliuly swear that he was not giving false testimony;

- the Court claimed that as the building was not registered in the name of Ee Sun Bok, and she could not determine its legal status, but ignored the fact that the building is legally the property of the Church;

- the Court did not cite the legal owner, the Church, in the case;

- and the Court accepted false testimony from the Public Prosecutor that the Church is not registered with the Justice Ministry, even though it was registered on 7 March1996.

Also, the Church notes that the Public Prosecutor, in his claim that the transfer violated the Privatisation Law, ignored the fact that the transfer actually took place under the Religion Law. Article 16 of the Law entitles religious organisations to own property transferred by the state, and Article 17 entitles local executive authorities to transfer the rights of ownership of cultural buildings or the rights to use them to religious organisations.

Many other Houses of Culture were given away free-of-charge or sold to private persons, Parfyonova, the Church's lawyer, told Forum 18. "Former culture houses are now bars, restaurants, mosques and used for other purposes in Almaty region," she said. "However," she continued, "the authorities are mainly trying to get back buildings used by religious organisations."

Judge Murzekenova insisted to Forum 18 that the Agafe Church was not singled out by the authorities. "Although it is the first such court case in our district, other property cases have been tried by the courts in other districts and regions", she stated on 13 August. Asked why there were so many violations of due process, Murzekenova did not want to discuss the case further. "Look, I am not allowed to discuss the case with you over the phone," she said.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has found that court proceedings in Kazakhstan do not offer the guaranteed right to a fair trial. In a February 2007 report on trial monitoring, the OSCE found that Kazakh court proceedings needed to offer "the right of the public to attend court, equality between the parties and the presumption of innocence" (link - http://www.osce.org/item/23396.html).

Sadykov from the Church's lawyers complained to Forum 18 that he had received telephone death threats. "People, who I did not recognise, phoned me, and threatened that they would kill me if I did not drop pressing this case", Sadykov stated. Lawyers working on another case in Karasai District, the attempted confiscate of a Hare Krishna commune, have been intimidated into dropping the case (link - http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=881).

"Courts were politically engaged" in Kazakhstan, Sadykov suggested. "I think there is an influential person interested in the building and the piece of land", he said. Commenting on the Church's extensive refurbishment of the building, he thought that "some people are interested in getting the building in good shape for free now."

Almaty regional Civil Court, presided over by Judge Murat Turzhan, decided on 16 July after the Church's appeal to partially cancel the Economic Court's decision and return the case for further investigation. However, Judge Turzhan has not stated what part of the Economic Court's decision was upheld. "We are dealing with many cases at the moment," he told Forum 18 on 13 August, "and I do not remember this."

Abekov from the Almaty regional Public Prosecutor's Office, asked whether they would punish also those from the Hakimat "guilty" of the "illegal" transfer, stated "let the court case finish, and only then we will talk to you about this." Fokina of the Almaty Helsinki Committee noted that the courts as a rule do not punish the authorities for making "illegal" decisions. "They will not do it because they are only interested in expropriating the religious organisations' property," she said.

Judge Zhanna Akhanova of the Economic Court will preside at the appeal hearing on 27 August.

The Hare Krishna community, also in the Karasai District of Almaty Region, continues its ongoing struggle to retain its property, and to resist the the authorities' attempts to move them to a rubbish dump without water outside Almaty (link - http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1120).

Maxim Varfolomeev of the Hare Krishna community pointed out that the authorities have left land confiscated from the community in early 2007 "empty and unused." "We were told by the authorities that they would give it back to the kindergarten," he told Forum 18 on 20 August, "but no one, including the kindergarten has done anything on the land." The Hakimat wronlgly claimed that the kindergarten could not use the land because the community still occupied it, Varfolomeev stated.

Viktor Golous, the leader of the Hare Krishna community, told Forum 18 on 20 August that they were notified by the Almaty regional Hakimat on 19 August that the community will be sued to force them off their own land.

The Deputy Hakim of the Almaty Region, Serik Mukanov, refused to talk to Forum 18 on 15 August about the religious property cases in the Region. "Call me in the afternoon" he told over the phone. When called in the afternoon, he hung up the phone as soon as he heard the name Forum 18.

Grace Protestant Church in Semey, in Eastern Kazakhstan Region, continues to face legal claims - which the Church strongly disputes ­ that it does not comply with fire safety regulations. One example is a claim that their should be a six meter gap between their building and the next building. However, a church member told Forum 18, "there is no building on that land, it is an empty plot." Another commented that "it looks like they are trying to close down our church with any excuse" (link - http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1154).

Despite the flaws in the authorities' claims, the Church is trying to comply with the authorities' demands. "We have now bricked up windows facing a neighbour's property," a church member who wished to remain anonymous told Forum 18 on 20 August. The Fire Brigade had told the church that the windows must be bricked up "in case there is a fire in the neighbouring property."

It is unknown how much time will be needed to comply with the authorities' demands, however unreasonable. But the church building cannot be used until the authorities' demands are met. "In the meantime we are meeting in another small building," Forum 18 was told.

Kazakhstan's controversial new Religion Law, which contains numerous violations of freedom of thought, conscience and belief (link - http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1141) is currently expected to return to Parliament before the end of 2008. The authorities continue to raid religious minority communities while they are worshipping (link - http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1137).

Kazak Edition of Bhagavad-gita presented to Srila Prabhupada.
This is now the 55th language in which Bhagavad-gita has been printed.

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/

By Judy West for Forum 18 News Service (Norway) on 16 Aug 2008

Aug 15, ENGLAND, UK (RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE) — In its survey analysis of religious freedom in Uzbekistan, Forum 18 News Service has found continuing violations by the state of freedom of thought, conscience and belief. Amongst many serious violations - which breach the country's international human rights commitments - non-state registered religious activity is a criminal offence, as is the sharing of beliefs and meetings for religious purposes in private homes.

Religious communities are raided with impunity and their members threatened, assaulted and even tortured. Prisoner of conscience numbers are increasing. The state continues to actively promote religious hatred and intolerance through the state-controlled mass media.

They add that members of religious communities complain that trials are often conducted unfairly. Oppressive laws are symptomatic of oppressive official attitudes, and state officials do not appear to acknowledge any restraints on their actions.

Forum 18 News Service says that the state seeks to completely control all religious activity - by Muslims and religious minorities such as Christians, Baha'is, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews and Hare Krishna devotees- through a web of laws, NSS secret police agents, censorship and the activities of public agencies such as local administrations.

"Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?” So the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous and weirdly poignant scene toward the end of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Bowman, having nearly been sent to a deep-space death by the malfunctioning machine, is calmly, coldly disconnecting the memory circuits that control its artificial brain. “Dave, my mind is going,” HAL says, forlornly. “I can feel it. I can feel it.”

I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets—reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link. (Unlike footnotes, to which they’re sometimes likened, hyperlinks don’t merely point to related works; they propel you toward them.)

For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and they’ve been widely described and duly applauded. “The perfect recall of silicon memory,” Wired’s Clive Thompson has written, “can be an enormous boon to thinking.” But that boon comes at a price. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.

I’m not the only one. When I mention my troubles with reading to friends and acquaintances—literary types, most of them—many say they’re having similar experiences. The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing. Some of the bloggers I follow have also begun mentioning the phenomenon. Scott Karp, who writes a blog about online media, recently confessed that he has stopped reading books altogether. “I was a lit major in college, and used to be [a] voracious book reader,” he wrote. “What happened?” He speculates on the answer: “What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?”

Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” he wrote earlier this year. A pathologist who has long been on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School, Friedman elaborated on his comment in a telephone conversation with me. His thinking, he said, has taken on a “staccato” quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.”

Anecdotes alone don’t prove much. And we still await the long-term neurological and psychological experiments that will provide a definitive picture of how Internet use affects cognition. But a recently published study of online research habits, conducted by scholars from University College London, suggests that we may well be in the midst of a sea change in the way we read and think. As part of the five-year research program, the scholars examined computer logs documenting the behavior of visitors to two popular research sites, one operated by the British Library and one by a U.K. educational consortium, that provide access to journal articles, e-books, and other sources of written information. They found that people using the sites exhibited “a form of skimming activity,” hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they’d already visited. They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before they would “bounce” out to another site. Sometimes they’d save a long article, but there’s no evidence that they ever went back and actually read it. The authors of the study report:

It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.

Thanks to the ubiquity of text on the Internet, not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones, we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice. But it’s a different kind of reading, and behind it lies a different kind of thinking—perhaps even a new sense of the self. “We are not only what we read,” says Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University and the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. “We are how we read.” Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.

Reading, explains Wolf, is not an instinctive skill for human beings. It’s not etched into our genes the way speech is. We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we understand. And the media or other technologies we use in learning and practicing the craft of reading play an important part in shaping the neural circuits inside our brains. Experiments demonstrate that readers of ideograms, such as the Chinese, develop a mental circuitry for reading that is very different from the circuitry found in those of us whose written language employs an alphabet. The variations extend across many regions of the brain, including those that govern such essential cognitive functions as memory and the interpretation of visual and auditory stimuli. We can expect as well that the circuits woven by our use of the Net will be different from those woven by our reading of books and other printed works.

Sometime in 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche bought a typewriter—a Malling-Hansen Writing Ball, to be precise. His vision was failing, and keeping his eyes focused on a page had become exhausting and painful, often bringing on crushing headaches. He had been forced to curtail his writing, and he feared that he would soon have to give it up. The typewriter rescued him, at least for a time. Once he had mastered touch-typing, he was able to write with his eyes closed, using only the tips of his fingers. Words could once again flow from his mind to the page.

But the machine had a subtler effect on his work. One of Nietzsche’s friends, a composer, noticed a change in the style of his writing. His already terse prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic. “Perhaps you will through this instrument even take to a new idiom,” the friend wrote in a letter, noting that, in his own work, his “‘thoughts’ in music and language often depend on the quality of pen and paper.”

“You are right,” Nietzsche replied, “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.” Under the sway of the machine, writes the German media scholar Friedrich A. Kittler, Nietzsche’s prose “changed from arguments to aphorisms, from thoughts to puns, from rhetoric to telegram style.”

The human brain is almost infinitely malleable. People used to think that our mental meshwork, the dense connections formed among the 100 billion or so neurons inside our skulls, was largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that’s not the case. James Olds, a professor of neuroscience who directs the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University, says that even the adult mind “is very plastic.” Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones. “The brain,” according to Olds, “has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions.”

As we use what the sociologist Daniel Bell has called our “intellectual technologies”—the tools that extend our mental rather than our physical capacities—we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies. The mechanical clock, which came into common use in the 14th century, provides a compelling example. In Technics and Civilization, the historian and cultural critic Lewis Mumford described how the clock “disassociated time from human events and helped create the belief in an independent world of mathematically measurable sequences.” The “abstract framework of divided time” became “the point of reference for both action and thought.”

The clock’s methodical ticking helped bring into being the scientific mind and the scientific man. But it also took something away. As the late MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum observed in his 1976 book, Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation, the conception of the world that emerged from the widespread use of timekeeping instruments “remains an impoverished version of the older one, for it rests on a rejection of those direct experiences that formed the basis for, and indeed constituted, the old reality.” In deciding when to eat, to work, to sleep, to rise, we stopped listening to our senses and started obeying the clock.

The process of adapting to new intellectual technologies is reflected in the changing metaphors we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. When the mechanical clock arrived, people began thinking of their brains as operating “like clockwork.” Today, in the age of software, we have come to think of them as operating “like computers.” But the changes, neuroscience tells us, go much deeper than metaphor. Thanks to our brain’s plasticity, the adaptation occurs also at a biological level.

The Internet promises to have particularly far-reaching effects on cognition. In a paper published in 1936, the British mathematician Alan Turing proved that a digital computer, which at the time existed only as a theoretical machine, could be programmed to perform the function of any other information-processing device. And that’s what we’re seeing today. The Internet, an immeasurably powerful computing system, is subsuming most of our other intellectual technologies. It’s becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV.

When the Net absorbs a medium, that medium is re-created in the Net’s image. It injects the medium’s content with hyperlinks, blinking ads, and other digital gewgaws, and it surrounds the content with the content of all the other media it has absorbed. A new e-mail message, for instance, may announce its arrival as we’re glancing over the latest headlines at a newspaper’s site. The result is to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration.

The Net’s influence doesn’t end at the edges of a computer screen, either. As people’s minds become attuned to the crazy quilt of Internet media, traditional media have to adapt to the audience’s new expectations. Television programs add text crawls and pop-up ads, and magazines and newspapers shorten their articles, introduce capsule summaries, and crowd their pages with easy-to-browse info-snippets. When, in March of this year, TheNew York Times decided to devote the second and third pages of every edition to article abstracts, its design director, Tom Bodkin, explained that the “shortcuts” would give harried readers a quick “taste” of the day’s news, sparing them the “less efficient” method of actually turning the pages and reading the articles. Old media have little choice but to play by the new-media rules.

Never has a communications system played so many roles in our lives—or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts—as the Internet does today. Yet, for all that’s been written about the Net, there’s been little consideration of how, exactly, it’s reprogramming us. The Net’s intellectual ethic remains obscure.

About the same time that Nietzsche started using his typewriter, an earnest young man named Frederick Winslow Taylor carried a stopwatch into the Midvale Steel plant in Philadelphia and began a historic series of experiments aimed at improving the efficiency of the plant’s machinists. With the approval of Midvale’s owners, he recruited a group of factory hands, set them to work on various metalworking machines, and recorded and timed their every movement as well as the operations of the machines. By breaking down every job into a sequence of small, discrete steps and then testing different ways of performing each one, Taylor created a set of precise instructions—an “algorithm,” we might say today—for how each worker should work. Midvale’s employees grumbled about the strict new regime, claiming that it turned them into little more than automatons, but the factory’s productivity soared.

More than a hundred years after the invention of the steam engine, the Industrial Revolution had at last found its philosophy and its philosopher. Taylor’s tight industrial choreography—his “system,” as he liked to call it—was embraced by manufacturers throughout the country and, in time, around the world. Seeking maximum speed, maximum efficiency, and maximum output, factory owners used time-and-motion studies to organize their work and configure the jobs of their workers. The goal, as Taylor defined it in his celebrated 1911 treatise, The Principles of Scientific Management, was to identify and adopt, for every job, the “one best method” of work and thereby to effect “the gradual substitution of science for rule of thumb throughout the mechanic arts.” Once his system was applied to all acts of manual labor, Taylor assured his followers, it would bring about a restructuring not only of industry but of society, creating a utopia of perfect efficiency. “In the past the man has been first,” he declared; “in the future the system must be first.”

Taylor’s system is still very much with us; it remains the ethic of industrial manufacturing. And now, thanks to the growing power that computer engineers and software coders wield over our intellectual lives, Taylor’s ethic is beginning to govern the realm of the mind as well. The Internet is a machine designed for the efficient and automated collection, transmission, and manipulation of information, and its legions of programmers are intent on finding the “one best method”—the perfect algorithm—to carry out every mental movement of what we’ve come to describe as “knowledge work.”

Google’s headquarters, in Mountain View, California—the Googleplex—is the Internet’s high church, and the religion practiced inside its walls is Taylorism. Google, says its chief executive, Eric Schmidt, is “a company that’s founded around the science of measurement,” and it is striving to “systematize everything” it does. Drawing on the terabytes of behavioral data it collects through its search engine and other sites, it carries out thousands of experiments a day, according to the Harvard Business Review, and it uses the results to refine the algorithms that increasingly control how people find information and extract meaning from it. What Taylor did for the work of the hand, Google is doing for the work of the mind.

The company has declared that its mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It seeks to develop “the perfect search engine,” which it defines as something that “understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want.” In Google’s view, information is a kind of commodity, a utilitarian resource that can be mined and processed with industrial efficiency. The more pieces of information we can “access” and the faster we can extract their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers.

Where does it end? Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the gifted young men who founded Google while pursuing doctoral degrees in computer science at Stanford, speak frequently of their desire to turn their search engine into an artificial intelligence, a HAL-like machine that might be connected directly to our brains. “The ultimate search engine is something as smart as people—or smarter,” Page said in a speech a few years back. “For us, working on search is a way to work on artificial intelligence.” In a 2004 interview with Newsweek, Brin said, “Certainly if you had all the world’s information directly attached to your brain, or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain, you’d be better off.” Last year, Page told a convention of scientists that Google is “really trying to build artificial intelligence and to do it on a large scale.”

Such an ambition is a natural one, even an admirable one, for a pair of math whizzes with vast quantities of cash at their disposal and a small army of computer scientists in their employ. A fundamentally scientific enterprise, Google is motivated by a desire to use technology, in Eric Schmidt’s words, “to solve problems that have never been solved before,” and artificial intelligence is the hardest problem out there. Why wouldn’t Brin and Page want to be the ones to crack it?

Still, their easy assumption that we’d all “be better off” if our brains were supplemented, or even replaced, by an artificial intelligence is unsettling. It suggests a belief that intelligence is the output of a mechanical process, a series of discrete steps that can be isolated, measured, and optimized. In Google’s world, the world we enter when we go online, there’s little place for the fuzziness of contemplation. Ambiguity is not an opening for insight but a bug to be fixed. The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive.

The idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines is not only built into the workings of the Internet, it is the network’s reigning business model as well. The faster we surf across the Web—the more links we click and pages we view—the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements. Most of the proprietors of the commercial Internet have a financial stake in collecting the crumbs of data we leave behind as we flit from link to link—the more crumbs, the better. The last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction.

Maybe I’m just a worrywart. Just as there’s a tendency to glorify technological progress, there’s a countertendency to expect the worst of every new tool or machine. In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, in the words of one of the dialogue’s characters, “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.” And because they would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” they would “be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.” They would be “filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.” Socrates wasn’t wrong—the new technology did often have the effects he feared—but he was shortsighted. He couldn’t foresee the many ways that writing and reading would serve to spread information, spur fresh ideas, and expand human knowledge (if not wisdom).

The arrival of Gutenberg’s printing press, in the 15th century, set off another round of teeth gnashing. The Italian humanist Hieronimo Squarciafico worried that the easy availability of books would lead to intellectual laziness, making men “less studious” and weakening their minds. Others argued that cheaply printed books and broadsheets would undermine religious authority, demean the work of scholars and scribes, and spread sedition and debauchery. As New York University professor Clay Shirky notes, “Most of the arguments made against the printing press were correct, even prescient.” But, again, the doomsayers were unable to imagine the myriad blessings that the printed word would deliver.

So, yes, you should be skeptical of my skepticism. Perhaps those who dismiss critics of the Internet as Luddites or nostalgists will be proved correct, and from our hyperactive, data-stoked minds will spring a golden age of intellectual discovery and universal wisdom. Then again, the Net isn’t the alphabet, and although it may replace the printing press, it produces something altogether different. The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds. In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas. Deep reading, as Maryanne Wolf argues, is indistinguishable from deep thinking.

If we lose those quiet spaces, or fill them up with “content,” we will sacrifice something important not only in our selves but in our culture. In a recent essay, the playwright Richard Foreman eloquently described what’s at stake:

I come from a tradition of Western culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense and “cathedral-like” structure of the highly educated and articulate personality—a man or woman who carried inside themselves a personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the West. [But now] I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self—evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the “instantly available.”

As we are drained of our “inner repertory of dense cultural inheritance,” Foreman concluded, we risk turning into “‘pancake people’—spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button.”

I’m haunted by that scene in 2001. What makes it so poignant, and so weird, is the computer’s emotional response to the disassembly of its mind: its despair as one circuit after another goes dark, its childlike pleading with the astronaut—“I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m afraid”—and its final reversion to what can only be called a state of innocence. HAL’s outpouring of feeling contrasts with the emotionlessness that characterizes the human figures in the film, who go about their business with an almost robotic efficiency. Their thoughts and actions feel scripted, as if they’re following the steps of an algorithm. In the world of 2001, people have become so machinelike that the most human character turns out to be a machine. That’s the essence of Kubrick’s dark prophecy: as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.

Hindu Voice UK, August 2008

VIEW RELATED GALLERY "LIFE ALONG THE GANGA" http://www.hinduvoice.co.uk/Issues/18/GalleryGanga.htm

This three part documentary series takes the form of a journey along the River Ganga, from her origins on the peaks of the Himalayas along her path to the sea. It brings out beautifully the wildlife, culture and beliefs connected with this great river as well as the way in which human civilization has grown and thrived along its banks.

The scenery of the mountains, wildlife and culture are awe inspiringly brilliant. The viewer is taken away from their every day mundane concerns back into a world which feels much more in tune with deeper and nobler human aspirations. In comparison, our modern civilization seems rootless and cold, a materialistic pursuit taking us further away from nature and entwining our soul in sorrow born of greed and unhealthy desire. We are shown rare footage of the origins of the Ganga, the rugged and beautiful mountains, and the people who live or journey there.

The commentary too is very good, combining a factual account with respect and sensitivity towards the people who are the subjects of the documentary. Too often, documentaries about people who live non-western or non-modern lifestyles are portrayed in a patronizing way, as if they are backward people who have not yet reached intellectual maturity. Many Hindus have commented that several BBC documentaries have portrayed Hinduism with a negative, almost colonial bias. But here, it is shown how the beliefs of Hinduism have protected and preserved the river and wildlife, and are in fact the greatest hope for the survival of the endangered river and creatures.

All in all it is a rare and excellent series, which I would confidently recommend every Hindu household to purchase. In particular Hindu parents may wish to buy it for their kids, as it is notoriously difficult to obtain quality educational materials to introduce young people to Hinduism. The whole family will find it a treat to watch and each will go away with a deeper appreciation of his/her heritage.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ganges-BBC-Series/dp/B000S6UZOM

more about the sacred Ganges HERE:

DHAKA, BANGLADESH, August 12, 2008: Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM), an NGO possessing special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, has by its Bangladesh Chapter‘s Secretary General Mr Rabindranath Trivedi, filed a writ petition to the High Court Divisions of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on the complete abolishment of Vested Property Act. The Vested Property Act was a controversial law in Bangladesh that allowed the Government to confiscate property from individuals it deemed as an enemy of the state. Before independence it was known as the Enemy Property Act and is still referred to as such in common parlance. The act is criticised as a tool for appropriating the lands of the minority Hindu population.

It is alleged that interest groups of political parties in power and individuals by making use of this Vested Property Act, continue to appropriate property belonging to the Hindu community, and indeed to do so with the complicity of the authorities and the influential people. The Vested Property Act represents a major source of insecurity and of human rights violation against the Hindu community. It is clear that the Vested Property Act (VPA) is detrimental to minorities and to the religious harmony of Bangladesh.

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

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Hyderabad/Tirumala_temple_closed_for_eclipse/articleshow/3317125.cms

TIRUPATI, INDIA, August 3, 2008: The hill temple of Lord Venkateswara wore a deserted look on Friday following solar eclipse. Usually on any given day not less than 60,000 pilgrims throng the hill shrine but on Friday owing to the solar eclipse, few  turned up. All the 54 compartments in Vaikuntam Queue Complex-I and II, which are generally occupied completely, not even five were fullly occupied as there were many less pilgrims waiting for darshan. Still, a handful means over a thousand people when one talks about Tirupati.

The temple doors were closed after an abhishekam was performed at around 9:30 am. The temple remained closed for 10 hours. The doors were be opened only after 7:30 pm after ‘Suddhi Samprokshanam’ was performed to rid of the negative impact of eclipse. Even the temple kitchen (potu) was closed due to the eclipse. “As per shastras, the eclipse would spoil food items. So we did not prepare prasadam,” said an official. The eclipse badly affected the business of traders on the hill shrine.

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

news.com.au on 24 Jul 2008

FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist.

And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.

Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'

He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.

He claimed our technology is "not nearly as sophisticated" as theirs and "had they been hostile", he warned "we would have been gone by now".

Dr Mitchell, along with with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest ever moon walk, at nine hours and 17 minutes during their 1971 mission.

"I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real," Dr Mitchell said.

"It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.

"I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes - we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it's been happening quite a bit."

Dr Mitchell, who has a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and a Doctor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics claimed Roswell was real and similar alien visits continue to be investigated.

He told the astonished Kerrang! radio host Nick Margerrison: "This is really starting to open up. I think we're headed for real disclosure and some serious organisations are moving in that direction."

Mr Margerrison said: "I thought I'd stumbled on some sort of astronaut humour but he was absolutely serious that aliens are definitely out there and there's no debating it."

Officials from NASA, however, were quick to play the comments down.

In a statement, a spokesman said: "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe.

'Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinions on this issue.'

Presented at the Vaisnava-Christian Conference on January 20-21, 1996 at Buckland Hall, Powys, Wales.

The Sparks of God

The soul, or self (atma), is described as a separated, minute fragment of God, the Supersoul (paramatma). God is like a fire; the individual souls, sparks of the fire. As the analogy suggests, the self and the Superself are simultaneously one with and different from each other. They are the same in quality, for both the soul and the Supersoul are brahman, spirit. Yet they differ in quantity, since the Superself (param brahman—“supreme brahman”—in Bhagavad-gita 10.12) is infinitely great while the individual selves are infinitesimally small.

In the Upanisads some texts assert the identity between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul, while others speak of the difference between them. The way the Vaisnava Vedanta resolves this apparent contradiction recognises identity and difference as equally real.

Such a reconciliation is conveyed in the Katha Upanisad (2.2.13) in the words nityo nityanam cetannas cetananam eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman. (“There is one eternal being out of many eternals, one conscious being out of many conscious beings. It is the one who provides for the needs of the many.”) This text states, in effect, that there is a class division in transcendence. It says that there are two categorically different types of eternal, conscious—hence, spiritual—beings. One category is singular in number (nityo), a set with only one member. This, then, is the category of God, who is one without a second. The other class is plural (nityanam), containing innumerable members. This is the category of the souls. The members of both classes are brahman, spirit. Yet one of them is unique, peerless, in a class by Himself, for He is the singular, independent self-sustaining sustainer of all others. Each of the others possesses a multitude of peers, and all of them alike are intrinsically dependent upon the one. The one is the absolute, the many are relative.
The Energies of the Absolute

Fundamental to the Vaisnava Vedanta is the doctrine that the Absolute Truth possesses energies. (The impersonalistic Advaita Vedanta, in contrast, denies the reality of the energies.) The energies are divided into different categories; one of them is comprised of the innumerable individual souls.

The “Absolute Truth” denotes that from which everything emanates, by which it is sustained, and to which it finally returns. The products of the Absolute are thought of as its sakti, its energy or potency. Heat and light, for example, are considered the “energies” of fire. Just as the sun projects itself everywhere by its radiation yet remains apart, so the Absolute expands its own energies to produce (and, in a fashion, to become) the world while remaining separate from it. Unlike the sun, the Absolute can emanate unlimited energy and remain undiminished. (The arithmetic of the Absolute: One minus one equals one.) In short, while nothing is different from God, God is different from everything.

The host of souls makes up the category of divine energy called the tatastha-sakti. Tata means “bank,” as of a river or lake. Tatastha means “situated on the bank.” The souls are characterised as marginal or borderline energy because they are, as it were, between two worlds. They can dwell within either of the other two major energies, the internal (antaranga-sakti) and the external (bahiranga-sakti). The internal potency is also known as the spiritual energy (cit-sakti), and the external potency is also called the material energy (maya-sakti). The internal potency expands as the transcendental realm, the eternal Kingdom of God. The external potency expands as the material world, which is sometimes manifest and sometimes unmanifest.

Because souls are spiritual, their original home is the spiritual kingdom. Almost all souls dwell there. These are called eternally liberated souls. Only a tiny minority of souls inhabit this material world. These are called fallen, or conditioned, souls.

Souls are small samples of God. Hence they possess a minute quantity of that freedom which God possesses in full. Although they are eternal, full of knowledge and bliss, and although their dharma, or essential nature, is to serve God, they may still, in the exercise of that freedom, wilfully turn away from divine service. Thereupon these souls fall into the inhospitable realm of the external, material energy.

Because souls are constitutionally servants, even the rebellious souls remain under God’s control, but that control is now exercised indirectly and unfavourably through the agency of material nature. Souls do not have the freedom not to be controlled by God, but they do choose freely how they wish to be controlled. Those who will not voluntarily be controlled by the Lord are controlled involuntarily by material nature. For this reason, spiritual souls become incarcerated within matter. Under the superintendence of the Lord, there is a confluence of the marginal and the external energies, and the creation arises.
Spirits in the Material World

The presence of spirit within the material world is disclosed immediately to us by consciousness. Consciousness is the symptom of the soul. It is the current or the energy of the soul. Consciousness does not arise as a by-product of the material energy. A material object like a table or chair is entirely an object and in no way a subject. It does not undergo experiences. It has no significance for itself. An embodied soul, a living being, on the other hand, is a subject; it has significance for itself as well as for others; it undergoes experiences. The claim that the soul is a “metaphysical entity” beyond all possible experience is simply false. Not only do we experience the soul; the soul is the very condition for our having any experiences at all.

Thus, souls are fundamental, irreducible entities in the world. Each living, conscious being is of a different category from the material energy which embodies and surrounds it. The Upanisads declare: aham brahmasmi, I am brahman, I am spirit. The corollary is: I am not matter. And further: I am not this body. Human beings achieve their full potential when they realise this.

The material elements, of which living bodies are made, are traditionally given as eight: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and false ego. They are arranged in sequence from the grossest to the subtlest, that is, from the most apparent to our senses to the least. The first five are the gross elements (maha-bhuta-s); the last three, the subtle elements (suksma-bhuta-s). The gross elements become more intelligible to us when translated as: solids, liquids, gases, radiant energy, and space. The subtle elements, taken together, make up what we in the West generally call the “mind.” The subtle element manas, or mind, is the locus of habit, of normal thinking, feeling, and willing according to one’s established mind-set. Buddhi, or intelligence, is the higher faculty of discrimination and judgement; it determines mind-sets and comes to the fore when we undergo conversions or paradigm shifts. Ahamkara, or the sense of self, is the faculty by which the embodied soul assumes a false or illusory identity in the material world.

Conditioned souls attain human form after transmigrating upward through the scale of beings; thereupon they become capable of self-realisation and liberation. Liberation means giving up the false identification of the self with the gross and subtle material coils and regaining one’s original spiritual form as a servant of God.

Even in the conditioned state, the soul always remains a spiritual being. Like a dreamer who projects his identity onto an illusory, dream-self, the conditioned soul acquires a false self of matter. Although the self is by nature eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss, this nature becomes covered by illusion. Identifying with the material body, the soul is plunged into the nightmare of history, trapped in the revolutions of repeated birth and death (mrtyu-samsara). This false identification by the embodied souls with their psychophysical coverings is the cause of all their suffering.

The quest by conditioned souls for happiness in this world inevitably fails. The eternal souls naturally seek eternal happiness, yet they seek it where all happiness is temporary. The fulfillment of the most common and basic desire, that of self-preservation, has not once met with success. Indeed, the deluded souls do not know that matters are just the opposite of the way they seem. Gratification of the senses is in fact the generator of suffering, not happiness. This is because each act of sense gratification intensifies the soul’s false identification with the body. Consequently, when the body undergoes disease, senescence, and death, the materially absorbed living beings experience all these as happening to themselves. Death is an illusion they have imposed upon themselves owing to their desire to enjoy in this world. So enjoying, their agony continues unabated. A mind brimming with unfulfilled yearnings propels them, at the time of death, into new material bodies, to begin yet another round.

Recovering the Authentic Self

Fallen souls have been granted a false material identity because they reject their authentic spiritual identity. The traces of that rejection are found everywhere. We see that all organisms, from microbes on up, are driven by the mechanism of desire and hate, by “approach” and “avoidance.” This duality is the reverberation of the original sinful will that propelled them into this world. The original sinful desire is: “Why can’t I be God?” And the original sinful hate, “Why should Krishna be God?”

When souls evince the desire to become the Lord, the Lord responds by granting them the illusion of independent lordship. They enter the material kingdom, to be provided with a sequence of false identities—costumes fabricated out of material energy—along with an inventory of objects which they think they can dominate and enjoy. Even so, the Lord accompanies them in their wanderings, dwelling in their hearts as He works to bring about their eventual rectification and return from exile. When the soul in the depth of his being again turns to God, the Lord makes all arrangements for his inauthentic, illusory life to end.

The renovation of real life is called bhakti-yoga—reconnecting the soul with the Supersoul (yoga) by loving devotional service (bhakti). Bhakti rests upon the principle that desire and activity are not in themselves bad. The soul itself is the source of desire and activity. The original, pure desire of the soul is to satisfy the senses of the Lord. This is called prema, or love. When souls contact matter, their love becomes transformed into lust (kama), which is the desire to satisfy one’s own senses. The practice of bhakti-yoga reconverts lust into love. Desire is not suppressed or repressed; it is purified. One may call this “sublimation,” but it should be understood that when desire is thus sublimated it returns to its own natural and aboriginal state.

The world, the body with its senses, the sense objects are not to be enjoyed, but neither are they to be renounced. The world is God’s energy, and it should not be decried as false or evil. Rather, the elements of this world are to be engaged in divine service. When that is done, the veil of illusion is lifted, and everything and everyone are seen in their true identity: in relationship to God. The way to see divinity everywhere and in everything is to utilise everything in the Lord’s service. God is the first of fact, but our materially contaminated senses cannot perceive Him. When, however, the senses become purified by being engaged in the Lord’s service, they regain their capacity to perceive God directly.

Such purified souls are fully joyful. They neither hanker nor lament. Their happiness does not depend upon the course of circumstance. They see all living beings as the same. They see that all the agony and hopelessness of the world is exorcised when the illusion that has rendered us oblivious to our own identity is dispelled, and they engage themselves in the highest welfare work of rousing sleeping souls from their nightmare. For themselves, they take no mind of what becomes of the future of their lives.

Because they have no material desires, there is no further birth for them in this world. Instead, they attain their original spiritual forms in the kingdom of God, spiritual bodies suitable for pastimes of love with the Lord.

Spirits in the Spiritual World

The Absolute Truth has both an impersonal and a personal feature, but the personal feature is the last word in Godhead. To say the Absolute is a person is to say that it has senses (indriya-s). Traditionally, the senses are ten: those through which the world acts upon us (instruments of hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, and smelling), and those through which we act upon the world (instruments of manipulation, locomotion, sound production, reproduction, and evacuation). The mind is often considered the eleventh sense. A body, accordingly, may be thought of as an array of senses organised around a centre of consciousness. Thus, to say that the Absolute is a person is to say that the Absolute has body or form.

The body of God is not material. It is a spiritual or transcendental form—sad-cit-ananda-vigraha, an eternal form of bliss and knowledge. Though differentiated by limbs or parts, a spiritual body is nevertheless completely unified and identical with its own possessor. Therefore, in God, there is no difference between body and soul, mind and body, soul and mind. Every limb or part of that body can perform all functions of every other limb.

Because the Absolute is a person, the souls, the offspring of God, are also persons, and they fully manifest their authentic identity only in relationship with the Supreme Person. When conditioned souls act under the impetus of sense gratification, their bodies evolve materially. But when the souls act in their constitutional position, their love toward God displays itself as the soul’s proper spiritual bodies. Thus, the selves achieve their full personal identity and self-expression as lovers of God.

All relationships in this world are dim and perverted reflections of their real prototypes in the kingdom of God. The taste or flavour of a relationship is called rasa (literally, “juice”). It is said that there are five primary rasa-s a soul can have toward the Lord. In order of increasing intimacy, they are passive adoration, servitorship, fraternal, parental, and conjugal.

God and His devotees engage in eternal pastimes of loving exchanges in spiritual forms that are sheer embodiments of rasa. Such bodies are the unmediated concrete expressions of spiritual ecstasies. These unceasing, uninterrupted, ever-increasing variegated ecstasies are nondifferent from the souls and from the spiritual bodies that bear them. The forms and activities of the Lord and His devotees all possess transcendental specificity and variegatedness. The forms of love are not abstractions and their relations are not allegories. In the kingdom of God life is infinitely more full, vivid, and real than anything of the thin shadows that flicker here, on and off. Here, we are not what we are. There, we are truly ourselves again because we are truly God’s.

Why not every scientist worships at Darwin's feet
John Lennox, The Age
August 18, 2008

Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's 'On The Origin Of Species'. The momentous occasion will be celebrated with new books, articles, documentaries and editorials. One commentator has called for a public holiday in Britain to honour Darwin - the "humble Shrewsbury family man who changed the world forever".

Scattered among the world's top scientists are those who do believe in a conscious intention behind nature's processes. I think of people such as Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project, and Professor Bill Phillips, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997.

The presence of such people poses awkward questions for the view that evolutionary theory and a sophisticated scientific brain lead inexorably towards atheism. There must be more to the so-called "science versus God" story than this.

Indeed, the fact that there are brilliant scientists who believe in God and brilliant scientists who don't makes it clear that the conflict is not a simplistic one between science and religion, but between opposing world views - naturalism and theism.

More on Darwin HERE

Chaitanya lila das: Sri Krishna Janmashtami is the celebration of the appearance day of Lord Krishna on the eighth day of the dark half of the month of Bhadra.

Lord Krishna is the original person (adi purusha), Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom all other incarnations expand. He appeared as the eighth son of Devaki and Vasudeva. He was born as a baby with four hands, holding conch shell, club, disc, and lotus flower, decorated with the mark of Shrivatsa, wearing the jeweled necklace of the Kaustubha stone, dressed in yellow silk, appearing dazzling like a bright blackish cloud, wearing a helmet bedecked with the Vaidurya stone, valuable bracelets, earrings and similar other ornaments all over His body and an abundance of hair on His head.

At ISKCON Silicon Valley, the Deities are dressed most grandly with new dresses and jewelery. The temple is so grandly decorated that it heralds the most celebrated event in the whole universe. Huge crowds throng the temple for darshana till midnight. The devotees fast till midnight, all the while engaging in various services.

In Your Service:

Chaitanya Lila das a. - Sachimata dd. & BB.

Amazing Sri Krishna Janmashtami Deities darshan 2008:

(Go to the page and click on the YouTube video file)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl_kSlRrgf4

Listen to Prabhupada's explanation & kirtan below

The transcendental vibration established by the chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is the sublime method of reviving our Krsna consciousness. As living spiritual souls we are all originally Krsna conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial, our consciousness is now polluted by the material atmosphere. The material atmosphere, in which we are now living, is called Maya, or illusion. Maya means "that which is not." And what is this illusion? The illusion is that we are all trying to be lords of material nature, while actually we are under the grip of her stringent laws. When a servant artificially tries to imitate the all-powerful master, this is called illusion. In this polluted concept of life, we are all trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we are becoming more and more entangled in her complexities. Therefore, although we are engaged in a hard struggle to conquer nature, we are ever more dependent on her. This illusory struggle against material nature can be stopped at once by the revival of our Krsna consciousness. Krsna consciousness is not an artificial imposition of the mind; this consciousness is the original energy of the living entity. When we hear the transcendental vibration, this consciousness is revived. And this is the process recommended for this age by authorities. By practical experience also, one can perceive that by chanting this maha-mantra or the Great Chanting for Deliverance, one can at once feel a transcendental ecstasy coming through from the spiritual stratum. And when one is factually on the plane of spiritual understanding-surpassing the stages of the senses, mind, and intelligence-one is situated on the transcendental plane.

This chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is directly enacted from the spiritual platform, and thus this sound vibration surpasses all lower strata of consciousness-namely sensual, mental, and intellectual. There is no need, therefore, to understand the language of the mantra, nor is there any need for mental speculation or any intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It springs automatically from the spiritual platform, and as such, anyone can take part in the chanting without any previous qualification, and dance in ecstasy.

We have seen this practically. Even a child can take part in the chanting, or even a dog can take part in it. Of course, for one who is too entangled in material life, it takes a little more time to come to the standard point, but even such a materially engrossed man is raised to the spiritual platform very quickly. When the mantra is chanted by a pure devotee of the Lord in love, it has the greatest efficacy on the hearers, and as such, this chanting should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, so that immediate effects can be achieved. As far as possible, chanting from the lips of non-devotees should be avoided. Milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects.

The word Hara is the form of addressing the energy of the Lord, and the words Krsna and Rama are addressing the Lord Himself. Both Krsna and Rama mean "the supreme pleasure" and Hara is the supreme pleasure energy of the Lord, changed to hare in the vocative. The supreme pleasure energy of the Lord helps us to reach the Lord.

The material energy, called Maya, is also one of the multi energies of the Lord. And we, the living entities, are also the energy-marginal energy-of the Lord. The living entities are described as superior to material energy. When the superior energy is in contact with the inferior energy, an incompatible situation arises; but when the superior marginal energy is in contact with the superior energy, called Hara, the living entity is established in his happy, normal condition.

These three words, namely Hare, Krsna, and Rama, are transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra. The chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His internal energy, Hara, to give protection to the conditioned soul. This chanting is exactly like the genuine cry of a child for its mother. Mother Hara helps the devotee achieve the grace of the supreme Father, Hari, or Krsna, and the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely.

No other means of spiritual realization, therefore, is as effective in this age as chanting the maha-mantra:

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

Read more on Chanting Hare Krishna HERE:

By ISKCON News Staff on 9 Aug 2008

Lord Jagannath blessed the city of Paris with His Ratha Yatra festival for the eighteenth year on July 6th, 2008.

A dense maze of government beauraucracy in previous years encouraged devotees to personally approach police officers and city officials six months in advance for permission this year.

“The personal contact with them was warm and encouraging,” says organizer Srinath Dasa. “We got nice letters from various officers, and received the exact spots we wanted. Even better, representatives from two Mairies (town halls) attended the inauguration ceremony and spoke very appreciatively.”

Other special guest speakers included Indian ambassador His Excellency Mr Ranjan Methai, Mr Prakash Hinduja from Geneva, and GBC for France Param Gati Swami.

The parade departed from a square next to Canal de la Vilette, accompanied by a thundering chanting party featuring five drummers, including three traditional Brazilian zacumbas.

While passing through La Chapelle, Paris’ own “Little India,” the cart had to stop often so that the Deities could accept special offerings from shopkeepers.

The four hour parade ended at Forum des Halles, the very center of Paris, and, according to Srinath, “The best spot we could have imagined.” Devotees had erected a “Krishna Village” with twenty stalls and an ongoing stage program alternating dance, bhajans and spiritual talks.

Thousands of curious visitors had been milling through the Village throughout the day, but when Jagannath arrived riding His majestic cart, the crowd expanded to bursting point. In only a few hours, fifty servants handed out five thousand plates of sacred prasadam food, fifteen thousand laddhus and hundreds of fruits and cold drinks.

Mrs Azria, General Secretary of Le Maire du ler Arrondissement de Paris, commented: “I am very happy to have come here, and feel shy to receive so much honor. This festival is wonderful. You can rely on me to provide you with the use of Forum des Halles as your festival site for years to come.”

Bomb blasts ravage Gujarat

Hindu Voice UK, August 2008

At least 55 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a series of 19 low intensity blasts which shook the Indian city of Ahmedabad on 26th July 2008. The bombs were planted in tiffins, usually used for food, hanging on bicycles stationed in various parts of the city.

The large number and sheer cold and calculating planning of the bomb attacks has deeply shaken India. To illustrate this, Ahmedabad Civic Hospital was targeted several minutes after other bomb blasts in the locality. The idea was to strike deeper terror at the previous victims and their families, who were at that time rushing to the hospital.

There were touching stories such as that of a young teenager who went to do sewa (selfless service) to help victims of the first bomb blasts in his locality. He was involved in helping people get to the hospital when a bomb went off outside the hospital, thus ending his life.

Six bombs were found and diffused elsewhere in Ahmedabad that night and a further 18 in the neighbouring city of Surat the next day. As a result, the public have been afraid to go out, and schools, cinema halls and many other public buildings were shut down.

A group calling themselves the “Indian Mujahideen” claimed responsibility for the atrocities, calling on Muslims to punish the “irresolute kafireen [infidels] of India.” They claimed to be acting on behalf of Indian Muslims in revenge for, amongst other things, the 2002 Gujarat riots as well as a series of other grievances.

However, the Indian intelligence agencies have stated their belief that the “Indian Mujahideen” is a front for other groups who are trying to incite a more widespread terrorist trend amongst Indian Muslims by pretending to be Indian Muslims. The police intercepted messages from the Bangladesh based terrorist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) indicating their hand in the planning.

Three men have been named by police as likely masterminds behind the blasts, Rasool Khan, Sohail Khan and Mufti Sufiyan. On July 29 police detained three further suspects, Abdul Qadir, Hasil Mohammad and Hussain Ibrahim, near Limbi on Rajkot-Ahmedabad highway in Surendranagar district, while they were leaving Ahmedabad soon after the blasts.

The Ahmedabad blasts came a day after a similar series of blasts in India’s IT hub of Bengalaru (formerly Bangalore) which killed 2 people and injured 20. In May, blasts in Rajasthan killed 80. Hence there is widespread fear that anti-Indian terrorism is entering a new more dangerous phase.

Pavan Verma
Hindu Voice UK, August 2008

Recently the subject of knife crime in Britain has caught the national attention more than ever before after a series of stabbing incidents, many of which have been fatal.

A very long time ago, I used to carry a knife around. It was pretty stupid, and in hindsight I regret it. The question is: what was it that made me, a little Indian boy from a religious family, think it was a good idea to carry a knife around?

It’s hard to pin down one’s journey into wannabe gangsterism to one factor. But a lot of young people, myself included, start to act in a way that is perceived to gain us respect by our peers.

There is nothing necessarily wrong with wanting to be known as “strong” per se. In fact there is something innate in human beings that makes us respect people who can fight or wield weapons. This is due to a million years of history in which men who could fight were more likely to be able to secure food and protect their families.

The question is how, while accepting the unavoidable allure of violence, society can channel this basic human tendency so that it isn’t so mindless and destructive. The problem today is that many young people try to act hard by involving themselves in mindless violence that ruins lives, and think that starting trouble with passers by is OK. In trying to combat such violence one of the problems, which has failed to gain significant mention, is the glorification of violence and thuggery in many parts of modern culture, so much so that many people feel that acting tough is a key to being respected.

It has been said by a great Hindu philosopher of modern times that “entertainment moulds the attitudes of an entire nation; therefore entertainment should seek to be constructive and educative.”

The glorification of stupid mindless violence in entertainment is quite pronounced in certain forms of music and film. Once I was on a basketball court with a few friends, and some guys came and started playing on the same court. After a few minutes it was clear they wanted to cause trouble with us and within an hour or so an altercation broke out. It was stupid and mindless. Amusingly at the end of it, one of the troublemakers said something along the lines of “Sorry about the trouble, it’s just that we’ve all just watched ‘Above the Rim’, so were all fired up.”

Above the Rim is a gangster/basketball movie, and although it probably doesn’t intend to, it makes “acting hard” and being indiscriminately violent seem like a cool desirable thing to do. Like so many other movies, and an entire genre of music which has grown very popular over the years. Under the influence of this kind of culture, even middle class kids who live in nice houses and go to private schools gradually start yearning to act tough and to convince themselves that they are the “real deal” often begin carrying weapons around with them.

Prince Charles warns GM crops risk causing the biggest-ever environmental disaster
By Jeff Randall August 12

The mass development of genetically modified crops risks causing the world's worst environmental disaster, The Prince of Wales has warned.

In his most outspoken intervention on the issue of GM food, the Prince said that multi-national companies were conducting an experiment with nature which had gone "seriously wrong".

The Prince, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph

Prince Charles warns GM crops risk causing the biggest-ever environmental disaster
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/08/12/eacharles112.xml
By Jeff Randall

The mass development of genetically modified crops risks causing the world's worst environmental disaster, The Prince of Wales has warned.
 
Listen: The Prince of Wales speaks out http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/telegraphtv/tvplayer/?ID=News&bcpid=1452232298&bclid=1452257940&bctid=1726720198
 

In his most outspoken intervention on the issue of GM food, the Prince said that multi-national companies were conducting an experiment with nature which had gone "seriously wrong".

The Prince, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph, also expressed the fear that food would run out because of the damage being wreaked on the earth's soil by scientists' research.

He accused firms of conducting a "gigantic experiment I think with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong".

"Why else are we facing all these challenges, climate change and everything?".
The Prince of Wales: 'If that is the future, count me out'

Relying on "gigantic corporations" for food, he said, would result in "absolute disaster".

"That would be the absolute destruction of everything... and the classic way of ensuring there is no food in the future," he said. 

"What we should be talking about is food security not food production - that is what matters and that is what people will not understand.

"And if they think its somehow going to work because they are going to have one form of clever genetic engineering after another then again count me out, because that will be guaranteed to cause the biggest disaster environmentally of all time."

Small farmers, in particular, would be the victims of "gigantic corporations" taking over the mass production of food.

"I think it's heading for real disaster," he said.

"If they think this is the way to go....we [will] end up with millions of small farmers all over the world being driven off their land into unsustainable, unmanageable, degraded and dysfunctional conurbations of unmentionable awfulness."

The Prince of Wales's forthright comments will reopen the whole debate about GM food.

They will put him on a collision course with the international scientific community and Downing Street - which has allowed 54 GM crop trials in Britain since 2000.

His intervention comes at a critical time. There is intense pressure for more GM products, not fewer, because of soaring food costs and widespread shortages.

Many scientists believe GM research is the only way to guarantee food for the world's growing population as the planet is affected by climate change.

They will be dismayed by such a high profile and controversial contribution from the Prince of Wales at such a sensitive time.

The Prince will be braced for the biggest outpouring of criticism from scientists since he accused genetic engineers of taking us into "realms that belong to God and God alone" in an article in the Daily Telegraph in 1998.

In the interview the Prince, who has an organic farm on his Highgrove estate, held out the hope of the British agricultural system encouraging more and more family run co-operative farms.

When challenged over whether he was trying to turn back the clock, he said: "I think not. I'm terribly sorry. It's not going backwards. It is actually recognising that we are with nature, not against it. We have gone working against nature for too long."

The Prince of Wales cited the widespread environmental damage in India caused by the rush to mass produce GM food.

"Look at India's Green Revolution. It worked for a short time but now the price is being paid.

"I have been to the Punjab where you have seen the disasters that have taken place as result of the over demand on irrigation because of the hybrid seeds and grains that have been produced which demand huge amounts of water.

"[The] water table has disappeared. They have huge problems with water level, with pesticide problems, and complications which are now coming home to roost.

"Look at western Australia. Huge salinisation problems. I have been there. Seen it. Some of the excessive approaches to modern forms of agriculture."

He said that the scientists were putting too much pressure on nature.

"If you are not working with natural assistance you cause untold problems. which become very expensive and very difficult to undo.

It places impossible burdens on nature and leads to accumulating problems which become more difficult to sort out."

In a keynote speech last year the Prince of Wales warned that the world faces a series of natural disasters within 18 months unless a £15 billion action plan is agreed to save the world's rain forests.

He has set up his own rain forest project with 15 of the world's largest companies, environmental and economic experts, to try to find ways to stop their destruction.

Only two weeks ago British GM researchers lobbied ministers for their crops to be kept in high-security facilities or in fields at secret locations across the country to prevent them from being attacked and destroyed.

They spoke out after protesters ripped up crops in one of only two GM trials to be approved in Britain this year.

Scientists claim the repeated attacks on their trials are stifling vital research to evaluate whether GM crops can reduce the cost and environmental impact of farming and whether they will grow better in harsh environments where droughts have devastated harvests.

Bhaktivedanta Manor Newsletter on 8 Aug 2008

UK charity ‘Food For All’ was presented with the first prize trophy at this year’s Novelis Community Recycling Project awards. The ceremony took place in central London and was attended by groups from all over the country who are pro-active in recycling.

Novelis, the largest recycler of aluminium drink cans in Europe, praised the charity's collection and distribution of fresh food from supermarkets which would otherwise be thrown away.

Parasuram Dasa, director of Food for All, said: “The food business wastes so much. Millions of tons of good food are wasted every year in the UK and end up in land-fills. “Often tons of packaged food is thrown away for relatively minor reasons. For example, over-produced products and items with incorrect packaging.”

Food for All has been working with Sainsburys in Watford and Camden, as well as smaller businesses.

READ MORE on Environmental Issues HERE

KATHMANDU, NEPAL, August 12, 2008: Religious authorities in Nepal have begun the search for a girl who could be as young as three or four to serve as the new Kumari, or the virgin “living goddess”, in a centuries-old tradition.

Astrologers were consulting horoscopes of candidates from Buddhist Shakya families to replace the current Kumari, Preeti Shakya, who is 11 and should retire during the annual Hindu festival of Dasain in October, temple officials said. “If we don’t change her now, we’ll have to wait until next year which could be late,” said Deepak Bahadur Pandey, a senior official of the state-run Trust Corporation that oversees the country’s cultural matters.

Under the Kumari tradition, a girl selected from a Buddhist Newar family goes through a rigorous cultural process and becomes the “living goddess”. She is considered by many as an incarnation of the powerful deity Kali and is revered until she menstruates, after which she must return to the family and a new one is chosen.

Traditionally it was believed that the girl’s horoscope should be in harmony with that of the king of Nepal. It is not clear how this formality will be completed now that Nepal has abolished the monarchy. In the past even the kings of Nepal sought her blessings.

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

Google Earth Shows Cattle Align North-South

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7575459.stm

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, September 2, 2008: Images from Google Earth have confirmed that cattle tend to align their bodies in a north-south direction. Wild deer also display this behavior - a phenomenon that has apparently gone unnoticed by herdsmen and hunters for thousands of years. In the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences, scientists say the Earth’s magnetic fields may influence the behavior of these animals. The Earth can be viewed as a huge magnet, with magnetic north and south situated close to the geographical poles. Many species - including birds and salmon - are known to use the Earth’s magnetic fields in migration, rather like a natural GPS. A few studies have shown that some mammals - including bats - also use a “magnetic compass” to help their sense of direction.

The researchers surveyed Google Earth images of 8,510 grazing and resting cattle in 308 pasture plains across the globe. “Sometimes it took hours and hours to find some pictures with good resolution,” said Dr Begall. The scientists were unable to distinguish between the head and rear of the cattle, but could tell that the animals tended to face either north or south. Their study ruled out the possibility that the Sun position or wind direction were major influences on the orientation of the cattle. Dr Begall said: “In Africa and South America, the cattle (were) shifted slightly to a more north-eastern-south-western direction. Professor John Phillips, a sensory biologist from Virginia Tech University, US, commented that this sixth magnetic sense might be “virtually ubiquitous in the animal kingdom”. He added: “We need to think about some really fundamental things that this sensory ability provides in animals.”

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

Neo-Nazi Demonstration In Berlin Against New Hindu Temple

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2381424,00.html

BERLIN, GERMANY, August 23, 2008: About 150 supporters of Germany’s far-right National Democratic Party demonstrated on Saturday in Berlin against the building of a Hindu temple. Construction work on the Hindu temple is scheduled to begin early next year, in the multi-ethnic district of Neukoelln in south Berlin.

A member of an extreme-right group, who had been subject to an arrest warrant, was seized during the neo-Nazi rally, according to a Berlin police spokesperson. At the same time, about 500 people staged a protest against the NPD demonstration. In total, eight people were arrested during the two rallies, for which 800 policemen were mobilized.

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

Ganesha Immersed in the North Sea for Ganesha Chaturthi

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid3400970,prage-1.cms

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS, September 2, 2008: At the Ganesh Chaturthi festival celebrations in the Hague, Netherlands, this year, the city will have a memorable event happening. A 2.25-meter tall Ganesha installed for the celebrations in Hague, perhaps the largest in Europe, was be shipped from Pune. The celebrations in the Hague are being organized by the United Kingdom-based Hindu Culture and Heritage Society. The body organizes celebrations of religious and cultural festivals in different European countries.

The icon, which has been made by the Deshmukh brothers, is made of plaster and painted with eco-friendly vegetable colors. The icon has been created keeping in mind the Netherlands’ stringent environmental and other rules and regulations.

According to a press note issued by the Society in the UK, it aims to adopt the tradition of oneness in order to promote peace and harmony in these times of turbulence. Also, it sees the celebrations as a way to improve intra-cultural dialogue in European countries.

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

Not Newton Alone, But Also Madhava!

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&sectid=2&contentid=20080729200807290216155316003718

MUMBAI, INDIA, August 2008: Prof. K. Ramasubramanian of IIT-Bombay has recently released  a two-volume translation of the Ganita-Yukti-Bhasa by Jyesthdeva pointing to the fact that some subsets of calculus existed in Indian manuscripts almost two centuries before Isaac Newton published his work. Also, an Indian mathematician and astronomer Nilakantha Somayaji spoke, in parts, about a planetary model, credited to Tycho Brahe almost a century later.

The Ganita-Yukti-Bhasa is divided into 15 chapters. Seven chapters are devoted to mathematics, and eight to astronomy. It was published some time between 1530 and 1540. “However, what’s important,” says Ramasubramanian, “is that the material in this book is far older. For, the author makes it clear that his manuscript only explains in detail the work described in the Tantra Sangraha by Nilakantha Somayaji. So the work spoken about is actually much older, as Nilakantha in the 15th century.”

“The Ganita-Yukti-Bhasa attributes its mathematical models work to Madhava, who lived from 1340 to 1420. That’s way ahead of Newton. But it would be too sweeping a statement to say that this was the first work on calculus,” added the professor with a conservative approach.

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

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

Sudakaran Sangaran from Malaysia asks:

"The Beijing Olympics have started with such a grand opening promising much faster, higher and further achievements in the sporting arena. We all know that diet plays a critical role in the performance of these Olympians. Eating right for these sporting stars equals to success in their respective fields. How relevant is vegetarianism to the modern day Olympian? Many still harbour the misconception that a vegetarian diet will only weaken atheletic prowess. Hope you can share some interesting information on this. We can only ask this question once in 4 years!

Carl Lewis, vegan athlete and winner of 9 Olympic Gold Medals

My reply:

Hello Suda. It's a myth that muscles, strength and endurance require the consumption of large quantities of animal-based foods. This myth began before anyone even talked about protein. During the Olympics, it's a good time to take a look at some amazing athletes who are champions and vegetarians:

Charlene Wong is a champion figure skater who represented Canada in the 1988 Calgary Olympics. She began competing at the age of 6 and in 1980 was named to the Canadian Team and represented Canada in the Junior World Championships. She was highlighted in The Vegetarian Sports Nutrition Guide by Lisa Dorfman.

Paavo Nurmi, a Finnish runner, was a vegetarian since the age of 12. He is often considered the greatest track and field athlete of all time. A long-distance runner, he competed in the 1920, 1924 and 1928 Olympics, winning 12 Olympic medals.

Chris Campbell, wrestler, trained for the 1980 Olympics but did not compete as the American team boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics. At age 37, he began training again and secured a place on the US team, winning a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics, becoming the oldest American to medal in Olympic wrestling. He says, "I take care of my body. I don't eat meat, and I do yoga every day. It makes a difference."
 

Carl Lewis, vegan athlete, won 10 Olympic medals, including 9 golds, in a career that spanned from 1979 to 1996, competing for the US. He said, "most athletes have the worst diet in the world, and they compete in spite of it."
 

Surya Bonaly, professional figure skater, represented France in the Olympics of 1992, 1994, and 1998. She is also now a US citizen. A vegetarian, she has appeared in PETA ads protesting Canada's baby seal hunt and English and French fur trade.

Debbie Lawrence, vegetarian racewalker, has been a three-time Olympian (1992, 1996, and 2000) and is the world record holder for the women's 5K racewalk event. She attributes her success to hard work and a vegetarian diet.

Murray Rose, a vegetarian since birth, has six Olympic medals. He was born in 1939 in Nairn, Scotland, but he moved to Australia with his family at an early age. He was an Olympic champion at age seventeen. He was known for his vegetarianism during his career, earning him the nickname, "The Seaweed Streak." He competed in the Olympics from 1956 through 1960, winning six medals.

Al Oerter, discus thrower, won four Olympic gold medals for the US - in 1956, 1960, 1964. He was also an abstract painter.

Edwin Moses, hurdler for the US, is a gold medalist who went eight years without losing the 400-metre hurdle. Over his career, he won two Olympic gold medals. After retirement from track, he in completed in a 1990 World Cup bobsled race in Germany and won the two-man bronze medal with US Olympian Brian Shimer. Edwin Moses is a vegetarian.

Leroy Burrell, sprinter, twice set the world record for the 100 metre sprint. He won a gold medal for the US in 1992 in Barcelona. He is a vegetarian.

As stated in "Vegetarian Diets" by the International Center for Sports Nutrition, Olympic Coach Magazine, Winter 1997:

"If care is taken to include a wide variety of foods, vegetarian diets can be nutritionally adequate to support athletic performance."

"Whether an individual is a recreational or world-class athlete, being a vegetarian does not diminish natural talent or athletic performance. As far back as the Ancient Games, Greek athletes trained on vegetarian diets and displayed amazing ability in competitive athletics."

Looking at these 10 vegetarian Olympic athletes, it's clear that the need to eat meat to be strong and a champion is a myth. A whole foods, plant-based diet will give an athlete all the excellent nutrition he or she needs to be a winner.

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

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

THE MAN WHO WAS GOING TO THE PROSTITUTE

There is a story that one man who was very rich was visiting a prostitute.  His wife inquired, "What is there wanting in me that you are going to the prostitute?"  "I go there because she dances and sings," replied her husband.  So the wife learnt dancing and singing.  In this way, one after another, she learnt dancing, singing, drinking etc.  Still he was going.  Then she asked him, "I have learnt everything that the prostitute goes.  Why are you still going?"  "There is still one thing," the husband replied.  "What is that?"  "You do not abuse my father and mother.  That you will not do."  These prostitutes, they abuse the father and mother.  In Bengal it is known as rakta kedara vega.  Then she said, "All right.  Stop.  I am no longer your wife.  I cannot abuse your father and mother.  That is not possible.  I have learnt these things for your satisfaction, but I cannot learn this thing."

MORAL: The prostitute will not only abuse the paramour, but also his father, mother, family, culture, everything,  So if you create prostitute in society, where is the hope of Brahminical culture.

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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Self Help and Motivational pages - Deals and Affiliate programs: - http://www.hknet.org.nz/index-selfhelp.html
Myth of the Aryan invasion by Dr. David Frawley: - http://www.hknet.org.nz/Aryan-invasion-mythDF.html

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.........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

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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

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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