last updated 4th April 2009

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

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>, and
Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

Human rights defenders and religious minorities have complained to Forum 18 News Service of a "wave" of hostile media coverage of religious communities. They think this is part of a government-sponsored campaign to gain greater public acceptance of a new Law restricting freedom of thought, conscience and belief. "All these articles have one source: the KNB secret police," Ninel Fokina, head of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, told Forum 18. Told that journalists and editors had denied this to Forum 18, she responded: "Who's going to admit such coverage is ordered?" Protestants such as Seventh-day Adventists, Baptists and Pentecostals have faced media attacks along with Ahmadi Muslims, the Hare Krishna community and Jehovah's Witnesses. One of many examples of media intolerance is four separate newspapers publishing an identical article attacking the Jehovah's Witnesses. One of the newspapers credited the article to a named former Jehovah's Witness, one credited a different author, and two of the newspapers credited KNB secret police offices in different Kazakh regions.
 

As Kazakhstan's Constitutional Council prepares to deliver its view of the constitutionality of the highly restrictive Law amending various laws covering religion, human rights defenders and religious minorities have complained to Forum 18 News Service of a "wave" of hostile media coverage of religious communities. They think this is part of a government-sponsored campaign to gain greater public acceptance of the new Law restricting freedom of thought, conscience and belief. "All these articles have one source: the KNB secret police," Ninel Fokina, head of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, told Forum 18 on 5 February. Told that journalists and editors had denied this to Forum 18, she responded: "Who's going to admit such coverage is ordered?"

The controversial new Law has been considered by the Constitutional Council since 8 January. In a brief announcement posted to its website today (5 February), it stated that the Law will be discussed at a meeting in the capital Astana, on the morning of 10 February.

Fokina told Forum 18 that Nikolai Belorukov from the Constitutional Council will present its view of the Law, while invited experts are expected to speak also. She said the public are allowed to attend such sessions by arrangement. She added that Constitutional Council decisions are generally released a day or two after such sessions.

The announcement of 10 February as the date when the Constitutional Council will hold its meeting on the Law came the day after the Legal Opinion by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on the draft Law was made public. The OSCE Legal Opinion ­ prepared by the OSCE/ODIHR Advisory Council on Freedom of Religion or Belief ­ makes very serious criticisms of the Law, finding that "significant outstanding issues remain if the law is to be brought into full compliance with Kazakhstan's OSCE commitments and other international standards" (see F18News 4 February 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1249).

Fokina of the Almaty Helsinki Committee said coverage of religious issues in Kazakhstan's media is now ten times greater than five years ago, with about seventy percent of such coverage consisting of hostile attacks on religious communities. She said organising such coverage falls within the "ideological work" each Akimat (administration) undertakes. She said that Kazakhstan's media are so dependent on government resources that they cannot refuse to publish material officials want to see published.

The state-controlled mass media has regularly been used to promote intolerance of religious organisations the authorities dislike, as well as support for the draft Law's restrictions on freedom of thought, conscience and belief (see eg. F18News 30 April 2008 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1123).

Forum 18 notes that prosecutors repeatedly tell the Kazakh media of cases where "dangerous" or "illegal" religious literature is confiscated and individuals are punished for often unspecified "illegal" religious activity. In its report of its activity in 2008 posted to the General Prosecutor's Office website on 29 January, the Kyzyl-Orda Prosecutor's Office reported checking up on local religious organisations, political parties and the media, resulting in 12 unnamed individuals being prosecuted under the Code of Administrative Offences. One woman, G. Asylova, was also reported as having been punished administratively on 20 October 2008 for "violating the procedure for conducting religious events".

Akmolinskaya Pravda, a Russian-language newspaper, reported on 13 December 2008 that local officials had taken part in a July 2008 training seminar on "legal aspects of the struggle with totalitarian religious cults". Volunteers from Zhas Otan, the youth division of the ruling Nur Otan party, were brought in to help in the "struggle" with such groups, while lectures were held at colleges. The paper said a Centre to Help the Victims of Destructive Religious Movements had also been set up in Kokshetau, one of several in the country. Kazakhstan Today reported on 22 November that at its opening ceremony, Gulmira Karimova, deputy head of the Regional Akimat's Department of Social Policy, said the authorities are concerned by the attraction of young people to "pseudo-spiritual movements".

Individual, named communities are often singled out for hostile coverage. "A great wave of newspaper articles against Protestants has begun," one Protestant who preferred not to be identified told Forum 18 in mid-January. "I believe this is designed to influence the Constitutional Council's decision on the new Law."

Among many recent articles seen by Forum 18, on 16 January the Russian-language paper Kazakhstanskaya Pravda criticised the Grace Church's activity across the country. The Church has faced repeated raids and pressure and a ban on its senior pastor ­ a US citizen - from entering the country (see F18News 30 January 2008 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1078).

The article, by a freelance contributor Roman Tkachev, reported that 44 church members had faced legal cases and more than ten foreigners associated with the church had been expelled. It said the church was engaged in "subversive activity" and embezzlement, and concluded: "As long as such religious movements function in the country, society ­ and that means each of us ­ will remain in danger. So de we need such 'Grace'?"" The article did not include any response to such accusations from Church members.

The following day Grace Church was attacked in Ekspress K newspaper by its Taraz correspondent, Gulzhan Asanova, who claimed that Justice Ministry experts had found that a sermon in its local congregation had incited "religious intolerance". She said the preacher, whom she did not name, faced criminal trial for inciting religious and ethnic hatred under Article 164, Part 2 of the Criminal Code. This appears to be a reference to Sarybai Tanabaev (see F18News 12 December 2008 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1229).

Both newspapers ­ which drew entirely on material from state security agencies such as the KNB secret police - rejected suggestions that the articles had been part of any campaign against religious minorities timed to coincide with consideration of the new Law. Sergei Volkov, deputy editor of Kazakhstanskaya Pravda with responsibility for the Friday edition where the article was published, laughed at the suggestion. "I can say firmly it was not part of any campaign," he told Forum 18 from Astana on 5 February. "We gave space to a journalist and he presented this material, that's all."

Asked whether the journalist could have been working with the National Security Committee (KNB) secret police or the Police, Volkov said it was "one hundred per cent not true". Asked whether he was concerned that the article described the Grace Church as dangerous without giving church members the chance to respond, he declared "No, I'm not worried."

Equally insistent that her article was not part of any campaign against religious minorities was Asanova of Ekspress K. She told Forum 18 from Taraz on 5 February that she had read about the church in a local paper and had approached the security agencies for more information. Asked why the article did not have any response from church members, she responded: "I didn't ask them. I was only interested in the fact that a criminal case is due to go to court and I didn't name the man or say he was guilty." She said church members could have contacted the paper after the article was published but had not done so. She told Forum 18 she was unaware that the same Church had been written about the day before in Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.

But not only have Protestant communities such as the Seventh-day Adventists, Baptists and Pentecostals faced media attacks, hostile coverage has extended to Ahmadi Muslims, the Hare Krishna community and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Growing use in the media is being made of claims by individuals who have left such communities. Former Jehovah's Witness Bakhitbek Tarzhanov and former Ahmadis Aleksei Tolchennikov and Yerlan Bektimirov have repeatedly been interviewed on television and in the press criticising their former faiths. On 1 December the KTK commercial television station interviewed the two former Ahmadis, declaring in its summary: "The new Religion Law must be harsher ­ that's the view of former sectarians".

Nurym Taibek of the Ahmadi community told Forum 18 on 4 February that Tolchennikov had been excluded from the community for drinking alcohol and financial impropriety and complained that he "earned money" by repeating allegations in the media. He also complained that their representatives had been invited several times to filmed debates with representatives of the state-backed Muslim Board and while "slanderous" comments about the Ahmadi community were shown on television, their own responses were cut out. He said the 31 Kanal television station repeatedly showed such material.

Four separate newspapers published an identical article attacking the Jehovah's Witnesses, and quoting their former member Tarzhanov, in February and March 2008. In a clear signal of the involvement of the KNB secret police, one of the newspapers gave Tarzhanov as the author, one credited a different name Kharuan Yakhniya, one the KNB for Atyrau Region and one the KNB for Almaty Region.

Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 from Almaty that Tarzhanov could be being used to discredit the organisation through the media. "Similar media attacks took place earlier too." They said it is unclear whether it is coincidence that articles against Jehovah's Witnesses and other religious groups coincided with the new Law reaching its last stage. "However, if it enters into force, the Religion Law would seriously restrict the practice of our religion."

The hostile press coverage also coincides with the launch of a new network, the Association of Centres for Work with Victims of Destructive Religious Movements, of which the Kokshetau centre is a part. A centre was originally founded by Yulia Denisenko in Kostanai several years ago, but, as she told Forum 18 on 5 February, she now has seven centres in the Association. "An eighth is being opened now and by the end of the year we will have a centre in each region of Kazakhstan."

She said the centres work against religious movements that are "against the family, the individual, society and the state". She did not name any groups she believe fall into this category, referring Forum 18 to the website run by the Moscow-based anti-cult activist Aleksandr Dvorkin who, she said, first gave her the idea of launching such work in Kazakhstan.

Denisenko insisted to Forum 18 that her centre in Kostanai and the Association are non-governmental organisations, but admitted that the bulk of the funding comes from the government. "We draw up projects and enter them in competitions for government funds and get support if we win." She said the centres also retain close ties with local Akimats, the Justice Ministry, the Culture Ministry and the Presidential Administration, but "most of all" with the Justice Ministry's Religious Affairs Committee.

A supporter of the proposed new Law, Denisenko said the Religious Affairs Committee and the two chambers of Parliament had invited her several times to take part in public discussions of the Law, paying her travel costs. "I gave my recommendations. If they want someone to be there it's normal for them to pay for the trip."

Mirambai Kemalov, Head of the Analytical Department of the Constitutional Council, told Forum 18 on 4 February that it is not authorised to answer whether the recent arrests of members of religious groups and media attacks against various religious communities is related to the moves to adopt the new Law.

Zhanna Onlashova, a legal expert at the Justice Ministry's Religious Affairs Committee, said the media attacks and arrests of religious believers were not being done to prove any point and have no connection to the process of new law's adoption.

"The New Law is not against religious organisations," she claimed to Forum 18 from Astana on 4 February. "On the contrary: many articles which could have made the Law stricter were removed during parliamentary discussions." She claimed that discussions had been "completely open" and that the views of religious communities had been listened to. "They never told us anything like the new Law was threatening their existence."

However, religious believers and human rights defenders have made numerous repeated criticisms of the Law (see eg. F18News 22 December 2008 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1234).

Onlashova of the Religious Affairs Committee claimed that it is in constant touch with OSCE experts to improve the Law. "It's not perfect but it is much more lenient towards religious organisations than say, in Azerbaijan, or other countries of Central Asia."

She refused to say whether the Religious Affairs Committee at the Justice Ministry considers Ahmadis, Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, Baptists, and Hare Krishna devotees as "dangerous" for society. The Justice Ministry has supported screenings of a film claiming that the Hare Krishna faith incites devotees to commit murder (see F18News 9 January 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1238). Onlashova said she first needed to find out who Forum 18 is. (END)

For a personal commentary on how attacking religious freedom damages national security in Kazakhstan, see F18News http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=564.

For more background, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan religious freedom survey at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=701.

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Kazakhstan can be found at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&religion=all&country=29.

A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=806 and a survey of religious intolerance in Central Asia is at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=815.

A printer-friendly map of Kazakhstan is available at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=kazakh.

Action follows global pressure
Julia Duin (Contact)
Friday, February 13, 2009

Kazakhstan, a key U.S. economic partner in Central Asia, has dramatically reversed legislation curtailing religious freedoms after the measure and the jailings and expulsions of two religious activists caused an international outcry.

With little explanation, the country's constitutional council announced Wednesday that amendments to a religion law were "inconsistent" with Kazakhstan's constitution.

A spokesman for the Kazakh Embassy said Thursday that the amendments did not dovetail with international human rights law and were sent back to committee.

On Feb. 4, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) assessed the law as not complying with human rights standards. The amendments bolstered the main religions in the country - Islam and the Russian Orthodox Church - whose leaders have been asking the government to crack down on religious minorities.

Human rights groups around the globe had complained about the amendments, which ratcheted up penalties for unregistered religious groups such as Baptists and Jehovah's Witnesses, and increased from 10 to 50 the minimum number of members a religious organization must have in order for it to register.

Any community smaller than that could not teach, profess their religion, own property or rent public space for religious activities. Contributions from foreigners and anonymous donors were prohibited.

By Mushfig Bayram for Forum 18 News on 14 Feb 2009

Kazakhstan's Constitutional Council announced on 11 February that the restrictive "Law on Amendments and Additions to Several Legislative Acts on Questions of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" is unconstitutional. Gulnara Baygeldy, the Council's press officer, told Forum 18 News Service from the capital Astana on 12 February that "now the President [Nursultan Nazarbaev] should decide to agree or disagree with us within 10 days." She declined to make further comments, or make the text of the Constitutional Council's judgment public. "Only after the President makes his decision can we make further comments," she told Forum 18.
The Chair of the Constitutional Council, Igor Rogov, made the announcement at a meeting in Astana widely shown on television and reported in the local media. He said that the proposed Law is not in accord with the Constitution and so "cannot be signed and brought into force".
President Nazarbaev has up to one month to respond to the decision. He can propose changes to the decision, but these must be supported by two-thirds of the Constitutional Council's members to take effect.
Rogov said the Constitutional Council particularly cited Article 39 paragraph 3 of the Constitution in support of its judgment that the draft Law is unconstitutional. This paragraph states that the "rights and freedoms stipulated by" various specific articles of the Constitution "shall not be restricted in any way". Among the articles listed is Article 14.2 stating "no one shall be subject to any discrimination for reasons of origin, social, property status, occupation, sex, race, nationality, language, attitude towards religion, convictions, place of residence or any other circumstances." Also listed is Article 19.1, which states that "everyone shall have the right to determine and indicate or not to indicate his national, party and religious affiliation."
Constitutional Council Chair Rogov said the draft Law violated the equality of all before the Law by giving different registration conditions for faiths "previously unknown in Kazakhstan". He added that the draft Law would also have infringed the rights of non-citizens by not specifically including legal residents who are not citizens as having equal rights.
Human rights defenders, religious communities, Kazakh and international human rights experts ­ including the OSCE/ODIHR Advisory Council on Freedom of Religion or Belief - are strongly critical of the draft Law's many restrictions on fundamental human rights.
Yevgeni Zhovtis, head of the Almaty-based Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, told Forum 18 on 12 February that the Constitutional Council's judgement on the draft law also implies that the current Religion Law is unconstitutional.
He told Forum 18 that, as the Constitutional Council has indicated by its use of Article 39 paragraph 3 that the current Religion Law is also unconstitutional, the Kazakh Parliament should in principle scrap all its limitations on freedom of religion or belief. An example of the limitations, Zhovtis said, is the current Law's ban on the unregistered dissemination of religious views.
"Anyone charged with breaking the current Religion Law's limitations on religious freedom can cite the Constitutional Council's decision in court," Zhovtis said. "The court can then be asked to refer the current Religion Law to the Constitutional Council, for them to directly rule on the current Religion Law's constitutionality."
Human rights defender Ninel Fokina, head of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, agrees that the current Religion Law needs to be examined. "The Constitutional Court decision was only about the proposed Law and has no retroactive effect," she told Forum 18 on 12 February. "But of course it does have an impact on the current Law." However, she pointed to the difficulty of finding 20 parliamentary deputies, or a judge, or a senior government member, who would be likely to refer the current Law to the Constitutional Council for a review.
"It is also very important," Zhovtis told Forum 18, "that as well as looking at the draft Law, people also pay attention to the continuing violations by officials of everyone's freedom of religion or belief."
Human rights defender Fokina told Forum 18 that these violations include officials repeatedly encouraging intolerance of religious minorities and freedom of thought, conscience and belief. Officials often ignore Kazakh law in carrying out human rights violations, for example banning a Hare Krishna devotee from the country after a trial which apparently never took place.

By Mushfig Bayram for Forum 18 News on Wed, 2009-02-04

Four weeks after Kazakhstan's Constitutional Council began reviewing a highly restrictive Law amending various laws covering religion, a senior official at the Constitutional Council has told Forum 18 News Service that final discussions on what their review will say have not yet taken place. "We have to finish the process of evaluation before 10 February," Mirambai Kemalov, Head of the Analytical Department, told Forum 18 from the capital Astana on 4 February.
Human rights defenders and religious communities remain highly concerned that the Constitutional Council will approve and President Nursultan Nazarbaev will sign the controversial Law. Many provisions of the Law have been seriously criticised in a Legal Opinion from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) made public today (4 February).
Highly sceptical of the authorities' intentions is Ninel Fokina, head of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, who has long opposed the new Law. "The Constitutional Council will do what it is told," she told Forum 18. "But what it is being told is unknown." She said she hopes the Constitutional Council will reject the Law as unconstitutional, but believes that even if it does so a similar Law will be proposed very quickly as the authorities are intent on increasing their control over religious activity still further. "The state's policy towards religion is part of its general policy towards civil society ­ including political parties, the media and non-governmental organisations," she told Forum 18. "This policy is to strengthen and harshen control." She predicted that arrests, raids and fines on religious communities would continue, whether or not the new Law is adopted.
The OSCE Legal Opinion ­ prepared by the OSCE/ODIHR Advisory Council on Freedom of Religion or Belief ­ highlights many provisions of the proposed Law which severely restrict freedom of religion and belief. As the OSCE Legal Opinion notes, at the start of its detailed analysis of the Law's non-compliance with international standards (which begins at paragraph 27): "many serious issues remain with respect to the Proposed Religion Law's compliance with international human rights standards, including in particular OSCE commitments."
The adoption of the new Law by Parliament in 2008 was surrounded by a campaign of intolerance against religious minorities from officials and the media, a campaign that has continued since the Law was sent to President Nazarbaev in late December.
Kazakhstan is due to chair the OSCE in 2010, and the OSCE Legal Opinion finds that there are serious problems with the Law, when it is compared against the country's OSCE commitments and international problems. Among the many problems identified in the OSCE Legal Opinion, the Executive Summary at paragraph 21 notes:
- a general pattern of structuring provisions in ways that impose impermissible limitations on manifestations of religion, in violation of applicable limitation clauses of international instruments;
- failure to fully respect the right of religious communities to acquire legal entity status;
- lack of clear standards for ascribing liability for wrongdoing of particular individuals to religious organizations;
- vague provisions which fail to comply with fundamental rule of law constraints because they are insufficiently precise and fail to give fair notice of what the law requires;
- inappropriate constraints on rights to express and disseminate religious beliefs;
- risks of non-neutral evaluation of the substantive content of religious beliefs;
- proscription of religious activities carried out by unregistered groups and on some of the religious activities of groups that have only "record registration";
- the requirement of an excessive number of members in order to obtain legal entity status (50 for each local religious organization);
- inadequate protection of the right of religious communities to autonomy in structuring their own affairs;
- parental consent provisions that are overly rigid and could deprive mature minors of religious freedom rights and could impose liability on religious groups for unpredictable teenage behavior despite good faith efforts to respect parental wishes regarding involvement of their children in religious activities;
- excessive penalties for non-compliance with registration rules;
- transition provisions that fail to adequately protect vested rights of existing religious organizations.
Paragraph 21 also notes that "in many key respects, their [smaller religious groups] rights to engage in the full range of religious activities are subjected to inappropriate limitations or restrictions."
The OSCE Legal Opinion notes in paragraph 22 that "rather than facilitating religious freedom, the Proposed Religion Law's registration provisions create potential obstacles to the rights of many groups to acquire legal entity status. The Proposed Religion Law is structured to make it difficult for smaller groups to carry out the full range of religious activities in which such groups would reasonably be expected to engage. Religious groups and local religious organizations and groups are not authorized to establish religious educational organizations. Rights to engage in missionary work, while less restricted than in an earlier draft of the legislation, are still constrained. Re-registration of all religious groups is required, putting at risk existing organizations and vested property rights in the event re-registration is denied."
The "Law on Amendments and Additions to Several Legislative Acts on Questions of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" amends numerous articles of the current Religion Law, the Code of Administrative Offences and several other laws. The Law flagrantly ignores the suggestions contained in the OSCE / Venice Commission Guidelines for Review of Legislation Pertaining to Religion or Belief.
As the OSCE Legal Opinion concludes at paragraph 104: "significant outstanding issues remain if the law is to be brought into full compliance with Kazakhstan's OSCE commitments and other international standards. In many areas, the problems with the legislation reflect legitimate concerns that appropriate legislation can address, but in a manner that addresses problems with more narrowly tailored and sensitive provisions that can solve actual problems without imposing excessive burdens on freedom of religion or belief."
Kazakh officials repeatedly - and falsely - claimed that the OSCE blocked publication of the OSCE Legal Opinion. Kazakhstan has also consistently refused to make successive drafts and amendments of the Law available for discussion, both within and outside the country. As Kazakh officials continued to claim that publication of the Legal Opinion was being blocked by the OSCE, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) told Forum 18 that it "has recommended to the Kazakh authorities that the legal review be made public, as is normal practice".
Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, Director of the ODIHR, expressed disappointment at the "hasty" passage of the Law through Parliament, and has called for it to be changed to make it "fully reflecting OSCE commitments and other international standards".
Kazakhstan ­ also in breach of its OSCE commitments - routinely incites intolerance of religious minorities. Kazakh Air Force personnel, for example, have been shown a film by the Justice Ministry claiming that the Hare Krishna faith incites devotees to murder people.
Official incitement to intolerance has also been formalised in a "State Programme of Patriotic Education," approved by a decree of President Nazarbaev, and a Justice Ministry booklet "How not to fall under the influence of religious sects". President Nazarbaev has openly attacked the right to freedom of religion or belief in Kazakhstan, despite the country being due to be Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE in 2010.
Nurym Taibek of the Ahmadis pointed out that the Justice Ministry booklet "How not to fall under the influence of religious sects" ­ which includes the Ahmadis ­ was just a "small link in a chain" of measures against them by government officials.
Intolerance of everyone's right to freedom of religion and belief has been repeatedly incited through the mass media, which has been used by the state to encourage support for both the Law and police raids on religious communities.
Religious communities in Kazakhstan have also been disturbed by increased official demands that they and their leaders complete highly intrusive questionnaires covering personal, political, religious and other matters, including who the close friends of leaders are.
Even the administration of legal rights supposedly guaranteed in Kazakhstan is open to serious criticism. 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".
In late January Kazakhstan banned a Hare Krishna devotee from visiting the country, openly breaking its own laws and also citing as a reason a trial which apparently never took place. Baptists and a missionary for the Unification Church (commonly known as the Moonies) ­ jailed after proceedings they strongly object to - are among the religious minorities who complain of unfair trials.
Similarly, legal experts have told Forum 18 that terrorism charges brought against 15 devout Muslims - which resulted in jail sentences of up to 19 and a half years - were not proven, and that at least fourteen of the accused are completely innocent.

February 23, 2009

ALMATY -- The Kazakhstan Society of Krishna Consciousness must vacate its property by February 28, according to a letter sent to them by the Kazakh authorities.

Society Chairwoman Galinna Glouz told RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service that the government offered to relocate the group to a location she described as a "dumpsite."

Deputy Governor Serik Mukanov said the organization was offered an acceptable alternative location by officials, which it accepted and then turned down at the last minute.

Last month, an American representing the Hare Krishnas was deported from Kazakhstan after landing at the Almaty airport, even though he had a valid visa.

The Kazakh government has been in conflict with the Hare Krishna community since last fall, when Almaty Oblast officials decided to demolish houses belonging to Krishna followers living on Almaty's outskirts.

Submitted by Madhava Smullen on March 13, 2009 - 7:43am.
Category: BBT Divisions
 

With the collapse of communism in 1989, ISKCON devotees in Kazakhstan began to raise their heads out of hiding and students across the country found their interest in Krishna consciousness piqued. Radheshyama Dasa-whose parents had instilled in him a love of esoteric books since childhood-was one of these. When he saw a friend of his lost in a Russian copy of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, he sought out devotees at Karaganda University, where he was a student of biology, and bought himself a stack of Srila Prabhupada’s books.

By 1991, he had joined the ISKCON temple in Moscow, and by the end of that year he was living in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and distributing the same books back to his native people.

In 1992, the first BBT book in Kazakh-Easy Journey to Other Planets-was released after being translated by a volunteer. The North European BBT wanted to strike while the iron was hot. They needed someone more full-time. And who better than their enthusiastic new book distributor in Almaty?

"I started with Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers, and between 1992 and 1994 we printed six of the most important small books," Radheshyama recalls. He’s being generous with the word ‘we’-apart from some help from a few non-devotee translators, the Kazakh BBT was a veritable one-man show, with Radheshyama serving as translator, typesetter, proofreader, and editor.

By 1997, the demand for a Kazakh Bhagavad-gita was strong-the BBT, book distributors, general public, congregation, and ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission were all asking for it. When GBC member B. B. Govinda Swami addressed the Kazakh devotees, requesting that they translate the Bhagavad-gita, it came as no surprise that Radheshyama was nominated for the job.

It was a monumental task. Starting in late 1997 at the North European BBT’s Russian translation department in Sochi City, and finishing back in the Almaty temple when that branch was shut down, Radheshyama completed translation in 2001. It took another four years to proofread the manuscript, and two more to collect the funds needed for printing. But in January 2008, after generous contributions from well-wishers, 3,000 copies of the beautiful new Kazakh Bhagavad-gita were finally printed.
 

"Thanks to the many devotees who helped, the Kazakh Gita became a reality, just as many more books will become a reality in the future,"
Radheshyama says. "Bhakta Kalkoz, a professional journalist who proofread the Bhagavad-gita and Beyond Birth and Death from his own home, deserves a special mention. His work is completely selfless-he never accepts pay. The same for Bhaktin Ulpan, a student who assisted with proofreading, for which she had to read the Kazakh Bhagavad-gita eight to ten times."

While its network is growing, the Kazakh BBT remains a part of the North European BBT, with no offices or printing facilities-Kazakh books are printed at the Moscow CIS branch. "Of course, I still dream that one day we will have our own regional Kazakh BBT office and printing house," Radheshyama says. "It would be a good step towards having a more focused work environment and saving money on transportation and printer fees."

ISKCON’s growth in Kazakhstan in general has been stunted by government persecution. In November 2006 and June 2007, local authorities bulldozed 26 of the original 66 homes owned by devotees at the Sri Vrindavan Dham community in Almaty. They also stripped the community of ownership of the separate 118-acre farm, and continue to disrupt worship at the site. Book distribution has also been a victim-in recent years, local religion leaders have worked through the government to stop devotees distributing books at universities and colleges. And distribution on the streets can be dangerous.

"Kazakh-speaking people are somewhat aggressive towards other religions, because they think they are Muslim," Radheshyama explains. "Once in 1999, Ksirodakasayi Dasa, who has distributed thousands of Kazakh books, was attacked and beaten up by one Kazakh man. Since Ksirodakasayi is very tough himself, devotees were a little surprised-until they learned that the man was a wrestling champion."

Krishna Nayaka Dasi, who began distributing books in 1990 at the age of fifteen, has her own unique method of self-defense-she pretends she’s Japanese. "If fanatics know you’re Kazakh, they’re more likely to harm you, but if they think you’re a foreigner, they’ll leave you alone or may even buy books from you," Radheshyama explains.

For those times when fanatics see through her guise, Krishna Nayaka relies on the Lord’s protection. "Recently one old man attacked her, ordering her not to preach to the Kazakh children," Radheshyama says. "Suddenly, by Pra-bhupada’s mercy, she realized that the fear had left her. With a lovely smile on her face, she said: ‘I will preach to your children.’ The man’s heart melted, and he left her alone."

Despite all the difficulty, book distribution in Kazakhstan remains healthy. And the BBT continues to produce new books there-Radheshyama is currently translating Science of Self-Realization, and many more are on the way.

For Radheshyama, life is simple. "Pra-bhupada’s books have done so much for me, and in return I want to fulfill his instructions. My long term goal in life is simply to translate, print, distribute, and teach all of Prabhupada’s books."

By Felix Corley for Forum 18 News on Tue, 2009-03-17

President Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan will not be challenging the finding of the Constitutional Council that the proposed new law amending various laws on religion is unconstitutional. The Constitutional Council told Forum 18 News Service that the Presidential Administration has informed it that President Nazarbaev agrees with its finding and is not planning to challenge it. However, Nikolai Golysin, the President's deputy spokesperson, told Forum 18 that "the head of state has given no official information on this. I don't know what official gave these remarks to the Constitutional Council."

Many in Kazakhstan remain wary, certain that officials will try again to impose harsh new restrictions on freedom of religion and belief. "This is not the end of the attempt to adopt such a law," Yevgeny Zhovtis, head of the Almaty-based Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, told Forum 18. "I think they will try again." He believes fresh attempts could come in 2011 or 2012, after Kazakhstan has completed its chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). "But I'm not sure that they won't try again in 2009."

Human rights defenders and religious communities have cautiously welcomed the decision by President Nursultan Nazarbaev not to challenge the finding of the Constitutional Council that the proposed new law amending various laws on religion is unconstitutional. The Constitutional Council insisted to Forum 18 News Service on 16 March that the Presidential Administration has informed it that President Nazarbaev agrees with its finding and is not planning to challenge it. "The Law violated the rights of Kazakh citizens, foreign citizens and people without citizenship in the area of freedom of religion. The President agrees with this assessment."

The Constitutional Council announced on 11 February its finding that the restrictive "Law on Amendments and Additions to Several Legislative Acts on Questions of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" violated the Constitution. President Nazarbaev had up to one month to challenge or accept the finding. The Constitutional Council's reasoning implied, although it did not explicitly state, that the current Religion Law is also unconstitutional and open to challenge.

On 11 March, the Constitutional Council noted in a terse announcement on its website that it had already ruled that the Law approved by Parliament was "not in accord with the Constitution". It quoted the Presidential Administration as stating that President Nazarbaev agreed with the Constitutional Council decision and "does not intend to present an objection to it". It said the Constitutional Council's decision would be published in the official media.

Curiously, as of 17 March the Presidential website made no mention of the President's decision not to challenge the Constitutional Council's finding of the Religion Law's unconstitutionality. Seeveral times a week, new presidential decisions are recorded on the website. Almost every day Indeed, the website has made no mention of the proposed Law since it was adopted by Parliament in late 2008.

Even more strangely, Nikolai Golysin, the President's deputy spokesperson, told Forum 18 categorically on 16 March that the press service has no official information about any presidential decision and has made no official announcement. "The head of state has given no official information on this. I don't know what official gave these remarks to the Constitutional Council," he told Forum 18. "You're not the first to ask about this."

Many in Kazakhstan remain wary, certain that officials will try again to impose harsh new legal restrictions on freedom of religion and belief. "This is not the end of the attempt to adopt such a Law," Yevgeny Zhovtis, head of the Almaty-based Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, told Forum 18 from Almaty on 15 March. "I think they will try again." He believes fresh attempts could come in 2011 or 2012, after Kazakhstan has completed its chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which will be at the end of 2010. "But I'm not sure that they won't try again in 2009."

Some Protestant leaders share Zhovtis' concern. "We have three years' grace before officials will adopt a new law with similar provisions," one Protestant who preferred not to be identified told Forum 18.

Forum 18 has learnt that, even before the Law was adopted by Parliament in late 2008, some extremely senior officials were alarmed by international protests. They proposed to President Nazarbaev that he postpone such a law until after Kazakhstan has completed its chairmanship of the OSCE at the end of 2010.

One of the deputies of the Majilis (Lower House of Parliament) who initiated the rejected Law, Berik Bekzhanov, acknowledged to Forum 18 on 17 March that the Constitutional Council ruling cannot be challenged and that this version of the Law has come to a halt. Asked whether deputies like him who advocate tighter restrictions on religious activity will continue to push for such legal changes, he responded: "We don't know what we'll do ­ the question remains open."

Bekzhanov insisted that the current Law should be amended to tackle religious groups "which violate the rights of young people and others". "There must be a ban on a legal basis." Asked to identify religious communities that he had in mind, he specified the Jehovah's Witnesses. "They don't recognise secular laws, symbols of the state, won't undergo secondary education, won't defend the country and ignore their obligations as citizens," he alleged. "Such groupings shouldn't be allowed to exist." Asked if he believes they should be banned in law, he responded: "Yes, of course."

Bekzhanov also approves of the fining of Council of Churches Baptists who hold worship services without state registration. "They have violated the law," he told Forum 18.

Zhovtis of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law told Forum 18 that in mid-February, after the Constitutional Court made its ruling and before the President made his final decision, the Justice Ministry's Religious Affairs Committee held a round-table meeting in Astana where "practically all the ideas of the Law were again repeated and supported as if there were no decision of the Constitutional Council". He believes it was an attempt to influence the final decision of the President.

He added that a big international conference is being held in Astana on "destructive sects" where Aleksandr Dvorkin, "the notorious Russian 'specialist' and author of a number of xenophobic and aggressive books about sects", is the key "expert".

Zhovtis told Forum 18 that, given these moves, the decision not to adopt the Law will make "no difference" to the life of religious communities, insisting that life for them has not become easier. "The pressure is still underway." He believes officials will continue to crack down on religious communities that they do not like, including independent Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, independent Muslims and Hare Krishna devotees. "Where possible they will threaten, blackmail and discredit them," he told Forum 18. "It seems that the National Security Committee (KNB) secret police, backed politically from the top, has a special department to harass religious minorities jointly with the Prosecutor's Office and the Interior Ministry."

Recent pressure on religious communities known to Forum 18 includes continued administrative cases launched against Council of Churches Baptists for holding unregistered worship services and confiscation of their property for unpaid fines imposed to punish them for such services, the court-ordered closure of a Christian-run rehabilitation centre for alcoholics and drug-addicts and continued pressure on the Hare Krishna commune near Almaty to leave its site.

Zhovtis also points out that the official press is still publishing "dirty articles" about "sects". "Maybe it is not so intense, as no such political request is coming from the top at this point, but it depends on the will," he told Forum 18. A media campaign against religious communities the authorities do not like was a key feature in the campaign to tighten legal controls on religious activity.

An official of the Prime Minister's Office, who asked not to be named, told Forum 18 on 17 March that the Justice Ministry had drawn up the rejected Law. "All of this came from them," the official insisted. "They were responsible. It came from the Religious Affairs Committee and was channelled through the Justice Minister." The official said the Justice Ministry had drawn up the conclusion endorsing the Law which Prime Minister Karim Masimov had signed and sent to Parliament in spring 2008.

"No new Religion Law is in the government's plan of new laws, which covers the next three years," the Prime Minister's Office official noted. "But I don't know if the Justice Ministry has abandoned this Law or not."

Officials at the Justice Ministry's Religious Affairs Committee in Astana refused to discuss with Forum 18 whether or not work on new legal restrictions on religious activity is continuing. One deputy chair, Amanbek Mukashev, put the phone down as soon as Forum 18 introduced itself on 16 and 17 March. The other deputy chair Kayrat Tulesov referred all enquiries to the parliamentary deputies who he said were behind the Law. "It was their initiative," he told Forum 18 on 17 March.

However, the Justice Ministry press office told Forum 18 categorically on 17 March that work on the Law has stopped with the Constitutional Council ruling. "The Law won't be considered further ­ nothing is planned at present. It would only happen if parliamentary deputies initiate it." The press office insisted that the Ministry did not write the rejected Law and merely gave its expert conclusion on it. Asked how the Ministry could have approved a Law that was so clearly in contradiction to Kazakhstan's Constitution and international human rights commitments, the press office declined to comment.

The new Law had been widely criticised by a range of religious communities within Kazakhstan, as well as international bodies, including the OSCE.

On 21 November 2008, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief, Asma Jahangir, had written to the Kazakh government pointing out that the Law "would impose undue restrictions on freedom of religion or belief". She highlighted the Law's continuation of the ban on unregistered religious activity, restrictions on missionary activity, controls on distributing religious materials, "theological analysis" of religious communities' registration applications, the ban on private religious education, "vague provisions" allowing for "abusive interpretation and discrimination on the part of the law enforcement authorities" and the lack of "public and open debate" on the Law.

By Peggy Stack for The Salt Lake Tribune on 28 Mar 2009

Staring at a row of demolished Hare Krishna homes in Kazakhstan, a world away from his office on the Brigham Young University campus, W. Cole Durham Jr. felt a surge of empathy.

"One reason I care about this is because my people were driven out of their homes," Durham, a Mormon, told the demoralized homeowners.

That wasn't just a pat line for Durham, an internationally respected expert in religious freedom. It was a simple but heartfelt explanation of what drives the Harvard-trained lawyer to help countries create legal protections for all faiths.

The task changes from country to country but one thing remains constant: It's not easy, but it is crucial.

"One of the challenges is to get people to understand that the way to protect the majority faith is to respect everyone else," Durham says.

During the last three decades, the soft-spoken scholar has defended the importance of religious freedom in countries across the globe, including Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Peru, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Thailand, and Ukraine.

He wrestles with topics ranging from the question of majority rule, whether to allow Western missionaries and the question of conversion, laws prohibiting blasphemy and supporting censorship, how to treat so-called "new religions," ways to integrate the Islamic sharia laws into a secular government, to what constitutes a religion.

"If we don't achieve respect for religion, the alternative is escalating hostilities and dangers beyond anything we've thought of," Durham says. "On the positive side, there's a strong correlation between religious freedom and [Gross National Product], literacy and women's rights."

In February, Durham attended the inaugural session of Nepal's Constitution Conference, where representatives were figuring out how to move the country from a Hindu kingdom to a secular state.

Consultants from Australia, Spain, German and the Americas arrived to offer their perspectives, but Durham argued that those within the country had to be the final arbiters of what will work.

"Foreigners can help build the base camp and be sherpas," Durham told the assembly, drawing on a Mt. Everest analogy. "But the climb has to be done by Nepalese."

Such sensitivity to language, tradition, faiths, practices and the law is what makes Durham so successful,

"Today millions of people live better, freer, happier lives because of Cole's work to spread religious freedom," said James Standish, president of the First Freedom Center, at a Jan. 15 dinner in Richmond, Va., where Durham was given the 2009 International First Freedom Award. "And, at the end of the day, making individuals' lives better is the measure of all we do."

On March 5, Durham was again honored, this time by lawyers and leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

After all, one of the church's "Articles of Faith," written at a time of intense hostility towards the newly formed church, declares: "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."

Durham became intrigued with the questions of religious freedom while at Harvard Law School when writing a paper on comparative church/state issues in Germany, where he served a two-year LDS mission.

As a professor at BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School, Durham taught a class in American church/state questions and another one on comparative international religious laws. In 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, he found himself consulting with some of the new democracies of Eastern Europe. Before long, he was asked to join several international boards that monitor religious freedom issues and make recommendations.

Through the years, Durham has seen many of the same debates played out in vastly different countries.

One of the chief concerns of a majority faith, for example, is a perceived loss of power if it allows smaller faiths complete freedom.

"A lot of places have a prevailing religion, but all religious groups also have a diaspora somewhere else," he says. "If they protect the rights of the minorities in their country, their people's rights to practice their faith in other countries are more likely to be protected."

That is what brought him to Kazakhstan, a former Communist country composed mainly of Muslim, Catholics and Orthodox believers. The Kazakhstan constitution allows broad religious freedom, but amendments severely limit the activities of such non-traditional faiths as Hare Krishnas.

A few years ago, the Krishnas bought property and began building a small community of believers, which raised the ire of local residents. The courts supported the Krishnas, but officials bulldozed their homes anyway. Since then, Durham and other international observers have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to defend the Krishnas.

"We are not there to impose our American values," he says. "We just want to protect the powerless"

By Krishna Dharma Dasa for The Vaishnava Voice on 14 Feb 2009

While we were celebrating Sri Nityananda Prabhu’s Festival on Saturday, the police were breaking up a similar festival in another country. The devotees were arrested and their religious paraphernalia confiscated. The country, not surprisingly was Uzbekistan and the city, Samarkand.

The old architecture of Samarkand was built by architects from Mathura in India. So great was the architecture in Mathura that the conquering armies of Timerlane destroyed the finest buildings in the city but captured the architects and took them back to build the new city in 1370.

The same issues of cultural conquest were played out when mridanga drums of the early Gaudiya Vaishnavas were smashed by police sent by the Chand Kazi, local administrator for the Nawab Hussein Shah, Persian overlord of Bengal in the 1500s.

The situation in those days when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was beginning His sankirtan-lila was resolved by His personal intervention. We pray that He may also intervene and bring resolution today for His devotees in Uzbekistan.

Here’s how the human rights news agency Forum 18 reported last weekend’s incident:

Samarkand Regional Criminal Police raided the Hare Krishna gathering in Samarkand on 7 February as devotees were about to celebrate a religious festival, the appearance day of Sri Nityananda. Police detained Kasimov and several other devotees and held them overnight. “All devotees except Kasimov were released the next morning, 8 February,” a source from Samarkand, who wanted to remain unnamed, told Forum 18 that day. Kasimov was released from detention late in the evening on 8 February, another source told Forum 18 on 9 February.

Samarkand’s Regional Criminal Police confirmed to Forum 18 on 9 February that Kasimov was released from detention. The officer who answered the phone said that Kasimov is “only” being investigated for an administrative violation. “I don’t know when the case will be brought to court,” he said. The officer also refused to say under what article Kasimov is being investigated. “I can only tell you that for a second such violation, Kasimov will be made criminally liable.”

The Samarkand Regional Police told Forum 18 that alongside the Criminal Police, the National Security Service (NSS) secret police are also involved in the case.

A source from Samarkand told Forum 18 that the Hare Krishna devotees had rented a small hall, and invited some fellow devotees and friends for the celebration of their festival. “When the celebration started, several police officers broke in and stopped the programme,” the source reported. “The police arrested Kasimov and some of the devotees.” The source pointed out that the Hare Krishna community is still prohibited in Samarkand, as it is not registered. “Probably Kasimov will be charged with organising unauthorised religious activity,” the source stated.

By Mushfig Bayram for Forum 18 News on 14 Feb 2009

A Hare Krishna festival in Uzbekistan's central city of Samarkand [Samarqand] and a birthday party of a Protestant in Nukus, in the north-western Karakalpakstan [Qoraqalpoghiston] region, were raided and halted by the authorities, police have confirmed to Forum 18 News Service. Police are gathering evidence to open administrative cases against Zafar Kasimov, a Hare Krishna devotee in Samarkand. In violation of the country's international human rights commitments, this is a criminal offence in Uzbekistan. Three other members of Zhumaniyazova's church were fined in early December 2008, by Khodjeli District Criminal Court, for unauthorised religious activity.

Samarkand Regional Criminal Police raided the Hare Krishna gathering in Samarkand on 7 February as devotees were about to celebrate a religious festival, the appearance day of Sri Nityananda. Police detained Kasimov and several other devotees and held them overnight. "All devotees except Kasimov were released the next morning, 8 February," a source from Samarkand, who wanted to remain unnamed, told Forum 18 that day. Kasimov was released from detention late in the evening on 8 February, another source told Forum 18 on 9 February.

Samarkand's Regional Criminal Police confirmed to Forum 18 on 9 February that Kasimov was released from detention. The officer who answered the phone said that Kasimov is "only" being investigated for an administrative violation. "I don't know when the case will be brought to court," he said. The officer also refused to say under what article Kasimov is being investigated. "I can only tell you that for a second such violation, Kasimov will be made criminally liable."

The Samarkand Regional Police told Forum 18 that alongside the Criminal Police, the National Security Service (NSS) secret police are also involved in the case.

A source from Samarkand told Forum 18 that the Hare Krishna devotees had rented a small hall, and invited some fellow devotees and friends for the celebration of their festival. "When the celebration started, several police officers broke in and stopped the programme," the source reported. "The police arrested Kasimov and some of the devotees." The source pointed out that the Hare Krishna community is still prohibited in Samarkand, as it is not registered. "Probably Kasimov will be charged with organising unauthorised religious activity," the source stated.

A row has broken out in Austria after a company tried to recruit workers born under certain star signs.

The Salzburg insurance company posted an advert in major newspapers seeking employees for sales and management that were born under certain constellations, claiming statistics indicated that they were the best workers.

'We are looking for people over 20 for part-time jobs in sales and management  with the following star signs: Capricorn, Taurus, Aquarius, Aries and Leo,' read the ad that appeared over the weekend.

It was followed by a wave of protests from equality groups and led to an  investigation by the country’s anti-discrimination authorities.

The company is, however, sticking to its guns and a spokesman explained that  the move was based on statistical research rather than superstition.

'A statistical study indicated that almost all of our best employees across Austria have one of the five star signs.

'We only decided to continue with that  system and hire the best workers,' the spokesman said.

An investigation by Austrian authorities showed that there was nothing illegal in  choosing the employees according to their star signs, as there was no  discrimination according to existing laws about gender, age, racial and other equality.

A spokeswoman for the employee’s association of Salzburg told local TV: 'When  an employer considers star signs and says: "I want to only hire Pisces, for an  example, it must be assumed that within this group of people born under the sign of Pisces there are old and young people, women and women etc.

'It does appear like a certain limitation, but it is not discrimination.'

India’s Snake Men Are Taking To The Streets
http://www.independent.co.uk

NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 19, 2009: Contrary to romantic tales, in India there are fewer charmers than one might imagine. Government legislation dating back almost 35 years gives police the right to apprehend anyone using a wild animal for such entertainment purposes. The charmers that do operate in tourist centers and large cities, live a largely furtive existence, earning a few coins out of passers-by.

But now the snake-charmers are fighting back. A newly created union for the men and their snakes has been established to demand that the legislation banning them from their “birth right” be overturned and that alternative employment for the snake charmers be provided. In a sign of strength, around 5,000 snake charmers from the Indian state of West Bengal this week took to the streets of Calcutta demanding action and claiming that their generations-old profession is on the brink of death. Many were carrying their snakes with them as they marched.

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

KAUAI, HAWAII, USA, February 28, 2009: Heaven, angels, a malignant devil and even hell? Yes. God? Not so sure. A series of polls available at Gallup’s website (link above) reveals aspects of America’s complex spirituality. In the last 17 years, the number of people who say that religion is a “very important” part of their lives remained stable (between 56 and 58%), but how Americans translate that into personal beliefs is changing.

Compared to the the mid-1990s, Americans today are more likely to believe in heaven (81%), hell (69%), angels (72%) and the devil (70%), but belief in God has declined ­ or at least when called by the name “God.” In 1999, 86% believed in God, 5% did not and 8% declared belief in a “universal spirit.” In May 2008, belief in God had dropped eight points to 78%, while those who believed in a universal spirit almost doubled to become 15% of the population, or 45 million Americans. The number of nonbelievers remained about the same.

American faithful also displayed a trend in the decreasing percentage of Protestants and Catholics, who lost more than 25 million adherents since 1992. Those who declare “other faiths,” including Hinduism, and “no religion” more than doubled in the same period.

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

USA, February 22, 2009: In recent decades reports have confirmed the efficacy of biochemically inert treatments in nearly all areas of medicine. Placebos can help not only to alleviate illnesses with an obvious psychological component, such as pain, depression and anxiety, but also to lessen the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and inflammatory disorders. Occasionally, placebos have shrunk tumors.

Today, cadre of psychologists, biologists, and other behavioral and social scientists view placebos as a key to understanding how the brain can control bodily processes to promote healing.

The latest research has shown that the placebo effect does not always arise from a conscious belief in a drug. Alternatively, it may grow out of subconscious associations between recovery and the experience of being treated, from the pinch of a shot to a doctor’s white coat. Such subliminal conditioning can control bodily processes, including immune responses and the release of hormones.

A team at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich have demonstrated that such conditioning can have pharmacological effects that mimic those of the drug being given–in this case, altering immune system status. We conditioned rats by first injecting them with the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine A, which is used to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs. At the same time, we fed the rats water sweetened with saccharin.

The rats apparently associated the cyclosporine with the sweet drink so that, later, feeding them the drink alone weakened their immune systems, presumably because their brain sent messages to the immune system that partially shut it down. Because the rats cannot consciously believe the drink is therapeutic the way a human might, unconscious, associative learning must have depressed their immunity. These findings suggest that a placebo effect does not require that a person hope for or believe in a positive outcome ­ its roots are deeper and subconscious.

(For more on this fascinating study of the mind’s influence on healing, click on the link above.)

BBC News (UK) on Thu, 2009-02-19

There are concerns that social networking keeps people apart.

People's health could be harmed by social networking sites because they reduce levels of face-to-face contact, an expert claims.

Dr. Aric Sigman says websites such as Facebook set out to enrich social lives, but end up keeping people apart.

Dr. Sigman makes his warning in Biologist, the journal of the Institute of Biology.

A lack of "real" social networking, involving personal interaction, may have biological effects, he suggests.

He also says that evidence suggests that a lack of face-to-face networking could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels, the function of arteries, and influence mental performance.

This, he claims, could increase the risk of health problems as serious as cancer, strokes, heart disease, and dementia.

'Evolutionary mechanism'

Dr Sigman maintains that social networking sites have played a significant role in making people become more isolated.

"Social networking is the internet's biggest growth area, particular among young children," he said.

"Social networking sites should allow us to embellish our social lives, but what we find is very different. The tail is wagging the dog. These are not tools that enhance, they are tools that displace."

Dr Sigman says that there is research that suggests the number of hours people spend interacting face-to-face has fallen dramatically since 1987, as the use of electronic media has increased.

And he claims that interacting "in person" has an effect on the body that is not seen when e-mails are written.

"When we are 'really' with people different things happen," he said.

"It's probably an evolutionary mechanism that recognises the benefits of us being together geographically.

"Much of it isn't understood, but there does seem to be a difference between 'real presence' and the virtual variety."

Dr Sigman also argues using electronic media undermines people's social skills and their ability to read body language.

"One of the most pronounced changes in the daily habits of British citizens is a reduction in the number of minutes per day that they interact with another human being," he said.

"In less than two decades, the number of people saying there is no-one with whom they discuss important matters nearly tripled."

Dr Sigman says he is "worried about where this is all leading".

He added: "It's not that I'm old fashioned in terms of new technology, but the purpose of any new technology should be to provide a tool that enhances our lives."

By Janine Wood for The Christian Science Monitor on Fri, 2008-12-05

Deerfield, Illinois - "Mom, you just don't trust me. Everyone I know has a laptop in their room," said my son as he sat at the dining-room table and logged on to the Internet.

"I don't trust any 14-year-old boy alone with a computer," I replied, trying to make a space of my own among the science and math textbooks scattered about.

"You can always check the parental controls," he said.

I performed a quick mental reality check. My son is indeed the odd guy out. He owns a laptop, but the screen is within my sight at all times. Now he argues that he is mature enough to handle private access to the Internet.

I called a few friends for advice. "At a certain point you have to trust your kids," said one mom. "They need to make their own choices and make their own mistakes," said another.

Confused, I called the local police for help. "It's up to you. If you want him to see it all, it's all out there," said an officer who suggested the computer remain in the dining room.

And when I talked to the local youth officer who gives talks on Internet usage, she told me 14-year-old boys are especially vulnerable.

Then one day as I passed by my son's laptop, I saw a music video that had been sent, via e-mail, by a friend. Women, locked in cages, were being taunted on screen by a variety of menacing creatures, all to the tune of some very dark music. I asked him not to watch the video. I told him his time was more valuable. Sure, we argued a bit, but I think my point got through.

What if my son had been alone in his room? How would I then cultivate a conversation as to what constitutes time well spent? How would I teach him to be a discerning human being, and to ask, as Aristotle does, "What is it?" when sifting through an onslaught of disturbing images. How would I ask him if these are the lifelong habits he wishes to establish?

So I geared up for yet another battle against the prevailing philosophy of the day, just as I did with PlayStation, Facebook, and Instant Messaging. I aligned myself with the wacko, overly protective, computer-hovering mothers.

My husband and I devised a plan. We would tell our son that the less time spent on the Internet, the better. One evening at dinner, my husband read from a newspaper quoting a Starbucks executive who said customers yearn for more conversation, and that Starbucks will provide community tables that encourage patrons to talk to one another.

The next evening, we read from "Always On," a book by Naomi S. Baron, professor of linguistics at American University. Ms. Baron quotes college students who regret time spent online and who say Facebook causes procrastination and wastes time.

I ask my son to question his use of technology. Is it okay to be interrupted by a "waz up" instant message while writing a book report on "The Diary of Anne Frank"? Should he peruse a slide show of "hot girls" provided by AOL's instant messaging service while studying the Gettysburg Address?

The Internet landscape offers children some grim realities better left for later years. If he's in his room, I can't help him navigate that landscape. And in a world where it seems as if children are being forced to grow up faster and faster, what is wrong with helping to guide them along until they are out of the house?

My friends warn me that if I don't allow my son more freedom now, I'll pay later. I picture myself a few years from now piling into my car for the long drive to my son's college dormitory for an Internet intervention session.

Maybe.

But I think I see signs of progress.

A few months ago, my son saw one of his friends, headphones on, chatting with an unknown opponent in an online computer game. "Boy is that a stupid way to spend your time," he said later as he rushed in the back door.

"Victory," I thought to myself.

Source: Religion News Service
NEW YORK, U.S., March 5, 2009: More than 40 years after they traveled to India to study transcendental meditation, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will reunite for the cause.

The only two surviving Beatles, who rarely appear in public together, will perform at “Paul McCartney and Friends: Change Begins Within,” an April 4 benefit at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Proceeds will go to the meditation-promoting David Lynch Foundation, with the goal of teaching a million at-risk children to meditate.

McCartney said in a news release he has benefited from practicing meditation over the last four decades.

The Beatles studied transcendental meditation in India in 1968. Their instructor, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, died last year.

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

LONDON, ENGLAND, March 5, 2009: Prince Charles and his wife Camilla Parker-Bowles visited the massive Swaminarayan temple in northwest London Wednesday to celebrate Holi with all the color, music and dance of the festival.

The royal couple watched as white-robed students at the nearby Neasdon school celebrated Holi by throwing colored powder and water at each other while Indian music played. Hundreds of other pupils and dignitaries also observed the celebration.

Charles, the heir apparent to the British throne, and his wife were not doused in color themselves, but they participated at the end of the event by throwing flower petals over the powder-covered youngsters.

Earlier, Charles and Camilla toured classrooms at the school and met three and four-year-olds from a nursery class.

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

March 16, 2009

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, US, March 12, 2009: Like adults, kids who are more spiritual or religious tend to be healthier.

So says Dr. Barry Nierenberg, Ph.D., ABPP, associate professor of psychology at Nova Southeastern University, who has been studying the relationship between faith and health. Nierenberg spoke recently at a national conference of the American Psychological Association’s Division of Rehabilitation Psychology.

“A number of studies have shown a positive relationship between participatory prayer and lower rates of heart disease, cirrhosis, emphysema and stroke in adults,” he says. “Prayer has been shown to correlate to lower blood pressure, cortisol levels, rates of depression, as well as increased rates of self-described well being.” But, he says, “very few studies have attempted to examine how children’s spiritual beliefs impact their health.”

Nierenberg examined children who were undergoing hemodialysis due to End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). The patients were questioned on a scale of spirituality behaviors and attitudes, and responses were correlated to several dialysis-related blood levels, including blood urea nitrogen (BUN).

“There was a significant negative correlation between spiritual attitudes and BUN levels. As children reported more agreement with statements like, ‘I am sure that God cares about me,’ and ‘God has a plan for me,” their average BUN levels over the past year were lower.”

Read more on Chanting Hare Krishna HERE:

INDIANA, USA, March 13, 2009: An exploratory study at Indiana University indicates that hatha yoga can be helpful to older adults who are fearful of falling. After attending 24 hours of professional hatha yoga instruction, participants reported a reduced fear of falling, increased lower-body flexibility and a reduction in their leisure constraints.

A fear of falling can cause older adults ­ even those who have not fallen ­ to limit their social and physical activity, thus diminishing health and quality of life.

The study involved 14 men and women with an average age of 78. Five participants had fallen previously. After the 12-week class, participants reported a 6 percent reduction in their fear of falling, a 34 percent increase in lower body flexibility, and a statistically significant reduction in leisure constraints.

Participants reported “tremendous benefits,” including the ability to generalize principals of posture to other situations, increased range of motion, increased flexibility and improved balance.
 

By Deena Bandhu Dasa on 28 Mar 2009

At 5pm on March 21 ­ the first day of spring ­ devotees in Vrindavana, India sat on the steps leading down to the holy Keshi Ghat bathing area, waiting for the famous annual “Boat Festival” to begin. The morning had shown a threat of rain, but clouds passed quickly, leaving a clear, cool evening in its wake.

The Boat Festival has long been one of the most unique events at ISKCON Vrindavana’s Krishna Balarama temple. Every spring, devotees filled the temple’s courtyard with water to create a pool, decorated its surface with flowers, and took the temple’s presiding deities of Radha-Shyamasundar on a ride in an ornate, flower-bedecked boat.

But in recent years, the event became almost too popular, with huge crowds making the event uncomfortable for devotees, and even preventing many from being able to attend.

Some began to suggest that the location should be changed from the Krishna Balarama temple to the nearby Yamuna river. The switch took years to come into effect, but this year leading devotees and congregations from Vrindavana and neighbouring cities Delhi and Chandigarh sprang into action.

“It’s our first event in the new location, so naturally there were a few glitches, but everything turned out nicely in the end,” says organizer and long-time Vrindavana resident Dina Bandhu Dasa.

As the festival began, a swan-shaped boat carrying four-foot deities of Radha-Shyamasundar glided up and down the river, past the adoring devotees. Music from Aindra Dasa and his 24-hour kirtan group rang across the water from an island near the opposite bank, providing an inspirational atmosphere of devotion.

A boat ferrying local Vrindavana holy men pulled up alongside the swan, so that its passengers could shower Radha-Shyamasundar with marigold petals. Bags of flowers were then handed out to boats carrying other devotees, and the entire congregation followed suite until the waters of the Yamuna flowed with bright yellow and orange.

The deities, dressed elaborately by head priest Mukunda Dasa and covered with a gorgeous flower canopy, circled Keshi Ghat several times before stopping in front of Aindra’s kirtan party. “Over two hundred devotees were dancing ecstatically in the sand, and some even on the boats!” says organizer Dina Bandhu Dasa. “It was an amazing spectacle.” As they danced, a Chappan Bhog offering cooked by local deveotees was presented to Radha Shyamasundar.

The swan boat took another graceful round of the Ghat before participating in the traditional Yamuna Arati ceremony. As devotees beat drums and cymbals, Ganga Das, a local sadhu, waved a gigantic multi-tiered lamp over the waters of the Yamuna. Fellow sadhus and ISKCON devotees joined him, wielding smaller lamps, before pouring milk into the river from special spouted pots.

As the sun set over the Yamuna ­ known as Surya Putri, or “Daughter of the Sun” in ancient texts -- the festival wound down to a close with an energetic kirtan atop one of Keshi Ghat’s many elevated piers.

Afterwards, devotees flooded towards organizers Dina Bandhu Dasa and Jankinath Dasa, thanking them profusely for a wonderful festival. “They kept asking us why we hadn’t held it at the Yamuna before,” Dina Bandhu says. “We told them it was Radha Shyamasundar's desire ­ they had become tired of seeing their devotees pushed and shoved in a crowded temple room, and so they decided to come to the Yamuna, where everyone could peacefully participate.”

More images from the festival can be viewed here http://picasaweb.google.com/Vrindakunda4/RadhaShyamsundarSBoatFestivalInYamuna#.

HG Muralidhara Priya Prabhu, one of our most ecstatic monks here at the Bhaktivedanta Ashram here in NYC, has written an article detailing something that most devotees may not know about-the process of how their silk cloth (saris and dhotis) are made.

It's not a pretty process, and it's certainly something that wouldn't please Guru and Gauranga.

Here's another chance for devotees to "walk the walk" as examples of conscious and conscientious members of the planet, inspiring by our practical examples and deep knowledge

Silk - should we wear it or not?

By Muralidhara-priya Das

Should we be using silk? If we want to practice compassion and non-violence toward all living entities, then we should think twice about what we are putting on our bodies. Originally in Vedic times they used what was called Wild Silk.

Wild silks are produced by caterpillars other than the mulberry silkworm and can be artificially cultivated. The worms are allowed to naturally leave the cocoon. A variety of wild silks have been known and used in China, South Asia, and Europe since early times, but the scale of production was always far smaller than that of cultivated silks. They differ from the domesticated varieties in color and texture, mainly because before the cocoons are gathered in the wild usually the emerging moth has damaged them, so the silk thread that makes up the cocoon has been torn into shorter lengths.

Commercially reared silkworm pupae are killed by dipping them in boiling water before the adult moths emerge, or by piercing them with a needle, allowing the whole cocoon to be unraveled as one continuous thread. This permits a much stronger cloth to be woven from the silk. Wild silks also tend to be more difficult to dye than silk from the cultivated silkworm.

Kusuma Rajaiah, an Indian man, has developed a new technique for producing silk that does not require killing silk worms in the process. Right now, producing a silk saree involves killing of at least 50 thousand silkworms. Rajaiah has won the patent for producing the “Ahimsa” silk. However, the production of the silk is more expensive. For example, a saree that costs 2400 rupees to produce using regular silk, will cost 4000 rupees when made with Ahimsa silk.

Rajaiah says: “My inspiration is Mahatma Gandhi. He gave a message to the Indian silk industry that if silk can be produced without killing silkworms, it would be better. He dreamt but that did not happen in his lifetime. I am the happiest person that at least I could do this little thing.”

Rajaiah says he started giving a serious thought to “Ahimsa” silk when in the 1990s. Janaki Venkatraman, wife of the former President, asked if she could get a silk saree that is made without killing silk worms. In Rajaiah’s new process he follows the old method, which allows the moth to escape from the cocoon by waiting for 7-10 days and then uses the shells to produce yarn.

So if you don’t know if your silk saree or dhoti are produced with “Ahimsa” silk or not, then it probably wasn’t, as over 99% of all silk bought is produced with the method of killing the worm by boiling or stabbing with a needle. Here are a couple of websites were you can purchase “Ahimsa” silk.

http://www.ahimsasilks.com

http://www.ahimsapeacesilk.com

READ MORE on Environmental Issues HERE

By Manjari Mishra for The Times of India on Sun, 2009-03-22

Besides changing a dozen dresses a day or taking His pick from more than 100 cuisines on the menu, Lord Banke Bihari of Mathura has become the first divinity to don a bullet-proof cover.

From changing a dozen dresses a day, to taking His pick from more than 100 cuisines on the menu, Lord Banke Bihari of Mathura has always enjoyed a privileged existence. Now, the baby Krishna has stolen a march over Ram Lalla - the resident deity of Ayodhya - by becoming the first divinity to don a bullet-proof cover.

Devotees thronging the 150 year old temple in Vrindavan were in for a great surprise on Friday when the portals opened up to allow them a peek in the Lord’s chamber. Facing the deity in the sanctum sanctorum, they discovered, was a 3.5-feet-high bullet-proof glass sheet which was not there till the last night’s "darshan". Many first thought it was part of the daily decoration till the head "sevak", Khajan Singh, disclosed the truth.

"Then it was a divided house. While some welcomed the timely precaution others were livid at what they perceived as a sacrilege of the holy shrine," says Babu Lal Gautam, a local lawyer and a regular at the temple. "There are already demands for its removal from the rival faction of the pandas who are inciting the visitors," he said.

Whereas the Lord needn't worry about earthly concerns like bullets or the bullet-proofing, his attendants here have their minds firmly made up. "The sheet is here to stay," declares Khajan Singh. "It has been installed by the official order of the administrator civil judge of Banke Bihari temple, Azad Singh," he told TOI over telephone. The purpose behind it is to ensure the safety of the deity which, incidentally, is reported to be second richest, only one after it’s cousin down south, Tirupati Balaji.

The administrator judge is understood to have taken the unusual step after reviewing the growing threat perception of Mathura. Mathura, says its SP (City) Udai Pratap Singh, has been on the terror radar or quite some time. Recent threat received by the DM and the station master have added to the security concerns here. Bihari ji temple, being one of the oldest and the most frequented, needed a special measure that could have prompted the judge to order taking the extraordinary measures.

A Practical Reference To Religious Diversity
http://www.police.govt.nz

[HPI note: We previously reported on a similar guide produced by the Police Dept. of Chicago. Respecting religious groups is increasingly the norm in government-related services of many countries.]

NEW ZEALAND, March 29, 2009: HPI reports on this useful resource from the New Zealand Police. ‘A Practical Reference to Religious Diversity’ covers seven major religious faiths including Maori spirituality, Buddhist Faith, Christian Faith, Hindu Faith, Islamic Faith, Jewish Faith, and the Sikh Faith.

The book provides information to help police gain basic awareness and understanding of religious diversity. It also explains how religious beliefs and customs may impact on their role as police officers when they are carrying out their duties.

Apart from serving as a valuable resource for the police, it is also hoped the book will also contribute towards the development of a cohesive and harmonious society. The guide provides information about protocols surrounding death, gender roles and the family, physical contact, and religious practices and policing.

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

The Nature of True Devotees

by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

(Portrait of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

Devotion to God is attained by associating with those who serve both Him and His devotees. They have made service to God the very essence of their life. They have made the narrations of the names, appearance, attributes and sports of God the mainstay of their existence and they are always engaged in discoursing about them.

Not only is there a great difference between how the common man deliberates upon God and how the devotee deliberates upon Him, but the very natures of these two kinds of deliberation are quite opposite. Among the common people, many are inclined to worship God, whom they know to be the giver of mundane and celestial pleasure and happiness. Those who are more intelligent however   that is, those who outwardly present themselves as renunciants but remain the topmost enjoyers at heart   pretend to worship God with the purpose of becoming equal to God, who is the Supreme Enjoyer, and merging in Him.

Those situated midway between these two classes worship God with the intention of acquiring the eight modes of supernatural power, such as the power to become smaller than an atom and the power to become weightless, in order to fulfil their own desires. Although they pretentiously show themselves to be:worshippers of God, they never admit the eternality of God's names, appearance and so forth. They regard the Supreme Master of all to be governed by karma. These so-called worshippers do not serve God with the particular aim of serving and pleasing Him. On the contrary, they make the Lord serve them.

The nature of true devotees is different from theirs. They do not expect, nor do they regard as necessary, the attainment of pleasure for the body and home in this world or in the next. Nor do they regard as important the attainment of emancipation, which is so highly praised as the ultimate attainment for man. True devotees serve God by their very nature, by every thought and by every sentiment of their heart. This strong propensity in them does not yield to any obstruction but runs with impetuosity, forcibly removing all the obstacles before it. It is just like the swift and turbulent current of the river Ganga, which rapidly runs towards the sea inundating all high and low resistance, undergoing no disaster and never abating, at any point, to take rest.

The devotees are ever engaged in the service of God. No tendency towards anything else, no other thought or deed besides that service, finds any opportunity to cast its shadow over the souls of those bhakti-yogis, who are incessantly communing with God and are entirely dedicated to Him. Out of pure love, the devoted servitors of God are ever engaged in offering service to Him and to His devotees. They have no vitality to devote to their bodies; to those who are related to their bodies like their wives or sons; to their home; to all those who are related to these; to domestic beasts and birds; or to their occupation, class and so forth.

Having fallen in love with the Lord of their life, who is the very life of their lives and the life of all, they have surrendered themselves to Him, with all their energy. Such devotees, dedicating their very selves to God, have made Him alone the quintessence of all their ambitions. And He, too, having been arrested by their devotion, has made them His essential companions, even though He Himself is the most essential Being for all.

Adapted from The Gaudiya Volume 25, Number 5
Posted by the Rays of The Harmonist team

*Hindu Religion* Religion, Marxism and Slumdog - by Francois Gautier
http://www.honestreports.co.cc/

Religion, Marxism and Slumdog
Francois Gautier
 
WHY did a film like Slumdog Millionaire, which conveys an utterly negative image of India — slums, exploitation, poverty, corruption, anti Muslim pogroms — create so many waves in the West, pre and post Oscars?
 
And why does not the Indian government protest, as the Chinese would indeed have, for a twisted and perverted portrayal of its own reality?
 
There are several answers:
 
When the missionaries began to evangelise India, they quickly realised that Hinduism was not only practised by a huge majority, but that it was so deeply rooted that it stood as the only barrier to their subjugating the entire subcontinent.
 
They therefore decided to demonise the religion, by multiplying what they perceived as its faults, by one hundred: caste, poverty, child marriage, superstition, widows, sati … Today, these exaggerations, which at best are based on quarter-truths, have come down to us and have been embedded not only in the minds of many Westerners, but also unfortunately, of much of India’s intelligentsia.
 
We Westerners continue to suffer from a superiority complex over the socalled Third World in general and India in particular.
Sitting in front of our television sets during prime time news, with a hefty steak on our table, we love to feel sorry for the misery of others, it secretly flatters our ego and makes us proud of our so-called ‘achievements’.
 
That is why books such as The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, which gives the impression that India is a vast slum, or a film like Slumdog Millionaire, have such an impact.
 
In this film, India’s foes have joined hands. Today, billions of dollars that innocent Westerners give to charity are used to convert the poorest of India with the help of enticements such as free medical aid, schooling and loans.
 
If you see the Tamil Nadu coast posttsunami, there is a church every 500 metres. Once converted, these new Christians are taught that it is a sin to enter a temple, do puja, or even put tilak on one’s head, thus creating an imbalance in the Indian psyche (In an interview to a British newspaper, Danny Boyle confessed he wanted to be a Christian missionary when he was young and that he is still very much guided by these ideals — so much for his impartiality).
 
Islamic fundamentalism also ruthlessly hounds India, as demonstrated by the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, which are reminiscent of the brutality and savagery of a Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single act of savagery.
 
Indian communists, in power in three states, are also hard at work to dismantle India’s cultural and spiritual inheritance. And finally, the Americanisation of India is creating havoc in the social and cultural fabric with its superficial glitter, even though it has proved a failure in the West.
 
Slumdog plays cleverly with all these elements.
 
Many of the West’s India-specialists are staunchly anti-Hindu, both because of their Christian upbringing and also as they perpetuate the tradition of Max Mueller, the first ‘Sankritist’ who said: “The Vedas is full of childish, silly, even monstrous conceptions. It is tedious, low, commonplace, it represents human nature on a low level of selfishness and worldliness and only here and there are a few rare sentiments that come from the depths of the soul”.
 
This tradition is carried over by Indologists such as Witzel or Wendy Doniger in the US, and in France where scholars of the state-sponsored CNRS, and its affiliates such as EHESS, are always putting across in their books and articles detrimental images of India: caste, poverty, slums — and more than anything — their pet theories about ‘Hindu fundamentalism’.
 
Can there be a more blatant lie? Hinduism has given refuge throughout the ages to those who were persecuted at home: the Christians of Syria, the Parsees, Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem, and today the Tibetans, allowing them all to practise their religion freely.
 
And finally, it is true that Indians, because they have been colonised for so long (unlike the Chinese) lack nationalism.
Today much of the intellectual elite of India has lost touch with its cultural roots and looks to the West to solve its problems, ignoring its own tools, such as pranayama, hata-yoga or meditation, which are very old and possess infinite wisdom.
 
Slumdog literally defecates on India from the first frame. Some scenes exist only in the perverted imagery of director Danny Boyle, because they are not in the book of Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat, on which the film is based.
 
In the book, the hero of the film (who is not Muslim, but belongs to many religions: Ram Mohammad Thomas) does not spend his childhood in Bombay, but in a Catholic orphanage in Delhi. Jamal’s mother is not killed by “Hindu fanatics’, but she abandons her baby, of unknown religion, in a church. Jamal’s torture is not an idea of the television presenter, but of an American who is after the Russian who bought the television rights of the game. The tearful scene of the three children abandoned in the rain is also not in the book: Jamal and his heroine only meet when they are teenagers and they live in an apartment and not in a slum.
 
And finally, yes, there still exists in India a lot of poverty and glaring gaps between the very rich and the extremely poor, but there is also immense wealth, both physical, spiritual and cultural — much more than in the West as a matter of fact.
 
When will the West learn to look with less prejudice at India, a country that will supplant China in this century as the main Asian power? But this will require a new generation of Indologists, more sincere, less attached to their outdated Christian values, and Indians more proud of their own culture and less subservient to the West.

Early Indologists ­ a Study in Motivation

Svami B.V. Giri

The First Pioneers of Indology

It may be surprising to learn that the first pioneer in indology was the 12th Century Pope, Honorius IV. The Holy Father encouraged the learning of oriental languages in order to preach Christianity amongst the pagans.

Soon after this in 1312, the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican decided that-

“The Holy Church should have an abundant number of Catholics well versed in the languages, especially in those of the infidels, so as to be able to instruct them in the sacred doctrine.”

The result of this was the creation of the chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean at the Universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris and Salamanca. A century later in 1434, the General Council of Basel returned to this theme and decreed that ­

“All Bishops must sometimes each year send men well-grounded in the divine word to those parts where Jews and other infidels live, to preach and explain the truth of the Catholic faith in such a way that the infidels who hear them may come to recognize their errors. Let them compel them to hear their preaching.” 1

Centuries later in 1870, during the First Vatican Council, Hinduism was condemned in the “five anathemas against pantheism” according to the Jesuit priest John Hardon in the Church-authorized book, The Catholic Catechism. However, interests in indology only took shape when the British came to India.

A Short History of the British in India
Whilst the 17th century marked the zenith of India’s mediaeval glory, the 18th century was a flagrant display of degradation, misery, and anarchy. The Moghul Empire was at its end, the nobility had become corrupt and oppressive, and intellectual curiosity had given way to superstitious beliefs. The country was in a state of military and political turmoil, and literature, art and culture could hardly flourish in such an atmosphere. Into this scenario came the European traders.

It was the Portuguese and the Dutch who were the first Europeans to arrive in India. When the French and the British came on the scene, all parties began vying for commercial power over India’s ports. Through financial aid from their governments, treaties with local rulers and huge armies of mercenaries, the foreign trading companies gradually became more powerful than the deteriorating Moghul empire.

The turning point came in 1757 when the British East India Company defeated an Indian army at the Battle of Plassey, and thus gained supremacy. Through treaties and annexation, the Company soon took full control of the subcontinent and ceded it to the British government.

At first, the British government remained cautious in forcing any religious change upon the Indians. This policy seemed to be practical in ruling several hundred million Indians without sparking off a rebellion.

Or as one tea-dealer Mr.Twinning put it -

“As long as we continue to govern India in the mild, tolerant spirit of Christianity, we may govern it with ease; but if ever the fatal day should arrive, when religious innovation shall set her foot in that country, indignation will spread from one end of the Hindustan to the other, and the arms of fifty millions of people will drive us from that portion of the globe, with as much ease as the sand of the desert is scattered by the wind”.

Another point of view in support of that policy was by Montgomery.

“Christianity had nothing to teach Hinduism, and no missionary ever made a really good Christian convert in India. He was more anxious to save the 30,000 of his country-men in India than to save the souls of all the Hindus by making them Christians at so dreadful a price”.

Thus, under the authority of Lord Cornwallis (1786-1805) a mood of laissez-faire dominated the British attitude towards the Indian and his religious practices. The Governor-general in 1793 had decreed to -

“…preserve the laws of the Shaster and the Koran, and to protect the natives of India in the free exercise of their religion.”

However, one year before this law was put into effect, the author Charles Grant wrote,

“The Company manifested a laudable zeal for extending, as far as its means went, the knowledge of the Gospel to the pagan tribes among whom its factories were placed.”

In 1808 he described the opening of Christian missionary schools and translations of the Bible into Indian languages as “principal efforts made under the patronage of the British government in India, to impart to the natives a knowledge of Christianity.”

Despite this, the British showed little interest in Vedic scriptures. Doubtless this was in part a reflection of the usual British attitude to India during most of the period of the Raj - that India was simply a profitable nuisance.

Back home in England the various political parties had different opinions in how India should be managed. The Conservatives, though they accepted that to overthrow Indian tradition would be a difficult task, were interested in improving the Indian way of life, but stressed extreme caution for fear of an uprising. The Liberal party felt the gradual necessity of introducing western standards and values into India. The Rationalists had a more radical approach. Their belief was that reason could abolish human ignorance, and since the West was the champion of reason, the East would profit by its association.

It would be accurate to say that to the 18th century Englishmen, religion meant Christianity. Of course, racism played its part also. This attitude of Europeans toward Indians was due to a sense of superiority - a cherished conviction that was shared by every Englishman in India, from the highest to the lowest.

Upon his arrival in 1810, the Governor-general Marquis of Hastings wrote:

“…the Hindoo appears a being merely limited to mere animal functions, and even in them indifferent…with no higher intellect than a dog…”

European Evangelism in India: William Carey

Christian evangelists were horrified that the Company could take the idolatry and improprieties of a pagan culture seriously. In their eyes, any kind of support or appreciation for the religion of the ‘pagans’ was tantamount to blasphemy.

In 1825 the British scholar John Bentley wrote of his conflict with the scientist John Playfair, who was an admirer of Indian culture -

‘By his [Playfair's] attempt to uphold the antiquity of Hindu books against absolute facts, he thereby supports all those horrid abuses and impositions found in them, under the pretended sanction of antiquity….Nay, his aim goes still deeper; for by the same means he endeavors to overturn the Mosaic account, and sap the very foundation of our religion: for if we are to believe in the antiquity of Hindu books, as he would wish us, then the Mosaic account is all a fable, or fiction.’ 2

Seeing India as an unlimited field for missionary activity, and insisting that it was part of a Christian government’s duty to promote this, Christian missionaries came to India without any government approval.

William Carey (1761-1834) was the pioneer of the modern missionary enterprise in India, and of western (missionary) scholarship in oriental studies. Carey was an English oriental scholar and the founder of the Baptist Missionary Society.

From 1801 onward, as Professor of Oriental Languages, he composed numerous philosophical works, consisting of ‘grammars and dictionaries in the Marathi, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Telugu, Bengali and Bhatanta dialects. From the Serampor press, there issued in his life time, over 200,000 Bibles and portions in nearly 40 different languages and dialects, Carey himself undertaking most of the literary work. 3

Carey and his colleagues experimented with what came to be known as Church Sanskrit. He wanted to train a group of ‘Christian Pandits’ who would probe “these mysterious sacred nothings” and expose them as worthless.

He was distressed that this “golden casket (of Sanskrit) exquisitely wrought” had remained “filled with nothing but pebbles and trash.” He was determined to fill it with “riches - beyond all price,” that is, the doctrine of Christianity. 4

In fact, Carey smuggled himself into India and caused so much trouble that the British government labeled him as a political danger. After confiscating a batch of Bengali pamphlets printed by Carey, the Governor-general Lord Minto described them as ­

“Scurrilous invective…Without arguments of any kind, they were filled with hell fire and still hotter fire, denounced against a whole race of men merely for believing the religion they were taught by their fathers.”

Unfortunately Carey and other preachers of his ilk finally gained permission to continue their campaigns without government approval.

Other Preachers
Another preacher, William Archer, wrote in his book, India and the Future ­

“The plain truth concerning the mass of the [Indian] population — and the poorer classes alone — is that they are not civilized people.”

Reverend A.H. Bowman wrote that Hinduism was a ­

“…great philosophy which lives on unchanged whilst other systems are dead, which as yet unsupplanted has its stronghold in Vedanta, the last and the most subtle and powerful foe of Christianity.”

In 1790, Dr.Claudius Bucchanan, a missionary attached to the East India Company, arrived in Bengal. Not long after his arrival, the good doctor stated-

“Neither truth, nor honesty, honor, gratitude, nor charity, is to be found in the breast of a Hindoo.”

Bucchanan traveled to Puri in Orissa and witnessed the annual Ratha-yatra (or as Bucchanan called it, ‘The horrors of Juggernaut’). His description of Jagannatha ­ ‘The Indian Moloch’, has been recorded by the historian George Gogerly as- “…a frightful visage painted black, with a distended mouth of bloody horror.” Perhaps, by seeing the face of Lord Jagannatha, the British hallucinated and saw a projection of their own international destiny of bloodshed and carnage.

In any case, from the time the British observed the ‘terrifying’ sight of the Lord on His gigantic chariot, the word ‘juggernaut’ entered the English language and became synonymous with any great force that crushes everything in its path.

Gogerly went on to write ­

“The whole history of this famous god (Krsna) is one of lust, robbery, deceit and murder…the history of the whole hierarchy of Hindooism is one of shameful iniquity, too vile to be described.”

The prominent missionary, Alexander Duff (1806-1878) founded the Scottish Churches College, in Calcutta, which he envisioned as a “headquarters for a great campaign against Hinduism.” Duff sought to convert the Indians by enrolling them in English-run schools and colleges, and placed emphasis on learning Christianity through the English language.

Duff wrote -

” While we rejoice that true literature and science are to be substituted in place of what is demonstrably false, we cannot but lament that no provision has been made for substituting the only true religion-Christianity - in place of the false religion which our literature and science will inevitably demolish… Of all the systems of false religion ever fabricated by the perverse ingenuity of fallen man, Hinduism is surely the most stupendous.”

Duff received remarkable success in his educational and missionary activities amongst the higher classes in Calcutta. The number of students in the mission schools was four times higher than that in government schools.

It is an axiomatic truth that the aim of missionaries like Duff was not so much education than conversion.

They were obliged to use the excuse of education in order to meet he needs of the converted population, and more importantly, to train up Indian assistants to help them in their proselytizing.

Duff remained unsatisfied with converting Indians belonging to low-castes and orphans ­ his chosen target was the higher castes, specifically the brahmanas, in order to accelerate the demise of Hinduism.

Many Englishmen patronized missionary schools such as Duffs. Charles Trevelyan, an officer with the East India Company asserted in a widely circulated tract-

” The multitudes who flock to our schools … cannot return under the dominion of the Brahmins. The spell has been forever broken. Hinduism is not a religion that will bear examination… It gives away at once before the light of European sciences.”

J.N. Farquhar, a Scottish clergyman, preached in India from 1891 to 1923, during which time he wrote a book called The Crown of Hinduism. In this work he says that although Hinduism may have some good points, ultimately true salvation can only be achieved through Christ, who is the ‘crown of Hinduism’.

Reverend William Ward, an English missionary, wrote a four-volume polemic in which he characterized the Hindu faith as “a fabric of superstition” concocted by Brahmins, and as “the most complete system of absolute oppression that perhaps ever existed”.

Richard Temple, a high officer, said in an 1883 speech to a London missionary society:

” India presents the greatest of all fields of missionary exertion… India is a country which of all others we are bound to enlighten with external truth…But what is most important to you friends of missions, is this - that there is a large population of aborigines, a people who are outside caste….If they are attached, as they rapidly may be, to Christianity, they will form a nucleus round which British power and influence may gather.”

He addressed a mission in New York in bolder terms:

“Thus India is like a mighty bastion which is being battered by heavy artillery. We have given blow after blow, and thud after thud, and the effect is not at first very remarkable; but at last with a crash the mighty structure will come toppling down, and it is our hope that someday the heathen religions of India will in like manner succumb.”

Indian religion was thus perceived by the British missionaries as an enemy waiting to be conquered by the army of Jesus.

It was a doctrine of Satan which provided Christianity with devils to exorcise and which, in their view, was “at best, work of human folly and at worst the outcome of a diabolic inspiration.” 5

In the word of Charles Grant (1746-1823), Chairman of the East India Company:

“We cannot avoid recognizing in the people of Hindustan a race of men lamentably degenerate and base…governed by malevolent and licentious passions…and sunk in misery by their vices.”

One Professor McKenzie, of Bombay found the ethics of India defective, illogical and anti-social, lacking any philosophical foundation, nullified by abhorrent ideas of asceticism and ritual and altogether inferior to the ‘higher spirituality’ of Europe. He devoted most of his book ‘Hindu Ethics‘ to upholding this thesis and came to the conclusion that Vedic philosophical ideas, ‘when logically applied leave no room for ethics’; and that they prevent the development of a strenuous moral life.’

All efforts were made by the missionaries to portray Hinduism as backwards, illogical, debauched and perverse. As one preacher exclaimed,

‘The curse of India is the Hindoo religion. More than two hundred million people believe a monkey mixture of mythology that is strangling the nation.’ ‘He who yearns for God in India soon loses his head as well as his heart.’

The missionaries opposed the government’s efforts to take a neutral stand towards Indian culture and worked with more zeal for the complete conversion of the natives. Thus India became an arena for religious adventure.

The First Scholars: Sir William Jones
Sir William Jones (1746-1794) was the first Britisher to learn Sanskrit and study the Vedas. He was educated at Oxford University and it was here that he studied law and also began his studies in oriental languages, of which he is said to have mastered sixteen.

After being appointed as judge of the Supreme Court, Jones went to Calcutta in 1783. He founded the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal and translated a number of Sanskrit texts into English. Jones was not prone to criticize other religions, especially the Vedic religion, which he respected and adored.

He wrote ­

“I am in love with Gopia, charmed with Crishen (Krishna), an enthusiastic admirer of Raama and a devout adorer of Brihma (Brahma), Bishen (Vishnu), Mahisher (Maheshwara); not to mention that Judishteir, Arjen, Corno (Yudhishtira, Arjuna, Karna) and the other warriors of the M’hab’harat appear greater in my eyes than Agamemnon, Ajax and Achilles apperaed when I first read the Iliad” 6

However, Jones was a devout Christian and could not free himself of the restraints of Biblical chronology. His theories of dating Indian history, specifically Candragupta Maurya’s reign up to the invasions of India by Alexander were certainly dictated to him through religious bias.

He also described the Srimad Bhagavatam as “a motley story” and claimed that it had it’s roots in the Christian Gospels, which had been brought to India and, ‘repeated to the Hindus, who ingrafted them on the old fable of Ce’sava, (Kesava)’.

Of course, this theory has been debunked since records of Krsna worship predate Christ by centuries. (See Heliodorus Column)

In 1840 Jones was appointed Chief Justice in the British settlement of Fort William. Here, in 1846, he translated into English the famous play ‘Sakuntala’ by Kalidasa and ‘The Code of Manu’ in 1851, the year of his death. After him, his younger associate, Sir Henry Thomas Colebrooke, continued in his stead and wrote many articles on Hinduism.

The eminent British historian James Mill (father of the philosopher John Stuart Mill) who had published his voluminous History of British India in 1818 heavily criticized Jones.

Although Mill spoke no Indian languages, had never studied Sanskrit, and had never been to India, his damning indictment of Indian culture and religion had become a standard work for all Britishers who would serve in India. Mill vehemently believed that India had never had a glorious past and treated this as an historical fantasy.

To him, Indian religion meant, ‘The worship of the emblems of generative organs’ and ascribing to God, ‘…an immense train of obscene acts.’ Suffice to say that he disagreed violently with Jones for his ‘Hypothesis of a high state of civilization.’

Mill’s History of British India was greatly influenced by the famous French missionary Abbe Dubois’s book Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies. This work, which still enjoys a considerable amount of popularity to this day, contains one chapter on Hindu temples, wherein the Abbe writes:

“Hindu imagination is such that it cannot be excited except by what is monstrous and extravagant.”

H.H. Wilson
Horace Hayman Wilson (1786-1860) has been described as ‘the greatest Sanskrit scholar of his time’. He received his education in London and traveled to India in the East India Companies medical service. He became the secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal from 1811 to 1833 and published a Sanskrit to English dictionary. He became Boden professor of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1833 and the director of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1837.

He translated the Visnu Purana, Rg Veda and wrote books such as Lectures on the Religious and Philosophical Systems of the Hindus. He edited a number of translations of eastern texts and helped Mill compile his History of India, although later Wilson criticized Mill’s historiography, stating ­

“Mill’s view of Hindu religion is full of very serious defects, arising from inveterate prejudices and imperfect knowledge. Every text, every circumstance, that makes against the Hindu character, is most assiduously cited, and everything in its favor as carefully kept out of sight, whilst a total neglect is displayed of the history of Hindu belief.”7

Wilson seemed somewhat of an enigma; on one hand he proposed that Britain should restrain herself from forcing Christianity upon the Indians and forcing them to reject their old traditions.

Yet in the same breath he exclaimed:

“From the survey which has been submitted to you, you will perceive that the practical religion of the Hindus is by no means a concentrated and compact system, but a heterogeneous compound made up of various and not infrequently incompatible ingredients, and that to a few ancient fragments it has made large and unauthorized additions, most of which are of an exceedingly mischievous and disgraceful nature. It is, however, of little avail yet to attempt to undeceive the multitude; their superstition is based upon ignorance, and until the foundation is taken away, the superstructure, however crazy and rotten, will hold together.”

Wilson’s view was that Christianity should replace the Vedic culture, and he believed that full knowledge of Indian traditions would help effect that conversion.

Aware that the Indians would be reluctant to give up their culture and religion, Wilson made the following remark:

“The whole tendency of brahminical education is to enforce dependence upon authority ­ in the first instance upon the guru, the next upon the books. A learned brahmana trusts solely to his learning; he never ventures upon independent thought; he appeals to memory; he quotes texts without measure and in unquestioning trust.

It will be difficult to persuade him that the Vedas are human and very ordinary writings, that the puranas are modern and unauthentic, or even that the tantras are not entitled to respect. As long as he opposes authority to reason, and stifles the workings of conviction by the dicta of a reputed sage, little impression can be made upon his understanding. Certain it is, therefore, that he will have recourse to his authorities, and it is therefore important to show that his authorities are worthless.”

Wilson felt hopeful that by inspired, diligent effort the “specious” system of Vedic thought would be “shown to be fallacious and false by the Ithuriel spear of Christian truth. He also was ready to award a prize of two hundred pounds “…for the best refutation of the Hindu religious system.”

Wilson also wrote a detailed method for exploiting the native Vedic psychology by use of a bogus guru-disciple relationship.

Recently Wilson has been accused of invalid scholarship. Natalie P.R. Sirkin has presented documented evidence, which shows that Wilson was a plagiarist. Most of his most important works were collected manuscripts of a deceased author that he published under his own names, as well as works done without research.

Thomas Babbington Macaulay (1800-59) is best known for introducing English education in India. Though not a missionary himself, he believed that Christianity held the key to the problem of curing India’s ignorance.

Although he confessed to have no knowledge of Sanskrit and Arabic, he did not hesitate to belittle the religious works of the East. In 1838 there was some debate on India’s Supreme Ruling Council, chaired by Lord Bentinck. 8

As to the value of teaching Sanskrit and India’s classical literatures, as well as regional languages, in schools to be established by the British for the education of the Indian people, A few members of the Council were mildly in favor of it, but the elegantly expressed, fully ethnocentric and Philistine view of Macaulay prevailed. In his Education Minute, Macaulay wrote that he couldn’t find one Orientalist.

“…who could deny that a single shelf of good European library is worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia…Are we to teach false history, false astronomy, false medicine because we find them in company with false religion? The intrinsic superiority of the Western literature is, indeed, fully admitted by those members of the Committee who support the Oriental plan of education…The superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasurable.”

He went on to make the outrageous assertion that ­

“…all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanscrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgements used in preparatory schools in England.”

He then made the following creatively expressed, though uneducated assertion as his central statement of belief ­

“The question now before us is simply whether, when it is in our power to teach the (English) language, we shall teach language in which…there are no books on any subject which deserve to be compared to our own…whether, when we can patronize sound philosophy and true history, we shall countenance at the public expense medical doctrines which would disgrace an English farrier, astronomy which would move laughter in girls at an English boarding school, history abounding in kings thirty feet high and reigns thirty-thousand years long, and geography made up of seas of treacle and rivers of butter… I would at once stop the printing of Arabic and Sanscrit books, I would abolish the Madrassa and the Sanscrit (sic) college at Calcutta.”

In a letter to his father in 1836, Macaulay exclaimed ­

“…It is my belief that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolator among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence. And this will be effected without any efforts to proselytize, without the smallest interference with religious liberty, by natural operation of knowledge and reflection. I heartily rejoice in the project.”

In other words, Lord Macaulay believed that by knowledge and reflection, the Hindus would turn their backs upon the religion of their forefathers and take up Christianity.

In order to do this, he planned to use the strength of the educated Indians against them by using their scholarship to uproot their own traditions, or in his own words - ” Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals, in intellect.”

He firmly believed that, “No Hindu who has received an English education ever remains sincerely attached to his religion.”

To further this end Macaulay wanted a competent scholar who could interpret the Vedic scriptures in such a manner that the newly educated Indian youth would see how barbaric their native superstitions actually were. Macaulay finally found such a scholar in Fredrich Max Mueller.http://www.gosai.com/chaitanya/saranagati/html/vedic-age_fs.html

india indology continues with Part 2  — Max Mueller . . . http://www.gosai.com/chaitanya/saranagati/html/vedic-upanisads/india-indology_2.html

Plot to Denigrate India @ http://indiaview.wordpress.com/2007/07/29/dalit-twist-to-textbook-row/

Invading the Sacred @ http://worldmonitor.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/invading-the-sacred/

Interview of an Evangelist @ http://indiasecular.wordpress.com/2007/10/07/interview-of-anevangelist/

Offensive Conversion @ http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=219&page=7

Vedic World Heritage links:

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

By Fr Peter Malone for The Catholic Church in Australia on 28 Feb 2009

Dean Spanley

Starring: Starring Peter O'Toole, Jeremy Northam, Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, Judy Parfitt. Directed by Toa Fraser. 100 mins. Rated G.

What a pleasant surprise. For those who like their films visually appealing and literate, intelligent and delightful, this will be a most satisfying entertainment. It is G-rated though it is not a children's film.

The screenplay is an imaginative expansion by Alan Sharp (Rob Roy) of a small novel of 1936 by Lord Dunsany. The book is principally conversations between the narrator of the novel and the Anglican dean who comes to dinner to discuss reincarnation.

Filmed principally in Britain in locations that recreate the Edwardian period in London and in the countryside (with some interiors and scenes filmed in New Zealand), the director is playwright, Toa Frazer, whose previous film, No 2, set in Auckland, acknowledged his Fijian heritage, while this film acknowledges his British ancestry.

Jeremy Northam is expert at playing genial British suave. It is 1904, his brother has been killed in the Boer War and his widowed father, typically tyrannical with the world revolving round him, lives alone though he has an extremely patient housekeeper (Judy Parfitt). His son visits him every Thursday.

They see an ad in the paper for a talk on reincarnation and go to listen. At this stage, one should say that the father is played by Peter O'Toole at his very best, amazing to listen to and a master class to watch. He has some wonderful lines delivered with unconsciously arrogant panache (especially when he wakes up at the end of the lecture and responds to 'Any questions?'). Father and son meet two characters at the talk, one a brash colonial who is a dealer, able to track down and negotiate whatever one needs. He is played (and spoken) by Bryan Brown as Bryan Brown, always a pleasure with his Aussie ironic humour and kindness.

The other is the rather humourless Dean Spanley, played straight by Sam Neill, especially when we and the others get to know him. He has more than a passing interest in reincarnation ­ which involves another life as a dog.

The conversations are interesting and entertaining and, when Peter O'Toole turns up for a meal and becomes involved in the Dean's story, the film becomes quite moving, especially in the father finally acknowledging that one son has died and the other has devoted himself to him.

No special effects, no action sequences, just a delight for ear and eye, for the emotions and for the mind.

Paramount Out March 5th 2009

Fr Peter Malone MSC directs the film desk of SIGNIS: the World Association of Catholic Communicators, and is an associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting.

See our links on Reincarnation

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

The Vatican is sponsoring a five day conference to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species.

The subject is the compatibility of evolution and creation.

It is one of two separate international academic conferences being sponsored by the Vatican this year.

They aim to re-examine the work of scientific thinkers whose revolutionary ideas challenged religious belief: Galileo and Charles Darwin.

Scientists, philosophers and theologians from around the world are gathering at the prestigious Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome to discuss the compatibility of Darwin's theory of evolution and Catholic teaching.

Christian churches were long hostile to Darwin because his theory conflicted with the literal biblical account of creation.

But the Catholic Church never condemned Darwin, as it condemned and silenced Galileo.

Pope John Paul II said that evolution was "more than a hypothesis".

“ The design of organisms is not what would be expected from an intelligent engineer ”
Prof Francisco Ayala

Yet as recently as 2006 a leading Catholic Cardinal, Christoff Schoenborn, of Vienna, a former student and friend of Pope Benedict XVI caused controversy by saying that Darwin's theory of natural selection was incompatible with Christian belief.

A leading American scholar of biology, Prof Francisco Ayala, plans to tell the conference that the so-called theory of intelligent design, proposed by Creationists, is flawed.

"The design of organisms is not what would be expected from an intelligent engineer, but imperfect and worse," he said.

"Defects, dysfunctions, oddities, waste and cruelty pervade the living world".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7920205.stm

Published: 2009/03/03 02:27:06 GMT

© BBC MMIX

[Note: this guy doesn't know that Krsna designed the world to be perfectly imperfect on purpose. It is designed to be a temporary place of suffering - dhukalayam asasvatam. They assumed that a designer would make it like a health spa or something. Does the government design prisons to be like health spas? No. Does it mean no one designed the prisons?] Shyamasundara dasa ACBSP

See our pages on Darwin

By Galen Holley for Daily Journal (Mississippi, USA) on Sat, 2009-01-17

A variety of religions hold that our food choices impact our spiritual well-being. Some base their dietary prescriptions on sacred texts. Others pay special attention to social concerns like world hunger. All encourage followers to honor food and to consume it with reverence and moderation.

Denise Backstrom, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tupelo, also a chef and practitioner of Yoga, said mindful eating can be understood in a number of ways.

“Taken one way, it means being aware of how one’s food choices, such as to eat fast food or food from local, organic gardens, impact others,” said Backstrom. “In another way, it means slowing down and concentrating on food, including its texture and flavor, and being grateful for the experience.”

The Old Testament, specifically the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, contains numerous dietary laws, most of them dealing with clean and unclean animals and how food is to be prepared. In the Jewish faith, these laws are known collectively as “kosher.”

According to Marc Perler, a lay leader at Temple B’Nai Israel in Tupelo, “kosher” means ritually pure and prescribes things like avoiding pork, shellfish, or any meat with blood in it. Kosher laws also dictate that animals should be slaughtered in a humane manner.

“The laws represent the discipline Jews believe God wishes people to exercise when it comes to eating,” said Perler.

Today Orthodox Jews follow kosher law strictly and Reformed communities like Temple B’Nai do so to the extent that it’s reasonable and possible. Perler added that kosher laws have influenced the dietary practices of a number of other faiths, particularly those of some Christian denominations.

Seventh-day Adventists also look to the Old Testament for instruction about eating. Adventists are predominantly vegetarians. Adventists believe that before the flood destroyed the earth, as recounted in Gen. 6, “Man only ate herbs, grains, fruits, and other plants,” said Ray Elsberry, minister at Tupelo First Seventh-day Adventist Church. Adventists try to follow this diet today.

After the flood, Elsberry said, “God gave permission to eat certain animals.” Like Jews, Adventists consider pigs unclean. They also avoid caffeine and alcohol.

Following these rules has been hard for Elsberry. Before converting 35 years ago, he said his two of his favorite foods were pork chops and catfish. Now, he can’t have either because, as he said, “Catfish is a scavenger and doesn’t have scales as the Leviticus 11 instructs.”

In addition to other dietary guidelines, Muslims also avoid pork, a rule set forth in their holy book, The Koran. According to Damilola Sadiq Owodunni, a Muslim student at the University of Mississippi, those guidelines are also taken from the exemplary life of the prophet Muhammed, and include abstaining from alcohol or any animal that has been slaughtered under conditions of extreme duress.

Owodunni said Muslims prefer to eat meat slaughtered under their religion’s guidelines, called “Zabihah,” but, like Reformed Jews, they make exceptions when circumstances make it a hardship to follow the practice strictly.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints take their dietary cues from the Word of Wisdom, a text they believe was revealed to Joseph Smith in the 19th Century. Nels Thorderson, bishop of the Tupelo Ward of the LDS Church, said God promised “health, protection, knowledge, and wisdom,” to those who followed this revelation.

The Word of Wisdom instructs LDS to eat grains, fruits, and herbs in season. It also advises eating meat in moderation and strongly advises against the use of alcohol, tobacco, or any kind of intoxicant.

Social consequences

Perler stressed that kosher laws are not arbitrary. They’re a set of guidelines for the relationship Jews are to have with food and, by extension, to all of God’s creation. “They have the effect of making us mindful of the sources from which food comes, as well as the repercussions that follow from our eating,” said Perler.

That mindfulness in eating is perhaps more important today than ever as people of faith become increasingly aware of the impact their food choices have on the world.

The Rev. Tim Murphy, pastor of St. Christopher Catholic Church in Pontotoc, converted to vegetarianism after years of being a “voracious meat-eater.” His choice has raised his awareness of world hunger.

“I read it takes 20 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat,” said Murphy. “That really got my attention.”

One consequence of increases in meat consumption worldwide is that the cost of rice on the international market has seen unprecedented highs in recent months. The World Bank recently announced that 33 countries are now confronting food crises, due largely to the scarcity of clean water and the high price of grain.

“Without being smug about it, I think that denying ourselves helps us better understand where people throughout the world are really suffering,” said Murphy.

Owodunni said Muslims fast frequently, particularly during the holy days of Ramadan, and that’s partly to remind them of the importance of charitable giving and that the hungry and poor should always be cared for.

Jennifer Falkey, another member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, became a vegetarian partly because of what she’s learned about cattle farming in places like South America.

“Slashing rain forests, removing native vegetation and replacing it with concentrated feed lots, places where animals can’t graze and live in a natural environment, practices like this have really influenced my choice not to eat meat,” said Falkey.

Mieko Kikuchi, a Japanese liaison with Renasant Bank, practices a mixture of Shinto and Buddhism. She said although these religions don’t follow dietary restrictions, Shinto places great importance on humans coexisting harmoniously with nature.

Therefore, said Kikuchi, the concepts of avoiding waste and eating from sustainable sources are important to the religion’s followers.

“We honor the natural world, which sustains us, and have great respect for animals, plants, and the environment as a whole,” said Kikuchi.

Personal, spiritual benefits

Mindful eating also has positive consequences on a personal level.

As of 2006 an estimated 800 million people worldwide were hungry, but they were outnumbered by the one billion who were overweight. The United States, in particular, has seen unprecedented increases in recent years in obesity.

Elsberry of the Adventists is well aware of these trends and said his denomination’s diet serves both a spiritual and salutary function.

“Eating healthy just makes sense in this day and age,” said Elsberry. He eats locally grown, organic produce whenever possible, and said many Adventists cultivate their own gardens and preserve vegetables.

Falkey of the Unitarians said her two-person household always eats from a seasonable table. “Right now we’re eating greens, collards, spinach, squash, turnip greens, and sweet potatoes from Vardaman,” she said. “I feel great about where my money is going because I’m patronizing local farmers.” She’s looking forward to the spring for blueberries, asparagus, and a summertime favorite, watermelon.

Backstrom of the Unitarians said mindful eating is a great weight-loss tool.

“When you eat slowly, and savor, you eat less. You don’t feel that rush to gorge yourself,” she said.

Perler of the Jewish temple said it’s surprising how healthy a kosher diet is. “When one concentrates on food preparation it promotes moderation and gratitude,” he said.

As a physician, Thorderson said the benefits of following the Word of Wisdom are indisputable.

“When we eat healthy we feel better about ourselves. We don’t have to worry about our bodies and we can let the spiritual inside take over. We can let the spirit, rather than our appetites, guide us,” he said.

Backstrom, who prepares meals for patrons in their homes, said mindful eating doesn’t have to be an elaborate, involved process. She said the family supper ­ “although it’s disappearing from society” ­ is the perfect place to slow down, chew slowly, and become aware of the food’s goodness and the circumstances that produced it.

“Eating this way you become aware of the interconnectedness of everything,” said Backstrom. “The pleasures of good, healthy food, the pleasure of self-awareness, the pleasure of family.”

By Rob Stein for The Washington Post on Tue, 2009-03-24

The new study is the first large examination of the relationship between eating meat and overall risk of death, and is by far the most detailed.

Eating red meat increases the chances of dying prematurely, according to the first large study to examine whether regularly eating beef or pork increases mortality.

The study of more than 500,000 middle-aged and elderly Americans found that those who consumed about four ounces of red meat a day (the equivalent of about a small hamburger) were more than 30 percent more likely to die during the 10 years they were followed, mostly from heart disease and cancer. Sausage, cold cuts and other processed meats also increased the risk.

Previous research had found a link between red meat and an increased risk of heart disease and cancer, particularly colorectal cancer, but the new study is the first large examination of the relationship between eating meat and overall risk of death, and is by far the most detailed.

"The bottom line is we found an association between red meat and processed meat and an increased risk of mortality," said Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute, who led the study published yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In contrast, routine consumption of fish, chicken, turkey and other poultry decreased the risk of death by a small amount.

"The uniqueness of this study is its size and length of follow-up," said Barry M. Popkin, a professor of global nutrition at the University of North Carolina, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. "This is a slam-dunk to say that, 'Yes, indeed, if people want to be healthy and live longer, consume less red and processed meat.' "

There are many explanations for how red meat might be unhealthy: Cooking red meat generates cancer-causing compounds; red meat is also high in saturated fat, which has been associated with breast and colorectal cancer; and meat is high in iron, also believed to promote cancer. People who eat red meat are more likely to have high blood pressure and cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease. Processed meats contain substances known as nitrosamines, which have been linked to cancer.

Although pork is often promoted as "white meat," it is believed to increase the risk of cancer because of its iron content, Sinha said.

Regardless of the mechanism, the research provides new evidence that people should follow long-standing recommendations to minimize consumption of red meat, several experts said.

"The take-home message is pretty clear," said Walter Willett, a nutrition expert at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It would be better to shift from red meat to white meat such as chicken and fish, which if anything is associated with lower mortality."

The American Meat Institute, a trade group, dismissed the findings, however, saying they were based on unreliable self-reporting by the study participants.

"Meat products are part of a healthy, balanced diet, and studies show they actually provide a sense of satisfaction and fullness that can help with weight control. Proper body weight contributes to good health overall," James H. Hodges, the group's executive vice president, said in a written statement.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 545,653 predominantly white volunteers, ages 50 to 71, participating in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study. In 1995, the subjects filled out detailed questionnaires about their diets, including meat consumption. Over the next 10 years, 47,976 men and 23,276 women died.

After accounting for other variables that might confound the findings, such as smoking and physical activity, the researchers found that those who ate the most red meat -- about a quarter-pound a day -- were more likely to die of any reason, and from heart disease and cancer in particular, than those who ate the least -- the equivalent of a couple of slices of ham a day.

Among women, those who ate the most red meat were 36 percent more likely to die for any reason, 20 percent more likely to die of cancer and 50 percent more likely to die of heart disease. Men who ate the most meat were 31 percent more likely to die for any reason, 22 percent more likely to die of cancer and 27 percent more likely to die of heart disease.

In contrast, those who consumed the most white meat were about 8 percent less likely to die during the study period than those who ate the least, the researchers found. Poultry contains more unsaturated fat, which improves cholesterol levels, and fish contains omega-3 fatty acids, which are believed to help reduce the risk of heart disease.

The risk also rose among those who consumed the most processed meat, which included any kind of sausage, cold cuts or hot dogs. Women who consumed the most processed meat (about an ounce a day) were about 25 percent more likely to die overall, about 11 percent more likely to die of cancer and about 38 percent more likely to die from heart disease, compared to those who ate the least. The men who ate the most processed meat were 16 percent more likely to die for any reason, about 12 percent more likely to die of cancer and about 9 percent more likely to die of heart disease.

In addition to the health benefits, a major reduction in the eating of red meat would probably have a host of other benefits to society, Popkin said: reducing water shortages and pollution, cutting energy consumption, and tamping down greenhouse gas emissions -- all of which are associated with large-scale livestock production.

"There's a big interplay between the global increase in animal food intake and the effects on climate change," he said. "If we cut by a few ounces a day our red-meat intake, we would have big impact on emissions and environmental degradation."

USA, March 22, 2009: Potable water is destined to be a commodity in increasingly short supply. The image at the “Source” link (which HPI suggests as very enlightening on the subject) provides a compelling pictorial statement of various water-use choices, especially the tremendous drain on our resources represented by beef production.

Producing a single pound of beef requires 1,500 gallons of water. It takes 634 gallons of water to produce a hamburger, but only 6% of that (38 gallons) to produce a baked potato and a salad containing 1/2 lb. lettuce, 1/2 lb. tomato and 1/4 lb. carrots.

Breakfasting on a bowl of cereal with milk, an orange and a cup of tea (instead of two eggs, an apple and a cup of coffee) saves 83 gallons per person per day.

A 16-oz bottle of soda takes 33 gallons of water to produce–264 times as much as a 16-oz glass of water! At 8 cups per day, drinking water instead of those other beverages will save a minimum of 78 gallons of potable water per day. In contrast, converting one’s household to “Energy Star” appliances and low-flow toilets, faucets and shower heads can save perhaps 60 gallons per person per day.

And using nuclear energy to power a household requires 255 gallons per day; solar energy requires less than 1/10 that amount.

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

HELSINKI, FINLAND, March 6, 2009: Senni Kela, spokesperson for the Finnish Vegan Society , says several studies indicate that the number vegetarians in Finland is somewhere between 3 and 5 percent of the population. “I believe that the number is constantly growing, especially now when people are realizing that their meat- and dairy-heavy diets contribute to climate change.”

This figure would put Finland somewhere in the middle of the global vegetarian league tables. A 2008 study indicated that 3.2 per cent of Americans are vegetarian, and a 2006 report indicated that 6 per cent of Britons are the same. India, of course, has more vegetarians and vegans than the rest of the world combined: 40 per cent of the population, or more than 400 million people, don’t eat meat. Hinduism emphasizes vegetarianism and Jainism demands it.

In Finland, other reasons predominate: “The main reasons are ethical, ecological or health-related,” explained Kela. “We do not want to support the unnecessary exploitation and killing of animals.” She indicated that switching to a meat-free diet could save many lives per year. “Plus, the food is delicious.”

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

The Stepping Stones to Real Cow Protection (Part 1)
http://nvclub108.blogspot.com/2009/01/stepping-stones-to-real-cow-protection.html

The Stepping Stones to Real Cow Protection (Part 2)
http://nvclub108.blogspot.com/2009/01/stepping-stones-to-real-cow-protection_30.html
 

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

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

A lamb was once drinking water from the side of a lake.  Across the water was a tiger.  The tiger challenged the lamb, "Why are you muddying the lake?"  The lamb replied that he was not muddying the lake, but the tiger quarrelled with the lamb and then killed it.

MORAL: This story illustrates how people in animal consciousness look for faults in others and then create quarrels in order to kill.  "Give a dog a bad name and hang it."

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

Topical Articles:
Abortion - http://www.hknet.org.nz/index-abortion.htm
Genetic Engineering ( GE or GM ) - http://www.hknet.org.nz/GE.html
Environment - http://www.hknet.org.nz/Environment.htm
Encroachment - http://www.hknet.org.nz/WE-Day2004.html
Cloning - http://www.hknet.org.nz/cloning.htm
Science - http://www.hknet.org.nz/science2KC.html
Cow Protection - http://www.hknet.org.nz/Cow-protection.htm
The Four Regulative Principles of Freedom - http://www.hknet.org.nz/Regs-4page.htm
seX-files - http://www.hknet.org.nz/seX-files.htm
Mundane Knowledge - http://www.hknet.org.nz/mundaneknowledge.html
Death (Yamaduttas - Terminal Restlessness etc)- http://www.hknet.org.nz/death.html
Near Death Experience - http://www.hknet.org.nz/NDE.htm
Ghosts - http://www.hknet.org.nz/ghosts.htm
Reincarnation again here - http://www.hknet.org.nz/Reincarnation-page.htm
Gain some insights in the TV culture  - http://www.hknet.org.nz/television.html
The aweful Truth about softdrinks - http://www.hknet.org.nz/theREALthing.html
Changing the face of the Earth - http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1390/index.html
UFOs - http://www.hknet.org.nz/UFOs.html
Vegetarianism & Beyond - http://turn.to/Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism in the major Religions - All manner of religions
Articles for newcomers to Krishna consciousness - http://www.krishna.com/newsite/main.php?id=87
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

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

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

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

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

Paradigms - where things are not all they seem

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

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

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

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

World Smoke Free Day
31st May Every Year 

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

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