last updated 12th June 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 ISKCON News Weekly Staff on 11 Apr 2009

Bhakti Bhringa Govinda Swami is off the hook with the Kazakhstan government.

In a positive development for ISKCON in Kazakhstan, the government there has just closed its deportation case against Bhakti Bhringa Govinda Swami.

The case began on January 27, when the ISKCON leader was held without explanation at Almaty airport for twelve hours and denied entry into Kazakhstan, despite carrying a valid passport and visa.

Airport Officials told him that he was on the entry blacklist and refused to explain the denial of entry, claiming it was a “state secret.” They later said Govinda Swami had been deported because he had been found guilty of “illegal missionary activity” by Aktobe Regional court in 2008. This was despite the facts that such a case had never been heard, and that the supposed “illegal missionary activity” was simply a private talk Govinda Swami gave to devotees in Almaty, a registered religious community. Such harassment was typical of the Kazakh government since it raided the Hare Krishna community outside Almaty in 2006.

But when the director of ISKCON’s Almaty Society requested the General Prosecutor’s office to investigate Govinda Swami’s deportation, things began to take an upward turn. The Aktobe prosecutor agreed, and following the investigation withdrew the previous ruling.

Govinda Swami was then requested by the National Religious Committee to come to Kazakhstan to complete any formalities to assure that his name be removed from the blacklist.

On March 26, 2009, at 3:30 AM, Kairat Tulesov, Deputy Head of the National Religious Committee, accompanied by officers of the KNB and the General Prosecutor's Office received Govinda Swami in the Almaty airport. Mr. Tulesov welcomed him, escorted him through immigration, and assured him that the issue of his immigration was a closed case.

“With the amendments to the religious law having been rejected, religious persons being released from prison, and my deportation case being resolved, it appears that the Kazakhstan government is beginning to exhibit the will to have relationship through civil dialogue,” Govinda Swami said.

He added: “My deepest thanks to all the devotees around the world for your prayers and support. I humbly request that you continue to pray that the crisis of our society in Kazakhstan will soon be resolved.”

By Mukunda Goswami for Insight (UK) on 4 May 2009

Bhaktivedanta Manor-resident Sutapa Dasa visited Amsterdam, Holland on Queens Day (April 30th, 2009) -- reputed to be the world’s largest street party -- and witnessed an ISKCON harinama (street chanting) group there, where he says he realized that ISKCON is the only organization in the world that is truly free from ageism, nationalism, sexism and even species-ism, because the chanting of Hare Krishna breaks all barriers.

By Julie Jacobson for stuff.co.nz on 17 May 2009

Karma. You could say it's just bitten Marc Ellis on the bum. He's been in a Charlie's juice company board meeting all morning, and he can tell it's going to go way over time.

Mate, he says, give me till 12. At 12, they've just broken for coffee and we're looking at maybe another hour. Give me till one, the former All Black-cum-lad about town suggests.

I ring again at 1.10pm. The phone switches to voice mail. At 1.22pm, he calls back all apologetic. And there I was thinking he'd done a runner.

Ellis via phone is a charmer. Full of beans despite the overly long meeting, he's in town on business, and to promote his latest television show, How The Other Half Lives.

The eight-part documentary series has the well-known larrikin poking his hooter into, well, the lives of others - from Auckland's Muslim and Hare Krishna communities to a bunch of peaceniks who run a hemp-growing business in Upper Moutere and the Chatham Islanders. Communities living outside the mainstream.

Tuned in, dropped out. It's sort of an analogy for Ellis's own life at the moment. He's living part- time in Buenos Aires with Argentinian-born wife Augustina Mon, ostensibly to have a cup of tea and a lie-down, and to try to learn Spanish or Portuguese.

Trouble is too much lying down means time to think, and for Ellis, whose brain never seems to sleep, snoozing isn't really an option.

As well as hosting many telly shows, being busted with ecstasy, doing hands-on at the juice company, acting as poster boy for his newly created World Nude Day and all manner of charities, he's finally gearing up to open a Piha cafe and looking at several other, so far hush-hush, projects.

Right now, though, he's still a little blissed out from his time with Panmure's Hare Krishnas. In fact, Ellis reckons he'd happily chuck in everything for a few months touring India with the orange-robed happy-clappers.

OK, so he doesn't call them that, but from all accounts they are: "They don't drink coffee, or anything, and they don't have sex unless it's for procreation, but they are all, bar none, really, really happy. It just amazed me how people could be so happy and fulfilled without any of the vices most of us consider normal," he burbles.

"I'm not a religious person but I do believe in karma. It just seems to me that if you can go around with a smile on your face and a positive attitude, then life tends to unfold in quite a good way, and that's what they believe in. They live a very pious life, but they have a whale of a time.

"It's not that dour, fearful thing Western religion tends to be. It's very light and breezy and there's room for individuals and characters. Their take on it is that you don't really miss what you're denying yourself, because you're enjoying so many other things."

Those other things include group chanting and dancing. Before dawn.

"I'm a white guy. I can't sing and the only time I'll dance is after I've had a few, but there I was getting up at 4.30 or five in the morning chanting and carrying on."

To fit in, Ellis even shaved his head. Then he found out that was optional. "Yeah, mate, they took the piss."

see more with pics here http://www.dandavats.com/?p=3770

By Amrta Pani devi dasi

Tuesday, 12 June 2007

Shaving up, wearing a dhoti, chanting on the streets and attending mangala arati at 4.30 a.m. are some of the things experienced by new Krishna devotees, and Marc Ellis well known TV personality and former All Black rugby player, did just that from Friday, May 25 to Sunday, May 27 at the Radha Giridhari temple in Kumeu.

Kalasamvara, council member, said Ellis jumped into the role of a new devotee while filming How the Other Half Live, a TV One series on minority groups in New Zealand. Ellis was photographed by the New Zealand Sunday Herald while dressed as a devotee with the headline “Marc Ellis joins the Hare Krishnas”.

See the Video:
How The Other Half Lives, Marc Ellis joins the Hare Krishnas.
by Prananatha Das
Part One: http://www.vimeo.com/4742503
Part Two: http://www.vimeo.com/4755955

By Andrea Sachs for Time Magazine (USA) on 16 Apr 2009

Put aside that titillating vampire lit. Author Beverly Lewis has come up with a new magic formula for producing best-selling romance novels: humility, plainness and no sex. Lewis' G-rated books, set among the Old Order Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, have sold more than 12 million copies, as bodice rippers make room for "bonnet books," chaste romances that chronicle the lives and loves of America's Amish.

Lewis has just published a new novel, The Secret, set in the idyllic village of Bird-in-Hand, which debuts on the New York Times paperback best-seller list April 19 at No. 10. Spurred by her success — and that of best-selling authors Cindy Woodsmall and Wanda Brunstetter (whose new book, A Cousin's Promise, is set among the Amish in Indiana) — more than a dozen other Christian-romance novelists are eschewing Sex and the City-type story lines for horse-and-buggy piety. "There still isn't enough inventory," marvels Avon Inspire's Cynthia DiTiberio, who edits Shelley Shepard Gray, a recent entrant to this genre. And there's no shortage of demand: romance fiction, of which Amish-themed novels command a growing share, generates nearly $1.4 billion in sales each year, and that number is rising. (See the top 10 fiction books of 2008.)

Readers come away from bonnet books with an easy-to-digest history lesson and, jah, a little Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. There are occasional strident notes — a character or two who sound as if they'd be more at home at a Starbucks than at a Singing. But at their best, these books capture the quiet faith that suffuses Amish life. Which is not to say the Amish don't ever have fun. Most of the books are set during the characters' Rumspringa, or "running around" years, the time when the Amish lift the stringent rules for courting youth.

Lewis' books in particular are an antidote to overstimulated nerves. The Amish (who number about 230,000, mostly in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana) are notable for what they reject — from televisions to electric kitchen appliances to zippers — which means a quiet environment for readers. The pace is slow and soothing; no conversations in Bird-in-Hand are interrupted by a ringing cell phone.

Still, simplicity doesn't necessarily mean serenity. In The Secret, Lettie Byler, a troubled wife and mother in a devout Amish home, is, for some mysterious reason, depressed and tearful. Eventually she disappears into the night, in what is "surely the most remarkable tittle-tattle to hit the area in recent years." Englischers (i.e., the non-Amish) might have steered Lettie into a psychiatrist's office for a course of Prozac. But Lettie's large family has other modes of counsel: talking and cooking and harvesting and raising barns and praying together. Her 21-year-old daughter Grace holds the family together with her steely determination; Judah, Lettie's uncommunicative husband, suffers her absence deeply.

It hardly sounds like the stuff of controversy, but Lewis' novels have been banned by some Amish leaders in Ohio because of theological differences. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that has not prevented the books from reaching an Amish readership. Lewis has received thousands of letters over the years from Amish fans. "I don't want to mislead you, Mrs. Lewis," confided a correspondent. "All of us are reading them under the covers." Barnes & Noble's religion-book buyer, Jane Love, confirms that sales are particularly strong in Amish areas. (See the 100 best novels of all time.)

Lewis came to the subject as a matter of genealogy. Her grandmother was a horse-and-buggy Mennonite who was shunned by her community for marrying a covenant preacher. "It was a very courageous move for her," says Lewis. "She was 18 when she left. She took off her head covering, and she decided that she was going to wear a simple gold wedding band, and she was excommunicated." Lewis' first novel, The Shunning, which told that story, was a surprise hit that sold more than a million copies. In all, she has written 87 books, many for children and teens.

Like her fellow chroniclers of the Amish, Lewis proves that it isn't necessary to lace every scene with lust to keep the reader's attention. Grace's suitor in The Secret tenderly proposes to her without ever having kissed her. "'Tis mighty gut," he says with deep affection. "Will you agree to be my bride?" That scene is not likely to be repeated outside Lancaster County anytime soon, but Bird-in-Hand is an appealing place for a jaded Englischer to escape to for a while — which is part of the romance, after all.

Moscow (PTI): Russia's former First Lady Naina Yeltsina wants every home in the country to practice yoga for a healthy lifestyle.

"I have been practicing yoga for last two years. I think it is indispensable for people above 50. It would be good if it was practiced in every Russian home," Naina Yeltsina, 77, said at a reception hosted here by the Indian Ambassador P P Shukla in honour of Yogacharya BKS Iyengar.

At the reception attended by a host of Russian celebrities, Ms. Naina was accompanied by her younger daughter Tatiana, who actually brought her to learn yoga after former President Boris Yeltsin's death two years ago.

"I am practicing Iyengar Yoga for four years now. Two years ago I convinced my mother to join yoga classes and she is very happy," Ms. Tatiana said.

Once powerful Kremlin Princess' and President Boris Yeltsin's main aide, forty-nine-year-old Ms. Tatiana underscored that more and more young people in Russia are practicing yoga.

"Young people in Russia are very conscious about a healthy life style and yoga is the key to the physical and mental harmony," Ms. Tatiana noted.

Child Behavior and ADHD Diagnostics Linked To Sleep
http://www.news.bbc.co.uk

UK, April 29, 2009: A Finnish study of 280 children has found that a good night’s sleep could reduce hyperactivity and bad behavior among children. Those children who slept fewer than eight hours were the most hyperactive. Experts said adequate sleep could improve behavior in healthy children and reduce symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The research team said not enough was understood about the role of sleep in children’s lives but it has been estimated that a third of US children do not get enough sleep.

According to the study’s leader, Dr Julia Paavonen of the Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare, “Even 30 minutes per night has been shown to give a major improvement in objective cognitive tests, improving reaction times, impulsivity and attention spans.” She said further studies were needed to confirm the link, and cautioned parents that sleep needs differ among individuals. “The only way to take care that a particular child has enough sleep is to see if they seem to have a problem.”

Sleep expert Neil Stanley, of the University of East Anglia, mentioned the increasing rate of ADHD diagnoses and asked, “How much of what is diagnosed as ADHD is something that can be modified or improved, or even totally cured by a more rigid sleep pattern?”

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

Scientists Claim to Have Found Language of Ancient Indus Script
htttp://www.guardian.co.uk

LONDON, UK, April 24, 2009: If confirmed, the deciphering may unlock the secrets of one of the most mysterious civilizations known.

The Indus civilization flourished in isolation 4,500 years ago along the border of what is now eastern Pakistan, but almost no historical information exists about the people and their long-lost community. Archaeologists working in the region have unearthed a rich hoard of artifacts, including amulets, seals and ceramic tablets, many of which are embellished with the unusual symbols.

The discovery of ancient objects belonging to the Indus has split the scholarly community, with some claiming the symbols form a primitive language and others arguing they are simply pictograms. More than 500 distinct Indus symbols have so far been identified, which include what appear to be representations of fish, rings, men and cow heads. Scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai decided to undertake an analysis of the symbols in the hope of settling the dispute over the Indus scripts once and for all. Using a computer program, the team compared patterns of Indus symbols with those found in known languages and other information systems, such as DNA and computer languages.

In some information systems a sequence of symbols can seem to be random, while in others, such as pictograms that represent deities and other concepts, there is usually a strict hierarchy that influences the order in which symbols appear. Spoken languages tend to fall somewhere between these two extremes, incorporating order as well as flexibility.

When the researchers ran the analysis on a compilation of Indus texts, they found that the patterns of symbols were strikingly similar to those in spoken languages. The study, which appears in the journal Science, likens the Indus script to the ancient languages of Sumerian from Mesopotamia and Old Tamil from the Indian subcontinent.

The team is now examining more Indus scripts in the hope of understanding its syntax and grammatical rules.

Asko Parpola, emeritus professor of Indology at Helsinki University said he was optimistic the language could be deciphered. “Language is one of the hallmarks of a literate civilization. If it’s real writing, we have a chance to know their language and to get to know more about their religion and other aspects of their culture.”

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

A police officer in Scotland has confessed to following the Jedi faith beloved of Star Wars film fans, respected policing analysis group Jane's reported Thursday.

Pam Fleming, a 45-year-old beat officer in Glasgow for Strathclyde Police, said that she thought all police officers "should be Jedis," when interviewed by Jane's Police Review.

"For me, it is not a joke," she said. "Being a Jedi is a way of life.

"I love the Star Wars films and the concept of being a Jedi, that the faith is not divisive."

Fleming said she knew of other Jedis in Strathclyde Police -- the force apparently has eight in total.

According to Britain's Office for National Statistics, a total of 390,000 people in England and Wales listed their religion as Jedi in the most recent census in 2001. Scotland has a reported 14,000 followers.

But it noted that this may have been largely due to an Internet campaign launched in the run-up to the census. Jedi followers are grouped under atheist.

In a development that Darwin himself could not have foreseen, a beagle has become the world's first transgenic dog - and it glows in the dark.

The dog called Ruppy - short for Ruby Puppy - has been created by scientists in South Korea.

The puppy was bred to produce a fluorescent protein that glows red under ultraviolet light, but it's red skin colour can also be clearly seen in daylight.

Byeong-Chun Lee, of the Seoul National University, headed the team that created Ruppy and her four beagle siblings, each possessing the bizarre fluorescent bodies.

Lee was also part of the team responsible for the very first cloned dog, Snuppy, born in 2005.

Team member CheMyong Ko of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, said of the breakthrough: "The next step for us is to generate a true disease model."

The hope is that, following the Ruppy breakthrough, transgenic dogs will become more effective stand-ins for the study of human disease.

Reactions to the announcement from other scientists studying dogs as models of human disease was mixed.

Greg Barsh, a genetist at Stanford University, said the creation of a transgenic dog was "an important accomplishment".

But he did not know of "specific situations where the ability to produce transgenic dogs represents an immediate experimental opportunity".

Nathan Sutter, of Cornell University in New York, said working with laboratory-reared dogs was "not on my horizon as a dog genetist at all", claiming "transgenesis is laborious, expensive and slow."

Obama’s New Secretary of Technology “Sees Life According to Hindu Philosophy”
http://www.abcdlady.com

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, USA, April 19, 2009: Following the trend of Asian Indian immigrants attaining important positions in the U.S. scene, Aneesh Chopra was appointed the new Secretary of Technology of the Obama Administration. At age 34, Aneesh Chopra is currently the Secretary of Technology in the Commonwealth of Virginia cabinet. Together with Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, their jobs will be “to make the government more effective, efficient, and transparent.

In an interview, Chopra explained how Hinduism’s asramas guide his life plan. “I think about life in terms of Hindu philosophy. There are four stages in life: educate yourself (bramacharya asrama), provide for your family (grihasta asrama), give to public service (vanaprastha asrama) and become one with God (sannyasa asrama). The challenge for me now is knowing if I have crossed over into the third, or if I’m bouncing back and forth between second and third.”

“My advice for South Asians who want to get involved in the community is threefold,” he says. “First, set a strategy and commit to it. Second, volunteer on boards and commissions. Finally, put time into a network, whether it’s the Indian American Executive Community, or even an university alumni network.”

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

USA, April 20, 2009: [Review by David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri)] Hinduism remains the most attacked and under siege of all the major world religions. This is in spite of the fact that Hinduism is the most tolerant, pluralistic and synthetic of the world’s major religions. Yet many have continued to promote their missionary agendas and plan the conversion of India to their beliefs.

Hinduism is the largest of the non-conversion, non-proselytizing religions and so offers the greatest possibilities for conversion. Yet most Hindus and groups sympathetic to them are not aware of this “siege on Hinduism” that continues unrelenting as part of the multi-national missionary business. In this context, the book of Stephen Knapp, “Crimes Against India: and the Need to Protect its Ancient Vedic Tradition”, is timely, well written and well documented.

Yet Knapp’s book provides a way forward, showing how Hindu Dharma can be revived, better taught, better communicated and more widely shared with the global audience, which is becoming progressively more receptive to Hindu teachings of Yoga, Vedanta and respect for nature. He documents the Hindu renaissance and the modern Hindu movement, which though small is growing rapidly as a Hindu response to this denigration of its venerable traditions. (To read the full review, click on the “Source” above.)

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

Fatness, thinness, bodily and mental distress, thirst, hunger, fear, disagreement, desires for material happiness, old age, sleep, attachment for material possessions, anger, lamentation, illusion and identification of the body with the self are all transformations of the material covering of the spirit soul. A person absorbed in the material bodily conception is affected by these things, but I am free from all bodily conceptions. Consequently I am neither fat nor skinny nor anything else you have mentioned.

Srimad Bhagavatam - Canto 5 Chapter 10 Verse 10

Read more on Chanting Hare Krishna HERE:

KRS-One raps about meat eating way back in 1990.
This song entitled 'Beef' is from his Boogie Down Productions album.

Lyrics:
Beef, what a relief
When will this poisonous product cease?
This is another public service announcement
You can believe it, or you can doubt it
Let us begin now with the cow
The way it gets to your plate and how
The cow doesn't grow fast enough for man
So through his greed he makes a faster plan
He has drugs to make the cow grow quicker
Through the stress the cow gets sicker
Twenty-one different drugs are pumped
Into the cow in one big lump
So just before it dies, it cries
In the slaughterhouse full of germs and flies
Off with the head, they pack it, drain it, and cart it
And there it is, in your local supermarket
Red and bloody, a corpse, neatly packed
And you wonder about heart attacks?
Come on now man let's be for real
You are what you eat is the way I feel
But, the food and drug administration
Will tell you meat is the perfect combination
See cows live under fear and stress
Trying to think what's gonna happen next
Fear and stress can become a part of you
In your cells and blood, this is true
So when the cow is killed, believe it
You preserve those cells, you freeze it
Thaw it out with the blood and season it
Then you sit down and begin eatin it
In your body, it's structure becomes your structure
All the fear and stress of another
Any drug is addictive by any name
Even drugs in meat, they are the same
The fda has america strung out
On drugs in beef no doubt
So if you think that what I say is a bunch of crock
Tell yourself you're gonna try and stop
Eatin meat and you'll see you can't compete
It's the number one drug on the street
Not crack, cause that was made for just black
But brown beef, for all american teeth
Life brings life and death brings death
Keep on eatin the dead and what's left
Absolute disease and negative
Read the book 'how to eat to live'
By elijah muhammad, it's a brown paperback
For anybody, either white or black
See how many cows must be pumped up fatter
How many rats gotta fall in the batter
How many chickens that eat s*!t you eat
How much high blood pressure you get from pig feet
See you'll consume, the fda could care less
They'll sell you donkey meat and say it's
Fresh! for nineteen-ninety, you suckers

By Ellen Nakashima for The Washington Post (USA) on 2 May 2009

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.

DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies -- which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens -- are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter.

Civil liberties and business travel groups have pressed the government to disclose its procedures as an increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices have been taken -- for months, in at least one case -- and their contents examined.

The policies state that officers may "detain" laptops "for a reasonable period of time" to "review and analyze information." This may take place "absent individualized suspicion."

The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "

Reasonable measures must be taken to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material, the policies say, but there is no specific mention of the handling of personal data such as medical and financial records.

When a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information, any copies of the data must be destroyed. Copies sent to non-federal entities must be returned to DHS. But the documents specify that there is no limitation on authorities keeping written notes or reports about the materials.

"They're saying they can rifle through all the information in a traveler's laptop without having a smidgen of evidence that the traveler is breaking the law," said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Notably, he said, the policies "don't establish any criteria for whose computer can be searched."

Customs Deputy Commissioner Jayson P. Ahern said the efforts "do not infringe on Americans' privacy." In a statement submitted to Feingold for a June hearing on the issue, he noted that the executive branch has long had "plenary authority to conduct routine searches and seizures at the border without probable cause or a warrant" to prevent drugs and other contraband from entering the country.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote in an opinion piece published last month in USA Today that "the most dangerous contraband is often contained in laptop computers or other electronic devices." Searches have uncovered "violent jihadist materials" as well as images of child pornography, he wrote.

With about 400 million travelers entering the country each year, "as a practical matter, travelers only go to secondary [for a more thorough examination] when there is some level of suspicion," Chertoff wrote. "Yet legislation locking in a particular standard for searches would have a dangerous, chilling effect as officers' often split-second assessments are second-guessed."

In April, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the government's power to conduct searches of an international traveler's laptop without suspicion of wrongdoing. The Customs policy can be viewed here http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/travel/admissability/%3Cbr%20/%3Esearch_authority.ctt/search_authority.pdf

WASHINGTON, DC, USA, May 6, 2009 [Hindu American Foundation Press Release]: President Barack Obama resisted mounting pressure from the far-right Christian group Focus on the Family and will not hold a formal Christian-only prayer service in the White House to mark the National Day of Prayer tomorrow.

For the past eight years, the annual observance led by the National Day of Prayer Task Force specifically excluded Hindus, other non-Christian faiths and progressive Christians, according to the Managing Director at the Hindu American Foundaton (HAF). Suhag Shukla, Esq., explained that while leaders of the Foundation were invited to attend portions of the National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House during the previous Bush Administration, only Christians could offer the prayer to mark the observance. “For years now, the Task Force has, under the appearance of governmental endorsement, staked exclusive claim to National Day of Prayer celebrations across the nation.”

Several years back, when she and other Hindu Americans reached out to local Prayer Task Force chapters in both Florida and Michigan to offer a Hindu prayer at local celebrations, Shukla added that the Task Force, headed by the right-wing conservative Shirley Dobson, rebuffed the offers, indicating that only Christian prayer could be offered.

“In showing the divisive and exclusivist Prayer Task Force the door, President Obama should be congratulated for actually restoring the sanctity of the National Day of Prayer,” said Shukla. “We, as Hindu Americans, join our fellow Americans in prayer in our homes and in our temples everyday, and we celebrate President Obama’s refusal to allow this symbolic day to be hijacked by partisans that seek to deny the pluralistic ethos of our founding fathers.”

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

INDIA, May 3, 2009: The video at “Source” above summarizes information gained from high-resolution satellite images and recent archeological discoveries corroborating historical statements in the Rig Veda and the Mahabharata and casting further doubt on the “Aryan invasion” theory.

The course of the ancient Saraswati River can now be seen to extend from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. Major tectonic shifts in the earth’s crust diverted its main tributaries to other rivers, and the Saraswati dried up around 1900 BCE. The Rig Veda’s many references to the Saraswati prove the greater antiquity of that scripture. The many archaeological sites along the course of the river demonstrate a cultural continuity since ancient times and give no evidence of a foreign invasion. In other words, archeology does not support the “Aryan invasion” theory.

The video also gives nice quotes from some of the many Western scholars and philosophers who, despite the vilification of the missionary-minded early Indologists, recognized the majesty of the Vedas.

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

MUMBAI, INDIA, April 23, 2009: It may be hard to credit now, as 700 million voters go to the polls in the world’s biggest elections, but back in the 1940s the wise men of the British Raj predicted that while Pakistan would prosper, India would soon be divided into smaller mutually hostile states. Pakistan, it was thought, would become a vibrant Muslim state, a bulwark against Soviet communism. India’s predominantly Hindu population, however, was presumed to be a source of weakness and instability.

Nobody expressed this view more forcefully than Lieutenant-General Sir Francis Tucker who, as General Officer Commanding of the British Indian Eastern Command, had been in charge of large parts of the country. His memoirs, While Memory Serves, published in 1950, the year India became a republic, reflected the view of many of the departing British: “Hindu India was entering its most difficult phase of its whole existence. Its religion, which is to a great extent superstition and formalism, is breaking down. We may well expect, in the material world of today, that a material philosophy such as Communism will fill the void left by the Hindu religion.”

Tucker was hardly alone among Raj officials. By then, it was almost an orthodoxy to believe that Hinduism was, if not an evil force, at least spent and worthless. Islam, on the other hand, was a religion the west could understand and with whose political leaders it could do business.

Rudyard Kipling, the great chronicler of the Raj, had long made clear his fondness for Muslims and his distrust of Hindus. He was appalled by the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the two great Hindu classics, and repulsed by the jumble of the faith’s beliefs. In contrast, Kipling claimed that he had never met an Englishman who hated Islam and its people, for “where there are Muslims there is a comprehensive civilization”.

Such caricatures of Hindus were not uncommon, but it was when this view was espoused by major politicians such as Winston Churchill that it became truly dangerous. When Churchill argued vehemently against Indian independence in the 1930s, his fire was directed mainly at the Hindus. As the Second World War neared its close, the British prime minister was so consumed by hatred of the Hindus that he told his private secretary John Colville, ” The Hindus were a foul race.”

[To read the rest of this very informative article, click on the Source link http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2009/04/india-british-raj-pakistan.]

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

If you would like to contribute to our year-long "celebration" of Darwin's 200th birthday, please send your articles, editorials, or any other creative and informative pieces to nvclub108@gmail.com

The Darwin Delusion is a new book by Lailitanatha Dasa, scheduled for release this summer.

Click here http://www.surfingtheapocalypse.com/forbidden.html to check out a recent interview on ISKCON News with Lailtanatha as he details his motivations and inspirations for writing this book. It should be a heck of a read!

See our pages on Darwin

NEW YORK, USA, April 28, 2009: A new ten-year study of over 500,000 Americans–men and women aged 50 to 71–has provided the best evidence yet that eating large amounts of red meat damages our health and shortens our lives. The results of the study, which was directed by Rashmi Sinha, a nutritional epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, were published in the March 23 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine.

Other things being equal, participants who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner than those who consumed much smaller amounts of these foods. Even after carefully controlling for the wide variety of additional unhealthful habits common among heavy meat-eaters, the increase in mortality risk associated with higher levels of meat consumption ranged from about 20 percent to nearly 40 percent. Particularly impressive were the differing rates of our two leading killers, heart disease and cancer. The results of this study mirror those of several other recent studies that have linked a high-meat diet to life-threatening health problems.

Meat consumption also causes great damage to our planet, increasing environmental pollution, global warming and the depletion of potable water. According to Dr. Popkin, livestock production in the United States “accounts for 55 percent of the erosion process, 37 percent of pesticides applied, 50 percent of antibiotics consumed, and a third of total discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus to surface water.”

More detailed information is available at “Source” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/health/28brod.html?_r=1&em.

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

By Jane E. Brody for The New York Times on 27 Apr 2009

There was a time when red meat was a luxury for ordinary Americans, or was at least something special: cooking a roast for Sunday dinner, ordering a steak at a restaurant. Not anymore. Meat consumption has more than doubled in the United States in the last 50 years.

Now a new study of more than 500,000 Americans has provided the best evidence yet that our affinity for red meat has exacted a hefty price on our health and limited our longevity.

The study found that, other things being equal, the men and women who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner, especially from one of our two leading killers, heart disease and cancer, than people who consumed much smaller amounts of these foods.

Results of the decade-long study were published in the March 23 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine. The study, directed by Rashmi Sinha, a nutritional epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, involved 322,263 men and 223,390 women ages 50 to 71 who participated in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study. Each participant completed detailed questionnaires about diet and other habits and characteristics, including smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption, education, use of supplements, weight and family history of cancer.

Determining Risk

During the decade, 47,976 men and 23,276 women died, and the researchers kept track of the timing and reasons for each death. Red meat consumption ranged from a low of less than an ounce a day, on average, to a high of four ounces a day, and processed meat consumption ranged from at most once a week to an average of one and a half ounces a day.

The increase in mortality risk tied to the higher levels of meat consumption was described as “modest,” ranging from about 20 percent to nearly 40 percent. But the number of excess deaths that could be attributed to high meat consumption is quite large given the size of the American population.

Extrapolated to all Americans in the age group studied, the new findings suggest that over the course of a decade, the deaths of one million men and perhaps half a million women could be prevented just by eating less red and processed meats, according to estimates prepared by Dr. Barry Popkin, who wrote an editorial accompanying the report.

To prevent premature deaths related to red and processed meats, Dr. Popkin suggested in an interview that people should eat a hamburger only once or twice a week instead of every day, a small steak once a week instead of every other day, and a hot dog every month and a half instead of once a week.

In place of red meat, nonvegetarians might consider poultry and fish. In the study, the largest consumers of “white” meat from poultry and fish had a slight survival advantage. Likewise, those who ate the most fruits and vegetables also tended to live longer.

Anyone who worries about global well-being has yet another reason to consume less red meat. Dr. Popkin, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, said that a reduced dependence on livestock for food could help to save the planet from the ravaging effects of environmental pollution, global warming and the depletion of potable water.

“In the United States,” Dr. Popkin wrote, “livestock production accounts for 55 percent of the erosion process, 37 percent of pesticides applied, 50 percent of antibiotics consumed, and a third of total discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus to surface water.”

Finding a Culprit

A question that arises from observational studies like this one is whether meat is in fact a hazard or whether other factors associated with meat-eating are the real culprits in raising death rates. The subjects in the study who ate the most red meat had other less-than-healthful habits. They were more likely to smoke, weigh more for their height, and consume more calories and more total fat and saturated fat. They also ate less fruits, vegetables and fiber; took fewer vitamin supplements; and were less physically active.

But in analyzing mortality data in relation to meat consumption, the cancer institute researchers carefully controlled for all these and many other factors that could influence death rates. The study data have not yet been analyzed to determine what, if any, life-saving benefits might come from eating more protein from vegetable sources like beans or a completely vegetarian diet.

The results mirror those of several other studies in recent years that have linked a high-meat diet to life-threatening health problems. The earliest studies highlighted the connection between the saturated fats in red meats to higher blood levels of artery-damaging cholesterol and subsequent heart disease, which prompted many people to eat leaner meats and more skinless poultry and fish. Along with other dietary changes, like consuming less dairy fat, this resulted in a nationwide drop in average serum cholesterol levels and contributed to a reduction in coronary death rates.

Elevated blood pressure, another coronary risk factor, has also been shown to be associated with eating more red and processed meat, Dr. Sinha and colleagues reported.

Poultry and fish contain less saturated fat than red meat, and fish contains omega-3 fatty acids that have been linked in several large studies to heart benefits. For example, men who consume two servings of fatty fish a week were found to have a 50 percent lower risk of cardiac deaths, and in the Nurses’ Health Study of 84,688 women, those who ate fish and foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids at least once a week cut their coronary risk by more than 20 percent.

Ties to Cancer

Choosing protein from sources other than meat has also been linked to lower rates of cancer. When meat is cooked, especially grilled or broiled at high temperatures, carcinogens can form on the surface of the meat. And processed meats like sausages, salami and bologna usually contain nitrosamines, although there are products now available that are free of these carcinogens.

Data from one million participants in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition trial found that those who ate the least fish had a 40 percent greater risk of developing colon cancer than those who ate more than 1.75 ounces of fish a day. Likewise, while a diet high in red meat was linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer in the large Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial, among the 35,534 men in the study, those who consumed at least three servings of fish a week had half the risk of advanced prostate cancer compared with men who rarely ate fish.

Another study, which randomly assigned more than 19,500 women to a low-fat diet, found after eight years a 40 percent reduced risk of ovarian cancer among them, when compared with 29,000 women who ate their regular diets.

BY: ANTONY BRENNAN

May 04, VRINDAVAN, INDIA (SUN) — Subhangi Devi Dasi lives in Vrindavan India. Recently she was awoken early in the morning to witness a site none of us would even dream could be happening.Krishna’s cows are being violently kidnapped in the night. It is believed the cows are killed and sold for their flesh and leather products.

“I was sleeping,” Subhangi Devi Dasi says. “At 2.00 am I hear cows crying, people screaming and yelling. I run out to my balcony and see a truck backing away and cows franticly running in all directions down the lanes, all crying. I have never seen that in Vrindavan.”

Subhangi was witnessing the kidnapping of the local cows. “Then I see some local men throwing stones at the trucks and swearing in Hindi, some other men came with machetes and one with a rifle,” Subhangi says. These men were coming to protect the cows “The truck backed out of the road and drove off.”

Arjuna, one of the men trying to protect the cows says the kidnappers came with several trucks. “They caught and stole 48 cows just here in this area,” he says. “The men were ruthless, throwing the cows in the back of their trucks, beating then and in some cases killing them if they were resisting,” Arjuna says. “Blood was everywhere.”

Villagers say the kidnappers are armed attack anyone who tries to stop them. “A month or so back.” Arjuna says. “The police put up barricades to try to stop the kidnappers. That night they rammed the barricades with their trucks.”

“It is so out of control,” says Arjuna. “Vrindavan is the land of cows and these demons have become aware that there are so many cows and goshallas just ripe for the picking.” The locals are helpless. They can do little without risking their own lives.

It is reported that 15 days ago, when the police tried to stop them, the kidnappers rammed a police jeep. A policeman fired a shot and he got a rock in the head for his effort. It is reported that he police had to pull back as there were only four of them, whilst there were eight heavily armed kidnappers. “They criminals seem to be aware of how much resistance they will encounter and come prepared to meet it.;” Arjuna says.
“Sometimes they brick the cows in the head with rocks and sometimes shoot them or hack them with machetes if they resist,” says Arjuna. “They used to come in one truck now they travel with four trucks at a time.”

Subhangi Devi Dasi says she has heard the cows can fetch up to 10,000 rupees. It is no wonder kidnappers are armed and are prepared to injure even the police. Villagers who to try to prevent the kidnappings are said to be placing themselves and their families in a very dangerous situation.

Devotees and well wishers should contact Uttar Pradesh government ministers and demand action be taken against those who kidnap and kill cows. Kumari Mayawati is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Letters can be faxed to Minister Mayawati at the following fax number: +91 522 2237620.

Kidnapping of cows is a criminal offence In Vrindavan. Residents of Vrindavan say the villagers and cows need support and protection whilst the need resources to stop and catch those who prey on the cows.

You can also call Minister Mayawati directly on +91 522 2235733. If you wish you can send your letter by email to dontkillcows@gmail.com. All the letters sent to this email address will be collated and presented to Minister Mayawati with a petition asking her government to take action.

My comments: I’m writing with a heavy heart. After reading this article, I was motionless for sometime and still in shock. I don’t know how such incidents keep happening. Entire Vrindavan people should be aggressive and do something concrete (large-scale strike/road-blocking ­ media houses should be notified) to bring the attention of the nation. I think simply petitioning will not be of much help. While Vrindavan people do this, the people outside can do their part (like writing to news companies, etc). If this is not immediately stopped, those murderers will increase their activities.

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 servant of a very rich man came before his master one day and told him of an interesting yogi he had seen in the river.  The servant said that this yogi claimed he could stay in the water all night in the middle of the river without any outside heat.  The yogi was willing t take a wager with anyone to prove that he could do it.  When the rich man heard this, he decided to wager against the yogi.  So the bet was made to see whether the yogi could stay in the water all night.  The yogi went into the water, and the rich man and his servant went home.  The next day word came that the yogi had successfully stayed in the water all night.  The rich man went out to see the yogi, and indeed he was still standing in the water.  Therefore by all rights the rich man had lost the wager.  But then a friend of the rich man said, "Wait!  See that light?"  He pointed to a small flame far away in a temple.  The rich man's friend said, "By his mystic power, this yogi has been using the heat of that light to keep warm in the water.  So he shouldn't be paid, because the bet was that he would stay in the water without taking any heat."  Taking advantage of this word jugglery, the rich man said, "Yes I'm not going to pay you.  You've tricked me."  Then the rich man and his servant went back to the house.  The rich man asked his servant to quickly cook him a nice breakfast, but after waiting for some time, the servant had not produced anything.  The rich man expressed his impatience, but the servant replied, "Please wait.  I'm cooking."  The rich man waited, but it got later and later and no food was brought.  When he demanded food from his servant, the servant only replied, "I'm cooking.  It's going to be ready soon."  Finally the rich man became angry and walked into the kitchen.  "What is this cooking?" he demanded.  And there he saw that the servant had a very strange arrangement for cooking.  He had a very small fire on the ground an a tall bamboo tripod to hold the pot he was supposed to be heating high near the ceiling.  Obviously, the small flame would never be able to reach the pot to heat it.  "What do you think you're doing?" demanded the rich man.  "Well," said the servant, if you claim that the yogi was keeping warm in
the water by that light, then I am also cooking."  The man could understand that his servant was dissatisfied with the outcome of the wager with the yogi.  And so he went and paid the yogi the wager.

MORAL: If you want to get a result, you have to follow the process.  What is the use of trying to chant God's name but at the same time doing all nonsense.

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?

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