jeffster

We are fully dependent upon Him under all circumstances, whether we are full of material desires, whether we have no material desires, or whether we are mixed, that is, have bhakti tinged with karma, yoga or jnana. Learning to serve purely appears to be a gradual process for most of us. jeffster/AMd

Of course, we can't just artificially renounce our material desires. "What good does repression accomplish? " asks Gita, I believe. But we must moderate our desires and attempt to dovetail them with the wishes of Guru & Krishna. For a householder, that would mean marriage and begetting children who could be instilled with KC values. jeffster/AMd

Yes, best of a bad bargain, that's for sure. Just having a physical body is the bad bargain, and we're so illusioned that we demand a good mate as well. jeffster/AMd

I don't know where I heard this, but in Kali yuga the women are not chaste and the men are not qualified. We do the best with what we have. However, somewhere, the qualities of a good woman are delineated, several qualities, I remember only one which I think is "sweet speech." jeffster/AMD

They should send out an invitation to the congregational members with the correct date, so that people don't show up on Sunday. Or they should call them directly. This year they were pre-empted by a race or something, and had to take Saturday instead of Sunday. I thought Rathayatra WAS a race. Lord Jagannath always wins !! jeffster/AMd

Suchandra, That U-Tube VDO was highly authoritative. Hearing from an acned 17 year old, especially on U-Tube, left no doubt in my mind that it was certainly stoned wallabies that made those perfect crop circles. We all know that everything posted on the web has been thoroughly examined, check and verified as accurate before being posted. Just like that boy who claims to be Prabhupad reincarnated. That must be valid also, because, after all, it was posted on the web. jeffster

This thread just keeps going around in circles. jeffster/AMd

Not actually alien graffiti; it's the vector pattern from their counter-rotating magnetic forcefield thrusters. I thought everyone knew that already. jeffster

Good riddance, scumbag !! jeffster/AMd

Re: John 14:6, when Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through him, I take it in the context that he was very likely the most realized personality in Israel at that time, and that in acting in the capacity of guru to his "flock" (congregation), he was suggesting that he could take members of his congregation back to the kingdom of God. I don't feel that he was saying that he was the only guru for all time and circumstances, but he was the only guru available to those people in that place at that time. We will likely never know his exact meaning. jeffster/AMd

They really should have live coverage of all North American Rathayatras on ESPN or SPEED channel, hopefully displacing NASCAR races as Merican's motorsport of choice. Of course, Rath carts don't have motors per se, they have blissful devotees pulling the ropes, which is even better than dead matter motors. And, of course, they should have blimp shots of the Rathayatra course, but I feel that the traditional Goodyear blimp would be sufficient, not this fabulous blimp. Actually, when Jagannath Swami das used to manage S.F. Rathayatra, he hired an airplane that flew around the festival with a banner. If I remember correctly, the banner said "Hare Krishna..." Later, different management took over the Rathayatra festival, and when I asked why Jagannath Swami no longer managed the festival, I was told that Jagannath Swami gave management "too much trouble." And I think that that attitude reflects the general attitude of some, not all, Iskcon managers: if the devotees don't just kowtow to management idiocy, management feels that they are "too much trouble." Feeling that they give management "too much trouble," so many sincere devotees have left, not wishing to disturb the minds of management. Perhaps this is why so many of these temples are now nearly empty - devotees are "too much trouble." jeffster/AMd

Well, dag nab it, ya whippersnappers, I reckon' this here uneeverse ain't big enuff fer the all o' us. Since we cain't reconcile our viewpoints, we're gonna hafta shoot it out. Load up yer 6-guns, ya nasty varmints. Meet ya at high noon at Bhaktivedanta Marg. jeffster/AMd

Certainly quarrelling isn't new, just read the Mahabharata, but it becomes highly prominent and visible even in ordinary dealings in Kali yuga. Also, in Kali yuga, a person is considered noble if he has wealth, regardless of how he obtained it and regardless of his personal character. Being a wealthy sudra is Kali yuga chic, for example the Tuttles of Orange County Choppers fame, or most gangsta rappers. That would also include most Hollywood and Bollywood actors and actresses, since actors are considered sudras. So everything is topsy-turvy in Kali yuga. Sudras, such as actors, are revered, and brahmanas are scorned and considered an unproductive burden on society. jeffster/AMd

And above all, Kali yuga is symptomized (symptomised) by quarrelling, just as we often see on this forum. jeffster

I could not find ( I also didn't look thoroughly ) a link to "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party," but I will type some excerpts from a print version I have of commentary seven, "On the Chinese Communist Party's History of Killing." "In the most serious famines in China's history prior to the CCP, there were cases in which families exchanged one another's children to eat, but nobody ever ate his own children. Under the CCP's reign, however, people were driven to eat those who died, cannibalize those who fled from other regions, and even kill and eat their own children. The writer Sha Qing depicted this scene in his book "Yi Xi Da Di Wan" ("An Obscrure Land of Bayou"): In a peasant's family, a father was left with only his son and daughter during the Great Famine. One day, the daughter was driven out of the house by her father. When she came back, she could not find her younger brother, but saw white oil floating in the cauldron and a pile of bones next to the stove. Several days later, the father added more water to the pot, and called his daughter to come closer. The girl was frightened, and pleaded with her father from outside the door. "Daddy, please don't eat me. I can collect firewood and cook food for you. If you eat me, nobody else will do this for you." The final extent and number of tragedies such as this are unknown. Yet the CCP misrepresented them as a noble honor, claimed that the CCP was leading people bravely to fight the "natural disasters," and continued to tout itself as "great, glorious, and correct." "This Great Famine was also a qualifying test for the CCP's cadres. According to the CCP's criteria, the cadres who had resisted telling the truth in the face of tens of millions starving to death were certainly "qualified." With this test, the CCP would then believe that nothing such as human emotions or heavenly principles could become a psychological burden that would prevent these cadres from following the Party line." "Facts of the Political Campaigns after the Founding of the People's Republic of China" reported, "In May of 1984, after 31 months of intensive investigation, verification, and recalculation by the Central Committee of the CCP, the figures related to the Cultural Revolution were the following: Over 4.2 million people were detained and investigated; over 1.73 million people died of unnatural causes; over 135,000 people were labeled as counter-revolutionaries and executed; over 237,000 people were killed; and over 7.03 million were disabled in armed attacks; and 71,200 families were destroyed. Statistics compiled from county annals show that 7.73 million people died of unnatural causes during the Cultural Revolution." Persecution continues to this day within China with the persecution of the Falun Gong, a group whose only crime is wanting to follow principles based primarily on the yoga system. Because of its gross ignorance, the Chinese government sees the Falun Gong as enemies of the state. All this is truly symptomatic of Kali yuga. jeffster/AMd