not enough yajna

[Guest guest]

Here is an article from the latest issue of the Sastra Dana newsletter:

 

Scorching Heat

 

Recently we had a conversation with Mohana Vilasa Prabhu of New

Govardhana, an ISKCON temple in San Diego. He told us how it had never been

so cold in San Diego as in recent weeks and that it appears the seasons are

loosing their characteristics and the weather is going to extremes. Then we

told him of the extreme heat that killed thousands in Europe this summer. He

concluded that Kali yuga is setting in and because there is not enough

yajna, chanting of God’s names, propagation of spiritual activities and book

distribution the planet Earth will be experiancing more and more of the

symptoms of Kali-yuga.

We totally agreed with him. Afterwards, in the peaceful quite of our

room, we looked up what Srila Prabhupada and our scriptures say about this

topic. Here are a few very interesting quotes:

 

WITHOUT YAJNA THERE IS DROUGHT AND SHORTAGE OF GRAIN PRODUCTION

[bG 3.14] All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from

rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and yajna is

born of prescribed duties.

 

In other words, when people abandon service to God all kinds of calamities

come upon the society.

This truth is confirmed by Janet Larsen, a reporter from the Earth

Policy Institute. (http://www.earth-policy.org). She says that a record heat

wave scorched Europe in August 2003, claiming an estimated 35,000 lives. In

France alone, 14,802 people died from the searing temperatures--more than 19

times the death toll from the SARS epidemic worldwide. Germany saw some

7,000 people die from the heat wave. Spain and Italy each suffered

heat-related losses of nearly 4,200 lives. The heat wave claimed at least

1,300 lives in Portugal and up to 1,400 lives in the Netherlands.

In London, which on August 10th recorded its first triple-digit

Fahrenheit temperature, an estimated 900 people died from the heat.

Heat-related fatalities across the United Kingdom reached 2,045. In Belgium,

temperatures higher than any in the Royal Meteorological Society's register

dating back to 1833 brought 150 deaths.

Since reports are not yet available for all European countries, the

total heat death toll for the continent is likely to be substantially

larger.

August 2003 was the warmest August on record in the northern

hemisphere, but according to the projections of the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change (IPCC), even more extreme weather events lie ahead. By the

end of the century, the world's average temperature is projected to increase

by 2.5-10.4 degrees Fahrenheit (1.4-5.8 degrees Celsius). As the mercury

climbs, more frequent and more severe heat waves are in store.

This information comes from mundaine scientiest who, as the history

has shown, were sometimes wrong (if not too often), but the fact is that as

Vedic scriptures predict heat is rising and consequent drought causes

shortage of grain production.

Here is a little bit more from the same group, the Earth Policy

Institute. They say that the 2003 year's world grain harvest is falling

short of consumption by 93 million tons, dropping world grain stocks to the

lowest level in 30 years. As rising temperatures and falling water tables

hamstring farmers' efforts to expand production, prices of wheat and rice

are turning upward.

For the first time, the grain harvest has fallen short of

consumption four years in a row. In 2000, the shortfall was a modest 16

million tons; in 2001 it was 27 million tons; and in 2002 a record-smashing

96 million tons. In its September 11 crop report, the U.S. Department of

Agriculture (USDA) reported that this year's shrunken harvest of only 1,818

million tons is falling short of estimated consumption of 1,911 million tons

by a near-record 93 million tons.

New research from crop ecologists at the International Rice Research

Institute and the USDA's Agriculture Research Service shows an emerging

consensus that a 1-degree Celsius rise in temperature (1.8 degrees

Fahrenheit) above the optimum during the growing season leads to a

10-percent decline in grain yields.

The verse we quoted from the Bhagavad-gita says that without yajna

there can not be sufficent rain corresponds with the current world

situation. The Earth Policy Institute reports steady fall of water tables

all over the world.

For example they say that under the North China Plain, which

produces half of China's wheat and a third of its corn, water tables are

falling up to 3 meters per year. A World Bank assessment of China's water

situation says, "Anecdotal evidence suggests that deep wells [drilled]

around Beijing now have to reach 1,000 meters [more than half a mile] to tap

fresh water, adding dramatically to the cost of supply." In unusually strong

language for a Bank report, it foresees "catastrophic consequences for

future generations" unless water use and supply can quickly be brought back

into balance.

Of course the balance can not be brought about unless people become

pious again.

The following is a description of Kali-yuga, the age we are living

in, by Markandeya Rsi some 5,000 years ago. You’ll notice that many things

have come to pass, whereas others are to come.

 

Devotees are persecuted; charity and sacrifices are performed just for show;

brahmins work like sudras while sudras prosper; kings and presidents cannot

set a good example for the people because they themselves are sinners;

meat-eating becomes common; animals and even humans are raised for

slaughter; people are short-lived, and their stature is diminished; the

senses of taste and smell vanish; women become prostitutes; cows give no

milk; violent, bestial men run rampant, and murder and robbery are

commonplace; no one knows the meaning of God or truth; people become mad for

intoxication and sex; flowers and fruits decrease and crows increase; people

think that they become beautiful just by growing long hair; no one observes

religious principles; the seasons become mixed; rainfall diminishes; trees

and plants refuse to grow; young girls become pregnant, and boys turn

gray-headed; old men refuse to abandon the follies of youth; large-scale

famine and violent earthquakes kill millions of people.

 

So to conclude we want to invite everyone to join us in the bold

effort to try to refform the society, or at least to set some people on the

path of piety. That will surely protect ourselves as well.

Our plan is to propagate Krishna consciousness throughout the

society on as many levels as possible. In our particular case we are

concentrating on distribution of Krishna consciouss literature as ordered by

our spiritual master His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

You can help by sponsoring book distribution or by distributing

books yourself.

 

To contact us please call:

(310) 836-1882

or email us at:

shastra.dana (AT) webcom (DOT) com

 

Donations can be sent to:

 

Sastra Dana

3764 Watseka Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90034