suchandra Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Looks like ISKCON "discovered" a new field for preaching lately - online commenting on events of the day by applying vedic parameters. What About Winning the Lotto? http://news.iskcon.com/what_about_winning_lotto By Vyenkata Bhatta Dasa on 30 Nov 2007 Image: nofrills <!--paging_filter--> Timothy Elliot's good luck may have just run out. The 55 year old scratched a Massachusetts state lottery scratch ticket and discovered that he'd won a hefty$1 million lottery prize. But it turns out that Elliott is a convicted bank robber and the terms of his probation quite specifically rain on his parade: he"may not gamble, purchase lottery tickets, or visit an establishment where gaming is conducted..." Elliot's fate -- and the fate of his new-found wealth -- will be determined by a court hearing later this month. Can't a convicted armed robber with a lucky scratching thumb catch a break these days? In Elliot's defense, the "thou shalt not scratch tickets"clause was probably written in a very small font on the bottom of a very long piece of paper filled with all sorts of other meaningless little tips on living a crime-free life. And furthermore, shouldn't we encourage the new leaf that Elliot has obviously turned over? After all, winning money is way better than stealing it, even if it is not quite as noble as earning it. Besides, gambling is such an ugly word. It is desperate, perspiring men wearing bad suits losing it all in seedy Las Vegas casinos. It is crack-peddling thugs on city stoops passing the time when they're not out shooting people or signing hip-hop record deals. It is pro-football's fallen angel Michael Vick padding his pockets by getting Snoopy and Clifford to step into the ring. It's not something as, well, innocent as scratching away that one-in-a-million-chance lottery ticket. It can't be; because if it is then all of us are in the same boat as the bad suits, the thugs, and the NFL misfits. Almost all of us. Many Krishna devotees willingly accept formal vows of commitment; they promise that along with faithfully pursuing their spiritual practices, they will avoid4 specific activities that hinder, rather than support, spiritual growth. These are: meat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex, and gambling. The four are singled out because they are believed to especially erode essential principles of religion: compassion, austerity, cleanliness, and truthfulness. With all four of these regulative prohibitions (which are, incidentally, called"the 4 regs" in Hare Krishna slang), there are more than a few shades of grey. Somehow that fourth one manages to be greyest of all. Some devotees read "no gambling" narrowly: stay out of the casinos,avoid the horse races, and make sure card-games don't get wilder than go-fish played for bragging rights. Devotees who choose this interpretation are likely to find this the easiest reg to follow. On the other end of the spectrum, some devotees read "no gambling" to include a whole host of mundane behavior: from playing sports and board games,to watching non-devotional movies (except when absolutely forced to on airplanes), to that new-found Sudoku obsession. Devotees who choose this interpretation swear that this is the easiest reg to break. Lottery tickets, including Elliot's preferred scratching variety, are a bit easier to diagnose. Both schools would probably agree that they are off-limits-- especially if bought expressly with a desire to win big. But what about the hypothetical case where a devotee slips and buys a ticket anyway, or is gifted a lottery ticket, or chips in to an office pool as a matter of obligation... and it turns up a winner? Is she entitled to keep the earnings, rationalizing that the money may just be some long-owed good karma? Could she "purify" the cash by putting some (or all) of it in the donation box of her local ISKCON temple? And when does this whole thing make the slope dangerously slippery? Fortunately for the state of Massachusetts, and unfortunately for Elliot, the issues facing the court in his case are not nearly as ambiguous. The probation terms made it plain that lottery tickets were off limits, and it would be unjust for Elliot to benefit so lucratively from breaking such explicitly stated rules. The money is most likely headed back to the State coffers, leading some to conclude that the government may be as much of a bandit as Elliot was. Of course, what this may mean is that next month's jackpot will be $1 million larger and that much more tempting. Convicted felons and Hare Krishnas need not apply. Read Elliot's story here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melvin Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 I used to bet on lotto. Not winning anything I thought," Lord God, if you let me win the lotto`s jackpot prize( Man proposes God disposes) I know it would reap a bad return. One of my family maybe kidnapped for ransom or robbers would break into our home and rob and later kill us all!Or I`d get cancer and had to spend my lotto winnings in looking for a cure." After thinking about it. I stopped betting on lotto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suchandra Posted November 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 I used to bet on lotto. Not winning anything I thought," Lord God, if you let me win the lotto`s jackpot prize( Man proposes God disposes) I know it would reap a bad return. One of my family maybe kidnapped for ransom or robbers would break into our home and rob and later kill us all!Or I`d get cancer and had to spend my lotto winnings in looking for a cure."After thinking about it. I stopped betting on lotto. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.39 by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda Māyāpur, March 17, 1976 760317SB.MAY Pusta Krishna: “My dear Lord from the Vaikuntha planets, where there is no anxiety, my mind is extremely sinful and lusty. It is sometimes so-called happy and sometimes so-called distressed. It is full of lamentation and fear and always anxious to get more and more money. In this way my mind has become most polluted. It is never satisfied, and therefore I am very fallen and poor. In such a status of life, how will it be possible for me to discuss Your activities?” Prabhupāda: This is our position. This material world and the spiritual world, the difference is very nicely explained here. One place is no anxiety; in another place it is simply full of anxiety. This is the difference. So Prahlāda Mahārāja in another place has said also the same thing. When his father asked him, “What is the best thing you have learned, my dear boy, from your school?” so he immediately addressed his father as asura-varya. Why? Now, because this thing, free of anxiety, is not understandable by the asuras. They want anxiety. They’ll create such situation. They’ll put themselves in anxiety and try to come out of it. That is their heroic activities. This is the difference between the asura and the sura, devatā. The devatās, or the devotees… There are two different types of men. One is asura, and the other is devotee, just like Prahlāda Mahārāja and his father Hiranyakasipu. These two types of men are there in this world. And the difference we can see, that Prahlāda Mahārāja is simply satisfied with Krishna. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murali_Mohan_das Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 I wonder if a Vaishnava would consider me working with some expectation of getting a pension at age 55 to be gambling? After all, there's no guarantee that some unscrupulous people won't plunder the pension fund as they have any number of times in the past. Speaking of Pusta Krishna Prabhu, it's nice to see that Sri Krishna has rewarded his hard work with some material opulence (he has long had spiritual opulence) and that he is so nicely using his resources in the service of the Lord. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suchandra Posted December 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2007 I wonder if a Vaishnava would consider me working with some expectation of getting a pension at age 55 to be gambling? After all, there's no guarantee that some unscrupulous people won't plunder the pension fund as they have any number of times in the past. Speaking of Pusta Krishna Prabhu, it's nice to see that Sri Krishna has rewarded his hard work with some material opulence (he has long had spiritual opulence) and that he is so nicely using his resources in the service of the Lord. Not really, when signing the contract for additional retirement pension it has to be clearly mentioned how big the risk is. Usually you need an expert to read through that contract, otherwise normal people can't figure what is actually stated in retirement contracts - a clause is often written into the small print of these contracts what only lawyers can detect. In sum, don't sign without knowing what is actually written there. Only then it is no gambling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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