Why can't Srila Prabhupada's books create a frenzy like the Harry Potter series?

[Guest guest]

Jerry's voice for the American Beauty and Workingman's Dead albums, and stayed to record with them on those two albums. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[Guest guest]

and the blows against the empire were classics for SF sound fans, they were all there. Crosbys and kantners brainchild, ultimate in many band jam sessions. Jerry on the banjo on the baby tree is ---jerry.

[Guest guest]

It's a Beautiful Day, Elvin Bishop, Boz Scaggs, Steve Miller, Paul Butterfield, Jorma Kaukonen......

 

 

I think I'm mergin' into the strobe light /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Kulapavana]

the saddest thing to see is an old hippie turned into a war mongering chickenhawk... /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Guest guest]

I was never a hippy nor am I a chicken hawk. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Guest guest]

"Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain." /images/graemlins/laugh.gif /images/graemlins/blush.gif /images/graemlins/grin.gif

---Winston Churchill

[theist]

The saddest thing I see are these 65 year old true believer hippies with their shoulder length grey hair hawkin' tie-dye t-shirts and singing "we shall overcome" at PBS found raisers.

 

 

Beware of memories brothers, from them the future is formed.

[Guest guest]

That's why I left Beserkeley eight years ago. I don't see any tie-dye t-shirts in my new neighborhood. And all my neighbors are normal hard-working god-fearing folks. The air is clean and the atmosphere peaceful. Now if there was only a temple nearby besides my small altar in a separate room.... /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Guest guest]

At my new health-food-store job, hippies that forgot to go to the funeral in 1968 in the haight abound. They live from rainbow festival to rainbow festival. Now, if they would do the sensible and turn to rastafarians, Id cut them some slack, as rastas are the best kind of cool people. But they dont, they still want gods kingdom without god getting all bothered by their selfishness.

 

But funny thing, those youngsters that look just like the hippies 35 years ago are christians. The cool hippies are really the ones who have multiple piercings, tattoos, shavred heads, and listen to "mushrooms on the horizon" by PIL. Some even have access to the Vapors and their classic, "livin in the bunkers". But those who look like jerry garcia today (even though hes been dead for 10 years) and gawk at the christian girls who look like their woodstock girls, give it up, gramps. Go find a granny somewhere, shes your "sister", not those grandchildren you think you can impress with your "Illinois Speed Press" albums.

 

I dont mind bein off topic, serves em right for bringing up the name of harry potter.

 

havin fun, mahak

 

for random: I used to see jorma and jack on PBS, even before the airplane, giving guitar band lessons. BTW, does hank harrison ring a bell. Lesh's bud, dead biographer.

[Guest guest]

in Golden Gate Park and I invited him over to the Govinda's that I managed in the Haight. That was in '89. He had purple hair. He never stopped by while I was around. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

Hank rings a bell. He wrote a book and made some bucks. Used to bump into him all the time in the 80s. Havn't seen him around since. I bumped into Rock Sculley (soundboard man) at the Gorge last summer. He still works for the Dead.

 

Believe it or not, lots of conservatives are into the music. We can go beyond the mundane and appreciate the astral... /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[gHari]

 

Is this some unconscious sukriti for the next wave?

 

gHari

 

[Kulapavana]

"Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain."

 

actually, both positions are based on ignorance and bodily concepts.

[Guest guest]

This discussion clearly shows that nobody is really intersted in propagation of teachings of Prabhupada on the level HP books are. All are only interested in dealing with ones past, "hippy" past. Live from one rainbow gathering to the next, who cares for millions of "sqrs". GD is okay, HP is not for our group...

[Guest guest]

Hare Potter Hare Potter Potter Potter Hare Hare

Hare Potter Hare Potter Potter Potter Hare Hare ...

 

seems to be missing something ..non...

 

mmmmmm.... just doesn;t have the same ring to it ...

as well no benifits unless you are a nit wit...ah well

 

it is easier to live a lifetime in illusion rather than a moment in Krsna consciousness...

[premasagar]

Whenever I watch a video or read a book from mainstream culture, I make it a point to see if any aspect of the story or presentation reminds me of something spiritual. I notice that wherever there's enthusiasm over a work of fiction, there must be a spiritual component that is activating the excitement and giving it life (however short-lived that life may be).

 

I've only seen the first two Harry Potter movies and read the second book. Anyway, for example, the stark contrast between Harry's life with the Dursleys and his home at Hogwarts reminds me of the difference between people ("muggles") who willfully scorn any mention of spirituality and those (wizards like Harry) who have a natural attraction or aptitude for living life among subtler energies.

 

A few years back in India, didn't a TV adaptation of the Ramayana cause somewhat of a stir? For a long time, I've been interested in the processes by which religious or spiritual themes cross over into popular media. In recent years, fiction based on Biblical (especially apocalyptic) themes have been pretty popular in America.

 

In my opinion, if Srila Prabhupada's books have real spiritual value, then they have potential to become very popular fictional adaptations. The impact of good fiction is basically the product of the author's heart, and if (as I believe) the attraction of "worldly" themes in popular culture is a grosser manifestation of spiritual longing, then the pure longing of real spiritual teachings would not fail to touch many people's hearts if adapted into a well-written work of fiction.

 

If a devotee's heart is full of God, and if it's God's will for the devotee to write a novel or screenplay, then that movie or a novel has the potential to be as authoritative as a traditional scripture. After all, today's novels and movies owe much of their appeal to the traditional storytelling modes from which they were descended. And those ancient storytelling modes were effective vehicles for communicating spiritual teachings.

 

I think a big reason why fiction like Harry Potter is more popular than spiritual teachings is because most people generally don't like feeling as if they're being taught anything. In that sense, fiction has a way of communicating to people by flying under the radar.

 

It seems like effectively adapting spirituality into the medium of fiction is not really an easy thing to do. If you want to sell a scary story about the wrath of God at the end of the world like some conservative Christian writers are doing, then that's not nearly so difficult as accurately mythologizing spiritual values such as love for God and single-minded devotion.

 

But it's not unheard of. There are the many short spiritual parables that we all know. And The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is a rare example of a popular book that is deeply spiritual and has a lot to say about devotion and purity of heart. But it's really hard to think of a full-length popular novel or movie that really succeeds as a true spiritual teaching.

[Guest guest]

Please leave Srila Prabhupada's books as fact not some scam to attract mindless fools in the fictional realm ...

have you tried reading our Srila Prabhupada's books...

it takes almost all of ones life if you started 30 years ago which means you have some catching up to do ...not really leaving much time to read the Potter nonsense...

[premasagar]

Don't accuse me of trying to scam anyone. Maybe I'm not a real Vaishnava, but I still have a lot of respect for Krishna and for his devotees.

 

If you understand what I was saying, I never really said that Srila Prabhupada's teachings should be just casually re-interpreted in fictional form. I only made some observations about the relationship between spiritual teachings and the medium of fiction. Great spiritual teachers have made use of fiction in the past - that is a fact. And it's not going too far to say that it's possible for a disciple to be inspired by God to write a highly spiritual work of fiction.

 

These are mundane observations, and I don't need to be an expert on anyone's books to say these basic things. Fiction is not falsehood. If fiction is well-written, it becomes a powerful way to communicate subtle truths that don't translate well into "fact". Fiction is really a deeper level of fact.

 

Isn't it true that Srila Prabhupada himself can use a metaphor or fictional account to make a spiritual point? I can't believe that his disciples or even the master himself would think that everything he says should be taken as literally true.

 

Anyway, I understand your point of view, but you probably know that devotees come in various temperaments. If you understand what I said in my previous post, there's nothing wrong with seeing aspects of a guru's teaching in all sorts of places - even in a fantasy like Harry Potter. Isn't that better than reading Harry Potter without remembering the guru? And for some types of devotees, there comes a point when everything somehow becomes a reminder of the guru's teaching.

 

Devotion itself is a creative act. This is true whether one is reciting the maha-mantra or whether one is noticing that some part of a book or movie somehow reflects the master's teaching.

 

Believe me, I know how valid your point is. If thinking that way helps you spiritually, then great - you're speaking out of loyalty and devotion. But a strictly exclusive viewpoint isn't necessarily appropriate for every type of devotee.

[Guest guest]

Anyone see the new movie?

 

Hare Potter Hare Potter Potter Potter Hare Hare....doesn't have the same ring.

[Guest guest]

well what can one say ...I told you so !

unlike the hare potter chanters the chanters of the Lords holy names receive unlimited benifit unbeknownst to the chanter as well undeserved kindness and love from the Lord and His pure representitives.

 

The chanting of hare Krsna is ever increasingly fresh and not limited to opinions.

 

THERE LAYS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FACT and FICTION.

Fiction is material and illusiory fraught with imperfections of the authors, where as Fact of the Lord is Spiritual and eternal like the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita and written and compiled by enlightened Persons or Saints.

 

We hope this meets you well in health spirit, perspicacious in your spiritual endeavours in life ...begging to remain ever felicitate in the dust of the feet of genuine Vaisnavas

[Guest guest]

I don't know who Harry Potter is or his series. I am too much in an 8 year frenzy reading Prabupada's beautiful books. Nothing else is interesting to me.