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Saturday, November 1, 2008

Financial crisis - What they don't teach you in school

Give up your preoccupation about your future, because if your present is a mess then your future will be more messy. But when you are aiding others then your present is glorious and your future will be glorious. Material philosophy means now save your money and tomorrow enjoy, save for your vacations, save for your home, save for your car, save save save and don't give, and in this way your life becomes pretty miserable. And nowadays the banks may also become bankrupt, we have already seen that a few times. All of a sudden there is devaluation of the currency and what was yesterday 10 is now worth only 5. This just happened in the United States, strongest country in the world, supposed to be. Everybody in the U.S. over the period of the last six months lost between 35 and 50 percent of their assets. No exaggeration. If they had a million dollars, now they have 500000 Usd or 650000 Usd. If they had debts they lost their houses. In the last 6 months 4 million homes in the U.S. went into foreclosure. The houses went down in value, what was worth 100000 Usd is now worth 50000 Usd, but they owe 80000 Usd to the bank. This means that now you have more debts than the house covers. Nice game of the money changers.

Aiding others - How emergencies help us to grow spiritually

Krishna due to His kindness keeps us in a state of emergency. Why? Because we need that, we need that state of emergency, because we have not yet discovered loving spontaneous devotional service. Somehow or other Sri Krishna, He has the devotee-community grow, from one emergency to the next. I have at this given moment approximately between 100 and 200 emergencies. When the telephone rings it means another emergency. The emergencies put us in contact with Krishna. Supreme Queen Kunti said that let this emergencies come again and again and again because when there is an emergency she has to take refuge in Sri Krishna. In this way Krishna is sending these emergencies to us to be more close to Him. So Queen Kunti says that she wants these emergencies to come again and again, because if everything would be going fine and there would be no problem at all then we would just go to sleep, then we would just do some useless thing like turning on the television.

Ritvik guru - Not in line with our acaryas

Thakura Bhaktivinoda is acknowledged by all his sincere followers as possessing the powers of the pure devotee of Godhead. His words have to be received from the lips of a pure devotee. If his words are listened from the lips of a non-devotee they will certainly deceive. If his works are studied in the light of one's own worldly experience their meaning will refuse to disclose itself to such readers. His works belong to the class of the eternal revealed literature of the world and must be approached for their right understanding through their exposition by the pure devotee. If no help from the pure devotee is sought, the works of Thakura Bhaktivinoda will be grossly misunderstood by their readers. The attentive reader of those works will find that he is always directed to throw himself upon the mercy of the pure devotee if he is not to remain unwarrantably self-satisfied by the deluding results of his wrong method of study.

Guru bhakti, Krishna bhakti - Guest speaker: Swami B.V. Tripurari

There is no possibility of doing Krishna bhakti without Guru bhakti. You cannot engage in Krishna bhakti without honoring the Guru, without honoring the Vaishnavas. In Sri Bhakti Rasamrita sindhu by Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhupada there is a discussion about the angas of bhakti. Anga means limb, like my arms or my legs and angi means the body. So the angi has angas. Rupa Goswami gives the angas of Krishna bhakti, 64 limbs of bhakti to Krishna. In listing those angas of Krishna bhakti what is the first thing that he says? What is the first anga of Krishna bhakti? He says guru padasraya... we have to take shelter of the feet of the Guru, to come and sit and hear. So this is the first anga of the angi of Krishna bhakti.

The World Vaishnava Association - How to serve all Vaishnavas

There is a story in the Mahabharata about the Kauravas who sent the Pandavas into the forest to be in exile. And these Kauravas they thought: "Let us make the Pandavas envious by having a big party right next to were they are exiled, we are going to have a big feast and we are going to sing and dance and these guys (the Pandavas) cannot come out because they are in exile, let's really torture them in this way." So they (the Kauravas) were in the middle of their partying when suddenly the Gandharvas, who are some very powerful people, they found out about their party. Having a grudge against the Kauravas, the Gandharvas came and invaded their party and they took everybody prisoner. One messenger went to Yudhishtira and said: "Somebody took the Kauravas as prisoners, their whole party was destroyed by the Gandharvas." And then Yudhishtira said: "Oh, then we have to go and free them, we have to protect them, Bhima go and get your weapons, we are going to go and help the Kauravas." Bhima said: "Never, never I will do this, move one finger for these Kauravas. No Yudhishtira, you cannot ask me that, anything else you can ask me." Then Yudhishtira said: "Listen Bhima, you are right, they are rascals and they should be chastised, they are real nonsense and they have done real stupid things, but when we are under attack we are 105 (The Kauravas are 100 brothers and the Pandavas 5 brothers), because we have a family relationship. If a foreign interest, a foreign danger approaches, even though I have a misgiving with my brother or with my nephew, when we are under attack we are 105." In India the junior submits to the senior unlike in the west where we even fight with our father. We have no understanding of tradition, of keeping something unified and strong. So Bhima finally said that if this is your order Yudhishtira I obey. They went and they freed the Kauravas and defeated the Gandharvas. This shows you how powerful these 5 brothers were, what the whole Kauravas could not do. So in the same way when we are under attack, we are one Vaishnavas, doesn't matter wether we are Ramanujas, Madhvacharyas or Vallabhacharyas.

Egoism - Thinking that we are the center of the universe

There is a law in physics which says that every action has a corresponding reaction. People learn about it in school but they do not learn how to apply this law in real life. They think that this is a law for the mechanical department, or maybe it is a law for the chemical department, but they do not think that this is a law for the life department. You are functioning under this law. Every one of your actions will bring about a corresponding reaction, no exception to the rule. Everybody teaches it in every school in the world, but they do not apply it to their own life. If I use a little bit too much salt then what happens to the food? It becomes spoiled. If I cook it too long, or too little, too much salt, too little salt, every detail has a reaction. So then why do you think that life has no reactions? Why you think that you can kill, intoxicate, you can abort children, you can do anything without getting a reaction? You know why you think in that way? Because you idiot think that you are the center of the universe.