Archive for April, 2008
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Sweating To The Oldies
Went with Soma over to a sweat lodge lead by Yoga Dave. We brought Adi Guru and Bhakta Chris along and he blogged about the experience here.
Bhakta Rasa (initiated name) was there whom I hadn’t seen in 10 years or longer. We went through some intense adventures together back in the day so it […]
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Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Aho! Mitakuye Oyasin
A few moon-lit nights back, by the mercy of HG Madhava Ghosh Prabhu and HG Soma Prabhu, I was able to participate in my first sacred sweat lodge ceremony. I’ll leave you with the impressions…a straight narrative isn’t going to cut it. It isn’t going…
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Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
“Brahma” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
If the red slayer think he slays,
……Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
…… I keep, and pass, and turn again.
Far or forgot to me is near;
…… Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
…… And one to me are shame and […]
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Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Happy Earth Day!
Let us remember on this day that Mother Earth is like us too. She is a devotee of Krsna, and she is most pleased when we offer her bounties to Krsna.Developing our farm communities further and further, practically and intelligently, must be a leading …
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Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Springtime in New Vrindaban
Saucer magnolias down by the apartments.
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Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Invisible Men
First read Sankirtan’s article about Master of Camoflauge to see why this photo immediately came to my mind:
“Desk deception: What appears to be a pile of papers is in fact a hunched figure.”
See more at:
Spot the ‘invisible’ men and women in artist’s amazing photographs
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Monday, April 21st, 2008
Cause roses really smell like….
There’s a lot of good old-fashioned hullabaloo about on the now-ever-more mainstream topics of climate change and environmental responsibility.Movie screen and big big politicos will try to convince you that the tides are rising and the end is nigh, wh…
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Monday, April 21st, 2008
Prabhupada Letter Aug 6, 1969 (Kirtanananda)
Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Founder-Acharya:
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
August 6, 1969
My Dear Kirtanananda,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 2, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your recipe for pickling foodstuffs, it is all right, but it will be nicer […]
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Monday, April 21st, 2008
Solution
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Sunday, April 20th, 2008
Neat Tie — The Clown That Cares
This is Sadhvi devi dasi, one of Srila Prabhupada’s loving daughters. She’ll be at the Festival of Inspiration! She will make you and your children laugh with happiness with her sweet funny routines and fantastic on the spot balloon sculptures. Check her web site:
http://webgiftstore.com/start.htm
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Sunday, April 20th, 2008
Varnashram Not Possible In Cities
(The point I am trying to make by presenting this is that cow protection is essential to varnashram, and city devotees have a responsibility to support cow protection if they drink milk and seriously want to implement VA. This can be done vicariously by supporting existing cow protection programs. In the modern era, it isn’t […]
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Saturday, April 19th, 2008
John Cataneo and Some Other Guys
Left to right: Carsani dd, unidentified gurukuli, Panca Dravida Swami, Satsvarupa Swami, Bhakta Tirtha Swami, Hrydyananda Swami, Kirtanananda Swami, John Cataneo.
This is a picture I came across recently. It has interest to me because John Cataneo is in it. He was the first person I knew personally who passed away because of AIDS back in […]
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Friday, April 18th, 2008
Festival of Inspiration 2008: Children’s Workshops
by Mudakari
This is a tentative schedule that was based upon the 2007 FOI schedule of events. This is subject to change, depending upon the adult schedule (not yet posted to web). This is an idea so that you can begin registering your children at the Festival of Inspiration website.
Children will be signed in and out […]
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Friday, April 18th, 2008
First Asparagus
first spear
of asparagus
winter is dead
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Friday, April 18th, 2008
Master of Camouflage
There’s a legend about a tribe called the Invisible People in the Amazon jungles. When standing silently and unmoving in the middle of the forest, they would remain undetected by their enemies. Then there’s the comic book character Plastic Man who, in his fight against crime, would at times mold himself into part of the landscape or appear as inanimate objects. His ability was because of a freak chemical accident.
Now if you wanted to go undetected in plain view of everyone how would you do that? Could you take the shape of a rock, bicycle or garbage can? Could you blend into the marble wall in the lobby of some big downtown hotel? What about taking on the color and texture of a plush armchair you’re sitting in so it appears that no one’s there?
Carl Zimmer, in his New York Times article Revealed: Secrets Of The Camouflage Masters,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/science/19camo.html?st=cse&sq=carl+zimmer+revealed&scp=1
reports how some living entities can, within a moments notice, blend into their surroundings and “disappear.” It sounds like the talents of the best Special Forces Units, Undercover Squads, Hollywood make up artists, and the likes of Houdini and David Copperfield all rolled into one.
But the marvels explained therein are not of human design, but of Intelligent Design. The Supreme Intelligent (Krishna - God) has given various living entities and species their own special intelligence and has parceled out to them an array of extraordinary abilities that in many ways seem to out perform those of us humans.
The article focuses on Dr. Roger Hanlon and his ongoing research over a 30 year period with cephalopods, animals that can change or disguise themselves in their environments. Among them, the cuttlefish, squids and octopus are the “world’s camouflage champions.” One account tells that after following an octopus for an hour and a half underwater, Dr Hanlon turned away for an instant, and when he turned back, the octopus was gone. After searching for 20 minutes he realized it was right in front of him all the time, exactly where he had seen it before. Other Octopuses he observed “assume the shape of a rock and move in plain sight across the sea floor. But no faster than the ripples of light around them, so they never seem to move.”
It would serve Dr Hanlon and colleagues to study the camouflage abilities of Sri Krishna. Krishna appears in numerous forms, shapes, and guises. He is always with us, He surrounds us and maintains us, but we cannot see Him nor readily detect Him. This is the greatest deception. He simultaneously walks and does not walk. He is within everything and yet he is also outside of everything. He is the furthest away, and even if one travels at the speed of the mind, no one can approach Him. And yet He is the closest of all, residing undetected, in the core of our hearts. And on those rare occasions when yogis and mystics, meditating for ages, finally glimpse the Lord Within The Heart, they think it’s themselves. O’Krishna – the supreme master of camouflage!
“I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by my creative potency. And so the deluded world knows Me not , who am unborn and infallible. I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.” Bhagavad Gita 7: 25-26