Archive for January, 2009
Monday, January 12th, 2009
Already With The Memories Of Our Trip
The material world is a place of constant transition. We are looking at and anticipating a future event, watching it approach us in the river of time, experiencing it, then watching it in the rear view mirror recede into memory.
I got home, blinked a couple of times, and suddenly I am not talking about our […]
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Sunday, January 11th, 2009
Communicating With Others
Source
Posted in Jokes
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Sunday, January 11th, 2009
Food For Obama
As Barack Obama becomes President of these fair United States, demands are high for real substance to his mantra of change change change.This is a chance, for once, for a favorable political situation to help restore our essential heritage to the land….
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Sunday, January 11th, 2009
Compassionate Reflections #1
Inspired by my reading of “Vaisnava Compassion” by HH Satsvarupa Maharaja”Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace! Where there is hatred let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon.”-St.Francis of AssisiIt’s not easy to show compassion. It requir…
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Saturday, January 10th, 2009
Masdar City — First Zero Carbon City?
Well, maybe in this day and age. Before the industrial revolution all cities were zero carbon.
I would be a lot more excited about the flagship ISKCON projects if they were more in this vein PLUS Krishna (maybe the planners could take some hints):
Masdar City is the most ambitious sustainable development in the world today - […]
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Friday, January 9th, 2009
“Ah, Ah” by Joy Harjo
for Lurline McGregor
Ah, ah cries the crow arching toward the heavy sky over the marina.
Lands on the crown of the palm tree.
Ah, ah slaps the urgent cove of ocean swimming through the slips.
We carry canoes to the edge of the salt.
Ah, ah groans the crew with the weight, the winds cutting skin.
We claim our seats. […]
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Thursday, January 8th, 2009
10 Signs Of Intellectual Honesty
Source
1. Do not overstate the power of your argument. One’s sense of conviction should be in proportion to the level of clear evidence assessable by most. If someone portrays their opponents as being either stupid or dishonest for disagreeing, intellectual dishonesty is probably in play. Intellectual honesty is most often associated with humility, not arrogance.
2. […]
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Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
A Bond Of Love
Dear Dear Devotees:
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
As you may know, Malati Prabhu has inspired us to compile some of Srila Prabhupada’s daughters’ memories. We hope this compilation will preserve for posterity Srila Prabhupada’s legacy of exchanges with his women disciples and will illumine still more facets of his glories – […]
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Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
The Gift
What if….
You were held in the arms of God,
lovingly cared for
all you basic needs were provided.
There was no worry or strain.
People, circumstances, tools, knowledge,
appeared in your life just as you needed them.
Along with unlimited opportunities to serve others, serve God, and reciprocate the generosity that was shown to you.
The reality is….
This is a fact.
We just haven’t opened our arms and our hearts to embrace it.
We don’t have the faith that when we are falling there will be support.
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Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Ekadasi snack
Are you looking for a quick, easy, healthy ekadasi snack?
Here is a suggestion.
Grind to a powder in a blender or seed grinder,
1/2 c sesame seeds
1/2 c black sesame seeds
1/2 c hemp seeds
Mix all the seeds together along with 1T of honey.
If you only have regular sesame seeds you can just use that along with the honey.
Black sesame seeds are a Chinese tonic for the kidneys.
Hemp seeds are high in protein and EFAs.
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Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Born Again
“He requires a second birth, by samskara, reforming. Just like we give second birth, initiation. The second birth, the father is the spiritual master and the mother is the Vedas. As the first birth is taken by the material father and mother, similarly, second birth, dvija is possible by the spiritual master, the father and […]
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Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
The Fundamental Rethink of Food
Food is life, and the struggle against hunger across this planet threatens to become a fire that could start other fires.Our example of “simple living” provides profound answers to the problem of over-consumption that plagues our culture and lives.In a…
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Monday, January 5th, 2009
Balabhadra Health Update
Dear Maharajas and Prabhus,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
The many letters, prayers, and phone calls have been a great source of comfort for Balabhadra. Thank you again and again. Our hearts are touched with your kindness.
Balabhadra is now at home. It was concluded that heart surgery was not necessary. He has been given many medicines to take for his heart and high blood pressure. In one month he is to meet with the cardiologist again to see how he is doing. He is not feeling so good from the medicines but we are told that his body will adjust within a few days. His heart was not at all damaged by the heart attack.
The test results on his liver came back normal.
The whole situation with his leg has not been resolved as the neurologist did not come into the hospital on the weekend. Our general doctor there gave us the name of the expert neurologist in the area and wants us to call him and get an appointment as soon as possible. The fact that he has been immobile and in pain for so long is not good for his present and future health.
Right now he is sleeping soundly which he wasn’t able to do in the hospital. The pain in his leg comes and goes in severity. He is scheduled for the acupuncturist in a few days and hopefully he will be feeling well enough to have the treatment as it gave him much relief.
Balabhadra is receiivng phone calls at our home phone: 304-843-1658. I am hoping he wil feel well enough to access on his laptop his own email at balabhadra.iscowp@earthlink.net . You can still also write to iscowp@earthlink.net and I will make sure he will receive it.
If you could continue to pray for his improved general health and that his leg situation is resolved soon so that he may be able again to walk amongst the cows.
Your servant,
Chayadevi
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Sunday, January 4th, 2009
Doctor Atomic
“Doctor Atomic” is an opera in cycle on PBS these days. It is an English language contemporary one. I had it on and wasn’t paying a lot of attention doing something else at the same time, mostly listening to the music. It was a little modern and used too much brass for my taste but […]
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Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
Balabhadra’s Health
Written by: Chayadevi (Balabhadra’s Wife)
Dear Maharajas and Prabhus,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
We would like to thank all of you for your phone calls, messages and prayers. It means a lot to Balabhadra.I will try to explain as simply as possibly what has been happening with Balabhadra’s health.
Balabhadra has always had back problems for over 40 years
(he is approaching his 63 birthday in April). He was always able to get over any flare ups and continue to physically work very hard. His whole life has been full of physical work and in his devotee years (initiated in 1969) mostly centered on farm life and the cows. This last year has been different. He has collapsed about four times and his recovery has been slow, like two weeks or more for each collapse. His visits to doctors, MRI, etc. revealed herniated disks, moderate spinal stenosis and some other deterioration but nothing that was considered an emergency surgery candidate. Some meds, instructions how to go about his activities, and physical therapy was recommended. At the same time it was found that the pain he was experiencing in his left knee was a result of very little cartilage on one side of the knee. Because he was favoring the other knee this was also negatively affecting his back problems.
Five weeks ago he was in physical therapy to strengthen his left knee and felt a tinkling and burning in his right leg. He told the therapist and was told to work through it. The following day he could not walk, the pain in his right leg was so severe. We went to the emergency room and were told he sprained his knee and the pain should decrease in a few days. The next five weeks were spent trying to get the state clinic we are a member of to understand this is not a sprain because the pain is severe and not getting less intense. After being prescribed more meds, we were told they could do nothing for us. The third week we then tried an acupuncturist who gave Balabhadra some relief but was scheduled to go on vacation for the next two weeks. The acupuncturist felt positive he could relieve the pain with more treatments.
Last Tuesday we were able to get a treatment at the acupuncturist and for the first time in five weeks Balabhadra could lay in bed without constant pain. We were very happy thinking we were on the right path to recovery. The past five weeks he had been bedridden, his only activity trips to the bathroom which is about 15 feet away from the bed. The pain became most intense when standing upright. Then Wednesday night he went to the bathroom and I heard a loud noise, as if something was knocked over. I opened the bathroom door and found him lying on the floor, his forehead bloody. He fell and hit his head on the ceramic floor. He was conscious and I tried to help him move back to the bedroom. Halfway there he began to slowly fall from me onto the floor. On the floor his neck began to arch and his eyes began to roll to the back of his head. He was moaning and he seemed to be leaving me and this world.
From caring for dying cows and other animals, this is what I have seen before the soul leaves the body. I started lightly slapping him and calling to him, he came back to consciousness and I called 911, turned up the volume of the Prabhupada bhajan tape we had playing and gave him rescue remedy. At one point he began to lose consciousness again but by talking to him he stayed conscious.
The ambulance came and brought us to the hospital where he was hooked up to a lot of wires and drips and monitors. It was decided he should stay overnight since some of the readings were questionable. The next morning we were told the blood tests indicated he had a heart attack and it was ongoing. That was why they were checking on him constantly and readjusting all the drips. It was a mild heart attack and his heart was not damaged. Eventually the heart would stabilize or something bad would happen. We were told that people who have this type of heart attack usually have one again within 6 months, and then it might be more severe. It was decided that he needed a procedure (angioplast ?) in which the doctor goes in through a vein in the groin and takes pictures of the heart to see if and where any blockage might be. In the meantime the blood tests found that there is something not quite right with his liver.
His heart stabilized by the following morning (yesterday) and he had the procedure. Problems were found which needed some consultation with the expert cardiologist in the area. We are now waiting to hear what the doctors recommend as to the next step for his heart, more test results on what is up with his liver, and a report from the neurologist as to what is causing the pain in his left leg and hip.
The good news is that since the one treatment by the acupuncturist he has been off most of the meds for his leg pain and is experiencing far less pain in his leg and hip. His heart remains stable and he is off the drips. The other good news is that he is hearing from devotees their concern and that they will pray for him. He is still in the hospital and has been receiving calls at (304) 843 3301. You can also write him a note at iscowp@earthlink.net and I will print it out and give it to him. It really does mean a lot to him when he hears from the devotees. We are now just waiting for information. It may be a few days as it is the weekend and a holiday here.
Balabhadra is realizing he is at a crossroads in his life. He no longer has the facility to be the workaholic “earthworm” and has to now become a “bookworm.” With your prayers and blessings and Krishna’s desire he will recover and in the years to come will engage himself more in speaking about cow protection with the purpose to encourage others and fulfill his eternal debt to Srila Prabhupada who has saved us all.
Your servant,Chayadevi (Balabhadra’s wife)