Veganism is becoming a popular idea. To use or not milk is a complicated question that involves health, moral and philosophical aspects. When we get information about how cows are treated in the modern dairy industry, our first reaction may be to decide to become Vegan. However, there are a few points that one may want to consider before taking the plunge.
Today is the auspicious appearance day of Sri Advaita Acarya, a great day for all Gaudiya Vaishnavas. He is not less than the one responsible for the appearance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, therefore we have a great debt upon him. If there was no Advaita Acarya, there would be no ISKCON, no Gaudiya Math, no sankirtan movement. Indeed, without him would be no material world at all and we would not have our opportunity of going back to Godhead.
To understand Advaita Acarya we need to go back in time, more specifically back to before the beginning of time. A “time” before either time or the material world itself existed. At them, there was only Lord Maha Visnu laying down in the causal ocean. Understanding the desire of the souls living there to execute activities, He glances unto the material energy. This glance of Maha Visnu becomes Lord Sadha Shiva, who carries all the souls in direction to the material nature and impregnates her, creating the conditions for the creation of all the material universes.
Do the jivas fall from the spiritual world? Were we in Krsna Lila before falling in this material world, or have we just fallen here from the viraja river, and that’s our first taste of Krsna Consciousness? Have we ever met Krsna before?
To ask “how the souls fall into the material world” sounds like a perfectly bonafide question, something a visitor could make in a Sunday class. However, it became one of the most polemical topics inside our movement, evoking heated discussions and a few occasional fistfights. For the last 40+ years, books have been written, long discussions held, resolutions have been made by the GBC, and we are still far from a consensus.
How could such a simple question become the center of such fratricidal dispute?
The Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama is the highest point in the Gaura Purnima festivities in Mayapur. Every year, thousands of devotees from all over the world congregate in Mayapur, and most of them participate in the parikrama. For 7 days, devotees forget about the external world and become immersed in chanting, walking, and visiting the holy places in Navadvipa.
During the parikrama, we visit many holy places, like Naimisharanya, Kurukshetra, Puskara Thirta, and even Radha-Kunda, which can make many devotees doubtful. To anyone with basic geographical knowledge, this may seem absurd. Everyone knows that Kuruksetra is in north India, that Radha-Kunda is in Vrindavana, and so on. How are we supposed to believe that all these holy places are present in Navadvipa?
Continue readingAstrology is a Vedic art. The Vedas explain that the destiny of human beings is determined by the stars. A person takes birth under a particular conjunction of planets and stars, which is represented in his birth chart, and by following the calculations given in the sastras an expert astrologer is capable of making accurate predictions about his life. Different celestial bodies influence an individual in different ways, just like ropes pulling a puppet. The position of different celestial bodies is going to influence what kind of family one will take his birth into, what education he will receive, what kind of spouse he will have, what challenges he will face during his life, when and where he will die, and even influence how he is going to think!
Movies like the Terminator and AI popularized the idea of intelligent machines walking amongst us. In one scenario, the machines become enemies and try to exterminate humanity, leading to an apocalyptic future. In another, machines remain as docile slaves that perform all the hard labor humans don’t want to do. But, how feasible any of these two scenarios are?
The first discussions about artificial intelligence started in the 1950s and gained a place in the popular imagination in the 1970s when clever programmers started writing software capable of playing chess and answering simple questions. From there, many movies, novels, etc. were made on the subject. However, after more than half a century, intelligent machines are still not here.
In Iskcon and most other Vaishnava schools, new initiates make a vow of chanting 16 rounds of the maha-mantra daily on beads. However, the counters we use to keep track of how many rounds we chanted have 20 beads instead of 16. Is there any particular reason for this? Actually there is, and it’s quite interesting.
Many speak about the importance of cow protection. Srila Prabhupada explains how cows are important for a progressive society, helping human beings to ascend to the mode of goodness. Once in Mayapur Srila Prabhupada commented how just having a few cows and letting them roam around in the property would bring auspiciousness. Cows are very calm and docile animals, to spend time with cows, brushing or feeding them is a perfect medicine to stress and depression. The milk they provide helps one to improve his health and develop the fine brain tissues needed to understand spiritual subjects. Bulls are very strong animals who can be used to plow the earth and produce grains. Before tractors were invented, bulls literally feed human society. Even the dung produced by them is useful, being simultaneously a perfect fuel and perfect fertilizer. We read in the Vedas that humanity prospered for thousands of years in a sustainable way by this symbiosis between humans and bovines. When we consider that God himself chooses to spend His time as a cowherd boy, things become even more clear.
Taking all of this into considerations, projects of cow protection, where devotees could take care of cows and live by selling ahinsa milk and other milk products seem to be a no-brainer. However, as easy as it may seem, we don’t see many successful projects of cow protection around. Many can’t maintain themselves at all, and most of the goshalas that are somehow successful are actually maintained by donations, and not by the milk produced by the cows. Why it’s so?
The 4th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam is especially beautiful, including passages like the allegory of King Puranjana, which definitely can make one rethink his priorities in life, understand the temporarily of this world and start his spiritual path.
However, the fourth canto also brings us one of the most polemical and difficult to understand statements from Srila Prabhupada:
“In this regard, the word vikhyātam is very significant. A man is always famous for his aggression toward a beautiful woman, and such aggression is sometimes considered rape. Although rape is not legally allowed, it is a fact that a woman likes a man who is very expert at rape.” (SB 4.25.41)
Did I read correctly? Did Srila Prabhupada really mean that? Are we supposed to believe that every woman has a secret fantasy of being attacked by a random drunkard in some dark alley? As in other passages from Srila Prabhupada, there is some deep meaning, but in this case, the meaning may not be obvious.
Apart from spiritual knowledge, the Vedas offer also a system of social organization called Varnasrama. Although frequently confused with the caste system prevalent in India until the past century, the Varnasrama is a completely different system, based on training and on respecting the natural tendencies of the individual.
In modern times we have a strong polarization between left and right political systems. On the left, we have a strong emphasis on individual rights, but less emphasis on collective rights, while on the left we have an emphasis on collective rights, including maintenance of social structures, but individual rights are frequently neglected. The varnasrama system offers a balance between the two sides, balancing the needs of the individual and the needs of the society, therefore it can be considered an ideal system. The problem is that varnashrama is very difficult to implement, and things can be seriously wrong if it is presented in an equivocal way. One can mess up his life without varnashrama, but he can mess up his life even more seriously with wrong or limited conception of varnashrama.
