Discard All This Quibbling

You may have noticed two things in recent days. The election of Barack Obama, the first African-American to become the President of the United States, and nationwide protests to the passing of Proposition 8 in California of all places, which strictly defines marriage as being between a man and a women, leaving out people of same-sex relationships from this social status and benefit.

The people of America, our friends and family, find themselves once again staring into the face of the question of equality, as they attempt to define and re-define the seemingly essential part of the mission of this nation, which is to give equal rights and opportunities to every person, regardless of their race, sexual preference, or any other physical category.

Abraham Lincoln said to a group of Chicago abolitionists in 1858 that we should "Discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man, this race and that race and the other race being inferior and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal."

Nelson Mandela wrote in his book Long Walk to Freedom that "No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

Only the hardest heart would disagree with the sentiments behind these statements, and behind the drive and urge to create and live by these ideals, but as devotees, we can understand that unless one adds the true platform of equality, the spirit soul, to the equation, then all efforts, however sincere, may end up being eternally frustrated.

In our college programs here at the University of Pittsburgh, we are surrounded by warm-hearted students who really want to make a difference, and what we try to share with them is that the real way to change, to hope, is to rise up...to the spiritual platform, opening one's eyes to the Absolute Truth.

We are doing this by revealing the timeless wisdom and lessons of Vedic culture passed down to us by the greatest acaryas. The ideal Vedic system, represented by daivi-varnasrama, brings to life a real system of equality for the ultimate benefit, which is the understanding and practical realization that we are the eternal, blissful servants of the Supreme Person, Krsna.

Vedic culture, properly applied, takes into account the inevitable differences in physical form and mental makeup and proplerly applies these differences in a way to put each and every individual living entity in the best position for the highest self-realization.

There were and are no such things as racism, sexism, and bigotry in properly applied Vedic cultural values. Everyone is seen as they are, as eternal spirit soul, and from their unique individual makeups are placed in the proper order and asrama that will give them the best chance to realize their true, eternal constitutional position.

In his purport to the 2nd verse of the Nectar of Instruction, Srila Prabhupada writes that the mahatma, or greatly realized spiritual personality "refers to those who are broadminded, not cripple-minded. Cripple-minded persons, always engaged in satisfying their senses, sometimes expand their activities in order to do good for others through some "ism" like nationalism, humanitarianism or altruism. They may reject personal sense gratification for the sense gratification of others, like the members of their family, community or society — either national or international. Actually all this is extended sense gratification, from personal to communal to social. This may all be very good from the material point of view, but such activities have no spiritual value. The basis of such activity is sense gratification, either personal or extended. Only when a person gratifies the senses of the Supreme Lord can he be called a mahātmā, or broadminded person."

Where our modern-day seekers of justice may be missing the point is in trying to force everyone onto artificial platforms of social and economic equality, which tries to vainly erase all differences, but diversity is essential to the human condition. Our differences cannot be erased, but only considered and applied in such a way that ignorant discrimination, based on the bodily platform, does not rear its ugly, ugly head.

It is our duty as devotees to make active these timeless principles of Vedic culture. We shouldn't go into fundamentalist mode and blindly condemn the efforts of progressive peoples worldwide to get their voice heard, and even to preserve their lives.

After all, we can admire the rare goodness in their hearts in this fragile, chaotic world. Let us unite with them in their efforts, in a respectful, active dialogue, and bring about real, spiritual equality in the here and now.

The Charter For Compassion

If this hasn't come under your gaze, please check out The Charter For Compassion for a very interesting opportunity for cross-cultural networking and inspiration.

From their website...

The Charter for Compassion is a collaborative effort to build a peaceful and harmonious global community. Bringing together the voices of people from all religions, the Charter seeks to remind the world that while all faiths are not the same, they all share the core principle of compassion and the Golden Rule. The Charter will change the tenor of the conversation around religion. It will be a clarion call to the world.

Over the next months this site will be open for the world to contribute to Charter for Compassion. Using innovative group decision-making software, people of all faiths, from all across the globe, will contribute their words and stories on a website designed specifically for the Charter. A Council of Sages, made up of religious thinkers and leaders, will craft the world’s words into the final version of the Charter. The document will not only speak to the core ideas of compassion but will also address the actions all segments of society can take to bring these ideas into the world more fully. The Charter for Compassion will then be signed by religious leaders of all faiths at a large launch event, followed by a series of other events to publicize and promote the Charter around the world.

The Charter for Compassion will not be a new organization. There are hundreds of existing organizations around the world already working tirelessly in the name of compassion and interfaith dialogue. Our goal is to highlight these groups in effort to raise the profile of their work.

The Charter will show that the voice of negativity and violence so often associated with religion is the minority and that the voice of compassion is the majority. Through the participation of the grassroots, people around the world will expect more out of religious leaders and one another. In doing so, the Charter will shift conceptions of religion for all people.

Please contribute your enlightened and devoted words if you get the chance.

The Truth Is Out There?

Hello, my name is Chris, and I'm a recovering conspiracy theorist.

With your help, maybe, just maybe, I can return to a world free of cynicism, paranoia, and outlandish, highly speculative fairy tales. I'm serious!

I guess I'm not exactly rolling with the popular tide here, as this article from the Las Vegas Sun details.

I find my experience as an bumbling, stumbling, highly conditioned aspiring devotee to have at least a few positive side-effects that my old habits and mental misconceptions can't quite cover up. One of these positive side effects is that I am finding my personality far more grounded and practical.

The strong sense of satisfaction I find in trying to practice a Krsna Conscious life means I'm no longer waiting for the world to end so that all my mundane problems will be solved.

To be honest, I'm not quite jumping right over to the other side of the fence, proudly singing the "Star Spangled Banner", "Kumbaya" and "Purple Haze" and saying everything is dynamite...the facts do remain...there's a lot of evidential discrepancies to the official account of 9/11, plenty of sane and sound people have seen UFOs and have had encounters with their occupants, the Federal Reserve isn't exactly accountable to "We The People", and you can even taste the fluoride in the tap water, but...

...our duty as devotees of the sankirtana mission of Lord Caitanya, in my humble estimation, is to acknowledge the truths and un-truths, the info and disinfo, as yet another virulent symptom of the Kali-Yuga, but we shouldn't become so absorbed that we become cynical in our outlook on life and in our presentation of Krishna Consciousness.

Hollow-eyed cynicism doesn't make anything attractive, least of all our own spiritual message of eternity, knowledge, and bliss.

This is my whole "funda" (fundamental knowledge) realization at the moment on this topic. Cynicism is death to my spiritual aspirations, and the only way to cure this disease is to loosen the ties that bind me to fanciful and darkly horrific ideas that are the very model of "mental speculation".

Again, this is not to say there is not validity to what lies behind the veil of our mass-media, government-funded outlook on the world. Vedic history makes it very clear that demonic influences have infiltrated and influenced this lonely Planet Earth, and are doing so now in many dynamic, subtle ways.

And when I say subtle, I mean that I don't quite think George Bush, the Queen, and Tony Blair are literally evil reptilian beings in disguise.

But if you find yourself worrying a bit too much about the coming global changes of 2012, or whether Obama is actually legit or not, or whether one of the Rockefeller kids will call in a stock-market collapse, I say step outside, take a deep breath, call out "Gauranga", and remember that, in the Holy Name, we actually have a more powerful weapon than microwave guns or nuclear warheads.

We're working on the level of the soul, where by raising people's awareness of their own spiritual nature, we move very far beyond any temporary political half-truths and speculations. We must each do our humble and patient part without getting too entangled in the various vagaries of this world.

The Ten Signs of Intellectual Honesty

It's common sense wrapped up with brahminical wisdom wrapped up with a little good'ol get-ahead-in-your-business acumen.

It's The Ten Signs Of Intellectual Honesty!

Use them freely, use them for the Lord!

Click here to check them out

It's Time To Kick Out The Jams!

One week ago the world tour of Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana (Ananda Vidya on guitar and vocals, Pat on mrdanga and vocals, Tess on kartals and vocals, Mauricio on violin, Jason on grand piano, and Chris on electric bass) began in the Front Room Coffeehouse at the Baker Center on the campus of Ohio University.

A small but appreciative crowd were treated to spirited renditions of the Panca-Tattva prayers, the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, "Jaya Radha Madhava", and "Radhe Radhe Jaya Jaya Madhava Dayite".

It was a warm evening of sharing the Holy Names, and we hope to continue it again in the future, perhaps with a full light and laser show and maybe even a rock opera! We can only dream...