Hell of Materialism & Positive Spiritual Alternative
First check out the video:
DISCUSSION:
MAHAT: It is interesting that people cannot snap out of the materialistic system. I just learned yesterday, for example, that PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) has been all these years killing more than 85% of animals that were given to them for protection. Check out www.petakillsanimals.com. Why? It seems that corruption came along the way.
Why people cannot fight materialism? Because that is the nature of material desires and that is the nature of lust, lust meaning desire for enjoyment through the media of the sense of the body including the mind. As long as one is a materialist it is just a matter of time when one will get corrupt, like PETA for example. It blew my mind. Those guys, PETA, were always the loudest fighters for animal rights, but eventually they started to get corrupt. FYI PETA receives monthly large sums of money in donations from people who want to support their cause. Similar type of corruption we find in Red Cross in India.
According to the ancient spiritual texts of India, Vedas, unless one develops what is called “param dristhva” or higher taste, the spiritual taste, if one does not have spiritual for the source of one’s pleasure then it is just a matter of time when one is going to become a contributing member of any of these outright demonic, hellish systems (referring to the video showed). Therefore it is very important that on the individual and collective platforms higher taste be developed, the spiritual taste. In other words, we are hard-wired so that we always seek pleasure. If that pleasure is not derived from the spiritual plane, the pleasure-seeking urge will drive one to the material plane.
The goal and purpose of mantra yoga is to drive away all the material desires out of our hearts by filling it with spiritual inspiration. At that time one does not plan any more for eating, sleeping, sex, travelling, sports, shopping, anything material. Rather one makes plans for self realization and sharing the spiritual wealth with others. This is what happens to the heart of one who exposes himself long enough to the mantra yoga.
In the video it was shown that consumers, which refers to most of us, fail to see the extraction, production, and disposal. We just see shopping malls. LOL We just see distribution and consumption phases. Isn’t that interesting? People can be so blind. That is because of all the material desires within the heart. Such a heart does not have the ability to step outside of the situation and have an objective look at things. Rather we become blind, sheep-like, followers. Whatever the masses do, we do. The detached heart, spiritually inspired heart is not like that.
You see, there are many different reasons why to apply oneself to a spiritual practice.
PEDRO: I was wandering what can we do to find this system? Chanting is a start, but can we actually do something?
GOPAL: There are lots of solutions. Many are spoken about by Srila Prabhupada in the First Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam. Srila Prabhupada is saying that chanting will bring us to the higher level of awareness and he’s also putting forward many other practical solutions, everything from how government should work, how communities should be sustainable, self sustainable, farm communities where everything is grown and produced locally and natural. I recommend that section for reading. There it is also explained how spiritual life can be institutionalized within the government. So there are lots of practical things explained there about Krishna consciousness.
MAHAT: That is the end goal of Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada called this movement “International SOCIETY for Krishna Consciousness”. Society is different to a social group. Right now we are more of a social group then a society. Society is comprehensive and much bigger then a nation. Society provides to its members all the needs they have, material and spiritual. Society is that comprehensive and it is our end goal to establish a spiritual society.
That’s why we are trying to get people to stop being so darn materialistic by offering a positive spiritual alternative. Life is all about spirit. Materialistic people cannot appreciate it though. An example: Recently Mike told his parents that he was going to move into the temple and become a monk. It freaked them out so bad. “What are you doing?!! You’re missing on life!!!” they were saying. They don’t know that spirit is life, not matter. Matter is dead. By being a materialist one is missing on life.
GOPAL: Sometimes we treat symptoms instead of the problem. Like when we have a cold we take medicine that alleviates the symptoms, but the problem remains. Similarly we see that there are more and more people becoming aware of the issues presented in the video. But we have to keep in mind that dealing with the symptoms will not remove the cause of the symptoms. The problem is this misidentification with the material body and therefrom spring materialistic troublesome systems. When consciousness is changed then everything else will eventually change.
Special Guest: Swami Devamrita
Devamrita Swami is again passing through San Diego and will spend the Thursday night, April 24th, with us at the Krishna Lounge.
See pix from Swami’s last visit to the lounge: http://krishnalounge.com/2008/04/05/lounging-with-swami-devamrita/
As always, the lounge will open by 7pm. See you there.
The DANGEROUS Health Effects of Cell Phone Use
Sensitive to subtle electromagnetic harmonies, human brains and bodies depend on electrical impulses to conduct complex life-processes – including the ability to read, recall and respond to these words. Much like a boxer taking repeated blows to the head, rapidly pulsing cell phones signal permanent brain damage. A study by Dr. Peter Franch found unequivocally that “cells are permanently damaged by cellular phone frequencies.” This cellular damage, Franch noted, is maximized at low dosage, and “inherited unchanged, from generation to generation.” Franch found that the production of * histamine*, which triggers bronchial spasms, is nearly doubled after exposure to mobile phone transmissions. Cell phones also reduce the effectiveness of anti-asthmatic drugs, and retard recovery from illness. British military scientists have discovered that cell phone transmissions disrupt the brain sites for memory and learning, causing forgetfulness and sudden confusion.
Mobile telephones are arguably the most radiative appliance we have ever invented apart from the microwave oven and people are putting them by their heads–arguably the most sensitive part of the body. Cell phones emanate microwave radiation, and human brains may absorb up to 60 percent of that energy. Already there are at least 15,000 scientific reports on the subject. es. There are 66 epidemiological studies showing that electromagnetic radiation across the spectrum increase brain tumors in human populations. Two of those studies are for particular brain tumors from cell phones. Because cancer takes decades to develop, it will be another 10 or 20 years before “mobiles” manifest a bonanza in brain tumors. We’re already seeing acute effects that are noticed within minutes of using a cell phone.
After two minutes’ conversation, a cell phone’s digitized impulses disable the safety barrier (*blood-brain-barrier*) that isolates the brain from destructive proteins and poisons in the blood. Professor Leif Salford, the neurologist who carried out the research for this finding, said “It seems that molecules such as proteins and toxins can pass out of the blood, while the phone is switched on, and enter the brain. We need to bear in mind diseases such as MS and Alzheimer’s are linked to proteins being found in the brain.”
Research Center For Wireless Technology
120 Hana Highway #9-282
Paia, HI 96779
Usa
AMAZING CONNECTIONS
Transcript:
Susan McConnell Ph.D. (Stanford University):
“Billions of brain cells are not dumb forging links with billions of other brain cells. Eventually there will be trillions and trillions of connections between cells charged with electrical pulses rippling like lightning storms across the hills and the valleys of the brain’s tissue. Every cell in its place, every link between cells carefully organized, nothing random, nothing arbitrary.
What we would really love to understand is how the brain during development generates millions and millions neurons, sends them to the right position in the brain, and then somehow instructs each of those individual nerve cells to form very, very specific connections with one another. You can think about the brain development like a play, a play that follows a script that is written down by the generic code, but it has no director and has no producer, and it has a bunch of actors that have never spoken their lines before. Despite all this you pull the play off. To me that’s a miracle.”
My COMMENT:
Ms. Susan calls it a miracle. In other words the brain is so highly organized that it is beyond any possibility of it happening by chance, unattended by an intelligent supervisor. In the Vedas that “intelligent supervisor” is called paramatma (parama atma). Parama=transcendental, beyond, supreme. Atma=soul or entity. The paramatma directs wondering of all living organisms such as humans, animals, insects, and also including neurons and electrons.
Here is the mantra:
isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya
(The word hrt-dese indicates the paramatma, the object of yogi’s meditation, positioned in the hearts of all living entities.)
Complete translation:
“The paramatma is situated in everyone’s heart and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.”
POOR FROGS
One Indian man, about thirty-five, mentioned that he was getting his Ph.D. in biology.
“Oh, biology,” Prabhupada said. “Hmm, poor frogs.” Everyone in the lounge-except the biologist-burst into laughter.
“No, no,” the biologist protested, embarrassed. “Why “poor frogs’?”
“Because you are killing,” Prabhupada said.
“But it is for the advancement of knowledge,” said the biologist. “So it is worthwhile. It is for the advancement of knowledge.”
“All right,” said Prabhupada, “if I ask you now, will you give your body for the advancement of knowledge?” Everyone in the room began to laugh.
“Yes! Yes, I would!” the man replied. But the more he protested, repeating, “Yes, I would!” the more ridiculous he seemed, and the harder everyone laughed.
