Heliocentricity

The distance to the closest stars has been measured by astronomers using an effect called parallax (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax). This measurement depends on the assumption of the heliocentric model because one measures the position of a star at two times while earth rotates around the sun. (Parallax can be observed with a simple example. One can see the position of one’s outstretched finger will appear to be different relative to the background when you look through your right or left eye.) For example, parallax measurements suggest that Sirius (Mrgavyadha) is about 8.6 light years away. If the stars are so far away, then they have to be irradiating light like our sun. A distance of 8.6 lights years is much larger than the diameter of the universe given in the Bhagavatam (i.e. 4 billion miles, equivalent to approx 8 light minutes).

Using parallax, one can measure the distance to only the nearby stars. For the more distant stars, astronomers have developed a scale using the “magnitude” (brightness) of the stars. But this scale depends on knowing the absolute magnitude of specific stars, whose distance has been measured by parallax. In summary, the astronomers have assumed the correctness of the heliocentric model in calculating the distances to all of the stars.

If the heliocentric model is wrong and the earth is stationary, then the parallax measurements are wrong, and the stars are much closer than the scientists think.

-Bhù-gola tattv- Science of the Round Earth – Introduction, edited by H.H.Danavir Goswami

Hare Krishna

It is a Voluntary Process

The process of Krishna consciousness can seem complex with so many things going on throughout the year. However, I believe that we must keep things simple. For me, one of the simple things to keep in mind, that is not to forget, is that this Krishna Consciousness is a voluntary process. 

Yes, it is the summum bonum of all thoughts,most sublime philosophy and the cream of all knowledge. It talks about love of God and how this human life is so very rare that we must perfect it etc etc. No doubt when we contemplate or even reach out to others, we may stress, pause or in-between speak about this gem-like knowledge but we should never fail to understand that at the end-of-the-day this is a voluntary process. 

Even Krishna after speaking the entire Gita to Arjuna and after showing His Universal Form which was awe-inspiring and non-debatable as far as Supremacy goes, finally, concludes by saying "yathecchasi tathā kuru" or "do what you wish to do". So this wish belongs to us. This freedom of choice that is given to us is always ours to hold. Krishna never interferes with it. 

Similarly, when we expect others to listen or follow or when we think such and such is wasting his or her life or when we imitate an acharya and feel sorry for the whole wide world, we have to remember that at the end of the day this is all voluntary and that voluntarism is also part of Krishna's creation,Krishna's plan!

Therefore, as a respect to Krishna, and the living being's personal space, we have to let them be, let them decide and let them make a decision and after a certain-point stop preaching and just be a well-wisher!

Hare Krishna

The simple method to chant Hare Krishna

Over the years, I have read and heard different devotees speak about different techniques to chant properly. Devotees also talk about crying out to Radha and Krishna during chanting for mercy for improving our chanting. This may be bonafide or not, I do not know. However, so far I have not read or heard anything like this from Srila Prabhupada. The only thing I have heard Prabhupada say is to hear the words of the Mahamantra distinctly with focus. Beyond that I have not heard him say or have not read anything related to the mercy of Radha and Krishna or other techniques about chanting. Anyways, I will stick to the simple method of trying to hear the words properly while chanting and not speculate much.

In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we have fixed sixteen rounds as the minimum so that the Westerners will not feel burdened. These sixteen rounds must be chanted, and chanted loudly, so that one can hear himself and others. - Cc Antya Purport 11.23

The first regulative principle is that one must chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra loudly enough so that he can hear himself, and one must vow to chant a fixed number of rounds. - Cc Antya Purport 11.24

Therefore this is the only method. That you chant loudly and hear. Hare Kṛṣṇa. If your mind is in other things it will be forced to concentrate on the sound vibration "Kṛṣṇa." You haven't got to withdraw your mind from other, automatically it will be withdrawn because the sound is there. - Lecture, Los Angeles Feb 18 1969

What is the question of controlling the mind? Just chant and hear and the mind will controlled automatically - Page 95, Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name

Only thing is that we should chant very attentively, hearing the vibration very distinctly.- SP letter to Satsvarupa Das Goswami,March 8 1969

Hare Krishna

God is not so bad!

Someone asked me questions and below are my answers.

God would not allow me to suffer

God does not want you to suffer. He wants you to come to Him but He will not force you. You have a choice to go to God or enjoy here without Him. We reap what we sow, why to blame God for my behavior. You touch fire, you get burnt why is God responsible? We have to take responsibility for actions.

God will not arrange for suffering unless He hates me

God does not hate or like. He is impartial to all. He rewards us as we approach Him. We can approach Him in a favorable way or unfavorable way. Regardless, He arranges according to our propensity. Yes,  God created this world with laws. For example, God created fire to burn but we play with fire and get burnt. Is God the reason for my burn because He created fire to burn or my irresponsibility I play with fire? Similarly we are inherently spiritual by nature but we want material happiness (nonconforming). God created this material world with laws because we want to enjoy here. But laws come with dos and donts. We ignore it and get burnt. So yes God arranged for us the cosmos with the laws but we misuse and get burnt by the laws. God is not to be blamed for creating the laws. We have to be blamed for breaking it. It is exactly like a citizen breaking Government law and is punished by the Justice System. To blame the Government for arranging laws is childish otherwise without laws there will be chaos and no one (including the law abiders) cannot be happy. So laws are needed for a happy society and that is why we have cosmic laws. Choosing to follow it or not will result in our happiness or suffering (difference between a good citizen who is happy versus a person breaking the law who will eventually suffer in jail). So God is neutral (neither hate nor like). He reciprocates according to your desires. Basically, my point you are the architect of your destiny (good and bad), 

To inflict harm and fight his own living entities because he designed the material world for us to suffer because he felt like it,Iam just not impressed by it.

Not sure how you got this idea. He did not design the world to suffer. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says this world is suffering because it is temporary ( a factor of time). That is His definition of suffering. The suffering you are referring to is because of hate towards one group and love towards another group. This intense polarity or duality is created by man and God is not the cause of this polarity. Material world is suffering from the standpoint of birth and death (time/temporary) not from the standpoint of hate and love which man has created. Hate and love is different from temporariness of this world.

I know we are all affected by karma but why would it even be possible?

Why not? Who should take responsibility for his or her actions. If you pay and hire a building contractor to repair your door and window and he does a poor job. Who will you hold responsible? Can the contractor tell you I am not responsible? Can any institution or society operate without people being accountable to one another? A social body cannot operate without laws and a governing body to enforce these laws? This is the only way we can be held accountable for our good and bad actions. This same idea exercised at the universal level is called Karma. Karma is a mechanical system to enforce the reactions for our previous actions. It is not biased or judgmental (in a negative way). It is an operating system for this world and its' inhabitants.

Why not make sure things were always perfect?, but then again, is it that God needs someone else to do bad so he can look good,another part of His design? 

This world is perfect as it is from God who is perfect. When we eat properly as designed to fit the human body, then we live a long and healthy life free from disease. This can happen only if our diet is in harmony with the construct of the human body. So in that sense if the diet is perfect (harmony) with our body, there is no disease. Similarly as humans or any living being when they live in harmony with nature ( as a whole), then there will be peace and happiness. God created nature and man created industries. So we are reaping the result of this artificial economy which is based on industrialization of nations. By artificial I mean paper based currency. As a result, we have poverty and affluence. Otherwise, in God's world, everyone was rich as long as they had good food and a decent place to stay. But with influx of money we have rich getting richer (greed) and poor getting poorer. This gap or imperfection that is a result of a deeper sociological, economical and political issue is a product of man and not God. So please do not blame God for our imperfections. God is perfect, His creation is perfect, we are perfect as long as we align with God's plan to love and serve but by misusing our freedom we encroach upon other's property, draw boundaries, exploit, kill, rape and claim victory and ownership and leave the losers with scrap. This is our history and current affairs for the past 5000 years. Your complaint should be directed towards the misplaced leaders of this society and not towards God. By the way, Krishna means all-attractive He does not need to look good by making us look bad. He is Super Beautiful and Good on His own. He designed nature for us to live in harmony with it. Man's design is to exploit nature and usurp it unceremoniously (every industry and gadget and product and energy we use and invented is based on exploiting nature and people - again man made design).

Its just sounds horrible to me, we are pawns and God will throw us around as he pleases. I dont want to accept this. I dont want God to throw me around and I am not going to butter up to anything like that. That's my point, we are all pawns here,

God does not throw us around, In fact God facilitates our desires so we can be happy. This is the thanks He gets for being a perfect Gentleman. He has to facilitate not only your desire but the desire of all trillions and trillions of living entities and He has to do it such a way that there is order and not chaos and that everyone deserves what they are eligible. If you can manage even 50 high productive people in a company without politics, i will bow my hat. Why 50, we cannot even manage one person, that is why there are so many divorces. One husband and one wife cannot manage each other. This is common. It is easy to fight and destroy but to tolerate and create is very difficult. God is not an impulsive Hero like figure where like Robinhood He has to come to save damsel in distress and if He doesn't we blame Him for not caring. This sort of Super Hero mentality is childish. God is Supreme in His own right and purely He plays by His rules. It is childish to expect Him (the Supreme Controller of all beings) to cater to the whims and fancies of my mind. God is not expecting you to butter up, but it is gentlemanly of you to give back to God since your very existence such as water, light and air is provided by God. If we have little gratitude then common sense tells us that we have to serve God since without Him we cannot exist for a second. 

We are inferior energy hence the suffering

We are not the inferior energy. Dull matter like earth and water and fire etc is the inferior energy (lacks consciousness). We are the superior energy as we have consciousness and like and dislike. The superior energy when it comes in contact with the inferior energy becomes an incompatible situation. This incompatibility or discord is evidenced as struggle for existence in this world as wars, hate, crime,corporate greed, natural destruction,animal slaughter, abuse of all kinds etc etc. This struggle also presents itself as what we call positive things such as love, romance, loyalty etc. Both are incorrect (incompatible) as both are for possessing the inferior energy (matter). True happiness can come when the small superior energy (you and me) interact with the Supreme superior energy (Krishna or God). This interaction is founded on love and love is founded on freedom. We have to make a free, voluntary and conscious decision to divert our attention from matter (inferior energy) to Krishna (Supreme superior energy). Then only,can we be happy!

Think about what I have said versus taking emotional decisions. Learn to separate God from Institutionalized religion. Perhaps you will see the light!

Hare Krishna

The esoteric meaning of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra

Why did Chaitanya Mahaprabhu choose this Hare Krsna mahamantra? And the reason is very important and if you understand  this you will have very deep appreciation for maha mantra.You see according to the shastra there is a rule, that when something is presented in an indirect way, it  actually  has more intimacy and sweetness than when you do it in a direct way. Rama means one whose life is utterly surrendered to giving pleasure to his divine pleasure potency Srimati Radharani. That is the meaning of Rama as lord Chaitanya chanted it. Shyama means Krsna who has a beautiful blackish complexion. And Hare comes from the word Hara which comes from the word Harana which means one who steals.

Srila Rupa goswami, Srila Raghunatha das Goswami and lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu explained this word harana means that it is Sri Radharani who steals the heart of Krsna. And Hare is the calling out of Radharani who has that devotional power to steal the heart of Krsna and Krsna is that one who steals the heart of all living beings. So when we are calling out the name Hare, we are praying to the divine mother, the supreme reservoir of all bhakti, and when she favors us ,the Goswamis explain when she favors us then  because she steals the heart of Krsna, Prabhupada said when she says "Krsna look at what a nice devotee this person is", then Radha and Krsna  they steal our heart.

- H.H.Radhanath Swami

Peace is not possible in a sectarian world

I was never optimistic of inter-faith conferences. To me, personally speaking, it does not yield any significant outcomes. Leaders from various faiths’ convene but we do not see anything tangible transpire from these meetings. No doubt, it is a good thing in that we can appreciate differences and have a conversation. However, mere tolerance and acknowledgement of differences will not solve serious systemic problems in the religious world. Religion today believed by many is the number one reason for sectarian violence. Certainly, the leaders of that religion have to take responsibility for such sectarianism. Despite, social media and globalization, we are divided than ever.

On the corporate front, technology has enabled us to put our differences aside and work together across different cultures and platforms. This is a big win at least from an external perspective. However, this is possible only if one is ready to work in a secular environment. Secularism,however, does not promote personal beliefs in the workplace. Therefore, in that sense we have not solved sectarianism but only created one more - a sect of people apathetic or introvertive to their personal beliefs. Sectarianism can be really solved only if we allow, express and embrace external differences but adhere to universal deeper spiritual values. If inter-faith conferences can help with that idea, then I think it is successful.

One such value is to accept that God (regardless of His name) is the Supreme creator and owner of all things, people and land. Therefore, every individual should give up their false sense of ownership and offer their resources/bounty/money to God. If the leaders of the respective religions can go back to their respective congregations and preach this one idea – to give up ownership and dedicate the ownership and results of work to God – I think there will certainly be progress in the form of global peace.

Real inter-faith begins and ends by putting God (regardless of name) in the center and giving God all credit and offering all fruits to God and in this way co-exist peacefully (without sectarianism) in God consciousness.

Hare Krishna

bhaki yoga in three steps

Srila Prabhupada in simple English explains the process of Krishma Consciousness in three steps;

1. In the beginning one must have a preliminary desire for self-realization. This will bring one to the stage of trying to associate with persons who are spiritually elevated. 
2. In the next stage, one becomes initiated by an elevated spiritual master, and under his instruction the neophyte devotee begins the process of devotional service. 
3. By execution of devotional service under the guidance of the spiritual master, one becomes freed from all material attachments, attains steadiness in self-realization and acquires a taste for hearing about the Absolute Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. 

 - purport Cc Antya 3.251

Hare Krishna