What is good?

In today's world, everyone does some sort of good to others...well...at least that is what they think. However, there are some genuine thinkers and activists who take up a good cause and run with it. Martin Luther King Jr wanted to do good for the community at large by helping the African American community of USA. Mahatma Gandhi did the same for the people of India and so did Mohammed Ali Jinnah for the people of Pakistan. Nelson Mandela fought against racial discrimination, Mother Teresa against social inequity and poverty. At a more smaller scale, everyone of us common man take up a profession or act with some "good" in mind. As an urban planner, I want to make this world a better place. A doctor would profess goodness by helping the sick. A theoretical physcist would claim good by way of intellectual emancipation by answering fundamental definitions of life such as what is this universe? where did I come from? etc. Everyone has some sense that what they do or represent is actually "good" and that gives them the motivation to do more. I am sure even terrorist operate on the same platform of some twisted "goodness" that they contribute to their own clan, ethnicity, religion, region or leader.

So...really...what then is "good"?

In my opinion, "good" is akin to "selfless act". If I have to quantify loosely, if any given act of mine is part selfless and part selfish, then the part that is selfless is "good" and the rest is not. So an act, according to me, can either be completely (100%) good and or partially (as low as 1% or less) good or in other words an act can be 100% selfless or as low as 1% selfless. So "good" is as good as "selfless" in my book. If I compare this to the examples above of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Mandela and even the terrorist, surely these people contribute some "selfless" act for their cause.

To add to this cause of selflessness is the concept of time, if this selfless act has temporary results, then the value of good, in my opinion actually is less. In other words, if I have to select an act out of my free-will that is selfless (aka good) but if that selfless act only gives temporary results or temporary goodness, then, really am i really doing good? Because if I purposefully take up something investing my limited resources to a cause (albeit selflessly) but I know will only yield temporary relief, then in one sense, is this temporary relief really good? In my opinion, a selfless act is good but a selfless act with temporary results is of lower quality goodness.

Therefore, if we want to do the best goodness to others, then, we have to act selflessly but act in such a way that it yeilds permnanent results and not temporary. The concept of "permanent" or "eternal" is applicable only within the domain of the soul and Supersoul and not matter. From that standpoint, what Srila Prabhupada did as an act of "selflessness" is the "purest" and the "highest" form of "good" any man can do to a fellow human and actually all species of life.

Why....because his act gives eternal freedom from the bondage of cyclical suffering that comes to us in various forms such as sociology, economics, politics, religion, basic living needs etc. What is his act of selflessness...to tirelessly encourage people to accept God into their lives beyond superficial rituals, by encouraging people to give up bad-habits, and ultimately give what no man has given...that is to encourage and inspire people to chant the Holy Names of Krishna in an unprecedanted scale.

All of Prabhupada's acts have such repurcussion which no cost-benefit analysis can quantify. That is correct, people giving up bad habits (inspired by Prabhuapada) such as meat eating, intoxication, gambling and reckless sexual behavior has saved the Federal Government billions of dollars of benefit money over a period of one's life. Is this not good from an economic standpoint? Giving up bad habits has imparted stability, productivity and positive feelings thus enhancing social & economic relationships at the domestic and community level. Prabhupada inspired everyone to be good productive citizens...and the best part is he did not even explicitly fight for this cause. Being a good productive and equitable citizen, while is the life goal for most activist, for the movement started by Prabhupada, it was a by-product...why because his goal was permanent (not temporary).

Equal rights, alleviating poverty, politics etc all are good for brief periods of time, but what Prabhupada wanted to give us was to transcend all suffering all together. While he stressed the value of character and discipline, he taught us the ultimate purpose in life is to "love God with all Thy heart, mind and soul". This he taught us by first correcting our character and at the same time (simultaneously) call out God's names. When we become a self-controlled disciplined individual giving respect to all living entities including the plants and animals and at the same time call out God's names, he said and also demonstrated through his practical life that love for God will gradually invoke within us. This, Prabhupada said, is the fullest and most comprehensive solution to all problems of life now and forever.

In conclusion, the two criteria for a "good" act are:

1. degree of selflessness associated with the act and

2. the amount of time the goodness endures as a result of the act

Therefore, in my humble opinion, yes...there are many great people who have done good in the past for brief periods and in the future will do good to others for brief periods, but none can compare to Prabhupada who did and does acts which are pure, 100% selfless and timeless and that in my opinion is the highest and purset form of "good" one living entity can do to another. We should aspire to do good like he did.

To such a tireless, and selfless master, I bow down in full prostration.

Please do a good act that can permnanetly solve your problems. Chant Hare Krishna.

Hare Krishna

How to be free from miseries and anxiety?

As long as the motivation for your activities is your own pleasure, you will find so much pain in your life.

As long as the motivation for your activities is your own happiness, you will find so much distress in your life.

As long as the motivation for your activities is to find honor you will suffer so much dishonor in your life.

Until you work and you act for the pleasure of Krishna you have to suffer the dualities of material existence. So as long as we do what we like to do we should understand that we are extending the perplexities of our own bondage in material existence.

But as soon as we do what Krishna wants us to do, what the great devotees on behalf of Krishna are telling us to do, through that process we gradually become free from all the miseries and anxieties of the material world.

H.H.Radhanath Swami

Forgiveness

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand, "today my best friend slapped me in the face”.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone, "today my best friend saved my life".

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone. Why?" the friend replied, "when someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it".

Learn to write your hurt in the sand of forgiveness and carve the good by others in stone.

Hare Krishna

source: another blog

Mood of a Vaishnava

I want one soul saved, that is more than millions of dollars.

- Srila Prabhupada Morning Walk -- December 14, 1975, New Delhi

Carob fudge cake

For Krishna, on His appearance day on wednesday, I made two-tiered carob cake with carob vienna icing. The recipe was taken from Great Vegetarian Dishes book written by Kurma Dasa (a disicple of Srila Prabhupada).

Below is the recipe

Preparation Time: 15 mins

Baking Time: 30 mins

Yield: 1 two-tiered 20 cm (8-inch) carob fudge cake

Ingredients

125 g(4 ounces) butter, room temperature

1 cup (250 ml) caster sugar (i used regular sugar)

1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla essence

1 cup (250 ml) carob powder

1/2 cup (125 ml) hot water

2 teaspoons (10ml) imitation chocolate essence (optional)

2 teaspoons (10ml) fresh lemon juice

1 cup (250 ml) milk

13/4 (435 ml) plain flour (all-purpose flour)

1 teaspoon (5ml) baking powder

1 teaspoon (5ml) bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

Carob Vienna icing

1. Cream the butter , sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Blend the carob powder in the hot water, add the imitation chocolate essence, and mix to a smooth paste. Gradually add the carob powder to the butter and sugar mixture.

2. Add the lemon juice to the milk to sour it.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt and add it to the creamed mixture alternately with sour milk. Mix thoroughly.

4.Spoon the cake mixture into two buttered 20 cm (8-inch) cake tins and bake in a moderate oven (180 deg C/355 deg F) for 30 mins or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.

5. Allow the cakes to cool in their tins for 10 mins. Turn out and allow to cool completely. Fill and ice with Carob Vienna Icing

Carob Vienna Icing

125 g (4 ounces) butter

21/2 cups (625 ml) icing sugar (confectionery sugar)

4 tablespoons (80ml) carob powder

2 tablespoons (40ml) hot water

1 teaspoon (5ml) imitation chocolate essence (optional)

1. Beat the butter until creamy. Sift eh sugar. Blend the carob powder with the hot water and chocolate essence. Add the icing sugar to the butter alternately with the carob mixture until it reaches a spreading consistency. It should not be too thin or thick.

Alternative: Spread the center with jam and whipped cream. I used strawberry fruit spread instead of jam and came out well. Cover and ice as above.

Kachori

After about 2 years, I am uploading a recipe post. It is a well known fact that Srila Prabhupada relishes kachoris. Coming from southern part of India, I have never tasted kachoris in my life till I made it myself this thursday for Srila Prabhupada on his appearance day. I wanted to do this because I know he likes kachoris.

Below is the recipe.

Makes 12 Kachoris.

Ingredients for crust:

1 cup All Purpose flour (plain flour or maida)

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons oil

1/2 cup-1 tablespoon chilled water

Ingredients for filling:

1/4 cup yellow moong dal

1 teaspoon coarsely grinded fennel seeds (saunf)

1 teaspoon coarsely grinded coriander seeds (dhania)

1 teaspoon red chilly flakes

1/4 teaspoon ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon mango powder (amchoor)

Pinch of asafetida (hing)

1/2 teaspoon salt (adjust to your taste)

1 tablespoon oil

2 tablespoons water

Oil to deep fry

Method:

To make crust:

Mix the flour, salt and oil. Add the chilled water slowly, mixing with your fingers as you pour.

Do not knead the dough. The dough should be soft. Cover the dough and let it sit for at least fifteen minutes.

To make filling:

Grind the moong dal dry until it almost becomes a powder. Mix 1 tablespoon of oil and dal powder in a frying pan and roast on medium heat for about two to three minutes or dal changes color lightly, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat. Add all the spices and mix it well and let the mixture cool off. Add two tablespoons of warm water and mix it well. Let it sit for ten minutes and cover with demp cloth.

To make the Kachoris:

Take the dough and knead it for a few minutes. Divide the dough in twelve equal parts. Take one part of the dough and with your fingers flatten the edges and make into 3-inch circle. Leaving center little thicker then edges around. Mold the dough into a cup and place 1 teaspoon of filling in the center. Pull the edges of the dough to wrap the dal filling. Repeat with the rest. Let the filled ball sit for 3 to 4 minutes before rolling. Set the kachoris on a surface with the seams facing up. Using the base of your palm, slowly flatten them into about 3 inch circle. Heat about 1 1/2 inche of oil in a frying pan on medium heat. To check if oil is ready put a little piece of dough in the oil, it should sizzle and come up slow. Fry them on medium-low heat. After they start to puff, slowly turn them over. Fry until golden-brown on both sides. If the kachoris are fried on high heat, they will be soft and will not be crispy.

Tips:

Don’t roll the kachoris with a rolling pin. Rolling pins will cause the kachoris to have small holes in the dough, allowing oil to fill the kachoris. Also, when using a rolling pin, the kachoris are uneven and when frying one side will be thicker than the other.

Variation:

Instead of using moong dal, you can use washed urad dal or chana dal. The rest of the recipe stays the same.

Serving suggestions:

Kachoris can be served plain, with a variety of chutneys, with chola, or with dam aloo. Serve them as a chat, pouring plain yogurt and chutney on top.

source: Manjula's Kitechen

symptoms caused by the soul is not "life"

Craig Venter’s laboratory cell violates the divine law of recreation, says Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, who believes that creating life in a laboratory is an act of defiance against God, as man is created based on his deeds in his previous birth. “Venter’s work violates karma, which alone decides the nature of life for all humans and, besides, creating life in lab could cause cultural degradation as it eliminates the need for marriage and family values,” the swami told DC when his attention was drawn to the creation of synthetic cells in Venter’s laboratory in Rockville, Maryland.

This kind of scientific advancement could be used to provide vital needs like water, the pontiff said, welcoming the use of research to make vaccines and biofuels. “But if a man is synthetically created, he would not be guided by past karma and would behave just like a machine. This should be avoided,” he advised. Asked if the Venter success did not mean achieving greater hei-ghts in decoding the mysteries of life, he shot back, “God first created the entire world and made man and animals. He ensured man benefited through his creations. The synthetic cell will affect all of creation and should be stopped.”

In lighter vein, pointing to a newspaper advertisement on astrological predictions, the seer said, “Even this would be affected." - Deccan Chronicle

The above as spoken by the revered Indian Guru Jayandra Saraswati Shankaracharya. Below are the words spoken by the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna

For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.- BG 2.20

Krishna's words contradicts with modern science and the guru. Although the guru condemns synthetic life, he does not know the real definition of life. From Krishna, from the Bhagavad Gita, we understand life can never be created or destroyed. Therefore the life the scientists talk about is not the same as what Krishna is talking.

Krishna is referring life to the actual soul which is pure spirit, where as the synthetic life per the scientists (and that which is opposed by the Guru) refer to "symptoms" caused by the soul. In other words, the "symptoms" caused by the soul are exhibited via matter, if not, one cannot perceive the presence of the soul. However, the symptoms caused by the soul is not exactly the same as the soul per se. Something like the symptom of a moving car implies a driver which we all know the car is different from the driver. Similarly the symptom of a moving cell or combination of cells implies a soul which means the moving cell is different from the soul.

The scientists can only manipulate the cells thus creating the illusion of creating life. Cloning, test-tube babies etc all are similar manipulations (of existing matter) through which the soul is injected by karma (or higher authority) and thus ultimately bringing into "life" dead matter or combination of cells. If scientists were really on the verge of creating life...the real test is to bring the dead back to life (all dead people and not just certain type of dead people, after all if everything boils down to cells & tissues, then the scientists should be able to reconstruct a human body from scratch).

The conclusion, the scientists and the Indian Guru do not have a clue as to what life really is? Unfortunately, these are the leaders of today's society.

Hare Krishna