namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

Things have been quiet here lately because my spare time has been consumed by another project a number of other devotees and I have started: The Samprajña Institute.

On the one hand: Pastor Ted Haggard, former pastor of megachurch New Life and head of US parachurch organization National Association of Evangelicals. Caused a huge fallout when his covert homosexuality was revealed.

"The reason I kept my personal struggle a secret is because I feared that my friends would reject me, abandon me and kick me out, and the church would exile and excommunicate me. And that happened and more," he says.

Nowadays, quoting Srila Prabhupada rarely settles disputes--especially the big ones. Behind this is the Vedabase Folio. Because an inexperienced devotee can with the help of the Folio find all the quotes he wants, and more, to support his point, he becomes an instant scholar. The problem is that his opponents can do the same. Both bring to online forums their lists of quotes, and most of the time the only conclusion that can be reached by onlookers is that SP said many things at many times, and that's all.

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ND: Good people don't discriminate.

G: If we don't discriminate, how do we know they are good?

Sadhaka 1: "I learned a lesson today by watching a movie about how monks in charge of an orphanage were exploiting the boys in their care for sense gratification. In spiritual life we have to accept the eternal bliss and knowlege of the soul to survive. Otherwise, we will seek pleasure through destructive channels."

Sadhaka 2: "Oh, so you learned that lesson? Which movie are you going to watch next?"

[by Jagannatha Das]

It's official. A schism has just happened within the Episcopal Church of the USA. From Christianity Today:

In a history-making gesture, conservative evangelical Anglicans, deeply alienated by the decline of the U.S. denomination, sounded a shofar to herald the creation of the Anglican Church of North America.

Anyone who wishes to preach to Western educated people should read Dr. S.N. Balagangadhara's book The Heathen in His Blindness. Elsewhere, Gangadhara has characterized the social sciences as an embroidering of Christian theology. In other words, he asserts, if you accept the core premises of the Western social sciences, then you must accept the core precepts of Christianity, and vice versa.

You can read about it, here. One thing is the Indian sources have more info on this than the Western ones. Nevertheless, these are making world headlines, especially since it appears that Western hostages were sought.

The late, Hon. Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, once famously said in a ruling,

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."

I have added a few new features. Users who sign up, register (see login / create new account), will be able to see a search bar on the left-hand side bar. They will also be able to post comments without having to use the CAPTCHA (solve math equations). Anonymous users who wish to leave comments will not see their comments immediately posted. Those will be moderated.

News report - my commentary follows.

(Canberra) The Australian government has passed legislation recognizing same-sex couples under a large number of laws, but the measure falls short of granting either marriage or civil unions.
The omnibus bill mounted its final hurdle Monday, winning approval in the Senate. The legislation passed the House in September. It still requires the signature of the Governor General, a formality, before going into effect.

Featuring Amara-it's-vedic-for-a-man-to-stick-his-genital-in-another-man's-butt-Das, Akruranatha's brainstem, and some others.

How depressing! Just imagine--less divorce means more unhappy people. That's what recent headlines of an article about the effects of the down economy have had on divorce rates:

‘I just want to leave him, but I can’t afford it’
Unhappy couples staying together as economy makes divorcing too costly

Alex Johnson, 23 Nov 2008, MSNBC.com 24 Nov 2008 <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27808110/>

I'm busy. Later. . .

Every devotee who thinks the social and psychological sciences can give one's spiritual life a boost should read the book Unprotected, written by a psychiatrist who works at a student clinic at a famous American university. In her words, "My profession has been hijacked. I cannot do my job, my patients are suffering, and I am fed up. Unprotected tells the stories of college students who are casualties of the radical activism in my profession." (xvi)

As regular readers of this site know, I've argued at length that ISKCON has for a long time been on a course of accommodating secular society. (For those who want further "proof" that this is indeed the case, please refer to this essay.) Does this verse point to the taking up of "karmi jobs" as being a significant factor underlying ISKCON's secularization?

"We will come out tomorrow in numbers this world has not yet seen," said Amy Balliett, the co-founder of JoinTheImpact.com, in a news release posted on the Web site Friday. See iReporters' experiences in cities nationwide

JoinTheImpact.com, which organized the rallies,was established three days after Election Day, when the three states passed the ballot initiatives.

I'd place my bets on it. Why? There are a number of reasons, but a few circumstantially stand out:

For any given preaching program, to what extent is our time, place, and circumstance justification for it actually a rationalization to fulfill an impure desire?

Lord Caitanya's teachings begin from the point of surrender to Krsna. He does not pursue the paths of karma-yoga or jnana-yoga or hatha-yoga but begins at the end of material existence, at the point where one gives up all material attachment. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Introduction)

Because us Hare Krishnas are religious people, our lives tend to be guided by authority moreso than others. That is why the differing ways we interpret things others write (especially if they are authorities) underlies most of the disagreements we have amongst ourselves. Thus "Prabhupada said" type disagreements generally don't get people to change sides. Implacable disagreement arises because people read SP in different ways.

ND: Wow! I'm, like, really, really into the "Devis With Babies" site. What do you think?

G: It's megatons better than Devis Who Have Abortions.*

One of the blogresses (Deepa) from the Devis with Babies (DWB) site dropped a link to a post on their site she thought the readership here at Siddhanta.com might find interesting. So, now for some commentary from Siddhanta.com:

"Overall, though a Republican administration would have been better for India; New Delhi, however, needs to get ready to play with an Obama administration."

Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, "Obama Presidency: What Awaits India?", 5 Nov. 2008, Observer Research Foundation, 6 Nov. 2008 <http://www.observerindia.com/cms/sites/orfonline/modules/analysis/AnalysisDetail.html?cmaid=15382&mmacmaid=15383>

As per my post on spandrels, here is another example of a statement for which no pramana in shastra is self-evident (certainly, not in core books like the Gita or Bhagavatam) yet which we consider very important to spiritual life:

ND: Like, Wow! Obama won!! What does this mean for devotees?

G: Four more years of maya.