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Planet ISKCON - 24 new articles

 

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"Planet ISKCON" - 24 new articles

  1. H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: '437' from The Yellow Submarine
  2. H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: 'Early ISKCON India' from The Yellow Submarine
  3. H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: 'Songs of a Hare Krishna Man (take 5)' from The Yellow Submarine
  4. H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: 'Lotus Beauty' from The Yellow Submarine
  5. H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Gita Jayanti – Summary of all 18 Chapters – Video
  6. H.H. Sivarama Swami: Wedding videos
  7. Bharatavarsa.net: Bhakti Vikasa Swami: perfect realized knowledge
  8. Akrura das, Gita Coaching: How I Joined ISKCON
  9. Bharatavarsa.net: Book distribution seminar: Use your experiences to get the books out
  10. Book Distribution News: Use your experiences to get the books out
  11. H.H. Prahladananda Swami: 1st initiation ceremony for Bhakta Patrick on Rama Navami – Video
  12. Ananda Subramanian, Iowa, USA: Life & Probability Statistics
  13. H.H. Sivarama Swami: Diet of mud and despair in Indian village
  14. H.H. Sivarama Swami: Does the cloth remnants of the Deity or the guru lose its spiritual potency by washing?
  15. H.H. Sivarama Swami: This body is a boat to get us to the other side of the ocean of material existence
  16. H.H. Sivarama Swami: Visiting Caitanya Candra
  17. Gauranga Kishore das,USA: A Time for Gold - Peter Schiff
  18. Yoga of Ecology, Bhakta Chris, USA: Evolution Presupposes Design, So Why The Controversy?
  19. H.H. Bhakticharu Swami: Evening Class
  20. H.H. Bhakticharu Swami: Special Dinner lecture
  21. H.H. Bhakticharu Swami: Ram Navmi
  22. Gouranga TV: Indradyumna Swami kirtan – Vrindavan kartik 2009 – Part 5/5
  23. Japa Group: Please Join The Japa Group
  24. Japa Group: The Lord Is Hearing You
  25. More Recent Articles
  26. Search Planet ISKCON

H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: '437' from The Yellow Submarine

www.sdgonline.org. SDGonline Daily updates

4:06 A.M.

I slept well last night without a headache. I woke with the alarm clock at 2:30. I began chanting, but my chanting was somehow slow. I've only chanted eight rounds. I'm not sleepy, but not speedy either. I don't know the cause for the slowness. I'll be chanting till late in the morning at this rate. I've been paying attention to the sounds and not distracted by other thoughts, but my engine is just not moving quickly.

Japa like pulling a big load, the
numerical count moves
slowly, I don't know
the reason why. I
will chant all my
rounds, but it will
take a long time,
after breakfast,
after my nap.
Take it in stride
and stay awake,
carry the load
which is somehow
heavy today.

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H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: 'Early ISKCON India' from The Yellow Submarine

www.sdgonline.org. SDGonline Daily updates

Prabhupada Smaranam

This is Prabhupada in the early years in India when Syamasundara was his secretary and Gurudasa was managing Vrndavana. It is before the Krishna-Balarama Mandir was built. The event is not clear. His devotees have two microphones out as if Prabhupada is about to speak. There is a lot of motion of people. Prabhupada appears to be sitting in a small chair. He looks a bit tired. Everyone is swirling around him, treating him respectfully. They are in the doorway of a building. Syamasundara has his hand out to assist Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada looks grave. It is a candid moment, in motion. Prabhupada looks handsome. He is at home, in India, surrounded by his people, Indians and American disciples. The weather does not look very warm; Prabhupada wears a sweater and a chadar.

Whatever it is, it is a lovely picture. Prabhupada looks composed. Everyone is treating him with honor, as is befitting his position. He is accepting their honorable treatment of him, but he is self-absorbed, as if drawn within himself.

You get the feeling that there are many people gathered behind those we can see. They want to come and hear. Whenever a sadhu stops, especially one with western disciples, people want to gather and listen.

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H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: 'Songs of a Hare Krishna Man (take 5)' from The Yellow Submarine

www.sdgonline.org. SDGonline Daily updates

"He prefers to walk on back path
alone breaks ice in overnight
puddles, pink sunrise clouds
ain't exclusively telling of
my ordinary self but see the world
as Krishna's."

People are depending on you to
overcome their frivolities so
when I come out of the shed and
greet them in India. I want to
be thinking of Bhagavad-gita
and help them.

So far so good today. You are
digging your hoe and it's coming
out all right. Your head is
calm. You have to go to the doctor's
again. He'll take his stethoscope
to your heart and on the back
and more sophisticated techniques
like EKG to ascertain the state
of your heart, the main organ.
My hunch is it's doing as good
as can be expected for
a sedentary old man.

I said I was conservative
but letting off some steam.
We saw traces of explosives
in your bag. We found chamber
music in earplugs. We saw ants
running on your floor and concluded
you must be eating sweets.
I made it up. I didn't do
those things. I read a little
sastra every morning and night
and pause while reading
to pray: "Please Lord,
deliver us the key
to the darsana."

I remember old times
with Prabhupada and things
I'm hearing in the lecture today.

The police stopped the permission
for Ratha Yatra one year in
London and Prabhupada said
we should protest. "You GBCs
are not strong". I cringed, hoping
it would blow over and we'd
get back to normal not too much
pressure on us and I could get
out of L.A. with my new
Library Party and drink milk
and eat cottage cheese and
yoghurt which I had not been
able to get as his servant
in the Bombay kitchen.

You want to serve in your
own way. You want to surrender
and offer a nice contribution that
devotees will be grateful for.
Something you've paid for in
austerity and confession and prayer.

I served my Prabhupada murti
bathing and dressing him everyday
and making all my food offerings
to him and sitting before him
chanting all my rounds. It was
a good period of my life
to take so much care of him.
And I said, "And if I
have to go without warning?
Then take these poems
home and don't burn them."

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H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami: 'Lotus Beauty' from The Yellow Submarine

www.sdgonline.org. SDGonline Daily updates

Free Write

The lotus flower is symbolic for topmost beauty in Krishna consciousness. It is actually the most beautiful flower in nature. Lotuses grow in ponds, but they don't get wet; their stems lift them above the water. They come in many colors, but pink is one of the favorites — pink and white. A lotus stem grows from the navel of Garbhodakasayi Vishnu, and on top a lotus flower blossoms. It is gigantic in size, and Lord Brahma sits on the whorl on top at the time of creation. Although Brahma is naturally proud and considers himself the creator, he sits humbly on a lotus and prays to Krishna for creative energy. The creative lotus is very shaky, and below it is the tumultuous water of the Garbhodaka Ocean.

Krishna's beauty is compared to the lotus, namah pankaja-nabhaya … "My respectful obeisances are unto You, O Lord, whose abdomen is marked with a depression like a lotus flower, who are always decorated with lotus flowers, whose glance is as cool as the lotus and whose feet are engraved with lotuses" (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.22) He is called padma-locana, lotus-eyed. Srimati Radharani's eyes are as beautiful as the lotus. Devotees take shelter at the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna. Anyone who doesn't take shelter at Krishna's lotus feet is lost. The soles of His feet are marked with lotuses and other symbolical markings.

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H.H. Prahladananda Swami: Gita Jayanti – Summary of all 18 Chapters – Video

At the conclusion of Gita Jayanti, Prahladananda Swami gave a lecture on the Bhagavad Gita.  A whirlwind tour of the Bhagavad Gita.

Dallas, TX
2009-11-28

PAS_BGComplete18ChapSummary_GitaJayanti_2009-11-28

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H.H. Sivarama Swami: Wedding videos

Gadagraja prabhu and bhaktin Ancsa, Rama-Krsna prabhu and Tirtha-mayi devi dasi had there wedding ceremonies in Budapest today.

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Bharatavarsa.net: Bhakti Vikasa Swami: perfect realized knowledge

There is theoretical knowledge and specific or realized knowledge, and perfect realized knowledge is attained when one realizes the teachings received from the spiritual master.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => TLC 22: The Srimad Bhagavatam

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Akrura das, Gita Coaching: How I Joined ISKCON

In the early eighties I started reading books on yoga and religion and I came across the translation of Isopanisad and Raja Vidya: The King of Knowledge. Somewhat later I got a few Srila Prabhupada's books in English, which a friend got from a book fair: three volumes of Srimad Bhagavatam and one volume of Caitanya Caritamrta. These books looked so authoritative that I wrote to devotees in Los Angeles.

Paralalel to this, I was listening and trying to play Indian music with some friends at weekends and my schoolmate's sister got a vinil record in London from a devotee. It was a beautiful music by the Krsna devotees, but I had no idea that the books I read were related to this music, so I also wrote to the devotees in London.

Both US and UK devotees replied, sent me a magazine, Bhagavad Gita, japa beads, even some little maha prasadam in an envelope. I was so inspired by their letters that in December 1982 I decided to visit the temple near Florence in Italy - Villa Vrndavana, and the Vienna temple in Austria.

Back home I started raising at 3 or 4 am, chanting 16 rounds, translating Back to Godhead magazine, talking to my friends about Krsna consciousness and singing Hare Krsna to them with a guitar. I was also in a band at that time and we sang Hare Krsna at the student club at my farewell concert, for I decided to leave the band to join the temple in Zagreb, Croatia. I joined on Sunday 20 March 1983. My parents gave me a lift half way and the train got me to Zagreb.

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Bharatavarsa.net: Book distribution seminar: Use your experiences to get the books out

Hare Krsna

My husband Rupa Raghunatha Prabhu, myself and my transcendental daughter Vrndavaneshvari decided to take to the road for a travelling sankirtan tour from Sydney to Murwullambah.

First stop was the famous "Tuggerah Roadhouse" the biggest fuel and burger stop on the freeway and an ideal location to distribute many transcendental literatures. Shy from so much time carrying a nappy bag rather than book bag, I was trying to be optimistic, that Krsna would help us to perform some service as we had never yet tried a full day here. Our van was jammed packed with books for the planned tour, we could hardly breathe in the back seat due to the boxes of Gitas. This was a great inspiration to actually DO the service, we needed leg room!

So as we pulled into the roadhouse after the 1 1/2 hour drive from Sydney I was a little groggy, but the first thing I saw was a teenager pacing around eating an icecream. He was wearing a T-shirt saying "Hunter S. Thompson", who was a famous hippy author, I used to read his books. "Alright Krsna." I thought, "You've sent me someone, I've got a line for this guy!" So my enthusiasm immediately surmounted and I bolted out of the car so as not to loose my chance. Isn't it great how Krsna sends that someone to get us fired up?

I walked right over and said, "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas!" I loved that book! I saw your shirt. What others did he write?" He imeadiately smiled and began talking listing many books. "And who wrote Dharma Bums?" I asked "Oh that was jack Kerouack" he said. Meanwhile I was thinking: "I must use my past experiences to convince others to read Prabhupadas books."

"Well you know we are showing some books about meditation, yoga, and spirituality, take a look." I showed him the SSR, and said, "The author, he preached a lot to the hippies and beat generation. Not Hunter S. Thompson, but many of his contemporaries were chanting. thats how this whole movement was started."

"Oh sure I'll give you a donation." He said.

Unfortunately, his pockets were almost bare.

"That's OK." I said, reaching in my bag for a small book, I found the perfect choice. "Oh, you will love reading this one, this is the biography of Prabhhupada. It explains about how he spent time with the hippies and beat generation in New York and San Francisco in the 60s, and how he created a world wide movement"

He said, "This sounds so interesting I am definetly going to read this book!" and he hands over his change.

After this, you couldn't stop us, we each did over 20 big books at that roadhouse! Then we had to go to our overnight stop, New Gokula Cessnock farm. The next day we went to a music festival called "Cultural stomp." We would do books and there were other devotees there who would do the catering. Rupa sold $120 worth of books to the MC of the festival who told him, on seeing the Gita, that, " I'm getting paid to do this event, so I might as well spend some of it".

"OK" he thought, "spend you will." so he showed her cookbooks, more books, Cds and Krsna posters, and she took them all. Wow!

Your servant, "On the road"

Krsna Rupa dd

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Book Distribution News: Use your experiences to get the books out

Hare Krsna

My husband Rupa Raghunatha Prabhu, myself and my transcendental daughter Vrndavaneshvari decided to take to the road for a travelling sankirtan tour from Sydney to Murwullambah.

First stop was the famous "Tuggerah Roadhouse" the biggest fuel and burger stop on the freeway and an ideal location to distribute many transcendental literatures. Shy from so much time carrying a nappy bag rather than book bag, I was trying to be optimistic, that Krsna would help us to perform some service as we had never yet tried a full day here. Our van was jammed packed with books for the planned tour, we could hardly breathe in the back seat due to the boxes of Gitas. This was a great inspiration to actually DO the service, we needed leg room!

So as we pulled into the roadhouse after the 1 1/2 hour drive from Sydney I was a little groggy, but the first thing I saw was a teenager pacing around eating an icecream. He was wearing a T-shirt saying "Hunter S. Thompson", who was a famous hippy author, I used to read his books. "Alright Krsna." I thought, "You've sent me someone, I've got a line for this guy!" So my enthusiasm immediately surmounted and I bolted out of the car so as not to loose my chance. Isn't it great how Krsna sends that someone to get us fired up?

I walked right over and said, "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas!" I loved that book! I saw your shirt. What others did he write?" He imeadiately smiled and began talking listing many books. "And who wrote Dharma Bums?" I asked "Oh that was jack Kerouack" he said. Meanwhile I was thinking: "I must use my past experiences to convince others to read Prabhupadas books."

"Well you know we are showing some books about meditation, yoga, and spirituality, take a look." I showed him the SSR, and said, "The author, he preached a lot to the hippies and beat generation. Not Hunter S. Thompson, but many of his contemporaries were chanting. thats how this whole movement was started."

"Oh sure I'll give you a donation." He said.

Unfortunately, his pockets were almost bare.

"That's OK." I said, reaching in my bag for a small book, I found the perfect choice. "Oh, you will love reading this one, this is the biography of Prabhhupada. It explains about how he spent time with the hippies and beat generation in New York and San Francisco in the 60s, and how he created a world wide movement"

He said, "This sounds so interesting I am definetly going to read this book!" and he hands over his change.

After this, you couldn't stop us, we each did over 20 big books at that roadhouse! Then we had to go to our overnight stop, New Gokula Cessnock farm. The next day we went to a music festival called "Cultural stomp." We would do books and there were other devotees there who would do the catering. Rupa sold $120 worth of books to the MC of the festival who told him, on seeing the Gita, that, " I'm getting paid to do this event, so I might as well spend some of it".

"OK" he thought, "spend you will." so he showed her cookbooks, more books, Cds and Krsna posters, and she took them all. Wow!

Your servant, "On the road"

Krsna Rupa dd

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H.H. Prahladananda Swami: 1st initiation ceremony for Bhakta Patrick on Rama Navami – Video

Prahladananda Swami gives the first initiation to Bhakta Patrick  @ Churriana Temple (9 / 9)
posted March 27, 2010

On the day of 3/24/2010, the day of the celebration of the coming of the Lord Ramacandra, HH Prahladananda Swami has given the first initiation to Bhakta Patrick.

Here is the Youtube playlist

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Ananda Subramanian, Iowa, USA: Life & Probability Statistics

COULD LIFE ARISE BY CHANCE?

To give some idea of what exactly is involved in supposing that life could have emerged by random combination of chemicals in a primordial soup, let us imagine that this soup covered the entire surface of the earth to a depth of one mile. We shall divide this volume into tiny cubes measuring one angstrom unit on each side. (An angstrom unit is about the size of a single hydrogen atom.) Let's also assume that the soup is extremely concentrated, so that reactions are taking place within each of the cubes within the soup.

Now, in the expectation of obtaining the simplest possible self-reproducing organism, let the reactions take place abillion times per second in each cube. And let's further assume that the reactions have been going on for 4.5 billion years, the estimated age of the earth.

As we have seen in the acompanying article, scientists Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe have estimated that the chance of obtaining the simplest self-reproducing system by random combination of molecules is at best somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 in 1040,000 attempts. But if out of extreme generosity we reduce the required number of proteins from 2,000 to only 100, then the probability is still 1 in 102,000.

Now, if you add up all the possible attempted billion-per-second combinations in our hypothetical promordial soup, you wind up with only 1074 throws of the chemical dice. That means the odds of getting the required self-reproducing system out of our soup would be in 1 in 101,926. We wouldn't expect that to happen in the entire course of the earth's history!

Of course, a diehard gambler might say it's highly unlikely but it just could happen by chance. But this is a completely meaningless use of the word chance. In order for a statement about an event with a nonzero probability of happening to be meaningful, we would have to observe enough repetitions of the event to establish a statistical pattern. Only this would allow us to say, "This event has probability p of happening."

For example, we say that when we toss a coin there is one chance in two that it will turn up heads. This probability is established by examining the behavior of the coin over several hundred trials. Now, if you have an event with a probability of one ina million, it would take hundreds of millions of trials to establish this. And if the event has an estimated probability of 1 in 102,000, you would need many times that number of trials. The basic point is this: What is meant by a probability of 1 out of 102,000 is that a certain statistical pattern corresponding to this figure will be observed over the required vast number of trials. If there is no possibility of performing these trials (as is certainly the case here), then there is no meaning to saying an event happens with that very small probability.

On this planet, as we have seen, you can only have a maximum of 1074 trials. Now, we can be extremely generous and grant the chemical evolutionists that the trials can be taking place in primordial soups on as many planets as there are atoms in the entire universe - about 1080. Then you get a grand total of 10154 trials - still an infinitesimal number compared to 1020,000. The conclusion is simple.

It's meaningless to talk about the origin of life in terms of chance. To say it happened by chance is just the same as saying it happened, and we already know that.

In that case, all we can say is that life is a unique event.

- by Drutakarma das & Sadaputa das

This article was originally published in Origins: Higher Dimensions in Science, a publication of the Bhaktivedanta Institute (pp. 34-35)

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H.H. Sivarama Swami: Diet of mud and despair in Indian village

SRS: We should be grateful that by Krsna’s grace we eat so nicely. Everyone does not.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8682558.stm

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H.H. Sivarama Swami: Does the cloth remnants of the Deity or the guru lose its spiritual potency by washing?

And other more serious questions. Skype conference English/Russian.

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H.H. Sivarama Swami: This body is a boat to get us to the other side of the ocean of material existence

It and ceremonies like marriage to stabilize it are temporary. When you get to the other side, let the boat go.

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H.H. Sivarama Swami: Visiting Caitanya Candra

The new home of Caitanya Candra and Kathamrta

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Gauranga Kishore das,USA: A Time for Gold - Peter Schiff

I'm signed up to a lot of different email list so I a lot interesting information in my inbox everyday. Of course I don't really have time to read much of it but I do get to scan some of the most important stuff. I've been getting alot of stuff lately about investment strategies. They all pretty much involve getting your money out of the dollar and investing it in Asian companies, stocks and mutual funds, and in real asesetts like gold and other natural resources. I don't personally have any money saved or any money to invest so whatever happens doesn't really affect me but I do worry about many other people who do, and especially temples, as it looks like things are going to get worse and worse. It is really sad to see how these things go down because every time the richest seem to profit while ordinary people are left to pickup the tab. This recently came from Peter Schiff of Europacific Pacific Capital and I thought I would just pass it along for any one interested.



A Time for Gold - Peter Schiff

"The frightening financial gyrations unleashed by the unrest in Greece, and compounded by the  mysterious kinks of electronic stock markets, have quickly reintroduced naked fear into the hearts of investors. Not surprisingly,while these concerns throw into question the safety of just about every asset class,gold and silver are beckoning once again as a means to help protect purchasing power.

We are now in the early stages of what I believe will be a global sovereign debt crisis. With Greece,Portugal and Spain, we are seeing the results in what might be considered the "subprime" nations struggling with overly burdensome debt payments. However, just like in the mortgage crisis, many "prime" nations, like the United States and Great Britain suffer from the same disease. It is just that for these countries it will take a bit longer before the symptoms materialize.

The bottom line is that many nations, including the United States, have simply borrowed more than their citizens can realistically repay. For many such countries, default may be the only way out. The only question is how to do it. Will governments simply refuse to pay, or will they pretend to pay by printing money? I believe either option would be very bullish for gold and silver. If nations default, gold and silver prices should rise, if they inflate, they should soar.

Today the collective governments of the European Union, who had been following a more responsible policy than the United States, decided to capitulate. With their massive $900 billion dollar bailout package to any euro zone country that needs help financing their debt, the Europeans have decided to follow the path blazoned by the Federal Reserve. All debt problems, on both sides of the Atlantic, will now be monetized with a printing press.
While gold sold off on the bailout news, there is no question in my mind that the development is extremely bullish for gold. Germany has caved and the inflationists have prevailed. The moral hazard of the bailout will mean bigger deficits in more euro zone countries. Eventually even Germany itself will succumb and join the party. To defend the euro and sterilize their bond purchases the ECB will have to sell dollars. But to whom? The U.S. is certainly not buying.

If Europe, like America, becomes a net foreign borrower, the industrialized West must expect emerging markets to pick up the tab for both America and Europe! After all not every nation can ride the debt wagon; someone has to pull the cart. This will mean that China in particular will have to buy even more foreign exchange to prevent a collapse of both the euro and the dollar. This may push them to the breaking point much sooner than many like to think.

Last Thursday as the Dow Jones plunged 1,000 points, gold surged $35 to just under $1,200 per ounce. Yes, gold and silver may already be "hot", but I believe there are still great quantities of kindling now lying around which could fuel a continuing fire.

I do not think you should wait for the sovereign default disease to spread. I do not think that it is too late to buy physical gold and silver. Once more people comprehend the magnitude of the problem, I believe prices may go higher than they are today.

If you are already working with a Euro Pacific broker, call them to find out more about adding gold and silver to your investment portfolio.  If you are not already working with a broker, and you want information about gold and silver, contact us at 800-993-8350."

Here is little video from last year, he's basically been saying the same thing for a long time. And things have only gotten worse since then with the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
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Yoga of Ecology, Bhakta Chris, USA: Evolution Presupposes Design, So Why The Controversy?


A thoughtful piece from philosopher and integral theorist Erwin Laszlo The Huffington Post

The debate among conservative Christians, Muslims, and Jews (the "creationists") and natural scientists and the science-minded public (the "evolutionists") centers on biological evolution. But on a deeper level, it concerns the universe in which life has evolved -- or in which it was created. And, as I will argue, on this level there is no contradiction between design and evolution: both are equally needed to explain the facts.

At first glance, the scientific community -- and anyone who believes that science can tell us something about the nature of reality -- is compelled to reject the hypothesis that all organisms are the way they are because they were designed to be that way. But the creationists question that the stupendously varied panoply of life arose from mutations in the genome occurring by chance with the resulting organisms fitting by chance into environments where they can reproduce better than their predecessors. Such a chance-mutation and lucky-environmental-fit process is surely too "hit or miss" to have created the complex web of life in the biosphere. The theory that affirms it is bound to be false.

However, at the cutting edge of science, the theory of evolution doesn't rely on random serendipity. That view marks the classical Darwinist position, still championed by a few (though always fewer) mainline biologists. Richard Dawkins, for example, insists that the living world is the result of processes of piecemeal trial and error, without deeper meaning and significance. Evolution happens, but there is no purpose and meaning to it.

Take cheetahs, said Dawkins. They give every indication of being superbly designed to kill antelopes. The teeth, claws, eyes, nose, leg muscles, backbone, and brain of a cheetah are all precisely what we should expect if God's purpose in creating cheetahs was to maximize deaths among antelopes. At the same time, antelopes are fast, agile, and watchful, apparently designed so they can escape cheetahs. Yet neither the one feature nor the other implies creation by design: this is just the way nature is. Cheetahs have a "utility function" to kill antelopes, and antelopes have a utility function to escape cheetahs. Nature itself is indifferent to this game. This is a world of blind physical forces and genetic replication where some get hurt and others flourish. It has precisely the properties we would expect it to have if there were no design, no purpose, and no evil and no good in the world, only blind indifference.

If a Designer is responsible for the way the living world works, He/She would have to be at best indifferent to what comes about in that world, or at worst a sadist who enjoys blood sports. It's more reasonable, according to Dawkins, to hold that the world just is, without reason and purpose. The way it is results from random processes played out within limits set by fundamental physical laws. The idea of design is superfluous. Classical Darwinists echo French mathematician Pierre Laplace, who is reputed to have said to Napoleon that God is a hypothesis for which there is no longer any need.

Confronted with the classical theory, creationists are justified in pointing out that it's extremely improbable that all we see in the world of life, ourselves included, should be the result of chance processes governed by impersonal laws. The idea that everything evolved by blind chance out of common and simple origins is just theory, they say. The world is more than a random assembly of disjointed elements; it exhibits meaning and purpose. This implies design.

The creationist position would be the logical choice if -- but only if -- scientists would persist in claiming that the evolution of living species is a product of two-fold serendipity. But at the cutting edge, scientists no longer claim this. Post-Darwinian biologists recognize that the evolution of species is far more than the chance processes classical Darwinists say it is. It must be more, because the time that was available for evolution would not have been sufficient to generate the complex web of life on this planet merely by trial and error. Mathematical physicist Sir Fred Hoyle calculated the probabilities and came to the conclusion that they are about the same as the probability that a hurricane blowing through a scrap-yard assembles a working airplane.

Leading-edge scientists realize that the evolution of organic species is an orderly, highly coordinated process, even if it's not mechanistic and deterministic. The evolution of the living world is part of the great wave that created particles from the underlying virtual-energy and information field misleadingly called "vacuum" (and is better called unified field, nuether, or Akashic field). The wave unfolded in the cosmos by structuring particles into atoms, atoms into molecules, molecules into macromolecules and cells, cells into organisms, and organisms and populations of organisms into local, regional, and continental ecologies.

The wave of evolution could only have unfolded in a universe where the fundamental laws and constants are finely tuned to permit the emergence of complexity. Ours is such a universe. Physicists know that even a minute difference in these laws and constants would have foreclosed the possibility of life forever.

Our universe is staggeringly fine-tuned to the creation of systems of higher and higher orders of complexity, differentiation, and integration. That such a universe would have come about by chance is astronomically improbable. According to quantum cosmology, some 1 x 10500 (1 followed by five hundred zeros) universes could exist physically, but only a handful could give rise to life. That our life-supporting universe would have come about by a random selection from this enormous set of possible universes is a zillion times more improbable than that living species would have come about by random mutations. The great wave of evolution requires highly harmonized and coordinated processes in all its domains.

In the final count the evolution of life presupposes intelligent design. But the design it presupposes is not the design of the products of evolution; it's the design of its preconditions. Given the right preconditions, nature comes up with the products on her own.

The debate between creationists and evolutionists would be better focused on the origins of the universe than on the origins of life. Could it be that our universe has been purposefully designed so it could give rise to the evolution of life? For creationists, this would be the logical assumption. Evolutionists could not object: evolution, being an irreversible process, must have had a beginning, and that beginning must be accounted for. And our fine-tuned universe is entirely unlikely to have come about by chance.

So the creationist/evolutionist controversy really is pointless. Design is a necessary assumption, because chance doesn't explain the facts. But evolution is likewise a necessary assumption, for given the way this universe works, the evolution of complexity is a logical and by now well-documented consequence. Therefore the rational conclusion is not design or evolution. It's design for evolution.

Then why the controversy?

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H.H. Bhakticharu Swami: Evening Class

The following lecture was given by H.H. Bhakti Caru Swami Maharaja on March 16 th , 2010, at ISKCONnbsp; Sydney,nbsp; Australia.

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H.H. Bhakticharu Swami: Special Dinner lecture

The following lecture was given by H.H. Bhakti Caru Swami Maharaja on March 13 th , 2010, at Paramatta,nbsp; Australia.

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H.H. Bhakticharu Swami: Ram Navmi

The following lecture was given by H.H. Bhakti Caru Swami Maharaja on March 23 rd , 2010, at ISKCON Bhubneshwar.

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Gouranga TV: Indradyumna Swami kirtan – Vrindavan kartik 2009 – Part 5/5

Indradyumna Swami kirtan – Vrindavan kartik 2009 – Part 5/5

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Japa Group: Please Join The Japa Group

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction email and I will be happy to make you a member:

rasa108@gmail.com

ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

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Japa Group: The Lord Is Hearing You


Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week has been nice and you have been able to chant properly, I found this very nice quote on H.H. Sacinandana Swami's site and here Srila Prabhupada states the importance of trusting our Lord is hearing us and as a person we can develop a real and deep relationship with Him. So remember these words next time you chant, it will help you concentrate more.

We are worshiping Govinda, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the original person. And this song we were just singing—govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami—is reaching Him. He's hearing it. You cannot say He's not hearing it. Especially in this scientific age, when radio messages are broadcast thousands and thousands of miles so you can hear them, it is easy to understand how Govinda, Krishna, can hear your sincere prayer.
Similarly, just as you can see a television picture transmitted from thousands and thousands of miles away, you can always see Govinda in your heart if you prepare yourself properly. This is stated in the Brahma-samhita [5.38]: premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti [Bs. 5.38]. There is a television within your heart; it is not that you have to purchase the television set—it is there in your heart. And God is also there. You can see Him, you can hear Him, you can talk with Him, provided you repair the machine. And this repairing process is Krishna consciousness.
Now, to repair a television an expert technician is required. Similarly, you require the help of someone expert in the science of Krishna consciousness. Then the machine in your heart will work and you will be able to see Krishna. This is the perfection of yoga. [...]
Quest for Enlightenment, 4c: Yoga and Meditation for the Age of Quarrel - How to See and Know God

May you be blessed to chant nicely and remember the Lord is there for you, listening to your prayers and your chanting.

your servant,

Aruna devi
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