Akrura das, Gita Coaching: CREATING RESULTS AND WELL-BEING

PLANET ISKCON

 

"Planet ISKCON" - 53 new articles 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Coffee 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: The Joy of Aging- The Winter of Old Age 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: The American Dream Only Works If You Are Asleep 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Burn Up Some Karma 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Concentration Camp 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Udder Hypocrisy- Why Loving Your Dog Isn't Enough Akrura das, Gita Coaching: CREATING RESULTS AND WELL-BEING ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Daily Class - Yumuna Lila Mataji Ananda Subramanian, Iowa, USA: Godspeed to Steve Jobs Japa Group: Faithfully Performed With Enthusiasm H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami (Ret.): Poem for October 5 H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami (Ret.): Selected Writings H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami (Ret.): Poem for Octo­ber 4 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: 9/11- A Public Service Announcement Dandavats.com: Business for sale at Mayapur Iskcon Dandavats.com: Krsna would love to see you! Dandavats.com: Iskcon Moscow Temple in Big Crisis Dandavats.com: Balarama's Plow Graces Laurentian Mountains Dandavats.com: Article of Huffington Post about the Hare Krishnas and the Ratha-Yatra festivals Dandavats.com: A Student's Memories of Śrīmān Gopīparāṇadhana Prabhu Dandavats.com: Update of Simantini project 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Eco-Pleasure- A Spiritual System to Take the Pressure off the Material System Dandavats.com: Bhakti Marga Swami Dandavats.com: A Tribute To Gopiparanadhan Prabhu Dandavats.com: Back To Godhead, or Back To Serve? Dandavats.com: SMIS Teenage Preachers Charm Kolkata 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Casting a Different Light- Freud Was On To Something Dandavats.com: Inaguration of Jail Bhagavd Gita distribution and Study classes kicked off at a second location in South India 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Do Scientists Pray?- Albert Einstein's Letter to Phyllis Dandavats.com: World Holy Name Week Report (Meerut) Akrura das, Gita Coaching: 100 DAYS OF HUMILITY Dandavats.com: The Sublimation Of Work Dandavats.com: Sivarama Swami book Dandavats.com: HH Candramauli Swami Vyasa'Puja 2o11 Live Broadcast at Mayapur@Tv channel 'Ljubljana' Dandavats.com: IT Tycoon receives Bhagavad Gita As It Is Book Distribution News: Real Success ISKCON Toronto, Canada: In the News: "Hare Krishna: The Rise in Krishna Consciousness" Srila Prabhupada's Letters Srila Prabhupada's Letters Srila Prabhupada's Letters Srila Prabhupada's Letters Srila Prabhupada's Letters Srila Prabhupada's Letters Srila Prabhupada's Letters Srila Prabhupada's Letters H.H. Sivarama Swami: Isvara Krsna inquires whether devotees should go to fortune tellers to know the challenges ahead of them ISKCON Desire Tree: Vaishnava Calender - Ramcandra Vijayotsava,Sri Madhvacarya-Appearance H.H. Bhaktimarg Swami: Monday, October 3rd, 2011 Yoga of Ecology, Bhakta Chris, USA: Tax Plan To Turn Old Buildings Green Finds Favor Japa Group: Please Join The Japa Group Kurma dasa, AU: A Seedy Business Gouranga TV: Harinam – Kirtan – Ratha Yatra – Woodstock 2011 H.G. Sankarshan das Adhikari, USA: Wednesday 5 October 2011--Transcendental to Nasty Weather--and--Krishna is Very Small or Very Large? More Recent Articles Search Planet ISKCON Prior Mailing Archive 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Coffee Dr. Joe Esposito is an internationally leading nutritional researcher and lecturer on food nutrition and health. He has twenty-five years of experience that includes a corpus of publications, training seminars, and lectures designed to teach viable information on how to live a healthier lifestyle. The following is a transcription from a lecture he gave on the insidiousness of drinking coffee. Coffee is an acid that robs your body of calcium. Not only does it enervate the body, but aside from cigarettes, it has more synthetic pesticides than any other product on the market today. In laymen's terms, drinking coffee is equivalent to sucking down lots of unhealthy pesticides. One study I read said that a cup of coffee has more synthetic pesticides than consuming non-organic fruits and vegetables for an entire year. By now you might be thinking to yourself, "But Dr. Joe, I don't drink regular coffee, I drink decaf." So what is harmful about decaf? Well, if you buy commercially decaffeinated coffee, often the coffee companies will use turpentine and formaldehyde to take the caffeine out. In fact, there is no such thing as decaffeinated coffee anymore. Decaf just means that it has less caffeine than the original brand. They take some out, and it is considered decaffeinated. In most cases, a regular coffee made at home is going to have less caffeine than a decaffeinated coffee from a fancy coffee shop. So, you might want to consider these facts before you make your next purchase. Why then do we drink it? Energy? Coffee does not give you energy, however. Coffee actually prevents you from relaxing. There are certain receptor sites in the body called denisen receptor sites. Denisen is an amino acid that calms you down. Caffeine blocks these receptor sites, pre-venting the body from absorbing the denisen. So how does your body respond? It makes more denisen receptor sites, and you end up drinking more caffeine. For example, you start out drinking half a cup, which increases to one cup, and then eventually to ten cups. Therefore, the body needs increasingly more caffeine to perform at the same level of energy as it did when you only consumed small amounts of coffee. I had a patient named Yogi who drank 27 cups of coffee a day. As a result of his addiction, he lost his business. He lost his family; he lost practically every-thing because he was wired on caffeine. By far, the number one drug in the world is caffeine, particularly in the form of coffee. A famous man once said, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." So now you know; there are no more excuses. The reason for which we print this publication is primarily to benefit our readers. We understand that we all share this same world. Thus, the better people we all become, better neighbors we will make. To properly perceive and understand the deep and complex truths about the wonderful creation, we need to have our minds and consciousness clear. Essentially, yoga is the path of truth lovers and seekers. Thus one of the important principles for serious yogis is to avoid intoxication. Intoxication pollutes the body and mind, skewing our perception. It hampers our ability to be objective. Intoxication melts down our resolution, determination to stay a course despite the possible difficulties encountered on the path to truth. Purity is the force. Coffee is an intoxicant.   • Email to a friend • • 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: The Joy of Aging- The Winter of Old Age In the American culture, especially in southern California where physical appearance and beauty are highly valued, aging is not exactly something most people look forward to. Those who can afford to, sometimes undertake expensive procedures to attempt to maintain their bodies' youthful appearances, despite their inability to stop time or the aging process. Botox, hair dye, laser treatments, and face lifts are just some of the popular procedures in the ever expanding field of anti-aging. Why are we afraid to age? Why can't we let nature take its course without feeling anxiety? The anxiety we feel as we age and come closer to life's end, may serve as a wake-up call that we are not using our time properly, and call us to take spiritual action. As we age, we face the reality of our mortality. In our twenties, it is easy to ignore the ticking of life's clock. We live for the moment and feel immortal. Later in life, we start to feel the limitations of the body, experiencing aches and pains, and decreased energy, strength, and endurance. We undergo the loss of loved ones. We look in the mirror and wonder where the twenty year old face we once had went. In a culture that emphasizes youth and beauty, such ex¬periences can be scary. We subsequently try to cling to our youth through these anti-aging treatments. In comparison, other cultures embrace aging as a natural part of life. The Chinese, for example, are well known to revere and care for their elders. Gray hair is a sign of wisdom, not something to be ashamed of. As another example, Ayurvedic philosophy divides life into four stages compared to the seasons – the spring of youth, summer of young adulthood, autumn of older adulthood, and winter of old age. Although spring and summer are warm, flourishing, and pleasurable, winter also serves its purpose and has its beauty. Similarly, although youth and early adulthood are joyful, productive times, slowing down in the winter of old age serves a valuable purpose and is to be embraced, not feared. Spiritual realization is the goal of life in Vedic and Ayurvedic cultures, and one is taught from a young age onward that the body is a vehicle for the soul – a vehicle that when used properly, can drive one to the destination of self-realization. In such a culture, striving to maintain the external youthfulness of a naturally aging body would seem unnecessary or even folly, because the focus is on the ever youthful, eternal spirit. The human body is a sacred gift. The human mind is capable of deep thought, questioning, philosophizing, and reflecting, unlike the minds of the animals. We can seek the purpose of life, and become conscious of our relationship with God. One should cultivate spiritual practice through all life stages, but old age is a time to focus more exclusively on turning inward. After retiring from the busy life of earning a living, one has more time for introspection, reflection, and meditation. Another important task of elders is to share wisdom learned throughout life with the younger generations (if they will listen). In cultures that teach their youth to value and accept the aging process, peo¬ple are not so bewildered when signs of aging appear. Each new wrinkle and gray hair can be seen as sacred reminders to use time wisely and focus on the spirit. A spiritually prepared person can walk bravely into the winter season. In the winter, we don't pretend that it is hot and jump into the cool sea. We put on a coat and sit by the fire. Similarly, in the winter of old age we should not attempt to act like we are twenty, reliving spring and summer, or trying to reverse the aging process. Rather we should be prepared, put on the protective winter coat of our spiritual practice, and experience the joy of aging. Instead of using laser treatment to counteract the aging process, try some pure spiritual mantra chanting to awaken your eternal self – the soul which never ages or wrinkles.   • Email to a friend • • 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: The American Dream Only Works If You Are Asleep   • Email to a friend • • 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Burn Up Some Karma   • Email to a friend • • 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Concentration Camp   • Email to a friend • • 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: Udder Hypocrisy- Why Loving Your Dog Isn't Enough I'm a sophomore in college and it is the first day of my writing course, which focuses on animal rights. The instructor proposes a really interesting scenario for us all. He asks how we would react if a race of aliens, with IQ's vastly outweighing humans', came to Earth. Further, what if they rounded up the entire human population and put them in concentration camp-like spaces? In this way they could easily manufacture human flesh for the consumption of their fellow aliens. Upon hearing this it was clear the instructor was elucidating the treatment of animals in factory farms. He was questioning the ethical validity of such treatment by putting it into a more emotionally salient scenario, and of course the entire class felt the aliens’ treatment unethical. And I think most people would also agree. After all, isn't it common sense to treat others how you want to be treated? Yet for some, this means eating a juicy steak and then cuddling up with your dog Sparky, who is treated more lavishly than even some children in third world countries. So, what is the real basis which determines who should be on the receiving end of ethical, compassionate treatment? Why is it that some are treated lovingly while others are exploited? It is a question of vision. The Bhagavad-Gita, a sacred Indian text, describes: "The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste." In other words, a person is truly situated in knowledge when they can see the unifying thread between every living being. Whether they are a scholar or a dog, rich or poor, Christian or Islamic—such a person exhibits equal, loving compassion towards them all. This philosophy reaches far beyond just the treatment of animals in factory farms, but should expand toward all living beings we come into contact with. This unifying thread is the sacred spark of divinity that is inherent in all living beings. And in order to perceive this animating force or spiritual essence in others, we first have to recognize it in ourselves. We hear through our ears, taste through our tongue, see through our eyes and think with our brains. Yet, we should not identify ourselves as an ear, tongue, eye or even a brain. Rather, we should recognize ourselves as the witness of thought and of the interplay between the senses and the sense objects. That witness is termed in the Bhagavad-Gita as atma, or the soul, which is a part of the Divine. And although from an external perspective a cow's body largely differs from a human's, the soul is still of the same quality. Just as a man in a Rolls Royce thinks "I am important," while a man in some beat up pick-up thinks, "I am poor", but both of the men are equal as they are human beings. Yet, it is the false identification with their designated car that creates the inequality between them. Therefore, it is bodily vision which is the basis of all forms of inequality and unethical treatment in the world today. Compassion is a valued feature amongst cultured individuals. But eating cows, pigs, and chickens and then taking your dog for a walk in the park does not show compassion. Loving only your family, yet hating your co-workers, neighbors or others in a different social or ethnic class is not love. Compassion and love are not conditional; rather, they expand the feeling of unity—the feeling of camaraderie amongst all life forms. Only this type of loving compassion, which is unmotivated by selfish desires, can positively affect the mistreatment of animals and humans alike. I invite readers to consider a solution for unethical treatment that is alternative to methods such as political intervention. For even man-made laws are subject to change in this world. Instead, I encourage the cultivation of spiritual vision; vision that recognizes the eternal nature of every life. This is the beginning of self-realization; knowing our identity as spirit souls. The same spark of consciousness that blazes within every other living entity comes from one common Source. If you look around you, there is no real lasting equality on the material platform because everything is constantly changing and transforming. There can only be equality on the spiritual platform. With this understanding of our spiritual identity, we can begin to think of universal brotherhood and go even deeper, properly executing real loving compassion to all living beings.   • Email to a friend • • Akrura das, Gita Coaching: CREATING RESULTS AND WELL-BEING Many people share with us their experience of being out of control, constantly rushing to catch up with themselves and getting lost in a set of future goals. The attempt to juggle the different parts of their life in a frantic quest for some tranquillity and equilibrium leaves them exhausted. Stress levels are high, tempers are short, there is no white space in the calendar and time appears to be running out. Clients report how they struggle to get to the finishing line late on a Friday evening. They then experience the wrath of their partner's frustration as they collapse for most of the weekend. When Sunday evening arrives, they desperately try to catch up with what wasn't covered in the previous week, only to start up all over again on Monday morning. As Madeleine Bunting writes in Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives, 'Thinkers predicted that the 21st century would be an Age of Leisure; in the 1970s increasing automation even led policy-makers and politicians to worry about how people would usefully fill their time. For some, this dawning era promised abundant opportunities for human beings to reach their full potential. We would finally be freed from long oppressive hours of toil. Marx's dream of society reaching a point where people could spend the morning thinking and the afternoon fishing would be within reach of us all. It never happened. Quite the contrary: the historic decline in working hours has gone into reverse in the past two decades.' A 2003 report by the Health and Safety Laboratory revealed that the UK workforce works some of the longest hours in Europe; on average a total of 44.7 hours a week, and that 11 per cent of people in the UK work 49–60 hours per week. In the United States it's even more extreme. A report by the International Labour Organisation stated that employees work nearly 2,000 hours per capita per year. Attempts to overcome this phenomenon have resulted in a surge of interest in achieving a work–life balance. In 2002, a survey carried out by the Department of Trade and Industry's Work–Life Balance Campaign and Management Today revealed that one in five workers want a better work–life balance. In the midst of this dilemma, coaching provides an opportunity for people to look at the balance between achieving results and well-being. The majority want both; great achievements, and to feel good. Yet this is a difficult balance to navigate. Coaching helps to assess whether the price of our work–life strategy is worth the return. This does not imply that coaching leads to armies of people riding off into the sunset to grow mangel wurzels in the Outer Hebrides. What it does mean is that people can constantly monitor their progress, make adjustments when required and ensure that they are successful and stay sane! SUPERCOACHING by Graham Alexander and Ben Renshaw   • Email to a friend • • ISKCON Melbourne, AU: Daily Class - Yumuna Lila Mataji Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.10 - Sripad Madhvacarya appearance day   • Email to a friend • • Ananda Subramanian, Iowa, USA: Godspeed to Steve Jobs Today, Steve Jobs passed on. As many of you know, Steve had come in contact with Krishna consciousness in his younger days through Prasadam. He had the opportunity of Krishna's mercy and He also went to India and is believed to have chanted the Hare Krishna maha mantra. In the secular world, obviously Steve Jobs is a high profile figure. However, I would like to wish him and pray for him (spiritually speaking) so he can continue his spiritual journey towards Krishna so one day he goes back home back to Godhead. Godspeed to you Steve for your spiritual journey. May Krishna protect you where ever you are. Hare Krishna   • Email to a friend • • Japa Group: Faithfully Performed With Enthusiasm Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī therefore recommends, tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt: "One must strictly follow the regulative principles of vaidhī bhakti." In addition to these four prohibitions (yama), there are positive regulative principles (niyama), such as the daily chanting of sixteen rounds on japa-mālā beads. These regulative activities must be faithfully performed with enthusiasm. This is called tat-tat-karma-pravartana, or varied engagement in devotional service. Nectar Of Instruction Verse 3 purport   • Email to a friend • • H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami (Ret.): Poem for October 5 4:44  A.M. Poem for October 5 The Lord ordered all the citizens of Navadvipa to chant the Hare Krishna mantra and in each and every house they began performing sankirtana regularly. Hearing the resounding vibration of the Hare Krishna mantra, the local Muslims, greatly angry, submitted complaints to the kazi. Chand Kazi angrily came to [...] Poem for October 5 is a post from: EVERY DAY   • Email to a friend • • H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami (Ret.): Selected Writings From Spiritualized Dictionary "noble"'1. a. Of a person: possessing outstanding qualities (as of eminence, dignity); ILLUSTRIOUS. 2. Having the power of transmitting some recognized pre-eminence founded on hereditary succession, of high birth or of exalted rank, belonging to, or constituting the nobility; ARISTOCRATIC 3. a. A possessing very high or excellent qualities or properties. b. [...] Selected Writings is a post from: EVERY DAY   • Email to a friend • • H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami (Ret.): Poem for Octo­ber 4 4:29  A.M.   Poem for October 4 When a student interpreted the holy name as a prayer of exaggeration, the Lord, greatly unhappy, warned everyone not to see the student's face henceforward. One day the Lord sowed a mango seed in the ground and immediately the seed fructified into a tree and began to grow. [...] Poem for Octo­ber 4 is a post from: EVERY DAY   • Email to a friend • • 16 Rounds to Samadhi Magazine, LA, USA: 9/11- A Public Service Announcement Our calendars recently marked the ten year anniversary of one of the most abominable and despicable incidents in recent US history. Here is everything you ever wanted to know about the 9/11 conspiracy theory in under five minutes… On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 men armed with carpet-cutters directed by a man on dialysis in a cave fortress halfway around the world, using a satellite phone and a laptop, directed the most sophisticated penetration of the most heavily-defended airspace in the world. They overpowered the passengers and the military combat trained pilots on four commercial aircrafts before flying those planes wildly off course for over an hour, without being molested by a single fighter interceptor. These 19 hijackers, devout religious fundamentalists who liked to drink alcohol, snort cocaine, and live with pink-haired strippers, managed to knock down three buildings with two planes in New York. Meanwhile in Washington, a pilot who could not handle a single engine Cessna, was able to fly a 757 airplane, make a 270 degree corkscrew turn, and descend 8,000 feet to come exactly level with the ground. The pilot then hit the budget analysis office of the Pentagon, where Department of Defense staffers were working on the mystery of the 2.3 trillion dollars that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had announced "missing" from the Pentagon's coffers in a press conference the day before – September 10, 2001. Luckily, the news anchors knew who did it within minutes (Osama), the pundits knew within hours (Osama), the Administration knew within the day (Osama), and the evidence literally fell into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) lap – the passport of one of the hijackers was found blocks from the World Trade Center crash site. For some reason though, a bunch of crazy conspiracy theorists demanded an investigation into the greatest attack on American soil in history. The investigation was delayed, underfunded, set up to fail, a conflict of interest, and a cover up from start to finish. It was based on testimony extracted through torture, and the records were later destroyed. It failed to mention the existence of WTC2, Able Danger, Ptech, Sibel Edmonds, and the OBI; not to mention the drills of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which simulated hijacked aircrafts being flown into buildings at the precise time that these events were actually happening. The investigation was lied to by the Pentagon, the CIA, and the Bush Administration. And as for Bush and Cheney themselves … well, no one knows what they said because they testified in secret, off the record, not under oath, and behind closed doors. They did not bother to look at who funded the attacks because that question was of "little practical significance". Still, the 9/11 Commission did brilliantly, answering all of the questions the public had (except most of the questions from the victims' families) and pinned blame on all the people responsible (although no one so much as lost their job). They determined the attacks were "a failure of imagination" because "I don't think anyone could envision flying airplanes into buildings" said Mr. Bush. However, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) were all aware of this potential threat. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) destroyed 2.5 TB of data on Able Danger, but that is okay because it probably wasn't important. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) destroyed their records on the investigation into the insider trading before the attacks, but that is okay because destroying the records of the largest investigation in SEC history is just part of routine record keeping. National Institute of Standards and Technology has classified the data that they used for their model of WTC2's collapse, but that is okay because knowing how they made their model of that collapse would jeopardize public safety". The FBI has argued that all material related to their investigation of 9/11 should be kept secret from the public, but that's fine because the FBI probably has nothing to hide. Osama Bin Laden lived in a cave fortress in the hills of Afghanistan, but somehow got away. Then he was hiding out in Tora Bora, but somehow got away. Then he lived in Abottabad for years, taunting the most comprehensive intelligence dragnet, which employed the most sophisticated technology in the history of the world for 10 years. Furthermore, he released video after video with complete impunity (becoming younger and younger in the footage as he did so), until finally he was found in a daring SEAL team raid, which was not recorded on video. During the raid, he did not resist or use his wife as a human shield. These crack special forces operatives panicked and killed this unarmed man, supposedly the best source of intelligence about those dastardly terrorists on the planet. Then they dumped his body in the ocean before telling anyone about it. Then a couple dozen of that team's members died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. This is the story of 9/11 brought to you by the media, which told you the hard truths about JFK, mobile production facilities, incubator babies, and the rescue of Jessica Lynch. If you have any questions about this story, you are a bat shit, paranoid, tinfoil, dog-abusing baby-hater, and will be reviled by everyone. If you love your country and/or freedom, happiness, rainbows, rock and roll, puppy dogs, apple pie, and your grandma … then you will never, ever express doubts about any part of this story to anyone. Ever. This has been a public service announcement by: the Friends of the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, DIA, SEC, Mainstream Media (MSM), the White House, NIST, and the 9/11 Commission. Because Ignorance is Strength.   • Email to a friend • • Dandavats.com: Business for sale at Mayapur Iskcon Vaisnava_tkg: Vaisnava_tkg: Dear Prabhus, and Prabhujis Pamho agtSP If anyone want to live in Mayapur and at the same time have an income, then the opportunity is there for someone. As we are not returning to Mayapur soon, we have decide to sale the business, and give the opportunity for someone to have an income