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( previous issue's cover )
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IMPERISHABLE CONSCIOUSNESS NOWADAYS, BY MEDICAL SCIENCE THEY CAN REPLACE BONES, FLESH, BLOOD, ALL OF THE ORGANS. IT SEEMS THAT EVERYTHING CAN BE REPLACED BY SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT.
16Rounds to Samadhi 16Rounds is published: ● To propagate spiritual knowledge and to educate all people in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world. ● To bring people closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler and more natural way of life. ● To expose the faults of materialism. ● To bring about the well-being of all living entities. 16Rounds is an independent magazine compiled, written, and published by a few Hare Krishna monks. It is produced in an attempt to benefit its readers, for our own purification, and for the pleasure of our spiritual grandfather, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhakti vedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder and spiritual guide of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). The first copy is free. Additional copies of the same issue are $10 each. © 2014 16 Rounds to Samadhi. All rights reserved.
16Rounds Staff: Editor: Mahat Tattva Dasa In 1995, at the age of twenty, instead of opting for college, Mahat chose the monastic life and education. He has taught and guided hundreds of new monks. Layout: Bhismadeva Dasa Bhismadeva has been a monk since 2008 and is currently serving at the ashram of the Hare Krishna community in San Diego. English editor: Matthew McManus Born and grew up in Los Angeles. Graduated from San Diego State University in 2011. Currently a monk at the ISKCON ashram in San Diego.
“That which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul.” -Bhagavad Gita 2.17 By Srila Prabhupada
Here
Krishna is giving a practical way of understanding
the presence of the soul. He says that the one thing which is spread all over the body is immortal. So what is that which is spread all over the body? It is not the skin, the bone, the marrow, or
CONTACT: 16rounds@gmail.com www.16ROUNDS.com Call/text 858-405-5465 facebook.com/16roundstosamadhi ADVERTISE www.16rounds.com/advertise Call/text Mahat at 858-405-5465. SUBSCRIPTIONS 10 issues = $25 www.16rounds.com/subscribe DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors.
the blood. The active principle within the body is consciousness or the soul. Nowadays, by medical science they can replace bones, flesh, blood, all of the organs. It seems that everything can
MEANING OF “16ROUNDS” Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means “union” or “linking.” Meditation is a process of yoga by which the spiritual practitioner achieves union with the Divine. The recommended process of meditation for the age we are currently living in is mantra meditation. This process involves chanting of mantras. The Upanishads, the classical spiritual texts of ancient India, say that the best mantra is the Hare Krishna mantra: hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare, hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare. A “Mala” is a set of 108 beads strung on a thread, sort of like a rosary. The spiritual practitioner prayerfully and with great concentration recites/chants the whole mantra once for each bead of the mala. The mala or the string of beads is held in the fist of the right hand and is meant to help us count how many times we chanted the mantra. It also helps engage the sense of touch in the process of meditation. Once we have chanted the mantra 108 times, or once for each bead, we have completed “one round.” Serious practitioners of this spiritual discipline take a vow to chant at least sixteen times round the mala every day; thus the name “16 Rounds.”
be replaced by scientific advancement. But that thing which is immortal, when gone, it cannot be replaced. Nowadays they can even replace the heart, but no medical science, or any science, is able to replace life. So Krishna is giving an example that the presence of the soul is perceived by consciousness. The flesh may be there, the bone may be there, the blood may be there, but if the consciousness is not there, there is no life. When the consciousness is in the body, the sensation of pain and pleasure can be experienced. Without consciousness, the body is a pile of dead matter. Krishna teaches here that the consciousness is the symptom of the soul and it is immortal; it does not perish when the body perishes. ■
CREDITS
Entire photo-shooting and post production for this issue of the magazine was done by Mahat and Bhisma. Thank you to Devavrata, and a few guests, for modeling. As always, this magazine is put out by a group of volunteers. All of the work was done by volunteers and financed through donations.
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GENUINE LOVE MAKES ONE BE GOOD TO ALL, NOT ONLY TO THOSE WHO ONE MAY BE ATTRACTED TO OR TO THOSE WHO HE CAN EXTRACT SOMETHING FROM. THAT KIND OF DISCRIMINATION IS OBVIOUSLY INDICATIVE OF INCOMPLETE LOVE.
THE ZEN OF LOVE By Mahat Tattva Dasa THE NATURE OF LOVE
If
we have observed the nature of love, we might have noticed that love has a tendency, a nature, a peculiar characteristic: it wants to expand and constantly so. It does not want to stop. It needs to grow unlimitedly. We see this, for example, in relationships between people. If love becomes stagnant, issues in the relationship begin. This happens because the progress of love
has been obstructed.
WHY DOES LOVE NEED TO EXPAND?
Why does love expand? Because love is all-encompassing by its very nature. If love encompasses anything short of everything, it is not exactly love. It could be called love and many call it so, but it is an incomplete love. Incomplete love is not what love really is. For this reason, love has the tendency to constantly grow and expand. The moment you limit its expansion, the love begins to leave you.
GRADATION OF LOVE One of the points made in Symposium, a work by Plato, is that there are different types of love. For example, Plato wrote: “The vulgar love of the body, which takes wing and flies away when the bloom of youth is over, is disgraceful, and so is the interested love of power or wealth.” Throughout history many have come to conclude that love is not one, singular thing and that to merge it all together is to be naive about the nature of love. To the extent love does not encompass the totality of existence, to that extent it is something other than love. To distinguish love from its incomplete manifestations, different traditions have used varied terms. In Christian theology, for example,
the complete love is addressed as agape, a word that describes a spiritual experience, specifically distinguished from erotic love or emotional affection for example. The word agape is a Greek word that is often translated as “selfless love” or “unconditional love.” In the bhakti-yoga tradition we can find terms such as kama and prema. Kama refers to selfish interest in something or someone and is often translated as lust. Prema, on the other hand, refers to divine love. Some symptoms of such love are: (a) It removes all material distress.
(b) It is all-good. It makes one be good to all, not only to those who one may be attracted to or to those who he can extract something
from.
(c) If it comes to it, it makes one renounce even one’s own well-being in favor of the beloved. This type of love is said to be the most valuable achievement and a rare commodity. So, unless and until, somehow or other, our love encompasses everything, we are definitely going to fail at love.
WATERING THE ROOT
The next question is, how in the world do you include everything in your love? We can hardly be conscious of everything, let alone love everything. Loving everything is very difficult. This is the point that brings a lot of love seekers to the spiritual realm. When addressing
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WHENEVER THE YOGI WANTS TO CAST OFF HIS WORLDLY BODY, HE SIMPLY...
PREDICTIONS OF LIBERATION OR ENLIGHTENMENT A Bogus Hoax Some
astrologers can be extremely pompous at our worst moments, but never are we more presumptuous, overadoring of the potentials of astrology, and under-aware of its limits, than when we claim to state on the basis of astrology whether or not a person will attain moksha (emancipation from the cycle of birth and death).
By Vic DiCara / Vraja Kishor
Emancipation is beyond matter. It is beyond time and space. Karma, the mechanism of time and space, therefore cannot grant or impede it. This is not merely “my opinion” but the opinion of the Srimad Bhagavatam – the ripened fruit of all Vedic Literature, the exposition of Vedanta Sutra, which is itself the essence of the Upanishads, which are themselves the explanation of the philosophical content in the original Veda.
Srimad Bhagavatam (1.2.6):”The transcendental essence of all living beings is divine love for the Supreme, which is causeless and unobstructable, and which completely satisfies the self.” Real Vedic texts (not just the rhetoric of people claiming to represent Vedic tradition) clearly state that genuine yogis don’t care at all about astrological circumstances – because their aim and interest is completely beyond the realm in
which karma (and therefore astrology) operates. Astrology is based on the symbolic codex of heavenly configurations at various points in time and space. But the yogi is uninterested in various points in time and space.
The Bhagavad Gita (again not at all a minor or ancillary text in the Vedic library, but an essential bastion) explains this quite clearly in its Eighth Chapter, especially from the 17th verse till the chapter’s end
at the 28th. Up to the 26th verse Krishna explains the afterlifeaffect of dying under various light and dark astrological conditions. Then, the 27th verse (most powerful, because it is in the concluding position of the section) decisively states: “Yogis never worry at all about any of these conditions, my friend. Therefore, in all ways and at all times, try to be a yogi.”
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WHY BHAKTI? Discovering a New Way of Life By Abeer Saha
I was
crawling my way through a nine-hundredand-sixty-nine page Mechanical Systems Modeling textbook, preparing for a final, when in a moment of weakness, I began pondering the college student's quintessential concern, "is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?"
The answer came as easy as algebra to an engineer, and was by far the most coherent thought I had all day. "No way man," was my resounding confession. At the heart of my dissatisfaction was neither the tremendous amount of work that I had to deal with, nor was it my inability to fathom transient second order mechanical systems; rather, it was the prospect of a life consumed by the struggle to keep up with what society had deemed 'the right path' - get a job, marry, have kids, and then retire to aching bones, depleting memory and obsolescence. Not that these things are wrong or futile, but what concerns me is that there has to be something more to life. Having watched my parents and many others walk 'the path' for the past twenty years, I am convinced that this so-called 'path' is not the one to lasting happiness and fulfillment. Even with our horrendously low standards of happiness - which to many people mean simply the cessation of suffering, or in my current case, the end of exams we're rarely, consistently happy for more than a couple of days at the max! And if one were to dare suggest raising this shallow bar, such a person might be labeled naive.
At the root of this superstition is that we are brainwashed from the very beginning to believe that the above mentioned 'path' is actually indispensable; that hoarding money, family, and material security somehow directly equate to happiness and that no amount of scientific studies or personal experiential proof should convince us otherwise. In this regard, Jerome K. Jerome in his classic novel, Three Men in a Boat, writes, "Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need - a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love…." His words, 'only what you need' beg redefinition for each and every one of us at an honest and individual level. And so when I asked myself, "what do I really need?" I inevitably came to the conclusion that the Beatles had arrived at a long time ago, that all you need is love! Every creature, whether it is cognizant of it or not, is ultimately looking for love. If not for love then why would we bother getting out of bed every single day to slog away at a cramped desk for long, tedious hours, solving abstract equations or writing convoluted papers about things that we couldn't care less for? Without love, earning money and assimilating fame and power would be meaningless, because if no one would love you for it, then what would be the point of all that effort? My conclusion is that dead matter - anything devoid of a spirit soul - in and of itself cannot satisfy us, unless and until it causes a loving interaction between conscious living beings. And so when we emphasize material pursuits, we are effectively missing the forest for the trees. ■
THE ZEN OF LOVE Cont'd from pg. 4 this question, the Srimad Bhagavatam gives an example of a tree and a gardener. By watering the root of
the tree, one gives nourishment to the whole tree. If one tries to water each leaf independently, one would
have a hard time accomplishing the task due to the usually great number of leaves. Even if one were to somehow manage to water each leaf individually, the tree would not be nourished.
To detect the root of the whole existence, the tree of the world, and to water it is the intention of many spiritual traditions. People have throughout history used the word God to indicate different concepts. In the tradition of bhakti-yoga, God
is the root of all existence. Therefore, prema or divine love can be recognized by its awesomeness, and it is a measure of spiritual advancement.
Cont'd on pg. 8 ›››
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Hi. This is Mahat, the editor. In this issue of the 16Rounds magazine we used one model to illustrate all articles but this one. Here we broke the rule because while photo-shooting in Pacific Beach, San Diego, we ran into some peeps who wanted to model just for fun. Of several different shots, we ended up using this one. INVISIBLE VALUE In materialistic endeavors, like capitalism, you can see the results of an investment. Someone makes a lot of money and their lifestyle reflects it. You can clearly perceive the material value that a sacrifice of physical labor bears. An outsider might see the success symbol of a business man/woman and immediately think, “Wow, what did they do? Maybe there is some opportunity for me as well? How can I get a similar lifestyle of enjoyment?” It inspires them and becomes a driving motivation for those that want to make money.
WHAT’S YOUR STATUS? Symbols of Success By Giriraj Gopal Dasa
In
cultures and subcultures there tend to be different symbols of status and success.
For example, in rap culture, it’s the bling - the big chain made of precious metal that lets everyone know that the rapper is important. In a yoga/exercise studio, it might be some high-priced yoga pants or a special yoga mat that symbolizes
the blessings of goddess Laksmi Devi (the goddess of wealth) in their life. Another symbol of success may be the car one is driving, or the kind of credit card one carries. Hence, it is very easy to notice materialistic success through ex-
ternal symbols, which inform others of their social status.
But what about success symbols for transcendentalists; those who endeavor on the spiritual path for a happiness not based on material possessions?
In the cultivation of God consciousness or spiritual consciousness, it may not be so easy to notice its value, because unlike matter, the fruits of spiritual labor are sometimes practically invisible.
Why? Because spiritual advancement is really something that is internal; something that is intangible. Yet, such non-material assets do have immense and incredible value to us everyday, which no one can deny.
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HOW MANY ENLIGHTENED PEOPLE? By Srila Prabhupada
G
uest: How many other people are there on this planet who have made as much spiritual progress as you have?
Prabhupada: I don’t know, there are no statistics in my possession. But what is the use of taking such statistics? Why don't you become one of them? Why waste time on statistics? You try to become enlightened. What is the use of taking record of who is enlightened or not? You should try to be enlightened yourself. For example, when you purchase a plane ticket, do you ask, "How many tickets have you sold?" What is the use of that? Just purchase your ticket, get on the airplane, and go. Don't waste your valuable time. If you are serious, just purchase the ticket, get on the airplane, and take the journey. ■
(From Srila Prabhupada's lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.40-45 -- Los Angeles, December 13, 1968)
JUST PURCHASE YOUR TICKET, GET ON THE AIRPLANE, AND GO. DON'T WASTE YOUR VALUABLE TIME.
PLASTIC, NO HEAD, NO FEELINGS... DEFINITELY NO DATE.
CHEMICAL LOVE By Mauricio Flores
A true THE ZEN OF LOVE Cont'd from pg. 6 A symptom of a genuine spiritual advancement is that one’s love grows equally everywhere. Such a person would not love their boyfriend or girlfriend and roast a chicken. That kind of discrimination is obviously indicative of incomplete love.
Another symptom of genuine spiritual advancement is given in the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, the topic of which is meditation. There it is stated that one who has actually found the root of all existence and is watering it, will have his or her consciousness transcend the boundaries of selfishness. Selfishness tends to manifest as concentrated or extended. When concentrated, selfishness does not
materialist cannot believe in love since according to the materialistic doctrine we are merely molecules, atoms, and DNA. Love then is not something that is scientifically qualifiable or empirically evident. It is only by dint of personal experience that the empiric materialist can claim to experience love. However, since, according to the materialistic concept, we are nothing but matter, this so called love is merely a chemical reaction in the brain, nothing more. The materialist therefore loves no one, but instead feels the effect of the right blend of chemicals, which allow him or her to continue survival and propagation of DNA, nothing more. ■ allow such person’s concerns to extend beyond their own physical body. Extended selfishness will help one have concerns for beings and things beyond themselves, but it will continue to keep that person in the center of the selfish experience. Such a person may have concerns for his own family or nation, but only because that family and that nation are his family and nation. Concerns of such a person
will not include other families of nations and will certainly favor his own over others’. Concentrated or extended selfishness is selfishness and it is a symptom of one who is not watering the root, but leaves. The bhakti-yoga tradition conceives of God as the root of everything. Loving God is the way of having that love distributed everywhere equally, symptom of which is non-sectarian love and service. ■
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My house keys. Bwahahaha!
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PHENOMENALISM Empiricism Is A Belief Excerpt from “Substance and Shadow” by Suhotra Swami
The
foundation of empiricism is a belief, not the objective truth. We should try to understand this carefully. Belief is defined in philosophy as a state of mind that is appropriate to truth. A state of mind is subjective. The objective confirmation of belief is truth. Now, if the claim of empiricism, that sense data is the ultimate knowledge, was a truth, empiricists would be able to demonstrate objectively that there is nothing to be known beyond sense data. But the very term empiricism (coming from the Greek empeira, experience) means that sense experience is the limit of empirical knowledge. Confined by their method within this limit, empiricists have no means of knowing whether or not there is something beyond the experience of the senses. Therefore, the claim that sense data is knowledge is nothing more than a belief. ■
ed n! Madropps. I key my
Da Whang! It's t to d o? dar so k he re.
To claim that reality exists only within the purview of sensual experience (i.e. something that I can see, touch, etc.) is like searching in an illuminated area for keys that are in fact somewhere else.
No sweat. I got this.
Here I can see. Over there is too dark.
Dude, I saw ipted all. You drop the your keys byre door. What a re? you doing he
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THE PROBLEM OF THE EGO About the Depths of Self-deception By Ramnath Subramanian
In 2007, I attended a talk at Cornell University by Dr. Steve Weinberg, the 1979 Nobel Laureate in physics for his work on electromagnetic and weak forces, on the topic of "Science and Religion." Dr. Weinberg did not mince any words when he categorically stated that religion is the cause of major problems in today's world. Science, he stated, has proven to be objective in its outlook, and it only speaks the beneficial truth.
As
I returned to my dorm after the talk, I mulled over Dr. Weinberg's statements. As a young seeker, I looked towards both physics and religion for answers to the big questions about the purpose of my existence. I was often puzzled by the fact that every person that I admired on both sides seemed to have a different version of what life ought to be, what a "good" man is, how to live, and so on. It became quite apparent to me that both science and religion could be used for positive transformational work and for the perpetration of deeply hurtful activities, and both had the capacity to explain "truth" in deeply philosophical and practical ways. It was not a question of which was better; it was more a question of who used it and for what purpose. It became evident that the core problem in this debate is that of human nature itself -- its hopelessly selffulfilling side called the ego.
Modern psychology has been wrestling with the vast territory of the human ego for a great while now, and its complexity continues to mystify us. Even before I learned about Freudian ideas on the ego, I first encountered the concept of the ego explicitly mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita. According to the Gita there is a fundamental difference between "real" ego and what it defines as the "false" ego. Real ego is our very essence, the consciousness that makes us aware and awake to reality. The false ego is a false identity crafted to preserve the sense of being the most significant and the most important all the time. In short, it is a narcissistic search for being loved, validated and appreciated.
This is what some refer to as the ego. The Gita further describes the subtleties of the ego and how it manifests moment to moment in our thoughts, words, and deeds. The concept seems to be stretched too far when we first read about it. But when we honestly study our own lives, we can clearly isolate various episodes of how this tendency manifests itself in our personality, either covertly or explicitly. The events can range from simple conversations on which football team is the best, to intense debates in boardrooms on the next important decision for the organization. What's worse is that the ego blinds us from seeing its own ploy, the ultimate of which is rationalized excuses for avoiding honest introspection and admittance. None of us have navigated through life without encountering the effects of the ego, be it in the workplace or home. Our own behavior is, at times, strange, unsettling, and un-objective. Some of this is tolerable and some of this is decidedly unpleasant or outright disastrous. Yet, while everyone is busy gathering insight into the way other people act and behave, few are willing to look so intently at themselves. This dynamic of interaction also applies to the way groups of people interact with each other. We want to know what makes other people or groups tick, yet are afraid to discover anything upsetting about ourselves. We would like to point out the faults of systems and people as if we had X-ray vision, while not really wanting others to see our weaknesses and short-
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”THE PURPOSE OF THIS CLEANSING MONTH IS TO ORGANIZE THE ROOM OF YOUR MIND.”
GARLIC STINKS? The Yogi’s Diet By Vic DiCara / Vraja Kishor
It's
pretty obvious what’s wrong with eating meat – you have to kill other living beings to get it. But its not so obvious why some other foods are forbidden on the plates of yogis.
Some are easy or obvious. Wines and so on, for example, obviously have a fuzzing effect on the mind and a liberating effect on animal instincts. So a yogi avoids intoxica-
tion. But there are some prohibited foods that just seem mysterious. Garlic and onion is the most popular. There are other vegetables also, but for some reason they mostly get overlooked by most contemporary Western practitioners these days.
Garlic-abstainers will often quote fabulous stories about how these vegetables originated from the corpse of a slain cow, or the blood of a demon, or some variety of tale. We are going to ignore
these, because they do not appeal to logical persons. They are meant for the masses who simply require a vivid storyline. There are valid reasons why certain vegetables should be avoided.
Every substance in the world has a specific effect on you when you perceive it. It’s just the way the world works, food included. Each food has a different effect on you when you ingest it. We don’t even notice it most of the time. If your room is filthy you don’t notice a little extra disorganization in your top shelf, but if you are trying to keep your room very clean and organized, you notice things right away. Similarly, our psychological nature is so radically disturbed by things like FaceBook, text messages, billboards, talk shows, and video games that we really have no idea at all if something as innocu-
ous as garlic might or might not have some effect on our mind.
So perhaps it’s a bit myopic for an aspiring yogi to insist on fastidious abstinence from onions, garlic, and so on, while at the same time indulging his eyes in the comparatively raucous stream of images, videos, and ideas from FaceBook and Twitter on an iPhone in a movie theatre? Yes. Priorities, please. Still, if you are one of those very few people who really sit down and want to focus your mind clearly on mantra-meditation, you will rightly want to not only govern (or abandon) your addictions to the internet and so on, you’ll also want to double-check your choice of vegetables.
What garlic does (and I guess presumably onions and other “forbidden” vegetables too; although, I
have to admit that in my personal experience onions seem innocuous compared to garlic) is make the mind “fuzzy.” In yogic terminology it aggravates “rajas” - the effect of which is to disturb clarity of mind, and make it more easily distracted by “interesting” ideas and plans.
There are a few non-yogi, modern-medical-type people (like Bob Beck) who have also noticed this. And it’s not just an Indian thing. Romans (like Horace) and Chinese (like Tsang-Tsze) also noticed this. But as for you and I… we should also be able to experience it. And we can. But here is what you would have to do to notice it:
(a) For one month abstain entirely from: internet, video games, television, movies, newspapers, and casual reading.
w w w .1 6 r o unds .c o m (b) During this time abstain of course from intoxications, meats, and sexual activity of any sort. (c) During this time, abstain also from garlic (and why not also onions).
(d) Try to meditate for an extended period on a single mantra, with great focus.
The purpose of this cleansing month is to “organize the room of your mind.” Then, after one month of this, eat a nice big dose of the “forbidden” veggies (while still practicing the A andB) and take a note how it makes you feel when you try to do D.
When you compare your mantra meditation in the few days at the end of the month with your mantra meditation after you feasted on garlic like a cured vampire, you’ll notice for yourself that this is for real. Garlic, and so on, really does make a difference to the quality of your concentration. But you’ll also notice that unless you are regularly doing A and B pretty fastidiously, it doesn’t really matter. So, my advice?
Focus on D, the mantra.
If you do, you will want to try your best to do A and B.
If you do, C will make a difference, too. But if you are not really focusing on the Mantra, eating or not eating smelly or non-smelly veggies is not going to help or hinder your spiritual life enough to register on any micro-sensitive yogi-ometer. Priorities please! Not checklists for being “on the team.” Thanks.
Hare Krishna. ■
WHAT'S YOUR STATUS?
Cont'd from pg. 7
HIDDEN MOTIVATIONS Who among us would underestimate the value of an education, the value of a dear friendship, and especially the value of loving feelings toward another person? Such internal gains are the most vital factors in our own personal sense of happiness and wellbeing; though, it usually doesn’t appear externally.
Many who strive after wealth and fame only do so because of a lack of inner satisfaction and fulfillment. We feel that getting more wealth and fame will result in getting more attention, more affection, more education, and freedom from worries. Thus, even the attempt for material gain is really only for the purpose of getting deeper and meaningful things out of life. Despite feeling a lack of satisfaction with material acquisitions, people may still be very reluctant to take up a spiritual discipline like meditation or bhakti-yoga, which is aimed at inner fulfillment because the results are seemingly intangible. Yet, we all should understand the symptoms of spiritual success and perceive it as a potential reality if we want to attain it.
LIFESTYLE OF THE SPIRITUALLY RICH What are the symptoms of a spiritually wealthy person? The Bhagavad Gita describes the state of genuine self-realization:
“One who is transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service” (Bhagavad Gita 18.54).
In the material conception of life, people work hard for getting money for sensual pleasures such as good sex life, nice food, and a high social position. When they are able to get such a situation they consider themselves happy, and when they lose these pleasures they feel extremely depressed, and when they are not able to get them at all, they feel frustration. To the contrary, a spiritually rich person has no anxiety or depression. Unlike the materialistic person who depends on material things for happiness, the transcendentalist who is fully God conscious is fully satisfied due to the absolute nature of their object of mediation, and they have no personal motives to fulfill since every endeavor is an act of loving devotion to the Supreme. Meditation is not merely an act of trying to void all thoughts and feelings in order to enter a state of non-perception. Real meditation means to achieve a state in which the mind is saturated by God consciousness - seeing God in everything and everyone at every step of life. So in that vision of non-duality,
a transcendentalist sees a plain piece of paper and a hundred dollar bill with equal vision in regard to both objects being a means for inner fulfillment.
Transcendentalists also see others equally in regard to their intrinsic spiritual identity and not based on their outward bodily appearance. The materially driven person often considers their self worth based upon what others think of them or will think of them. Thus they tend to categorize themselves and others based on what they own or possess, such as ugliness or beauty, wealth or poverty, etc. and treat others according to that perception. A transcendentalist on the other hand, adept in realization of the self, can see the soul of every living being beyond their external bodily designation. The transcendentalist recognizes their own spiritual worth apart from their possessions and can see others in the same way.
MEASURING OUR SUCCESS
A transcendentalist’s vision far surpasses the very concept of material duality, which renders all material status symbols useless. People that rely on material status symbols are cultivating an identity that relies on things which are not intrinsic to their actual self.
Giving up the meaningless search for the self through attachment to material acquisitions, we should all strive towards our true identity as a spirit soul, which is eternal, full of bliss, and full of knowledge. In conclusion, how can we know
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when we are truly becoming successful on the spiritual path? What is the “bling” of the spiritually rich? Radhanath Swami, a modern day spiritual master in the bhaktiyoga tradition, has established a benchmark for recognizing spiritual success in our life: “If you want to find out how rich you are, then find out how many things you have that money cannot buy. That is real wealth.” ■
PREDICTIONS OF LIBERATION OR ENLIGHTENMENT Cont'd from pg. 5
If one concentrates one’s life upon that which is beyond karma – why should one worry about that which is within karma? As long as we worry about that which is within karma we will be worried, and we will not be able to pull ourselves above the waves. But as soon as we focus on that which is beyond karma we become free from worries, and surpass the waves. Here is one more, of many possible, scriptural quotes to substantiate the authenticity of this assertion that astrology and karma has no sway over the ultimate destiny of the soul. Srimad Bhagavatam (2.2.15): “Whenever the yogi wants to cast off his worldly body, he simply sits firmly and comfortably - without a care in his mind about the right time or place – and fixes his attention on steadying his mind by regulating his breathing.”■
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MEET MOMMA SHREYA
HOW TO MILK A COW WITHOUT MACHINES
GOT REAL MILK? R
ECENTLY, WE ROSE EARLY IN THE MORNING TO SPEND TIME WITH NITAI AND MOTHER SHREYA, A CRUELTY FREE COW. SHREYA AND HER SISTER, LILA, HAVE BEEN GRAZING AT THE KRISHNA FARM OF ESCONDIDO FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW.
Before milking her, Nitai used a warm rag soaked in Dr. Bronoer's liked soapto read. to clean her jeff udders. BY BHISMADEVA DASA
Squeezing the udder from top to bottom, Nitai guided the milk out.
! G N SHHI ! G N SHI
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Keep an eye out. She may kick the bucket.
The milk is strained through a net and kept in a refrigerator until it is delivered to the Hare Krishna temples of Laguna and Pacific Beach.
Momma loves her oats.
Momma loves her hugs.
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SPIRITUAL HUNGER
Every
By Srila Prabhupada
person is hungry for spiritual happiness and therefore many people are not satisfied. They are trying to gratify their senses in so many ways, but still they are not satisfied; they remain “hungry.” Just like when the child is crying. Its mother may be offering something, but the child is still crying. That means that the child is asking for something which the mother cannot understand. Similarly, the dissatisfaction of the world means that people are actually hankering for spiritual happiness. Every person is hungry for spiritual happiness. They are trying to gratify their senses in so many ways, but still they are not satisfied, because actually they are hungry. This type of happiness is seldom offered, and when it is offered, many do not understand it and do not take to it. This is the situation. ■
THE PROBLEM OF THE EGO
Cont'd from pg. 11
comings.
Capitalism further aggravates this mentality by simply rewarding us for producing enjoyable and affirmative content. Even academia, which prides itself on objectivity, is more geared towards pleasing companies and corporations that can provide grants and financial assistance. In this atmosphere, we are less conscious of our severe mental shortcomings and less inclined to be skeptical of our own opinions. Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway once gave a speech called "The Psychology of Human
Misjudgment," and in his talk he revealed our natural weakness, in which we only pick out evidence that supports our views, or we pick out weakness in the other that makes us look better. We are cognitive misers; we try to think as little as possible, especially about our deep inner motivations. In today's times where we pride ourselves on progress in cognitive science and search capabilities, this tendency leaves a huge cognitive deficit. And the thought of internal combat further takes us away from attempting to rid ourselves from the shackles of the false ego. The false ego is a master of disguise. One of the greatest dangers of progressive work is that the false ego tempts to sidestep deep
introspective work by leaping into self-righteous advancement too soon. This is because the false ego fancies itself as more "advanced" than it actually is. How many "rational" decisions made by heads of state have caused havoc in the lives of millions of people? How much scientific research has been employed to cause direct harm to our environment? How many first-year novices of religion have persuaded themselves to believe that they are just about ready for sainthood only to find their misconceptions and behavior give rise to scandals and violence? The Bhagavad Gita's prescription to combat this crafty enemy within us is to create a culture of introspection and self-knowledge
whose basic components lie in courage and humility -- a healthy skepticism of our own "goodness" combined with an unending desire to learn more about ourselves. They work as powerful radars that uncover the camouflage of the ego and disarm it. Real self-knowledge is an invaluable guardian against self-deception mechanisms of the false ego, and any true and beneficial culture of transformation will teach us this. The more we practice this awareness, the more we can realize that it is not necessarily the systems that are good or evil; rather it is more likely our ego-centric adoption of those systems that we need to explore before we make judgments. ■
BRAHMA MUHURTA
Cont'd from pg. 18 sleep cycle with the natural patterns and movements of nature. “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a person healthy and wise” is an old adage in reference to this point. Far too often, in chasing our passions, we slip into a highly unregulated lifestyle, in which we sleep at random times, eat at random times, and so on. This is not at all healthy for the body, as our physical system is at its optimum when there is continual regulation. Having a set schedule in general is not only good for the functioning of bodily rhythm, but good for the mind as well. The mind will know when it is time to flow into different
w w w .1 6 r o unds .c o m activities, thus ultimately helping us become more productive.
Vedic stories it is stated that those who are inclined to a demoniac nature, or the “dark side,” feed off the energy of night. Consequently many crimes are committed in the dead of night, and the night is often associated with drunkenness, loneliness, etc., whereas the morning environment is more notably a time of peace and serenity. It is understood that the qualities of the morning environment can actually influence similar characteristics within our mind and behavior.
Srila Prabhupada, a great spiritual master in bhakti-yoga said, ”If a person rises everyday during the brahma muhurta for twelve years and chants the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, then everything that person does and says will be perfect.” Thus, to sleep and wake at a designated time also trains the mind in self-control, which builds our will power and can give us a special power of perception to be more in tune with the energies of life and their higher source.
UNIVERSAL INFLUENCES – ALIGN WITH COSMIC FORCES!
One metaphysical aspect that yogis have taught for thousands of years is that our environment influences our behavior in subtle ways according to the quality of people, places, foods, and times of day we most associate with. In the
A MONK, EARLY IN THE MORNING
While living in the ashrama in Pacific Beach, a San Diego college town, together with monks and residents there, I would rise early to do chanting and meditation. During this time I would hear people wandering the streets, making their way home after a long night of indulgence and revelry. Yet, to us, our world of consciousness was just beginning. In this experience I would see first hand how the various environments and times of day activated various mental states of
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passion, ignorance, or goodness.
In summary, imagine spending your whole life staying up late and sleeping in late. You may never experience an entirely different spectrum of life on Earth, namely the godly hours of the morning. Thus, it is said in the Bhagavad Gita, “What is night for the spiritually awake, is day for the materialistic person. And what is night for the materialistic person is day for the spiritually awake.” If you would like to start fresh and add more momentum to your sadhana or spiritual practice, then observing the Brahma Muhurta is definitely worth experiencing. ■
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WHILE LIVING IN THE ASHRAMA IN PACIFIC BEACH, A SAN DIEGO COLLEGE TOWN, TOGETHER WITH MONKS AND RESIDENTS THERE, I WOULD RISE EARLY TO DO CHANTING AND MEDITATION.
BRAHMA MUHURTA Wake Up to a Spiritual Awakening By Giriraj Gopal Dasa
The
time early in the morning, one and a half hours before sunrise, is called Brahma-Muhurta (Hour of God). It is recommended that one rise from bed at that time and take to spiritual activities by performing meditation and chanting sacred mantras. This period is
very convenient for the execution of all spiritual activities. Any spiritual activity performed early in the morning has a greater effect than in any other part of the day. Here are a few reasons to set the alarm clock to wake us up early.
GET SPIRITUAL GOALS INTO FOCUS – GO DEEPER! Waking up early can help bring higher life goals immediately into focus for the whole day. It is the most effective way to get serious about our spiritual evolution. It is understood by the yogis that the mind is a repository of different impressions and memories, known
in Sanskrit as samskaras. These impressions within our mind give rise to our various desires. As we all know, desire is the main driving force behind all action. After waking up early and bathing, one can immediately begin to chant sacred mantras, such as chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, and start the process of re-spiritualizing the mind. Hare Krishna Maha Mantra:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Brahma Muhurta is the perfect time to meditate because the passionate flow of city life has not yet begun. Nothing is stirring at this time and things are in a state of positive, high potential as the sun
rises. As the sun begins its journey overhead, it tends to shift our mental energy to a more externally oriented working state, in which it becomes harder to concentrate more internally, more deeply.
One can also learn a few notable Sanskrit prayers and recite them at this time as part of a routine to build up more of the good spiritual impressions, which will ultimately help the mind to focus on higher aspirations.
GET YOUR LIFESTYLE INTO BALANCE – GET SHAKTI!
There is something to be said about the harmony and balance we can feel when aligning our
Cont'd on pg. 16 ›››
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