August 2012 by 16Rounds

www.16ROUNDS.com August 2012

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INTRO

RICH MAN’S OPULENCE By Srila Prabhupada

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. Bhaktivedanta 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. © 2012 16Rounds to Samadhi. All rights reserved.

16Rounds Staff: Editor: Mahat Tattva Dasa Mahat is a monk and the president of the ISKCON monastic community in San Diego. Layout: Bhismadeva Dasa Bhismadeva has been a monk since 2008 and is currently living in the ashram at the Hare Krishna temple in San Diego.

Cover graphic: Nick Pritchard Visual artist and creative director at Epitaph Records. Metrosea.com Lives in Los Angeles.

“The colorful

greenery of the newly grown grass, the seasonal flowers, the frog's umbrellas, the butterflies, and the other variegatedness of the rainy season perfectly represent a well-to-do family absorbed in vanity over their personal assets.” Srimad Bhagavatam

A rich man displays his opulence in various colorful ways. He has a good residential bungalow with sufficient property and a well-trimmed garden. The bungalow is decorated with up-todate furniture and carpets. There are motorcars with dazzling polish, and a radio set receiving and broadcasting colorful news and melodious songs. All these captivate their proprietor as though he were in a dreamland of his own creation.

reality. They are compared to mirages in the desert. In the desert there is no water, but the foolish deer runs after illusory water in the desert to quench his thirsty heart. Water is not unreal, but the place where we seek it is misleading. The advancement of materialistic civilization is just like a mirage in the desert. The deer runs after water in the desert with full speed, and the illusion of water moves ahead at the same speed as the foolish deer. Water is not false, but we must not seek it in the desert. A living entity, by his past experience, remembers the real happiness of his original, spiritual existence, but since he has forgotten himself he seeks spiritual or permanent happiness in matter, although this is impossible to achieve. �

flowers. Material assets are like seasonal flowers only. Either the flowers wither, or the gardener himself leaves. This is the law of nature. Therefore, if we want permanent life, knowledge, and bliss, we must seek them somewhere else, not in the changeable, temporary rainy season, which is flooded with so many varieties of pleasing sights that vanish when the season ends. Material manifestations of things are but shadowy representations of

When the same man was as dry as fallow land and had none of these opulences, he was plain in behavior, but since obtaining all these material means of enjoyment he has forgotten the principle that everything in the world comes and goes away like the changing seasons. The beautiful Red Fort and the Taj Mahal were built by Shah Jahan, who left the place long ago, and many others have also come and gone in the same place, like seasonal CONTACT: 16rounds@gmail.com www.16ROUNDS.com 1030 Grand Ave. San Diego, CA 92109 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.

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.”

PHOTO CREDITS ©1 flickr.com/rameshng ©2 flickr.com/lintmachine ©3 flickr.com/rrenomeron ©4 flickr.com/horlik ©5 flickr.com/kapungo ©6 flickr.com/gurana ©7 flickr.com/1stpix_diecast_dioramas ©8 flickr.com/14646075@N03 ©9 flickr.com/49580580@N02 ©10 flickr.com/bskolb ©11 flickr.com/samwisegamgee69 ©12 flickr.com/duckducksnap ©13 flickr.com/ammichaels ©14 flickr.com/risus_in_silva ©15 flickr.com/ahnmyrrh ©16 flickr.com/boston_public_library ©17 flickr.com/ludwigsimbajon ©18 flickr.com/windsordi

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SOCIETY

SENSELESS VIOLENCE The Consequence of Illusion? By Benjamin Saikin

All across

HELP!

the world, parents are trying to explain to their children the tragedy that occurred in Colorado. Teachers are holding discussions with their students; Presidents are giving speeches. Everyone, grasping to make sense out of the senseless, to find some meaning, to find some answer, with the hope that in understanding, we can banish the ugly truth that this and other atrocities lay bare. We may call this act senseless, or reckless, or any other word to describe the unnecessary violence that seems to spring from nowhere, and descend into our placid lives from Columbine, from Tucson, from Aurora. We scratch our heads and wonder. We rail. We pontificate. We see for the briefest of moments, that life is indeed temporary, that it can end at any moment. But then we forget; absorbed once more in the frenzy that is our lives. We are aware of this, of course. Our hearts ache to contemplate such events, but we know deep down, that the

memories and thoughts stirred in the wake of such violence will subside, and

EVEN REALIZING OUR COLLECTIVE APATHY IS NOT MUCH OF A REALIZATION. WE KNOW THAT THIS TOO WILL FADE.

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we will lock them away until the next outbreak, only to rouse them and declare with righteousness that something is terribly wrong with our world. But except for those personally affected, none of us will change our lives.

Even realizing our collective apathy is not much of a realization. We know that this too will fade. It will fade because apathy cannot exist in the presence of knowledge; and it is knowledge that we lack. Though violent events jolt us, reminding us that life is indeed sacred, that life is temporary, and life is invaluably precious, we do not live our lives with this knowledge in the forefront. In fact, this knowledge

is banished from the modern world, relegated to the domain of faith; generally forgotten but often derided and misunderstood.

If we think about it, how could such violence not occur in the world we have constructed? We raise billions of animals each year and slaughter them to satisfy the demands of our appetite; thousands of children are denied birth out of inconvenience; young men are sent to war on the order of industry that profits from the bullets that take their lives and the treasure they plunder abroad; children toil in slavery to weave our fabric; generations of minorities live and die in hellish, crime infested ghettos

perpetuated by the invisible hand of economics. Violence is all around us; it permeates our society. Why are we surprised when it erupts in a movie theatre? The greatest violence of all, more fierce than any bullet, and more destructive than the most powerful bomb, is the violence of illusion. This is a subtle violence, to be sure, but nevertheless powerful and destructive. This illusion is borne of fundamental ignorance; it is the legacy of humanity’s collective loss of knowledge. What is the purpose of life? When we do not know the answer to this question, definitively and absolutely, we cannot act properly in this

world. When we act improperly we influence others to act similarly. Since neither party knows what is the purpose of life, they both act contrary to that purpose. In all dealings with one another, we perpetuate an alternate purpose of existence, a false paradigm for living. By dealing with others via this false paradigm, we force them to respond within that same paradigm. All the while, no one has the slightest suspicion that anything is wrong. In this way, the illusion spreads to everyone, everywhere. This illusion is the ultimate violence, because when one is influenced by it, it destroys their ability to act in accordance with life’s true purpose. This is the greatest tragedy of all. What is the true purpose of life? We must first see through the false paradigm before appreciating the answer. What then, is the illusion that fuels modern life, churning the wheels of progress, and inevitably producing violence, both subtle and physical? The illusion is that WE (the living being) ARE THE BODY. This illusion convinces us that our bodies are the be all and end all of our existence. This illusion convinces us that our bodies – which include our senses, our minds, and our intelligence – coalesce into the being we see standing before us in the mirror each morning, and that is all we are. This is not the truth though, and until we see it, we can never escape the perpetual cycle of violence that has infected our society. Nor can we prevent ourselves from acting in ways that perpetuate this illusion in others.

Understanding this notion, it becomes easy to see the underpinnings of our modern world and how the violence described above naturally follows. When we accept that our existence is limited to our physical body we act in very predictable ways: we try to satisfy our senses, our mind, and our intelligence. This quest to satisfy the senses of our bodies

SOCIETY have seen, it inevitably leads to violence. When we do not understand this purpose, all of our actions are misguided, and we reinforce the atmosphere of illusion with everyone we meet.

THOUGH VIOLENT EVENTS JOLT US, REMINDING US THAT LIFE IS INDEED SACRED, THAT LIFE IS TEMPORARY, AND LIFE IS INVALUABLY PRECIOUS, WE DO NOT LIVE OUR LIVES WITH THIS KNOWLEDGE IN THE FOREFRONT. is the root cause of all conflict in this world because we relate to other bodies as means of satisfying the demands of our own. Indeed, we see the entire planet Earth as a factory for fulfilling our desires. Violence – violation – naturally ensues. It cannot be helped so long as this illusion holds sway. This illusion makes us see cows and chickens as palatable dishes for our tongue; makes us see the children of unwanted pregnancy as a hindrance to our pursuit of happiness; it makes politicians see young men as instruments to procure oil, or gold, or spices, or any trinket that Men have fought wars over throughout history – all because our bodies and minds demand them. Our insatiable appetite for affordable shoes and styles and consumer products drives an economic machine that enslaves the poor in the third world, and deprives the poor in the first world the jobs and opportunities required to lift them from poverty. In all of these instances, the demands of one body triumph over the demands

of another. This is conflict. It permeates every aspect of our culture, and all of it, is predicated on the illusion that the living being is nothing more than the body of blood, bone, bile, cells, and synapses. This illusion makes us see everything around us as a means to fulfill our desires. We no longer see each other and our world according to their true value. Why are we surprised when one man’s body demands he shoot up a theatre? He is one man living in illusion, in a society entranced by illusion. Humanity has forgotten the true purpose of existence because we have been blinded by the material body and its never ending series of desires. We destroy the Earth and each other trying to fulfill them, and by acting in this way with others we reinforce the illusion, binding everyone under the same spell. Only when we start to imagine that we might be more than the fragile body, that life is indeed precious and immeasurably valuable, can we begin to remember our real purpose in this world. Cutting through the illu-

sion, consider this version of reality instead: the living entity is an eternal, blissful, fragment of the Supreme Being; an individual part and parcel, eternally bound to God in a relationship of loving service and reciprocation. His body is only a temporary covering - a vehicle, and nothing more. Existence in this material world of atoms and molecules is only necessary because some of these spirit souls – these fragments of God – have willfully chosen to forget Him. Thus, these eternal spirits become trapped in temporary material bodies and illusion covers them. They forget God and blindly attempt to satisfy themselves, until their bodies wear out, and they are forced to accept a new material body to continue their pursuit of happiness separate from God; birth after birth. The purpose of this life is to reawaken that original relationship with the Supreme, and end this cycle of repeated birth and death. The human form of life is especially equipped for this purpose. This is the sum and substance of reality. Everything else is the bodily illusion, and as we

Practically the entire world is living under this spell. Hardly anyone, even the so-called religionists are actually interested in serving the Supreme Person. Instead we put ourselves at the center of existence. All of us are completely enshrouded in the bodily illusion of life. I am this body! I will do what makes me happy. Today I will satisfy this sense. Tomorrow I will satisfy that sense. This is our mentality. Even if we think we are good people and are not inherently selfish. Even when we expand this mentality to include our family, our friends, our community, or our nation, we have still placed ourselves in the center. In an expanded way we are trying to fulfill the bodily desires of some group or another; we do not see how such desires may only be satisfied by exploiting some other body. Even if our desires include every human on Earth, they will still be selfish because they exclude all the living entities not in the human form of life. Thus, those living entities must be exploited to satisfy our desires. This is illusion. This is violence. We cannot expect peace in this world where violence reigns. There are no words to describe the anguish that the victims of this latest massacre are feeling. We all can, and should, sympathize with their grief and show compassion according to our capacity. But collectively, as a society we should not be bewildered when such violence periodically appears in our seemingly safe world. We should not stand around, slack jawed and awestruck when violence shatters the thin veneer of reality we have created for ourselves. Violence exists everywhere in this material world, both physical

HOLY HIGGS! Continued from pg. 7 the difference between a dead body and a living one? Swami's point, which was irrefutable even by these Ivy Leaguers, was that all the physio-chemical arrangements are there in a dead body, but something is missing. Like a car without a key.

The Vedas accurately accounted for the distance between the Earth and the Sun, the age of our universe and of life here on Earth, thousands of years before Western scientists understood that Earth was neither flat nor the center of everything. Despite these and many other advancements that seem ahead of their time in comparison to our knowledge in the West, the culmination of Vedic knowledge and the main focus of the texts is the distinction between matter and spirit. To answer his question, the swami explained to the professors that it is the presence of the soul that differentiates a dead body from a living one. The soul is a permanently existing particle of spiritual energy that always has and always will exist. Furthermore, the soul’s constitutional position is to be happy, though that is not the general experience for the soul in this material reality. Why isn't the soul happy here and how can it be happy? Why would the immortal soul be bound up in a very mortal body? These are the real questions worth asking and answering according to the Vedas and Bhaktivedanta Swami. and subtle. It is the unavoidable byproduct of the selfcentered existence that is forced upon all who accept the material body as the self. This illusion is the legacy of humankind’s collective loss of understanding. This life is not about our own personal enjoyment in the form of

Krauss' first assertion for the importance of the Higgs discovery is that its pursuit was “one of the most remarkable intellectual adventures in human history — one that anyone interested in the progress of knowledge should at least be aware of.”

A few months ago, some neutrinos (another subatomic obscurity) were found to travel faster than light. There isn't a principle more fundamental to the understandings of Krauss and company than 'nothing is faster than light.' Now my mail has still come every day, the sun has still set, the breeze still blown. I'm sure some physicists have had sleepless nights. The rest of us, unaware of the implications such an 'esoteric' discovery carry, have been carrying on as usual. After six anxious months, the findings have been refuted. Maybe next time the physics folks can consult a copy of the Rig Veda before losing their metaphysical marbles - that’s the 7,000 year old book that accurately provides the speed of the cosmos' fastest particle, light, among other things.

By the Vedic standard, discoveries such as the Higg's have no relation to real knowledge and the ultimate goal of life. Any person interested in truly achieving something wonderful will begin to ask and seek the answers to questions posed by the likes of Swami Prabhupada and leave the children to play with their toys. � bodily happiness. Rather, it is a unique opportunity to reawaken our original loving relationship with the Supreme Person. If such tragedies can have any value at all, it is only that they remind us of this reality. �

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SOCIETY

HOLY HIGGS!

The Discovery of God & His Particle By Devin James O’Rourke

“Last

week, physicists around the world were glued to computers at very odd hours (I was at a 1 a.m. physics “party” here with a large projection screen and dozens of colleagues) to watch live as scientists at the Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva announced that they had apparently found one of the most important missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that is nature.” The 'I' speaking is Lawrence M. Krauss, the director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University, and the author of “A Universe From Nothing.” The NY Times ran an editorial on the front page of their website days after the discovery from Krauss about the implications of observing the Higgs Boson. Now I'm no particle physicist, but I'm pretty sure if the Higgs piece was ever miss-

ing, we all wouldn't. Inside the 'Standard Model,' which is the most accurate and comprehensive theory of everything modern science has proposed, the Higgs Boson is the particle responsible for the property of mass within our universe. The best my publicly educated mind can tell, it has never been the case that the Higgs was gone, at least not recently. In fact Mother Nature, as I understand, has been together for four score and quite a many more, despite our best efforts as of late to disembowel her. The Titanic-like hubris laced in Krauss' article evinces why, as modern science advances, modern civilization comes closer to the brink of oblivion, though Krauss and company would certainly like us to feel differently. He entreats us saying, “It is natural for those not

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deeply involved in the halfcentury quest for the Higgs to ask why they should care about this seemingly esoteric discovery. There are three reasons.”

For the purposes of this article, the second will come first... “Second, it makes even more remarkable the precarious accident that allowed our existence to form from nothing — further proof that the universe of our senses is just the tip of a vast, largely hidden cosmic iceberg.” I'd like to ask Mr. Krauss that if one morning he walked down the stairs to his kitchen and found neatly set at his table a steaming bowl of oatmeal, a fresh fruit salad, buttered toast and coffee just the way he likes it in his favorite mug, how Mrs. Krauss would feel if he referred to this happenstance as a 'precarious accident.'

It’s worth noting that the Higgs was not found, rather it wasn't not found. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), an extremely expensive go-kart track for mathematicians with an imagination, is used by men like Krauss to discover and understand sub-atomic particles and their relationships with each other. The LHC generates enough data in 1 second to fill 1,000 1 terabyte hard drives, according to Krauss. As it were, on the 4th of July, it was announced that overwhelming evidence had been recorded, which indicates the apparent existence of the Higgs. The LHC whizzes particles around a magnetically guided track at near the speed of light and smashes them into each other. The Tim Allen-esque ingenuity and ambition of the CERN LHC in Europe compared to other particle accelerators

IF IT'S ALL ACCIDENTAL AND ARBITRARY, WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE WHICH BOSON GOES WHERE, WHEN IT GOES, AND HOW IT GOES? like the one at FERMI Labs in Chicago was that with more power would come more stuff from these collisions, and hopefully the Higgs Boson. The incontrovertible

evidence of the Higgs existence is actually the observation of a bunch of stuff we already knew existed right after atoms were smashed together. A certain combi-

SOCIETY 20 in March those flowers died and 70% of those farmers’ expected yields were also lost. Is there a boson we can manipulate to help those farmers feed their families this year, or a subatomic price regulator that can prevent me from having to pay $8 for a bag of apples in a few months? Modern science is busy putting the cherry on top before the two scoops of vanilla have even made it into the bowl.

MEANWHILE, THE ENTITIES WHO CAN BANKROLL $9 BILLION HOT-WHEELS SETS AND PAY GENIUS' ENOUGH TO USE THEM, HAVE THEIR OWN IDEAS ABOUT WHY THE HIGGS BOSON IS WONDERFUL. nation of other previously known sub-atomic particles has been observed in an arrangement believed to be consistent with what would be the remnants of a Higgs Boson.

So, if we are walking in the woods, and we come across a pile of poop too big to call a human's, but too human to call a bear's, does that mean we've found Big Foot? Admittedly, this observation has passed the 5 Sigma standard of certainty. So, literally, there is a 1 in a million chance that the scientists are wrong. Krauss' assertion that these findings make the accident of our existence more wonderful is at once a refutation of his own assertion that this all just happened to happen. If it’s all accidental and arbitrary, what difference does it make which boson goes where, when it goes, and how it goes? We don't ask lottery winners, “How'd you do it?” Constantly asking Mother Nature how this all works implies we are observing a designed system, which should make sense if there is enough information about it. Reason 3 for why you and yours ought to care about the Higgs: ”the effort to uncover this tiny particle represents the very best of what the process of science can offer to modern civiliza-

tion.” Nine billion dollars, 50 years, the full engagement of thousands of brains like Krauss', each capable of assimilating a library’s worth of knowledge, and the best we can hope for is trivia night fodder from Krauss and his cronies?

Understanding this statement needs some defending. He conjectures, “The apparent discovery of the Higgs may not result in a better toaster or a faster car. But it provides a remarkable celebration of the human mind’s capacity to uncover nature’s secrets, and of the technology we have built to control them.” Forty-six people have died on US soil in the past month from Mother Nature's hot flashes. Speaking of hot, let’s ask the folks living in Colorado how 'control' of nature is going? Their most destructive wild fire of the many that have already made this year the state's most catastrophic in a decade burned through 29 square miles of forest in 3 weeks, incinerated 350 homes and took two human lives before finally being 'contained.' It is hard to use the word 'controlled' in relation to wild fires. How about farmers across the country? When it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit in January their crops flowered. When it went back down to

The Higgs Boson has been anointed by popular media as 'The God Particle.' Though this moniker is shunned by the scientific community like a man out on dinner with his wife would ignore his mistress if she happened by. Scientists live in a cloud of cognitive dissonance, where their work is objective, honest, and devoid of the politics that plague other human endeavors. Meanwhile, the entities who can bankroll $9 Billion Hot-Wheels sets and pay genius' enough to use them, have their own ideas about why the Higgs Boson is wonderful. There is a reason the 'God Particle' name has stuck. Nietzsche said 'God is Dead,' but we can't prove that scientifically for the same reasons we can't use material science to prove He's alive. So Stephen Hawking, the poster boy of theoretical science and cosmology has kindly said, “We don't need God” in order to explain why we're here. This particle and the push for its discover isn't so much a piece in a puzzle, but rather in a marketing campaign. God is a terribly inconvenient institution for modern civilization. In previous ages of our Western culture, those who were in charge did not have the channels of dissemination available to today’s social engineers. Western civilization has always been a negotiation of who gets what. There have always been those who have a lot, and the rest are the 'nots.' In order to ensure that the ‘nots’ of yore bore the yolk day to day, belief, and especially fear, in God was

encouraged. But not just any God, a Judeo-Christian God who insists that you sit down, shut up and do what the feudal Lord says, lest your daily bread be no more. He doesn't like you messing around with the hoochie or the coochie either, as such things hurt productivity.

Without wi-fi on every corner and an 'enabled' device in every pocket, the presence of an omnipotent being was essential for social order. Social order in the Western context means maintaining excessive levels of wealth for a few and the bare minimum required for submission and sustenance for the rest. Karl Marx famously characterized religion as the 'Opiate of the Masses' and certainly it has been used as such in the West. Who needs God when we've got the 'News Feed' or the 'App Store'? These weapons of mass distraction keep

the herd happy and hungry, while antiquated ideas of chastity, purity, and compassion based on a relationship with God increasingly stand in opposition to the feeding frenzy for more stuff.

Man’s relationship with God in the West has only existed to the degree that we weren't able to explain the happenings of nature. The Greek pantheon gave way to a monotheistic understanding of life's origins as science began to explain why the rain falls, the sun rises, and the crops grow without needing to pay homage to a celestial personality. The need for God has been explained away by modern science, with the Catholic Church now accepting that the 'Big Bang' and evolution are factual realities, pushing God to the margins as a 'Something' that 'got the ball rolling.'

There is, however, a different understanding of God, one coming from the text of the Vedas. The Vedas, which means 'knowledge' in the world’s oldest language, Sanskrit, are the Earth’s original texts on spirituality and philosophy. They conclude that the purpose of a relationship with God is not for our daily bread. As the Vedas explain, bread only gets us so far. Eventually the true problems of life, old age, disease and death, will strike regardless if you're eating whole-wheat or white. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the foremost Vedic scholar and exponent of the last 500 years, asked a simple question of scientists at MIT when he was invited to speak with them in Boston, 1968. Why is it that there is no department dedicated to the study of

Cont'd on pg. 5 ›››

HE DOESN'T LIKE YOU MESSING AROUND WITH THE HOOCHIE OR THE COOCHIE EITHER, AS SUCH THINGS HURT PRODUCTIVITY.

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PHILOSOPHY

EVER FRESH Transitory Nature of Existence By Giriraj Gopal Dasa

When you

flip on the radio to an old ‘50s music station, someone like your grandma might dig it, but to you it’s obviously way too outdated. After listening for some time, it all starts to meld together and sound the same. Just a name like “Oldies,” makes you want to flip the station because you need something new, something fresh to inspire your life. You probably would like to hear something that you have not heard repeated in the aisles of a grocery store since you were 3 years old.

WE ALL FIND OURSELVES IN A UNIVERSAL CYCLE OF THREE PHASES: A PHASE OF CREATION, A PHASE OF MAINTENANCE, AND A PHASE OF DESTRUCTION.

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A simple study of cultural history shows us that music, cinema, et cetera, seem to start out as new, fresh, exciting experiences but soon grow to become obsolete, uninteresting novelties. Furthermore, they can even be an annoyance if given enough repetition over a certain amount of time; just as your favorite dish, if eaten exclusively every day, seven days a week, would create a sudden surge of interest in other cuisine. Although many powerful, beautiful,

and wondrous things grab our interest in this world, and they tend to generate within us obsessions, either minute or monstrous, all such infatuations undergo a similar fate. Imagine that your life is just like a piece of bubble gum and that you want to get some happiness out of it. At first it is new and exciting; its color looks like it contains magical flavors. Is it going to taste like strawberry fields, or will it be a nice creamy raspberry flavor? You pop it in your mouth and it tastes incredible. The flavor exudes juice with each bite, and the actual experience of it is much better than you imagined it to be. Twenty minutes later, what is it like? There is little taste left, and you are chewing and chewing, but hardly any more flavor is left. The gum eventually loses its entire flavor and the work of chewing doesn’t seem to make any more rational sense. So, our experience within the cycle of human life is somewhat similar. It starts out fresh, full of hope and optimism for a life of pleasure and happiness. In the begin-

ning there is the pleasure of anticipation for what the future holds. In your prime of youth, the doors to the real pleasures of human life open. You have your ticket and you don’t want to miss out on anything. At this time, you will want to try and experience everything in your wake, tasting the different pleasures of this world.

Over time, like the gum, the juice of life starts to gradually fade out. The body gets old and before you know it, you are already becoming a geezer. The body, which offered such a steady river of pleasure, has dried up. The senses are weakening and disease sets in until the body is virtually incapable of supporting an existence of life. So, the soul eventually has to leave its body and all of its belongings behind. This is the real picture of the nature of this temporarily manifest world. You are a pretty young girl one day, but at a later day you become burned in a car crash. You are a successful music group, every young person alive in the country wants your autograph, but then there comes a day when you are lumped

in with the “oldies” and you become obsolete and no one cares to know you. You are a rich man one day, but later on you become terminally ill and all your money is of no use to save your life. No material situation is ever, at any time, perfect or secure or ideal. Everything has its heyday, and similarly, everything has its demise. That is the just law of the universe.

Why? All of these manifested forms, which we see in the universe, are all composed of finer parts, and all of these parts can be broken down into smaller pieces, such as atoms and even pieces of atoms. What does that mean practically? It means that by the powerful influence of time, all manifested created beings will fade into complete oblivion. For one who decides to derive pleasure from matter, which has orchestrated itself into all the varieties of forms of the universe (such as men, women, plants, animals, stars, oceans, mountains, et cetera), any dream of securing a permanent relationship with them in the universe of mortality must be

PHILOSOPHY ligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. Such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise do not delight in them” (Bhagavad-gita 5.22). ©10

..FURTHER ATTEMPTS TO ENJOY THE SAME CALIBER OF PREVIOUS PLEASURABLE EXPIERENCES PROVES TO BE ANOTHER FAILURE. THIS HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS PITIABLE AS EATERS OF THE ABC (ALREADY BEEN CHEWED) GUM. perpetually met with disappointment.

We all find ourselves in a universal cycle of three phases: a phase of creation, a phase of maintenance, and a phase of destruction. This applies to every tree, every seed, and every embryo. The whole universe has been coded like this and is operating according to this very sophisticated program. The attractive qualities, which are reflected in the body of a beautiful young girl, the flair of new musical talent, the astonishing influence and power of a current politician, or the administrative position of an extremely wealthy business person, are all temporary manifestations of these three phases of matter. No matter how astonishing and great the manifestation appears to be,

they will all eventually come to be dissolved in due course of time. Our greatest human fault is that we are all willing to play the game of life when it involves the pleasures of sex, the comforts of a home, and the luxuries of fine dining and entertainment, but we become sore losers when phase two of the game of life comes, and we are matched up against the formidable foes of old age, disease, and death. What does this tell us about pleasure that is derived from contact of our senses with the temporary objects of this world? It tells us that taking pleasure in any temporary occurrence in nature will be subjected to a beginning and also an inevitable end. Therefore, in the Bhagavad-gita Krishna reminds us that “An intel-

The search for perpetual enjoyment in the material world is akin to believing that a piece of gum will always have flavor. Neither does such a piece of gum exist nor do we find in our material infatuations such a lasting experience of pleasure. As the inevitable end to material pleasure presents itself, further attempts to enjoy the same caliber of previous pleasurable experiences proves to be another failure. This has been described as pitiable as eaters of the ABC (already been chewed) gum.

The source of all of our defects is that we are directing the love of the transcendental spirit towards the temporarily manifest objects of the world, instead of towards the ultimate source of all these manifestations. Thus, the intelligent enlighten soul should come to think like this: why should I continue to work so hard in this material world full of alluring impermanent pleasures, which are destined to perish, which are destined to fade, which are destined to eventually be destroyed? Is

there not something greater, and much more meaningful to pursue?

Such profound philosophical questions have already been recorded as much as 5,000 years ago in the Sanskrit classic, the Srimad Bhagavatam, where the answer comes from a king:

"There is no reason to labor very hard for temporary bodily pleasures, while in the human form of life; such pleasures are available even to filth-eating hogs. Rather, the intelligent should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of selfless loving service to the Absolute Truth. By such activity, one's heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to all material considerations for happiness and which continues forever.” - Srimad Bhagavatam 5.5.1 �

CRUISIN' TO THE OLDIES

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COVER STORY

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COVER STORY

RAWT WITH INTRIGUE The People’s Right to Raw Milk By Matthew McManus

There

is an unspoken sanctity and an inviolable freedom in humankind’s consumption of natural foodstuffs. We have heard the cliché that you are what you eat, but the question of not having the opportunity to choose what we eat, has not, until recently, arose; it was an implicit, in-

alienable right that the citizenry did not have to fight for. There was no ‘middle man’ to designate the distribution of nature’s product to the consumer. Before driving to the supermarket was the norm, one would walk to the fields and gather what Mother Nature had provided, living off the land in the most natural sense. There was never a contention over the bounties provided by

the soil, the planet and the livestock. To consider such things as prohibition, set by the superficial standards of a monopoly was unthinkable and risible - an act of terrorism itself.

Do we now live in times when our independence needs to be so stymied that we are occluded from certain foodstuffs that are healthy for the mind and

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COVER STORY body? Are the masses, bewildered by constant distractions, destined to be perpetually goaded by a small percentage of aristocrats? When does that imaginary and subjective line between protection and freedom cross into abuse of power?

A perennial question, since time immemorial, has been how much power should be invested in the state for the maintenance of the population – checks and balances as safeguards against corruption. When the government does not have the correct consciousness or knowledge of the salubrious and congenial welfare for the people they are elected to serve; certainly chaos, frustration, and discord are spawn. Rather, they,

the people in power, become a burden, another obstacle that the people have to tolerate and carefully avoid like the gangster on the street corner or the panhandler eyeing the tourist’s wallet. Hence, even if the system is intended to prevent the carnal contaminations of its leaders, if the leaders themselves are debased then these safeguards are nugatory; it is simply a sophisticated mob enterprise and no countervailing force is there to uphold the proper rules of conduct.

What is the relevance of this raillery? In today’s socalled ‘free’ market, ‘free’ democracy, and the popular hype of just being a ‘free’, there are ever increasing sanctions for how one is re-

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quired to live and maintain one’s livelihood, and the more recent tidings reflect the stringency: a perpetual effort by national and state authorities to control the consumption of raw and organic foods. One of the main targets is the distribution of raw milk.

MILKING THE FACTS

The main antagonists advocating the ban on raw milk distribution say that between 1993 and 2006, an average of 116 illnesses a year was contracted because of drinking raw milk. However, when this is compared to the total number of people who contact food-borne illnesses every year, roughly about 76 million, is less than 0.000002%. Furthermore,

when looking at the number of illnesses stemming from pasteurized milk, the discriminating mind can find it to be not only much greater, but also lethal. For example, although no one has died from the consumption of raw milk, three people in the state of Massachusetts alone in 2007 died from pasteurized milk. Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation and founder of “A Campaign for Real Milk,” flatly rejects many of the reports linking illness to raw milk, saying that they are highly biased studies and never actually proved causation of raw milk with illness. Furthermore, she contends that raw

milk has not caused death whereas pasteurized milk has certainly been responsible for the death of some people. There are many benefits akin with the consumption of raw milk, despite putatively accepted to be the opposite. Raw milk has all 20 standard amino acids, 8 essential amino acids necessary for building protein, magnesium, over 60 functional enzymes as well as trace minerals, fats, fatty acids, and vitamins A, D, C, and B. In this way raw milk maintains the body very nicely, protects it from disease, and is particularly advantageous for the proper development of growing children.

665 ROSE AVE, LA, CA, IS WHERE THE RAWESOME FOOD STORE USED TO BE LOCATED.

It is indeed a complete food, even used for medicinal purposes. Formerly known as the ‘stem cell’ of foods, doctors in the early 20th century used raw milk from grass-fed cows to cure some serious chronic disorders such as tuberculosis, prostate disease, kidney disease, chronic fatigue, diabetes, and even obesity. Written records delineate that the use of raw milk as a panacea extends back much further; however, to the time periods of Hippocrates and Galen and is considered to be a staple for human civilization no less than 30,000 years ago. (www.drrons. com/raw-milk-historyhealth-benefits-distortions.

COVER STORY htm)

Unfortunately, when milk is pasteurized and homogenized many of these nutritious elements are destroyed for the goal of preventing the milk from souring and possibly containing diseasecarrying germs. However, as a result of pasteurization, up to 50% of the essential nutrients are destroyed, as well as, ironically, causing more potential health problems for the consumer by removing vitamin C and natural enzymes that kill pathogens, and thus making the milk more susceptible for the growth of unhealthy bacteria; in addition, the calcium content becomes insoluble,

leading to maladies such as rickets, nervous troubles, and bad teeth. Twenty percent of the iodine originally present in unadulterated raw milk is also removed, causing constipation. Studies have also shown higher rates of tuberculosis among children who drink pasteurized milk on a regular basis. Homogenization, another human-made process that breaks down butterfat in raw milk, has been shown to be linked with heart disease. Furthermore, if one looks again at the annals of recent human history, one will find that prior to the pasteurization and homogenization of milk in the 1800’s; milk al-

lergies were not an issue for people, but are common today. It is indeed self-evident that chemically changing raw milk causes an abundance of health concerns.

FOOD FIGHT

Underlying the struggle between raw and pasteurized milk are big businesses controlling the dairy industry that have a vested interest in pasteurization. The Center for Disease Control, the Department of Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, the Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Veterinary Medicine

NOW THERE IS JUST A BIG TEMPORARY WALL AND A "NO TRESPASSING" SIGN. THE DOOR IS SECURED WITH A MERE BUNGEE CORD.

Association are in solidarity over banning raw milk, claiming that it is dangerous to consume and denying its salubriousness. However, the bare fact of the matter is that goliath industrial dairy industries, financially threatened over the growing popularity of raw milk, cannot safely produce it and are in cahoots with these national health organizations. The cows that live in these factories are unhealthy because they are forced to eat grains, an unnatural diet for cows, and live in unbearable environments, their bodies mutilated to varying degrees, made to stand in their own manure with no space to graze.

According to David Gumpert, author of The Raw Milk Revolution, regulation is “not about safety – it’s about protecting markets.”

Recent raids on health food stores and farmers selling raw milk have highlighted this domestic war. In 2011, Rawesome Foods in Los Angeles was raided by a swat team in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and the Center for Disease Control. Not only did they raid the store with a fully armed swat team and dump hundreds of gallons of milk and stocks of food, but they disabled security cameras to prevent other infractions from

being recorded. A number of similar raids have been conducted by the Food and Drug Administration since 1983, detailing a lengthy list of picaresque activities.

A SPOILED SYSTEM

From time immemorial in human society there has been a relationship between the supplier and consumer that was based upon, either genuinely or superficially (assuming no sane person would willingly agree to be cheated), mutual exchanges of one thing for another. In bygone times a barter system of one good in exchange for another equally valuCont'd on pg. 15 ›››

LOOKING THROUGH A HOLE IN THE TEMPORARY WALL REVEALS AN EMPTY LOT. NOT EVEN THE STORE'S BUILDING REMAINED.

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PHILOSOPHY

FREEDOM FROM LIMITATIONS Eliminating Your Individuality? By Jessica Robbins

Early on in my search for truth, I explored a few paths—Buddhism, the new age culture, various types of meditations. As a result, what I found was an ever increasing attack on individuality. In other words, to retain one’s sense of individuality makes one less enlightened or less spiritual, if you will. I also discovered the concept of “merging into the oneness” or the “universal consciousness,” which is woven through the fabric of many of these paths. Merging enables one to lose their personhood, and again attain their Godhood. Essentially it is thought that you can become God, in fact, you ARE God, you just have to realize it.

TO BE GOD OR NOT TO BE GOD?

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Here are some common quotes from those who propound the ideology of merging one’s existence to

become God.

“When the One who has realized God says, “I am God. You are God, and we are all one,” and also awakens this feeling of Oneness in his illusion-bound selves, then the question of the lowly and the great, the poor and the rich, the humble and the modest, the good and the bad, simply vanishes.” “There is only one question. And once you know the answer to that question there are no more to ask. . . . Who am I? And to that question there is only one answer—I am God!” Question to the readers: why do you think someone would want to adhere to such a philosophy? I mean, it’s a really popular paradigm and it definitely has some good aspirations. Yes, we want to transcend the physical limitations of the body, and yes, we should desire to transcend the dualities of pain and pleasure,

happiness and distress, success and failure, honor and dishonor. However, I hold contentions that this is achieved by attaining the position of God.

WHEN THE SUN RAY EQUALS THE SUN

Just for starters, if we are all God—then why is there even a NEED for enlightenment, anyways? If I am God, but I have fallen into illusion and only need to remember my Godhood—wouldn’t that make illusion greater than God? How can illusion overpower that who is considered “Supremely powerful”? Srila Prabhupada in Sri Isopanisad enumerates this point:

“Such people, unable to recognize their own foolishness, never consider how it is that God can be entrapped by maya [illusion], His own illusory energy. If God were ever entrapped by maya, maya would be more powerful than God. Such people say that God is all-powerful, but they do not consider that if He is all-powerful there is no possibility of His being overpowered by maya. These self-made ‘Gods’ cannot answer all these questions very clearly; they are simply satisfied becoming ‘God’ themselves.”

Furthermore, where in nature do we ever see the part equal the whole? In essence, such an idea is being proclaimed (i.e. though I am

ALRIGHT GUYS, JUST A FEW MORE AND WE'LL BE ENLIGHTENED

OPEN MIC an individual right now, I am actually God—the complete whole). The sun can be used as an appropriate analogy. When I think of the sun, I automatically think of sunshine. How can the two ever be separated? Although they have the same qualities, heat and light, there is a quantitative difference between them. Here in San Diego, during the summer months especially, it can get pretty hot out in the sun. Yet, standing in the sunshine would not be equated with being on the surface of the sun, would it? In other words, we are the energy of God (the energetic source). We are like a sun ray emanating from the sun globe. We have the same qualities, but we are a fragmental part and parcel.

FEELING COLD?

There was once an encounter between two men during a large gathering of pilgrims in India. Particularly in the month of January, it can get very cold. One man was sitting with two blankets on a cold morning during this large festival. The other man approached, asking for a blanket to keep warm. The blanketed man pulled one large thread and proceeded to hand it over, much to the surprise of the other gentleman who looked at it with bewilderment! Then the blanketed pilgrim said, "What's the funny look on your face for; that is your philosophy isn't it? The part is equal to the whole? So enjoy, keep warm, our blankets are one!" It is my personal realization that such a philosophy of realizing ourselves as God is inconsistent with the way in which we live our lives on a daily basis. Through the vision of Krishna consciousness, or bhakti yoga, it has become apparent that the part can never equal the whole. In fact, being enlightened means to retain your individual existence to serve, on a personal and individual level, the Absolute Truth and all living beings. �

RAWT WITH INTRIGUE Continued from pg. 13 able good was the means of survival and basis of the economy. Similarly, during the contemporary period the value of the currency in exchange for an item of esteemed equal value is used in place of the previous barter system; although, the value of either the currency used or the product purchased has become precarious and increasingly difficult to ascertain.

As the population within a constrained geographical region increases, the system of exchange between the supplier and consumer can also increase in complexity. For example, in the modern day many foods on the market are inspected by different intermediary groups before the consumer is able to purchase it; however, people living in towns with considerably less population density than cities are more apt to buy food directly from the farmer’s market or grow their own. It is a much more personal system that is based on the intimate relationship between the farmer, the land, and the consumer; as opposed to an impersonal relationship between the consumer and the personified corporation. In servicing a large and diverse population there is great pressure upon state and government agencies to set standards and regulations of quality and health. The annals of history reveal that as markets became more impersonal due to increases in population and food manufacturing developed from changes in technology, greater regulations by experts were deemed necessary. Indeed it is pragmatic to have such controls to properly manage the multitudes and discourage cheaters from taking advantage of unwary citizens. Hence, food quality control concerning what foods enter the market, their nutritional properties, and how the

food is produced, handled, shipped, and sold to the consumer are necessary given the circumstances. A balanced approach that uses intelligent discrimination rather than inflexible mandates is necessary to prevent a system, based on idyllic intentions, from becoming tyrannical. Industrial society favors the chemical treatment of milk and other foodstuffs primarily because such inorganic foods are congenial for selling to people on a mass scale. Organic foods, which tend to spoil over a short period, do not have the same marketability. Meanwhile, in the wake of the shift from organic to inorganic as the societal norm, there is propaganda peddled by corporations as well as national and federal institutions that chemically modified food is healthier than organic food in the case of raw milk, even dangerous to consume. If these institutions like the Food and Drug Administration, which are entrusted to protect us, do not provide accurate, unbiased information, then they have plainly failed in their mission to protect and serve the people. Furthermore, if the people choose to opt for organic food, albeit outside the parameters of industry standards but still within health safety standards, and are forced to desist without due reason, then it is self-evident that regulators are ineffective in balancing the needs of the individuals with that of the collective.

COW IS MOTHER

The tainting of the cow’s milk is another symptom of mistreatment towards cows in general. At the present time, cows in the Western world are treated with a singular, univocal paradigm: as objects for sense gratification devoid of any personal quality. Cows are force-fed an unnatural diet, locked

in stygian living conditions, and treated like the meat or piece of leather that they are destined to become in the near future. Indeed, it is a hellish condition made by humans for their touching and tasting sense pleasure. Their justification is ‘for my pleasure’ and the means is by way of torture and blood shed. How does one define a person who is solely dedicated to personal, material attachments and is at the same time without any conscious understanding of other beings’ welfare or a logical and objective moral standard? That is the definition of a criminal and psychopath. Few are aware that in the attempt to manipulate nature for greater happiness, they are in fact blighted with something inferior and increasingly difficult to maintain. According to Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a great spiritual leader and saint, “The cow is the most important animal for developing the human body to perfection. The body can be maintained by any kind of foodstuff, but cow's milk is particularly essential for developing the finer tissues of the human brain so that one can understand the intricacies of transcendental knowledge. A civilized person is expected to live on foodstuffs comprising fruits, vegetables, grains, sugar, and milk. The bull helps in the agricultural process of producing grain, et cetera, and thus in one sense the bull is the father of humankind, whereas the cow is the mother, for she supplies milk to human society. A civilized person is therefore expected to give all protection to the bulls and the cows.” �

HOW MANY WRONGS

Best comments competition from: facebook.com/16rounds Mark Gross: The eye in the sky watching her buy the lie. Paramshreya Phillip T Rabe: One thing is right - the floor is clean and shining. Jayananda Dasa: She's at Target, the store that targets you. Nitai Nimai Dasa: All these products promise everlasting youth and beauty, but if you look at the woman's hands, they are wrinkled, which brings us to the harsh reality of life that no matter how much we may dream on, one day this body will dwindle and fade away. Therefore the whole advertising industry is a big mistake as it focuses on the illusion and not the reality. Sanatana Goswami Dasa: Promotion of bodily-consciousness. "I am the body. Body is beautiful. I am beautiful." The soul does not require any assistance in its beauty. Just a good cleans from all the selfish, egotistic trash we harbour.

Randy Meier: A person has some need to cleanse and take care of the body which could be done simply and easily. But the displays create an unnecessary sense of dissatisfaction with the customer’s appearance.

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LIFESTYLE

BECOMING FREE FROM SEX DESIRE Promise(cuity) of Illusion Most people will probably not want to read this article. This article is not for those who are materially inclined, but for those who should realize what is necessary if they want to make serious spiritual advancement. By Stephen Knapp

The

greatest happiness for the soul starts with complete freedom: freedom

from misery, unhappiness, suffering, freedom from the dictates of desires, and, ultimately, freedom from being trapped in a material body. Keeping us ensnared in such

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a condition are the desires for sensual and mental pleasures. Indeed, the hardest freedom to attain is freedom from sex desire. Yoga is meant for attaining

this kind of complete freedom. However, this means freedom from material desires of all kinds. If you are still entrapped by the idea of needing your sensual, emotional, or mental desires fulfilled, then you are far from being free mentally, intellectually, and certainly spiritually. In other words, if you still have desires for the pursuit of sensual or mental pleasures and happiness, then you are still a servant of your mind and senses. You are still a slave to the dictates of your mental and sensual impulses. You are still bound by the golden chains of the temporary illusion of chasing after sense pleasure. They may be golden chains, but they are chains nonetheless. So how is freedom achieved? How are you ever going to attain complete spiritual freedom with such desires creeping up and trying to tell you what you should do?

It is one thing to have your mind on the loose, giving you all kinds of weird ideas and desires for happiness; it is another thing to be controlled by them and act them out. Sometimes the mind just goes crazy, but the intelligence knows better than to pursue such desires or ideas. This is called controlling the lower self by the higher self. Although it is not real freedom, it is nonetheless far from being a complete slave under the command of the mind and senses. Arguably the hardest desire to be free from is

the desire for sex. Complete spiritual freedom includes freedom from sexual desire.

Let me say before we go any further, most people will probably not want to read this article. This article is not for those who are materially inclined, but for those who should realize what is necessary if they want to make serious spiritual advancement. Those who are looking for relief, there is a way out of illusion. Suffering exists only within the illusion. There is only happiness and bliss in the reality. The doorway to that realm has been given. It is only up to us to follow the path, and that path is merely a matter of adjusting our consciousness, freeing ourselves of the very attachments that keep us bound to this world. That attachment is epitomized by our attraction to sex. Once that is overcome, all else on our path to spiritual progress, which evolves around developing love of God, will flow much more easily. Anyone who is serious about rising above the temporary attractions of the flesh may consider keeping this article to review later to regain clarity whenever their vision becomes dark or cloudy. So for those who are serious, let us proceed. Let’s face it, most people in this world are interested mainly in the joys of eating, sleeping, defending or keeping what is theirs, and, of course, mating. Sex life is quite high on most people’s list of objectives or goals. Even those who con-

sider themselves spiritually oriented still find that sex should be included in one’s life. Why not? What’s wrong with it? Isn’t that what we are made for? How else are we going to have families and raise children? For anyone who wants worldly happiness, sex or sexual companionship can hardly be ignored. After all, this is one of the main objectives in life. But over the longterm, we should not neglect the spiritual purpose of our existence. The more one focuses on sex life, the more one remains on the bodily conception of life, which is quite to the contrary of being spiritual.

The more you are in the bodily conception, the more important comforts and bodily pleasures will be to you. On the other hand, the more spiritual you become, the more you can live without the dictates of the mind and senses, and the freer and more indifferent you will be to them. Therefore, the more interested you are in sex, the less spiritual you are.

Real happiness means freedom and real freedom is freedom from desire. Most people think that attaining one’s goals is the means to attain happiness. We can certainly see that characteristic in sports, for example, wherein the winner relishes the victory or conquest over others. It may seem like a great state of mind until the next challenge comes along, which may bring another victory or loss. For the loser, we have all seen the bitterness of defeat. The duality of winning and losing is also there with sex. Some people may want to have sex simply because they are lusty and they want the release. Others think that it’s the way to find love a deep communication with another being with the hope that it is a mutually satisfying experience. Sometimes it works out that way and many times it does not, as can be seen from high divorce rates and extra-mari-

LIFESTYLE tal affairs. If one engages in extra affairs while married, it usually means the other person in the marriage is left with disappointment, devastation, and divorce when the affair becomes apparent.

What is the cause of this discontent? We have to understand that sex is the greatest of all frauds. Nature promises us a wonderful event, the height of joy, yet through such an act she also robs us of our powers, both physical and mental, and when we believe we have reached the limits of fulfillment, we fall lower than ever before. We lose a tremendous amount of energy through this process of trying for sexual fulfillment. An old Latin proverb mentions that both humans and animals feel depressed after physical union. After all, what is left of sex pleasure in the morning? Great fatigue. This will repeat itself so many times. It is merely a continuous struggle for unattainable unison. The power of attraction brought two beings together in search of each other and this force is later appeased through the act of sex, which may provide a release, like scratching an itch; all that remains is emptiness and loneliness. Sex can satisfy only the body and even that is most temporary, and never pleases the soul. Those who do think the soul is involved remain in the depths of illusion. People who live only for sex, live in continued unrest and dissatisfaction. They are never fully happy, and the gratification they feel from sex never lasts for long. The problem is that, as it is explained, unrestricted sex is objectively wrongful. “One’s duration of life, blessings, opulence, etc., are all decreased by such sexual acts” (Bhagavatam 3.12.33 purport). In this way, unrestricted sex is dangerous because it is difficult to give up, and keeps one on the bodily platform practically more than any other attachment. Most other material attractions can usually be given up or

outgrown, but the fascination for sex can hinder and remain with a person for many lifetimes. Thus, one cannot become free from the continuous rounds of birth and death, which is an elementary goal for anyone who is truly spiritually motivated.

Furthermore, the desire for sex identifies oneself as a man or a woman that needs a partner to feel fulfilled. The self has no desire for sex, and is without sex. Therefore, the desire and act of sex is all an illusion because it has no relevance to reality, which is in connection with the soul. The self is a complete whole, not half of something seeking its complimentary half. The whole idea of seeking one’s better half or soul mate is but another materialistic conception to justify an illusion.

Union in spirit is possible, but union of the body is not. Two individual bodies cannot occupy the same space. Due to the longing for unity and for expressing care and love, people try to unite their bodies, and “touch each other’s heart” as the saying goes, and therefore slide down into sexuality. Nature exploits this longing for union, the yearning for the long lost paradisiacal state of belonging, in order to beget new generations of people. Therefore, this yearning manifests in the material act of sex in order to maintain the process of procreation of the species, human or otherwise. The great disappointment is that sexuality cannot create real union, and thus, the soul remains unsatisfied. Therefore, we see people, regardless of how much sex or how many lovers they may have, who remain feeling empty, incomplete, unfulfilled. The higher, spiritual love is on a completely different plane than the lower "love" of the animal plane, which is a manifestation of animal instincts, and is the urge nature uses to propagate the species. Such love is a desire for gratification, possession,

and always seeks the body of another. It forces a person to come close to the loved one, and embrace, kiss, hug, or possess, which is simply lust that forces one to be more focused on the material platform of life. Thus, as one caters to this desire, one becomes increasingly bound to the worldly existence.

Whoever is subject to this kind of love is still living in a mental state of separation, and is trying to find a complimentary physical partner in order to find satisfaction. This love always seeks to take, to have, to possess. Spiritual love does not come from the condition of division - or to have, to hold, or own - but from divine unity. Such spiritual love is always giving, never taking, and needs no physical manifestation or expression, but always radiates from the consciousness of divine all-unity. People who are conscious on this plane do not want to possess anyone; they feel themselves an integral part of the Infinite All, the Supreme Being. That is our real goal. They do not burn with desire, but only shine with the love reflected from the Supreme. Spiritual love leads to real wholeness and unity, real bliss and happiness, and satisfaction with one’s self. As Srila Prabhupada said, “Although in Vaikuntha women are thousands of times more beautiful and men are thousands of times stronger, there is still no sex desire present. They are so much absorbed in Krishna consciousness that sex life is very insignificant.” �

MILK POWER Bhakti Myth and Folklore?

By Devamrita Swami

Krishna culture

glorifies milk. Should that praise extend to industrialized milk—the processed and tampered product most people buy? And what about "blood milk"—cruelly wrenched from cows condemned to become hamburgers and steaks? In the Bhaktivedanta commentaries, milk receives glowing commendation. We hear that milk is a miracle food that builds "fine tissues" in the brain—higher brain cells, the sacred texts say, necessary for comprehending subtle spiritual truths. What do you think? Is it a well-intentioned yet timeworn exaggeration from the bhakti camp? Or maybe it is a Hindu myth affecting our spiritual teachers? Check out this latest news:

According to a new study by researchers from the University of South Australia and University of Maine (USA), adults who consume dairy products at least once daily have higher cognitive function than those who rarely or never drink milk or eat dairy foods. Those who consumed the most dairy

products had the highest scores in an extensive cognitive test battery that included multiple measures of visual-spatial ability, verbal memory, working memory, reasoning ability, and executive functioning (the ability to plan, organize, and integrate cognitive functions).

As for those who seldom or never consumed dairy, it turns out they performed lower than average for this study population.

"What will it be today? We have Coca-cola, Pepsi, and 7-Up." Milk consumption, the researchers note, has decreased worldwide in recent years. For example, in the United States, the decline has coincided with a dramatic increase in soft drink consumption. How can one indeed drink milk without becoming implicated in the horrors of mass cow killing? I would say we cannot turn a blind eye either to the corrupted version of milk most people buy or to the atrocities befalling the cows, calves, and bulls of a slaughterhouse civilization.

It's tough to avoid milk, and it's tough to swallow the consequences of long-term living on violent milk. �

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LIFESTYLE

LIVING RIGHT FOR THE SEASON Stay Cool This Summer By Sara Bock

Ayurvedic diet is always a balancing act. It involves choosing foods that keep the elements of the body in balance. In summertime, Pitta (fire and water elements) is aggravated, so

we need to eat cooling foods to counteract the heating qualities of Pitta. Pitta is hot, sharp, oily and light. Eating foods with opposite qualities will help keep us in balance this summer season . Some foods that can keep you cool in the summer are:

Sweet fruits: Watermelon, mango, berries, peaches, plums, grapes, and coconut

Herbs and Spices: Fresh mint, licorice, fennel, coriander, saffron, and rose Veggies: Bitter greens like kale, asparagus and cilantro. Summer squash is also cooling.

Other: Aloe vera is cooling, as is cucumber (yes, the saying cool as a cucumber has truth to it!) Basmati rice eaten with mung beans and leafy green vegetables is a simple, healthy, and cooling summer meal.

Avoid or reduce spicy, acidic, extra salty and greasy foods during summer, as they will increase heat in your body. Other heating foods to reduce consumption of in the summer are sour fruits and tomatoes. Drinking ample water is essential to keep your body cool and hydrated in the summertime. Caffeine and carbonated drinks can increase dehydration, so reach for the water instead! Coco-

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nut water is another beneficial and hydrating drink. You can also stay cool in the summer by practicing mild forms of exercise such as swimming or gentle yoga. Hot yoga is best saved for another season. Moon salutations are more cooling than sun salutations. As pitta can accumulate in the eyes, practice gentle eye exercises such as pretending to look around a clock – gaze up at 12 o clock, and move the eyes slowly in a circle pausing to look at each imaginary number on the clock. You can also alternate looking up and down, side to side, and diagonally with both eyes.

Pitta can also accumulate in the liver and small intestine. Forward bends and twists are helpful yoga poses to balance the pitta in these areas. If you must participate in high intensity outdoor aerobic sports this summer, try to do so in the morning or evening rather than in the middle of the day when the sun is strongest. In general, if you are already

prone to high pitta, and/or have pale skin, freckles, and moles, staying out of the sun between noon and three pm in the summer is wisest to reduce risk of premature aging of the skin and skin cancer. Taking walks under the light of the moon is a better option for summer, as the moonlight is cooling to our bodies and minds. Or walk barefoot on the grass, or in shaded forests (but don’t step on any bees!) If you have heat based summer insomnia, try rub-

bing coconut oil onto the soles of your feet and scalp to calm the mind and help you sleep better (wear socks and a hat while you sleep to prevent the oil from staining your sheets). Coconut oil is also a wonderful conditioner to promote beautiful and healthy hair. Additionally, you can add a few drops of cooling lavender or sandalwood oil to your pillow for cool and restful summer sleep. Try to take rest before 11 PM since pitta peaks between 10 PM

– 2 AM. Besides promoting restful sleep, coconut oil can be massaged into your skin each morning before you shower to keep you cool this summer. Leave it on for about twenty minutes before rinsing it off with cool or lukewarm water.

Loose, cotton clothing can also help the body stay cool under the heat of the summer sun. Cooling colors to wear are whites, greens, and blues, as they reflect the heat, as opposed to oranges, reds, and yellows which can make us even warmer. Thin, long sleeved options are better for those prone to sun burns, otherwise

be wise and put on ample sunblock before stepping outdoors. Our habits today will be visible in our state of health years into the future. If you do get sunburned, apply fresh aloe vera gel onto the burn to help the skin heal.

Pitta aggravated emotions include criticism, anger, and irritation. One trick to reduce these feelings when you get heated, is to dip your finger into a little bit of ghee (clarified butter), and apply a small amount inside or on the tip of your nostrils. Inhale gently. The ghee will send a calming message to the brain. As for summer pranaya-

ma (breathing exercises), try cooling shitali. Roll your tongue (if you are able), and inhale air through the tongue, and then exhale through the nose. You will feel cool air coming into your mouth instantly. Try 10-15 rounds each morning or whenever you feel heated or thirsty. If you cannot roll your tongue, clench your teeth instead, smile, and breathe cooling air into the mouth in this way. Another cooling meditation to try, is visualize a cool, beautiful place such as a forest or lake. Practice as many of the above tips for a summer lifestyle as you can to stay cool, and balanced in the heat. �

SUMMER AYURVEDIC

DRINK RECIPES:

LIMEADE WITH ROSE WATER: SERVES 8

6 CUPS WATER (SPRING OR PURIFIED) 4 TBSP ROSE WATER (BEST ORGANIC) 2 TBSP ORGANIC MAPLE SYRUP (OR AGAVE OR OTHER SWEETENER OF YOUR CHOICE)

MINT TULIP DRINK: 10 FRESH MINT LEAVESW

1 TBSP ORANGE JUICE

1.5 CUPS CHOPPED AND PITTED DATES 1 CUP PINEAPPLE JUICE 1/2 CUP COCONUT PIECES JUICE FROM 1/2 LEMON

(FRESHLY SQUEEZED IF POSSIBLE)

3 CUPS WATER

1 TBSP RAISINS