A priest and a nun are on their way back home from a trip when their car breaks down. They are unable to get it fixed, so they decide to spend the night in a hotel. The only hotel in the town has only one room available.

Priest: Sister, I don’t think the Lord would have a problem, under the circumstances, if we spent the night together in this one room. I’ll sleep on the lounge and you have the bed.

Nun: I think that would be okay.

They prepare for bed and each one takes their agreed place in the room. Ten minutes later…

Nun: Father, I’m terribly cold.

Priest: Okay, I’ll get you a blanket. (He does)

Ten minutes later…

Nun: Father, I’m still terribly cold.

Priest: Okay Sister, I’ll get you another blanket. (He does)

Ten minutes later…

Nun: Father, I’m still terribly cold. I don’t think the Lord would mind if we acted as man and wife just for this one night.

Priest: You’re probably right…get up and get your own blanket.

“Sometimes a university student or professor tries to study these transcendental literary works and attempts to put forth a critical analysis from the mundane view, with an end to receiving degrees like a Ph.D. Such realization is certainly different from that of Ramananda Raya. If one actually wants to take a Ph.D. degree from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and be approved by Ramananda Raya, he must first become free from all material designations (sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam). A person who identifies with his material body cannot understand these talks between Sri Ramananda Raya and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

“Man-made religious scriptures and transcendental philosophical talks are quite different. Indeed, there is a gulf of difference between the two. This subject matter has been very diligently described by Sriman Madhvacarya. Since material philosophers are situated in the material conception of life, they are unable to realize the spiritual prema-vilasa-vivarta. They cannot accommodate an elephant upon a dish. Similarly, mundane speculators cannot capture the spiritual elephant within their limited conception. It is just like a frog’s trying to measure the Atlantic Ocean by imagining it so many times larger than his well.”

Madhya 8.193

“Contradictions have always existed in the soul of [individuals]. But it is only
when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.”

Thomas Merton. Thoughts in Solitude(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1956): 80-81.

“There comes a time when it is no longer important to prove one’s point, but simply to live, to surrender to God and to love.”

Thomas Merton. The Road to Joy, Robert E. Daggy, editor (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1989): 96.

Last spring we had a visit from  Ohio University students working on a project. Tulasi was visiting so they interviewed him, as well as interviewing Manjari by telephone.

visiting students

Several other groups of students also visited and interviewed various devotees. It was for the The Pluralism Project which you can see here.

The First New Vrindaban Family

Amy Busch, Erin Parker, Steve Zeisler

Pulling into the driveway, our devotees’ house looked like a typical West Virginia home. They have a quaint, white, ranch style house with carefully tended gardens and the Norwegian flag proudly hanging on the side of the house. However, this family is slightly different than other West Virginians. This family grew up in New Vrindaban in the Hare Krishna movement. The members are Vidya Devi Dasi (the mother and wife), Madhava Gosh das (the father and husband), Manjari (the oldest daughter), and Tulasi (the youngest son). Their family story is an interesting one, their personal ideas for the future, diverse, but all remain linked with an experienced vision for future families at New Vrindaban.

Vidya Devi Dasi’s Vision

Vidya Devi Dasi was raised on a family farm, but at a young age she adamantly remembers her disdain for “eating anything with a face.” She became intrigued in the Hare Krishna movement while attending college in Madison, Wisconsin. She eventually moved to New Vrindaban in 1972 in search of an open-minded vegetarian community, only later to embrace the Hare Krishna philosophy. As a young woman in the community, she was coerced by more powerful devotees into an arranged marriage…

Read the rest of the interview here starting on page 14 http://www.pluralism.org/affiliates/emery/Emery2009.pdf

I realize I am not posting much but I am busy in the garden and on some other projects and something had to give, the blogging in this instance.

When I was younger the limit on what I could accomplish was time. Now that I am prematurely suffering from old age due to my medical condition, time is there but energy to fill the time is lacking.  I alternate between being very busy and being very tired.

I am actually feeling better than I have in five years but the problem is as soon as I have some energy I start taking on more projects and expanding the range of what I feel I can accomplish so I remain not only behind as usual but actually more behind because I have taken on more.

We are in latter part of fall and soon outdoor projects will fade from my list so hopefully I will get back to writing more.

Your eyes
anoint my eyes
with tears of recognition

Your eyes
illuminate my horizon
a dawn in a darkened world

Your eyes
suffuse my soul
in stillness

Please
don’t close Your eyes
allow me to gaze into them
for an eon

I am a beggar
I possess nothing in this world
but this desire
to rush to the temple
to see
Your eyes

From an email I received:

Ranchor Prabhu (ACBSP) has written and published a new book.

The following articles do not give proper weight to the importance of the book or say much about it.

The 134-page book contains an additional 32 pages of professional color photographs of the cows and devotees at Bhaktivedanta Manor and b-&-w photos, original drawings by Ranchor, and graphs and tables.

Patrick Holden, Director of the Soil Association, wrote the Foreword.

Chrissie Hynde backs dairy project

See a photo of Chrissie Hynde posing with oxen here.

The Pretenders singer has written the preface to Ranchor Prime’s book, called Cows And The Earth – A Story Of Kinder Dairy Farming, which hits out at cows being used as “milk machines”.

Chrissie Hynde penned the preface to Ranchor Prime’s book Chrissie Hynde has given her backing to a book celebrating the rise of a “cruelty free” dairy farm, a real-life experiment set up after George Harrison donated a manor house and 20 acres to a community.

Chrissie – who has said the book tells the story “behind the ancient tradition of cow protection, and argues for its place in the 21st century environmental movement”, adding that “no ecological argument can be complete without it” – attended the launch at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

In 1973 Beatle Harrison donated a Hertfordshire manor house and 20 acres of land to a young community of Krishna people, who bought a cow. Nearly 40 years later, Bhaktivedanta Manor houses 50 cows and oxen in low-tech English oak farm buildings.

The farm is run according to Hindu principles and no animal has ever been killed there. The calves suckle from their mothers, cows are milked by hand and bulls plough the land and 35,000 litres of “cruelty free” milk are produced every year from the farm.

The book is being released in hardback and softcover on October 28.

Spiritual press Fitzrovia launches

28.10.09 Catherine Neilan

A new press, publishing spiritual books aimed at the Hindu community and mainstream readers, launched today (28th October).

Fitzrovia Press will publish both fiction and non-fiction, and launches with Cows And The Earth: A Story of Kinder Dairy Farming by press founder Ranchor Prime.

As part of the publicity around the new book, Prime held a press call with singer and animal rights activist Chrissie Hynde, bringing two oxen from Bhaktivedanta Manor – donated to a Hindu community by former Beatles George Harrison – into central London. Hynde, who has written a foreword for the book, discussed why milk is cheaper then water and called for an end to cruelty to cows.

Note to readers: If anyone decides to buy this book,  please click on the image of the Bhagavad Gita in my sidebar first and then search it from there. Anytime anyone buys anything from Amazon if you go that route I get a small commission that comes out of their marketing budget and doesn’t affect your pricing.

It is a little pricey for my budget if anyone wants to buy me a copy feel free to ask for my mailing address. :-)

autumn maple

Source

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. is adding its support for the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions (NAT GAS) Act recently introduced in Congress. The federal legislation is aimed at increasing the use of natural gas-fueled vehicles.

Andrew J. Littlefair, Clean Energy president and CEO, said the federal government’s support through this legislation can have an impact on how Americans manage their energy resources and reduce their dependence on imported oil. The Seal Beach, California-based company owns and operates two LNG production plants with a combined capacity of 260,000 LNG gallons per day, and an expansion capability up to 340,000 LNG gallons per day.

NAT GAS, or HR 1835, introduced by Congressmen Dan Boren, John Larsen and John Sullivan, promotes the use of natural gas-fueled vehicles and increases the alternative fuel tax credits for natural gas used as a vehicle fuel, for the purchase of natural gas-fueled vehicles, and for the installation of natural gas vehicle refueling properties.

The bi-partisan-sponsored legislation would also encourage original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to produce dedicated natural gas and bi-fuel natural gas vehicles, and require federal government use of natural gas vehicles in a portion of its fleets.

Some companies are adding natural-gas powered vehicles. AT&T recently announced plans to add 8,000 natural gas vehicles. Wal-Mart is testing liquid natural gas-powered big rigs.

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