June 2009
Monthly Archive
June 15, 2009
As per a reader’s request here is a cat picture.
His name is James and he was missing Vidya this weekend because she was gone to the Pennsylvania Gourd Show near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I don’t dislike cats but I don’t give them any affection so when Vidya is gone they miss her.
Marken and his girlfriend Elizabeth went along with her to help with sales, setup and tear down, and so she would have time to go around and see the show and buy more gourds. His Navy logistics training came in handy because when it came time to pack the van he didn’t have to put any of the cargo bags on the roof, even though she bought more gourds then she sold.
They stayed in an Amish bed and breakfast. Although it had electricity and air conditioning — the English being the customers — there was no TV and, putting it out of the comfort zone of most ISKCON devotees, no internet.
Marken wanted to watch the Stanley Cup final game (Go Pens!) so they had to go out and find a sports bar to watch it.
One option while staying there was to get up at 5 AM and milk cows by hand. A guest from New Jersey did it and Vidya said when he came in for breakfast he looked pretty beat.
The breakfast was baked oatmeal, hand sliced whole wheat bread fresh from the oven, and fruit. There was dry cereal but who would want that? There were also omelets for the other guests but being vegetarian our crew had no use for that.
She did better than expected for a small show. The show was on an Amish guy’s farm so it only ran Friday and Saturday, as they are quite strict about honoring the Sabbath, one of those commandments most Christians skip over anymore, or only loosely follow.
We know Eli, the host whose farm the show was on, from the Ohio Gourd Show and have purchased gourds from him and another Amish guy, Henry, who lives close by. Friday night Vidya went over to Henry’s and picked up gourds she had ordered previously.
As the show was closing, Eli came and took all the painted birdhouses that Vidya had left. He is going to sell them in an Amish run gift shop. He is going to pay for them with gourds. He will deliver them to our house as he passes by on the way to the Ohio Gourd Show next September.
Amish don’t own vehicles or drive themselves but they hire English for business trips.
Anyway, she is home and the cats are purring again while her birdhouses are still out working to get sold.
June 14, 2009
June 13, 2009
June 9, 2009
I am busy, very busy and tired, very tired, which is why I am not giving more detail about what is going on in my garden which is both exciting and frustrating with successes and failures.
We had some dry weather leading up to Memorial Day so I made a push to get some ground worked up. I used adrenaline to drive myself for 4 straight days. Of course, I still didn’t get up to full time work, but was having some 8 hour days, fairly physical.
I worked hard Memorial day morning up to 2 in the afternoon then went to a cookout and consumed about 10,000 calories and sat up for the rest of the day.
For the next two days I couldn’t get off the couch, had to lay down the whole time which was a reminder to myself why I pace myself normally and don’t push, because if I do push hard I end up too wasted to do anything and it all averages out anyway.
I usually spend a few hours on the couch in the afternoon, one reason for which is if I don’t my ankles swell up, even if I just sit up all day, I need the feet up time. Now I have realization that I also need the rest.
The third day I was able to sit up but it was the fourth before I was able to go out again.
I also had my monthly blood work results come back showing all 3 liver enzyme results as being high, the first time that has happened since my liver transplant 3 years ago. I don’t know if that is a cause for my seemingly increased fatigue or if the overexertion was the cause of the high enzymes.
I may have hit my peak and now be on the downside of energy levels again. I had been feeling better this spring than since 2004, hopefully I can get back up to at least that level.
Anyway, I keep picking away at the garden using all the available energy I do have and am not too far behind. So the busy is relative to energy, not time. Hopefully I can provide more details on the garden later.
June 8, 2009
Posted by Madhava Gosh under
Jokes Leave a Comment
In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University.
On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.. He got down on one knee, inspected the elephants foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.
The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teen aged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing, and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing killing him instantly.
Probably wasn’t the same elephant.
June 7, 2009
Posted by Madhava Gosh under
Cows and Environment Comments Off
From ISKCON News by Hare Krishna dd
“In my last birth I was born in the family of cowherd men, and I gave protection to the calves and cows. Because of such pious activities, I have now become the son of a brahmana.” – Lord Chaitanya (Chaitanya-charitamrta, Adi Lila 7.111)
Throughout history many traditional societies have centered on a particular animal, and the relations the people develop with that animal influence the values of the whole society. We think of the role of buffalo in shaping the lives and values of the Native Americans of the Plains. Similarly, we think of the Laplanders and their reindeer, or even the New England whaling villagers and the whales.
In each case, without a particular animal the culture of the people would be entirely different. Because of relations to that animal, whether by shooting, herding, or sailing after it, the society encourages attributes such as toughness, bravery, gentleness, or respect for nature.
Vedic culture centers on the cow. In fact, without cows there can be no true Vedic culture. Veda means “knowledge” – in the highest sense, spiritual knowledge. And as Srila Prabhupada explains, cow protection and brahminical culture are “the two pillars of spiritual advancement.” (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.17.20)
Now, it is easy for even an outsider to understand why brahminical culture is considered indispensable for spiritual advancement. After all, brahmanas are the disseminators of spiritual knowledge and the exemplary maintainers of spiritual standards, just like the priestly class in any society.
But what about cows? What do cows have to do with spiritual advancement? And why cows? Why not sheep or goats or horses?
In his purport to Lord Chaitanya’s statement above, Srila Prabhupada gives us the clue. “The words of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the greatest authority, herein clearly indicate that one becomes pious simply by keeping cows and protecting them.” How can that be? One reason is that cows are emblems of the mode of goodness.
In Vedic teachings different animals are associated with different material qualities. For example, monkeys, because of their extraordinary sex drive, belong to the mode of ignorance. Lions are said to be in the mode of passion, and cows in the mode of goodness. When humans ally themselves with an animal in the mode of goodness, they themselves gradually rise to goodness, which is favourable to spiritual advancement.
In the opening quote of this article, Lord Chaitanya was teasing an astrologer who had determined that the Lord, in His past life, had appeared as an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. To have some fun with the astrologer, Lord Chaitanya ostensibly denied that He was the Supreme Lord, saying that in His past life He had been merely a cowherd boy, and that only by His pious activities had He now become a brahmana…
Read full article here
June 5, 2009
Posted by Madhava Gosh under
Poetry [5] Comments
Feel when I dance with you,
We move like the sea.
You, you’re all I want to know.
I feel free, I feel free, I feel free.
I can walk down the street, there’s no one there
Though the pavements are one huge crowd.
I can drive down the road; my eyes don’t see,
Though my mind wants to cry out loud.
I feel free, I feel free, I feel free.
I can walk down the street, there’s no one there
Though the pavements are one huge crowd.
I can drive down the road; my eyes don’t see,
Though my mind wants to cry out loud,
Though my mind wants to cry out loud.
Dance floor is like the sea,
Ceiling is the sky.
You’re the sun and as you shine on me,
I feel free, I feel free, I feel free.
(See “I Feel Free” video here)
June 4, 2009
Posted by Madhava Gosh under
Thomas Merton [4] Comments
“But we have encumbered our civilization in such a way that we have lost all simple living thing. We have manufactured in so many ways encumbered ways of life. Therefore we have neglected spiritual life. And because we have neglected spiritual life there is no peace.
“If you want really peaceful life, then you have to make your material necessities simplified and engage your time for spiritual cultivation. Then you will have peace. And that is the best type of civilization. Plain living, high thinking. “
Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.3 — Boston, May 4, 1968
“This will give us some idea of the proper preparation that the contemplative life requires. A life that is quiet, lived in the country, in touch with the rhythm of nature and the seasons. A life in which there is manual work, the exercise of arts and skills, not in a spirit of dilettantism, but with genuine reference to the needs of one’s existence. The cultivation of the land, the care of farm animals, gardening.
“A broad and serious literary culture, music, art, again not in the spirit of Time and Life-(a chatty introduction to Titian, Prexiteles, and Jackson Pollock)-but a genuine and creative appreciation of the way poems, pictures, etc., are made.
“A life in which there is such a thing as serious conversation, and little or no TV. These things are mentioned not with the insistence that only life in the country can prepare a [person] for contemplation, but to show the type of exercise that is needed.”
Thomas Merton. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. William H. Shannon,
editor (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003): 131.
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