October 31, 2009
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
October 30, 2009
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. :-)
October 24, 2009
October 23, 2009
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.
October 22, 2009
An elderly woman had just returned to her home from an evening of religious service when she was startled by an intruder. As she caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables, she yelled, “Stop! Acts 2:38!” [Turn from your sin]
The burglar stopped dead in his tracks. Then the woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done.
As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar,”Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a scripture at you.”
“Scripture?” replied the burglar, “She said she had an axe and two 38s!”
October 21, 2009
“Among the Daitya demons I am the devoted Prahlada, among subduers I am time, among beasts I am the lion, and among birds I am Garuda.”
Bhagavad Gits 10.30
I had come to the conclusion that I couldn’t put black walnuts under car tires unless I was going to be there to pick up the nuts immediately. 2-3 days went by and Gopish was here getting ready to leave so I rushed out ahead of him to put some nuts under his tires before he could put his boots on and get to his car.
I found myself staring at empty 5 gallon buckets. I had gone out into the woods and gathered 12 gallons (45 liters) of black walnuts. I had hulled about 7 gallons before I realized I was being robbed of the hulled nuts almost immediately by squirrel(s). Now they had escalated.
I hadn’t looked at the buckets for 2-3 days but the last time I had seen them there was still 5 gallons of unhulled nuts in them. Now every last one was gone. A chipmunk was also spotted near the buckets. It may be a whole party going on with every squirrel bringing all his cousins for the easy pickings.
All this was putting a damper on my enthusiasm for harvesting black walnuts. I have quite a few put by but I can eat 3 or 4 a day so over a year that is a 1000 or more and I know I don’t have that many.
That coupled with being swamped with some other projects I am trying to accomplish, and my mind starts mentaling out about collecting more. The hulls turn black if you don’t get them in time and then the flavor goes off, so the window is closing for harvesting. We will see if I get some more, I am trying to clean up the garden so in case it dries up after the recent rains I can work the ground up and plant some rye, so it isn’t like I don’t have other things to do. If I do collect some more, they will have to be in a sealed container until I can dehull them.
In other news, we got a call yesterday from our absentee neighbor who owns land going out the lane through our property that borders ours. He lives in Ohio and just comes down here to hunt.
A friend of his was up in a tree stand yesterday wait hunting deer. As he sat there, a cougar walked underneath him. Yes, you read that right, a cougar, also called a mountain lion. Although I have never seen any, I know there are bobcats in our woods, but in this case the hunter claimed to know the difference.
Apparently he has done big game hunting including killing a lion in Africa and has a stuffed mountain lion and bobcat all of which information was given to us to establish the bonafides of the hunter being able to recognize a mountain lion.
These folks think it is unlikely:
http://www.cougarnet.org/middleatlantic.html
Of course anything is possible and these folks have a different opinion:
http://www.richwooders.com/appalachian/wildlife/cougar.htm
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar
“Cougars are slender and agile cats. Adults stand about 60 to 76 centimeters (2.0 to 2.5 ft) tall at the shoulders. The length of adult males is around 2.4 meters (8 ft) long nose to tail, with overall ranges between 1.5 and 2.75 m (5 and 9 ft) nose to tail suggested for the species in general. Males typically weigh 53 to 90 kilograms (115 to 198 pounds), averaging 62 kg (137 lb). In rare cases, some may reach over 120 kg (264 lb). Females typically weigh between 29 and 64 kg (64 and 141 lb), averaging 42 kg (93 lb)”
Late breaking news — here is an email I just received from my neighbor:
“We talked to the DNR who are going to contact Dave. Its hard to believe except that Dave has a mounted cougar, 2 bobcats, an African lion, and a Leopard in his house, all harvested legally hunting around the world, so he has personally before seen a mountain lion. Plus this cat appeared at 9:00 in the morning in full light, and he saw it for several minutes, not just a glimpse. It was what it was, unmistakable for anything else. He thought he was dreaming for a second. The cat came from the bottom without making a sound, and came to within 5 yards of the base of his tree, and smelled around, and went back the way it came.
“We talked to the DNR and they stated that it is probably one that someone had as a pet somewhere and then released into the “wild” in that area. This is consistent with the sighting in full daylight at 9 in the morning.
“It is also consistent with the fact that when we were young, we had a friend in Florida that had a mountain lion cub, and raised it. As it got bigger it became very fierce and aggressive, so much so that it was almost impossible to even feed it safely. He later got rid of it.”
October 20, 2009
*1. ** Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications). *
*2. “Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap). *
*3. **Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method. *
*4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. **This can be done by blowing the nose hard and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in **warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.*
*5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C**. If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption. *
*6. Drink as much of warm liquids as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.*
*Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,** DRM, DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. *
October 19, 2009
Light of the Bhagvat verse 9
9. A picturesque scene of green paddy fields enlivens the heart of the poor agriculturalist, but it brings gloom to the face of the capitalist who lives by exploiting the poor farmers.
With good rains, the farmer’s business in agriculture flourishes. Agriculture is the noblest profession. It makes society happy, wealthy, healthy, honest, and spiritually advanced for a better life after death. The vaisya community, or the mercantile class of men, take to this profession. In Bhagavad-gita the vaisyas are described as the natural agriculturalists, the protectors of cows, and the general traders.
When Lord Sri Krsna incarnated Himself at Vrndavana, He took pleasure in becoming a beloved son of such a vaisya family. Nanda Maharaja was a big protector of cows, and Lord Sri Krsna, as the most beloved son of Nanda Maharaja, used to tend His father’s animals in the neighboring forest. By His personal example Lord Krsna wanted to teach us the value of protecting cows. Nanda Maharaja is said to have possessed nine hundred thousand cows, and at the time of Lord Sri Krsna (about five thousand years ago) the tract of land known as Vrndavana was flooded with milk and butter. Therefore God’s gifted professions for mankind are agriculture and cow protection.
Trade is meant only for transporting surplus produce to places where the produce is scanty. But when traders become too greedy and materialistic they take to large-scale commerce and industry and allure the poor agriculturalist to unsanitary industrial towns with a false hope of earning more money. The industrialist and the capitalist do not want the farmer to remain at home, satisfied with his agricultural produce.
When the farmers are satisfied by a luxuriant growth of food grains, the capitalist becomes gloomy at heart. But the real fact is that humanity must depend on agriculture and subsist on agricultural produce.
No one can produce rice and wheat in big iron factories. The industrialist goes to the villagers to purchase the food grains he is unable to produce in his factory. The poor agriculturalist takes advances from the capitalist and sells his produce at a lower price. Hence when food grains are produced abundantly the farmers become financially stronger, and thus the capitalist becomes morose at being unable to exploit them.
Reclaiming scripture from the empirical and dogmatic analyzers. Scripture is poetry, not a collection of essays.
"Use common sense and if you have none then consult with others." SP letter 10/25/76
The Yoga Of Ecology
View From a New Vrindaban Ridge 