PICK IT UP IT'S A ROPE

Pick it up it's a rope.....Put it down it's a snake.

In the 1980's there was a full-fledged attack on ISKCON by the (greedy) parents of disgruntled bhaktins and bhaktas in the form of law suits alleging brainwashing, mind control, sleep deprivations, etc etc, etc.

It was very serious as the law suits were for millions of dollars and all the temples and properties were at stake.

I remember Keshihanta the temple president in Boston at the time returning one afternoon from a day in court with the lawyers during the Murphy law suit pale a ghost. The stress of it must have been incredible. He said they presented as exhibit A the photo of Lord Narshimha deva tearing the entrails out of the demon and wrapping them around his neck like a garland with the blood dipping. The jury was shocked. This is what Hare Krishna worships? ISKCON was definitely headed for dangerous hippy cult status.

The Indians stepped forward. Not only did they write checks to support the temples but they spoke out defending the movement as culturally sound. They saved the day with the "It's a bonafide culture" card. That was pick it up it's a rope.

But now also there is put it down it's a snake.The Hare Krishna movement is not bound by any particular culture. Anyone seriously studying the writings of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur will come to that understand after about one paragraph.

NOTHING IS MINE

  Ihave to keep learning the same lessons over and over and over again. Nothing belongs to me. I have been living at my father's house managing his care while he is institutionalized with dementia.
Now the expenses and bills are adding up fast. His craziness is causing all sorts of medical emergencies. Falling down four times in the last three weeks each with an ambulance, 911, the emergency room and a few nights in the hospital.

Now he is in rehab and they are having a difficult time controlling his behavior. He keeps going out the emergency exits setting off the alarms. There is no question of explaining anything to him. He has lost all ability to reason. 

Whatever he has saved up is draining away fast. I am living in his house for five years now and I see I have become attached thinking it is mine. It is not my house. The money I am managing is not my money...what is left of it...and I am not only stressed out dealing with a mad man but feeling the anxiety of seeing everything being taken away.

But it is a great relief also. Finally I can understand "Nothing is mine."
I can say thank you for being allowed to live so comfortably for these last few years allowing me to read and record Vaishnava teachings. To constantly hear and remember. So as everything is being taken away I am feeling some relief.

NEW TEXT BOOK

He was very bad today. Badly behaved that is. They couldn't leave him alone in the room. The only thing that solaced him was to sit with the nurses at the nurses station half reclined in the special chairs they have for the patients. So there he was in the middle of all activity at the nurses' station lying in the recliner taking it all in and offering his advice.

They took the opportunity of my arriving for a visit to wheel him back into his room. There was no lack of subject matter for him to converse about. But none of it made any sense at all. I just had to nod and say something like, "Wow" or "That seems right."

He thought I was my brother who passed away 35 years ago and I had just come from school. I took the opportunity to show him one of new text books. "Sri Isopanishad." He doesn't see very well and if he really knew it was a book about Krishna he would not have even touched it and turned his nose up.
But since I was my brother and this was a new textbook he gladly took it and looked at all the pictures and thumbed through the texts commenting on how nice this book was. And there was Lord Vishnu looking back at him.

 

CSI KRISHNA

In response to private message someone sent me with a long article attached asking my opinion. i suspect they did not want my opinion but tried to get their foot in door saying that so I would read the article. The article was filled with accusations about poisoning, child abuse, Illuminati infiltration ISKCON, etc etc etc.

My response:
Wow. Whoever has written this is big time conspiracy theorist. They are presenting themselves as knowing for a fact... So it depends on who you want to hear from. 

If you accept whoever this is as authoritative as they obviously would like to do then you can hear from them about poison, and child abuse, and torture, yada yada yada. and get all excited. Some people have a taste for hearing about these things. They get excited.

I suppose indulging in the sensual stimulation hearing about these things brings with Krishna and Prabhupada somehow in the mix will have a purifying effect rather than just watching "Forensics" on TV where you get a similar sensual stimulation but no Krishna and Prabhupada.

If you choose to focus on this kind broadcast as a way for you make some advancement in Krishna consciousness then be sure to balance it out with hearing from Krishna and Srila Prabhupada directly via the Bhagavad gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.

HEARING OVER AND OVER

We have to hear... again and again and again and again and....
Not that we always have to come up with something new. Like a new melody or even a different section of the Bhagavatam.

I am hearing the same five verses over and over and over... all day and all night...not in order to commit them to memory so I can recite them like a parrot and impress others...but to relish hearing them.

Every verse and purport is full of unlimited potency.

WHILE HE SLEEPS

We're up to Mantra 5 Isopanishad. He sleeps and I read and chant and talk to him while he's sleeping. Sometimes he talks in his sleep and we discuss important concepts while he's sleeping. Cycle of birth and death. The goal of human life..Who Srila Prabhupada is.

We heard Srila Prabhupada chanting Shikshatakam for a little while. He started singing along in his sleep with Srila Prabhupada. No words just some singing sounds very deep and sweet.

HOW CAN YOU GET MAD?

In response to an encounter with a fanatical Christian:

Richard Ponton: These people are a business, not even a serious religious movement. They're a family of lawyers. They provoke you into striking them, then sue. That's their business model.

Meena Devi Dasi Could very well be some of that going on too. I became so provoked at the airport in the 70's trying to distribute books with a man something like this following me all around, I, unfortunately "lost it" and hit him with a Krishna Book. He came back with the police and I thought it was all over. Off to jail for assault. But instead he did a little performance. He "forgave me" in the name of Jesus with great magnanimous arm waving gestures and sent the police away. How can you get mad at people like this?