Revolutionization of this Entire Planet
On Friday 27 June 2008 I gave a lecture on the science of reincarnation at Lima's Ricardo Palma University at the invitation of its Department of Eastern and Western Classics. I spoke to an auditorium full of eager listeners, who had many sincere questions, who enthusiastically chanted Hare Krishna, and many of whom purchased Krishna conscious literatures at the conclusion of the lecture. This experience reinforced my conclusion that all over the world there are many sincere souls who, if given a chance to hear Krishna consciousness nicely explained, will appreciate it very much and be eager to learn more about it by studying Srila Prabhupada's books and who will then by his mercy awaken their dormant Krishna consciousness and naturally out of compassion dedicate themselves for the revolutionization of this entire planet.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Widely Distributed Poster Advertised the Lecture
Reincarnation Lecture
Enthusiastic Autograph Seeker
I have one thing which I was holding back from long time, hoping you might come around and change your view of the world. Today I had some time, so I thought I will share my feeling with you and see if we can find some common ground.
You always mention we should not eat meat, drink etc. I am just trying to be devils advocate and put this question back to you with one example
Recently due to oil shortage, countries like the USA, started using corn as basic source of Ethanol to make gasoline. This had a reverse affect and caused food shortages and eventually causing inflation and that has led to riots across many nations.
Meat, fish etc...are currently consumed by 4 Billion people on a daily basis. If all the people on this earth will stop eating meat /fish and become completely vegetarian, it will be a nightmare for every human to survive on this earth. We don't produce vegetables to feed 6 billion people.
I think in other way and consider this as God's way of running this world where everyone is dependent upon something else. Take for example, shark. It's heavily dependent upon small fish. Small fish are dependent upon even small water insects etc... Same is the case with every animal on this world. Each animal survives on other small or large animal.
I consider human as an animal. People in Russia, where it is extremely cold, cannot grow food. They have to survive on ice fishing. They are same human beings as we are. We live in cities, they live in snow and do scientific research.
I personally don't eat meat or fish. I am pure vegetarian. But I have never asked anyone to stop eating meat. If they feel they have to change their food styles, they will do it on their own.
I also don't agree with you principal of doing 16 rounds of Hare Krishna chanting on japa beads. I personally feel if a person can do one round of beads with complete peace of mind, that it is much better than 16 rounds. I have seen people doing 16 rounds because they have been told by the Guru. My question is: If you want to speak with God, you can close your eyes and talk to him once. Why do you have to repeat same conversation 16 times? If you were God and if every person on this earth were to ask you the same thing 16 times, will you like it? Even if you take an example of a Cell Phone. Will you like someone calling you 16 times day ? I guess not.
Having a family of wife and two kids, along with your job, it makes it very complex. If I have to do 16 rounds daily just because I have to do it, I can tell you I will be saying mantras just to complete 16 rounds.
Recently you mentioned, we should go back to bullock card and horses, and give up our cars and stay like olden days. I think that would be against God's will. This is karma. Humans constantly have to improve their way of life. We have to struggle to make money and survive. If we all stop working for next best thing, then we will become lazy and useless.
If we all started to use bullock carts, just imaging our highways. Just imagine you being stuck in Texas. Currently you are enjoying a liberty of modernization. You have been to virtually every country, thanks to man's innovation to fly. You can communicate with millions with one email. Thanks to man's innovation in software and networks.
You were stuck in Auckland because of flight problems and could not communicate with people in Peru. Just imagine you not having access to modern technology and you found yourself helpless and had to leave it to God to pass on this message.
I believe God has given human a brain to innovate living on this planet. I am part that innovation and you are too. You teach science of God and I manage email service for a large corporation. Even though we have no connection in our innovations, we use each other's knowledge to improve our living.
I would like to humbly request if I may to not force people to give up eating meat and fish. These are made by God for a reason.
Just look at milk. You and I both drink milk. Why? Because she is our second mother. But if you visit any modern milk company, you will stop drinking milk, that is my promise.
Cow will only give milk when she has delivered a baby. Generally a cow will give milk between 12 and 18 months after it's delivery.
Large milk companies, impregnate cows with injections every two years. Just imagine if they did not do that, the cost of milk would be $50.00 a gallon. Now if you watch this with your own eyes, I can promise you will be the first one to say, stop drinking milk.
Just want to tell you, if God really did not want a particular cow to not have baby, then any injection would not work. But it's working and it's working in every country.
Some things we may not like in this world as it's against religious principles, but they do happen and we cannot change them.
If cows stop giving milk, just imagine what will happen to our kids.
Sorry for the long message. Please give your sincere thought on this and let me know if we found a common ground.
I will always respect you as my Guru !!
Cheers, and you have a wonderful time in Peru.
Susheel
Because you are advocating a limited vision based on the illusory material conception of existence, there are so many flaws in your picture of the world. It is you whose vision needs to be broadened, not me.
Your ideas regarding meat eating are far off the mark. About half the world's grain is consumed by animals that are later slaughtered for meat. This is a very inefficient process. It takes 16 pounds of grain and soybeans to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef. If people were to subsist on grains and other vegetarian foods alone, this would put far less strain on the earth's agricultural lands. About 20 vegetarians can be fed from the land it takes to feed 1 meat eater.
I visit Russia twice a year and spend time with vegetarian people who offer all of their food to Krishna before eating.
My only point regarding transportation is the our present oil based economy is guaranteed to fail once we run out of oil. We need to start now planning for alternative means of survival instead of naively thinking that the oil will last forever. The Amish people in the USA live happily without using any oil-based transportation. They successfully rely on horse power for transportation and plowing. I have even personally seen how they use a horse even to mow their lawns.
You may not agree to chant 16 rounds daily. That is your free will. Krishna will not interfere with it. Nor will His devotees interfere with it. But you should know that in the Bhagavad-gita Krishna orders that we should chant His names 24 hours daily. 16 rounds is a minimization to facilitate persons who must busy themselves with earning a livelihood. If we cannot chant even this minimal amount to try to satisfy the Lord's order for constant chanting, how can we claim to be the obedient servants of the Lord? In such a state of mind we are merely the servants of our material senses. That's all. Such material mentality will force us to take birth after birth in this material world. If we are content to do that, chanting is not required. But if we want to escape the cycle of birth and death, we must beg Krishna to help us figure out a way to chant at the least 16 rounds daily in the midst of our busy schedules. I hope you can understand this.
We should not rely on the modern abusive milk industry for our milk. We should establish cow protection communities all over the world where the cows and bulls are lovingly cared for.
I appreciate that you will always respect me as your guru. But you must understand what is the proper meaning of the guru/disciple relationship. If you truly respect me as your guru, you will inquire submissively to try to understand my teachings. You will not try to defeat my arguments. Guru means where we can submissively inquire and surrender ourselves as humble servants. If you want to accept me as guru, you are welcome. But then you must become an actual disciple. Don't try to become the guru of the spiritual master. You must become his humble disciple, if you want to realize the highest truth.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Widely Distributed Poster Advertised the Lecture
Reincarnation Lecture
Enthusiastic Autograph Seeker
Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Challenge: Change Your View of the World
I have all the respect for you in this world, and I think you are doing a wonderful service to your guru and bringing us awareness to a spiritual world. Even though you never accepted me as your student, but I do like your thoughts and read them on daily basis. If I don't read your mail "Thought for the Day", I feel I am missing something.I have one thing which I was holding back from long time, hoping you might come around and change your view of the world. Today I had some time, so I thought I will share my feeling with you and see if we can find some common ground.
You always mention we should not eat meat, drink etc. I am just trying to be devils advocate and put this question back to you with one example
Recently due to oil shortage, countries like the USA, started using corn as basic source of Ethanol to make gasoline. This had a reverse affect and caused food shortages and eventually causing inflation and that has led to riots across many nations.
Meat, fish etc...are currently consumed by 4 Billion people on a daily basis. If all the people on this earth will stop eating meat /fish and become completely vegetarian, it will be a nightmare for every human to survive on this earth. We don't produce vegetables to feed 6 billion people.
I think in other way and consider this as God's way of running this world where everyone is dependent upon something else. Take for example, shark. It's heavily dependent upon small fish. Small fish are dependent upon even small water insects etc... Same is the case with every animal on this world. Each animal survives on other small or large animal.
I consider human as an animal. People in Russia, where it is extremely cold, cannot grow food. They have to survive on ice fishing. They are same human beings as we are. We live in cities, they live in snow and do scientific research.
I personally don't eat meat or fish. I am pure vegetarian. But I have never asked anyone to stop eating meat. If they feel they have to change their food styles, they will do it on their own.
I also don't agree with you principal of doing 16 rounds of Hare Krishna chanting on japa beads. I personally feel if a person can do one round of beads with complete peace of mind, that it is much better than 16 rounds. I have seen people doing 16 rounds because they have been told by the Guru. My question is: If you want to speak with God, you can close your eyes and talk to him once. Why do you have to repeat same conversation 16 times? If you were God and if every person on this earth were to ask you the same thing 16 times, will you like it? Even if you take an example of a Cell Phone. Will you like someone calling you 16 times day ? I guess not.
Having a family of wife and two kids, along with your job, it makes it very complex. If I have to do 16 rounds daily just because I have to do it, I can tell you I will be saying mantras just to complete 16 rounds.
Recently you mentioned, we should go back to bullock card and horses, and give up our cars and stay like olden days. I think that would be against God's will. This is karma. Humans constantly have to improve their way of life. We have to struggle to make money and survive. If we all stop working for next best thing, then we will become lazy and useless.
If we all started to use bullock carts, just imaging our highways. Just imagine you being stuck in Texas. Currently you are enjoying a liberty of modernization. You have been to virtually every country, thanks to man's innovation to fly. You can communicate with millions with one email. Thanks to man's innovation in software and networks.
You were stuck in Auckland because of flight problems and could not communicate with people in Peru. Just imagine you not having access to modern technology and you found yourself helpless and had to leave it to God to pass on this message.
I believe God has given human a brain to innovate living on this planet. I am part that innovation and you are too. You teach science of God and I manage email service for a large corporation. Even though we have no connection in our innovations, we use each other's knowledge to improve our living.
I would like to humbly request if I may to not force people to give up eating meat and fish. These are made by God for a reason.
Just look at milk. You and I both drink milk. Why? Because she is our second mother. But if you visit any modern milk company, you will stop drinking milk, that is my promise.
Cow will only give milk when she has delivered a baby. Generally a cow will give milk between 12 and 18 months after it's delivery.
Large milk companies, impregnate cows with injections every two years. Just imagine if they did not do that, the cost of milk would be $50.00 a gallon. Now if you watch this with your own eyes, I can promise you will be the first one to say, stop drinking milk.
Just want to tell you, if God really did not want a particular cow to not have baby, then any injection would not work. But it's working and it's working in every country.
Some things we may not like in this world as it's against religious principles, but they do happen and we cannot change them.
If cows stop giving milk, just imagine what will happen to our kids.
Sorry for the long message. Please give your sincere thought on this and let me know if we found a common ground.
I will always respect you as my Guru !!
Cheers, and you have a wonderful time in Peru.
Susheel
Answer: Why Should I Narrow My Vision?
As you admit, you are playing the devil's advocate. I am not advocating the devil or Satan or the illusory energy as you are doing. I am advocating the revealed vision of the Supreme Person, the perfect knower of everything, the source of all existence.Because you are advocating a limited vision based on the illusory material conception of existence, there are so many flaws in your picture of the world. It is you whose vision needs to be broadened, not me.
Your ideas regarding meat eating are far off the mark. About half the world's grain is consumed by animals that are later slaughtered for meat. This is a very inefficient process. It takes 16 pounds of grain and soybeans to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef. If people were to subsist on grains and other vegetarian foods alone, this would put far less strain on the earth's agricultural lands. About 20 vegetarians can be fed from the land it takes to feed 1 meat eater.
I visit Russia twice a year and spend time with vegetarian people who offer all of their food to Krishna before eating.
My only point regarding transportation is the our present oil based economy is guaranteed to fail once we run out of oil. We need to start now planning for alternative means of survival instead of naively thinking that the oil will last forever. The Amish people in the USA live happily without using any oil-based transportation. They successfully rely on horse power for transportation and plowing. I have even personally seen how they use a horse even to mow their lawns.
You may not agree to chant 16 rounds daily. That is your free will. Krishna will not interfere with it. Nor will His devotees interfere with it. But you should know that in the Bhagavad-gita Krishna orders that we should chant His names 24 hours daily. 16 rounds is a minimization to facilitate persons who must busy themselves with earning a livelihood. If we cannot chant even this minimal amount to try to satisfy the Lord's order for constant chanting, how can we claim to be the obedient servants of the Lord? In such a state of mind we are merely the servants of our material senses. That's all. Such material mentality will force us to take birth after birth in this material world. If we are content to do that, chanting is not required. But if we want to escape the cycle of birth and death, we must beg Krishna to help us figure out a way to chant at the least 16 rounds daily in the midst of our busy schedules. I hope you can understand this.
We should not rely on the modern abusive milk industry for our milk. We should establish cow protection communities all over the world where the cows and bulls are lovingly cared for.
I appreciate that you will always respect me as your guru. But you must understand what is the proper meaning of the guru/disciple relationship. If you truly respect me as your guru, you will inquire submissively to try to understand my teachings. You will not try to defeat my arguments. Guru means where we can submissively inquire and surrender ourselves as humble servants. If you want to accept me as guru, you are welcome. But then you must become an actual disciple. Don't try to become the guru of the spiritual master. You must become his humble disciple, if you want to realize the highest truth.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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