June 2000

Controversial author visits Britain

Celebrated author Michael Cremo, alias Bhaktivedanta Institute member Drutakarma das, was in London during May and spoke on radio several times and had a 700-word piece published in The Independent.

His book, Hidden History of the Human Race is now a controversial bestseller with 200,000 copies in 13 languages. Although ISKCON is accustomed to large figures in book publishing due to large scale distribution, the phenomenal figures for this book came only through bookshop sales. Drutakarma's principal business in England was to accept an official invitation to speak at the Royal Institution, an event described by Sakshi Gopal on the back page.

Grants given for Krishna 'Meals on Wheels'

The Food for Life project has just attracted several grants including a very substantial one for support over three years.
Devotees led by Parasurama have been working very hard and now serve 500 people every day. The team have developed a relationship with staff at The Big Issue magazine and daily deliver rice, subji, popadoms and cake to the head office in Kings Cross. Staff are very impressed with the quality of the meals and the devotees reliability; they employ a man to distribute the prasadam. to vendors throughout the day. A magazine advertisement appealing for donations of foods to Food for Life resulted in a man driving all the way from Birmingham to the Manor to personally hand over £300 worth of items. Parasurama, says: "There are so many people in the Kings Cross area who are really suffering; the daily stories of pain and death would send shivers down your spine. At the same time I find these homeless or ex-homeless people to be very inclined towards spiritual life. They have seen the harshness of the material world and have questioned their existence and the reality of a Supreme Being."

Awards

Now FFL has been given two awards for its outstanding dedication and achievement. One award was 'Leaders of the London Millenium' and both entailed the team attending functions and receiving £2000 each time. £750 was awarded by Kings Cross Community Development and Lloyd's bank donated £2000. Another trust gave £4000. Then FFL heard the amazing news that they had been awarded a three-year support grant of £58,000 by a charitable trust.

When asked why he thought Food for Life had attracted such funding, Parasurarma put it down to four things: "Our willingness to work with other charities, our policy of empowering individuals to get themselves together, our 100% regularity and reliability over many years, and, strangely enough, the increasing importance some authorities are placing on the very practical changes brought about in people through prayer and finding their spiritual identity." Already a new secondhand van has been purchased, a metal floor and stainless steel walls put in, and purchases made of two large burners, one large oven, a potato peeler and bread mixer.

Medicines for India

Parasurama has also been continuing his annual trip to the Vrindavan area in India, where, driving an ox-cart, he leads up a team which distributes prasad and books to the locals. Villagers in the area are very happy to see the message of Lord Krishna brought to them by western devotees. This year there was a difference in the project; a wealthy devotee supporter with concern for local medical needs brought over four doctors and two vets from America. The whole medical/spiritual caravan rolled through many outlying villages and hundreds of people were treated for free. "I was shocked by just how many people needed treatment," said Parasurama, "at the same time as the villagers were coming out of their houses and receiving medicine for sometimes very prolonged sicknesses, the vets were going around treating the cows, dogs and other animals for worms, lice, ticks and other problems." Later on in the evening. when the doctors and vets went back to Vrindavan for the night, out would come Parasurama's cinema equipment and shows of 'World of Hare Krishna' and 'Vrindavan Land of Krishna' with a commentary in the local Vrijbasa dialect would delight everyone. Another film about the importance of cow-protection was also shown and a booklet in Hindi given out. Nearly 40,000 booklets were given out.

If you would like to join Parasurama's team during the holy month of Kartika in India, you should leave a space in your diary beginning on October 13th. Contact him on (Home) 01923 440116 (Mob) 07946 420827.

Team spirit in Split, Croatia

Venugopal das, a devotee looking after congregation in Croatia, sent me such a joyful e-mail letter about a festival in the town of Split that I just had to share it.

After the war they've been through over there in the past few years, it must have been even more of a blessing to have such a happy occasion. He reports, quite poetically: "It was a wonderful opportunity for all the members of the congregation to fully dive into a cooperative serving mood, which they did to the best of their abilities. Practically everyone was engaged in making happen one of the greatest Hare Krishna programmes in this area. Others were also engaged in the service of the preaching mission of Lord Chaitanya-thus we had help from the Sai Baba people, Maharishi people, Yogananda people, and Jesus people. "Mothers, fathers, grannies, friends - all came and helped. It was as if all the bees of different beehives came together to plunder a great flower meadow filled with nectar.

Thus some were writing the invitation letters, some were packing them and addressing them, and some were taking them to the post office. "Another group was going every day to harinams in the town centre. While one group was singing and dancing, the others were distributing thousands of invitation flyers. Others distributed books near the harinam while others were passing out sweet balls. Some accepted the service of driving the devotees out on harinam, and some went on television to advertise the event.

Some fortunate souls were collecting the food for the festival, some cut up the vegetables, and some cooked with great care and in love offered everything to the Lord. Some were driving all that nectar to the hotel hall, and some gave it out. Some arranged for the security guards, others went to register the programme at the police station. Some decorated the hall, others the stage. The bhajan band rehearsed in detail.

The 'night crew' decorated the city with posters, others made tickets, and others tried to find more seats. Some sponsored Srila Prabhupada's books to be given out on the night, one young man sponsoring in the name of his departed father. I am unable to cover all the services that devotees were doing with so much surrender and love. Practically on every side of the city there was someone doing something for the festival. Even the most famous singer in Croatia, Goran Karan, was engaging his band in making the festival a success. He even offered his entire flat to be used by the devotees, knocking on the door to ask if it was alright to come in.

"And there was Sacinandana Swami, brilliant, ecstatic, and in blissful preaching spirit. He preached to the full hall of 700 people who applauded more than once his explanation of the matchless wisdom of the Vedas. His lecture: "Higher Connection - how to come in contact with spiritual dimensions and connect with the Supersoul" was highly appreciated by the audience as was his slide show: "Ganga-Journey to the source". He danced at the end with Goran Karan, making everyone dance and chant Krishna's holy name. Goran Karan's band joined in, the audience joined in, the hotel staff joined in, the hotel manager joined in, and all became blissfully happy." And for any of you who just happened to watch the Eurovision Song Contest on May 13th (by mistake, naturally) you might just have seen Goran Karan putting his palms together in a 'namaste' back stage, neck beads clearly showing, and heard him shout out 'Haribol!' to a huge stadium audience.

Carrying on from his last life?

When Vikesh Sharma was only five years old he preferred to make shrines in different rooms of his house rather than play with toys. He saw his grandmother getting up before dawn to offer ghee lamps to her deities and he liked to copy her. By the age of seven he was daily bathing and dressing his own Krishna, Shiva, and Durga. One year later, a Shiva baba came to the town and Vikesh became a convinced devotee of Lord Shiva. As the years went by his parents took him to see many Indian gurus and he became equally convinced to worship many other divinities and holy men and women. By the time he was twelve he had over 108 deities crammed in a cupboard. "In the summer holidays I went to visit a few cousins who were devotees of a man claiming to be Godhead. Eventually he also entered my 'mini-heaven' inside the cupboard"

Where was Vikesh living, receiving exposure to all these exotic religious ideas? Rural India? Nope. Just a few miles from Gatwick airport as it happens, in the little town of Crawley. Only formed as a new town in 1947, Crawley is unremarkable in many ways, but it has apparently placed itself on the touring map of many a wandering sadhu. Only God, it seems, knows why.

'I started to worship only Krishna'

Vikesh came to the Bhaktivedanta, Manor with his family for the very first time, and immediately became so attracted to the kirtan and Deities that he didn't want to leave. He decided to take up Krishna consciousness seriously. "The next day I put all my deities in a large box and started to worship only Krishna. I started chanting 16 rounds and also began reading Bhagavad gita daily." Many trips to the Manor and one India pilgrimage later, Vikesh remains a staunch devotee of Krishna. Now, at the ripe old age of 14, he chants, reads and worships daily: "Three shalagram shilas from Badrinath in the Himalayas, (smooth, round, black stones described by scripture to be Vishnu incarnate), Brass Gaura Nitai, and pictures of the Six Goswamis, the guruparampara and Hanuman. I also have Shiva, Ganesh and Durga on my altar but worship them Vaishnava style".

Not content merely with personal puja, Vikesh wanted to draw other Vaishnavas to Crawley for association or 'sadhu-sanga'. Fellow devotee Witesh was also there in Crawley but neither he nor Vikesh thought ISKCON would ever reach their town. But he received a phone call from a member of the Pandava Sena youth group, and now there is a branch in Crawley attracting many youngsters. And of course, wherever there is energetic Krishna consciousness, many adults are attracted so parents come too. Recent visitors to the group have been Romapada dasa, Dharanidhara, and Dean, Bhavesh, Gopal, Deepesh, Bobby, Nili, all of whom contribute lively kirtans, classes and guidance. Yet another English town in which kirtan can be heard and Vaishnava company enjoyed. What about your town?

Festival Season begins

Around fifty lucky people got to attend a very attractive evening festival in Canterbury put on by Tribhuvanath's festival team. As well as standards like Bharat Natyam performed by Nili Shah, and the old favourite of 'Traveller's Nightmare', Drutakarma das made himself available for the evening and gave a very well received talk on the hidden history of the human race, or as he terms it, the 'reallife X-Files'.

Although the attendance was much smaller than the hundreds who normally come to larger festivals, probably due to difficulties in putting up posters in Canterbury, everyone who attended gave their name and address and asked to be kept in touch regarding future events. Ten 'seriously interested' people who'd attended the festival turned up at the next Canterbury meeting. The next one is on June 11th.

The Reading Festival is being followed up with six introductory classes on Krishna consciousness, and, as of writing, the festival in the seaside town of Bournemouth is being advertised vigorously through harinam. sankirtan, posters and leaflets. On the 27th 28th of May weekend devotees from the Manor camped near the town to drum up local interest.

The Param-guru's Order..
Rathayatra in Eastbourne!

Back in 1933, disciples of Srila Prabhupada's spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada, came to London to preach. They established one house in Willesden, north London, and stayed for some time with supporters in a small terraced cottage in the seaside town of Eastbourne in . While there, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati wrote them an encouraging letter: 'Ye must take Lord Jaganath in an airplane chariot to Eastbourne. There Alarnath Gaudiyanath and Gopinath will appear. We must install the Deity of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu everywhere, otherwise there will be no auspiciousness for the human race." Having heard the quote, Parasurama wants to make it come true. The kirtan and procession starts at 1.00 pm, Saturday 15th July, on Sancroft Road beside the Old Town Recreation Ground, and finishes on the beach with a feast beside Princes Park. All readers welcome to bring friends and family.

And we must not forget Rathayatra Glastonbury: Lord Jaganath will ride His swan carrier through the quaint and mediaeval streets of Glastonbury town. Everyone welcome including King Arthur, various knights, Merlin and a flock of colourful locals. Begins 1.00pm, Sunday, 16th July. Starts in the car park behind the High Street in Glastonbury.

Trip to South India

Our pilgrimage this year will be to Udupi and Sri Rangam, the holy places established by the great Vaishnava saints Madhvacarya and Ramanujacarya over 900 years ago. Vaishnavism exists as a living faith in these places as it has done for centuries, and it is a great inspiration to see towns devoted to God's service. The trip will last three weeks in November. We will also be visiting Bangalore where a large new temple has been established by ISKCON. Oh, and there will also be time on some south Indian beaches and a little hill-walking and waterfall-spotting for those inclined. Write for more details.

If you've never been to India before this one might be for you. And if you've never been to the south before-what are you waiting for ...?

Shelter to tour in June

They're over from America and their music is as 'Krishna hard core' as ever. Loud, energetic with lyrics from the Supersoul. Catch them this time round: June 12th - High Wycombe at the Whitehorse, 13th Chelmsford - Army and Navy Club, 14th - Bradford - Rio, 15th - Derby - Victoria Inn, 16th - London @ The Underworld

It's another true story...

Jeff Baker was into Krishna - a little bit. He liked the food, the incense and the kirtan was pretty good too. He had tried out the chanting on beads, but not for long. Jeff was an avid reader with an enquiring mind, so he bought a copy of the Bhagavad gita As It Is by the guru of the movement and read bits of it from time to time. As happens quite often, Jeff couldn't quite get his head around the deeper bits of the teachings and, because there was no-one nearby to put his questions to, he took the Gita off the shelf less and less frequently as the months went by. One September, he had a clear-out of all his old books he no longer read, and took them into the charity shop in the town. The Gita was amongst them.

About eight months later, Jeff changed his job and moved nearly 200 miles away to a big city, into a flat on the third floor of a block of flats. He settled in and began his new job, made a new girlfriend, and enjoyed his new life. He was still interested in Krishna-a little bit-but it was not very high up on his 'to do' list. One Saturday he looked out the window of his flat, down into the car park below. He saw a neighbour emptying a box of old household items into a big skip. He spotted some books amongst the pile, and thinking there might be a good read just being thrown away, he went downstairs to have a look. Imagine Jeff s surprise when he discovered a copy of the Bhagavad-gita in the skip. Smiling to himself that maybe it was the right time to finally make an effort and read this book, Jeff grabbed another couple of paperback novels and came upstairs, wiping the dust off the books as he did. When he got back in he sat down and opened the cover of the Gita - his mouth fell open in amazement, for there, penned in biro on the first page, was the owners name: Jeff Baker!

Royal Institution hosts lecture on
FORBIDDEN ARCHAEOLOGY

report by SAKSHI GOPALA DAS

London's Royal Institution was founded in 1799, "for the promotion, diffusion and extention of science and knowledge." Pioneer British scientists Michael Faraday and Humphrey Davy were among its directors, while an engraving of its historic lecture theatre has even appeared on the English twenty pound note. Lecturers only ever speak at the request of the Society, so it was a mark of recognition when Dhrutakarma das (Michael A. Cremo) received an invitation to give a public lecture on the topic of his book Forbidden Archaeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race.

As an archaeological historian his work has proven to be highly controversial and a source of heated, even vitriolic, debate amongst archaeologists, geologists and scientists of the world. Fortunately, there were no signs of rioting during his public lecture at the Royal Institution on the evening of May 4th, his talk being very well received.

The hour long talk, illustrated with a series of slides, opened with the Bhaktivedanta Institute logo on the large screen. Seeing the image of Srila Prabhupada seated in a lotus flower, finger upraised in uncompromising preaching mood, certainly sent a stir of transcendental pride through the hearts of the dozen or more devotees scattered throughout the packed lecture theatre. It is doubtful whether the true significance of the occasion was appreciated by the remaining audience of some two hundred and fifty souls, but the fact that Dhrutakarma das, sober and relaxed in suit and tie, was speaking on such a controversial topic within the hallowed walls of this bastion of scientific orthodoxy was not lost to the devotees present. The stimulating and sometimes humerous presentation was a humble yet uncompromising exposure of a scandalous history of archaeological skullduggery. It was followed by a flood of equally stimulating and intelligent questions, which only stopped when the Society chairman brought the meeting to its scheduled close.

After a solid eight years of research leading to the publication of three related books on human origins, Dhrutakarma has followed up with some 300 radio and television interviews along with an ongoing schedule of lectures that has led him to address university and scientific audiences around the world, including America, Russia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India and the UK.

As featured in the Royal Institution's Lecture List

OVER THE PAST TWO CENTURIES, archaeologists have found bones and artefacts showing that people like ourselves have existed on earth for millions of years. But many scientists have ignored or forgotten these remarkable facts. Why? Primarily because they contradict dominant views about human origins and antiquity. According to these views, humans like ourselves have existed for only about 100,000 years, and before that there were only more primitive human ancestors. This evolutionary paradigm, to which influential groups of scientists are deeply committed, has acted as a 'knowledge filter'. And the filtering, intentional or not, has left us with a radically incomplete set of facts for building our ideas about human origins. Recovering the complete set of facts, broadly consistent with the accounts of extreme human antiquity found in traditional literatures such as India's Puranas, takes us on a fascinating expedition, across five continents, to key archaeological sites, some long forgotten, some the centre of ongoing controversy.

MICHAEL A. CREMO is an internationally known expert on the history of archaeology and anomalous archaeological evidence for extreme human antiquity. He is Research Associate in History of Science for the Bhaktivedanta Institute, and is a member of the History of Science Society, the Philosophy of Science Association, and the European Association of Archaeologists.' His most recent scientific publication is "Puranic Time and the Archaeological Record," presented at the World Archaeological Congress 3, 1994, and now included in the proceeding volume "Time and Archaeology", edited by archaeologist Tim Murray for Routledge (1999). On Amazon.com, the world's largest internet bookseller, Cremo's contraversial 'underground classic' "Forbidden Archaeology" (1993) is now the number two best selling book on evolution.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Page last updated 28 April, 2001
© 2001 International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Founder-Acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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