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April 2004

This issue is dedicated to all of our new readers.

Lion Man - History Rewritten

The 'Lion-Man' excavated recently from deep sediment on a cave floor in Germany is the latest in a long line of artifacts and fossils to cause the scientific community to yet again scratch their heads in bewilderment.

He stands proudly at around 28 cm tall and is 6 cm in diameter. Made of mammoth tusk ivory and around 30,000 years old, according to current archaeological thinking, he shouldn't even exist.

According to experts, the Neanderthals, or very early modern men, were not intelligent enough to come up with conceptual art like this. Once again the archaeologists have had to revise their dates for modern man, concluding that intelligent artistic expressions like these were created much earlier than they'd previously thought.

The small statue of a man with a lion's head, found in the cave of Hohlenstein-Stadel in the Valley of Lone, Baden-Wurttemburg in Germany has been dated as Aurignacian or around 30,000 years old, making it the oldest statue ever found.

And of course the two-mile long by a mile wide underwater city recently discovered off the coast of Gujarat, India was another major find which still has to be explored. Science, of course, by its very definition, can only hold as true that which can be proven by physical evidence and/or fastidious research. The only difficulty with this is that while we are all waiting for archaeological evidence to be dug up we must listen to intelligent people disregard much pre-modern civilization as either myth or primitive.

If we only assess ancient Indian culture on the basis of its highly refined language we can easily understand that it was the product of great thinkers and not of savages. And what to speak of its philosophy, art, music, architecture, sculpture and political ideas? Which leads me rather nicely into the next piece...

UNESCO declares Vedic chanting 'outstanding cultural heritage'

The oral tradition of Vedic chanting has been declared an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation).

In a meeting of jury members on November 7, 2003, at Paris, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, declared the chanting of Vedas in India an outstanding example of heritage and form of cultural expression.

The proclamation states that in the age of globalization and modernization when cultural diversity is under pressure, the preservation of the oral tradition of Vedic chanting, a unique cultural heritage, has great significance.

The jury members included Dr. Richard Kurin, Director of the Center for Folklore and Cultural Heritage of the Smithsonian Institution (United Nations), Mr. Juan Goytisolo, Writer (Spain), Mr. Yoshikazu Hasegawa (Japan), Ms. Olive W.M. Lewin. Pianist, ethnomusicologist, Director of the Jamaica Orchestra for Youth (Jamaica). The UNESCO declaration will bring international recognition to the excellence of the Vedic chanting tradition of India, which has survived for centuries encoding the wisdom contained in the Vedas through an extraordinary effort of memorization and through elaborately worked out mnemonic methods. The purity and fail-safe technique devised for Vedic chanting in the olden days has ensured access to the ancient literature today.

New Vedic encyclopedia

Everything Srila Prabhupada translated and wrote is now available in one enhanced database and research tool.

the Krishna Consciousness movement's acarya and spiritual master translated thousands of pages from the original Sanskrit and Bengali languages in order to make the Vaishnava religion available to the world.

The complete text of all of his books, personal letters, and transcripts of his taped lectures are included in the new Bhaktivedanta VedaBase. Also, all the Back to Godhead magazine articles, and many other supplementary texts from songbooks and cookbooks to biographies written by his disciples are included in the new monumental text-based encyclopaedia of Srila Prabhupada and his works.

This is ideal for the serious student of Srila Prabhupada's writings, for research and reading.

The VedaBase is available in Windows versions. MAC users would need Virtual-PC Windows-2000. System requirements: PC Windows 98-XP, 128 RAM, 700Mb Hard drive Space or 50Mb with CD. Cost is £250 which includes p+p and registration for updates. Apply to Kripamoya Dasa, Bhaktivedanta Manor, Hilfield Lane, Aldenham, Watford, WD25 8EZ

NZ Meat ad insulting to Hare Krishnas

9th February, New Zealand: An advertisement featuring a group of dancing, chanting butchers praising red meat was "extremely derogatory and insulting to Hare Krishnas", the Advertising Standards Complaints Appeal Board has ruled.

The New Zealand Beef and Lamb Marketing Bureau appealed the original decision in March 2003 by the Advertising Standards Complaints Board.

But "The Appeal Board was in no doubt that the intonation, rhythm, chanting and instrumentation of the butchers (they used their knives as cymbals!) dancing down the street was evocative of the Hare Krishna movementI" "Taking into account that Hare Krishnas had vegetarian dietary habits and considered the cow to be a sacred animal, the advertisement... was extremely derogatory and insulting to Hare Krishnas."

Accordingly, the Appeal Board upheld the Complaints Board's decision that the depiction was "not saved by humour", and ruled that the appeal be dismissed.

Meet the Monks - on tour

Why not spend the evening with a group of monks?

That's the invitation for the public in many smaller towns around the south this year. The shaven heads and saffron robes of brahmacaris may be a common sight in the streets of London, but quite unfamiliar in Bournemouth or Chichester.

Those are just two towns where devotees have met the public so far. The tour kicked off in Bournemouth in January, where people braved snow and harsh winds to fill up a church hall and hear devotees speak of their lives before and after coming to the life of Krishna consciousness.

Meditative kirtan and brief explanations of the background teachings, together with samosas and fruit salad made for an intimate and pleasant evening. Towns are selected by the response devotees get when distributing their books!

Next on the list are Winchester and Salisbury followed by the thriving metropolis of Kings Lynn. A tour of larger hall festivals and field events is also being planned, this year including Exeter, Truro, Bristol, and Glastonbury as usual.

Teaching from the Srimad Bhagavatam

"A person who has broader intelligence, whether he be full of all material desire, without any material desire, or desiring liberation, must by all means worship the Supreme Whole, the Personality of Godhead".

(S.B. 2.3.10 - Sukadeva Goswami speaking to King Pariksit)

Suits and countersuits over yoga

By Patita Pavana Das Adhikary in San Francisco

A recent issue of the San Francisco Chronicle carried a headline story entitled, "Yogis Go to Court Over Poses".

Accompanying this front page feature are photos of sleek yuppie "yogis" and their "yoga master", the grinning Bikram Choudhury wearing a chic baseball cap. Calling him, "the Beverly Hills master", the article says that Bikram is the plaintiff in a lawsuit that "has more twists and turns than his twenty-six postures."

Choudhury opened his Yoga College of India in San Francisco in 1973 and today boasts over nine hundred studios worldwide. His is the first chain in franchised yogadom, and he has copyrighted his poses, breathing techniques and dialogue. Now his lawyers have sent out a string of letters to a number of competing yoga studios to avoid teaching anything "derivative" of the so-called Bikram Yoga if they haven't graduated from the $5,000 per-person training program and are not paying a studio franchise fee. A penalty of $150,000 to each offending yogi is threatened in each letter.

But others yogis are striking back with their own suits aimed at Bikram. According to the counter suit filed by Open Source Yoga Unity, yoga is a 5,000 year-old process that cannot be owned by anyone.

But Bikram says that he will "defend his spirit, sweat, blood and tears." The "master", a former "yoga champion" of India (whatever that means) has made millions and has several celebrity clients. Saying that he is "just protecting his investment", Choudhury has won lawsuits before. Last June he collected an undisclosed sum from a Southern California studio.

He has written a book on yoga but says, "A lot of people are trying to teach my yoga from my book. But that is not possible." He says that he is opening an average of two new Bikram centers each day. One of his franchisee yogis said of Bikram, "His desire is not to police yoga, but to maintain the purity of his teachings." According to the Chronicle article, there are 18,000,000 yoga practitioners in the US accounting in $27 billion in annual sales. Now many other yogis fear being sued by The Master if there is a whisper of "his" techniques in what they teach.

Dishonest yogis

When Srila Prabhupada, the founder and spiritual master of the Hare Krishna movement, first began teaching the true essence of yoga, bhakti-yoga, in New York City he often referred to the "nonsense" taught by unqualified and dishonest "uptown yogis".

As seen in the article, millions of Americans practice what passes as yoga exercises, but with goals like weight loss, better sex life, or a "hotter" body. Few of them are vegetarians, sexually pure or know anything of the other niyamas or disciplines of the genuine yoga process. They don't even know that yoga actually refers to a spiritual process of "linking" with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Who is identified throughout the shastras as Bhagavan Shri Krishna. Prabhupada once mentioned how one day the gopas met Krishna in the fields of Vraja. "That is yoga," His Divine Grace commented.

True, this material world is a place of temptations due to the allure of maya. But Srila Prabhupada was never tempted to charge money for his teachings, to hoard wealth or hobnob with stars. Like Lord Sri Chaitanya, Who His Divine Grace followed with every step and with every breath, he gave away the Hare Krishna mantra freely to anyone who cared to have it.

When he was physically with us, sankirtan was going on daily in hundreds of towns around the world for His Divine Grace mercifully enlisted we wretched fallen souls to assist him in his divine mission. He wrote dozens of books and encouraged us to teach others from his books. How the lawsuit yogi can write a book that cannot be used for teaching is impossible for me to understand. If a text is not useful in conveying a message then what is the use of writing it? Srila Prabhupada never affixed his name to bhakti yoga as "The Prabhupada Method." He never called the maha mantra his alone to give or to conceal.

Our beloved Guru Maharaja never withheld the secrets of the Vedas from anyone who was willing to learn whatever their material status. Like Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he brought with him a mango tree that gives unlimited fruits.

His only request was that we help him throw these nectarean fruits to all persons in every direction. Because of him alone we know that love of the Master of Yoga Sri Krishna, and service to His Lotus Feet, is a transcendental gift from the bona fide spiritual master that cannot be copyrighted by any lawyer.

For we cannot fathom our good luck and fortune in submitting to a powerful representative of the Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya, instead of having a so-called guru who bills his disciples or sues them when they turn around and try to teach what he has written and taught.

First Vaishnava PhD at Oxford

Congratulations to Krishna Kshetra Dasa, who achieved his PhD at Oxford this month. A disciple of Srila Prabhupada who has preached Krishna consciousness extensively for more than twenty years in Europe, Krishna Kshetra has been studying at Oxford for the past four years.

His 90,000-word doctoral thesis is an exposition of deity worship, both in classical times and modern day. It bears the suitably scholarly title of The Grammar and Poetics of Murti Seva - Chaitanya Vaishnava Image Worship as Discourse, Ritual and Narrative.

He translates sections of the Hari Bhakti Vilasa, the handbook on ritual worship written by Sanatana Goswami under the orders of Lord Caitanya, and explains the relationship between the devotee and the deity with references to modern-day vaishnavas.

Although a very mature student at the age of 54, Krishna Kshetra explains that the academic path is beneficial for those devotees who feel so inclined. His own path of study has been facilitated by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, an initiative started by devotees in 1997. Krishna Kshetra will remain at Oxford for a period as a post-doctoral research fellow.

Devotees sell organic vegetables

Why pay a fortune for organic vegetables when you can get them by the boxload - delivered regularly to you from an organic farm run by devotees in Kent? Certified organic farm vegetables and seasonal fruits are available from ISKCON group member Pam Couchman. Please call her to discuss your requirements or just to find out what it's all about.

6000 trees and shrubs planted at Bhaktivedanta Manor

Sunday 29th February 2004 was the day when members of the 72-acre Bhaktivedanta Manor community pulled their boots on and took part in a remarkable devotional exercise: The planting of 6,000 trees and shrubs around the estate. The morning itself was met with snow, but it wasn't enough to impede progress.

James Clappison MP of Hertsmere, with his family, and Hertsmere Mayor Councillor Eddy Roach took part in a Vedic ceremony of planting the first two trees. With Sanskrit mantras chanted by priest Romapada das, the ceremony included the sprinkling of Vrindavan dust and the pouring of Ganges water. Also present were local representatives including John Howley, Chairman of the Aldenham Parish Council.

Reports from the groups

Oxford Vaishnavas come together for Gaura-Purnima

Tthe Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS), a study centre and affiliated group of students and scholars at Oxford, sponsored a gathering in the town on February 29th.

In a converted church, now the Asian Centre, 65 people came to enjoy the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, talks on the incarnation of Krishna known as Chaitanya, and a superb vegetarian feast. Arya dasi made all the arrangements, even down to the details like collecting carpet squares from all the carpet shops in town for guests to sit on. Dandakaranya das, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, prepared the excellent feast.

Members in Oxford, who are celebrating the attainment of the first PhD by resident Vaishnava Krishna Kshetra das, (a very mature student at 54!) aim to hold three such events every year.

...while over in Cambridge

In the other big university town of Cambridge, Michelle, Marianne, and Aharada have been cooking and serving the most delicious meals to a very grateful, and ever-increasing, number of hungry students. From humble beginnings last year their Monday evening Vegetarian Diners Club has swollen to around 45 customers every week.

For only £3.50 the students can eat all they can, choosing from the range of dishes on offer that week.

Dates for your calendar

See also: ISKCON UK Calendar

ISKCON Group leaders convention

The next convention for members who host or lead small ISKCON groups will be held on 9 May 2004 at the Nilands priory, near Bhaktivedanta Manor. More details to follow...

Congregational national weekend

19 June 2004 at the Manor will be set aside for members and their families for camping, meeting up with friends, free workshops and classes, and kirtana. The following day is London Rathayatra Festival. Procession from Hyde Park - this year with three chariots - to the feast and stalls in Trafalgar Square. Jaganatha Bathing Festival (Snana Yatra) will be 14 days previous on 6 June at the Manor.

October retreat

The retreat weekend for congregational members goes international this year, and will be held at the Radhadesh community in Belgium over the weekend of 22-24 October 2004. Please [click here or] contact Kripamoya for details.

It once happened

The British were in India and held great sway through the East India Company. One of their rewarding financial `arrangements' was to arrange for monies being paid to temples for their maintenance to instead be paid as a tax to them.

The Indian system is that endowments are often left by rich devotee patrons so that the Deity of the temple can be worshipped in perpetuity. And often the endowment was the entire village wherein the temple stood, along with all its fields, many of its rented houses and tithes. In the world-view of the Europeans this did not make sense. Why should taxes be paid to a sacred `image' in a temple and not to the ruling monarch or the empowered officers?

Sir Thomas Munroe, one of the East India Company officers in south India in the early part of the 19th century, was asked to `resume' one such endowment village: the small community of Mantralaya. On the appointed day he met with the elders of the temple who told him that he could pay his respects at the Samadhi (tomb) of the great Madhva saint who had established the temple - Sri Raghavendra Tirtha Swami.

Sir Thomas slipped off his shoes and entered the tomb. The onlookers then heard him talking with someone within. However, they could only hear Sir Thomas's voice and not the person he was talking to.

Several minutes later he emerged from the tomb with some yellow-coloured dry rice in his hand. He told the onlookers that he had just spoken to `the swami' who had convinced him of the irrevocability of the endowment and given him some Prasad, and was astonished when the elders told him who had given it to him!

Sir Thomas ordered the rice - Mantrakshate Prasad - to be cooked along with his evening meal and gave up any thought of `resuming' the taxes of the village to the British.

(This episode is found in a British newspaper of the time, The Madras Gazettier, which can still be viewed at the Collectorate in Anantapura)