We had to suffer such miseries as living in a womb

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MM 47: What person, even if most sinful, has ever said aloud the blessed name Narayana and failed to fulfill his desires? But we, alas, never used our power of speech in that way, and so we had to suffer such miseries as living in a womb.

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The magic jewel

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MM 30: He is the jewel riding on the back of Garuda, who carries away the Lord's devotees on his wings. He is the magic jewel protecting the three worlds, the jewellike cloud attracting the cataka-bird eyes of the gopis, and the jewel among all who gesture gracefully. He is the only jeweled ornament on the ample breasts of Queen Rukmini, who is herself the jewel of beloved consorts. May that crown jewel of all gods, the best of the cowherds, grant us the supreme benediction.

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Are men regarded as superior to women?

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There's a number of quotes from acharyas, you can find which is supporting your own view. If you are feminist, you can see quotes that are supportive to your views and if you are anti-feminist you can see the quotes that fits your perspective. If you put a red glass everything you see appears red. It's easy to manipulate the quotes of Acharyas in one angle and conclude biased opinions.

Woman reporter: What about women who do not have children?

Prabhupada: Well, that is also another unnatural thing. Sometimes they use contraceptives. They kill children, abortion. That is also not very good. These are all sinful activities. These are sinful activities, to kill child in the womb.

Prabhupada: Yes, that is a fact. In the history there is no woman who is a big philosopher, a big mathematician, big scientist, big educationist. We don’t find. They were all men.

Disciple: Women’s liberation has become successful because man is now the servant of woman.

Prabhupada: It is not successful. That I was pointing out. It has caused the disaster because the whole women become dependent on the welfare gift of the government, and the government has to raise tax heavily for this purpose. The tax is given by the general public, but it is going for one individual person, and I have heard that government is embarrassed.

Prabhupada: By nature’s way, if the husband takes care of the wife and children, this problem is solved immediately. But the man takes advantage. He goes away after making the woman pregnant. And the woman is embarrassed and the government is embarrassed.

Disciple: And the child grows up to be a criminal.

Prabhupada: Yes.

(Television interview with Srila Prabhupada, July 9, 1975, Chicago)

Reporter: Are men regarded as superior to women?
Prabhupada: Yes, naturally. Naturally, woman requires protection by the man. In the childhood she is protected by the father, and youth time she is protected by the husband, and old age she is protected by elderly sons. That is natural.
Female Reporter: That goes against the thinking of a lot of people in America now. Do you know that?
Prabhupada: No… America, maybe, but this is the natural position. Women require protection.
Female Reporter: Who decides who’s natural? And what’s natural?
Prabhupada: Natural means just like in psychology it is said that woman, the highest brain substance of woman is thirty-six ounce, whereas the highest brain substance of man is sixty-four ounce. So there is difference by nature, of the brain.

(News Interview with Srila Prabhupada, March 5, 1975, New York)

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Please grant me a place on the boat of devotion that is Your lotus feet.

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MM 13: O Lord of the three worlds, we are drowning in the vast ocean of samsara, which is filled with the waters of material hankering, with many waves of illusion whipped up by the winds of lust, with whirlpools of wives, and with vast schools of sharks and other sea monsters who are our sons and brothers. O giver of all benedictions, please grant me a place on the boat of devotion that is Your lotus feet.

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Prayer time!

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MM 4: O Lord Hari, it is not to be saved from the dualities of material existence or the grim tribulations of the Kumbhipaka hell that I pray to Your lotus feet. Nor is my purpose to enjoy the soft-skinned beautiful women who reside in the gardens of heaven. I pray to Your lotus feet only so that I may remember You alone in the core of my heart, birth after birth.

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Feminist propaganda in ISKCON

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Statistics by psychologists in UK among University students show that men & women can't be closely associating as friends & they usually end up having some attraction/intimate relationships.

There's been a lot of discussion of women becoming Diksha guru in our society. While there are some qualified devotee ladies who are transcendental and beyond bodily distinctions, it's not something which is easy for all future devotee ladies of our society.

Sri sampradaya has Lakshmi devi as the foremost guru in the line of succession but She is the Universal Mother and not all women can be compared with Her or take Her position. Same can be argued over and over, again and again by referring the wives of Pancha Tattva. But they are not ordinary souls but expansions of Lakshmi devi.

There's increasing Feminist leaders in ISKCON which is leading our society nowhere. Lots of groups siding with feminist on one side and with other extremism on the other side like women should not work outside, study etc. Feminist leaders harass men in different ways and make an unnatural society with boosted ego which is detrimental for the society. People as leaders who mislead the society to hell have more karma than those who mislead a family.

Exemplary women may preach to other women but coming outside to preach separately for men in private is not very good for them & is sure to cause many disasters as we have seen in the past in our society among even Sannyasis who have fallen prey to the weapons of maya. All these candidates who fell down were assessed and monitored for years before they got Sannyasa. Some very senior devotee Matajis older than 50/55 may be qualified but that's not the only standard for the diksha guru future of our society. What's the problem in women being siksha guru mothers who guide our society in the proper path? There are some qualities of women which will usually be there among women for the most part which is explained by Chanakya Pandit. Only those who are liberated from the modes of nature can be freed from such lowly qualities which are natural for women. Future of our society will be chaos, if this funny thing approved by the authority.

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Transcendental Vaccination

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"To get vaccination from the sense gratification is to absorb in transcendental ecstasy. To do that we need to have a strong desire. In a few days, months, years, if you are determined and if somehow you could convince Lord Nithyananda, "I don't have any other desire but to get back to You. You should please give me that little drop of mercy."

For Lord Nithyananda prabhu is very merciful. He doesn't see whether a person is qualified or not qualified. He is very liberal in giving that mercy. If someone has a desire for the mercy, then Lord Nithyananda is known to give. So it is very promising if we put our faith in Lord Nithyananda. If we put our aspirations at His Lotus Feet for that mercy, and if we get that, after that it is smooth sailing. Material happiness seem very insignificant.

All we need to do is avoid association with materialists, who bring us into a clouded condition where we forget our spiritual perspective and start acting mechanically on the material platform. We have to avoid that type of situation, continue engaging in devotional service with that little drop of nectar. That is what all devotees pray for. 'Kripa bindu Diya'- Give me that drop of mercy – that drop of mercy, which is the mercy of Lord Nithyananda.

HH Jayapataka Swami
From the book: Vaishnava Vani
Courtesy: Mathuradesh

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Reversals teach you lessons!

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Reversals teach you lessons!

When we get hit hard in many directions repeatedly for long enough period, we tend to always see no hope or way out due to the usual trend of going deep down. But there are times when things change and neither situation is permanent so why worry?

It's dualities, so things will change and alternate between good and bad, beautiful and ugly, kind and mean, friends and enemies, good health and disease, winter and summer, wealthy and poor, sane and insane and so on which is an endless list. How long we Identify ourselves with the situations and the dualities depends on how much we realize when we go through these extremes and one day we will understand that we have nothing to do here with what's happening in this world but to look internally and be self satisfied.

"O best among men [Arjuna], the person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both is certainly eligible for liberation.

The difficulties usually arise from having to sever family relationships, to give up the connection of wife and children. But if anyone is able to tolerate such difficulties, surely his path to spiritual realization is complete. Similarly, in Arjuna's discharge of duties as a kṣatriya, he is advised to persevere, even if it is difficult to fight with his family members or similarly beloved persons. Lord Caitanya took sannyāsa at the age of twenty-four, and His dependents, young wife as well as old mother, had no one else to look after them. Yet for a higher cause He took sannyāsaand was steady in the discharge of higher duties. That is the way of achieving liberation from material bondage."

-Bhagavad Gita 2.15

"O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed."

- Bhagavad Gita 2.14

Best Regards

Dinesh

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Disorder has invaded all our relations

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Extracted from an article "With Krsna in the Peaceable Kıngdom"

By Ravindra Svarupa Das

The material body of every living being is animated by a spiritual soul, who is the eternal offspring of Krsna. Each souls individual history of good or bad deeds causes him to become fastened into a higher or lower body, yet all souls remain in essence equal as children of God. God never forgets them, and a godly person, Krsna tells us, sees all animate beings as spritually equal sparks of the divine (Bg.5.18).

But if we forgt God and consequently develop eclipsed material vision, the transcen- dental unity of the eludes us. Once we have become estranged from Krsna, we become estranged from all other living beings-even those of our own kind. thesymptom of our divorce from God is our inability to sustain peaceful, harmonious, loving realtions with others. We incessantly make war upon our fellow humans, and we wantonly prey upon innocent animals, needlessly slaughtering them for food. At the same time we feel a need to rectify all our reationships—within our own families and communities, among races and nations, and between humans and subhumans.

Yet the disorder that has invaded all our relations is a symptom of one central enduring dislocation—our severance from God. Only when that is repaired will the disruption between ourselves and all other beings be healed.