Sit Properly

Local ISKCON Temple Holds Clearance Sale on Hindu Samskaras

PARAMUS, NJ – In their latest newsletter, ISKCON temple president, Mahavikas das announced that area brahmins will be holding a two-month long clearance sale to make way for new Samskaras.

“The assembled devotees would be crazy to miss out on such an auspicious event,” Mahavikas said. “But with the new samskaras coming in, the old ones must go, go, go.”

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“Mleccha Western culture naturally causes a person to become an inhuman monster and go to hell.”

Well… what about THIS!?

And after seeing this, I’m betting neither culture is safe!

That there are three new changes you should know about.

First, at the request of Ekendra prabhu, The Hing has added a link at the end of each article that allows you to print the article. Also, if you just go to print it the normal way, it will look pretty good too.

Second, there is again a link at the end of each article that allows you to email the article to a friend. Much of The Hing’s traffic comes from devotees emailing it to other devotees. Thanks! Hope this makes it easier.

Third, there is now a “Contact” link at the top of the page. If you want to send The Hing some love letters or just have something to say that really doesn’t belong in the comments section, feel free to click “Contact” and tell The Hing how you feel.

Also, while there isn’t really a call for submissions, if you’ve got ideas, we’d love to hear them. (Use the contact form on TheHing.com for that).

Also, also, The Hing’s “hey we’re here!” notice just ran on Chakra. There were 320 hits on the site from that in under 24 hours. Now, 320 might seem like small potatoes to most ISKCON news sites, but it’s not too bad on our end. Just as FYI, we get about 150 hits when we post an article and an average of 20 – 30 hits on days that we don’t.

Thanks!

In recent memory there are two gurus within ISKCON who have “fallen down.” One guru covered it up and seemingly had ISKCON cover it up for awhile, then came clean and is now a retired guru/retired sannyasi. The other guru simply left and started a new life.

And so here I am, trying to figure out which is better. Clearly, neither are ideal.

A guru is the person who will be taking you back to Godhead. S/he is a liberated soul and a pure devotee. Obviously, any fall down is pretty well proof (in my book) that this person isn’t presently qualified. Yes, there is certainly redemption and the healing power of bhakti is something not to be taken lightly. However, neither of these ex-gurus have sought redemption (and neither of them have gotten it).

In the first case (Satsvarupa), he lied for two decades, making one of his disciple’s lives hell just so he could be around her. He then had a sexual relationship with her. Yeah, he fell down and there is redemption that can take place, but he doesn’t seem concerned about it. Especially seeing how he covered it up for 20 or so years. Why? Wasn’t there another option?

In the second case (Vipramukhya), he stepped down. He simply stopped being a devotee. He met a woman (who is now his wife) online, started a relationship with her and then stepped down. Now, leaving the devotees is not a good thing, but it seems like he didn’t know what else to do.

While both cases had different outcomes, the situations were strangely similar. Each were in a role that they could not play. Each tried to maintain standards they could not maintain. And though one chose to stay and one chose to leave, they each did so for the same reason.

But here’s the thing. I don’t know what that reason is.

In Satsvarupa’s case, he’s clearly not much more of a sannyasi than I am. Yet there he is, in the garb of a sannyasi, being seen and treated as a sannyasi (even though he has the status of “retired”). Why didn’t he step down? Why didn’t he put on white (or just blue jeans), continue with his painting and writing and just be a normal devotee?

And in Vipramukhya’s case, I could tell that he wasn’t on the up and up by the way his web page was changing. He was doing things on it that weren’t quite what a sannyasi should be doing. Nothing “bad” of course, but just indicators. And soon after that, he announced that he was stepping down to get married and also leaving the association of devotees. Why couldn’t he just put on white and be a regular grhasta?

Why couldn’t these two supposedly pure devotees take the humble position and still remain devotees? I don’t know. But in both cases it’s sad.

It’s sad in Satsvarupa’s case because he’s still playing a role that he’s clearly not meant to play. And it’s sad in Vipramukhya’s case because he’s no longer a devotee.

Folks, we really just have to allow each other to be honest. If our gurus and sannyasis can’t be gurus and sannyasis, at least let them be devotees. It does nobody any good if our gurus and sannyasis are fake. And it does nobody any good if our senior devotees (who were once gurus and sannyasis) leave.

But this is the situation that we put them in. This is because of the pressure that we apply.

All that said, I believe I’ve got more respect for Vipramukhya in his decision. While he left the association of devotees, which isn’t good, he didn’t lie for 20 years, falsely initiating devotees who thought he was pure. He met a woman and decided to leave. He didn’t stick around to make a huge mess that we’d have to make lame ass excuses for. He didn’t put us, as devotees, in a position where we have to create a whole new institution (that of “retired” sannyasi and guru). And most importantly, I don’t feel that Vipramukhya lied to us. Satsvarupa did quite a bit and we still don’t know the whole story. Yet, the “honest” one is gone and the other one is still worshiped.

I don’t have any answers, and I apologize for this basically becoming a rant, but it’s really something we should take a look at.

This is probably not a very widely circulated recording, but it’s typical Acyutananda Swami. Check out the far out Tulasi Arati. Well worth it.

KT-18 – Acyutananda Swami – Hindi Bhajans

1. Sri-guru-carana-kamala
2. Krsna Jinlka
3. Radhe Shyama
4. Jaya Radhe
5. Tulasi Arati
6. Jaya Radha Madhava
7. Vande Krsna
8. Yasomatinandana
9. Hare Krsna

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Study Proves Old ISKCON Adage about Women and Cows

KANSAS CITY – A recent study conducted by Kamadeva das brahmacari has scientifically proven the old ISKCON proverb that a woman is ten times lustier than a cow. Kamadeva began this research while working on his doctoral thesis for the Rupanuga Vedic College last summer. In order to complete the degree, Kamadeva was required to scientifically prove the controversial vedic axiom true.

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There’s been a couple of articles on eclipses in the past couple of weeks, which makes sense since we’ve had two eclipses in the past couple of weeks.

The devotee writer (who, I believe is Canadian) admonishes the world for thinking eclipses are pretty cool things and believes that if we all knew just how bad they were, we’d name them like we do hurricanes. He named the first one “Kamsa” and the second one “Putana.”

In the first article, which I unfortunately can’t find, he described two events that happened because of Kamsa Eclipse. One was that Lila was raped and murdered (which kind of takes the blame off of the psycho who killed her) and some trouble at Prabhupada’s samadhi (the only trouble that I could find there, aside from the normal trouble, was that a mataji needed a projector bulb).

But it was the time between the two eclipses that he devoted his next long, rambling article to. Which is pretty convenient. It’s much easier to find really bad things if you widen when these really bad things occur.

He posts an article from Yahoo news about how crappy last week was to back up what he’s saying. And it really was crappy.

His article, which was written on Feb 19, then warns us that more is to come! The eclipse, then, was only two days away!

Well, nothing all that bad happened in the next two days. The eclipse was last night and it was pretty neat. I tried to get a few pictures of it, but I have no tripod. But I digress, because he isn’t finished.

It’s not just the day of the eclipse that is bad. Oh no. “After Eclipse Putana, the problems foreshadowed by the eclipse are not likely to dissipate immediately, for an EFI (eclipse field of influence) can be expected to last for another month or so.”

A month or so? Well heck! A ton of crappy things can happen in the next month or so! The first eclipse was a month ago, the second was last night. And now there may be as many as two more months? That’s three whole months! Come on! Of course bad things are going to happen then!

He does then go on to say that the material world is a pretty bad place and there are bad things at every step and that we need to chant Hare Krishna. I agree. And that’s the same reason that I disagree with this eclipse thing. There are always bad things happening. Eclipse or no eclipse.

It’s not that I disagree with astrology. I find some merit in it. But ultimately find it amazingly unimportant.

In recent memory, there have been three pretty bad disasters: 9/11, Katrina and the Tsunami. There have been more, but really, those are the three big bad ones. Were there eclipses during those times? I haven’t done the research (because, again, it really doesn’t matter), but I’m willing to bet that no, there were no eclipses.

So if bad things can happen “at every step,” why care about eclipses? Why write long rambling articles about them (a question that I’m asking myself as well!)?

I do think it’s a bit goofy to focus on these things. There seems to be little proof that eclipses cause bad things to happen, since bad things (and good things) are happening all the time.

Besides, Caitanya Mahaprabhu was born during an eclipse. Kind of makes them all right with me.

And in honor of such a festive event, here’s quite a great class given by Varsana Swami sometime in the 80’s. You’ll dig it lots.

Haribol!

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Here’s a tape full of some rather traditional sounding bhajans. Sat-Cit-Ananda das takes side one while Dheer Krsna das has side two.
Side one, the first four songs, seem really well produced. Side two, on the other hand, have more of a home grown feel to them. I personally like side two better, but that’s just me.

KT-17 – Temple of the Mind – Sat-Cit-Ananda das & Dheer Krsna das

1. Mama Mana Mandira
2. Bhaja Hure-Mana
3. Ani Yamuna Puline
4. Narada Muni
5. Jaya-Radha-Madhava
6. Krsna-Jinlki-Nam
7. Damodarastaka
8. Hare Krsna
9. Guruvastaka

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Ex-ISKCON Guru Now Ex-Ithaca Car Salesman

ITHACA – Ex-ISKCON guru, John O’Brien, is now also an ex-Ithaca car salesman, closing his doors after a scandal-rocked year.

The Ithacar Used Carlot in Ithaca, NY opened in spring of 2002, several months after O’Brien stepped down from the post of ISKCON guru due to sexual misconduct and what he calls “financial misunderstandings.”

But it was those “financial misunderstandings” that O’Brien insists gave him the business skills to establish the Ithaca-based business.

“You’d be surprised how similar the two jobs were,” Says O’Brien, whose skills as guru naturally lead him into the used car business.

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