Funny, huh?

Funny, how it's the Hare Krishnas who were the first to say that NASA didn't go to the Moon.

Now a days, of course, all the indisputable information is available on the net. That info is not from the Hare Krishnas but from mainstream Americans, some of whom are former employees of NASA. But when the first moon-landing was broad-cast in 1969 on TV, AC. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was watching. His disciples were watching it with him, and they were absolutely exuberantly exhilarated by the experience of a US moon-landing. Look, look Prabhupada he is walking on the moon. They eagerly pointed to Armstrong, staggering over the sand in slow motion.

This is not the moon, Prabhupada said in a grave voice.

This revelation was so shocking to his disciples that one of them left the movement. He simply couldn't accept that the US didn't go to the moon. But now, 40 years later, it is clear that they didn't go. It's so obvious. The technology has developed with quantum leaps since then. Naturally, by now, they would have a space station, colonies, and regular trips to and from the moon, exactly as they promised in 1969. At that time they had even sold some tickets for the next flight.

Now it's all public knowledge, but then nobody knew. The Hare Krishnas were the first ones to point out the hoax. Funny, huh?

To know about God and the real meaning of life you definitely have to to approach the Hare Krishnas, but even to know what goes on behind the scenes in the modern, contemporary culture, you need the Hare
Krishnas.

As usual the Vedic version reingns supreme.

Krishna says:

This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed. (Bg. 9.2)

The Original Sin

The basic illusion that covers the soul in the material world is that he thinks he's the enjoyer. Factually Krishna is the only enjoyer. The original sin is that we are envious of God's position as the only enjoyer. An objection often heard is, but how can I be envious of someone whom I don't believe exists?

The envy consists of, that we try to take Krishna's position as the enjoyer and controller. In reality everything exists in the spiritual realm  for Krishna's pleasure. Everything on the spiritual plane revolves around Krishna's enjoyment. But Krishna is so kind that He has made this material world, wherein the fallen souls can try and imitate Him as enjoyers and controllers.

Some souls have fallen, because, at one point in eternity, the idea arose in them - how come Krishna is the center of everything here? Why is He the only enjoyer? As soon as that idea manifests in the soul, he falls down to the material world.

The original position of the soul is to be enjoyed by Krishna. But in his deluded, fallen condition, the soul instead tries to enjoy a material body. So that is the original sin - to want to take Krishna's position as the enjoyer and controller. It's like a disease.

Sense-enjoyment or bodily enjoyment is like a narcotic for the soul. And in this connecttion I'd like to welcome you to AS - Anonymous Sense-enjoyers.

Sense-gratification is the adiction of the soul. We often talk about drug addictions. An addiction to heroin, for instance, is almost impossible to conquer. So just like a person is addicted to heroin, so the soul is addicted to sense-gratification.

In AA people get help overcoming their addiction to alcohol. At the first meeting you attend, you are supposed to state your name and recognize that you are an alcoholic. You go, hello, my name is Michael and I am an alcoholic. Hello Michael, the assembly answers.

Similarly, in AS you go, Hare Krishna, my name is Jiva, and I am a sense-enjoyer. Hare Krishna Jiva, the assembled devotees greet you. The addiction the soul has to sense-enjoyment is exactly as severe and as difficult to overcome, as a person's addiction to heroin.

In AA they teach you, that the only way to overcome your addiction alcohol, is to petition a higher power for help. You have to recognize a higher power outside yourself, and get help from that. And this metod works. It is a statistical fact.

In AS we are so fortunate, that by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada we know Who that higher power is, and we know how to contact Him. So by petitioning Krishna by constantly chanting his name loudly in song og quietly in meditation, He will help us overcone our addiction to sense-gratification. And it is a scientific fact that can be investigated and verified by anyone who may so desire.

If we refuse to accept that we are sense-enjoyment-addicts, in fact, if in stead we make it the goal of life, the result will be the disease of repeated birth and death. Some people will object, but life is not a disease. I have a good time in the material world. I don't suffer.

But the point is that all bodily enjoyment invariably ends in suffering sooner or later for the simple reason that the inevitable destination of the body is disease, old age, and death. This would be a depressing realization were it not for the fact that there is a solution - to return back to one's identity as Krishna's soul, meant to be enjoyed by Him. It can seem like a contradiction, but the truth is that if we wish to experience the highest form of happiness, we have to give up the futile attempt to become happy in the material world by bodily gratification and surrender fully to Krishna's enjoyment.

By assisting Krishna in His enjoyment the soul will experience a higher satisfaction than the happiness it can get from matter. And it is only in the human life-form that the option is there for the soul to return back to its original position of eternality, knowledge, and bliss. Eating, sleeping, mating, and defendig, the soul can do in any life-form. Only in the human form of life can it realize its original, eternal position and purpose.

Krishna says:

After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection. (Bg. 8.15)

The Western World - a Civilization of Animals

In the modern Coca-cola culture people are indoctrinated into believing that sense-enjoyment will create happiness for them. Indeed, sense-enjoyment is the only type of happiness the population is educated in.

Lets analyze what bodily and mental happiness is all about. Sex is regarded by most people to be the highest form of joy available in the world. But sex-lust and sex-enjoyment is merely an attempt to escape the suffering it is to be without sex. It's misery to live in forced celibacy. Anyone who has reached puberty can testify to that. Or eating. To eat is considered to be one of life's major enjoyments. But actually to eat is just an attempt to escape the suffering of hunger. People of the western culture don't know what it means to suffer from famine, but it is a great suffering experience by many people of the world.

And that's how it is with most of the enjoyment we seek and experience. Eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, are the four activities that are shared by all living entities. It is four  urges the human has in common with animals, birds, and all other living entities on the planet. In the modern world it has become the foremost goal to fulfill and satisfy these four animalistic urges. They have been made the standard of happiness and enjoyment in life. What do we do together with our loved ones, our family and friends? We eat, sleep, mate, and defend. The entire civilization revolves around these four principles. That is an animal civilization.

A human civilization is running on a whole other different set of principles. As a human one is expected to have a higher standard than the animals. One is expected to have higher goals in life than the mere chasing after basic, animal urges. In the modern Coca-cola culture entire industries have been created to fulfill these four needs. Billions of tons of iron are extracted from the earth to make pots, knives, forks, plates, serviettes, cups, and glasses etc. All of it, just to eat. Then they have more sense in India. They are more civilized. They eat with the fingers from a banana-leaf. In the west it is scoffed at as primitive and back-wards, but actually it shows a higher intelligence. No use for billions of tons of iron to make knives and forks. No dish-washing afterwards. You just throw your banana-leaf on the compost heap and wash your hands. How easy is that?

The fact is that the western civilization is over-consuming nature's ressources. It is a greedy, animalistic culture, which ruins the entire planet.

 Anyway, the happiness that can be obtained by surrendering to Krishna's enjoyment is so far superior to the happiness that one can squeeze out of matter, that sex with the most bautiful women in the world becomes like broken glass in comaprison.
And who is to be blamed for the fact that the modern world runs on animal principles? Atheism. Atheism reduces the human being to nothing more than an animal. But the human life-form is a unique opportunity for the soul to realize his real, eternal indentity. That the soul cannot realize in any other life-form. In other forms of life, the soul is merely busy with eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. The human form of life is a waste of time for the soul if it is not used to to learn how to love Krishna.

The soul can relate to Krishna as his master, his father, his son, his lover, or he can have a neutral relationship with Him. The point being, that Krishna is the only center. He is the beloved of the soul. When we love Krishna, Who is the root of everything, we automatically love all His parts and parcels - all other living entities. It's like watering a tree. One does not benefit the tree by pouring water on every its every leaf and branch. Water is poured on the root. Then the whole tree is nourished. In the same way all lving entities are benefitted, when one loves and serves Krishna - th4e root of all existence.

Krishna says:

This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed. (Bg. 9.2)

Eternity is a Choice

Anyone, regardless of his beliefs and convictions, can experience that he is a constant or eternal observer of existence.

Krishna says:

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. (Bg. 2.13)

What Krishna is saying here, is that one's body changes all the time from childhood, to youth, to old age. But the self or the I within, remains constant. One's mind and intelligence change, sure. You are are supposed to grow wiser with age. One's thoughts, feelings, will-power, and convictions change as time progresses.

But it is the same I-feeling, who experience all these changes. It is the same observer. The person stays the same despite the altercations in matter.

That is the eternal soul. It is the same person, or the same soul who sits in a child's body as the one who sits in the old man's body. The person didn't change, in the sense that he is the same observer. His thoughts and feelings and intelligence changed, but he remained the same soul. In this way anyone can experience his own eternality.

It's a question of absorption - either one is absorped in matter, which is in constant change. One is absorped in his thoughts, feelings, and will. Or one is absorped in one's eternal self. That means, one is absorped in observing one's thoughts, feelings, and will. IOW one is absorped in his own consciousness.

That is a choice one has. And one's choice will be determined by the way one is controlled by matter. When one's choice is motivated by the desire to become FREE from matter, then one begins his spiritual journey back home, back to Godhead.

Krishna says:

A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires - that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still - can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires. (Bg 2.70)

A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego - he alone can attain real peace. (Bg 2.71)

That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. If one is thus situated even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God. (Bg 2.72)

A Body Without a Head

Hard-core materialists and atheists like to judge the original Vedic social system according to the values and prejudice, they have been taught in the Western culture they grew up in. But the Vedic social system - varnashram dharma - is to be found all over the world.

Krishna says:

According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me. And although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the nondoer, being unchangeable. (Bg. 4.13)

In all human societies one can observe four types of human beings - the worker-type (skilled or unskilled), the merchant and business-type, the worrior and statesman-type, and the intellectual, priest or philosopher-type.

These four human types are to be found in all societies, and the varnashram social system, or the caste-system as it is infamously called, is merely a scientific description and organization of these different human types in society.

It is noteworthy, that Krishna says that the different human types are not to be determined by birth, but by one's ability and bodily tendency. Besides, before the Americans after WWII replaced the old traditions with their Coca-cola and Hollywood culture, people in Europe followed the varnashram system. The Church gave direction and defined the moral and ethics. The king ruled and enforced. The merchants and farmers traded, grew food, and created economy, and the worker, artist, and musician worked and entertained.

That the Church by time became corrupt and abused its power, is a different matter. The same thing happened in the Varnashrama social system in India, where the brahmins began to misuse and distort the system.

In an ideal society, the state governs in accordance with the directions of the sages and priests. But modern society is being run by the economy. It's the merchants who rule society and establishes its values and norms. That's why modern society is on its way over the brink.

Society can be likened to a body. The brahmins (the intelletual, the philosopher, the sage, the priest, and the teacher) are the head of the body. The Kshatriyas (the warrior, the king, the politician, military, and police) are the arms. The vaishyas (the farmer, the merchant, and the banker) are the belly; and the shudras (the worker, the skilled worker, the artist, the musician, the actor, and everyone who serves the other castes) are the legs.

The body is meant to be directed by the head. The function of the arms is to protect the body. The stomack's function is to nourish the body and distribute energy, and the function of the legs is to move the body here and there.

The modern Coca-cola society is a culture that is run by the belly. The merchants are in charge. It ought to be the head, but the modern society is more or less head-less. Or the head is governed by money. The present social body is bereft of a goal in life and long term-vision. It just stumbles along according to the dictation of its senses. Such a society, harmful and destructive as it is, naturally won't be allowed to dominate the world for long.

Nature is quite capable of regulating herself. That's why at the present moment, the modern western civilization is in the process of being demolished by nature. It is too harmful and destructive to nature and her inhabitants to be allowed to go on.

Krishna says:

This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, producing all moving and nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again. (Bg. 9.10)

Everyone is suffering

Everybody is suffering in material existence. The bottom line of existence in a material body is lamentation and suffering. That's how Krishna has designed this world. Why? Because He wants us back with Him.

Whatever good karma you may have as a result of previous pious activities, it all ends in birth and death and in between there is disease and old age. Nobody can escape it except by Krishna's help.

And we are slaves of our senses and mind. Only Krishna can reinstate us in real happiness. Real happiness is that happiness that never ends. The material world is bad because, seen from the point of view of our real existence as an eternal soul, it is all illusory and ends in death.

We need religion to connect with Krishna and experience the eternal reality. Re-legio, from Latin, means to re-connect. That's where the word Lego comes from - I connect. Funny enough, the word yoga, from Sanskrit, means the same - to connect.

The material world is not real, not because it doesn't exist, but because it is temporary. In the eternal existence of your real self, what you do in this life, all the pleasure and pain you experience, all your values and love for family, society and friends - it all takes place in a few seconds. This life in a material body is no more important or right or noble than what the ants are doing on your lawn.

And why is this important to know? Because otherwise we will remain trapped in samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death.

Our present reality is only what we have been taught and trained up to believe. There is another eternal reality which we can connect to by Krishna's grace. We may not want that. We may want to stay in samsara. And Krishna will make arrangement for that, too.

But should you want to experience the real reality - your eternal relationship with Krishna, then you can also do that. It's an opportunity that is only available to the soul in the human life-form.  All other life-forms - fish, plants, insects, reptiles, birds, and animals are all busy trying to enjoy their bodies, eating, sleeping, mating, and defending.

Even better is to connect with the Absolute Truth and the eal purpose of life. Whatever nice experiences you have in your body - sex, friendship, work, aspirations and so on, becomes like pieces of broken glass when compared to the pleasure that lies in connecting with Krishna.

Most religions don't reveal the original, complete version of God, but the Vaishnava-religion does. It is the only religion on the planet that has complete information about God. Nowhere else will we be able to learn who God is, and what He wants with us. It is a very rare opportunity in the human form of life to obtain this knowledge. Eating, sleeping, mating, and defending we can do in any life-form. Cock-roaches also have sex.

Krishna is a fact that can be experienced by anyone who engages in the proper method.

Krishna says:

My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence. (Bg. 9.1)

The Blind Masses

For the first time in history the broad masses have been given a voice in the public... via internet.

The broad masses don't understand how they are being manipulater and controlled by the ruling powers. Either privately or publically they simply express the dominating reality-version and philosophy of the times.

It has never before happened that illusion, ignorance and sin was spread far and wide to the public. Ones sinful activities and ignorance was kept to oneself. They weren't used to create public opinion. In earlier times, when people were more enlightened, the rallying around glorifying illusory, animalistic principles did not exist.

Since the society was ruled by godly powers, the public was being educated in spiritual pinciples. The population was not being told that there is no meaning to life - it's just about getting ahead and get the best out of it, the short time there is to one's dsiposal.

It's quite obvious that if the majority of people believe that this is the only life they have and will ever get, then it becomes a race to succeed. You think this is the only chance you'll ever get to enjoy your material body.

But ths whole set up is to make people into good consumers. If you tell people that the highest goal of life is to ean money and spend it, you create good consumers. People who are educated in the real meaning of life, does not make for good consumers, and that is not wanted in a consumer society.

Imagine what a culture it would make, if the majority of people were convinced of the fact that this present live is just one out of billion of lives we have been through in the 8.400.000 species of life. Vi have tried repeatedly to become satisfied by fulfilling basic bodily and mental needs.

The needs of the body is to eat, sleep, mate, and defend. And the needs of the mind is the longing for name, fame, and position in society. You want to be somebody.

Those desires are inherent in all humans. It's not something we can escape. That type of desires are called material desires. It is bodily lust. The body is material, the mind is material, so therefore the desires and lust to fulfill their desires are considered material.

Material desires are selfish. Oneself is the center for one's needs. The selfishness can be either contracted to oneself, or it can be extended to one's family, friends, and society, but one's own body is always the center of one's activities.

Material desires are nothing but distortions of the self's real desires to serve Krishna. One can eat for Krishna, sleep for Krishna, mate for Krishna, and defend for Krishna. That's what a proper human culture should educate its population in. When the majority of people agree to serve the same whole, Krishna, then it creates greater unity and feeling of belonging in the people.

In stead of seeing everyone else as a body different from yourself, you see them as a soul, the same as you. In this way all feelings of racism, social differences, and national pride are eradicated, because all souls are equal, parts and parcels of the same whole.

But now a days people are educated to just get ahead as best they can, because there is nothing else, and there never will be anything else - this life is your only chance to get your desires fulfilled.

Instead of centering people around God, people are centered around  what? a flag, a piece of cloth. Does it get more meaningless and illusory than that? There are actually people who are willing to die for their nation, but this nation is nothing but a temporary bodily identity. In the eternal existence of the soul it lasts a few seconds. Thus, everything that enforces our bodily identity are established by ungodly powers.

A society in which the majority of people think they are their bodies, is a sick society. Spiritually sick. We know everything materially but spiritually we are in the dark. We have forgotten how blissful it is to serve Krishha. That's our disease - to be absorbed in sensegratification.

And the only cure for this disease is the name of Krishna. It doesn't matter whether one is a Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan or a Buddhist, the proces is the same - to sing, recite or meditate on Krishna's name. If one has some sectarian prejudice against the original name of God, Krishna, one can chant Jehova, Jahve, Allah, Jesus, Manito, Buddha, Om, or Ram, doesn't matter, the point is to chant God's name. If the population does that, the world will undoubtedly become a better place to be.

Krishna says:

My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence. (Bg. 9.1)

This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.. (Bg. 9.2)