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)