Quotes from the Mahabharata 15

Seeking refuge in Krishna

After the battle of Kurukshetra was over, the Sraddha ceremony for the departed souls was performed, but Bhishma had still not departed and continued to lie on the bed of arrows as he waited for the sun to move towards the north.

Yudhistira went to consult with Krishna and found Krishna deep in meditation.

“Returning to external consciousness, Krishna replied, “That foremost of men, Bhishma, who now lies on a bed of arrows and is like a fire about to be extinguished, is thinking only of me.  Thus my mind is also concentrated on him.  My mind is fixed in him, the twang of whose bow and the slaps of whose palms even Indra could not bear…. Controlling his senses and concentrating his mind fully on me, Ganga’s son seeks my refuge.  It was for this reason that I fixed my mind on him.”

Quotes from the Mahabharata 14

Duty of a householder

A man who gives up his duty is condemned and defeated. On the other hand, one who performs his duty only because it ought to be done, and who lives on the remnants of sacrifice after he has made offerings to the Supreme and to kinsmen, ancestors, gods and guests- that man attains to goals which are normally difficult to achieve. Indeed there is nothing more difficult than the life of a dutiful householder, which in the end leads to genuine detachment from all worldliness. This is the surest path of righteousness.”

As spoken by Indra and retold by Arjuna to his brothers.

Quotes from the Mahabharata 13

Krishna cursed by Gandhari

Gandhari was the wife of Drhitarashtra. From the day of their wedding she had covered her eyes with a blindfold so she would not be superior to her blind husband. Due to this and other austerities she had performed, Gandhari had accumulated a lot of ascetic power. Because Bhima had killed her son Duryodhana in an underhanded way (he had hit him below the waist with his club), the Pandavas feared Gandhari’s anger and begged Krishna to go and pacify her.

As Krishna went before Gandhari, she said ” The Pandava’s and Kauravas have been rooted out, O Krishna, even before your eyes. Why were you indifferent to them? You could have prevented the slaughter. O Madhava, since you deliberately allowed this universal destruction, you should now feel the consequences. By whatever little merit I have aquired by serving my husband, I curse you, O holder of the discus. Since you callously allowed the Kurus and Pandavas to kill one another, so you will be the destroyer of your own kinsmen. O Govinda, on the 36th year from now you will kill your own family members in a fratricidal fight, finally dying yourself by foul means. The ladies of your family will thus weep even as the Kuru ladies are now doing.”

Krishna bowed his head and folded his palms. “Your words will be true, O chaste lady. There are none in this world who can exterminate the Vrishnis and Yadavas. In delivering this curse you have assisted me, for I have been wondering how to take my kinsmen back out of this world. Neither gods nor Gandharvas, nor Asuras can kill them. They will therefore slay each other.”

This is all Krishna’s divine arrangement.

Quotes from the Mahabharata 12

Lord Shiva appears on the battlefield.

“When they reached their encampment, the Pandavas saw that Vyasadev had arrived. Arjuna got down from his chariot and went over to the sage. Bowing and touching his feet, he said, “O all-opulent one, I have seen something today which inspired me with great wonder. As I released arrows toward my foes, I saw before me a male being, shining like fire. He held a blazing trident and whichever way he turned, my enemies were burned and destroyed. Although he never hurled his trident, nor any other weapon, his energy alone seemed to annihilate my foes. Who is this personality, O great sage?”

Placing his hand on Arjuna’s head, who still knelt before him, Vyasadev replied, “O son of Kunti, you have seen Shankara, the great destroyer of the worlds.  Out of his love and respect for Krishna, he walks before your chariot, scorching your enemies with his irresistible energy.  Even the powerful universal protectors could not stand before him.  Go forth and fight with confidence, O Dhananjaya.  Defeat is not for one who has Janardana by his side.”"

Can we offer non vegetarian cheese?

I already had an inkling that the milk offered to the deities is pesticide/fish/antibiotic filled milk from abused and then slaughtered factory farmed cows. So I can’t say I am really surprised. But what I was shocked to learn today is that the temple restaurant serves NON vegetarian cheese. That is, cheese containing rennet aka calf stomach. Not only does rennet come from slaughtered calves, but usually from those kept in “veal crates”(see picture below). How is that acceptable in a vegetarian restaurant let alone a temple restaurant?

Just talking briefly with one friend, here’s what she explained to be the reason for this.

-They use a lot of cheese, vegetarian cheese is expensive

-Most of the people who come to the restaurant aren’t vegetarian anyway.

-Those who are strict vegans don’t eat cheese anyway.

I would just like to know what the Iskcon standard is. Is it acceptable that the restaurant serves non vegetarian items? Where do they draw the line? Will it soon be ok to serve subji made with chicken stock? Whats the difference…cow stomach or chicken?…actually chicken stock would be less sinful.

During the day, the restaurant serves mostly vegan prasadam. If they can’t afford vegetarian cheese, why not just stick to vegan items? The cost to eat there now is about $7. Will people really stop coming if they have to pay $1 more for something vegetarian?

Dallas is a rich city, on top of that, there is the latest craze of organic food, and locally grown food. Those restaurants jumping on the organic locally grown bandwagon are gaining in popularity. People are willing to pay for quality. Just go to Wholefoods on the weekend and see how many hundreds of people are willing to pay maybe double for something natural/organic/local.

I guess I am a very overly sensitive person when it comes to animals. When I see leather shoes, I see the slaughtered animal. There’s a direct link there. I’ll look through every pair of shoes on the rack just to find my daughter a pair thats not leather. When I see non vegetarian cheese I see the baby calf getting his stomach ripped out. I feel sick to my stomach and tears come to my eyes. To me, this is not Krishna Consciousness.

I would like to know if there is some GBC resolution or guideline as to what is acceptable to offer to the deities/Prabhupada and what is not. Because if it is considered acceptable to offer milk containing fish, blood etc to the deities and non vegetarian cheese to Prabhupada, then I would just like to know.

Personally I think that the strength of Iskcon will be in it’s purity. Purity of chanting, purity of sadhana, purity of bhoga offered to the deities. Strength in quality rather than quantity. If we trully claim to love cows and protect cows then why do we not act on these words?

These are calves in veal crates in the US. These calves are not being transported, this is where they live. This is the worst kind of sinful treatment of Krishna’s beloved calves. How can we say we love cows, yet indirectly support this horrific industry?

The greatest thief

Yesterday afternoon, walking in the back yard while Kalyani was napping, I noticed the door to the shed was open.  Sometimes I find it blown open by the wind.  It’s an old door and doesn’t latch well.  Then I noticed many of my garden tools-leaf blower, edger etc laying outside.  I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach and looked inside the shed.  Sure enough, one side had been emptied out.  The thieves had taken everything out from one side and neatly laid on the ground the things they didn’t want.  They made off with the lawn mower and a ladder.  That’s all I could recall that was missing.  The ladder I can understand, but I can’t imagine there are too many other hippys out there looking for an earth friendly reel mower in a pawn shop.  The strangest thing is, they were so neat and tidy and careful with everything.  Nothing was damaged and apart from those 2 things they left everything else behind.  I called the police to report it and the officer told me, of course, there’s not much they can do.

So now my bubble of security has been burst and all the gates and shed doors have been padlocked.  Windows will be closed at night, and because we don’t have a garage, we’ll need to find somewhere to store our cars when we are in NZ for a month.

These petty thieves reminded me of the greatest thief.  The thief of illusion and desire.  This thief tries to steal Krishna from us so subtly and quietly, in the dead of night, when we are lost in sleep, letting the mind run free.

I pray that one day I will be free from attachment to maintenance, property and even personal security.  That I may simply be absorbed in Krishna without any care for the thieves of desire.

Quotes from the Mahabharata 11

Just see how much Krishna fulfills the desires of his devotees.

It came to the time during the battle where Bhishma was fighting against Arjuna. Two of the most powerful warriors in the universe. Both of them suffering out of affection for each other. Still Arjuna could not gain the upper hand and Krishna became mad, desiring to kill Bhishma himself.

He leapt from the chariot, and because he had taken a vow not to fight he instead picked up a chariot wheel, raising it above his head as if it was his own Sudarshan chakra. He ran towards Bhishma as a lion might run toward an elephant. The end of his yellow silk garment fluttered in the dusty air, resembling lightening dancing in a dark cloud.

Bhishma’s limbs trembled and his eyes flooded with tears. Here was the Lord of the universe breaking his own promise, to protect his devotee.

Arjuna was mortified that Krishna might be ridiculed for his dishonesty, so he too jumped from the chariot running after Krishna. Krishna had covered almost half the distance toward Bhishma and as Arjuna reached him he grabbed a hold of his legs. But even with Arjuna holding on he continued to run toward Bhishma. After some steps, Krishna came to a stop. Arjuna released his legs and prayed to him to quell his anger and promised to fight like he had never fought before, making good his promise to annihilate the Kurus.  Krishna was pacified and the two returned to Arjuna’s chariot.

At the same time Krishna fulfilled the desires of both his devotees. Arjuna’s, in that Krishna was prepared to break his promise in order to protect him, and Bhishma’s, in that as a great devotee of the Lord in the mood of a servant, Bhishma had a strong desire to see the Lord raise a weapon to fight against him. Indeed, this pastime of Krishna raising the chariot wheel and running toward Bhishma would always stay etched in Bhishma’s heart.

Quotes from the Mahabharata 10

Bhisma speaks to Duryodhana during the battle of Kurukshetra.

“O Duryodhana, you have already heard that Krishna and Arjuna are the two ancient rishis, Narayana and Nara. Know too that the many kings and kshatriyas fighting with them are expansions of the gods. The Pandavas themselves are all former Indras from different ages. Through them Krishna will execute his divine plan to kill the demons, who have amassed as your army, O King. Krishna’s will is infallible. He is the supreme mystery, the supreme shelter, and the supreme glory. Do not disregard him, thinking him an ordinary man. You should worship that undeteriorating being of endless energies. the wise say that one who thinks Krishna to be an ordinary man is a fool and a sinner.”

Caring for Tulasi Devi

This year I have been fortunate to grow healthy and strong Tulasi plants.  This is the first year we are in Dallas, so I wasn’t quite sure how the plants would hold up in the 100 degree heat.  But so far, they are doing great.  There is a huge difference growing Tulasi here in Dallas than in CT.  With 8 months of bitter cold up there, it was a real struggle for her to survive indoors.

Even in Dallas though, I’ve found I use the greenhouse all the time.  We have a 20 year old green house in our garden.  It’s not that efficient, but at night, and during bad weather Tulasis are better protected.  Plus, supplemental artificial lighting has been necessary with all the rain and floods this year.  I’m not sure how they’ll do in the winter, I have to set up some sort of indoor lighting as I don’t think a heater in the greenhouse will cut it.

So far, caring for these Tulasis I have learnt:

-They germinate best indoors out of the heat.  All my seeds came up within 3 days.  The ones outdoors did not come up at all.  Cover them in gladwrap and as soon as they pop through remove it.

-Keep the young seedlings out of hot sun- Turning purple means heat damage.  I introduced mine gradually outdoors and now they stay out all day, even in 100 degrees.

-I’ve found the best soil is seed starting mix.  Better than organic potting mix and anything else.  Seed starting mix is very fine and the seeds I planted in this grew at least 4 times as fast as those planted in other types of soil. (I tried StayGreen with Aqua Guard, Organic Potting mix, a heavier sand soil and regular seed starting mix).

These top seedlings are in organic potting mix, I don’t have any pics of the seeds in the seed starter mix.  The lower 2 pics are in seed starter mix.

Quotes from the Mahabharata 9

Vyasadev blesses Sanjaya to be able to see the battle

Right before the war was to begin, Sanjaya was talking with Dhritarastra when Vyasadev entered the chamber. The rishi who could see past, present and future, said,

“O great king, your sons and all the other kings have now arrived at the end of their lives. They have assembled for battle and will all kill one another. Remembering the changes that are inevitably brought about by time, do not grieve. O child if you wish to see the battle, I will give you the ability. “ (Vyasadev is Dhritarastras father)

“Dhritarastra sighed. “I do not desire to see my sons die, O great sage. Simply let me hear of the battle.”"

“Then I shall bestow the ability to see upon Sanjaya”, Vyasadev replied. “By my grace he will be able to see everything that takes place at Kurukshetra. With celestial vision he will be able to see even things that are concealed and all that happens at night. He will feel no exhaustion for the duration of the war. As for victory, that will occur wherever there is righteousness. Regardless of who wins, however, you should know that almost all the warriors on both sides will be slain. This is what the omens say.”