Scientists Finally BEElieve

We can see by simple empiricism that a bumblebee flies. Common sense tells us it is flying. For those of you have never seen a bumblebee in flight, the above photo is a 2D representation of this flight.

For those who can't believe anything unless it is in scripture, bumblebee flight is also confirmed there:

She(Radha) addressed the bumblebee, "Your master Krsna is exactly of your quality. You sit down on a flower, and after taking a little honey you immediately fly away and sit in another flower and taste."

KB 47: Delivery of the Message of Krsna to the Gopis

Despite all this evidence, scientists for years have said that it is impossible for a bumblebee to fly, according to the laws of physics. Well, at last that can be laid to rest, and now even scientists believe they can fly:

"Combining robotic modelling with slow-motion videos of airborne honeybees may have helped researchers explain the curious aerodynamics of bee flight.

Aeronautical engineers had previously “proven” that bees cannot fly. So Michael Dickinson, an insect flight expert and colleagues at Caltech in Pasadena, California, US, decided to investigate the forces actually at work during honeybee flight.

In 1996, Charlie Ellington at Cambridge University, UK, showed how vortices rolling along the leading edge of many insects’ wings were a vital source of lift.

Most flying insects beat their wings in large strokes – typically flapping in arcs of 145° to 165° at a frequency determined by body size – to generate aerodynamic forces sufficient for flight. But this cannot explain how a heavy insect with a short wing beat, such as a bee, generates enough lift to fly..."

Secrets of Bee Flight Revealed - Complete Article

Wake Up and Find That the Joy of God Is Everywhere

"The symptoms of a sadhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime."

SB 3.25.21

“Be content that you are not yet a saint, even though you realize that the only thing worth living for is sanctity. Then you will be satisfied to let God lead you to sanctity by paths that you cannot understand. You will travel in darkness in which you will no longer be concerned with yourself and no longer compare yourself to other men. Those who have gone by that way have finally found out that sanctity is in everything and that God is all around them. Having given up all desire to compete with other men, they suddenly wake up and find that the joy of God is everywhere, and they are able to exult in the virtues and goodness of others more than ever they could have done in their own. They are so dazzled by the reflection of God in the souls of the men they live with that they no longer have any power to condemn anything they see in another. Even in the greatest sinners they can see virtues and goodness that no one else can find. As for themselves, if they still consider themselves, they no longer dare to compare themselves with others. The idea has now become unthinkable. But it is no longer a source of suffering and lamentation: they have finally reached the point where they take their own insignificance for granted. They are no longer interested in their external selves.”

From New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton.

New York: New Directions, 1972. P. 59-60

Agribusiness Ox

A Short History of Medicine

I have an earache...

2000 B.C. - Here, eat this root.
1000 A.D. - That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1850 A.D. - That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
1940 A.D. - That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
1985 A.D. - That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.
2000 A.D. - That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root.

"But it is I who am the ritual, I the sacrifice, the offering to the ancestors, the healing herb, the transcendental chant. I am the butter and the fire and the offering."

Bhagavad-Gita 9.16

New Vrindavan Mataji

New Vrindavan stopped breeding cows on a large scale back in about 1991. Since the principle is life time protection, there are still close to 100 cows here ages 15 years old and older. The above picture is of a cow I would guessestimate to be about 15.

Most people have never even seen an old cow as the males are usually slaughtered between 18-24 months old and the cows slaughtered as soon as they are economically nonviable, which can be as young as 7 years old in the factory farms that produce most of the milk these days.

Less Cluttered Brains 'Aid Memory'

"An ability to ignore information rather than take it in prevents people from being scatterbrained, it has been claimed. New research shows that it is not extra "storage space" in the brain that gives a person a good visual memory. Rather, it is the extent to which the brain refuses to let itself be cluttered with useless information..."

Link to full article.

"When one's intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all fixed in the Supreme, then one becomes fully cleansed of misgivings through complete knowledge and thus proceeds straight on the path of liberation."

Bg 5.17

Morse Code Mantra

"We are chanting. You can chant with us and practice it, and there is no hard and fast rules and regulation. You can chant anyway, anywhere. Whether you are in the college, whether you're on the street, whether you are sleeping, lying, or whatever, you can chant. Because God has given you this tongue and you can chant. And this Hare Krsna mantra, a dog or cat cannot chant although he has got the tongue. So you have got the facility. By God's mercy you have got this facility to chant the holy name of God."

Lecture at Harvard University -- Boston, December 24, 1969

Even in morse code?

.... .- .-. . -.- .-. ... -. .-
.... .- .-. . -.- .-. ... -. .-
-.- .-. ... -. .- -.- .-. ... -. .-
.... .- .-. . .... .- .-. .

.... .- .-. . .-. .- -- .-
.... .- .-. . .-. .- -- .-
.-. .- -- .- .-. .- -- .-
.... .- .-. . .... .- .-. .

Morse Code Translator

Roof of Hell

In this world
we walk on the roof of hell,
gazing at flowers.

(Kobayashi Issa)

This World of Dew

This world of dew
is only a world of dew -
and yet

(Issa)



"His mouth was beautifully decorated with His natural smile, and He appeared all the more lovely with His reddish eyes spread wide like the petals of a newly grown lotus flower covered with dew in the early morning. The irises of His eyes were so pleasing that they removed all the troubles of everyone who saw Him."

SB 5.5.31

Speaking With Animals

"Krsna and Balarama learned how to speak and understand the languages of various countries. Not only did They learn the languages of human beings; Krsna could also speak even with animals and birds."

KB 45: Krsna Recovers the Son of His Teacher

"Squirrels can be very vocal animals, as backyard and park observers know, and now scientists have translated some of their squirrel-speak.

The findings, published recently in the journal Animal Behavior, present some of the most detailed information to date on squirrel vocalizations, which the researchers now believe constitute a complex language that is unique to the animals..."

Full Story of Gopher Language Translation by Scientists

Butterfly wings work like LEDs

"We can see how a flower blooms and grows and systematically displays multicolors: one side a little spot, another side a little spot, white on one side, more white on the other side. The butterfly also exhibits such artistic symmetry. So this is all being painted, but in such a perfect way and so swiftly that we cannot see how. We cannot understand how it is being done, but it is being done by the energy of the Lord."

SSR 8 Attaining aperfection: Knowing the Purpose of Life

"When scientists developed an efficient device for emitting light, they hadn't realised butterflies have been using the same method for 30 million years. Fluorescent patches on the wings of African swallowtail butterflies work in a very similar way to high emission light emitting diodes (LEDs).

These high emission LEDs are an efficient variation on the diodes used in electronic equipment and displays..."

Full Story on LEDs and Butterflies

The Origin of Dogmatic Fundamentalism

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when any monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Again, replace a third original monkey with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well. Two of the four monkeys that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing the fourth and fifth original monkeys, all the monkeys which have been sprayed with cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs. Why not? Because that's the way it's always been around here.

And that's how dogmatic fundamentalism begins.

Humane Milking

Hari-sauri: Oh. At the same time they're milking the cow, the calf can come.
Prabhupada: Yes. They can bring it milk. And while milking, the calf may be standing before the mother.
Hari-sauri: They do that in India.
Prabhupada: So she will not be sorry. Completely separation is not good. And after birth at least for one week the calf should be allowed. Because after this giving birth the milk is not fit for human consumption. The calf should not be allowed to eat more, but at the same time the mother must see once, twice, then it will be all right. Of course, we are born in big, big towns, we do not know, but I know this is the process. In Allahabad I was keeping cow, there was facility.

Disguised Greed is not Sacrifice

“We have to recognize that a spirit of individualism and confusion has reduced us to an ethic of ‘every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’ This ethic, unfortunately sometimes consecrated by Christian formulas, is nothing but the secular ethic of the affluent society, based on the false assumption that if everyone is bent on making money for himself the common good will automatically follow, due to the operation of economic laws.

An ethic of barely disguised selfishness is no longer a Christian ethic. Nor can we afford to raise this to the national level and assume that the world will adjust itself if every nation seeks its own advantage before everything else. On the contrary, we are obliged to widen our horizons and to recognize our responsibility to build an international community in which the right of all nations and other groups will be respected and guaranteed. We cannot expect a peaceful world society to emerge all by itself from the turmoil of a ruthless power struggle – we have to work, sacrifice and cooperate to lay the foundations on which future generations may build a stable and peaceful international community. Every Christian is involved in this task, and consequently every Christian is obliged to seek information and form his conscience so that he may be able to contribute his own share of intelligent political action toward this end.”

From Peace in the Post-Christian Era, by Thomas Merton. Orbis Books

This yoga has two divisions of sacrificial actions: one is called sacrifice of one's material possessions, and the other is called knowledge of self, which is pure spiritual activity. If sacrifice of one's material possessions is not dovetailed for spiritual realization, then such sacrifice becomes material. But one who performs such sacrifices with a spiritual objective, or in devotional service, makes a perfect sacrifice.

Bg 4.42

Perspective on Intelligent Design versus Darwinism

"To me, the most fascinating aspect of the debate over Darwinism versus Intelligent Design is that neither side understands the other side’s argument. Better yet, no one seems to understand their own side’s argument. But that doesn’t stop anyone from having a passionate opinion.

I’ve been doing lots of reading on the subject, trying to gather comic fodder. I fully expected to validate my preconceived notion that the Darwinists had a mountain of credible evidence and the Intelligent Design folks were creationist kooks disguising themselves as scientists. That’s the way the media paints it. I had no reason to believe otherwise. The truth is a lot more interesting. Allow me to set you straight. (Note: I’m not a believer in Intelligent Design, Creationism, Darwinism, free will, non-monetary compensation, or anything else I can’t eat if I try hard enough.)

First of all, you’d be hard pressed to find a useful debate about Darwinism and Intelligent Design, of the sort that you could use to form your own opinion. I can’t find one, and I’ve looked. What you have instead is each side misrepresenting the other’s position and then making a good argument for why the misrepresentation is wrong. (If you don’t believe me, just watch the comments I get to this post.)..."



Link to whole article

The Lost Master

The Lost Master

"And when I come to die," he said,
"Ye shall not lay me out in state,
Nor leave your laurels at my head,
Nor cause your men of speech orate;
No monument your gift shall be,
No column in the Hall of Fame;
But just this line ye grave for me:
     `He played the game.'"

So when his glorious task was done,
It was not of his fame we thought;
It was not of his battles won,
But of the pride with which he fought;
But of his zest, his ringing laugh,
His trenchant scorn of praise or blame:
And so we graved his epitaph,
    "He played the game."


And so we, too, in humbler ways
Went forth to fight the fight anew,
And heeding neither blame nor praise,
We held the course he set us true.
And we, too, find the fighting sweet;
And we, too, fight for fighting's sake;
And though we go down in defeat,
And though our stormy hearts may break,
We will not do our Master shame:
We'll play the game, please God,
      We'll play the game.

(Robert Service)

Eat, Sleep, Work, Consume, Die

"Civilization took a definite nose dive when the merchant princes grew ascendant at the expense of the artists and thinkers; when the notion of liberté, égalité, fraternité gave way to "I've got mine; screw you" (an attitude that existed in Voltaire's day, too, you might recall, with unfortunate results for the blue bloods). In the Big Picture, the dead white guys -- Rousseau, Thoreau, Mill -- cared a lot more about your well-being than the live ones like Gates or Jobs or Ellison ever will.

But stock-market capitalism is today's coin of the realm, consumerism its handmaiden, and technology is the great enabler. You think technology benefits you because it gives you an easier row to hoe? Bollocks. The ease it provides is illusory. It has trapped you, made you a slave to things you don't even need but suddenly can't live without. So you rot in a cubicle trying to get the money to get the stuff, when you should be out walking in a meadow or wooing a lover or writing a song..."

Link to Whole Article
And no, I didn't write this :-)

Migraines and Cardio Vascular Strengthening

I responded to an emailed request about migraines and cardio- vascular strengthening for an older devotee.

Migraines are difficult to deal with. One thing is to try identifying triggers. These may be stress, or some foods. Keeping a log and referring to it to see if some event is usually preceding the onset may be useful. Do a google search on migraines and trigger foods and see if his diet includes any of them. Off the top of my head the one I remember that devotees may eat are hard cheeses. But an individual's trigger food may be something not found on general lists, so sometimes it is recommended to go on a cleansing fast, then very slowly add foods back into the diet and see if one is a trigger. Allow for coincidence in such an approach and replicate the experiment but eliminating triggers is important...

continued..

I went and googled and here is an excellent site with trigger foods and a systematic approach to identifying them:

http://www.scienzavegetariana.it/nutrizione/pcrm/pcrm_migraine.html

For migraines, eating a fresh feverfew leaf daily would have been the only herbal recommendation I could have made. Dried feverfew is useless – if fresh not available, tincture would be required

For strengthening the heart - care should be taken that not too abrupt an addition of rigorous activity be attempted. Best would be to have a physician do some base line testing and then slowly add. What would be appropriate for a young man in good health could be fatal for an elder man with a family history of heart disease or a lifetime of poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. Slow and easy.

The type of exercise is less important than doing it regularly and incorporating into daily life. If someone attends arotik regularly, a gradually increased physical participation would be good. (and I am too old fashioned to approve much of some of the artless and vigorous dancing that has replaced the elegance of the Lord Chaitanya style). Even doing some light dancing on the side if the main group of devotees is too much.

Walking to and from places one normally goes instead of taking a vehicle. And yes, I have no objection if someone with a mind that is adverse to physical activity needs to be involved in some sport to overcome the mind's resistance to physical activity.

Oils and the heart. Good oils = good heart. Avoid transfats and oxygenized fats as if they were poison. One to two tablespoons of ghee a day (include all sources - one cup whole milk = 2/3 tablespoon of ghee, one sweet ball = one cup of milk, for example) is beneficial but in greater amounts the advantage is lost and the reverse starts to be true. Even ghee, tho the best of the heatable oils, if held at high temperatures for 20 minutes or longer starts to oxidize and should be avoid. Which is to say, avoid deep fried food in general, but even if fried in ghee. It can easily exceed your daily quota and may be oxidized.

Best way to use ghee is in a jaunce added to veggies. Then it is only heated for a short time.

Another oil proven to be excellent for the heart, joint flexibility, and enhanced brain function is any oil-containing omega 3s. I freshly grind a tablespoon or 2 a day of the whole seeds and add it to oatmeal or soups. Once it is ground, it begins to oxidize so if larger amounts are ground at once, refrigerate and keep in the dark to slow the oxidization.

Ginger is a good blood thinner for heart health. It helps with joint flexibility (as does the omega3s)so good for preparing body for any excercise programs. It is also supposed to help with migraines. It should be stopped prior to any surgeries or used carefully if already on blood thinners.

Ayur Vedic Ghee

Ghee is sometimes called anhydrous butter, butterfat, butter oil, or clarified butter. For technical reasons, due to methods of processing, none of these are truly ghee. They lack the full flavor of ghee, and some studies show that the Conjugated Linoleic Acid is higher in ghee made from cultured cream than from butter.

The following is reprinted by permission from Madan Gopal (das) RNS (Chowpatty, Mumbai - IN):

In this mail I am describing the system to make ghee from milk-yogurt-butter milk-butter-ghee. It was asked to me as a personal question.

> Thank you for your valuable contribution. It really convinced me to start producing my own ghee. Therefore, could you kindly describe in detail the traditional/ayurvedic way of manufacturing ghee, please (how to produce the best possible yoghurt, then butter, then ghee), esp. the step how you transform yoghurt into butter?<

It requires a churning rod. It is yet easily available in India. There are two types. For daily milk to range of 3-5 litres we can use hand held churning rod. There is no need of rope in this system. The rod is rotated clock wise and anticlockwise by hand itself. If one has more milk then we require to churn with rope. I can't explain the set up on computer. It has to be seen or shown with a diagram...

Continued

All the ladies in house hold knew the art. Not even in India it is vanishing or rather vanished in cities and vanishing in villages. May take a generation more.

I just had a long talk about this with my mother and now writing it on mail. I use to do it on small quantities and few times a year as per my requirement, now my mother is also initiated devotee. This is what I learned from her about the way she makes herself which is traditional system.

This system was practiced when even fridge(refrigirator) were not there. Milk is boiled. It has to be cooled and allowed to remain without disturbance. It has to remain at least of 10 hours. In this time the cream gets collected on top of milk in nice thick layer. If you boil the milk and keep it again for few hours again some cream is collected. Only the cream from top has to be removed. Very little milk might come cream. But extra milk should be avoided.

Then we add little yogurt in the cream. Keep such cream for 6-8 hours so the cream also turns in yogurt. You can add little cream on top of this cream-yogurt so that after some time (6-8) this added cream will also turn into yogurt. But if have enough (say 3-4litre) milk daily then you can need not do this system. You can then churn butter on daily basis. But if you have enough milk but less time then as well you can go on adding cream from top of milk each time so that we go on collecting more of cream turned in yogurt. But we cannot do this for more than three days as the first yogurt might start get to spoil. Better to churn daily if we have enough milk or at least on alternate days. More delay is not suggested. One more day can be added on emergency.

Then take the churning rod and start churning the cream turned into yogurt. There is prevalent system to add little warm water at beginning of churning. My mother said she would just wash the vessel and churning rod with warm vessel just before churning. So do either and churn. Exact technique has to be seen but even if you churn anyway butter will come. Only thing is little less butter will come or you have to do some more labour. But by practise one can perfect churning technique.

One has to churn it thoroughly so that all the butter comes out and it gets seperated from buttermilk. As you churn the butter starts collecting and then slowly collect it together in a one ball of butter. This can be removed. At the end of churning we might add little cold water. This helps in collecting butter together in one ball of butter. Cold water has to be added only after we have churned enough and butter is already formed. Cold water only helps to get butter together. After we remove the butter we might or not add more water. What remains in vessel is nutritious, delicious buttermilk, which as well tastes excellent.

Take the butter and collect in a vessel. In present days you can store the butter for a week in a fridge. In previous times the butter was kept submerged in water in a pot. We can go on adding more butter when ever we make. But the water has to be changed everyday sa whenever we add butter. In this way the butter remains without getting spoilt for about a week.

Then take all the butter in vessel and heat it over a stove on slow flame. In some time the butter will get heated and get changed into ghee. This process of heating butter if very fragrant and if you have original cow butter the fragrance is incomparable. Heat butter nicely till all the butter becomes into ghee. Boil a little more so ghee becomes slightly (very little) brown in colour. This extra heating is required so that the ghee remains good for long time.

Then ghee can be collected in a separate vessel. During heating of butter some matter might settle in ghee as solids at bottom of vessel. I don't know what they call it in english. In marathi (my mother tongue) we call it beri. This beri is not bad. But better to collect the top pure ghee separately if we want to keep ghee for long time (say more than a week). Then this beri with some ghee can be used for cooking or honouring it directly may be with some sugar.

The process is over.

Now a days with advent of fridge some ladies just keep cream in fridge. They collect few days cream in fridge and without converting in yogurt they just churn the cream with the rod. But this is not traditional system and got introduced only after refrigerator.

Your Servant
Madan Gopal Das

Study One Flower

"You see the minute fibers on this flower? No other manufacturing process in this world can do this -- such small fibers. And how brilliant is the color! If you study only one flower, you will become God conscious."

TQE 5 Back to Simple Life and Simple Truth

Here is one link to a blog by a visitor to New Vrindavan who took pictures of roses at the Palace. Here is another who also took pictures of flowers.

Find the Cow

Sometimes cows go into the forest and it is hard to find them. This can be dangerous during hunting season because they may be mistaken for a deer.

Here is a link to a cow who is hiding. You have to look very carefully to see her, and don't be attached to your first impression. Sometimes you have to look deeper than the surface to find the essence of a situation.

Vatican: Faithful Should Listen to Science

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason...


"The permanent lesson that the Galileo case represents pushes us to keep alive the dialogue between the various disciplines, and in particular between theology and the natural sciences, if we want to prevent similar episodes from repeating themselves in the future," Poupard said.

But he said science, too, should listen to religion.

"We know where scientific reason can end up by itself: the atomic bomb and the possibility of cloning human beings are fruit of a reason that wants to free itself from every ethical or religious link," he said.

"But we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism," he said.

"The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity."


Full Article

One Almost Might

One Almost Might

Wouldn't you say,
Wouldn't you say: one day,
With a little more time or a little more patience, one might
Disentangle for separate, deliberate, slow delight
One of the moment's hundred strands, unfray
Beginnings from endings, this from that, survey
Say a square inch of the ground one stands on, touch
Part of oneself or a leaf or a sound (not clutch
Or cuff or bruise but touch with finger-tip, ear-
Tip, eyetip, creeping near yet not too near);
Might take up life and lay it on one's palm
And, encircling it in closeness, warmth and calm,
Let it lie still, then stir smooth-softly, and
Tendril by tendril unfold, there on one's hand ...

One might examine eternity's cross-section
For a second, with slightly more patience, more time for reflection?

(A.S.J. Tessimond)

Cutting Edge Robotics Utilize Soccer

"Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University are betting that putting humans and robots on the same soccer team will encourage the kind of cooperation that leads to understanding.

The researchers have made a human-size version of their soccer-playing robots by basing the robots on Segway scooters, and they are working on a set of rules for Segway soccer, a game designed to be played by mixed teams of the robots and humans riding Segways.

The project is designed to allow researchers to look at human-robot interactions in which humans and robots are on nearly equal footing, said Manuela Veloso, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. The two types of players will have nearly the same acceleration, the same top speed, the same turning abilities, and will use the same ball manipulation device, she said.

The setup makes it possible to explore questions like how and when humans and robot should communicate, and how they should divide a common task, said Veloso. "There are many really interesting challenges here that we now have the opportunity of investigating," she said.

This promises to translate to any application that requires multiple robots to work with people in real-time, said Veloso. Examples are autonomous robot vehicles sharing the roadway with human-driven vehicles, robot building construction crews, search and rescue operations, and space exploration. These tasks all require real-time decision-making and action, she said..."

The rest of the article.

Govardhana Puja

Govardhana Hill in Vrindavan

"Krsna said at that time that the cows are worshiped even by the demigods, and He practically demonstrated how to protect the cows. At least people who are in Krsna consciousness should follow in His footsteps and give all protection to the cows. Cows are worshiped not only by the demigods. Krsna Himself worshiped the cows on several occasions, especially on the days of Gopastami and Govardhana-puja."

Nectar of Devotion Chapter 21 9. Pleasing Talker




Govardhana Hill decorations in NV temple.