I'm not personally familiar with the situation, and all newspaper reports give a slanted version of reality.

However, reading a couple of pieces in the LA Times I get a sense of the root cause of the meltdown of the major financial institutions of the US economy.

AIG cancels planned events amid rebukes for hosting $440,000 function and For insensitivity, Wachovia refuses to be outdone detail a disturbing sense of entitlement in the leadership of these financial institutions.

In the case of AIG, the company held an expensive event at a luxury resort for 100 of its agents, even as it received $85 billion of taxpayer money as a bailout by the government.

Wachovia, who have since cancelled it, planned a week long Mediterranean cruise for 75 employees, as it waited for its own bailout.

Not only is this behaviour inappropriate given the performance of these two companies, it points to an underlying culture that would explain why these financial institutions are in such crisis.

As John C. Maxwell puts it in his characteristic pithy style: "As you go up, you have to give up." Leaders give up their independence and their freedom of action as they assume more and more responsibility in an organisation and on behalf of the people they lead. Leadership means stewardship. Often they are compensated for this sacrifice with financial reward. Sometimes, for example in a volunteer organisation, they are not.

Being responsible for the financial wellbeing of literally millions of people is a weighty thing. Assuring them of housing and financial stability is no small thing - in fact its a fundamental necessity of human life. Those who assume this responsibility should be compensated.

However, when this responsibility is not faithfully discharged, where does a sense of entitlement come from?

I'm not asking for people to start falling on their swords, but when your company fails, when you fail to provide this financial security to the people, where do you get the sense that you are somehow entitled to huge amounts of compensation?

That's not qualified leadership. It represents the sickness of entitlement without qualification, a pathological condition of any organisation.

Lee Iacocca demonstrated executive leadership when he went, cap in hand, to Congress to beg for a bail out for Chrysler. He asked his executives to take a substantial pay cut, and he reduced his own salary to $1 per year.

That's appropriate and it shows the moral fiber of a true executive leader. Demanding that taxpayers pay out million dollar golden parachutes and continuing to send people on expensive junkets while the people lose their jobs and homes, on the other hand, demonstrates exactly what got us into this situation.

The full effect of this meltdown will be felt next year, as we see a retail collapse due to lack of consumer spending in the Christmas season. Then we are going to know what it's all about...

Location: Allen St and Oxford St, Hamilton
Date: Sunday, October 12, 2008
Time: 2 pm

In reference to yesterday's post about mrdangas and metronomes, Maha-mantra wrote me to say that "triplets at 66 bpm is too fast for beginners", and of course it is.

I didn't start out on 66 bpm with triplets - and neither should you. The 66 bpm practice of that mantra is just what I'm doing at the moment. The post is as much inspirational as it is instructional. The main point is - practice with a metronome.

Mantra suggests starting out with single beats at 204 pm. You can use the initial mantras in my book "The Art and Science of Harinam Sankirtan Yajna", such as te ta and te ta ta. That way you'll be following, rather than imitating.

When I have a little more time I'll sit down, start with the basics, and go systematically from there.

In mrdanga playing power is good, endurance is great, but precision is king.

If you have power and endurance people will notice you. If you have precision you can become invisible - the kirtan will rock so hard that people will forget you're there.

And that's the goal.

To develop precision you need to practice with a metronome. It's a form of hasta-sadhana ("finger practice") that involves subordinating yourself to Krishna in His form of time (kalo 'smi). It can be hard on the mind, but that's what it's all about - conquering the mind and becoming a faithful and useful servant of the kirtan.

After I shot this video I had a realisation about muscle fibres. You see, I've been practicing with a metronome for 30 - 60 minutes a day, and my precision is pretty high. However, I've been noticing that while my power and endurance have been going up with my new physical training program, my precision has been disappearing.

Here's my theory as to why: the precision is not simply in the brain, it's also in the muscle fibres. High speed mrdanga playing uses reflex actions. These reflexes are stored in the muscle memory. As you add new muscle you need to retrain it to make it precise in mrdanga playing. So it's back to the metronome and hasta-sadhana for me, otherwise all this power and endurance is just for show.

1 kg of muscle in 1 week.

I read it as the theoretical maximum on wikipedia, and the lady at the health food store today confirmed it as the "safe maximum weight gain or loss rate".

I got some more intelligence on how to do it today, but earlier I made a video about the breakfast I am using. This is science, kids, but not as we know it....

I've got one more week in Australia before I fly to New Zealand to face off with Tri-yuga. Of course, yoga's not about being competitive, and I don't do competition anyway - only decisive victory ;-)

Take one BBC news report from 2003:

"The results were clear with both our experimental groups and in both test scenarios. "Creatine supplementation gave a significant measurable boost to brain power."

Add one report from the Mayo Clinic:

Pasteurized cow's milk appears to contain higher levels of creatine than human milk. The clinical significance of this is not clear.

And you've got a recipe for "finer brain tissue".

The other day Gauranga Kishore mentioned Omega-3 as a possible candidate for milk's brain enhancing qualities. Omega-3 is needed for creating the myelin-sheathing around the nerves in the brain. The deterioration of this sheathing leads to Alzheimer's disease, so it's definitely necessary and beneficial for brain functioning. Although flax seed oil is a more concentrated source of Omega-3 than milk, Gauranga Kishore pointed out that it may not be as universally available.

As well, the other day David Haslam mentioned a number of other beneficial products of the cow, such as cow stool for fertilizing the ground, for use as a cooking and heating fuel, and also as an insulation layer in low-impact environmental housing (aka mud huts).

So add one more thing to this list: Creatine.

Creatine administration was shown to significantly improve performance in cognitive and memory tests in vegetarian individuals involved in double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over trials. Vegetarian supplementation with creatine seems to be especially beneficial as they appear to have lower average body stores, since meat is a primary source of dietary creatine.

- Creatine Supplements: Mental Performance, Wikipedia

In humans, approximately half of stored creatine originates from food (mainly from fresh meat). Since vegetables do not contain creatine, vegetarians show lower levels of muscle creatine which, upon creatine supplementation, rise to a level higher than in meat-eaters.

- Creatine: Sources, Wikipedia

Both quotes have sources cited in the relevant wikipedia article.

Now I have to say that taking creatine and hitting the mat I do feel like I just killed and ate some small animal, or maybe like I need to kill and eat a small animal. If the tag line for Bodyquick is "Got Kill Speed?" and the supplement gives you kill speed (it boosts reaction time by up to 35%), then Creatine gives you "extra killing power".

I'm taking Kre-Alkalyn, a relative new form of creatine supplement. It is "pH-corrected", weighing in at a whopping pH of 12 - extremely alkaline.A pH of 7 is neutral, less than 7 acidic, more than 7 alkaline - up to a maximum of 14 - pure alkaline. The human body operates optimally at around 7.36, on the alkaline side of 7.

Exactly how creatine increases your killing power is still up in the air. This very informative and only slightly technical article describes three current hypotheses.

Apparently (this is according to the Kre-Alkalyn website, which by the way has a horrible 90's design using frames - go here to get the navigation menu), non-base pH Creatine supplements break down in liquid (like in your stomach) into creatinine [wikipedia], which is the exhaust produced when creatine does its thing in your muscles. Creatinine is filtered from your system by the kidneys.

I've been using Creatine for a whole three days now, and I've read a number of testimonials on the internets, and I've got my own story already.

Lots of people are asking questions like: "I'm going on a cruise in a couple of weeks. Can I take creatine and look buff?"

The answer to this is: only if you use the additional creatine in your system to go harder in your exercise program.

Some people report no benefit to their long distance and endurance running.

Some people report "bulking up" and looking "fuller", but losing muscle definition due to water retention.

Some people report sore joints as a result of taking a creatine supplement.

According to the makers of Kre-Alkalyn (who bill it as "the benefits of creatine without the side effects" and "the results without the bloat"), these side effects are due to the deterioration of the creatine supplement to the bio-waste product creatinine when it encounters a liquid.

I have another theory. If the other creatine supplements are non-base pH, and Kre-Alkalyn claims to have a patent covering all creatine supplements with a pH in the range of 7 -14 which implies that they are, then all creatine supplements, with the exception of Kre-Alklyn, are acidic.

If you put something acidic into your muscles then your body will respond to that by diluting the acid to bring it back to your bio-optimum. It will do this by pumping water into the muscle cells. This is why you have to drink a lot of water when you take creatine supplements, and why you immediately bulk up and lose definition.

I haven't noticed any water retention (bloat) with Kre-Alkalyn. What I have noticed is increased strength and muscle recovery. Available creatine in the body enables the production of ATP [wikipedia]. This means more energy at the cellular level. One article I read explained it like this: "you won't go from bench pressing 200 lbs to 250 lbs, but you will go from 5 reps to 7 reps."

In other words, Creatine supplementation doesn't increase your strength per se, it increases the ability of your muscles to recover. This allows you to push yourself more, and this will increase your strength. This is not going to be much good if you're doing long distance and endurance events, which don't have an exertion / recovery cycle. However, it's perfect for Bikram Yoga with the 20 second shivasana (corpse pose) between reps.

Especially for a weedy little vegetarian like me, creatine supplementation seems to be working well. The main thing is that I am able to play faster mrdanga beats for a longer time, and also sing while I'm doing it. I'm getting to test this each morning at mangal-arati and measure the results. And that's ultimately what it's all about. This body is simply an engine for Sri Krishna sankirtan.

Addendum: I cast a wider net, and found other sources of Creatine: juniper berries, apparently, and also this NZ bee pollen. The other day Hari Sauri prabhu mentioned bee pollen as a source of Vitamin B12 as well, so while I'm in NZ I might see if I can get some of this.

Hydration is super important when you are doing hot yoga, or any other kind of intense exercise. However, simply drinking water is not enough. If you've ever drunk your sweat off your mat (and believe me - some days I have!) you know that you're not sweating pure water - you're sweating a complex blend of vitamins and minerals. Just drinking water will soon have you as depleted as a strip mine. You need an electrolyte replacement drink. Commercial drinks like Powerade are full of sugar, and simple carbohydrates (sugars) are no good when you're all about getting ripped. You need to reduce carbs and increase protein to get muscle definition. So I've been mixing my own electrolyte replacement drink - The Sita-pati Koolaid.

I start with a base of Pureau water, then add Herbs of Gold Muscle Resuscitation. This is a bio-enhanced magnesium powder. Magnesium depletion leads to sore muscles, and ultimately to muscle cramping during exertion. The Herbs of Gold powder also contains a number of B vitamins, a range of other trace elements, and stevia - a powerful natural sweetener.

The Herbs of Gold Muscle Resuscitation also gives the Sita-pati Koolaid that rad patented yellow colour. I tell anyone who asks that I'm trying out urine therapy to boost my performance on the mat. ;-)

Next I add 24 drops of Cellfood. Ekendra put me on to this. It has 78 ionic minerals, 34 enzymes, 17 amino acids, electrolytes and dissolved oxygen in it.

Then I add a cap of Lifesprings Colloidal Minerals. This stuff has 75 plant-derived colloidal minerals in it.

Then I add a cap of Colloidal Silver. Colloidal silver is a natural antibiotic.

Sometimes I add a packet of Percy's Powder. Percy's contains Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, Potassium, and Manganese, as Sulphates. More often though I'll take this neat in the juice of a lemon and with a B Vitamin complex capsule. Doing this on an empty stomach, for example straight after a yoga session, is the optimum way to absorb it.

The end result of all this is the supercharged Sita-pati Koolaid.

You can make your own electrolyte replacement drink too. Go to the health food store and have a look at the different things they have. Fire up Google and do some research - read some testimonials and some overviews such as wikipedia (be sure to follow the links to original references), and start trying stuff out.

Don't waste your money or your health drinking commercial cordials. Drink your own Koolaid!

In the mornings I am often visited by subtle entities. Sometimes they are malignant, taunting me or tempting me, sometimes benign, asking questions or offering advice. This morning I had an interesting conversation with an pious, inquisitive visitor.

This Morning's Visitor (arguing with friend and asking me for my opinion): Did God create man in a void, or was there something here already?

Me: The Bible at least tells us that there was something here, the Bhagavatam also. These things tell us something about the time of the creation of man. We may or may not believe these accounts. However, and more importantly, the creation of man definitely tells us something about the nature of the creator.

Gilbert Bilezikian, Wheaton Theological Seminary scholar and teacher of Bill Hybels, the founding pastor of American Protestant mega-church Willow creek, writes in his book "Beyond Sex Roles: What the Bible Says About a Woman's Place in Church and Family":

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them."

- Genesis 1.27

Lesson: From intention (v. 26) God moves to action, as the moment for the creation of
humans arrives. The design calls for "man" (singular) made in His image (note the double parallelistic emphasis on the "image"). Then the divine decree crystallizes into action and (surprise!) the result is not one person, but two. The original order called only for the creation of "man"; but because the product had to conform to the specifications of the divine image, "man" inevitably came as male and female.

In other words, the male/female sexual differentiation reflects realities contained within the very being of God and derived from His image. Femaleness pertains to the image of God as fully as maleness. God is neither male nor female. He transcends both genders since they are both comprehended within His being.

According to the logic of Vedanta, nyaya, this is the "logic of cause and effect" - an effect must be pre-present in its cause. Since God is the cause of this world, and we see that a male and female dipolarity pervades it, this dual nature must be present in the Supreme.

Therefore the Hare Krishna maha-mantra is the best prayer, because it addresses both the masculine and feminine aspects of the Supreme. Hare refers to the feminine aspect, and Krishna and Rama to the masculine aspect. The two are both present and balanced in perfect harmony in this prayer:

The other day Krishna-kirti posed a polemic: "So, I think that women should be given the same opportunity as men to realize their full, human potential."

This is not simply the opinion of a limited, imperfect human being, it is an order of the Supreme Lord through scripture. Vedanta-sutra (1.1.1) states:

athatho brahma jijñasa

"Having obtained this human form of life, now inquire into the nature of the Absolute."

No distinction is made between persons of different genders here - all are commanded to do this. The full human potential means to reawaken our forgotten relationship with the Supreme Couple, Radha and Krishna.

OK, now off to Mangals and some hot yoga!

Live from his hideout deep behind the former Bamboo Curtain, David Jorm riffs on life in China and the re-introduction of varnasrama social organisation in a modern context.

David Jorm on China and Varnasrama (ogg, 5 MB)