Red Hill Conversations

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video podcast is worth a thousand blog posts...

Here's a video podcast from the deck of the Red Hill ashram, discussing the proposed annotations with our recent guest David Jorm.

Women as a class are merciless and cunning. They cannot tolerate even a slight offense. For their own pleasure they can do anything irreligious, and therefore they do not fear killing even a faithful husband or brother.

- Srimad Bhagavatam 9.14.37

Boy, I'm glad I didn't land on this verse. Param Satya gave class on this verse this morning at the local temple. She spent last night and this morning preparing, but to give class on a different verse. This one came as a surprise. Check it out:

• Women as a class... mp3, 23.5 MB

Here's a definition of husband that demonstrates the duty of a husband in relation to his wife. Definitions 2 and 3 of the noun and 1 of the transitive verb are especially pertinent.

hus·band (hŭz'bənd) pronunciation
n.
1. A man joined to a woman in marriage; a male spouse.
2. Chiefly British. A manager or steward, as of a household.
3. Archaic. A prudent, thrifty manager.

tr.v., -band·ed, -band·ing, -bands.

1. To use sparingly or economically; conserve: husband one's energy.
2. Archaic. To find a husband for.

I gave class at the local temple on this subject the other morning. Srimad Bhagavatam 9.14 contains the story of Soma's kidnapping the wife of Brhaspati and impregnating her.

I discussed the difference between the treatment of this issue in the Bhagavatam and the Manu-samhita. There wasn't really enough time to develop that theme, but we introduced it at least. Prahlad made a couple of comments, and we closed on a good note.

Here's the class if you'd like to hear it:

• Impregnating Other's Wives mp3, 21MB

And here's the video that I mentioned in the class, showing how impregnating other people's wives is a common occurrence - common enough to appear in popular comedy, universal history, and civil legal code.

I joined Bhagavat Asraya prabhu on his Gita Vani Radio Show again this week. We continued our discussion on varnasrama-dharma. This time talking about one type of asuric varnasrama-dharma, the kind where activities are aligned with the nature of the body and mind, but without an understanding of the spiritual aspect of existence, including the principle of service to the Supreme.

Bhagavat Asraya mentioned one book he had read "How to Spot a Psychopath in the Workplace", which describes people who misuse this knowledge, and I mentioned "Who Moved My Blackberry?", a satirical parody of the modern business environment which is a study in the thinking of just such a person.

Here you can find more links on psychopaths in the workplace:

• Links Related to the Study of Psychopathy and Forensics

Yes, we even have such psychopaths in ISKCON. My policy is to offer respect from a distance, and keep away from them as much as possible. And try not to be one myself (since I don't have a soul or a conscience, luckily Krishna sent my dear godbrother Ekendra das to be one for me).

Here's the show:

• Gita Vani 3rd June, 2007, mp3, 22MB

Yesterday I was on the local radio with Bhagavat Asraya prabhu ACBSP, speaking about varnasrama-dharma.

Bhagavat Asraya has a fortnightly one hour radio show called "Gita Vani", and is systematically going through the Bhagavad-gita. When I arrived I told him that lately my thoughts have been on varnasrama-dharma.

When he read the day's verse and purport, the purport talked about varnasrama-dharma, so we ended up talking about that.

Some really great points, including all the main ones that have been made in the conversation so far. I'd like to do a transcript - anyone else feel inspired to do it?

Have a listen.

My apologies for the wma format - I got it from the radio station engineer.

Gita Vani - Bg. 7.13 "A Spiritual Being Having a Human Experience"

Narada Muni continued: By devotional service one cannot achieve such intense absorption in thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as one can through enmity toward Him. That is my opinion.

- Srimad Bhagavatam 7.1.27

I meditate on the mind of Hiranyakasipu at the moment that Lord Narasimhadeva appears before him. May that level of absorption in the Supreme Person become mine.

Here's the talk that I gave at the temple last night. 36 minutes of the talk are here. The first few minutes are missing. There I explain that we named our son Prahlad Narasingha (in Latin America, where he was born, people have two first names) as he was conceived while we worked on publishing "The Transcendental Teachings of Prahlada Maharaja" in Spanish in South America. Like the Prahlad of the Bhagavatam he also has a demon as a father, so I have a lot of sympathy for Hiranyakasipu.

I also introduced the pastime explaining that the demons in the pastime are actually devotees playing this role in order to reciprocate with the Lord in this way, and that the narration of this pastime arises from a doubt in Pariksit Maharaja's mind that the Lord is partial to the demigods over the demons.

One thing I missed out was that Lord Visnu didn't come to help the demigods when Hiranyakasipu threw them out of heaven. This lead Hiranyakasipu to think of Him as a coward who was afraid to face him. So when Lord Visnu fought and killed his brother Hiranyaksa, Hiranyakasipu was sure that this was a cowardly act that had been done out of vengeance, sort of like the killing of the five sleeping sons of the Pandavas by Asvatthama.

Everybody focuses a lot on Prahlad Maharaja and Narasimhadeva around this time, so I thought I'd give a bit of love to Hiranyakasipu.

Check it out:

The Glories of Hiranyakasipu, mp3, 16MB

Episode 10: Uncertainty, Courage, and Faith

Today we discuss DFJ's comments on Episode 9, and discuss Uncertainty, Courage, and Faith.

Here's the verse that I couldn't remember in the course of the conversation:

My devotee who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, expert, without cares, free from all pains, and not striving for some result, is very dear to Me.

Bhagavad-gita 12.16

• Episode 10 - Uncertainty, Courage, and Faith, mp3, 47.7 MB
• Episode 10 - Uncertainty, Courage, and Faith, ogg, 79.2 MB

This week we are joined on the deck by a new guest, H.G Bhagavat Asraya Prabhu (ACBSP). We start talking about the recent discussion on chocolate, and Bhagavat Asraya points out another angle of vision addressing why people want to eat it. He also relates this to why people get into controversies (just take a look at the comments section of any site: controversy = comments).

Here is a link to the podcast of H.H. Sivarama Swami that is referred to in the podcast:

• H.H. Sivarama Swami podcast

H.H. Sivarama Swami has a daily podcast and a regularly updated blog that is definitely worth bookmarking (or reading via ISKCON News.net).

We then segue into discussing a number of different issues.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, whose appearance day we celebrated yesterday, once made a diorama depicting a brahmana cracking a nut with a salagram-sila. This display was a strong statement about the practice of co-opting spirituality and religion as a means for economic development. This provoked heavy protest by the brahmana community, some of whom took him to court over this, for slandering them. There they charged that the Gaudiya Vaisnava community was equally represented amongst those maintaining temples simply as a means of livelihood to maintain their families, so Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's criticism of the brahmanas was unjustified. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura responded by saying: "Fine, let's put Gaudiya Vaisnava tilaka on him then!"

From this the brahmanas could understand that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta was not criticising them personally. He was not in any sense sectarian or partial to one group or another, but was in fact commenting on a particular mentality, no matter where it manifests.

Anyway, listen and enjoy. Leave a comment or send an audio comment.

• Episode 9, ogg version 85.61MB
• Episode 9, mp3 version 53.32MB

Here it is at last - Episode 7! We talked about Vrajadhama and Bhakti's wedding (see photos), the festival at New Govardhan, and a bunch of other stuff, including a call for your participation. Get involved - send us a soundbite or sample and we'll add it to the conversation.

This was recorded the week before last. This last weekend we had a community meeting at the temple, so we were all there. This weekend we will be on the Atma Yoga retreat, so again no podcast. But never fear. Get thinking and record something yourself. It can be a comment, a question, whatever you like. Speak up and speak out! :-)

• Episode Seven - ogg version 52 MB
• Episode Seven - mp3 version 40 MB

We're chilling in the crib, but no podcast this week. We'll be back on deck next week, after the New Govardhana festival and Vraj and Bhakti's wedding, with something for y'all. So Happy New Year until then.

In the meantime - if you'd like to take part in the conversation, add your voice. We'd like to take live phone calls, but it's a little difficult with our irregular schedule, an international audience, and the time shifted nature of the medium.

So, record your comment or contribution in mp3 format and send it through. We'll put it into the stream of consciousness and co-create the show together. Red Hill Conversations Podcast. Participate in the pastime.