Krsna Consciousness Can Teach You How To Think Critically -- Or Would You Rather Vegetate?

In this world the real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Greed is their God. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners, capitalists. They own you. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the US Senate, the US Congress, the state houses, the city halls, the judges, not only in the USA but internationally as well. And they own all the big media companies so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear. They spend billions every year lobbying to get what they want. Well we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everyone else. They don't care about spiritual emancipation. They have effectively sidelined real religion. They don't believe in the soul. They don't believe in life after death. They may say they do but they don't. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people. That’s against their interests. They want obedient workers, slavish consumers. Where do you stand?

Some thoughts on Dharma

Religion means that we are servants. Otherwise, how can Krsna or God demand that we surrender to Him? Therefore the proper term for religion is dharma or the living entity’s inherent quality. Every living entity in whatever form is dependent, no one is independent. The common understanding of religion is faith, but faith can change whereas dharma or being dependent on Krsna is an unchangeable fact, i.e. not something introduced at a particular time.

Eternal religious truths are contained in the Vedas. Veda means fact and it is apauresam or not postulated, manufactured, concocted or cooked up at some point in time to serve some transient idea. It is reality, fixed and unchangeable. Unfortunately, and reprehensibly, all main line religions (including Hinduism) have a history of self-service, when the real purpose of the religion as originally taught by its prophets and acaryas has been perverted to support the institutional structure around it. Or, the essence has gone and most thinking people aren't such fools that they haven’t noticed.

Now, why does this remind me of an institution I was once so proud to belong to?

On YouTube

On the second and fourth Saturdays of the month I hold a Bhagavad Gita Forum at Karunika, a cultural spiritual initiative in the center of Amsterdam. Last week a Dutch documentary maker filmed the event. He called me this evening to say that he had put the chanting part of my presentation on YouTube under the name Ananda Svarup. For those of you who like devotional music here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNgoeslpRIo


Accompanied by my acoustic guitar I 'm chanting the concluding verses from the Gita (Ch. 18.61-66), verses that have made a difference to my life and which mean more to me than I can properly express. It's not only about music, it's about feeling, appreciation and the tiny, very,very tiny beginning of love.