[FairfieldLife] Shivaratri Stuff
Because we're all really Hindu...(okay, so maybe it is just me) The annual Shivaratri festival is coming up soon and I've posted on the puja.net site a sizable collection of information on Shiva and Shivaratri. There are 3 videos about Shivarati, 10 thirty minute podcasts about Shiva and his place in the vedic tradition, 30+ chanting selections about Shiva (downloadable MP3's), and transliterated and translated texts of Sri Rudram and Chamakam, the Yajur veda texts associated with Shiva. Seriously, there is a lot of good stuff there for those who are interested. Ben
[FairfieldLife] Re: Shivaratri Stuff
I see your point, but when I started the podcast I had to come up with a name and I wanted to emphasize the stories as opposed to the religious, philosophical or cultural aspects. So it isn't perfect, but... You'll find that the podcast is very respectful and on target. Mostly it is stories from the vedic tradition with an emphasis on enjoying the great humor and fun of them, plus some vedic chanting selections. It gets good reviews on iTunes and about 5000 downloads. So people really do like it in spite of its flaws. As for yagyas...I think anything people want to do is great. If you like the puja.net yagya programs, great...if you prefer others (YBC, Amachi, etc), fantastic. I thing that yagyas are a great boost to a spiritual program no matter what. I don't see it as competition; just a matter of personal preference. I appreciate the good compliments because it is nice to be recognized for the work. Thank you. My original goal in posting to FFL was to make the Shiva stuff available to all who were interested. It is a good collection and freely downloadable. Best regards, Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, amritasyaputra amritasyapu...@... wrote: Sorry, Ben, but if a puja.net website or any other site calls Vedic Devatas Mythology (as in Vedic Mythology Podcast) they disqualify themselves from being taken seriously. It's a shame. Shaas --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins bencollins@ wrote: Because we're all really Hindu...(okay, so maybe it is just me) The annual Shivaratri festival is coming up soon and I've posted on the puja.net site a sizable collection of information on Shiva and Shivaratri. There are 3 videos about Shivarati, 10 thirty minute podcasts about Shiva and his place in the vedic tradition, 30+ chanting selections about Shiva (downloadable MP3's), and transliterated and translated texts of Sri Rudram and Chamakam, the Yajur veda texts associated with Shiva. Seriously, there is a lot of good stuff there for those who are interested. Ben
[FairfieldLife] Navaratri and Chandi Path
Navaratri starts next week and the mantra text usually recited during the nine nights is called Chandi Path or Durga Saptashati. It is 700 verse that tell the story of the Divine Mother. I have posted a traditional rendition as chanted by some Varanasi pundits, online at www.puja.net. You can also download it to listen off-line if you wish. Here's the direct link: http://www.puja.net/wordpress/podcast-2/
[FairfieldLife] Deepak gets it right....Palin and Obama
Full article is here: http://www.chopra.com/node/1064 Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper. She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and turning negativity into a cause for pride. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of the other. For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision Look at what she stands for: * Small town values a nostaligic return to simpler times disguises a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism. * Ignorance of world affairs a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad. * Family values a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be needed. * Rigid stands on guns and abortion a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree. * Patriotism the usual fallback in a failed war. * Reform an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology. Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from us pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of I'm all right, Jack, and Why change? Everything's OK as it is. The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
[FairfieldLife] Re: FW: free TM-teachers.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Jun 7, 2008, at 8:40 AM, Rick Archer wrote: But there is NO law in the universe, that you are able to TAKE BACK knowledge. Actually in Hindu traditions, there is a belief and practice for a master taking back an initiation or mantra. Agreed! Yajnavalkya had a big fight with his guru and his guru asked for all his knowledge back which Yajnavalkya did my vomiting it up. The other disciples turned into partridges and ate up the knowledge. Yajnavalkya decided not to have any more human gurus and did tapas for the Sun. Eventually Surya Narayana came and gave him knowledge. There are two versions of Yajur Veda; Shukla (white) which is mostly in the north of India and Krishna (black because of the color of the vomit), found mostly in the south. Interestingly the word Taittirya means partridge and the Taittiriya Upanishad is the Partridge Upanishad. The two version of Yajur Veda contain much of the same material although they are organized differently. Also the chanting style is totally different. For what's its worth, Yajnavalkya was quite the rebel and there are a lot of great stories about him. Brihadaranyaka is a good source. there's a two podcast series about Yajnavalkya and posted on the www.puja.net site Ben
[FairfieldLife] Re:MahaShivaRatri Day is coming on March 5th.
There are 80+ different audio hymns for Shiva on www.puja.net. There are several different versions of Rudram, OM Namah Shivaya, etc. Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Gary Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Amarnath, Do you know the title of the Amma CD with multiple Om Namaha Shivaya chants? Thanks, Gary
[FairfieldLife] Shivaratri, March 6th/7th
Shivaratri is coming soon and if you're into these Hindu tradtions and festivals, it is a celebration of great peacefulness and silence. I've posted lots of information about it on my www.puja.net site. -Explanation of the Shivaratri festival -1 hour video of Shivaratri 2006 in India (really good) -Text of Rudram and Chamakam; the Vedic hymns for Shiva - An MP3 library of 80+ slokas on Shiva -6 Podcasts about Shiva -Short video of Rudra Abishekam and Shiva Yagya It's all there for freeenjoy! The link is there on the middle of the home page or you can use this: http://tinyurl.com/2ozn2m Best regards to all, Ben Collins
[FairfieldLife] Deepak Chopra's Statement on MMY - from HuffingtonPost.com
ven though I last sat with Maharishi more than 10 years ago, he left an indelible impression, as he did on everyone. His extraordinary qualities are known to the world. Without him, it's fair to say, the West would not have learned to meditate. During the Cold War era a reporter once challenged him by saying, If anything is possible, as you claim, can you go to the Soviet Union tomorrow with your message? Without hesitation, Maharishi calmly replied, I could if I wanted to. Eventually he did want to, and meditation arrived in Moscow several years before the Berlin Wall fell. In his belief that world peace depended entirely on rising consciousness, Maharishi was unshakable. The Bhagavad-Gita declares that there are no outward signs of enlightenment. The point is underscored in many Indian fables and scriptures, which often take the form of a high- caste worthy snubbing an untouchable, only to find that the untouchable was actually a god in disguise. For his part, Maharishi had three guises, and perhaps in the end they were also disguises. He was an Indian, a guru, and a personality. The personality was highly quixotic. Over the 50 years of his public life, Maharishi never lost his charm and lovability. He had these qualities to such an extent that Westerners took him to be a perfect example of how enlightenment looks -- kind, sociable, all-accepting, and light-hearted -- when that is far from the case. His presence was more mysterious than good humor can account for: you could feel it before entering a room. You could be walking down the hallway to his private apartments with the weight of the world on your shoulders and feel your worries drop away with every step, until by the time your hand touched the doorknob, by some magic you felt completely carefree. But if you were around him long enough, the older Maharishi in particular could be nettlesome and self-centered; he could get angry and dismissive. He was quick to assert his authority and yet could turn disarmingly child-like in the blink of an eye. The Maharishi who was an Indian felt most comfortable around other Indians, with whom he chatted about familiar things in Hindi. He adhered to the vows of poverty and celibacy that belonged to his order of monks, despite the fact that he lived in luxury and amassed considerable wealth for the TM movement. What gets overlooked is that he viewed wealth as a means to raise the prestige of India in the materialistic West, which was both canny and realistic of him. In the end the movement's money went to preserve the spiritual heritage of India by opening pundit schools and building temples. Maharishi was deeply concerned that he might be the last embodiment of a sacred tradition that was quickly being overwhelmed by modernization. In one way or another, for good or ill, these two Maharishis are the only ones that the outside world knew. If you came under the power of his consciousness, however, Maharishi the guru completely overshadowed every other aspect. It's shameful to say, but gurus are a dime a dozen in India and are often treated like retainers by the rich and powerful. Nothing could be farther from the truth in Maharishi's case. He was venerated by the venerable and considered holy by the holy. His capacity to explain Vedanta was unrivaled, and if he accomplished nothing else in his long life, his commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita insures his lasting name, because with acute analysis he cuts through to the heart of every verse. Imagine that someone arose in the West who definitively settled all the disputes over the New Testament and went on to exemplify the nature of Jesus. Then you might get some idea of Maharishi's impact as a guru. Around 1990 I was commissioned to write a book about him; it turned out to be the only assignment I could never complete. Even after spending hundreds of days in his presence, one could not capture him, either on paper or in one's mind. The Gita is right to say that there are no visible signs of enlightenment, but I would go further. The enlightened person ceases to be a person and attains a connection to pure consciousness that erases all boundaries. My deepest gratitude goes to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for showing me that this state of unity exists outside folk tales, temples, organized religion, and scripture itself. To live and breathe in unity consciousness is unfathomable, but in at least one case, I am sure it is real.
[FairfieldLife] Yajur Veda on-line
I was given a complete set of Yajur Veda by some pundits in India and I have it posted on-line to listen to any time. Here's the link: http://puja.net/Pages/MainMenus/Multimedia.htm Enjoy!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Greatness of the Rudram
Rudram is indeed one of the great Vedic mantras. I have posted a video of it being chanted by a pundit from the Kanchipuram Shankaracharya Mutt. You can find it at the bottom of the opening page at puja.net. There is also a podcast about the meaning of Rudram in the podcast section a couple episodes ago. Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, matrixmonitor [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.tinyurl.com/2mr28c SRI RUDRAM CHAMAKAM Sri Rudram-Chamakam occupies a very important place in Vedic literature and in the practice of Vedic Religion. It is the heart of Krishna Yajurveda and is treasured in the centre of Taittiriya Samhita. Sri Sivapanchakshari Mantram is enshrined in it. Sri Rudram is known as Rudropanishad. Though it forms part of Karma Kanda, it ranks at par with the Upanishads of the Jnana Kanda. And as it is seen in all the 101 Shakhas of the Yajurveda, it is called 'Satarudriyam'. Among the Vidyas, the Vedas are supreme; in the Vedas the Rudra Ekadasi is supreme; in the Rudram the Panchakshari Mantra 'NAMASIVAYA' is supreme; in the Mantra the two letters 'SIVA' is supreme. As by pouring water at the root of a tree, all its branches are nourished, so also by pleasing Rudra through Rudra Japa, all the Devas are pleased. This is the best atonement (Prayaschittam) for all sins and the foremost 'Sadhana' for attainment of cherished desires.
[FairfieldLife] Re: M.P. Uniyal
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, m2smart4u2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I heard today that he passed away on December 25th. Does anyone have any news about him? He passed away of a heart attack in Pasadena, CA. It was rather unexpected in spite of his advanced years.
[FairfieldLife] Navaratri starts this week
Navaratri, the nine night celebration of the Divine Mother in various forms, starts this week on Saturday. Traditionally one would read or listen to Chandi Path during this time. Chandi Path tells the story of the creation of Durga, a form of the Divine Mother and her various battles against different demons. It's also considered to be one big long mantra that has some good effects when listened to. Chandi Path can be difficult to find, so I have posted both a translation and three downloadable MP3 files on www.puja.net for those who'd like them. The link is at the bottom of the opening page. Regards, Ben To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
From what I understand, most Sanskrit scholars believe that the pundits with Southern Indian accents are closer to accurate than the ones with Northern accents like MMY has. This is absolutely true. My priest friends are from the south and I can understand them when they chant, but take someone from delhi and it sounds completely different! The amount of difference is like comparing someone with real strong southern US accent to a real strong Cockney British accent. You wouldn't think they were speaking the same language. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: amrit from india?
You know, this is a great story because it illustrates just how wrong people get the vedic yagya stuff. The thinking seems to be if I do this yagya or puja, then this result will happen. And of course it doesn't. The way it is supposed to work is that you do the puja or yagya and it supplements your own efforts; removing obstacles and increasing your power. But you have to do the work. The house purification yagya is called griha pravesham. It is actually a lot of fun because you make a fire place in the middle of the house and then you do the fire yagya and chant all the mantras and fill the house with smoke to purify it. The smoke actually smells really good because of the herb mixture (called havan samagri) and the ghee. That gets pretty funny here in LA when I help the priests with this yagya in some Indian doctor's new huge house and the fire alarms go off and the smoke is incredibly thick... The yagya is typically for the 9 planets, Ganesha, and Lakshmi. If there are issues with spirits then you add in some Sudarshana (Vishnu's weapon). At the end, the water in the kalasha pot is sprinkled in all the rooms to bless them and some of the ash from the fire is mixed with ghee and a small dot is placed over the entry to the house to provide protection. Even fairly traditional Brahmin families make an effort to find a house with good vastu, do the yagya and then forget about it and just live their lives. So there is really a perception that we TMers go a bit overboard with all this. This made me laugh and reminded me of an experience I had here in FF back in '97. I attended a Vedic ceremony at the site of what was to be the international headquarters of USA Global Link. Chris Hartnett purchased a big piece of land out in the center of one of the mandalas. (First left after you turn right off of airport road.) This piece of land is directly in front of the headquarters of the Global Country of World Peace mansion that was originally purchased for King Tony (remember that fundraising campaign?). A contractor with a large backhoe dug a VERY DEEP hole into the mud. A tall ladder was placed down into the hole so that Holland Taylor and Larry Chroman could crawl down into the earth and place some gold- painted bricks symbolizing something (I do not remember what) into the hole. A puja was performed in the back of Doug Greenfield's SUV and other items (no humans, ha, ha) were thrown into the hole. After the ceremony, the ladder was removed and the hole was filled in. Then we all enjoyed cookies and juice. You can still see where the foundation of the USA Global Link building sits, surrounded by weeds and an orange fence. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Protect your PC from spy ware with award winning anti spy technology. It's free. http://us.click.yahoo.com/97bhrC/LGxNAA/yQLSAA/UlWolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Jerry Jarvis
I just wanted to mention that I saw Jerry at the Malibu Hindu temple on Tuesday. We had a nice chat and it was really great to see he is doing well; happy, healthy and still sporting that great Jerry Jarvis smile. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' SPONSORED LINKS Maharishi university of management Maharishi mahesh yogi Ramana maharshi YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Jerry Jarvis
Jerry was great! He is,as always, a sincerely spiritual person and I see him there from time to time. He's still doing TM and as devoted as ever (I doubt anything would change that) although...and this is my opinion, I think a little mystified by the current state of the movement. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 5/10/06 4:53:12 P.M. Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I just wanted to mention that I saw Jerry at the Malibu Hindu temple on Tuesday. We had a nice chat and it was really great to see he is doing well; happy, healthy and still sporting that great Jerry Jarvis smile. Is Jerry a Hindu wannabe? Does he still do TM? To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' SPONSORED LINKS Maharishi university of management Maharishi mahesh yogi Ramana maharshi YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Jerry Jarvis
Jerry was great! He is,as always, a sincerely spiritual person and I see him there from time to time. He's still doing TM and as devoted as ever (I doubt anything would change that) although...and this is my opinion, I think a little mystified by the current state of the movement. 1) Can you elaborate on that last point? Nothing to report really. We were just chatting and in the context of something else he mentioned low initiations in spite of David Lynch's efforts. Then we talked about something else. Like many who were active in the 70's Jerry was a rock of stability and I know there are many here who respect him deeply. I just wanted to let everyone know that he is really looking good and seemed genuinely happy (which is always nice to see) To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' SPONSORED LINKS Maharishi university of management Maharishi mahesh yogi Ramana maharshi YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Vedic Mythology podcast
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: How do we subscribe? You go to the iTunes Music Store and do a search for Vedic Mythology in the podcast section and it will come up. Or...open the iTunes program and under the Advanced heading on the top of the screen you will see Subscribe to Podcast. In the box that opens up enter www.puja.net/Podcasts/vedicmythology.xml Or you can go to puja.net and on the podcast page there is a link to subscribe in iTunes or you can just listen online. If you have any trouble just email me. Ben on 4/26/06 12:41 PM, benjaminccollins at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been creating a Vedic Mythology, Music, and Mantras podcast and have just released my 20th episode; Parvati curses King Chitraketu...and he doesn't care It's actually pretty good. In each show I present some amusing stories from the Vedic tradition plus some traditional vedic chanting and music. Each podcast is about 20 minutes long and I do a new one every week. You can subscribe (for free) at iTunes or listen online at www.puja.net. I'd love to get some feedback. regards, ben collins To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[FairfieldLife] Vedic Mythology podcast
I've been creating a Vedic Mythology, Music, and Mantras podcast and have just released my 20th episode; Parvati curses King Chitraketu...and he doesn't care It's actually pretty good. In each show I present some amusing stories from the Vedic tradition plus some traditional vedic chanting and music. Each podcast is about 20 minutes long and I do a new one every week. You can subscribe (for free) at iTunes or listen online at www.puja.net. I'd love to get some feedback. regards, ben collins To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[FairfieldLife] Shivaratri Vedic Chanting MP3's
With Shivaratri coming up soon, I posted a series of MP3 files on www.puja.net so that anyone can download the sections of Yajur Veda that are traditionally chanted during Rudra Abishekam. Specifically you will find Rudram, Chamakam and other selections, plus transliterations and translations. You are welcome to download anything you like and burn it to CD and share as you wish. The chanting is done by our priests from the Shankarcharya Mutt in Kanchipuram. Just go to http://www.puja.net and there are links on the left and also the bottom of the page. Happy Shivaratri! Ben Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Need a Fairfield Jyotish recommendation
I do jyotish consultations as a part of my puja.net project. There is no charge and those interested can email me. Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: on 1/4/06 2:20 PM, bluecabbagerose at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hmmm... I had heard about David Hawthorne. Can you resend David's email address again? Seems to have gotten cut off. I've used Pat Hayward before. Maybe I'll look him up on the web. Pat Hayward Home address 1516 N. Royer Colorado Springs, CO 80907 Telephone Home: (641) 472-7250 Home 2: (719) 632-0289 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] A perspective on Tom Pall
I have a few thoughts on the whole Tom Pall situation. Bear with me for a bit... Each Christmas time the yagya group does a special project to go to a vedic patasalas in Kanchipuram where young priests are being trained. The boys there generally range in age from 10 to about 18. In Kanchipuram they are from the villages in the area and tend to be from families who are definitely not rich. So we arrange for a special meal and for each one to receive a new cotton dhoti. It is a genuine help to them and they feel honored and we feel good doing it, particularly around Christmas time. So this year we were going to do this again for 30 boys (and an equal number of girls by the way) and I had set aside some of the sponsor money for this purpose. I posted a notice on my website and a number of people suddenly donated several hundred dollars. So I called India, and told Seetharam (our chief priest) that we have to expand the program because I had all this unexpected money. There was absolute silence in the other end of the phone. I said what...?. He said, I tell you before God, all the hairs on my body are standing on end. Earlier today the dhoti man came to my house and I thought to buy 150 dhotis; 30 for the usual students and the others so we can go to a new patasala with 120 students. I bought the dhoties wondering if I could ask Ben for more money and now you call, not knowing what I have done and the money is here. This is god's grace. Well, that's how the priests see it. These guys don't have any special powers or siddhis, so they see it as an expression of God's grace. Ok, so maybe it is circumstance and maybe not. Who cares. Its fun when it happens. The other time that I have had something like that happen is where Tom Pall enters the story. A few years ago we started doing 2 weeks of yagyas every month in India. Six priests and their families relied on our support. It freaked me out at the time because that is a lot of money month after month to be responsible for. But just as we took the first steps forward, hoping for the best, Tom Pall began to sponsor lots of yagyas; often times spending several thousand dollars each month. He played a necessary role at a critical time. I recognize that Tom Pall stepped up and helped. There was considerable generosity in what he did. Tom wants to heal himself and ultimately just wants to feel good and at peace (like we all do). Even before he and I met, Tom believed and experienced that yagyas were a way for him to experience the healing that he was searching for. What happened since then is not as important as remembering the fact that Tom, on a scale that is not common in life, saw an opportunity to help and support something worthwhile. He jumped in and committed himself completely for a long long time, just as he is with the YBC group. All of us, when we are feeling raw and wounded say and do things that ultimately we wish we could take back. And in the turmoil there is a tendency to forget all the good that preceeded it. No matter how much it may appear hidden these days, Tom has a kind, generous, considerate, and deeply spiritual side. It is too bad that it has been so obscured lately, and I hope he can rediscover it soon. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Need Help? Get Help! Tools and Strategies for Healthy Drug-Free Living/a. http://us.click.yahoo.com/wI.OUB/dbOLAA/d1hLAA/0NYolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Vermont, was: Hurdy Gurdy Man revealed
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: on 12/6/05 9:45 PM, ysoy10li at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I would have been at Goddard from the Fall of '72 'till I left for MIU in '75. I remember Bill Brunelle , although he didn't live in the TM- dorm when I lived there(maybe '74...). I'm sure he had graduated by then. I think he's on Purusha now. Andy Stevens, Toby Fineblum( who was on M. Divine and later married and ran(?) Pacific Palisades at one point. Then, strangely, I heard she died...)., She had cancer. She was married to my friend Ted Weisman. I went to Goddard too! I was there until around 1972 or so. I finally left because they wouldn't let me do all my degree program teaching TM. I lived in the natural food dorm on the north campus which then morphed into the TM after I had gone off to teacher training in Mallorca. Keith Thompson was there and I think sort of the organizer of that dorm. I travelled around Vermont teaching with Bill Brunelle for a while and then left for various parts of NY State ending up in the Chicago area in 74 or so. I also remember Carl Stone who was doing real estate in Fairfield but I haven't heard from him in years. I spoke with Bill Brunelle about 4-5 months ago as he was off to India for panchakarma in Kerala. He has been in NYC doing his magic thing. I know he took the recert course, but haven't heard from him since. Keith Thompson, a great guy by the way, is in the TV business and is on the Board of Directors at Goddard! I saw him in LA this past spring and he's doing great. Last I heard he was in Kerala for a vacation/panchakarma. There were so many initiators and teachers that came out of that time at Goddard in the 70's. Man, what a crazy place it was though. Really nuts. For those who were there, do you remember when they got The Youngbloods to come play for free if we bulit them a stage where they could watch the sunset while they played.? What a wacky time it was. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Vermont, was: Hurdy Gurdy Man revealed
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: on 12/6/05 10:41 PM, benjaminccollins at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I went to Goddard too! I was there until around 1972 or so. I just posted a photo of my band at http://tinyurl.com/avjpw See if you guys remember us. We played there in the spring of 1970 or so. Great photo! I recall that I was at Goddard late in 71 because I went to TTC in the fall. Then I was there for just a while but kept going off to teach, so I'm afraid that I don't recall the band. Looks great though...just like I remember that era. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Yagna By Choice. It Works
PS. With reference to another recent discussion here on FFL, I'll just mention that I have been involved in arranging yagyas for George Harrison and his family both before and after his passing. Before he died George was mostly into Yogananda and the usual plethora of spiritual practices typical of an Indian Brahmin in which his main guidance was Ravi Shankar. After his passing I have continued to arrange yagyas for his family and Dhani is an avid meditator, not to mention a very fine person. Ben: Thanks for giving some support for my observation that George has moved on to other practices. Evolution is where it's at! It is also my understanding that Ravi had been a guiding influence on George, as he took him as a guru early on in his own sitar studies. Ravi also has commented on the practices that they shared as George was dying. What a wonderful friend and spiritual companion to have. -V. The day of the service was an interesting experience. My priest friend Seetharam chanted Rudram from Yajur Veda and it was a wonderful and moving experience. Afterwards I had the pleasure of spending half an hour talking with Ravi Shankar and his wife who were the most down-to-earth and delightful people you can imagine. Their warmth and easy spirituality were abundantly apparent. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Yagna By Choice. It Works
Well I suppose I should just let this all pass. But since Tom made some specific accusations I feel I should respond just to set the record straight. Professionally I am an adjunct faculty member teaching multi-media and programming at a small college in Long Beach, CA. I've been here for 6 years now and for the past two terms received the Student's Choice Award for best instructor. I came here after leaving a high paying corporate job after my boss left and his replacement didn't care for me. I prefer teaching to corporate management and am fine with the lower pay because this is a better way to make a living. Overall, I think I have a stable job history. Yes, I'm divorced, just like over 50% of the US population. I have my kids every weekend and they are delightful, strong and healthy children who love their Dad. No problems there. In addition to my 20 hours of college classes, I work on puja.net roughly 30 hours a week. I pay myself $1000 a month because if I didn't there would be no puja.net and I figure I'm worth $9/hour. The yagya program provides the funds to support 6 priests and their family. We pay them well and they live happily. This is my contribution towards the preservation of the vedic tradition. I created something where before there was nothing. I'd love to do yagyas full time just like I loved the 5 years I taught TM full time back in the 70's (in Chicago mostly). I probably could if I approached this as a business. But that seems to me to defeat the higher purpose. Inevitably Puja.net has business elements, but it has evolved into more than just yagyas; there are audio and video programs, a podcast, the service we do in the temples around Kanchipuram, the food and dhotis that we dontate to the children in the pundit ashrams, etc. Only the yagyas involve money right now. We are large enough and the participation levels are high enough that we can offer 4 days of full scale yagyas for $65. That is, to me, an accomplishment and I tend to view puja.net as a yagya co-op as much as anything. I know I've made mistakes and I am sure there is still room for improvement. But ten years ago there was nothing like a yagya co-op and I was figuring it out as I went along. So mistakes and missteps are inevitable. And certainly when one puts oneself out there, there are a few who will view it as a target opportunity. It just goes with the territory. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- 1.2 million kids a year are victims of human trafficking. Stop slavery. http://us.click.yahoo.com/WpTY2A/izNLAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Yagna By Choice. It Works
My prasadam for my first Mahalakshmi Yagna arrived today. A beautiful yantra, card from the chief priest in some Indian language, English from my contact at YBC and two very blessed rudraksha bead malas. I can feel the power coming off of these. It's just tremendous. I'll just add that I worked with Tom for about 2 years arranging the yagyas that he wanted performed. Before he started working with me, Tom was doing lots of yagyas in lots of places in India and always told me not to send him prasadam because he had too much of it as it was. It was my experience that he was dealing with deeply routed issues and was searching for answers. I'm no guru so I don't provide answers to people nor do I tell them what to do. I think that yagyas are a useful tool to accelerate one's evolution and are a great supplemtn to TM. I always thought Tom was spending more than was sensible, but that's what he wanted to do. It doesn't surprise me that he eventually got all pissed off and went someplace else. Frankly I was relieved. If these yagyas work for him great. But it is my opinion that yagyas, meditation and any spiritual practice only take you so far and then issues of character must be addressed before further progress is possible. Tom's character issues have been amply demonstrated in this forum, just do a search. As one who is deeply involved in yagyas and has seen them work wonders under the proper circumstances I can say that I take absolutely no offense at Dr. Pete's postings. I found them quite funny given the context of Tom P's past behavior. -Ben PS. With reference to another recent discussion here on FFL, I'll just mention that I have been involved in arranging yagyas for George Harrison and his family both before and after his passing. Before he died George was mostly into Yogananda and the usual plethora of spiritual practices typical of an Indian Brahmin in which his main guidance was Ravi Shankar. After his passing I have continued to arrange yagyas for his family and Dhani is an avid meditator, not to mention a very fine person. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- 1.2 million kids a year are victims of human trafficking. Stop slavery. http://us.click.yahoo.com/WpTY2A/izNLAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] OM of the universe
So perhaps scientists have found the OM of the universe. Or is that stretching the metaphor a little too far Black Hole Strikes Deepest Musical Note Ever Heard By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 01:50 pm ET 09 September 2003 Astronomers have detected the deepest note ever generated in the cosmos, a B-flat flying through space like a ripple on an invisible pond. No human will actually hear the note, because it is 57 octaves below the keys in the middle of a piano. The detection was made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and announced at a press conference today. The note strikes an important chord with astronomers, who say it may help them understand how the universe's largest structures, called galaxy clusters, evolve. The sound waves appear to be heating gas in the Perseus galaxy cluster, some 250 million light-years away, potentially solving a longstanding mystery about why the gas surrounding this cluster and others does not chill out as existing theory predicts. The gas is apparently dancing excitedly to the eons-long drone of a deep B-flat. Black hole music Astronomers were not surprised to find the supermassive black hole making a strong sub-bass sound. Though these greatest known matter sinks are by nature dark and invisible, they create bright and chaotic environments in which many forms of radiation -- from radio waves to visible light to X-rays -- have been recorded. These electromagnetic waves all travel at the speed of light. Sound waves are similar, but they travel far more slowly and are more physical in nature. Sound you hear, for example, can be produced by the visible compression and expansion of a stereo speaker. The waves physically compress the stuff through which they move, be it air, water, or hot interstellar gas. Other studies have shown that the riotous activity around black holes -- where gas is accelerated to nearly light-speed -- produces many notes that are, all together, much like music. Collectively, the cosmos produce, scientists believe, a cacophonic symphony of inaudible tunes. Musical production appears to be ubiquitous in Nature. Scientists often call it flicker noise, and it has also been detected in the X-ray outputs of magnetic fields within our solar system. Even Earth hums its own tune. Musical analogies are found in everything from seascapes to brainwaves. Way out of range The 53 hours of Chandra observations revealed a note that is more than a million billion times deeper than what you can hear. We have observed the prodigious amounts of light and heat created by black holes, said Andrew Fabian of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, England, and leader of the study. Now we have detected the sound. The Perseus sound waves are much more than just an interesting form of black hole acoustics, said Fabian's colleague Steve Allen. These sound waves may be the key in figuring out how galaxy clusters grow. Scientists had previously observed large amounts of hot gas infusing clusters. Given what's known, the gas should cool over time, however. Cooler gas would create areas of lower pressure near the center of a cluster, causing fringe gas to fall inward. In the process, trillions of stars would form. This isn't what astronomers see when they look at clusters, though. The Perseus cluster is the brightest known in X-rays, making it a good target for study. It has two large, bubble-shaped cavities that extend away from a central black hole. The cavities are formed by jets of material ejected from the black hole's surroundings, and the jets have been suspected of heating the outlying gas. But scientists couldn't see how. A special image-processing technique was used to bring out subtle changes in brightness that revealed the presence of ripples -- the sound waves. Fabian and Allen figure the sound waves, observed spreading out from the cavities, heat the gas. The amount of energy involved is staggering, equal to what would be produced if 100 million stars exploded. A single, long-sounding note is produced by a sound wave in which the waves are the same size and shape continuously. The newfound note has been sounding, the researchers say, for about 2.5 billion years. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Lalitha Sahasranam posted on-line
Right! My mistake. Sorry! Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, brahmachari108 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip I have some recordings of Lalith Sahasranam which I will post on www.puja.net so anyone who wants them can download for free. I think Interestingly enough the site where Agastya-rishi was given this knowledge by Varaha is the Varadaraja Temple in Kanchipuram southeast of Madras. Conflicting information here. You suggest Varaha (Vishnu's avatara as Boar) is the one who gave to Rishi Agastya. Another poster says Hayagriva (Horse avatara) presented it to Agastya. Where do you get your information? Upon diligent searching, no where is Varaha connected. Hayagriva is noted as the channel for this knowledge of Lalita Sahasranama. http://www.factbites.com/topics/Lalitha-Sahasranama http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Lalitha+sahasranama BTW: accuracy not in question.. but impossible for an inexperienced one to follow...the chanting mP3 you posted is. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Anybody visited major Temples in India?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, brahmachari108 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Greetings, Wondering if anybody has visited major temples or done yagyas in India and what experiences were? Jai Guru Deva I have many times in Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh. As many here know I have lots of information on my website www.puja.net. In summary, I can say that the large famous temples are lots of fun and inspiring places to visit. But unless you have your own priest to act as a guide, they are rather impersonal and you may be restricted in getting into the places you want to see, particularly in Vaishnava temples. For yagyas in person you are better off with a smaller temple where you will have more personal attention and be less likely to run afoul of restrictions on foreigners etc. In those instances you will be doing some good for the temple and the priests and they will generally treat you very nicely. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: pc recording studio home setup
Kenny, I havea setup that I use for my Vedic Mytholoogy podcast. Personally, I like using Sony Audio Studio for recording software. It is readily available from a variety of sources and not too expensive $69. Then I suggest going to a place like MusiciansFriend.com and buy yourself a good condenser mic ($70 for an MXL), stand $20, and a mixer with a USB interface (Alesis for $114). and you are all set to go! Let me know if you need any help. Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Kenny H [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello Group I have a beautiful Taylor 12-string guitar (the sound transports me when I play) and a gorgeous Martin D-18 custom guitar and I want to lay down some multilayered tracks here at home so I can make beautiful music with myself (smooch). Has anyone reading here at FFLife had experience in setting up their pc as a recording studio? I need to start really basic just so I can lay down a rhythm track or two to practice along with and then eventually add some lead lines. I'd appreciate any advice I can get about doing this. Post to me here or beep me at kennyhassman at yahoo dot com KH Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Lalitha Sahasranam posted on-line
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, clucere [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Which way does the Kamakshi Devi temple face? Is it proper vastu? It faces east, which is traditional, but all the others face it so only 25% of them are proper. The largest Vishnu temple in India is in Srirangam and it faces south because it is oriented toward SriLanka. The temple is Vishnu lying down watching for Vibishina, Ravana's brother from the Ramayana story who was a big devotee. I guess my point is that proper vastu may be something of an over simplification at times. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have some recordings of Lalith Sahasranam which I will post on www.puja.net so anyone who wants them can download for free. I think I also have a transliteration and translation which I will also post in case you are interested. The links will be towards the bottom of the main page. Interestingly enough the site where Agastya-rishi was given this knowledge by Varaha is the Varadaraja Temple in Kanchipuram southeast of Madras. The temple is literally across the street from the place where my puja.net yagya group has our monthly yagyas. Inside the temple walls is the 2nd largest Vishnu temple in all of India. The temple has a large water pond in the middle of which is a special temple for a form of Vishnu that is kept in a special sealed box under the water and only taken out for pujas every 30 years! As an aside all of the temples in Kanchipuram face the main temple in the area, the Kamakshi Devi temple. So there are many many south facing temples. (so much for vastu!) Regards, Ben Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: pc recording studio home setup--version 2 $100!
It also occurs to me that there very nice condenser mic that goes right into your PC's USB port for about $79. Then all you need is the software. There is some free audio editing software called Audacity that you can get from SourceForge.com. So you are in business for less than $100! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Kenny, I havea setup that I use for my Vedic Mytholoogy podcast. Personally, I like using Sony Audio Studio for recording software. It is readily available from a variety of sources and not too expensive $69. Then I suggest going to a place like MusiciansFriend.com and buy yourself a good condenser mic ($70 for an MXL), stand $20, and a mixer with a USB interface (Alesis for $114). and you are all set to go! Let me know if you need any help. Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Kenny H [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello Group I have a beautiful Taylor 12-string guitar (the sound transports me when I play) and a gorgeous Martin D-18 custom guitar and I want to lay down some multilayered tracks here at home so I can make beautiful music with myself (smooch). Has anyone reading here at FFLife had experience in setting up their pc as a recording studio? I need to start really basic just so I can lay down a rhythm track or two to practice along with and then eventually add some lead lines. I'd appreciate any advice I can get about doing this. Post to me here or beep me at kennyhassman at yahoo dot com KH Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Lalitha Sahasranam posted on-line
I have some recordings of Lalith Sahasranam which I will post on www.puja.net so anyone who wants them can download for free. I think I also have a transliteration and translation which I will also post in case you are interested. The links will be towards the bottom of the main page. Interestingly enough the site where Agastya-rishi was given this knowledge by Varaha is the Varadaraja Temple in Kanchipuram southeast of Madras. The temple is literally across the street from the place where my puja.net yagya group has our monthly yagyas. Inside the temple walls is the 2nd largest Vishnu temple in all of India. The temple has a large water pond in the middle of which is a special temple for a form of Vishnu that is kept in a special sealed box under the water and only taken out for pujas every 30 years! As an aside all of the temples in Kanchipuram face the main temple in the area, the Kamakshi Devi temple. So there are many many south facing temples. (so much for vastu!) Regards, Ben Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: More Shankara-dig-vijaya: ...as lightly as a bundle of cotton.
In the world there are invisible ladders, leading step by step to the summit of heaven. There is a different ladder for every group, a different heaven for every path. Each one is ignorant of the other's condition in this wide kingdom which has no end or beginning. This one is amazed at that one and wonders why he is happy, while that one is astonished at this one and asks why he is amazed. God's earth is spacious*: every tree springs up from a certain soil. The leaves and boughs sing thanks to God: What a fine, broad kingdom. The nightingales hover around the fruiting blossom, calling, Give us some of what you drink. This discourse has no end. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Nardobân-hâyist penhân dar jahân pâyeh pâyeh tâ `enân-e âsmân Har goroh-râ nardobâni digarast har ravesh-râ âsmâni digarast Har yeki azhâl-e digar bi khabar molk bâ pahnâ o bi pâyân o sar In dar ân hayrân keh u chist khvosh va ân darin khireh keh hayrat chistesh Sahn-e Ard Allâh wâsi`* âmadeh har derakhti az zamini sar zadeh Bar derakhtân shokr guyân barg o shâkh keh Zehi molk o zehi `arseh-ye farâkh Bolbolân gerd-e shekufeh par gereh keh Az âncheh mi khvori mâ-râ be-deh In sokhan pâyân na-dârad kon roju` su-ye ân rubâh o shir o soqm o ju` -- Mathnawi V: 2556-2563 Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance Threshold Books, 1996 (Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra) ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: (72-77) Having thus humbled the pride of the Buddhists, the Brahmana sage [Skanda as Kumarila Bhatta] now began to expound the meanings of the Vedic Mantras in order to enlighten [Indra as] king Sudhanvan. The king thereupon said, In wordy controversies, success and failure depend only on the learning of the respective parties. It does not really prove the truth of the thesis. I can accept the religion of that party as true, who can jump down unhurt from the top of yonder mountain. At these words of the king, all the scholars merely stood aghast looking at each other, unable to take up the challenge of the ordeal. But the Brahmana sage, with his mind concentrated on the Veda, ascended the mountain top, and declared: If the Veda is the true scripture, my body shall not be hurt by this ordeal. With this mighty declaration, the sage jumped down from the mountain top, as the spectators shouted in wonder of the sight: Oh! Is it king Yayati coming down from heaven on the expiry of the merits his grandson had transferred to him! That best of Brahmanas now touched the earth as lightly as a bundle of cotton. Is it any wonder that the Veda protects one with whole- hearted faith in it? A wonderful teaching. I feel that the world would definitely be a better place if religious fanatics, those who are caught up in the My way is the best game, undertook a similar test and proved their best claim by leaping from the top of the nearest mountain. It was kinda surprise to me how anti-buddhist Vidyaranya is. I myself have nothing against Buddhists. FCS, I'm doing anapanasati in addition to TM nowadays. :) And a combination ,sort of, of TM and anapana is very powerful. :0 I understood that. I was just commenting on the attitude expressed in the teaching, and in similar quotes you've posted lately. I, too, am somewhat shocked by the vehemence with which early leaders of the Shankaracharya tradition tried to put down their Buddhist competition. Because that's really the issue. Buddhism was to the Hindu establishment very much what Catharism was to the established Roman Catholic Church -- a competitor that ate into profits. Buddhism rejected most of the rites and rituals (yagyas, etc.) for which the priests received money. The very *idea* of an approach to liberation that could be done on one's own, without the intervention of clergy (*paid* clergy) was probably viewed as a real danger, because it challenged the status quo and economic solvency of the Hindu tradition. The religious fanatic We know the truth and no one else does stuff is almost secondary; the primary motivation in all of this seems to have been financial. What's striking me in these quotes is how far *back* the attitude that many of us find challenging in the TM movement goes. The tendency to boast about one's tradition and one's
[FairfieldLife] Chandi Path MP3's posted
Navaratri is starting tomorrow. I tis a holiday in honor of the goddess as Divine Mother. It is traditional to recite or listen to Chandi Path during this time. I have posted the entire Chandi Path in four MP3's on www.puja.net. You'll see a link under the What's New section on the left side of the main page. You can listen on-line or download. Each file is about 11 MB. Chandi Path is the 700 verse story of Durga and is considered to be one long mantra. It is something of a tradition to listen to it during Navaratri as a way of connecting with the Divine Mother. Chandi Path comes from the Markandeya Purana and dates at around 900 BC. The rendition that I have posted is quite nicely done; not too fast and the sanskrit is clear. I have also posted a transliteration of the text. Enjoy! Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Consciousness of pundits matters
Well, I suppose I have to respond to the things that Tom says in some way. I've been organizing yagyas for about 10 years now and have used the best resources available to me; primarily priests in Kanchipuram who were trained in the Shankara tradition. They've done really well for the group over the years. They are well trained and honest people. My goal was to honor their skill and traditions by providing them with well paid employment to use their skills and knowledge for our benefit. Actually the one thing that I heard consistently from priests in India was that Maharishi paid them very well. It really seemed to make a difference in the enthusiasm that they displayed in their work. I took my cue from that. We paid our priests, on average $40 a day for 5-7 hours of work. Certainly well paid from an India point of view and I think that is as it should be. Priests are very interesting individuals when you get to know them. They use the same mantras that we do in TM, but use them differently. From my experience they are in a different sort of state because their life is focused on devotion and the perfection of the puja and yagya rituals. They certainly experience transcendence. So we shouldn't be too quick to judge them and their practices. They are simply different. Tom very generously participated in a maha sponsor program along with several others who were instrumental in establishing our facility in Kanchipuram. In return the priests added their names to the sponsor list (sankalpam) of every yagya that took place in the facility. This is consistent with the traditions of temples and priests; honoring those who make it possible for the yagya to take place. They were grateful to Tom and the others for their support. That's not stealing. I taught a lot of people in my TM days and I find that yagyas are much like that experience; works really well for most and about the worst that happens is that sometimes people feel nothing. If Tom feels better results from his new yagya source, then bless him. I'm all for success wherever it comes from, but that success doesn't invalidate the efforts of other individuals like myself or any other yagya organizers. I'd rather not pass judgement on Tom in a public place and I'll trust that the readers of FFL will come to their own conclusions. There's lots of information on puja.net and I'm always happy to respond to emails. Ben Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Raja P Diddy!
As quoted in E-Online: I could wake up one morning, and I could be king of a country. I would be comfortable being a king. --One of the many jaw-dropping quotes in OK! magazine from P. Diddy, who recently shortened his name to Diddy (though we prefer Piddy). Oh, have we got a deal for you! Diddy and the rishi take over the world! Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] A yagya perspective
I'v enjoyed reading all the discussions in yagyas. I, of course, have my own perspective on this subject and thought that I add a few observations. Yagyas are a tool for evolution, just like TM is. There is much to be learned and one ultimately comes to one's own conclusions regarding yagyas and how they should be performed etc. I started puja.net about 10 years ago after my first trip to India. For me it was out of necessity because I couldn't afford the TMO yagyas. So a group of my friends got together and shared the cost. We had group yagyas once a month for many years at the Malibu Temple. It was great to be there in person. We all found that small yagyas performed over and over had significant effects. It was another way of accomplishing what might otherwise cost $10,000 with the TM yagyas. Is one approach any better than the others? Who knows and I doubt there is an objective criteria anyway. We liked them and $51 per month made it possible to continue without a big financial strain. As the group grew, we started having yagyas in India with a group of 5 priests all of whom were from the Shankara Mutt and were well known by Seetharam, the Chief Priest at the Shiva temple in Malibu. So we gradually added more days of yagyas and our little group continued to grow. We pay our priests about $40 per day for 5-6 hours work. I fully realize that you could pay much much less. But it seems to me that if anyone deserves to be well paid, it is the priests that are doing this kind of work for you. My observation based on hundreds of yagyas is that the priest's consciousness is an important link in the overall success of the yagya. I want them to feel honored and well paid. I have seen first hand how hard it is to be a priest in India. It is a tough life unless you are born into a family of priests that has a heriditary place in a big temple. They are not guaranteed employment and yet are expected to be married and have children. It can be very very difficult to make a good living there. So I know we pay more than we have to. But in the overall scheme of our western lives, the difference is not so much to us, and hugely different to them. As an act of considerable faith and generosity, Seetharam took his own money and bought a facility for us to use in Kanchipuram. It is a great little temple town about 1 hour from Madras. Our house was owned by a Brahmin who was the temple cook. Now, it is what they call in India a devastanum a place of God. No one lives there. It is only used for yagyas for the past couple years and has a genuine purity in the air. We wanted to be close to the temples, but also away from the public vibe in the large temples. This allows us more control over what happens during the yagyas. We have experimented with a number of innovations. Firstly, I call India every night to listen to the chanting during yagya time. I have a standing invitation to any sponsor who wants to hear their yagya being performed to listen as long as they want. We also go out into the countryside near Kanchipuram and perform a big yagya in a local temple. We spend a lot of money on this because these are smaller temple where the local populace can't afford to perform the yagyas on the same scale. This yagya is video taped and, although it may take some time, I usually distribute a CD of the yagya to the sponsors afterwards. In fact, any FFL member who wants a yagya CD can contact me and I'll gladly send you one. It is great to see them being performed in a traditional setting. In the end, I have ended up in the same place that I started. That is, yagyas are a form of service, a form of spiritual practice, a form of prayer, a means to personal evolution. They are not some sort of cosmic ordering service...I want money so here's a yagya, Lakshmi...kindly deliver! In fact that is the best way to make sure they don't work. The good priests are very humble, very respectful, and very talented individuals. To me it doesn't matter if they are puja.net, TMO, yagya-by-choice..they are all doing the best they can with this ancient and traditional technology. They deserve our respect. So in conclusion, I'd say that yagyas are about empowerment. They are all about empowering the divine in you and as a result enabling you to manifest the results that you desire in life. Whether you use puja.net or yagyas by choice is really a matter of personal preference and style. And this is where the skeptics get it right. They point out that it is you who have to change. Yagyas don't do it for you, but they give you a boost in the right direction and smooth the path. So does meditation, so does puja, and so do a lot of other things like sports, and art, and service, and study, etc. Because they are all the tools with which you build your life. It is just a matter of what ones you want to use. /ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Tom Pall [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[FairfieldLife] Re: A yagya perspective
Indeed! Actually, part of what happened was that our group's events was getting larger than some of the events that the temple was sponsoring so it caused a lot of political problems with the Malibu temple's board and they were wanting thousands of dollars to use the temple. So, yeah, we outsourced. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shempmcgurk [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Paying priests in India to do yagyas at a fraction of the cost that your Malibu priests would charge you? Sounds like outsourcing to me... -): --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'v enjoyed reading all the discussions in yagyas. I, of course, have my own perspective on this subject and thought that I add a few observations. Yagyas are a tool for evolution, just like TM is. There is much to be learned and one ultimately comes to one's own conclusions regarding yagyas and how they should be performed etc. I started puja.net about 10 years ago after my first trip to India. For me it was out of necessity because I couldn't afford the TMO yagyas. So a group of my friends got together and shared the cost. We had group yagyas once a month for many years at the Malibu Temple. It was great to be there in person. We all found that small yagyas performed over and over had significant effects. It was another way of accomplishing what might otherwise cost $10,000 with the TM yagyas. Is one approach any better than the others? Who knows and I doubt there is an objective criteria anyway. We liked them and $51 per month made it possible to continue without a big financial strain. As the group grew, we started having yagyas in India with a group of 5 priests all of whom were from the Shankara Mutt and were well known by Seetharam, the Chief Priest at the Shiva temple in Malibu. So we gradually added more days of yagyas and our little group continued to grow. We pay our priests about $40 per day for 5-6 hours work. I fully realize that you could pay much much less. But it seems to me that if anyone deserves to be well paid, it is the priests that are doing this kind of work for you. My observation based on hundreds of yagyas is that the priest's consciousness is an important link in the overall success of the yagya. I want them to feel honored and well paid. I have seen first hand how hard it is to be a priest in India. It is a tough life unless you are born into a family of priests that has a heriditary place in a big temple. They are not guaranteed employment and yet are expected to be married and have children. It can be very very difficult to make a good living there. So I know we pay more than we have to. But in the overall scheme of our western lives, the difference is not so much to us, and hugely different to them. As an act of considerable faith and generosity, Seetharam took his own money and bought a facility for us to use in Kanchipuram. It is a great little temple town about 1 hour from Madras. Our house was owned by a Brahmin who was the temple cook. Now, it is what they call in India a devastanum a place of God. No one lives there. It is only used for yagyas for the past couple years and has a genuine purity in the air. We wanted to be close to the temples, but also away from the public vibe in the large temples. This allows us more control over what happens during the yagyas. We have experimented with a number of innovations. Firstly, I call India every night to listen to the chanting during yagya time. I have a standing invitation to any sponsor who wants to hear their yagya being performed to listen as long as they want. We also go out into the countryside near Kanchipuram and perform a big yagya in a local temple. We spend a lot of money on this because these are smaller temple where the local populace can't afford to perform the yagyas on the same scale. This yagya is video taped and, although it may take some time, I usually distribute a CD of the yagya to the sponsors afterwards. In fact, any FFL member who wants a yagya CD can contact me and I'll gladly send you one. It is great to see them being performed in a traditional setting. In the end, I have ended up in the same place that I started. That is, yagyas are a form of service, a form of spiritual practice, a form of prayer, a means to personal evolution. They are not some sort of cosmic ordering service...I want money so here's a yagya, Lakshmi...kindly deliver! In fact that is the best way to make sure they don't work. The good priests are very humble, very respectful, and very talented individuals. To me it doesn't matter if they are puja.net, TMO, yagya-by-choice..they are all doing the best they can with this ancient
[FairfieldLife] Re: A yagya perspective
Well, I'm not going to get drawn into a big flame war, but what I had in mind was prompted by the following excerpt from a yagya participant: Some more thoughts on the previous subject: (1) Specifically, why will a Lakshmi yagya not win the lottery for us? This is a serious question. Surely, Laksmhi, Ganesh and the other Gods are marvelous beings, full of Divine Love who want to help us. So, if they don't win the lottery for us, can't we deduce (just as an astronomer can deduce the existence of a planet or black hole that he can't see from the behavior of neighboring objects) the existence of some Divine Law(s) which constrains them. If so, what might this law be? Aren't we here on Earth to learn? In Ray Moody's book, Life after life, about the near death experience, when you do the review of your life with the Being of white light, 2 things that you got big points for were learning to love others and education. Hypothesis: you have to learn the lesson. They can't give you the winning lottery number because learning wouldn't occur. As for the rest of what Tom said, from my perspective it is far too uninteresting to dissect other than to say that I have learned that working with the 165 memebers of the yagya group is a very difficult task. Every day my respect and admiration for what Maharishi has accomplished only increases...even if the results are flawed or he has personal shortcomings. In the end all of us are trying to accomplish something good and positive in life. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: New Sacrificial/Alter policy for TM teachers and TM-Sidhi practioners
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Cliff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Pretty much every heterosexual man I've ever met quite enjoys breasts, regardless of size. The Vedic comic books I remember seeing all had fairly well-endowed women, and the carvings on the temples in south India all feature D cup size and above. You do the math... The following are a part of the Lalitha Sahasranam (1008 names of the divine goddess in her beautiful form) 34. OM nabhyalavala romali lata phala kuca dvayyai namaha Salutations to Her whose breasts look like fruits on the vine of the hairline spreading upwards from her navel. and 36. OM stana bhara dalan madhya patta bandha vali trayayai namaha Salutations to Her whose waist, breaking under the weight of Her breasts, gets a supporting belt in the 3 folds of her abdomen Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM ~- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: CONJUNCTION OF JUPITER KETU - USA
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Couldn't agree more. I really want jyotish to be accurate, but its predictions are usually so vague and general that they have no meaning. Might as well read sheep entrails! Indeed you are correct. But that is, IMHO, the great strength of jyotish. The language of jyotish is one of symbolism and as such it is highly accurate for describing trends in an individual's life experience. The planets are archetypes and represent different aspects of the individual's life...mercury is the intellect, moon the emotions, etc. By looking at the birth chart, you can have a good idea of what the person's life experience is in general. By contrasting that with the position of the planets in the sky at any given time, you can see what is happening in their life. I often explain jyotish as being like predicting the weather. Good weather is coming...plan a picnic. You can tell what sort of activities are going to be supported by the trend of events. Then the person has the strength of that knowledge without feeling that everything is predestined. The loss of free will or innocense that results from highly specific predictions is, in my opinion, unfortunate. While it is possible to make very specific predictions, I question their value. Not to mention the damage that it does to a person's emotional health when something bad is predicted inaccurately. On a larger scale, predicting the fate of nations is very very difficult and probably more of an intellectual curiosity than anything else. But one can make a broad statement that with the connection of 3 highly malefic planets (Mars/Saturn/Ketu) a certain amount of poo will be hitting the fan. And this situation will persist in one variation or another for the next 18 months, so you can be pretty confident that these symbols will play themselves out in one form or another. Terrorist events, natural disasters, and general troubles will be prevalent, particularly after Jupiter changes signs this fall. --- feste37 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Choudhry is wrong on most things, last time I checked. As for what's going to happen to the US this month, you would do just as well by reading a few newspapers and making an educated guess. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Friends: I am forwarding an email I received from Professor V.K. Choudhry in India, regarding the impact of the current transit conjunction of Jupiter and Ketu, for the United States. If you do NOT want to read something that might be considered negative, please do NOT scroll down and read this message. For the rest of us, this message might be helpful. David Hawthorne Hello dear list members, The following prediction is based on the US chart rectified by our SAMVA List moderator, Jorge Angelino. During the month of August, 2005, transit Jupiter would be under the close malefic influence of Rahu-Ketu axis. This does not auger well for children, those suffering with liver diseases, teachers, judiciary, financial advisors and to some extent for marketeers. So, it is time to take care and exercise patience. The present transit conjunction of Jupiter and Ketu is likely to cause concerns for US in matters of wealth, accidents, natural disasters, fires, activities of anti-social elements which includes terrorists, as well, and some loss of life. The period runs for at least one month and it is critical. This will cause serious concerns for the government. President Bush is likely to take tough action to meet all challenges. In Indian independence chart this influence of transit conjunction of Jupiter and Ketu is besides the transit affliction of Rahu to natal Venus and Saturn. So, the vulnerability of India to accidents, natural disasters, mishaps, child health, labour problems, setbacks for the governments - both state and centre, epidemic, etc. continues. V K Choudhry To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is
[FairfieldLife] Re: Raja of the Congo speaks -AND The great explorer
In the announcement there is this little gem: Twelve beautiful pieces of land have been acquired for the purpose of building Peace Palaces. Much of this land, Raja Potter said, was discovered by the great explorer Richard Quinn, who embodies so completely the principle that came out the day before yesterday that it doesn't matter who does it, it only matters that it gets done, and also the principle 'I will do it immediately.' The GREAT EXPLORER Richard Quinn Discovered I think this qualifies for a WhatTheF***! The land is just north of NYC. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bbrigante [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Raja Paul Potter, the Raja of New York, whose other areas of responsibility around the world include Austria, The Netherlands Antilles, Slovakia, Ukraine, Uruguay, Gambia, and the Republic of Congo was one of the speakers. Following is a paraphrase of his talk. http://tinyurl.com/cu6oq To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Jyotish and Satya Yuga
Excuse me but I beg to differ. I would say that while Ketu is with Jupiter, it is not a good combination for most worldly matters. One could say that Ketu, being the planetary representative (karaka in sanskrit) of enlightenment it has some value spiritually. But Ketu is pretty unpredictible by nature and rarely beneficent. Add to that the current aspect from Saturn and you don't exactly have a combination for peace and happiness. Mars is about to move from Aries to Taurus and when he does will come into contact with that Saturn and Ketu combination (by the 3rd house aspect) ...watch for some fireworks then and particulaly when Jupiter moves into Libra and we lose his buffer on the situation. In my opinion there is plenty on the horizon to worry about internationally. In my Jyotish practice I find that a lot of people are having a difficult time right now because the major planets are all connected in rather intense ways. bc --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shukra69 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Though not near perfect, there would be some pretty good times available right now from a Jyotish point of view for inaugurating something like Satya Yuga. 8 out of 9 planets are neither in old age nor infancy and there is no major afflictions from Rahu or Ketu to another planet. If you felt you needed to inaugurate Satya Yuga on Guru Purnima you might not see another Guru Purnima this auspicious for a while. By the same token, there isn't any indication of anything really bad on the horizon for the world according to Jyotish right now. There may be afflictions to individuals charts or to national charts like the UK's, but in world terms pretty calm. In November and December there are harsh aspects between Saturn and Mars and Saturn and Ketu. That might be more of a test of a declaration of Satya Yuga. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] David Lynch in the NY Post
July 20, 2005 -- IF you think Tom Cruise is wild about Scientology and Madonna is crazy about Kabbalah, eccentric filmmaker David Lynch is about to give both of them a run for their money. Tomorrow, the Oscar-nominated director of such graphically violent movies as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive is announcing the formation of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. Lynch has been a devotee of transcendental meditation and its founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, for 32 years. The foundation he'll launch with his own money will fund schools to set up transcendental meditation (or TM) classes and pay for research on the effects of the yoga technique on the brain and body. Lynch hopes to raise $7 billion within a year. This is not a pretend thing, Lynch told PAGE SIX's Steve Garbarino. Our government spends seven times that on killing, calling it defending, and making machinery and technology to kill human beings in the name of peace. Despite hating speaking in public, Lynch, 59, says he decided to stop being quiet about his passion for the 47-year-old Hindu chanting technique after observing the sad state of education in U.S. schools. Today's students are even more stressed out. Their schools are hellholes, he goes on. They're getting pathetic educations. They're not going forward with full decks of cards. Students who meditate, he says, will start shining like a bright, shiny penny, and their anxieties will go away. By diving within, they will attain a field of pure consciousness, pure bliss, creativity, intelligence, dynamic peace. You enliven the field, and every day it gets better. Negativity recedes. Lynch eventually hopes to organize peace-creating super groups of 8,000 meditators around the globe, all chanting simultaneously. Why 8,000? It's the size of the square root of one percent of the world's population. Quick to point out that TM is not a religion of clones but a mental technique to dive within, he'll only say of Scientology and Kabbalah, I don't know enough about either to comment. People believe in what they believe in, and that's a beautiful thing. Happily, Lynch hasn't given up his day job: He's working on his next flick, Inland Empire, starring Laura Dern. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] David Lynch in the NY Post
July 20, 2005 -- IF you think Tom Cruise is wild about Scientology and Madonna is crazy about Kabbalah, eccentric filmmaker David Lynch is about to give both of them a run for their money. Tomorrow, the Oscar-nominated director of such graphically violent movies as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive is announcing the formation of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. Lynch has been a devotee of transcendental meditation and its founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, for 32 years. The foundation he'll launch with his own money will fund schools to set up transcendental meditation (or TM) classes and pay for research on the effects of the yoga technique on the brain and body. Lynch hopes to raise $7 billion within a year. This is not a pretend thing, Lynch told PAGE SIX's Steve Garbarino. Our government spends seven times that on killing, calling it defending, and making machinery and technology to kill human beings in the name of peace. Despite hating speaking in public, Lynch, 59, says he decided to stop being quiet about his passion for the 47-year-old Hindu chanting technique after observing the sad state of education in U.S. schools. Today's students are even more stressed out. Their schools are hellholes, he goes on. They're getting pathetic educations. They're not going forward with full decks of cards. Students who meditate, he says, will start shining like a bright, shiny penny, and their anxieties will go away. By diving within, they will attain a field of pure consciousness, pure bliss, creativity, intelligence, dynamic peace. You enliven the field, and every day it gets better. Negativity recedes. Lynch eventually hopes to organize peace-creating super groups of 8,000 meditators around the globe, all chanting simultaneously. Why 8,000? It's the size of the square root of one percent of the world's population. Quick to point out that TM is not a religion of clones but a mental technique to dive within, he'll only say of Scientology and Kabbalah, I don't know enough about either to comment. People believe in what they believe in, and that's a beautiful thing. Happily, Lynch hasn't given up his day job: He's working on his next flick, Inland Empire, starring Laura Dern. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Ramakrishna Article
The article at this link: http://www.exoticindia.com/article/ramakrishna/ is great not because it is about Ramakrishna, but because it is about what seems to be the worst possible devotee imaginable. The stories are great and very amusing. Here's the start of one: One night, while Girish was in a brothel with two of his friends, he felt a sudden desire to see Ramakrishna. Despite the lateness of the hour he and his friends hired a carriage to Dakshineshwar. They were very drunk and everyone was asleep. But when the three tipsily staggered into Ramakrishna's room... To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Yantra
the priests at the malib temple have showed me how to empower and work with yantras. It isn't that complicated and requires only a little knowledge to empower them adn use them. Send me an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and I'll explain what I know. Unless you are doing some weird tantric stuff there is no danger and the whole process is not only fun but effective. BC --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Ingegerd [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What can go wrong? Ingegerd --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Carefully, very carefully. They must be prepared by someone who has been trained in making them, made at the correct time and enlivened. - Bhairitu Ingegerd wrote: Thank you anyway. Does anybody else know how to use yantras? Ingegerd -- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Llundrub [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: My knowledge of yantras is limited. I'm not really into talismans. Rudraksha, yes, most other stuff, no. Sorry. - Original Message - From: Ingegerd To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 2:21 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Yantra I have a question about yantra. I think Llundrup knows a lot about these things. I have received three different yantras, properly blessed, I think - to hang around the neck - Hanuman, Surya and Ganesh. I do not know how to use them. Does anybody know? Should I use one at a time - like a talisman? What is the effect? Ingegerd To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' -- -- YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS a.. Visit your group FairfieldLife on the web. b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. -- -- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Guru Poornima
I have long been interested in the power of yagyas to modify the experience of trends that are seen in an individual's jyotish chart. At least in my experience yagyas are consistently effective within reasonable expectations. I know that many here regard this topic with (deserved) scepticism. Precisely because this group is so blunt and forthright, I am asking for those who are interested to review a brief article which attempts to bring together Vedic philosophy, jyotish, and yagyas. It is admittedly a first attempt and I am looking for a critical review from members of this group. There will be some who say that it is an over simplification of a complex topic, and that is probably a fair criticism. On the other hand, my goal was to be simple, brief, and uncomplicated. The article is entitled A Vedic Perspective on Jupiter and Guru Poornima. The link is at the top of the opening page at www.puja.net. Or you can use this link: http://puja.net/Pages/Yagyas/Journal/05Events/05JulyGuruPoornima/JupiterDakshinaM.htm Thanks Ben Collins To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Mike Love the TM song
A few years ago I helped Mike's friend Narasimha organize Mike's 61st birthday celebration in India. We had 108 pundits chanting from all the Vedas for a week. I found Mike to be very nice, kind and generous to the priests, and with a pretty good head of hair. At meals he'd tell funny stories of the early days in India with MMY and the Beatles. He still stops by the temple in Malibu from time to time to see Narasimha, the Chief Priest there. He has a very sardonic sense of humor and yet at the same time is very devoted and sincere. I think all in all, he's kept his head on straight for all these years. A genuinely good guy. Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bbrigante [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bbrigante [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.globalgoodnews.com/world-peace-a.html? art=112084333512400068 Wow, thats impressive. I thought he was dead? Is this the second coming of Mike Love? * Back in 78 I picked up Dennis and Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys studio in Santa Monica in my taxi and took them to their home in BelAir (the Reagans later moved in next to them). Dennis hated Mike Love, and so when I mentioned that Mike's room had been down the hall on my TM TTC (Humboldt State College Aug 1970), and (not knowing who he was) I wondered how come a guy with long hair and a beard was on the course, Dennis said with some glee that hair was in short supply on Mike these days (4. Mike Love is never seen without his stupid baseball caps, because Boys should not be bald. After an inebriated Dennis Wilson ripped off Mike's hat onstage, how did Mr. Love react? http://wso.williams.edu/orgs/trivia/skills/supers/miscreants.html ) . Brian was a total mess, blinking oddly and generally looking like a complete space cadet, saying stuff like salads are the best to no one in particular -- Dennis later died when, while cleaning his boat drunk, he fell off the pier and drowned. So yeah, Mike Love is still around, but his hair is not -- and fighting over use of the Beach Boys name with the other TM teacher in the group, Al Jardine: http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/B/Beach_Boys/ To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: More animation
Animation is very cool and very very time consuming. That animation was created with #D Studio Max by Discreet Software. Check out their web site for some very very cool stuff. http://www.discreet.com/ My guess is that little animation took 60-100 hours to create. I teach multimedia and 2D animatoin at an art school in LA. There is an animation department and what they can do is nothing short of amazing. What makes this woman's work so exceptional is her sense of story which is what is usually missing. I teach my students to program games using Flash which is a 2D aniumation tool. You can see some of their work at the following link. It is nowhere as good...but fun anyway. http://bencollins.net/Pages/Brooks/ActionScript/ActionScriptMenu.htm Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Patrick Gillam [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Rick Crukstrom wrote: the beanie wasn't strapped on and now I'm all anxious thinking that at some point it's going to come off and the poor little guy is going to crash to the ground. That bugged me too! Humpty Dumpty syndrome. - PJG To be honest, how many here could create such a thing? This was a senior-level project for a college student. Her resume lists her basically as an usher at a theatre (on-going). I will will be VERY proud if I can produce something like that. She did a beautiful job and as far as I am concerned, just her job as an usher exceeds anything that I have ever done or probably will ever do (unless of course I can find one of those propeller beanies). To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Rumi
You Are the Only Student You Have You are the only faithful student you have. All the others leave eventually. Have you been making yourself shallow with making others eminent? Just remember, when you're in union, you don't have to fear that you'll be drained. The command comes to speak, and you feel the ocean moving through you. Then comes, Be silent, as when the rain stops, and the trees in the orchard begin to draw moisture up into themselves. -- Mathnawi, V, 3195-3219) Version by Coleman Barks Feeling the Shoulder of the Lion, Threshold Books, 1991 ~~~ Abandon being loved by people and practice loving God, you who have such a high opinion of yourself. You are really more silent than the night; how long will you seek a buyer for your words? Your hearers nod their heads in your presence, but you waste your time in your passion to draw them near. You say to me, Don't be so envious, but how should I envy one who possesses nothing? Instruction given to the worthless is like sketching in dust. Instruct yourself in love of God and spiritual insight-- that endures like a pattern carved on solid stone. Your own self is the only pupil ever really faithful to you. All the others perish: where will you seek them, where? While trying to make others erudite and eminent, you are ruining yourself and draining what knowledge you have. But when your heart is one with Reality, you may speak, and not be afraid of becoming empty. And so the Divine command, Recite! came to the Prophet, saying, O righteous one, this will not fail: it is an infinite ocean. -- Masnavi, V:3189-3198 Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance Threshold Books, 1996 To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Shiva Yagya in Varanasi
I almost hesitate to post this in anticipation of the criticism that will no doubt be soon heading my way...but... my little yagya group is sending our priest to Varanasi (Benares) to perform 3 days of Shiva yagyas to honor our ancestors, to ensure (or increase the liklihood of) our enlightenment, and to placate Saturn a bit. He will be there for 3 days and will be working with 4 local priests to perform yagyas for about 6 hours each day. Even if you aren't into yagyas, you can see some nice photos on the web site as well as some good chanting in MP3 format which you are welcome to download and distribute as you wish. Regards, Ben Collins PS. In anticipation of some reactions; Our priests are trained at the Shankaracharya's ashram in Kanchipuram. Our chief priest, Seetharam has been my friend for over 12 years. He's a favorite of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Karuna Ma. who know him well. We've been doing yagyas regularly for about 8 years now. Yes, they work for lots of people, particularly when repeated over time. No, they don't work for everyone. No, I don't know how to predict when they will work and when not. Yes, they are the same as MMY yagyas, but you decide how much it matters if the priests meditate. Our priests don't do TM but they are pretty rockin' dudes. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Shiva yagya
Sorry, I forgot the web address: www.puja.net To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Rumi
A baby pigeon stands on the edge of a nest all day. Then he hears a whistle, Come to me. How could he not fly toward that? Wings tear through the body's robe when a letter arrives that says, You've flapped and fluttered against limits long enough. You've been a bird without wings in a house without doors or windows. Compassion builds a door. Restlessness cuts a key. Ask. Step off into air like a baby bird. Strut proudly into sunlight, not looking back. Take sips of this pure wine being poured. Don't mind that you've been given a dirty cup. -- Version by Coleman Barks These Branching Moments, Copper Beech Press, 1988 To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: David Fiske: Mantra???
Gandhi used Ram as his mantra. From what I uderstand from the priests that I know who are well versed in the Vedas, it is the bija mantras that have power. Mantras like Ram are good for developing or expressing devotion, but don't seem to do much. So it makes sense to me that MMY would have used bijas. As others will no doubt point out, the bija's are primarily associated with the Shakti tradition of Goddess worship. Although it is not always so...for example the bija for Sudarshana (Vishnu's chakra/weapon) is Hoom Paat and is associated with the first Shankara (adi shankara). This mantra used under the right conditions by a trained individual has considerable power. I might also mention that the bija mantras are usually found in conjuntion with longer mantras for the specific dieties. The longer mantras called moola mantras (foundation mantras) are commonly used in all the pujas and yagyas that a priest would typically receive training in. So my assumption is that MMY would have learned them in the context of his stay in Guru Dev's ashram where they would all chant them as a part of their daily routine. The amazing thing to me, is that these bija mantras are so powerful that westerners could be trained to impart them and that they would work so powerfully. Certainly the power does not come from us and so someone (presumably Guru Dev) empowered them, trained MMY in their use and when they were passed along to us, somehow retained their power. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: on 5/12/05 6:25 PM, johnlasher20002000 at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anyone know why Maharishi switched for using Rama to using the bija mantras. He used Ram as a mantra? When did he supposedly switch. He was giving bijas in 1968 when I got initiated? I put David Fiske's name in the subject so he'll notice the post. He got initiated in 1962 or so. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: chanting--another one!
I have lots of chanting on www.puja.net. What makes it different is that the chanting is in the context of yagyas and vedic recitation rather than studio. Plus you can download it for free. Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks, Bob. Would you like to put these in the Chants folder in the Links section, or would you rather I do it? on 5/3/05 4:48 PM, bbrigante at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anonymousff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm looking for chanting or music links. If you have some please post. *** http://www.khoe.org (MUM radio station, online soon - TMO time zone) http://www.sanskrit.safire.com/Audio.html http://www.srivyuha.org/multimedia/gurudevji.mp3 http://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/gurudev.htm http://www.vedamantram.com/ http://www.tmscotland.org/mav/gandharva-veda.html http://www.ramrajradio.de/ http://www.live365.com/stations/ramrajradio/ http://www.devotionalsongs.com/ http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/7/c/religion.Hindu/ http://www.vedic-arts.com/vart/index.jsp http://sanskrit.bhaarat.com/Dale/Sanskrit.html http://www.v4web.com/games.html To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links -- Rick Archer SearchSummit 1108 South B Street Fairfield, IA 52556 Phone: 641-472-9336 Fax: 815-472-5842 http://searchsummit.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Proper spelling was ..... MORE Recert News
In the south of India (Tamil Nadu for example) they laugh about all those dropped letters as a northern thing...which by the way, is an insult. POWER of YOG So, in addition to jogging it would be good to do some yogging? (Those Hindi truncated forms of Sanskrit words make me furious! %#!?...) I thought that drop the final 'a' stuff was MMY bringing the language back in tune with Natural Law or somesuch. Your furiousness with it must be unstressing from the intense purity. Aleksanteri To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Statues etc. (was I taught my daughter to meditate)
Sorry, but I don't get to read FFL every day and things move pretty quickly here so I am a little behind the curve on the discussion of puja rooms and statues. Personally, I like religion and I like Hinduism the most. My best friend is the Chief Priest at the Hindu Temple in Malibu. He's trained me in the vedic rituals over the past 10+ years and I frequently serve as an assistant priest during the temple function and yagyas he performs in private homes. I consider myself to be a Hindu. Most TM-ers don't and that's fine with me. I do what my chosen religion expects me to do and that is to have a puja place in my home and to perform daily pujas. They are quick and simple and actually a lot of fun. As for the dangers of owning murtis, they need a little care and attention but you don't have to go nuts over it. I don't push my religious beliefs on my kids or anyone else for that matter. They know they have a choice and I answer questions when they ask them. Ben To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: I taught my daughter to meditate- a short story
Hey...who you callin' unhealthy. My kids love the puja room and go in there to read or do home work because they find it peaceful. Scary? How do you get that? the Ganesha is big and fat and friendly looking. The Durga is an antique from a temple, carved out of mango wood. The paint is nicely faded and there are lots of carved flowers around her. It is all very peaceful and not oppressive at all. Besides I keep the door closed when their friends come over. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I don't mind hearing about other peoples' kids when it sounds healthy. Not too sure, though, about making kids live with 2 elaborate altars with a 3 foot stone Ganesha and a 4 foot Durga along with Vishnu, Lakshmi and other deities. If I were a kid, that would be the last thing I would want to face every day. It sounds almost frightening. Why not a couple of stone dragons with moving eyes to complete the Haunted Vedic Mansion look? Sal On Apr 13, 2005, at 10:49 PM, lurkernomore20002000 wrote: .S. I've got three young kids of my own. Maybe that's why the last thing I want hear is about other little kids To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] I taught my daughter to meditate- a short story
I taught my daughter to meditate My daughter is 10. She is tall and blonde and has bright eyes and a quick wit. Her name is Anna, although I always call her Annie which she is starting to dislike because she's getting older. She is in the 5th grade in the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies which means that she had a lot of homework, too much homework. She bravely tries to do everything the best she can, but add a 45 minute bus ride and she's getting way too stressed. My kids all know that I meditate, and that I do pujas, and go to the Hindu Temple. There are lots of Ganeshas in my home and it is all part of their world. But I have never pushed it on them. We talk about it at times, and they know that if I don't meditate I get cranky. So when I quietly suggested to Annie that she might feel less stressed if she meditated, she said that she thought it might be a good idea. I gave her some short explanations that amounted to brief intro and second lecture during the week. Then on Sunday morning we sat down together in my puja room. The puja room is bed room sized and contains my spiritual library and 2 elaborate altars with a 3 foot stone Ganesha and a 4 foot Durga along with Vishnu, Lakshmi and other deities. I did my TM puja and felt the wonderful feeling that I enjoyed when I taught regularly in the 70's. I haven't taught much since; just a friend here and there. The great thing about the puja is that you can feel your awareness change. The feeling of connectedness to Guru Dev is real, distinct and completely different from any temple puja or yagya experience I have ever had. And at the end of the puja, when I gave Annie the mantra she repeated it a few times and then it just pulled her in and her eyes gently closed. We finished the initiation process and when she opened her eyes after her first 10 minute meditation, she smiled sweetly and said that was really nice. I am proud of my daughter. Now she meditates during her bus ride each day. Already she is feeling less stressed, less tired, and happier. That makes me happy. There is a another side to this experience. When I was doing the puja I thought about how full of idealism I was in 1971 when I became an initiator. And today I could feel with the same certainty that I had back then, that TM was special; that MMY's devotion to Guru Dev was deserved and rightly inspirational. But what happened since then? As I sat in my puja room, I could feel all the layers of my disappointment and cynicism that accumulated over the years as the World Plan failed, there was no Perfect Health or anything else, MIU amounted to pretty mcuh nothing, and where are all the pundits, not to mention that I've done the 5-8 year plan many times over. At that time I thought about FFL. And it seems to me that we are all suffering from the same thing; a broken heart. We all believed and we all had evidence that our belief was not misplaced. After all, we're still meditating, still hoping that Maharishi is right. But not so many think so any more and FFL is a collection of people like me who have no reason to believe anything. We're heartbroken, disappointed, and disillusioned. Rightly so. But this past weekend my daughter learned to meditate. Guru Dev is alive in my heart and I'm going to hang onto that. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: I taught my daughter to meditate- a short story
Hey, I knew there was a risk publishing this story on FFL! I probably deserve the slings and arrows. But I think that the experience of initiating was worthwhile. It is the one true thing that remains unaffected by all the TMO crap. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, lurkernomore20002000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snsnip My kids all know that I meditate, and that I do pujas, and go to the Hindu Temple. There are lots of Ganeshas in my home and it is all part of their world. But I have never pushed it on them. We talk about it at times, and they know that if I don't meditate I get cranky. snip The puja room is bed room sized and contains my spiritual library and 2 elaborate altars with a 3 foot stone Ganesha and a 4 foot Durga along with Vishnu, Lakshmi and other deities. snip (For some reason people think other people want to hear every cute little detail about their kids.) By the way Ben, just curious, is there a wife in this picture somewhere. I mean it's quite a get up you have and wives with kids tend get pretty mainstream. P.S. I've got three young kids of my own. Maybe that's why the last thing I want hear is about other little kids lurk To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: I taught my daughter to meditate- a short story
No, no wife any more. She is pretty tolerant (from a distance) but thinks I am 1 step away from Hare Krishna craziness and dancing in the airports. The kids like it though and sometimes pick flowers to do Ganesha pujas. When we were married I had a puja altar and did pujas a lot. But all those religious idols made her nervous, her being a New York Jewish/American Princess and all... --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, lurkernomore20002000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hey Ben, you got game! Thanks for the come back. But really, if you don't mind my asking, are you married and is your wife with you on the Hindu pantheon stuff. Ain't nothing wrong with it, I like it myself. But raising kids, and the crazy, crazy homework and all the other stuff doesn't leave much time except for the basics. in the same boat, lurk Hey, I knew there was a risk publishing this story on FFL! I probably deserve the slings and arrows. But I think that the experience of initiating was worthwhile. It is the one true thing that remains unaffected by all the TMO crap. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, lurkernomore20002000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snsnip My kids all know that I meditate, and that I do pujas, and go to the Hindu Temple. There are lots of Ganeshas in my home and it is all part of their world. But I have never pushed it on them. We talk about it at times, and they know that if I don't meditate I get cranky. snip The puja room is bed room sized and contains my spiritual library and 2 elaborate altars with a 3 foot stone Ganesha and a 4 foot Durga along with Vishnu, Lakshmi and other deities. snip (For some reason people think other people want to hear every cute little detail about their kids.) By the way Ben, just curious, is there a wife in this picture somewhere. I mean it's quite a get up you have and wives with kids tend get pretty mainstream. P.S. I've got three young kids of my own. Maybe that's why the last thing I want hear is about other little kids lurk To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Photo proof positive of Pundit project.
Interesting response. I suppose that if you adopt the TMO's attitude of screwing everyone you can hire pandits and pay them a pittance. Why not? Personally, I think it is unethical, so we pay our pandits generously. Sure, we could hire them for 100 rupees a day but why not honor the knowledge and the pandits by being generous? If we take Dana's assertion that they can get a pundit for 100 rupees, then imagine the profit margin the TMO makes on a TMO yagya! So they charge westerners thousands and pay the Indian pundits a few dollars...this is ethical? As for the supplies...free? Really. I doubt it. Ghee is never free. And 800,000 coconuts? Sure, just go down to the corner and pick 'em up. The TMO has always been organizationally challenged. Why should it change now? The 100,000 will never materialize and I'll bet that eventually we in the US will be blamed for it...not enough support, purity, terrorism, or maybe too much democracy! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dana Sawyer's comments on Ben Collin's assessment of the 100,000 pundit yagya: The figures below seem absurd to me - for many reasons. But what comes to mind first is that MMY needs to find someone else to purchase materials and labor for his yagyas. I hire pandits in Banaras, to do translations and search out texts, at a rate of two hundred rupees per day (less than five bucks) and that is a good pay check. So paying pandits 40 bucks per day to do yagyas is outrageous. Second, materials are basically free, no matter what this email states. You can buy coconuts everywhere in India for five ruppees per (12 cents). Further details if you want them - and I still want to know where this activity is supposedly taking place, so I check it out. BTW, Shankaracarya ashrams don't pay nearly the amount claimed for yagyas. I've just been with two of them Dana Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] on Thursday, March 31, 2005 at 7:16 PM wrote: -- Forwarded Message From: benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005 00:04:05 - To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Photo proof positive of Pundit project. We do yagyas and generally pay our priests $40 a day which is the going rate for Sr. level pundits. We pay the same as the Shankaracharya Ashram which typically pays the best rate of any temple, etc. For a 5-10 priest yagya we add about $100 a day for yagya materials and food (we feed the priests lunch as is tradition). My $100 per day per person was a guess that attempted to factor in travel, lodging, per diem, yagya site, yagya materials, support staff, etc. Admittedly it is a guess, but based on the 108 priest yagya, it seems to me to be in the ball park. If you do a yagya in a really traditional manner, there are always special ingredients that are hard to get but important. Some yagyas I have seen require upwards of 50-60 differnt kinds of herbs, seeds, wood, leaves, vines, fruits, flowers, etc. As an example, a typical yagya will use 4-5 coconuts. So if you have 4000 groups of 25 using 5 coconuts a day for 40 days, that is 800,000 coconuts! Another example is that a typical yagya will use 1 quart of ghee per priest. So you have 250,000 gallons of ghee per day for 100,000 priests! (1 million gallons for the 40 days) Each repetition of the mantra requires about 1-2 tablespoons of ghee so it is difficult if not impossible to reduce the amount if you are doing a genuine traditional yagya. Finally, the yagya fire is traditionally made with cakes of cow dung (not wood). For a 5 priest yagya we burn 1 bushel of cakes in a 2 hour yagya. So, if they have 4000 groups of 25 around 1 fire, let's say they'd use 5 bushels per day for a total of 800,000 bushels of cow dung. (there's a joke here that I will let you make yourselves!) I read somewhere that MMY is wanting to do the Sudarshana Yagya. The main Sudarshana mantra called Sudarshana Mula Mantra. It is about 20 lines long. It has significiant power. The thing is that I learned this mantra and have participated in many yagyas with a priest who is a specialist in this mantra. It took me 5 years before I experienced any power from it and I can not ever remotely come close to Narasimha who has been doing this his whole life. There is a process of empowering a mantra that takes time regardless of whether someone is a Brahmin or not. So in my mind, training becomes an issue. I mean, anyone could learn this mantra in a few days. But it won't have any significant effect... I'm not necessarily saying that MMY can't make this happen, but look at some of the physical and logistical factors and you can see that it is a pretty gigantic task! Thanks Ben. Yes, I know $10 was low ball, I just wanted to show that even at that very
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Sudarshana Mula Mantra
I will send it to you. In the mean time you can click on the following link and choose Sudarshana Ashtakam to listen to it and other related mantras. http://puja.net/Pages/Multimedia/Pages/Gods/GodsMenu.htm --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, peterklutz [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ..has been mentioned a couple of times with reference to the coming super-yagya in India. Does anyone have it? Is is safe to read? Cheers, To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Invitation to Gmail
Just go to Google.com and sign up. You don;t need an inivtation any more. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, suziezuzie [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Would someone please send me an invitation to gmail? Thanks and may your tm practice bring you to the heights of cosmic consciousness where fullness is lived 24/7 along with the ever changing relative. Mark To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Sudarshana Mula Mantra
I agree the transliteration that you found is pretty bad. I have corrected it to match the way the pundits that I know recite it. I will try to find it in Sanskrit for you. Sudharshana Gayatri Mantra Om Namaschakraya Vidmahey Sahasra Jwalaya Dheemahe Tanno Sudarshana Prachodayaat Sudharshan Maha Mantra OM Kleem Krishnaya Govindaya Gopi Jana Vallabhaya Paraya Parama Purushaya Paramathmane Para Krama Para Mantra Tantra Yantra Aushada Ashtra Sasthrani Samhara Samhara Mrythyor Mochaya Mochaya Om Namo Bagavate Maha Sudharshanaya Dheepthre Jwalaah Pareethaya Sarvathik Shobana Karayah Hoom Phat Parabramane Param jyotishay Saharadha Hoom Phat Swaha Frequently the priests usually add another mantra for Narasimha which I don't know, but the effect is quite nice. There are a lot of variations, but the above is the basic one. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Photo proof positive of Pundit project.
HeyI don't get to read FFL all that often...so what is this? Puja.net is really my own pundit project and has NOTHING to do with TMO! I started it 5 years ago because I couldn't afford TMO yagyas. Yagyas when performed by qualified priests are great and effective. Nothing agains MMY, but he wasn't going to do anything for me so I did it myself. Ben Collins --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], mathatbrahman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At http://www.puja.net --- End forwarded message --- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Photo proof positive of Pundit project.
I'll see what I can find out. If they are getting people from Tamil Nadu, I am reasonably certain that my priest friends will hear about it. As for the Kanchi Shankaracharya I have not heard anything recently. It is difficult to get anyone to talk about it openly because they are pretty afraid of the government, wire taps, etc. Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, akasha_108 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: HeyI don't get to read FFL all that often...so what is this? Puja.net is really my own pundit project and has NOTHING to do with TMO! I started it 5 years ago because I couldn't afford TMO yagyas. Yagyas when performed by qualified priests are great and effective. Nothing agains MMY, but he wasn't going to do anything for me so I did it myself. Ben Collins Ben, I don't think many on FFL gave that post much notice or credence. On a related topic though, did you see the below post? You posted a while back that any such large scale recruitment of pundits is almost immediately known in all the temples. With your many contacts, could you help give an India-side account of any new pundit activity by the TMO? Or lack thereof. Also, Dana Sawyer, a prof of religious studies specializing in Indian culture an religions, fluent in hindi, and a sometimes participant in this list, is currently in India and has volunteered to check out leads on MMY/TMO pundit training to verify what is going on. So any leads you also be sent to Dana. Also, any new news on the Shankaracharaya of Kanchi jail situation? == From a friend [or Rick Archer]: Here is news to cheer everyone up. Maharishi is right now assembling 100,000 pundits in India to do a massive yagya of 40 days duration, similar to the one that Guru Dev did in 1945 which was instrumental in ending World War II. The movement doesn't have enough to make 100,000 so they are hiring experienced pundits to perform the chanting and ceremonies. He said that Sat Yuga will arrive by July 21st, Guru Purnimah, this year! The exact dates of the yagya have not been announced yet. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Photo proof positive of Pundit project.
Not that I have heard of. But I will try to find out. I think 100,000 priests is a LOT of people. The TMO will have to pay them very well to get good ones to travel north for this. Many of them will have temple duties that can not be neglected, so it iwll be interesting to see. Genuine Priests/Pundits are a pretty particular lot so it iwll be interesting to see what happens. Not saying that it won't or can't happen, but it will take a lot of money! Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, peterklutz [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Any plans to subcontract to the current 100 000 pundit/40 day MMY yagya? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: HeyI don't get to read FFL all that often...so what is this? Puja.net is really my own pundit project and has NOTHING to do with TMO! I started it 5 years ago because I couldn't afford TMO yagyas. Yagyas when performed by qualified priests are great and effective. Nothing agains MMY, but he wasn't going to do anything for me so I did it myself. Ben Collins --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], mathatbrahman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At http://www.puja.net --- End forwarded message --- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Photo proof positive of Pundit project.
A decent yagaya will cost a LOT more than $10/day. A qualified priest will want to be paid at least 300-500 rupees per day and will expect to be transported, housed, and fed. Are they expected to campout for 40 days? If not, then where will they be housed. The yagya itself will require lots of materials (ghee, fruits, sandalwood, etc. which are not cheap even in India. But with 100,000 priests then you are talking (literally) tons of fruits, coconuts, ghee, flowers, etc. I honestly doubt that the physical infrastructure would be there to simply move all these materials to the site on a daily basis without major amounts of chaos. And consider the support staff which will have to be considerable; cooks, people to manage all the yagya supplies, etc. Figure that for every 50 priests you will need another 10-15 people and they too will want to be paid, need to be housed and fed. Bottom line? If it could be organized...then it would take 125,000 people in total and your total costs per person would be at least $100 per day. A lot of money for 40 days... As a point of perspective, I helped organize a 1 week yagya with 108 priests in India for Michael Love's 61st birthday several years ago. It was a logistical nightmare...we pulled it off but it took a huge amount of work. As I recall, we spent about $35,000 which would be close to $50/day and what we did was very simple. Finally, in India priests are divided into 2 categories; temple priests (bhattars) and outside priests (shastrigal) who perform pujas/yagyas in people's homes etc. The temple priests would not be able to participate in the large scale yagya because their temple duties are very rigid and rather strictly enforced. Long term absences are not generally an option. That leaves the shastri's. How do you contact them? There is no organization...no database...no master phone list. And you want to make 100,000 phone calls..in India?! The other option is to create priests...get 100,000 people and teach them a mantra and a simple yagya. But even then, to be done properly you would have to have a real priest supervising and doing the more complicated mantras that area done for a yagya. Say a ratio of 1 real priest to 25 new priests and you still have to find 4,000 qualified priests. Even then in the hands of beginers the mantras will have (relatively speaking) no power. So what's the point in doing it? Finally, from recent reports, MMY wants to do this yagya as a Sudarshana Yagya. Sudarshana is Vishnu's weapon; a discus of light given to him by Lord Shiva. The times I have seen a priest who has mastered the mantra use it are very very impressive. It is not a gentle peace love and understanding sort of mantra. So if MMY pulls this off, we can expect some fireworks in some form. Ben --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, akasha_108 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Not that I have heard of. But I will try to find out. I think 100,000 priests is a LOT of people. The TMO will have to pay them very well to get good ones to travel north for this. Many of them will have temple duties that can not be neglected, so it iwll be interesting to see. Genuine Priests/Pundits are a pretty particular lot so it iwll be interesting to see what happens. Not saying that it won't or can't happen, but it will take a lot of money! Ben If the costwere $10/day for pundits, materials, food and facilities -- probably too low, the cost would be $40 million for 40 days. $25/day would cost $100 million. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[FairfieldLife] Re: Photo proof positive of Pundit project.
We do yagyas and generally pay our priests $40 a day which is the going rate for Sr. level pundits. We pay the same as the Shankaracharya Ashram which typically pays the best rate of any temple, etc. For a 5-10 priest yagya we add about $100 a day for yagya materials and food (we feed the priests lunch as is tradition). My $100 per day per person was a guess that attempted to factor in travel, lodging, per diem, yagya site, yagya materials, support staff, etc. Admittedly it is a guess, but based on the 108 priest yagya, it seems to me to be in the ball park. If you do a yagya in a really traditional manner, there are always special ingredients that are hard to get but important. Some yagyas I have seen require upwards of 50-60 differnt kinds of herbs, seeds, wood, leaves, vines, fruits, flowers, etc. As an example, a typical yagya will use 4-5 coconuts. So if you have 4000 groups of 25 using 5 coconuts a day for 40 days, that is 800,000 coconuts! Another example is that a typical yagya will use 1 quart of ghee per priest. So you have 250,000 gallons of ghee per day for 100,000 priests! (1 million gallons for the 40 days) Each repetition of the mantra requires about 1-2 tablespoons of ghee so it is difficult if not impossible to reduce the amount if you are doing a genuine traditional yagya. Finally, the yagya fire is traditionally made with cakes of cow dung (not wood). For a 5 priest yagya we burn 1 bushel of cakes in a 2 hour yagya. So, if they have 4000 groups of 25 around 1 fire, let's say they'd use 5 bushels per day for a total of 800,000 bushels of cow dung. (there's a joke here that I will let you make yourselves!) I read somewhere that MMY is wanting to do the Sudarshana Yagya. The main Sudarshana mantra called Sudarshana Mula Mantra. It is about 20 lines long. It has significiant power. The thing is that I learned this mantra and have participated in many yagyas with a priest who is a specialist in this mantra. It took me 5 years before I experienced any power from it and I can not ever remotely come close to Narasimha who has been doing this his whole life. There is a process of empowering a mantra that takes time regardless of whether someone is a Brahmin or not. So in my mind, training becomes an issue. I mean, anyone could learn this mantra in a few days. But it won't have any significant effect... I'm not necessarily saying that MMY can't make this happen, but look at some of the physical and logistical factors and you can see that it is a pretty gigantic task! Thanks Ben. Yes, I know $10 was low ball, I just wanted to show that even at that very conservative figure, its expensive. But $100 seems high. What is the rate the puja.net pundits are paid? I thought it was a high rate, to attract the best, around $20-30 / day? Your figure of 300-500 rupees is $6-10 /day. Are ingredients / pundit that expensive? Also, the various constraints discussed in this and adjacent posts point to the need for more net pundits, not just utilizing existing ones. I know only Brahmins are allowed to be pundits. Are there sub-castes of Brahmins from which most pundits come? Some sub-castes of Brahmins that cannot become pundits? Also women cannot be pundits can they? Presumably the caste restrictions have to do with a genetic propensity to chant correctly / optimally. How valid do you believe this is? Instead of importing pundits, long run it would seem prudent and more efficient to train pundits locally. In the US start training local boys and girls. Not from a long line of genetic brahmins. What are your thoughts on this? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, benjaminccollins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A decent yagaya will cost a LOT more than $10/day. A qualified priest will want to be paid at least 300-500 rupees per day and will expect to be transported, housed, and fed. Are they expected to campout for 40 days? If not, then where will they be housed. The yagya itself will require lots of materials (ghee, fruits, sandalwood, etc. which are not cheap even in India. But with 100,000 priests then you are talking (literally) tons of fruits, coconuts, ghee, flowers, etc. I honestly doubt that the physical infrastructure would be there to simply move all these materials to the site on a daily basis without major amounts of chaos. And consider the support staff which will have to be considerable; cooks, people to manage all the yagya supplies, etc. Figure that for every 50 priests you will need another 10-15 people and they too will want to be paid, need to be housed and fed. Bottom line? If it could be organized...then it would take 125,000 people in total and your total costs per person would be at least $100 per day. A lot
