Thanks David :), I was already seriously considering unsubscribing,
because the situation didn't look like something I'd want to be a part
of.

"David Bruce Hughes"  wrote:
>Danijel is right, and Premananda's reply is a perfect example of the kind of
>neophyte mentality he finds such a turn-off.

OK, now what am I trying to accomplish here? I'm intentionally
provocative, and sometimes I'll defend some attitude that I don't
necessarily believe in, just to see how people respond to it. I tried
to express my thoughts very logically, without any emotional carving
in it, so if I made a logical mistake it should be easily noticed,
pointed out and correct interpretation should be made.
For instance, imagine that I said that it's good to eat meat, that I
gave several reasons for it, and expected this thesis to be defeated
with the greatest of ease. And instead I found people who for instance
tell me that I'm a deluded fallen soul filled with the utmost darkness
of the maya, slave of the tamo-guna in its darkest aspect, that I
don't understand anything and I'll surely burn in hell.
You might easily conclude what I'll think of such response and those
who made it.

>We should think, 'How would Srila Prabhupada engage this person?' He would
>find the spark of interest and fan it into a raging flame of bhakti.

:) That's the spirit. :)
What did Prabhupada do when he was challenged by the opposed stands?
What did he do with his life, anyway? Did he stay in his little room
on the top of the temple in Vrndavana, translating Srimad
Bhagavatapurana, thinking that it would be useless to go to America,
since there are only Mleccha and Yavana, everybody eats meat, nobody
understands Krsna and Caitanya, and nobody's definitely qualified for
anything? He thought that this very condition is the best reason for
him to go there and tell them what he thinks of it, tell them that
there's better stuff around, and if they didn't think so, he gave his
best to prove them wrong. The man had balls of solid rock. He came to
a foreign country without money or anything, almost died during the
travel, to have a chance to preach to the stoned hippies in his small
dirty room in the Bowery, while making them lunch.
He didn't think that his stands are so poorly founded, that he has to
stay in his room in Vrndavana and not talk to "the unqualified",
because if he does, he might fall from his cloud or something.

>Danijel, the best advice I can offer is to ignore these misguided children
>and just read Srila Prabhupada's books. You will find great wealth hidden
>there.

Actually I did, among other books, and to a degree possible (I read
probably everything published by BBT in Croatian language, and some
older editions published in the Serbian language). It's not like I'm
unfamiliar with Prabhupada's views; I'm writing here to remind people
of the reason why Prabhupada expected his students to distribute his
books. He didn't do it to get lots of money from it, that's for sure.
Remember the response he gave to a letter from some students, who
suggested some business with the gemstones? From Satsvarupa's book? He
thought about it, and said "no, just distribute the books. If you
engage in worldly business you will become karmis. If you distribute
the books, you'll have to express and defend the philosophy expressed
in them. To do that, you'll have to study the books yourself. To be
able to present Krsna properly, you'll have to be Krsna conscious." Or
something like that, I'm writing from memory. Distributing books is
meant to force people to think about what's in those books, to defend
some complex point in the airport when they stop the university
professor by accident and ask him to buy Gita. To improvise
eloquently, with greatest of ease. Adapt to the situation and prevail.
The biggest difference between Prabhupada and his students was in his
ability to adapt to a new situation, and improvise a new approach
suitable for it. They just imitated him, and when the circumstances
changed, they didn't know what to do, they couldn't improvise or do
anything creative, he had to do all the creative thinking himself and
then they could continue with the routine undemanding work. They were
afraid to improvise. He wasn't. So when he died everything went
straight to hell.
So, I'd like to hear improvised defense as a response to my improvised
attacks. :)

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Web (Kundalini-yoga): http://danijel.cjb.net