shrooms.

no blow.

[b:9cb2aa9aa9]Rama Das (slave name) wrote :[/b:9cb2aa9aa9]

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When we dedicate our lives, our hearts, our stubbornness and our ignorance to it, our fear, our pain and our resolution, we are saying a lot about our position to and relationship with life/what is/existence.

We are turning our backs on the totality of what is, which speaks to us every moment through everything around us.

We are choosing not to face life as it is, choosing not to clear our avenues of perception so we can actually appreciate everything that is actually coming to us.

There are subtleties and beauty so intricate and deep in every aspect of life, people, creativity, creation and expression, it is a shame not to be connected to it.

When we have dedicated ourselves to our insular beliefs we are saying that we want out of our problems, that everything we exist in is all wrong and that our situation here is imperfect and must be escaped.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the impersonal and personal spirituality. I see no genuine element of surrender to what Prabhufraud and his followers believe in. It is about gaining control over the supreme controller himself - if I chant enough, do this or that I will get the ultimate prize. Good people, bad concept. ACB spoke of not worrying about need being fulfilled because God can feed all the elephants in India so he can surely feed us, at the same time as he set up food for life to feed the people that in his infinite mysteries God does not want to have food. Even in Understanding Karma JG acknowledges "It's not God Who's doing it but you" If one critiques SOI they do so without God's will, but if they get hit by a bus his will is restored to the situation. By my own concept of faith and surrender if I was a good devotee I would not even look before crossing the road because I would accept everything that happened or did not happen as being God's will. It appalled the disciples that I would take long train rides and walk a few miles along dark back roads alone to get to and from kirtans that I would not be afraid and take precautions. It was their long lectures and contradictions to my conviction that all was God's will that was the beginning of my doubts. If it were up to me (or anyone) what happened then surely there is an element of godliness in that - and what is a more personal relationship than being part of God? The difference between 'impersonalism' and 'personalism' is having someone beside you or having someone above you. Being a wife or a slave.

I believe in love, (far too much even I think so), I value it and desire it above all else, but no strand of beads or vedic text or deity has ever made me feel any closer to having it.

I wrote in my journal months ago on leaving the cult - All I came to know for certain was that love left untended will dwindle into hatred as certainly as fire into ashes. Each is as unreedeemable as it is unrecognisable to it's original form and non-existent without.

It is the so called impersonalists that base existence on the virtues and experience of love, and accepting their actions with the emphasis on relevance rather than transference. Yet it still ruined by the notion of God with someone like Sai Baba placing themselves at the head of it mystifying concepts that contain wonder enough.

Rama does not claim to be God, though he embodies it, and I do not worship him to share the concept. I say love and he says shrooms but there is room in life for all this.

Rama das (slave name):

Please don't preach here.

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jules
Anything Radhakrsna das will have written here, more than likely will be okayed or even given directly given from Prabhufraud. Prapbhufraud will be looking at all of this as entertainment, he really gets off on this type of thing. In all the political campaigns including Rick Reeds, Wayne Nishiki, Katyayani, Carol Gabbard and Mike Gabbard, every advertisment media article, promotion will be screened or even written by Prabufraud.
This is the way they work- he controls everything. He also likes to play games with the media- so be wary of newbies saying "they have all to tell"-coming later. I saw many a sick game coming directly from Prabhufrauds mouth. …They don't like anything in the media about them, unless it is written by Prabufraud directly..

Having worked on the early campaigns, I can verify that he wrote all of the advertising and even told people what radio shows to call in and what to say. He always had newspapers spread out over the floor every day. He'd put down everyone and roar with laughter. He'd even write up lame cartoon ideas - some of which were executed by his slave artists for his newspapers in the 70's.

A couple of posters on this forum could even be the Great Oz himself. Anyone who discredits or blames the followers and not CB himself, anyone who comes off as a fucked up person in the material world or someone with a drug problem could be used as a cover (to prove that if you leave the group you are [pick one or any combo]: materialistic, crazy, violent, sex crazed, gay, drug addicted). How perfect. He could come on as a Kishka kid who can’t write. He could be someone who writes a lot of run on sentences! CB loves to build straw men to kick around. He could also flatter and admire the chutzpah of Cult R very easily, given his love/ hate of his followers!

At any rate it doesn’t matter. No need to become infected with CB paranoia. Yes, CB is a jolly prankster and punkster. He’s been that way for years. It’s part of his appeal. If he’s having a good laugh, so what!? So are we. There is plenty of comedic fodder in this history!

We are making our depositions and sharing our views. This forum is the beach park, the local hangout, the courtroom. Those that were really there know who is bullshitting and who is not. I always liked the idea of the perception of truth from the Japanese Kurosawa film ‘RASHOMON’; the same story about the death of a Samurai as told by five different people.

There is enough information on this forum for anyone to sort out, to be cautious and be warned about CB and company. And the trolling gets exposed eventually.

From what I have seen the teacher of the whole world has a few errant students who sit waaaay down the back plotting and scheming to put a few tacks on his chair so they can claim it for themselves.

I have heard a lot about the days when JG was here and everyone being quite serious and active. Besides personal lectures and service there were classes and ready access to his teachings - which is certainly not the situation now. When he left the number of devotees decreased rather dramatically. Comparing notes with Ash, who was there in the glory days of the gold coast, it would seem that while the business side of SOI has increased what are suppossed to be the more important aspects of spiritual life have not been regained.

If Siddha does keep tabs on his following here then his spies should be the first ones to be fired. It would seem that he could care less about his teachings being available to the world in general - but I know he takes a seriously hostile view towards disciples courting worship for themselves.

Allow me to assume that he is reading this, or perhaps someone who will report back to him and ask -

Do you know that your two closest disciples in Queensland have students bowing and paying obeisances to them?

Do you know that there is not a picture of you to be seen at the Gold Coast Centre and that kirtans are held in RKd's private home where he sits on a vayassan and the names Rhada Krishna are chanted more there than Siddhaswarupananda?

Do you know that some of your most senior disciples on the Gold Coast deny that you are their spiritual master and claim instead to be disciples of ACB?

Do you know that you are losing willing servants because to have a letter written to you about them costs more than those living as humble and serious devotees can afford?

Do you know that so many of your young and serious students end up at ISKCON that they actually have a designated contact person to liaise with ex-SOI devotees?

To teach that one cannot attain to Krishna without a spiritual master and then ensure that there is no opportunity to approach a spiritual master is the greatest theological hypocrisy of all. One who wilfully denies others Krishna is surely the most offensive to Him.

I do not feel that any of the criticisms, condemnations and guilt trips directed at me by any member of SOI who has yet approached me to be valid. If thinking and examining the facts is a crime then I stand convicted but the alledged motives of anger and destruction are just a crock. I am going in the same direction I was going in when I passed through SOI, seeking the truth. Anyone pulling back the curtain is not creating the falsehoods behind it.

As Zelig pointed out :

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He displays no evidence of an enlightened being, even within the tradition he claims to follow (which will be proved in a forthcoming post). And he is so good at his game that devotees don’t even claim to have had any mystical experiences (as with other Hindu-centric cults). Your inner authority eventually becomes flaccid and impotent.

Now I have seen 'mystic' levelled at me by RKd as an insult. The perception taught by Siddha is the 'mystic yogi'. Maybe someone can remember the [i:98944e35af]terrible[/i:98944e35af] song he wrote about it better than I can? [i:98944e35af]Hey mystic yogi man, the perfect something the perfect plan...can hold his breath under water, I know a fish that is a hundred times smarter.[/i:98944e35af]

Not only does the condemnation of mysticism cheapen SOI theology but it forgets that Lord Caitanya was a mystic as were many of the great Vaishnavas. Back in the Sai days Siddha himself engaged in mysticism. While he does not deny that psychic powers and faith healing exist (there are two booklets on these subects) he dismisses any mystic elements as being material rather than spiritual. This is the sort of mistake that gets made when one is trying to make Vedic wisdom compatable with Christianity. He has thrown away the key of enlightenment so of course his followers are being deprived of the very essence and the vital point of spiritual life. A mystic is not a magician, but a seeker of enlightenment, oppossed to blind acceptance and open to a broader concept of reality, which in the scripture that Siddha claims to comprehend so thoroughly is inclusive of metaphysics.

Seeking anything simply does not fit and cannot be tolerated within SOI. If one is determined to follow a different path then they will inevitably arrive at a different destination.

I really look forward to Zeligs post on the subject.

I had been kicking around the idea lately that my purposes for beeing here have been served.

My motivation was never an investment in anything changing, I just felt compelled to stand where I can be seen and say my piece. I have set a lot into motion, much is really violently turbulent.

Not even my mother will talk to me now, she has always been my homie.
It is okay, because it is not my decision to stop contact, that is their move.

I have cleared a lot away in the process, and I know that from now on, my life is REALLY my own, and can be clearly on my terms. This is what I wanted.

This has been a HUGE junction in my life, all of you here and others who just read have absolutely shared the experience with me.

To all the cutty "questionable" posters like Truth, fish and shhhhhhhh!, I think about all of you a lot.

I REALLY feel a strong connection to those in it, the kids, the ones who were the krishna kids.
The ones who were born into it, or raised under it, ones who were created for the sole purpose of beeing the extension into perfection of desperate parents who are really setting themselves up for a serious series of lessons about life and freedom.

I do not want this to be "preachy", I understand how my last one was.
I would just want to say that I have never had any regrets about turning my back on and walking away from something I felt was not right for me.
On the same note, really following what I want to do has always resonated deeply with me and strengthened me. I think I am aware of the force that guides everything and it has responded most positively to ALL my choices in life.

33


Yeah, so I do not and CANnot be invested in anything changing with my parents and science of identity, that is not what it is about for me.

I do not care to be embattled with the rhetoric and philosophy of Vaishnavas, i know it all to well, at this point especially.

I want to get on with my life, I want to draw some more comic strips.
i'll be flying through San Francisco traffic in my cab, on my track bike, on my skate.

I will be listening to some amazing music, banging my fuckin head.
Come and see some punk rock with me, it goes down constantly here.
NOFX, Darkest Hour, Paint It Black... could someone down under have a word with Frenzal Rhomb for me? tell them to get their arses on a plane.

This is not necessarily my last post, but this is what I would want to say to everyone.

I want to leave an open invitation for anybody to drop me a note, say whats up and share what you might be thinking.
Perhaps when cultreporter launches her new website, she could give my e-mail to people who may want to contact me, it would be fine with me.

I want to get my artwork online, too, so just remember the name, Rama Ranson, son! The main character goes by the name of Spazm, but I have no other titles.
I will be attempting a website for my Derelict comic strips. WITNESS THE DISASTER!

anyways, I'll see you all around, I will always be checkin' up on this thread, cultreporter's very well done websites and research, and whatever else is crackin'!

Hey, sunglider, I got your e-mail today, thanks much, we gotta share our artwork sometime, somehow.

laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate.

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zelig
Rasha Kishka das,
Look in the mirror. Perhaps it is you whose mind is “full of violence, perverted sex ideas, greed, and illusions”? It certainly describes the mind and actions of CB (e.g., Ninjai, homophobia, faked sex scandal against opposing politician, jet plane rides, prime real estate, accepting worship, germ phobia, false prophesies, paranoia……).

.... I REST MY CASE.

BRAVO, well said, Zelig!!! [b:6d4f667f07]The verdict is out[/color:6d4f667f07][/b:6d4f667f07]!

Out of the many qualifications of a bona-fide spiritual master, I think J. Guru has only two that I can think of, namely: He is clean [/color:6d4f667f07](yes definitely that one), and He is poetic[/color:6d4f667f07].... if you can call "[i:6d4f667f07]Mystic Yogi man, the latest game, the latest scam[/i:6d4f667f07]" poetry!

He is kind - He offers respect to others [/color:6d4f667f07]- the quotes by Quotesman certainly do not point in this direction. I suppose the followers will state that he is being kind by being mean - some kind of reverse psychology, maybe?

:wink:

Those of us who were involved with the group for many years will remember how each Christmas, the devotees would have a celebration, chanting "JESUS, JESUS, JESUS[/color:ae2197f1a6]" (which sounded real CORNY!), and then of course the annual Christmas speech by the guru...

He criticizes people for making Christmas too "commercial" and taking Jesus and religion out of the festivity, stating that Jesus had fasted for 40 days, whereas Santa is a big fat man, and of course the parties and intoxication. Thus, he comes to the conclusion that all Christians are not following the will of his father, and bound for hell, etc etc...

On the other side of the coin, however, it is true that some businesses do up to 40% of their trade at this time of year. Hey, these are people who are engaged in trade for a living and they are just trying to survive. And of course, SURVIVAL is considered a sin against God by J. Guru - while he sits in his multi-million dollar mansion with ooodles of servants preparing his meals and serving him hand and foot. Sorry, Chris, the hypocrisy is just too blatant.

Maybe J. Guru does not know how historically the Christmas phenomenon evolved... You see, Chris, in the northern hemispheres this was the coldest and darkest time of the year....

:idea: The COLDEST time of the year - people needed more clothing, better shelter, more heat, more food (calories)...

:idea: The DARKEST time of the year - people needed more light, more entertainment, more music - they had more time on their hands.

And in the days before industry and factories could provide plentiful clothing, building materials, abundant food, it was a case of SURVIVAL.

Maybe J. Guru has spent most of his life in Hawaii, so maybe he does not know how this phenomenon developed over time in the colder climes... and maybe J. Guru has never worked for a living and does not understand a need for the working classes to take a break, a bit of entertainment and a holiday at this time of year.

Anyhow, these are some counter arguments on J. Guru's condemnation of how Christmas is a time to X Jesus out of the picture, etc...

Reporter, you should get hold of these lectures - they are classic J. Guru material!

:wink:

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just-googling
Reporter, you should get hold of these lectures - they are classic J. Guru material!

:wink:

I certainly hope that I will accumulate more lectures - maybe the new website will receive some contact in this regard.

I will [i:e9da53a51b]never ever[/i:e9da53a51b] forget last Christmas with SOI. I spent the day weeding the garden and finding out that I didn't have a clue how to make burfi - all I ended up making on my first attempt was a mess because no one had bothered to tell me that you needed [i:e9da53a51b]powdered[/i:e9da53a51b] milk. I was used to not having a material Christmas since my ex that I had been with since I was 18 was a goth/atheist. Bren had bought up the subject of maybe getting a tree but ended up deciding against it. His son was in awe of what not understanding when he saw them in pictures and at the mall he called 'snow trees'. I remember we drove over to Tugun, one of the series of small nondescript towns that make up the Gold Coast and Bren taught me the "Bhaga-sri Krishna Caitanya..." chant on the way and made sure I was aware of proper altar etiquette, not turning your back or pointing your feet etc. I was so happy to offer frangipanis to the deities and have aro-tik. This is the sort of thing one only gets with SOI on special occassions. (wheras at ISKCON I might point out you can partake of this five times a day)

I wrote about it which was first published in the blog....

Devotees from both Brisbane and the Gold Coast who meet quite infrequently apart from appearance days were out in full force, and the assembled filled the hall overflowing to the slightly cooler outdoors. It was very hot that day, Australian Christmas being in summer, but despite the oppressive heat everyone was dancing and showing no lack of enthusiasm for chanting loudly to the electric kirtan.

The women in particular had obviously gone to a lot of trouble to present themselves nicely and bring an offering, some as simple as frangipani flowers and others wonderfully ornate garlands. There was an abundance of food prepared to be offered and shared of every conceivable variety.Once everyone had the opportunity to make their offerings and pay their respects to the deities and the chanting and prayers and rituals were done a disciple made the announcement that we were going to have a lecture by the spiritual master.

He suggested that any parents with children who might not like to sit through the lecture, adding that this was a particularly long one, may prefer to take them outside to the nearby playground.It is relevant to note at this point to anyone with an interest in how Siddha's followers see fit to raise their children that he did not say or in anyway imply that the lecture was not suitable for children and it was suggested that they be prevented from hearing it. As it was a few of the younger more boisterous children, who it was guessed were a little restless by now and unlikely to sit quietly jumped at the opportunity. The majority however when invited, some only four or five, chose to stay.

If I could have brought with me one souvenir of my time with the cult as an offering to those who have not experienced it themselves to prove what it is like it would have to be this lecture. I regret that I do not have a copy of it or a memory that is capable of recalling it word for word. I am certain in the re-telling that it will lose much of it's impact, but I hope at least it will still provide some idea of what is stated and accepted openly among devotees.

I am unable to recall the title of it, although I know it is labeled with the subtitle of Christmas 2004. Afterwards it was explained to me by another devotee that the lectures for Christmas used to come through a live broadcast from Siddha transmitted via on-line, but this practice had been stopped a few years earlier because he had determined that it would be 'too easy for his detractors to infiltrate them'.Siddhaswarupananda can be very amusing to his devotees. He occasionally makes jokes or humorous observations or slips the 'F' word in (the other 'F' word as far as he is concerned).In this lecture, fittingly for the occasion he seemed to be in especially high spirits. The room erupted into laughter as he launched into a tirade against Santa as an obese alcoholic gross materialist that people were more interested in having at their table on Christmas Day, determined as they were to have a good time, than the clean, simple living figure of Jesus Christ.

The main point started out being how the world in general had forgotten the true meaning of Christmas, had forgotten to pay their respects. So much so that it was rapidly becoming very contentious and even illegal to say Merry Christmas, opting instead for 'X-mas' or 'Happy Holidays' or attatch any representation of Jesus to the day at all, such as publicly displaying a nativity scene.His devotees he announced 'must be like soldiers' prepared to defend Jesus and God at every opportunity. There are too many people in the world he bemoaned that were so much more concerned with making money that they were going along with the trend of altering Christmas to ensure that they would not be protested or boycotted.He laid all of the blame for this on a single source 'the fags'. Once the first mention was out it was as if he could not stop the tirade from spewing forth. 'You can't have a nativity scene there out the front of your store, oh no, you can have anything else, Santa Claus a reindeer, two fags kissing, but certainly not Jesus.' It was the 'fags' he said that were behind this campaign to erase Jesus from Christmas, they were offended by mention of the word because it contained the name of one of God's devotees and it makes them feel guilty about being fags because they know they are loathsome and wrong.

His comments about 'fags' seemed to last at least ten minutes, accompanied by the laughter of his devotees, as if it was the funniest joke they had heard all year.I am not sure how it led into the subject, but Canada he announced was the worst. In Canada no-one could play this lecture without being punished under the law which made it illegal to say anything that was critical of homosexuality. They were a bunch of 'tillies' he announced as the devotees giggled among themselves. (I didn't get it, but it was later explained to me that this was a word Siddha habitually uses to refer to something he sees as unmasculine or cowardly). "Canada is no good now" he said "America should just go and take it over".

It was much later that I found out about Siddha's endorsement of the American led 'War on Terror'. I was no longer sure by then if he had mentioned Canada's 'failure' to support America in this lecture, although I think that he did.No-body seemed in the least shocked by the things he said or in any way opposed to them. Afterwards they were still laughing and repeating comments they found particularly amusing and saying what a great lecture it had been this year. Of course they were all devotees, and at that stage I was by far the newest person there.

I really didn't think much about the disciple who seemed to be watching me with what I regarded at the time as a hostile curiosity. My assumption was that she disapproved of my skirt, which fell to just above the knee or perhaps thought that the shirt I was wearing showed too much cleavage. I didn't think that it did or I wouldn't have dared to wear it but since I had already been warned that failing to dress conservatively would attract criticism and be viewed as offensive.Aferwards she literally cornered me and wanted to know what I had thought of the lecture, if there was anything I didn't understand or wanted to ask about. She made a point of saying that "Srila Prabhupad's lectures can be difficult to understand at first, and that was quite an advanced lecture for a new person" and also "Srila Prabhupad has a very interesting sense of humor, of course he didn't really mean that America should take over Canada, and people that don't understand him could take that out of context and use it to imply that he is some sort of cult leader".

**The female disciple I mention at the end is Gayatri dasi (Fiona Phillips) who runs the Brisbane centre who I pretty much credit with destroying my spiritual life and my relationship with Bren. She is highly suspicious of new people and bitter as hell about anyone else having a relationship because her husband doesn't want to follow Siddha but doesn't want to get a divorce and those are his only options. If you want the whole cult to know your business this is the person to talk to.