MAN DIAGNOSED WITH TRANSIENT GLOBAL AMNESIA

MAN AWAKENS IN HOSPITAL
WITH NO MEMORY OF HIS PAST

www.usatoday.com - When Michael Boatwright woke up in the emergency room, the nurses began asking him questions for which it became clear he had no answers. The gray-haired, soft-spoken man looked at his identity card and didn't recognize his own face. He answered only to Johan Ek. Though his driver's license said he was born in Florida, he spoke in Swedish and said he remembered nothing about his life before.
“The guy Michael - it wasn't me. I'm still Johan,” he said through a translator in a recent interview at Desert Regional Medical Center. The man was found unconscious in a Motel 6 room at noon on Feb. 28 and taken to the hospital, said Lisa Hunt-Vasquez, a social worker.

He had with him a duffel bag of casual athletic clothes, a backpack, five tennis rackets, two cellphones, some cash, a set of old photos and four forms of identification naming him as Michael Thomas Boatwright: a passport, a California identification card, a veteran's medical card and a Social Security card. Following mental and physical health exams, Boatwright was diagnosed by a psychiatrist and psychologist with transient global amnesia in a “fugue state”.
The conditions, both temporary and related to memory loss, were likely triggered by some kind of emotional or physical trauma. Medical staff determined that it would be unsafe to release Boatwright and have moved him to the hospital's skilled nursing facility. “He's kind of a blank slate,” Hunt-Vasquez said.

Michael Boatwright, 61, a man who woke up in the emergency room at Desert Regional Medical Center with amnesia, refers to himself as Johan Ek and spoke in Swedish. “The guy Michael - it wasn’t me. I’m still Johan,” he said through a translator. Boatwright was found unconscious in a Motel 6 room. He had with him a duffel bag of casual athletic clothes, some cash, a set of old photos and IDs identifying him as Boatwright. A psychiatrist and psychologist diagnosed him with Transient Global Amnesia in a “fugue state.” However, other explanations may be possible. Is he remembering his past life? Nowadays, hypnotherapists use sessions of past life regression as psychotherapeutic process.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Reincarnation forms an integral part of the explanation of the Vedic scriptures for the seeming contradictions in karma. They assert the eternality of our existence; our life doesn't begin with birth or end with death. Each one of us is an irreducible, infinitesimal particle of anti-matter - spirit. It is this spark which animates the material body that we currently reside in. The body is merely an external covering like a dress. And just as we give up old and worn out clothes and accept new ones, the soul similarly gives up old and worn out bodies and accepts new ones at the time of death. ... Thus the principles of reincarnation allow us to view life with a much broader perspective - not from the standpoint of one brief lifetime which is nothing more than a flash in time, but from the standpoint of eternity.

Śrīpad Chaitanya Charan das :
“The Spiritual Scientist” - Vol 1 Issue 7
“Reincarnation - The Basis of an Infallible Justice”
http://singhal.50webs.com/ss/karma.htm
http://ebooks.iskcondesiretree.info/pdf/Spiritual_Scientist/Spiritual_Scientist_-_Science_youth_spirituality_an_infallible_justice.pdf

Published by dasavatara das - “Vedic Views on World News”
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/

'MEAT OUT DAY' TODAY

20 MARCH, COME AND JOIN IN
“INTERNATIONAL MEATOUT DAY”

http://learni.st/ - Today is March 20th, or as some people call it ‘International Meatout Day’ which is an international observance helping individuals evolve to a wholesome, compassionate diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains. The purpose is to expose the public to the joys and benefits of a plant-based  diet, while promoting the availability and selection alternatives to meat and dairy in mainstream grocery stores, restaurants, and catering operations. 
Meatout has grown explosively since its inception in 1985 to become the world's largest annual grassroots diet education campaign. Thousands of caring people in all 50 U.S. states and a host of other countries welcome Spring with colorful educational events. These range from simple information tables, exhibits, and cooking demonstrations to elaborate receptions and festivals. Visitors are asked to "kick the meat habit on March 20 (first day of spring).

Several mainstream health advocacy organizations, including the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, Johns Hopkins University, and the American Heart Association, have since launched their own campaigns to promote consumption of plant-based foods. Today, people are asked to explore a wholesome, nonviolent diet of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Meatout reflects national trends: Mainstream health advocacy organizations and the official government publication "Dietary Guidelines for Americans" tout plant-based foods. Over 30 million Americans have explored a meat-free diet. 
One in five teens thinks vegetarianism is "cool." National beef and veal consumption have dropped by 25 and 70%, respectively. Major manufacturers and retailers are marketing meat-free and dairy-free meals. Several national fast food chains are offering veggie burgers and several major baseball parks are selling veggie dogs.

International Meatout Day is the world's largest campaign to educate people on the benefits of a plant-based diet, with no animal derived ingredients. Supporters organize many activities, such as festive events, public lectures and wholesome meat-free dinners, cooking demonstrations, food samplings, distributing pamphlets and providing dietary information. All living beings are sentient beings. That makes us alike in the way we feel pain and pleasure. When we choose to avoid meat we are promoting a less violent life for all living beings on this planet. A person with only choose to eat a diet based on plants during the period of his life, can save from a cruel death more than 6,000 animals.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Every day, several times a day, every living being, in whichever part of the world he may be, enjoys a universal ritual - eating. ... The Bhagavad Gita states that foods such as milk products, grains, fruits, and vegetables increase the duration of life and give strength, health, happiness, and satisfaction. Conversely, foods such as, meat, fish and fowl are putrid, decomposed and unclean. They cause numerous hazards to physical health. The Srimad Bhagavatam, the summum bonum of all Vedic literature, states that meat-eating is one of the four pillars of sinful life. Apart from bringing severe sinful reactions, meat-eating also dulls the human intellect thus rendering it incapable of understanding the higher dimensions of life. Therefore real spiritual life, nay real human life, can not begin unless a human being stops killing his younger brothers, innocent animals, just for the satisfaction of his tongue.

Śrīpad Chaitanya Charan das :
"Think Before You Eat"
The Spiritual Scientist - Vol 1 Issue 8
http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2011/12/think-before-you-eat/

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/

SPIRITUAL OR RELIGIOUS?

FROM RELIGIONS OF EXCLUSION TOWARD
A NEW SPIRITUALITY OF INCLUSION

http://www.huffingtonpost.com - The concept of "being spiritual but not religious" suffers from a lot of confusion. One reason is that spirituality fails to elucidate specific guidelines on how to "do it right." Unlike religion, which often errs on the other side with too many rules, or too rigid of rules, a generalized spirituality offers few or no standards for behavior, or even for thought. Many who have turned to being spiritual but not religious left religion in the first place to escape overly rigid rules, so they like it this way. But having no explicit guidelines at all can leave seekers prey to superficial and spiritually counterfeit ideas. 
You can't expect your life to improve because you suddenly start wearing crystals, for example. This absence of guidelines and structure unfortunately leaves people confused, to the extent there is a "spiritual but not religious" movement. An understanding of the spiritual development stages begins to provide a much needed structure to spirituality.

It can orient people toward an authentic spirituality based on a more solid form of personal responsibility, and a deeper form of interpersonal integrity than even our religions teach. One example of this is the concept of inclusion versus exclusion. At the literal level, our religions teach specific beliefs that differ greatly from one religion to another. Each religion excludes outsiders, and denies their beliefs have any validity. But the spiritual development stages tell us we need to move beyond these literal beliefs to become spiritually mature. 
The process includes a step where a person thinks through what he or she has been taught in an open-ended critical manner. This may lead her to reason herself out of belief in that religion, or at least it will lead her to grasp the same teachings in a less rigid, and hopefully less literal, way.

Unlike the specific religions, which exclude outsiders, this form of spirituality includes everyone and everything. Margaret Placentra Johnston, author of this article, explains that "at the upper spiritual development levels, a person can see that all religious traditions have validity when their teachings are seen as metaphors for more universal truths." Nowadays, many people promote various ‘spiritual’ activities because it is considered that they mean open-mindedness and reject ‘religious’ practices which involve close-mindedness. 

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

The intention underlying this desire to be ‘spiritual-not-religious’ is laudable, but its application is questionable. Usually the intention is that we should be broad-minded, not narrow-minded. That intention is fine, but is the underlying implication true? Is it true that spirituality makes us broad-minded and religion makes us narrow-minded? ... The Vedic wisdom-tradition points to an intriguing relationship between spirituality and religion. It explains that spirituality is meant to help us develop love for God. This is done through a harmonious combination of philosophy and religion, which constitute the two rails on which spirituality runs. The philosophy aspect of spirituality involves the study and understanding of matter, spirit and the controller of both, God. And the religion aspect involves the following of certain rules and regulations that help us realize and experience higher spiritual truths.

Śrīpad Caitanya Caran das (BE E-TC) :
“The Spiritual Scientist” - Articles
"Isn’t it better to be spiritual instead of being religious?"
Bhaktivedanta Academy for Culture and Education (BACE), Pune
http://thespiritualscientist.com/
http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/02/isn%E2%80%99t-it-better-to-be-spiritual-instead-of-being-religious/

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/

WORLD GREETS NEW YEAR'S 2013

NEW YEAR'S 2013: WORLD GIVING
ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME TO NEW YEAR

www.huffingtonpost.com - In New York, as the world rang in 2013 with spectacular fireworks displays and showers of confetti, the specter of economic uncertainty and searing violence dimmed some festivities and weighed on the minds of revelers hoping for a better year. Revelers with New Year's hats and sunglasses boasting “2013” packed the streets in the 35-degree cold to watch the crystal ball drop in Times Square. Security in Times Square was tight, with a mass of uniformed police and plainclothes officers assigned to blend into the crowd. 
The celebrations on the West Coast took place nearly 24 hours after lavish fireworks displays lit up skylines in Sydney, Hong Kong and Shanghai. In Myanmar, about 90,000 people gathered in a field to watch a countdown for the first time, according to organizers. The reformist government that took office in 2011 in the country, long under military rule, threw its first public New Year's celebration in decades. 

In Russia, spectators filled Moscow's Red Square as fireworks exploded near the Kremlin. In Rio de Janeiro, revelers dressed head-to-toe in white as dictated by Brazilian tradition flooded onto Copacabana beach for a concert. In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated with a vespers service in St. Peter's Basilica to give thanks for 2012 and look ahead to 2013. In the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai, multicolored fireworks danced up and down the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.  
In London, the chimes of the clock inside the Big Ben tower counted down the final seconds of 2012 and fireworks dazzled the sky above Parliament Square. Streamers shot out of the London Eye wheel and blazing rockets launched from the banks of the River Thames. Festivities were canceled across New Delhi, the Indian capital, amid days of mourning and reflection about women's safety after a rape victim died on Saturday.

World cities from Sydney and Hong Kong to Dubai and London rang in the New Year with spectacular fireworks. The huge celebrations marked the start of the New Year on Tuesday Jan. 1, 2013.  Spectators watch a fireworks display at the Singapore financial district, the New York's Times Square, the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, along Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, near Malaysia's landmark Petronas Twin Towers, while Japanese people released balloons to celebrate the New Year's during an annual countdown ceremony produced by the Prince Park Tower Tokyo. As the world enters a New Year, we also wish all of you that this "New Year" brings us new strenght to change our old behaviours that take us away from the realm of spirituality.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

The Vedic wisdom explains that each one of us is a sentient, eternal and blissful spiritual personality having inherently the nature of befriending and loving God and all living beings. The Vedic scriptures also wish us a genuinely felt “Happy New Year.” ... The Vedas agree with the common understanding that to become happy something “new” has to be done. But the understanding of new as given in the Vedic wisdom is significantly different from the general understanding. ... Love of God is our original and real nature, but due to prolonged and excessive contact with matter, it has become completely obscured and is now misdirected towards various material objects. All genuine spiritual practices are meant to revive this love of God, which is presently dormant in our hearts. And God being infinite is eternally new (nitya navanavayamana) and so loving Him is an eternally new and happy experience. Thus revival of our love of God is the ultimate fruition of the wish “Happy New Year!”

Śrīpad Chaitanya Charan das :
“The Spiritual Scientist” - Vol 1 Issue 1
“Happy New Year and the Old Cycle”
http://ebooks.iskcondesiretree.info/pdf/Spiritual_Scientist/Spiritual_Scientist_-_Happy_new_year.pdf

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/
 

OUT OF THE DARKNESS COMMUNITY WALK

WALK WILL RAISE MONEY
FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION GROUP

http://blogs.fredericksburg.com - Every 15 minutes, a person in the United States dies by suicide, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. More than 36,000 lives are claimed annually, and suicide is the second leading cause of death for teens and young adults in the nation, according to the AFSP. For the past four years, Fredericksburg area residents have participated in Out of the Darkness Community Walks to raise awareness and money to prevent suicides.
Sarah Adams and other Courtland High School students started the Spotsylvania chapter of Out of the Darkness in 2008 after three of their classmates committed suicide within a year and a half. Adams said she and a friend approached a guidance counselor about starting the chapter after the tragedies, and school officials were very supportive. This year, the 5k local walk at Spotsylvania Courthouse Village will take place Oct. 20.

This local Out of the Darkness walk is one of more than 200 taking place across the nation this fall. Proceeds from the walks go to the AFSP, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to funding scientific research, increasing education and awareness of mental health disorders, promoting policies and legislation that impact suicide prevention and providing support programs for those affected by suicide. Since 2000, the AFSP has given more than $10 million in grants to scientific research on the neurobiological, genetic, epidemiological, clinical, psychological and sociological aspects of suicide, says the AFSP website.
Although a financial donation is not required to participate in the walk, Adams said the goal is to have 300 participants in the local walk and to raise $20,000 for the AFSP. The organizers already have surpassed their goal for participants, with 338 registered as of Oct. 12.  Adams said the community and local businesses have responded well to the cause over the past five years.

“We would walk a million miles to see you smile one last time,” 
read a T-shirt of an attendant in the community walk.

In the United States, a person dies by suicide every 15 minutes and it is estimated that an attempt is made every minute. AFSP is urging the state Legislatures to adopt a bill that would require suicide-prevention training for teachers and other school personnel. “Out Of The Darkness Community Walk” event is held in many places across the USA to bring awareness to the problem with suicide. At the walk, attendees could put photos or name tags of loved ones on a commemorative wall. Some photos featured young people in graduation robes or parents with children in better times. “We want to measure their lives by how they lived, not by how they died,” said Ms. Wallace, an event organizer. Today, more than ever, we should go into Spirituality which can provide inner joy and free us from frustrations and suicidal tendencies.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that mental diseases - stress, depression, addiction and psychosomatic problems - will be the greatest health hazard of the current century. Worse still, WHO statistics show that over one million people commit suicide every year. This is more than the total annual deaths due to wars and crimes combined. And this figure is only the reported number of suicides. Mental disease in general and suicide in particular has many causes. But the common origin is frustration in achieving one's goals, whatever they may be. When this frustration rises to an acute and hopeless degree, one feels one's very existence to be an agony. And the ending of one's existence appears to be the only solution to that agony. It is then that the person commits suicide. ... Spirituality is not just a part of our life; it is the essence of our life. Stephen Covey, well-known author of the Seven Habits series, aptly remarks, “We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”

Śrīpad Chaitanya Charan das :
“The Spiritual Scientist”
“When Science Points To Spirituality”
Vol 3 Issue 1 - http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/
http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2011/12/when-science-points-to-spirituality/

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/

JAPAN SEVERED BY TYPHOON TALAS

THOUSANDS STRANDED AFTER
47 DIE IN JAPAN TYPHOON

http://news.yahoo.com - Thousands of people remained stranded in western Japan on Tuesday as the death toll from a fierce typhoon rose to 47, heaping more misery on a nation recovering from the March earthquake and tsunami. Torrential rain brought by powerful Typhoon Talas, which made landfall Saturday and was the deadliest in seven years, caused rivers to swell and triggered floods and landslides that swept away buildings, homes and roads. More than 50 people were still missing, local authorities told AFP, while Japanese media reported another 100 or so could not be contacted in hard-hit Wakayama prefecture. New Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who was sworn in last week, plans to visit the affected areas on Friday to inspect the damage from the deadly typhoon, top government spokesman Osamu Fujimura said.  Noda will also visit Fukushima on Thursday, home to a nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 disaster at the centre of the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

As police, firefighters and Self-Defense Force troops continued their painstaking search for the missing, local authorities were planning to air-drop more food and water to those isolated by the disaster.  In severely affected Wakayama, about 4,500 people remained stranded in communities that could not be reached due to collapsed roads, according to a local official. In Totsukawa village in Nara prefecture, more than 400 people were stranded in evacuation shelters as access routes have mostly been cut off and phone lines were down in most parts of the village. Talas, which moved away from Japan on Sunday, has since been downgraded to a tropical storm but the remnants of its weather system, together with the impact of new Typhoon Noru, continued to dump heavy rains on northern Japan. “After carrying 1,000 litres of drinking water by helicopter yesterday, we are planning also to transport rice, instant noodles and drinks later today,” a local police official said.

Members of Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force, firefighters, soldiers and police officers search destroyed houses for missing people after a landslide triggered by Typhoon “Talas” that brought heavy rains at Tanabe, central Japan on Monday.  The storm dumped record amounts of rain Sunday in western and central Japan as it turned towns into lakes, washed away cars and triggered mudslides that obliterated houses.  The terrible force of nature is one of the clearest signs of this age of Kali, therefore we should reflect on the reasons behind such natural disasters.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Natural calamities are a display of an awesome power immensely and fearfully greater than the human. They jolt us out of our complacent routines and force us to think about the supernatural: Why do such natural disasters occur?  Does God exist? If He does, why does He not stop such calamities? ... All the great spiritual and religious traditions of the world warn us that we are answerable to God for all our actions. Known as the law of karma, this universal, infallible law of action-reaction gives all of us our due pleasures and pains as per our actions, right or wrong. ... We can protect ourselves from our past misdeeds by re-harmonizing ourselves with God. This can be very easily and effectively done by adopting the non-sectarian universal meditation on the Holy Names of God, especially the maha-mantra Hare Krishna.

Śrīpad Caitanya Caran das (BE E&TC) :
“When Nature Boomerangs”
The Spiritual Scientist - Vol. 3 - Issue 13
Bhaktivedanta Academy for Culture and Education (BACE), Pune
http://thespiritualscientist.com/
http://deepak.esmartguy.com/ss/when_nature_boomerangs.htm

RED MEAT BOOSTS DIABETES RISK: US STUDY

RED MEAT CONSUMPTION MAY
INCREASE RISK OF TYPE 2 DIABETES

AFP - Two slices of bacon, a hot dog or a serving of deli meat daily has been found to significantly boost the risk of getting type 2 diabetes, said a major US study published on Wednesday. The research by experts at the Harvard School of Public Health represents the largest study of its kind to date and appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  Eating 50 grams of processed red meat every day increased a person’s diabetes risk by 51 percent, while eating 100 grams of unprocessed red meat each day, about the size of a deck of cards, boosted the risk by 19 percent. However, those risks went down if the red meat was substituted with nuts, white meat, low-fat dairy or whole grain proteins. “Clearly, the results from this study have huge public health implications given the rising type 2 diabetes epidemic and increasing consumption of red meats worldwide,” said senior author Frank Hu. “The good news is that such troubling risk factors can be offset by swapping red meat for a healthier protein.”
 
The data for the study came from questionnaire responses from more than 204,000 people in US nurses and health professionals’ studies. The subjects were tracked for between 14 and 28 years. Researchers also updated a meta-analysis that included their data with other studies covering more than 442,000 participants. Diabetes affects nearly 350 million adults worldwide, and more than 11 percent of adults over age 20 - or 25.6 million people - in the United States have the disease, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Type 2 diabetes, a chronic disease that involves high levels of blood sugar, is often caused by obesity, lack of exercise and unhealthy eating habits.
 

Recently, a major study of the US conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health has found that routine consumption of meat could trigger Type 2 diabetes.  It is believed that the high iron content of red meat can increase inflammatory chemicals, which can destroy insulin- producing beta cells - could be the main reason of triggering Type 2 diabetes.  Due to their unnatural diet meat-eating human beings are far more susceptible to diseases and disorders as compared to their vegetarian counterparts.  

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Every day, several times a day, every living being, in whichever part of the world he may be, enjoys a universal ritual - eating.  Most people decide what they eat based mainly on taste, cost, habit, nutrition and convenience.  But for those who are a little more thoughtful, here are some other points worth considering. ... The Bhagavad Gita states that foods such as milk products, grains, fruits, and vegetables increase the duration of life and give strength, health, happiness, and satisfaction. Conversely, foods such as, meat, fish and fowl are putrid, decomposed and unclean. They cause numerous hazards to physical health. ... Apart from bringing severe sinful reactions, meat-eating also dulls the human intellect thus rendering it incapable of understanding the higher dimensions of life. Therefore real spiritual life, nay real human life, can not begin unless a human being stops killing his younger brothers, innocent animals, just for the satisfaction of his tongue.

Śrīpad Caitanya Caran das (BE E&TC) :
“Think Before You Eat”
“The Spiritual Scientist” - Vol. 1 Issue 8.
Bhaktivedanta Academy for Culture and Education (BACE), Pune
http://thespiritualscientist.com/