SMALL ASTEROID WHIZZED CLOSE BY EARTH

TINY ASTEROID ZOOMED CLOSE BY EARTH,
"IT WAS NOT PIECE OF SPACE JUNK", NASA SAID

WASHINGTON (AP) - Astronomers announced the discovery of the object, which they named 2010 AL30, on Monday. It is relatively small, about 36 feet (11 meters) wide, NASA researchers said. It made its closest approach yesterday at 12.48pm GMT, when it came within 80,000 miles (130,000 km) of our planet. That's nearly one-third the distance between the Earth the moon. If the asteroids had entered Earth’s orbit it would have likely burned-up in the atmosphere. At the beginning there was some early speculation that the object was a part of a derelict spacecraft, but NASA scientists have concluded that it is most likely a simple space rock flying near Earth. Experts were divided over whether the object is man-made or a small asteroid. Alan Harris at the US Space Science Institute said "Unlikely to be artificial, its orbit doesn't resemble any useful spacecraft trajectory". Paul Chodas, a scientist from NASA in Pasadena, Calif., said "the asteroid's trajectory is not the kind used to transfer spacecraft out of Earth's orbit, nor is the space rock followed by other objects that escaped from Earth or lunar space. The asteroid was also far from Earth during the Apollo lunar missions of the late 1960s and 1970s, when many spacecraft were launched into the space near the moon", Chodas said.

The asteroid was visible to seasoned amateur astronomers as it passed harmlessly by the planet. Expert astronomers were able to see it shining with a brightness of a 14th-magnitude star similar to that of Pluto. It appeared moving through the constellations of Orion, Taurus and Pisces, according to NASA's Solar System Dynamics website. The rock was not in danger of striking the planet and probably would have burned up in the atmosphere before hitting Earth’s surface, if it had headed our way. A team of astronomers from Italy captured images of the asteroid that passed by Earth Wednesday at a distance one-third that between the Earth and the Moon.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Vedic Cosmology can be confirmed by modern scientific findings and this is acknowledged by well known scientists and authors, who recognized that the cosmology of the Vedas closely parallels modern scientific findings. Carl Sagan stated, “Vedic Cosmology is the only one in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology.” ... French astronomer Jean-Claude Bailly corroborated the antiquity and accuracy of the Vedic astronomical measurements as “more ancient than those of the Greeks or Egyptians.” And that, “the movements of the stars calculated 4,500 years ago, does not differ by a minute from the tables of today.”

Śrīpad Bhakti Bhāvana Vishnu Mahārāja :
“Science of the Sacred” (book) - Gosai Publishing - 2009
Chapter: “Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge”
http://www.vedicsciences.net/

HAITI EARTHQUAKE: THOUSANDS FEARED DEAD

POWERFUL 7.0 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE DEVASTATES
THE CARIBBEAN HAITIAN CAPITAL; MANY FEARED DEAD

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - A major earthquake hit the impoverished country of Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing buildings in the capital Port-au-Prince and burying residents under rubble. Frantic rescue efforts are underway to free people trapped in the rubble after a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The epicentre of the quake was located inland, just 16 kilometres from the capital, and was a shallow 10km deep, intensifying its impact. The tremor sparked widespread panic as it brought down buildings including the presidential palace, hotels, a hospital and the UN headquarters in the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. The quake was the strongest to hit the country in 200 years and was felt as far away as Cuba. Thousands of people gathered in public squares late into the night, singing hymns and weeping. Many gravely injured people sat in the streets, pleading for doctors. Many resident were forced to abandon the ruins of their homes, and were squatting in sports grounds and open spaces in the hours following the quake. Rescue teams were hampered when communications went down in the minutes after the earthquake struck at 2153 GMT, but efforts free people trapped in the debris continued throughout the night.

Haitian police vehicles as well as those from the United Nations and the Red Cross tried to ferry the wounded to hospital, but progress was slow as chunks of rubble lay strewn across the roads. The death toll was expected to climb into the hundreds, but no official figure has been released so far. One aid worker estimated the quake had killed thousands. Early pictures showed scenes of utter devastation, with bodies pinned under fallen buildings as a pall of grey smoke hung over a part of one city. Dazed residents stared helplessly around them, or rushed to help the injured. "It's really a catastrophe of major proportions," Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN television.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Question 25. Why should we accept the Supreme Lord or His energy? Answer: The rules of material nature are possible by the glance of the Supreme Lord. Such rules are the formation of clouds and then rain, according to the different seasons; earthquakes and the breaking of mountains, caused by heat; and the ebb and flow of the tide, caused by attraction. The heat or attraction can never be independent qualities. Consciousness is like the creator, and qualities such as attraction are only rules. Therefore, it is not reasonable to deny the creator but accept the rules. (Tattva-sutra 22).

Śrī Bhaktivinoda Vānī Vaibhava
Vol. l - “Sambandha” - Chapter 20 - “Energy of the Lord”
Compiled by Śrīpad Sundarānanda Vidyāvinoda

CLASHES WITH AFRICAN MIGRANTS RATTLE ITALY

WHILE MIGRANTS LEAVE ROSARNO AMID VIOLENCE
RESIDENTS OF ITALIAN TOWN CLAIM NOT TO BE RACIST

ROME (CNN) - Violent riots and the evacuation of immigrants from a southern Italian town have prompted a wave of national soul-searching over how Italy should respond to racial tensions stoked by economic malaise. Police continued to investigate the cause of the clashes that swept through the farming town of Rosarno, near the toe of the Italian peninsula. The unrest exploded on Thursday night after immigrants torched cars and litter bins in response to an initial air-rifle shooting. The riots began when a local resident fired a pellet gun at a documented African migrant worker, lightly wounding him. African immigrants in the area responded by burning cars and vandalizing shops. Some local Italians retaliated by forming bands that began going house-to-house attacking immigrants. Abdul Iddris, who is originally from Sudan and one of the African migrants taken by bus out of Rosarno to another village, sadly explained that "People took a van, an information van with speakers, saying any black person who is hiding in Rosarno should get out, if they catch anyone they will kill him". The rioting went on for two days, with clashes between locals and migrant workers. The clashes, which appeared to have ended by Saturday, left dozens injured, including a group of immigrant men who were beaten with metal rods.

By Sunday evening, police had escorted more than 1,000 immigrants, mainly farm laborers from sub-Saharan Africa, to relief centers in other cities to ensure their safety. Their dwellings have been bulldozed by the authorities. Some undocumented migrants were transferred to detention centers, where they face expulsion from Italy, government officials said. In an effort to show that things are not as they seem, yesterday hundreds of native Italians and a handful of African migrants marched through Rosarno to protest media reports that the demonstrators said unfairly portrayed the town as a hotbed of racism. "Abandoned by the state!!! Criminalized by the media!!! 20 years of co-habitation is not racism!!!" read a banner carried by protesters.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Krishna is the proprietor of all planets. Therefore whatever there is, either in the sky or in the water or on the land, it is all Krishna's property. And because we are all sons of Krishna, every one of us has the right to use our father's property. But we should not encroach upon others. This is the formula for peace - īśāvāsyam idam sarvam ... mā gridhah kasya svid dhanam: “Everything belongs to God, and since you are sons of God, you have the right to use your father's property. But do not take more than you need. This is punishable.” (Śrī Īśopanishad 1) … When we forget this, then we come into this material world and struggle for existence, fight with one another. This is material life.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
Lecture: “Who Is Krishna?”
London, August 1973, at Bhaktivedanta Manor.

CHRISTIANS FEARFUL AS CHURCH ATTACKS RISE

UPROAR GROWS OVER USE OF WORD ‘ALLAH’
IN MALAYSIA, CHURCHES AND SCHOOL ATTACKED

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Would-be arsonists in mostly Muslim Malaysia struck at a convent school and a sixth church on Sunday while church and government leaders called for calm in a row over Christians' use of the word "Allah" to refer to God. An uproar among Muslims in Malaysia over the use of the word Allah by Christians spread over the weekend with the firebombing and vandalizing of several churches, increasing tensions at a time of political turbulence. Three more churches and a Catholic school were attacked in Malaysia Sunday, this followed the firebombing of another churches on Friday and Saturday. The attacks have shaken a country where many Muslims are angry over a Dec. 31 court ruling that overturned a government ban on the use of the word Allah to denote the Christian God. Though that usage is common in many countries, where Arabic- and Malay-language Bibles describe Jesus as the “son of Allah,” many Muslims here insist that the word belongs exclusively to them and say that its use by other faiths could confuse Muslim worshipers. The row, over a court ruling that allowed a Catholic newspaper to use "Allah" in its Malay-language editions, had prompted Muslims to protest at mosques and sparked arson attacks on a string of churches that saw a Pentecostalist church gutted, because "Christians should not call their god by the name they use".

The attacks now appear to have spread to other Malaysian states; several broken bottles and paint thinners were found at the Saint Louis church next to the convent and one of the country's oldest Anglican churches, All Saints, in Taiping, in northern Perak state. Nearby, a bottle of kerosene was found inside another church Sunday in what is believed to be a failed attack. In southern Malacca state, black paint was splashed on the outside of a Baptist church. The attacks threaten Prime Minister Najib Razak's plan to win back non-Muslim support before elections due by 2013 and may prevent investors from returning to Malaysia for foreign investment.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The Christians say, “God is great.” The Muslims also say that “Allah-u-akbar.” That is also the same meaning. The Vedic literature also says, “param brahma”. Brahman means “the greatest”. ... So the greatness understanding of Krishna or the Absolute Truth is accepted everywhere in civilized human society. But how God is great, that you can find in the Vedic literature. ... If you want to know in detail how His activities of greatness are going on … then you read Bhagavad-gita. ... If you understand these factors of the greatness of God perfectly well, then you become fit for being transferred to the spiritual world. That is called “daivī sampad vimoksāya”. If you become divine ... This is cultivation. This is education. This is not sentiment.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
Class on Bhagavad-gita 16.6 - Hawaii, February 2, 1975
The Complete Works - Lectures & Classes 750202BG.HAW

ICY WEATHER GRIPS NORTHERN EUROPE

ARCTIC BLAST SENDS TEMPERATURES
PLUNGING ACROSS EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

LONDON (CNN) - Severe winter weather continued to cause transport chaos across Europe countries, while days of heavy snow and plummeting temperatures plunged northern Europe into a deep freeze. The icy weather gripping northern Europe has disrupted flights at airports in the UK, France, the Irish Republic and the Netherlands. Many flights were delayed or cancelled at Orly airport in Paris, Dublin airport and Amsterdam-Schiphol, as well as major UK airports, like London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports. The rest of northern Europe was also gripped by one of the coldest nights in decades as temperatures plummeted to below -40C in some places. The central Norwegian town of Roeros recorded an overnight temperature of -41C -- one its coldest recorded temperatures. In Germany, at least nine homeless men aged from 42 to 62 froze to death, German people continued to deal with heavy snowfall and temperatures fall below -10C this week, the Deutsche Welle news website reports.

In the Irish Republic, all roads into Dublin were extremely icy and hundreds of Irish schools have closed, the Irish Times reports. Heavy snow caused big traffic jams around Amsterdam and Haarlem, Radio Netherlands reports. Icy roads have disrupted road freight deliveries to France's Channel ports. Snow was blanketing a large swathe of France, reaching as far south as Bordeaux. The Arctic freeze has also seen temperatures in central Sweden plummet to between -30 and -40C - the coldest weather since the mid-1980s, Radio Sweden reports. The winter death toll in Poland has reached 122 - most of the victims reportedly homeless people, according to a spokesman for the Polish National Police. In Burzyska nad Bugiem, in the east of the country, the army has installed makeshift bridges after flooding and ice split the village in two. Forcasters are predicting that the icy conditions would continue over much of northern Europe over the next few days.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

What are the different stages through which we will pass while chanting the holy name of Krsna? With the first stride, the intelligence is purified. With the second stride, the holy name effects liberation from the great conflagration of threefold miseriesso it liberates from the great conflagration of threefold miseries. The threefold miseries are adhyatnika: miseries within the body and mind, such as disease and mental anxiety; adhibhautika: miseries from our neighbors: man, beasts, insects, and so many other living beings; and adhidaivika: natural catastrophes like famine, flood, and earthquake. We have to suffer from these three kinds of miseries which burn in our heart like fire. But everything is extinguished forever by the second stride of nama-sankirtana which gives us relief.

Śrīla Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Mahārāja :
“Golden Volcano of Divine Love”
Part 2, Chapter 1, Śiksāstakam : “The Holy Name of Krishna”

VIOLENCE HAS MANY FACES

RELIGIONS, POLITICS AND SOCIETY
IN A HOSTILE CULTURE OF INTOLERANCE

DELHI, India (Times of India) - It is common for people to attribute hostility between faiths to mutual ignorance and lack of knowledge of each other's cultural and faith traditions. However, if people are not convinced about the intrinsic equality of all human beings, they are not likely to want to learn about their faiths with a spirit of respect. There are strong connections between authoritarian ways of thinking and tendencies to see god as an intolerant, jealous and tyrannical authority figure that punishes those who do not do his bidding. The continuing efforts to convert so-called heathens and believers in false gods are resulting in endless strife and conflicts. No religious establishment is capable of carrying out genocides and massacres on its own strength, but when the religious leaders become closely allied to the agendas of politicians, they are able to get state patronage in order to subjugate and conquer other religious communities. Since this has happened very frequently in history, many people have come to believe that the answer lies in 'secularism' which requires that religion and religious leaders are kept from meddling in politics or acquiring control over the instruments of state. By contrast, many of those who claimed to be "secular" and, therefore, treated matters of faith with disdain, caused massive genocides and huge human suffering.

History is witness to the fact that there is absolutely no guarantee that politicians and states claiming to be secular demonstrate greater respect for human rights. For example, Stalin did not use a religious justification while carrying out his genocide among the Soviet Union's peasantry. He did so in the garb of a "secular" cause, namely, "collectivisation" and the uprooting of those he called "kulaks". He claimed that he killed people in the name of building a "secular" and "socialist" republic. Yet, he caused far more death and destruction than many of those who make a cocktail of religion and politics. As we can see, to those who are targeted for violence, it matters little whether those who have come to murder them shout "Allah-O-Akbar" or "Long live communism", whether their war cry is "Pakistan zindabad," or "Bharat Mata ki Jai". Violence, whether justified in the name of communism, nationalism or democracy, or glorified in the name of class struggle or jihad, destroys not only human lives but even the very causes that are touted as justifications for their violence.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Being led by their worldly or secular intellect, men are often seen to be on the alert to define non-secular or transcendental intellect … when controlled by that alertness, their idiocy, in the form of their mundane simplicity, takes them towards the company of persons deceived like themselves. … Those who are anxious to be considered as civilized are of the opinion that, “If we can observe the civic rules, then there will be no mutual friction and we can live quite in comfort and happiness, even though godless.” The devotees of God express no such opinion. … When, for want of an exact knowledge about the truth, we rely on relative knowledge, our want is not removed therewith; all our acts evaporate like camphor.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thākura Prabhupāda :
“The Pathway to Highest Blessedness”
Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

ATHEISTS CHALLENGE BLASPHEMY LAW

IRISH ATHEISTS FIGHT BLASPHEMY LAW BY
PUBLISHING “FAMOUS BLASPHEMOUS” QUOTES

LONDON (CNN) - Atheists in Ireland are risking possible prosecution with an audacious online challenge to the country's new blasphemy law. Under the law, which went into effect last week, a person can be found guilty of blasphemy if “he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion.” The penalty is a fine of up to 25,000 euros, or more than $35,000. An Irish atheist group has published a series of quotations on religion in an attempt to challenge a blasphemy law that went into effect last Friday. In a bid to demonstrate that the law is outdated and largely unenforceable, a group named Atheist Ireland published on its Web site 25 potentially blasphemous quotations from figures such as Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Pope Benedict XVI and Mark Twain. “Despite these quotes being abusive and insulting in relation to matters held sacred by various religions, we unreservedly support the right of these people to have published or uttered them, and we unreservedly support the right of any Irish citizen to make comparable statements about matters held sacred by any religion without fear of being criminalized, and without having to prove to a court that a reasonable person would find any particular value in the statement,” the group said on the site.

According to the new law, those found guilty of breaking the blasphemy law may try to defend themselves by proving that a reasonable person would find literary, artistic, political, scientific or academic value in what they said or published. Michael Nugent, the group's chair, said that it would challenge the law through the courts if it were charged with blasphemy. Nugent said: “This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage.” The Atheist Ireland group in its Campaign for Free Expression urged the Irish government to repeal the law. It also asked lawmakers for a referendum on removing all references to God from the Irish constitution.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

When theism is forced to give way to pantheism, atheism, skepticism and agnosticism, then irreligion, unscrupulousness and duplicity bring about chaos on earth. Sin and its consequences surge around us, tumultuously clamoring to have their way against our wishes, and we find ourselves in the midst of a whirlpool. Then God comes to save us from their clutches and re-establish peace and order. He may remain here and at the same time remain everywhere, both inside and outside the universe. … The omnipotent author of Nature is a supreme will unto Himself and is above Nature and her laws and rules, because everything has come from His will and power.

Śrīla Bhakti Saranga Mahārāja :
Lecture: “God-realization” - June 1959
Sri Sajjana-tosani Patrikā, Vol. IV, Nº 11
Rays of the Harmonist – Nº 13 Karttika, 2003.

SCIENCE ‘CANNOT ACT ALONE’ POPE TELLS

THREE KINGS: “MODELS OF TRUE WISDOM USING BOTH
FAITH AND REASON” SAYS POPE DURING EPIPHANY MASS

VATICAN CITY, Rome (ANSA) - Pope Benedict XVI offered the Magi as an example of “unity between intelligence and faith” as he spoke to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square on January 6, the feast of the Epiphany. In a homily likely to rekindle debate on the relationship between science and religion, the pope said science cannot act alone but must be open to the faith that guided the Three Kings. Reality can only be read by combining “intelligence and faith, science and Revelation, the two lights that guided the path of the Magi,” he said. Speaking to a packed congregation in St Peter's basilica, the pope held up the three wise men who followed the star to Jesus's birthplace as “models” of “authentic seekers of truth”. In his homily the Pope observed that while the prophets foretold the arrival of the Messiah a great king, to whom all the other kings of the earth would bow, in fact the humble birth of Christ drew no attention from the rich and powerful of Jerusalem. Instead, he said, the Christ child was visited by “kings of the East - unknown characters, perhaps views with suspicion.” When those three kings offered gifts to Jesus, the Pope continued, they were submitting themselves to Him. “The Kings can no longer continue on their way, they can not return to Herod, they can not be allied with that powerful and ruthless ruler. Have been brought over forever to the path of the Child.”

The Pope said that the Magi were men of learning, for whom the entire universe was “virtually a great book full of signs and messages from God to man.” They studied the skies, and profited from their own learning, but - the Pope stressed - they were still “open to further appeals and divine revelations.” When they reached Jerusalem, they inquired in Herod’s court for advice from Jewish scholars, to help them understand the prophets. Although they must have thought of themselves as men of science; they were “not ashamed to ask for directions from the religious leaders of the Jews.” Thus reason and faith were combined by the Three Wise Men in their search. The Pope said that “the star and the Scriptures were the two lights that guided the journey of the three kings.” Their thorough integration of these two paths to knowledge is a model for our time, when so many people see reason and faith in conflict, the Pope concluded. Before ending his audience the Pope offered a special greeting to the Eastern churches, which will celebrate the Nativity on January 7. “May the mystery of light - he hoped – be a source of joy and peace to every family and community,” he said.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

When religion or any faith is devoid of philosophy and logic, then it is material sentiment. And philosophy and logic without understanding of God is simply waste of time ... So both should be combined, religion plus philosophy. One should understand the principles of religion with philosophy and logic. We are claiming college students, university students, because we are presenting religion on the basis of philosophy and logic. We are not blindly following. We have not dogmatism. We have got reason, philosophy, and everything, science. If you want to understand this Krsna consciousness on the basis of philosophy, logic and science, we are prepared to present to you. But the ultimate goal is to surrender unto the Supreme.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
Lecture in Montreal, July 20, 1968
The Complete Works - Lectures & Classes 680720LE.MON

BRAIN CAN FEEL OTHER PEOPLE’S PAIN: STUDY

SOME PEOPLE ACTUALLY FEEL OTHERS' PAIN
WHEN WITNESS ANOTHER PERSON BEING HURT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A brain-imaging study suggests that some people have true physical reactions to others' injuries. The new study claims that people who feel empathetic towards others' misery actually have elevated activity in the pain-sensing brain regions when they see someone hurt. Using an imaging technique called functional MRI, UK researchers found evidence that observing someone else in pain or witnessing another person being hurt, produces a shared emotional experience that activates brain areas processing the emotional component of pain. Functional MRI monitors changes in brain blood flow, allowing researchers to see which brain areas become more active in response to a particular stimulus. To find out how the brain reacts while seeing others in pain, researchers made 108 college students view several images of painful situations - including athletes suffering sports injuries and patients receiving an injection. Close to one-third of the students said that, for at least one image, they not only had an emotional reaction, but also fleetingly felt pain in the same site as the injury in the image. The researchers took functional MRI scans of 10 of these responders, along with 10 non-responders who reported no pain while viewing the images. It was found that while viewing the painful images, both responders and non-responders showed activity in the emotional centres of the brain. But responders showed greater activity in pain-related brain regions compared with non-responders, and as compared with their own brain responses to emotional or neutral images. This confirms that some people have an actual physiological reaction when observing others being injured or expressing pain.

The responders also tended to avoid horror movies and disturbing news images so as to avoid being in pain – which is more than just an empathetic response for them. Findings of the study published in the journal Pain could offer a better understanding of the mechanisms and potential treatments of such cases of unexplained ‘functional’ pain. "Patients with functional pain experience pain in the absence of an obvious disease or injury to explain their pain," explained Dr. Stuart W. G. Derbyshire of the University of Birmingham, one of the researchers on the new study.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Everyone should be unhappy to see others in distress and happy to see others happy. Ātmavat sarva-bhūteshu: one should feel the happiness and distress of others as his own. One should be happy to see others happy, and one should be unhappy to see others unhappy. This is the principle to be followed. … A Vaishnava, therefore, is truly a perfect person because he laments seeing others unhappy and feels joy at seeing others happy. A Vaishnava is para-duhkha-duhkhī; he is always unhappy to see the conditioned souls in an unhappy state of materialism. Therefore a Vaishnava is always busy preaching Krishna consciousness throughout the world.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
“The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam”
Purport in Canto 6 - Chapter 10 - Verse 9.

ACTIVISTS PROTEST CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

LAST MONTH SPANISH ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
CARRY CARCASSES DURING DEMONSTRATION IN MADRID

MADRID, Spain (AFP) - This happened one month ago and this demonstration made that lot of people changed their mind about eating animals. Last December, Spanish demonstrators, all dressed in white, gathered in the Puerta del Sol square, in the heart of the capital's tourist district, each carrying one of the dead animals. The activists displayed the carcasses of about 100 foxes, rabbits, minks, lambs, chickens and pigs in central Madrid in a protest against the treatment of animals. On Sunday afternoon, activists from the Animal Equality Organization in Spain put on a disturbing demonstration in Madrid. Wearing white, the activists carried the carcasses of around 100 dead cats, chickens, foxes, minks, and pigs. The carcasses were obtained from slaughterhouses, fur farms, poultry and pig farms. The activists gathered at the Puerta del Sol Square, in the center of the city’s tourist area. The demonstration was meant to draw attention to the issue of animal cruelty and also to remind people about the International Animal Rights Day which was celebrated on December 10. The protest had the purpose to "call attention to the terrible life that each of these animals seem to have," said the Animal Equality association, which organised protest. "On December 10, Human Rights Day is celebrated around the world. For many years Animal Rights Day has also been celebrated, to show that animals that do not belong to the human species also deserve respect," it said in a statement.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The Gaudiya Vaisnava object to meat eating because they consider animal slaughter a merciless act. In the language of the Bhagavatam, it is said that “suna”, mercilessness or violence to the innocent, was prohibited by Raja Pariksit and that wherever this kind of activity takes place, Kali-yuga, the age of hypocrisy, flourishes. To the extent that one is involved in merciless acts, one will be checked from making significant spiritual progress. Devotees, however, have no license for pride whatsoever. If a devotee becomes proud of being a vegetarian, he is a fool, for being a genuine devotee involves much more than vegetarianism.

Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Tripurari Mahārāja :
“When Invaders Destroy the Deity”
Śrī Caitanya Sanga Vol. V, No. 24 - Oct. 30, 2003.
http://www.swami.org/pages/sanga/

MALAYSIANS DEBATE ONLINE OVER GOD'S NAME

A COURT GIVES CHRISTIANS THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
TO USE THE WORD "ALLAH", MUSLIM ACTIVISTS MOBILIZED

KUALA LUMPUR (AP) - Malaysia is bracing for a potentially bruising linguistic battle after its government vowed to challenge a court ruling allowing local Roman Catholics to refer to God as Allah. The legal tussle is raising tensions between Malaysia's ethnic-Malay Muslim majority, who represent about 60% of this resource-rich nation's population, and its large ethnic-Chinese and Indian minorities. Muslim groups are preparing demonstrations against a High Court ruling on New Year's Eve to overturn a three-year-old government ban on the Catholic Church using the Arabic word Allah as a translation for God in its Malay-language newspaper. Among other things, the verdict potentially upholds the constitutional right of the church's weekly Herald newspaper to refer to Jesus Christ as the son of Allah - something that could anger many Muslims here and hurt Prime Minister Najib Razak's efforts to bring Malaysia's different religious groups closer together. The Arab word Allah has been used by Malay-speaking Christians for centuries, much as it is used by Christians in Arabic-speaking countries or in Indonesia, where, like Malaysia, the concept of a single deity was introduced by Arabic-speaking traders.

Rev. Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, says there's no other appropriate term for God in Malay. Many powerful Islamic leaders here disagree, however, and fear some Muslims could be misled by Christians using the word Allah. They say the word should be reserved for Islam alone. The Internet is one of the few means of expression that isn't tightly controlled by the state in Malaysia, and ethnic-Malay Muslims as well as minority ethnic-Chinese and Indian Malaysians have been logging on in droves to comment on the New Year's Eve high court ruling. A Facebook group formed to protest non-Muslims using the word Allah has attracted over 36,000 members in just a few days. The page describes itself as a group for "awakened Muslims" pushing back against Christian efforts "to confuse the Islamic community." Meanwhile, hackers attacked the Web site of the Roman Catholic Church's weekly newspaper, the Herald, on Sunday. Moderate Muslims and non-Muslim Malaysians took to the country's various online-based publications to defend the right of Christians to use the term Allah. Today, the word Allah is widely used by Christians in Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as by Christians in Arabic-speaking countries such as Egypt, Syria and elsewhere.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Hearing the question from the mullah (Muslim educated in Islamic theology), Sri Goracanda Babaji said, "He whom you call Allah, we call Bhagavan. Both these words refer to the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is called by different names in the Koran, the Puranas, and in different countries and languages. … By chanting the Lord's holy names, by narrating His pastimes, and by worshipping His Deity form, one gradually becomes more and more devoted to the Lord. When the worshipper attains pure devotion, he can see the spiritual form of the Supreme Lord. Philosophical speculation and fruitive work will not help one to see the Lord.

Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinoda Thākura :
“Jaiva-dharma (The Universal Religion)”
Chapter 11: ‘Nitya-dharma - Eternal Religion’
Bhaktivedanta Memorial Library - www.bvml.org/SBTP/

ENDED THE GLOBAL PEACE MARCH

15,000 PEOPLE ATTENDED CLOSING CEREMONY
OF "GLOBAL PEACE AND NON-VIOLENCE MARCH"

BUENOS AIRES (EFE) - The Global Peace March wrapped up in Punta de Vacas, Argentina on Saturday with hundreds of participants arriving to the foot of the Andean Mountains in the province of Mendoza. The Global Peace March set off with about 100 marchers from Wellington, New Zealand on October 2, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth and an international day of peace. The marchers trekked across six continents, covering almost 100 countries in 90 days. Along the course of the trip, they organized conferences and other events to draw attention to nuclear disarmament and stopping the world's armed conflicts. Katalin Harmos, the organizer of the Hungarian section, said that the humanist initiative had started in New Zealand in October last year and participants had covered six continents and their initiative is the first march to circle the earth which calls for "the end of war and nuclear weapons, and the elimination of violence of all kinds," she said. Last week in Chile, some 50,000 Chileans attended the World March for Peace Concert. The March has toured 90 countries and involves many singers, as Pedro Aznar, Cesar Isella, Victorio Menghi and Cristian Soloa of Argentina, Fernando Jimenez (Costa Rica); Dr Krapula band of Colombia; and Inti Illimani Historico, Lucybell, Chancho en Piedra, Florcita Motuda and Sol y Lluvia from Chile. Spokesperson for the Global Peace March Rafael de la Rubia said that the march's relevance was significant after U.S. President Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize. "This seems to be a result with a lot of relevance. Right at the time when, on the other side, there is a President (referring to U.S. President Barack Obama) who has a Nobel prize, who has decided to maintain the same philosophy as always: in order to want peace, we have to organize a war," he said.

Representatives of the five continents spoke in front of the crowd; the Spanish Rafael de la Rubia; Bhairavi Sagar from India; Giorgio Schultze from Italy; Gemma Suzara from the Philippines; Tony Robinson from the United Kingdom; Pía Figueroa and Tomás Hirsch from Chile and Sandra Love from Argentina. These figures connected with peace, philosophy and politics, gave their final message demanding the ending of wars, the dismantling of nuclear weapons and stopping all forms of violence (physical, economic, racial, religious, cultural, sexual and psychological). The march ended with a musical show in which several artists participated. Organizers said Mendoza is proud of the march because 40 years ago the Humanist Movement for Peace and Nonviolence was born in this province of Argentina, led by Mario Luis Rodriguez Cobo, better known as "Silo" who is the founder of Universalist Humanism and the inspirer of the Global March. Silo, a humanist leader, delivered a speech which was translated into seventeen languages, on nuclear disarmament and left a message of Peace, Strength and Joy. The event could be followed live via the Internet, through page www.parquepuntadevacas.org /live.html

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

This world is limited. When there are many claimants for one limited object, disputes amongst claimants are unavoidable. It is because of this that Indian saints differ from the leaders of the west or from the westernized leaders of our country in their manner of tackling the problem of peace. ... As long as people have the conviction that their only interest lies in material prosperity and sensuous enjoyment, discord cannot be avoided. So long as people do not understand that they are inseparably connected, and until the activities of the people are God-centered, mere sentimentalism or fictitious ideas will not be able to foster real love amongst individuals.

Śrīla Bhakti Dayita Madhava Mahārāja :
“Realistic Solution for Diverse Humanity”
Speech at a ‘Spiritual Summit Conference’ - 1968 Calcutta.
http://www.sreecgmath.org/scgmtimes/scgmsbdm.php

95 KILLED IN CAR SUICIDE ATTACK IN PAKISTAN

BLOODY START TO NEW YEAR SUICIDE ATTACK
AT VOLLEYBALL MATCH KILLS 95 IN PAKISTAN

ISLAMABAD (CNN) - New Year began on a bloody note in Pakistan. A suicide car bomb exploded Friday in the middle of a group of men playing volleyball in northwest Pakistan, killing 95 and wounding more than 80, marking a bloody start to the new year. The deadly suicide blast took place in a remote northwestern village near the Pakistani town of Lakki Marwat. The bomber targeted a crowd of people watching a volleyball match in a congested neighborhood. The attack occurred at Shah Hasankhel village, where a large crowd was watching a volleyball game between two local teams when the bomber struck at 5.30 pm. The attack was the second this week in Pakistan to inflict major civilian casualties following Monday's suicide bombing in Karachi targeting a Shiite procession which left at least 40 people dead. The bomber drove his car onto the field and detonated the explosives. Over 20 nearby houses and several shops collapsed and several people were feared to be stilled buried in the debris, some of the casualties were residents around the volleyball court, police said, and at least eight houses in the neighborhood collapsed, and the blast was so powerful it could be felt from 11 miles (18 kilometers) away.

District police Chief Mohammed Ayub Khan told CNN that more than 600 pounds of explosives (300 kilograms) were used and that the village where the attack occurred was once considered a hub of Taliban insurgents. However, he says, locals with the help of authorities set up a militia force and killed or expelled the militants from their area. The police officer says Friday's bombing is a possible reaction to the anti-militancy efforts. "These insurgents, they were not very happy about it and they were cut off because the people had risen against them. So this was one way of taking revenge from these people," he said. Authorities say scores of others were wounding and children are among the victims. Friday's attack is the third major militant activity in the country within a week leaving more than 120 people dead.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

According to Gita, the cause of anger is obstruction to fulfillment of one's desire. A real devotee cannot have any desire of his own except service of Sri Krishna. So, in a pure devotee, there cannot be any possibility of the origination of such anger due to hindrance to worldly desires. ... A bonafide-surrendered soul has got no worries as he has got firm belief - Sri Krishna will protect and sustain him under all circumstance. The world is the Prison-House for the punishment of culprits who are averse to Sri Krishna. We cannot get permanent peace in this Prison-House, it will always remain disturbed. This is not the place of our permanent stay. We lose nothing if any of our desires is not fulfilled. Love of Krishna will go with us, everything else will remain here.

Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Mahārāja :
“Life & Teachings”
Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math
http://www.sreecgmath.org

GOODBYE 2009, WELCOME 2010

CELEBRATIONS AROUND THE WORLD
GIVE HEARTY WELCOME TO NEW YEAR 2010

NEW YORK (CNN) - People around the world have celebrated the turn of the decade and welcomed in the year 2010. Spectacular fireworks displays were seen in cities including Auckland in New Zealand and Sydney, Australia. London and Paris and other European cities also enjoyed displays, while in Brazil, people watched fireworks from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Hundreds of thousands of people packed into New York's Times Square were showered with confetti at midnight. As the US celebrated, security was tight in New York's Times Square, with partygoers banned from taking rucksacks or large bags into the area. A massive fireworks display, attended by an estimated 1.5 million people, took place in Sydney, Australia. The Japanese capital, Tokyo, greeted the new year in traditional style, with bells rung in temples at midnight. Thousands of people in Beijing gathered in a shopping centre to mark the change of the Lunar New Year. And in Hong Kong, about half a million revellers crowded the harbour front to watch fireworks set off from the top of city skyscrapers. Some two million people crowded onto Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro to dance to DJs and music acts and watch fireworks sent up over the sea. In the Philippines, new year celebrations were marred as hundreds of people were injured by firecrackers and celebratory gunfire. Despite heavy snowfall, more than 120,000 Russians were on Red Square in Moscow to see fireworks. In Spain, which took over the rotating EU presidency at midnight, thousands of people who had gathered in the capital, Madrid, saw images of the EU flag light up the central Sol square. Others around the world chose to mark the occasion by attending churches and temples to pray for the coming year. At the Vatican, the Pope came to St Peter's Basilica to lead a year-end service. In the French capital, Paris, the Eiffel Tower was illuminated by a pulsating, multi-colour display, described by city officials as "a giant Christmas tree with tinsel". London's spectacular firework display - which began on the final chimes of Big Ben - centred on the London Eye wheel on the banks of the River Thames. In Venice, revellers rang in 2010 with wet feet because of a high tide at midnight.

"The year that is ending has been difficult for everybody. No continent, no country, no sector has been spared," French President Sarkozy said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the start of the new decade won't herald immediate relief from the global economic ills. At midnight in Rio de Janeiro, about 2 million people gathered along the 2.5-mile Copacabana beach to watch a huge fireworks display and listen to dozens of music acts and DJs.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Our year begins with the appearance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Before He appears a number of His associates also appear, such as Advaita Acarya and Nityananda Prabhu. Mahaprabhu is not an incarnation, He is Krishna Himself. The difference is that He is tinged with magnanimity or audarya whereas Vrindavana Krishna is not. Lord Nityananda is the most merciful and Lord Caitanya is the most generous through His distribution of the Holy Name of Krishna. Anyone can join the sankirtan movement of Lord Caitanya, but it is not as generous in Krishna lila. Through our faith, sraddha, we get close to our guardians, not by knowledge. And the most important faith is faith in the words of guru. We are not of the group that tries to outdo our guru, to do one better than our guru. Sraddha and Saranagati (surrender) are all that are required to make advancement in Krishna consciousness.

Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasingha Mahārāja :
“Nityananda Trayodasi” (Govindaji Gardens, 2005)
http://www.devavision.org/gosai/audio.html

ANTIBIOTICS IN FARM ANIMALS: HIGH RISK, LITTLE GAIN

OVERSUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN FOOD ANIMALS CREATE
RISK IN HUMANS DUE TO DRUG-RESISTANT INFECTIONS

NEW YORK (ABC News) - Antibiotics keep animals healthy and make them grow faster, but they also create drug-resistant infections that can be deadly when spread to humans. In the United States, industrial farm animals are commonly given low doses of antibiotics and related drugs in their daily feed. Food animals - poultry, swine and cattle - are routinely fed antibiotics and related drugs for disease prevention and growth promotion. Recently, major increases in antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in human populations have led to public health concerns regarding antibiotic use for nontherapeutic purposes (i.e., not used to treat disease) in animals destined for food production. Bacteria are able to develop antibiotic resistance when exposed to low doses of drugs over long periods of time. To promote growth and weight gain, entire herds or flocks of farm animals are routinely fed antibiotics and related drugs at low levels in their feed or water - a practice that has been identified as a major contributor to antibiotic resistance. In addition, the crowded and often unhygienic conditions of many industrial farms facilitate transfer of bacteria and infection, increasing the need for antibiotic use in the hopes of preventing diseases that might arise from these conditions. Broiler chickens and laying hens are conventionally kept in crowded sheds or battery cages in conditions which contribute to the rapid spread of contagious diseases.

The overuse of antibiotics and related drugs in food animals is leading to increased risk of human illness and increased healthcare costs, with little to no agricultural economic benefit. Recent economic analysis of antibiotic use in poultry disputes the myth that using drugs nontherapeutically results in large economic gains. In fact, data show that improving management of farm animals (e.g., cleaning facilities more thoroughly and frequently) achieves the same benefits as nontherapeutic antibiotic use, which represents just an unnecessary human health risk.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Humans who misuse their free will have to lose their free will, at least for a time. Chapter sixteen of the Bhagavad-gita says that such human beings will have to take birth in lower species of life. Thus some souls in human dress later wear the dress of an animal and the degree of suffering or enjoyment they have in animal life is directly related to what they did in human life. Animals cannot create new karma because they are completely controlled by their nature. Similar to criminals being incarcerated by the state, souls wearing animal bodies serve out their karmic sentences until they are again eligible for a human form of life, where they will have another chance to act responsibly and progress toward liberation.

Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Tripurari Mahārāja :
“Animals and Karma” - Śrī Caitanya Sanga
Vol. VIII, No. 3 - Mar. 17, 2006.
http://www.swami.org/pages/sanga/

'BEST JOB' WINNER STUNG BY DANGEROUS JELLYFISH

MAN WITH WORLD'S 'BEST JOB' AS CARETAKER OF
TROPICAL ISLAND SURVIVES DEADLY JELLYFISH STING

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) - Ben Southall, the British winner of the Best Job in the World competition, has discovered that life in paradise can sometimes turn ugly, and rather painful. Just days away from the end of his six-month stint as "caretaker" of Hamilton Island in Queensland, Mr Southall was stung by a deadly Irukandji jellyfish. Ben Southall wrote in his online diary that he was lucky to have survived his brush with the extremely venomous Irukandji jellyfish. In his blog, which he keeps as part of his job, he describes the incident as "a little sting on the beach". But it was his progressive symptoms of fever, headache, lower back pain, chest tightness and high blood pressure that led doctors to diagnose the sting. "I thought I'd done particularly well at avoiding any contact with any of the dangerous critters that consider this part of the world their home," Mr Southall said.

"I've avoided being boxed by a kangaroo, nibbled by a shark and bitten by a spider or a snake - but then in my final few days on Hamilton Island I fell foul of a miniscule little creature known as an Irukandji," his blog continues. The jellyfish is virtually invisible to the naked eye and can be deadly - in 2002 two tourists died after being stung. It is so small it can pass through the nets that protect popular swimming spots in Queensland from larger jellyfish. But Mr Southall - who has fully recovered after a dose of antibiotics and rest - admitted that he had been inadequately dressed for the excursion. "I had a couple of injections which immediately took away the uncomfortable pain I was feeling." He has learned his lesson: Anyone entering the waters of the Great Barrier Reef is advised to wear a full protective swimming suit, advice that Mr Southall had ignored. Australia is well-known for its myriad deadly creatures, but the peanut-sized Irukandji remains rather mysterious. It is virtually impossible to see and is tiny enough to pass through nets. In 2002, two tourists were killed after being stung by these tiny australian creatures.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

A lack of interest in the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna is the conditioned soul's chief defect. The basis of all sin is ignorance, whose symptom is the rejection of Krishna. The seed of all sin, i.e., the tendency to sin, is present in the flaw of ignorance. From there, sinful activity is inevitable. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami compares this deficiency in the conditioned jivas to coming under the influence of a witch's spell: “For rejecting Krishna, the witch of illusion punishes the jiva, causing him to suffer the three kinds of misery - adhyatmika, adhibhautika, and adhidaivika. The unfortunate conditioned soul then becomes the slave of his desires and his frustrations, suffering their kicks and abuse. ... ” (Śrī Caitanya Caritāmrita Madhya 22.13-15).

Śrīla Bhakti Promode Puri Mahārāja :
“Art of Sadhana” - Ch XV: ‘Ignorance means Rejecting the Lord’
http://www.gosai.com/krishna-talk/disciples-mentality.html