NALBANDIAN DISQUALIFIED FOR KICK AT QUEEN'S

NALBANDIAN KICKED OUT OF QUEEN’S
CLUB FINAL FOR INJURING LINE JUDGE

http://www.dnaindia.com - Even as the ball left his racket, David Nalbandian knew it was going out. He had just played a running forehand at break point down and was evidently going to surrender the game. Marin Cilic's skilful service return had pinned him into the corner, and the Croatian was about to seize a crucial break in the second set. Everybody could see that. But what nobody could have foreseen was what happened next. Nalbandian's momentum had taken him to the very edge of the court. Out of the corner of his eye he would have spied a plywood advertising hoarding maybe four feet across - blue, with the Nike tick. What he failed to spot was the modest figure of line judge Andrew McDougall, sitting in a small chair behind it. 
In an instant, the frustration and rage inside Nalbandian at losing such a crucial game exploded from him. He aimed a huge kick at the hoarding.  The speed at which Nalbandian was travelling - close to full pelt - would have turned his tennis shoe into a blunt and brutal weapon. It was a shot Carlos Tevez would have been proud of.

"Sometimes you get angry," he said later. "Sometimes you cannot control those moments. Maybe you throw a racket or maybe you scream or maybe you do something like that. So many things happen." This is what happened: the hoarding smashed into pieces, clattering into the left shin of McDougall, a balding 54-year-old gentleman in sunglasses, who recoiled instantly in pain. As the crowd gasped, Nalbandian appeared slowly to grasp the gravity of what he had just done. Officials rushed to McDougall's aid. He pulled up the left leg of his cream trousers, smeared red like a jam scone. Blood was seeping from a one-inch gash. As a result of his crazy action, Nalbandian was disqualified. The spectators at Queen's, some of whom had paid over pounds 100 for their Sunday ticket, will certainly not forgive him. Many of them had missed Nalbandian's fleeting moment of madness, and as the match was terminated, boos rang out from all four sides of the court. 
Cilic was awarded the title by default and Nalbandian was fined the maximum $12,560 and placed under police investigation.

Argentine tennis player David Nalbandian might find himself more than £40,000 out of pocket after he was disqualified from the Queen’s Club Final. The match was two sets old when Nalbandian, after missing a shot, lashed out in frustration and kicked an advertising board in front of line judge Andrew McDougal which left the official with a bloodied left shin. Nalbandian apologised for his actions, but was disqualified for unsporting behaviour. Anger arising from frustration of material desires is called "viroda-yukta-krodha".

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Krodha (anger) is the product of kāma (lust), which is the result of the mode of passion. When lust and hankering are unsatisfied, the element of krodha appears, which is the formidable enemy of the conditioned soul. This most sinful and inimical passion is represented as ahańkāra, or the false egocentric attitude of thinking oneself to be all in all. Such an egocentric attitude on the part of the conditioned soul, who is completely under the control of material nature, is described in Bhagavad-gītā as foolish. 
The egocentric attitude is a manifestation of the Rudra principle in the heart, wherein krodha (anger) is generated. This anger develops in the heart and is further manifested through various senses, like the eyes, hands and legs. When a man is angry he expresses such anger with red-hot eyes and sometimes makes a display of clenching his fists or kicking his legs.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam - Canto 3: "The Status Quo"   
Chapter 12: "Creation of the Kumāras and Others"
Verse 11 - Bhaktivedanta VedaBase

STRESS LEVELS UP SINCE 1983

STRESS LEVELS SOAR IN AMERICA
BY UP TO 30% IN 30 YEARS, STUDIO

www.nydailynews.com - Seem like everyone is stressed out these days? Now there’s some proof to back it up. Americans are more stressed today than three decades ago, the first-ever historical analysis of stress over time has found. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University analyzed data from 1983, 2006 and 2009, and found people's self-reported stress levels have increased 10-30% in the last three decades. Who had it the worst? Women, young people and low-income Americans were the most stressed, according to data published in this month's issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology. Men may be catching up, however. Men’s stress levels increased more over time than women’s, rising 25% since 1983 versus 18%. 
"It's clear that stress is still very much present in Americans' lives, putting them at greater risk of many diseases," said Sheldon Cohen, study co-author and professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon. The data was collected from phone or online surveys of 6,300 people. 

High stress has been linked to a range of health conditions including high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic. Evaluating stress levels in different demographics may help identify populations at greater risk for physical and psychological health problems, Cohen told CBS. Researchers found people with less education, low income levels and the unemployed experienced high levels of stress. The good news is, stress went down as people got older. "Thirty-year-olds have less stress than 20-year-olds, and 40-year-olds have less stress than 30-year-olds," Cohen told USA Today. 
The 2008 financial downturn had little impact on stress except in white, middle-aged men with college educations, whose stress levels spiked considerably after 2008, increasing more than twice as fast as any other category. "They had the most to lose in terms of the effects on the market," Cohen told the Pittsbourgh Post-Gazette. "When we thought about it, it made a lot of sense."

Stress levels have risen 18% in women and 24% in men over the past 30 years, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said.  Dr. David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University School of Medicine told USA Today it makes perfect sense stress levels would be higher today than 30 years ago. "Economic pressures are greater, and it's harder to turn off information, and it's harder to buffer ourselves from the world," he said. We must understand the purpose of this existence, otherwise we become frustrated trying to satisfy only materialistic illusions.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently published a report that brought to light the fact that depression is the fastest-growing illness in the world, representing a grave threat to humanity. Depression is a product of not knowing correct action or thought due to a false perception of our true identity. ... In today’s society, from a very young age we are brought up in an environment of competition. ... 
The purpose of life is to fully determine the appropriate niche service one has in this world; how you as a part fit into the complete whole. Just as there is no need to give to a mother a book of rules and regulations of how she should be with her baby, because in her heart her intuition tells her what is natural as her duty, in the same way we must seek out are natural function in this world and human society. Inevitably, we must share ourselves with the world, its environments and people by always looking for natural harmony as part of our spiritual growth.

Śrīla Bhakti Aloka Paramadvaiti Mahārāja :
“The Illness of the Century - Depression”
http://www.vedic-wisdom.org/ - http://vedicwisdom.weebly.com/
http://vwonline.blogspot.com.ar/2006/03/illness-of-century-depression.html

FATHER'S DAY 2012

CELEBRATING FATHER'S DAY
HONOURING FATHERHOOD

http://allafrica.com - Father's Day, celebrated June 17 of every year, is the day when fathers worldwide are honoured for their contribution to the upkeep of the nuclear family, and to honour fathers who are single parents. It is a day when the relevance of fatherhood and paternal bond of the man, known as the pillar of the family, is well appreciated. "Father's Day is a primarily secular holiday inaugurated to complement Mother's Day in celebrating fatherhood and parenting by males, and to honour and commemorate fathers and forefathers. 
Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide, and typically involves gift-giving to fathers and family-oriented activities," states Wikipedia. Father's Day in the real sense is when the children and other family members extend their love and appreciation to the father for all that he had done to make the family a happy and united body. 
It could be done through organising a small party or get-together to honour the father; a picnic to the beach or other places, or in form of a gift that he would appreciate.

It could be just a simple greeting card that would say "I love you dad" or an article in honour of your dad to a newspaper. Thanks for the emergence of the telecoms industry, the various telephone companies and television houses also run programmes that special messages can be sent for the Father's Day celebration. The celebration does not limit its participation to the children alone; the mothers too are encouraged to send love wishes and show compassion for their husbands for being there to build the home with them. 
Mothers are known in developed countries to pamper their husbands during the Father's Day celebration. But the children usually play the major actors in the activities of the day, being the beneficiaries of a good father-mother relationship. 
In Nigeria, as in other countries, the complex nature of the evolving society has created a difficult scenario. Unlike the single-motherhood that usually is occasioned by divorce, separation or death, the single-fatherhood in most cases is as a result of the death of the other partner, the mother.

Father's Day is a commemorative date in which we honor the courage and effort of a man who leaves his mark on the lives of their children. A dad is above all, a man with heart, who knows to show the horizon with optimism and confidence. A dad, a real father, has a lot of mom, although he has an unshakable strength of a man. Dad is a safe haven for the child who cries and suffers ... a dad is one who can listen and encourage the children in losses of life. Today we must also honor our spiritual father, the Guru, and the father of all living entities, the Loving Supreme Lord.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

The Supreme Lord Śrī Krishna is the father of all living entities, who are placed in different high and low positions according to their desires or aspirations. Some of them, as particularly mentioned above, are specifically endowed with powers by the will of the Lord. A sane person must know for certain that a living being, however powerful he may be, is neither absolute nor independent. All living beings must accept the origin of their specific power ... The obedient son of the father never goes against the will of the father and therefore passes life very peacefully in concurrence with the head of the family, the father. 
Similarly, the Lord being the father, all living beings should fully and satisfactorily discharge the duty and will of the father, as faithful sons. This very mentality will at once bring peace and prosperity to human society.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam - Canto 2: “The Cosmic Manifestation”
Chapter 6: “Purusha-sukta Confirmed”
Verse 6 - Bhaktivedanta VedaBase

SCANDAL: FORCED ABORTION IN CHINA CALLS FOR REFORM

CHINA APOLOGISES TO PREGNANT WOMAN
FORCED TO HAVE ABORTION AT 7 MONTHS

www.dailymail.co.uk - Officials have apologised to a Chinese woman who was forced to have an abortion while seven months pregnant and have suspended three people responsible for the incident. The move came just days after shocking photographs emerged on the web showing the mother, Feng Jianmei, lying next to her blood-covered baby minutes after the procedure took place. Officials have apologised in a move to allay public anger over the case, which has triggered renewed criticism of China's widely hated one-child limit. 
Designed to control the country's exploding population, the policy has led to violent and forced abortions and sterilizations, as local authorities try to meet birth quotas set by Beijing. In this latest case, Feng, 23, told local media that she was forceably injected with a chemical to induce an abortion and her child was stillborn 36 hours later at a hospital in Shaanxi province. Local officials said they were investigating the incident, as Chinese law prohibits abortions beyond six months.

The grisly photographs, which were taken by Feng's sister, have shocked anti-abortion groups in China - and fury is spreading around the world. Because she already had a five-year-old daughter, said Feng, local birth-control authorities ordered her to pay a fine of £4,000. She didn't have the money, she said, so a team from the local family planning authority in Shannxi province came to collect her from her home and take her to hospital for the forced abortion. 
Recounting the horror, Feng said she told the family planning department she could not pay the fine because her mother-in-law needed money for cancer treatment. It was then the authorities began their action against her. She was placed under arrest. Feng was dragged out of her relative’s home, carried and shoved into a van that headed straight to a hospital on June 2. She was then beaten, blindfolded, thrown on a bed, and forced to sign a document. At the hospital she was restrained and given an injection that would be lethal to the foetus. None of her family was allowed to be present during the traumatic time, she said.

A pregnant woman who was dragged to a hospital by authorities and forced to have an abortion has enraged Chinese and sparked an online flurry of debate over whether it is time to end China’s draconian one-child family planning policy. Feng, who was in her seventh month of pregnancy, said she was forced to have an abortion because she could not pay the $6,300 fine for a second child. Pregnancy is not just the result of sex relationships, it is also the result of Divine Will. One cannot violate the Lord’s law, so they must suffer the consequences of this crime.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Abortion brings a very negative karma. The child in the womb is a soul, a living being destined for a human body. This is true from the moment of conception.  “The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.” (S.B.  3.31.1)  If one has sex, then one must take responsibility for raising any child that is produced - or at least see to it that the child is raised by someone. One cannot escape suffering by committing sins. … Legalizing abortion has not at all decreased the number of unwanted children in the world, or the number of mistreated children. In fact, easily available birth control and abortion has gone along with an increase in illegitimate and battered children.

VEDA - Vedas and Vedic Knowledge Online :
“Current Issues : Abortion.”
http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz
http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/bhaktiyoga/issues.htm#1

UN ARRIVE IN SYRIAN TOWN TO 'STENCH OF BODIES'

‘STENCH OF DEAD BODIES’
LINGERS IN DESERTED SYRIAN TOWN

www.abc.net.au/news - United Nations monitors reported a strong stench of dead bodies as they finally managed to enter the besieged Syrian town of Al-Heffah, allegedly the site of the country's latest massacre. After days of heavy fighting between government forces and opposition fighters, the observers say the town appears smouldering and nearly deserted. The UN monitors have been trying to enter the town after several days of fighting, but were forced to turn back on Tuesday when they were attacked by a crowd. They finally gained access to find buildings burnt down, shops abandoned and a body lying in the street. Smoke rose from destroyed buildings and burnt-out cars littered the roads. There were signs of a heavy bombardment.
 "Most government institutions, including the post office, were set on fire from inside," the UN Supervisory Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) said in a statement. "Archives were burnt, stores were looted and set on fire, residential homes appeared rummaged and the doors were open.

"A strong stench of dead bodies was in the air and there appeared to be pockets in the town where fighting is still ongoing." Only a handful of residents could be seen, and one man said 26,000 people had fled. Rebels pulled out of the town this week, saying the thousands of remaining citizens risked being killed in cold blood, a warning echoed by the United States. The eight-member UN team that visited the town reported that the ruling Baath party headquarters was shelled and appeared to have been the site of heavy fighting. "Remnant of heavy weapons and a range of calibre arms were found in the town," the UN statement said. "Cars, both civilian and security, were also set on fire and damaged." It said the number of casualties was still unclear. 
Violence has surged in recent weeks after rebels abandoned a ceasefire negotiated by international envoy Kofi Annan in his efforts to ease the conflict between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the movement fighting to end his family's four-decade rule.

The smell of dead bodies lingered as United Nations monitors entered the deserted Syrian town of Haffa, where they observed evidence of looting and burned buildings in what had been a farming community of Sunni Muslims. At the site of what would be the third massacre in three weeks, an unarmed UN team reported evidence of shelling and heavy fighting as members walked through a scene of torched cars, burned offices and stores, and looted homes. Committing violence is a heinous sin. It is everyone's duty to give up violence and cruelty actions against others.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Persons who are attached to sinful activities generally become envious and violent toward other living entities. ... Violence toward other living entities is the root of all sinful activities. Those who are fortunate enough to engage in Krsna's devotional service naturally do not possess a propensity for violence. ... Those activities that aim at benefiting others are favorable for devotional service, while those activities that aim at causing them violence are opposed to devotional service. ... There are three kinds of violence: violence toward human beings, violence toward animals, and violence toward demigods. Violence is born from hate. ... Cruelty toward men and women causes great disturbances in the world. When people practice cruelty toward one another, compassion leaves the world and irreligiousness in the form of cruelty become prominent. (Caitanya-siksamrta 2/5).

Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinoda Thākura :
“Śrī Bhaktivinoda Vānī Vaibhava” - Vol 2. “Abhidheya”
Chapter 73 - "Violence Toward the Living Entities"
Compiled by Śrīpad Sundarānanda Vidyāvinoda

ANONYMOUS HITS EURO 2012 SITE OVER DOG SLAUGHTER

STRAY DOGS OF KIEV ROUNDED UP AND
SLAUGHTERED TO TIDY UP FOR EURO 2012

http://news.cnet.com -  Anonymous accounts tweeted about an attack on a Euro 2012 Web site to protest mass killings of dogs ahead of the soccer championship in Ukraine. Online activists with Anonymous said they took out a site associated with the Euro 2012 games in Ukraine to protest the country's rounding up and slaughter of stray dogs in advance of the soccer championship that started there days ago. However, the site appeared to be back up as of midday Pacific Time. Distributed denial-of-service attacks that shut down Web sites are Anonymous' tool of choice in its ops, or operations. The activists have targeted a host of companies and governments over issues ranging from human rights to online privacy and civil rights. The Ukraine government has been criticized for conducting mass killings of dogs found in the streets in an attempt to clean up the city ahead of the soccer event, over the past year or more. Ukraine officials said they would stop the killings, but recent photos and video appear to show that the slaughter has not stopped.

Tens of thousand of dogs, including some wearing collars indicating they are pets, reportedly have been poisoned, shot or thrown into incinerators alive. Animal rights activists found animals were being shot, poisoned and hanged by “street cleaning” squads - with some even being taken to crematoriums and feared incinerated alive. The slaughter, which in the last year is believed to have resulted in the death of more than 12,000 animals in Kiev alone, is allegedly continuing despite government promises to end the barbaric practice and build animal shelters. Ukraine, which is co-hosting Euro 2012 with Poland, has spent £6.6 billion preparing for the tournament. The animal rights charity Peta, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, found the dog-killing programme was focused on the four cities hosting matches, with approximately 7,000  allegedly being killed in Donetsk alone. “The poison can take up to six hours to kill the animals so we believe some are very possibly being taken to crematoriums and burnt while not yet dead, said Tamara Tarnavska, of local charity SOS Animals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkv_L3uWgr4

Ukraine is cleaning up its cities for when it hosts the Euro 2012 football tournament, so that the country can look spick and span for visiting foreign football teams and supporters. This cleaning includes the burning of stray dogs - some of them not yet dead - in a mobile incinerator. This massive dog slaughters prompt online activists to target Web site for soccer championship. Lord Buddha, who is an empowered incarnation of the Supreme Lord - invested with the power of compassion - preached that we should not torture and kill innocent animals.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Buddha did not allow violence. He stopped all kinds of violence on human beings and animals. He showed compassion for animals. Vedavyasa also wrote about this in Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.11 and 14) "Those sinful persons who are ignorant of actual religious principles, yet consider themselves to be completely pious, without compunction commit violence against  innocent animals who are fully trusting in them. In their next lives, such sinful persons will be eaten by the same creatures they have killed in this world." 
The compassion  of Buddha is described in Srimad-Bhagavatam. He taught that we should not cause anxiety to any living entity. We should not create physical, mental or verbal distress to anyone. Those who do so receive the same treatment in the future ... This is the result of a  prominence of the mood of passion and ignorance.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thākura Prabhupāda :
"Srimad Bhagavat Tatparya" - Lecture 28.
(The Purport of Srimad Bhagavatam)
http://spiritualsbooks.blogspot.com.ar/2011/06/srimad-bhagavat-tatparya-purport-of.html

HUMANS PLAYED DOMINANT ROLE IN OCEAN WARMING

HUMAN FINGERPRINTS ON
OCEAN WARMING DETECTED

http://zeenews.india.com -  Most of the observed global ocean warming over the past 50 years is attributable to human activities, according to a new study. The study by a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and international collaborators revealed that the observed ocean warming over the last 50 years is consistent with climate models only if the models include the impacts of observed increases in greenhouse gas during the 20th century. Though the new research is not the first study to identify a human influence on observed ocean warming, it is the first to provide an in-depth examination of how observational and modeling uncertainties impact the conclusion that humans are primarily responsible. 
The group looked at the average temperature (or heat content) in the upper layers of the ocean. The observed global average ocean warming (from the surface to 700 meters) is approximately 0.025 degrees Celsius per decade, or slightly more than 1/10th of a degree Celsius over 50 years.

“We have taken a closer look at factors that influence these results,” said Peter Gleckler, an LLNL climate scientist and lead author of the new study. “The bottom line is that this study substantially strengthens the conclusion that most of the observed global ocean warming over the past 50 years is attributable to human activities,” he added. The sub-surface ocean warming is noticeably less than the observed Earth surface warming. “Although we performed a series of tests to account for the impact of various uncertainties, we found no evidence that simultaneous warming of the upper layers of all seven seas can be explained by natural climate variability alone. 
Humans have played a dominant role,” Gleckler added. In this study the team, including observational experts from the United States, Japan and Australia, examined the causes of ocean warming using improved observational estimates and the effects of the observed increase in greenhouse gases over the 20th century. The finding has recently published in the journal, Nature Climate Change.

Natural fluctuations alone do not explain warming in the upper layers of the planet's oceans, confirms a new computer modeling study. The ingredient necessary to fully account for rising water temperatures in the last 50 years? Humans' greenhouse gas emissions. "We're virtually certain that the oceans have warmed, and that warming is caused not by natural processes, but by rising greenhouse gases primarily," researchers say. The earth caters to everyone's needs, but today we suffer because of our greed for the enjoyment of our senses and for wealth.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

We can save the earth from further deterioration only when we can understand the root cause of the present environmental disaster. ... Recently, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. The Humane Society of the United States has taken up the issue as well, running ads in environmental magazines that show a car key and a fork. 'Which one of these contributes more to global, warming?' the ads ask. They answer the question with 'It's not the one that starts a car,' and goes on to cite the UN report. 
It is high time to eliminate the four major sins and our unlimited greed to strive for the real aim of gaining transcendental loving devotional service to God in His spiritual abode. God created the earth and God alone can save the earth.

Śrīla Bhakti Swarup Tirtha Mahārāja :
“Only God Can Save This Earth”
Discourse at Maryland University, USA
Gaudiya Vaishnava Association
http://www.gva.in/index.php

WOMAN ARRESTED FOR $2.1 MILLION TAX REFUND SCAM

THIS WOMAN WAS CHARGED WITH ONE
OF OREGON'S BIGGEST TAX FRAUDS EVER

Business Insider -  An Oregon woman is on the hook for what Internal Revenue Service investigators are calling one of the largest cases of tax fraud in the state's history.  Krystle Marie Reyes, of Salem, Ore. allegedly weaseled more than $2 million from the state by filing a false return using automated TurboTax software, according to a police report obtained by Oregon Live. Reyes, 25, reported $3 million in wages and claimed $2.1 million in refunds, which worked its way through TurboTax's system and was approved by the state. Soon enough, a Visa debit card loaded with the refund was in her hands. 
What's bizarre about the situation is how Reyes was caught. She reported another debit card as lost or stolen to the issuer, which apparently saw enough red flags to get the state's revenue service on the case. The police affidavit doesn't offer say how much cash was loaded on the second card or whether it was obtained by a fraudulent tax return as well.

When Reyes was taken into custody June 6, she had allegedly spent about $150,000 over a two-month period, including $2,000 on a Dodge Caravan and more than $800 in tires and wheels, according to police. It's not clear from the report where the rest of the cash went, though it says she spent tens of thousands of dollars per week. 
Her case underscores the debate over whether the IRS should issue refunds via debit cards.  On one hand, they're a boon to unbanked Americans who can't rely on direct deposits for speedy returns. But that also means fraudsters can get their hands on cash faster than authorities can catch them. 
Reyes was running around Salem for two months before authorities cottoned on - and that was only after she practically served herself up on a silver platter by reporting the card stolen. 
Oregon may have its own issues to sort out - the state reported $559 million in delinquent taxes in 2010 alone, according to Oregon Live - but tax fraud is running rampant nationwide.

In the USA, one Oregon woman almost got away with a bogus $2.1 million tax refund. Tax fraud and tax-related identity theft are on the rise. More than 640,000 taxpayers were affected by tax fraud last year, more than double the number of taxpayers affected the year before, according to statistics. The IRS often has to pay tax refunds twice: once to the identity thief, and a second time to the legitimate recipient. Due to a widespread cheating propensity, as well as due to a lack of proper understanding and foolishness, we always end up suffering in this material plane.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Śrī Hari is beyond the mundane plane. It is impossible to stay near Him with material body, mind and intelligence. But the enslaved jivas are covered by the designations of the gross and subtle bodies. So how is it possible for them to stay close to the Lord? ... Unless one is favored by a pure devotee, one cannot attain the platform of devotional service. Till the point one is away from Krishna-bhakti, one cannot even be relieved from the bondage of material existence. 
The darkness of ignorance is called kaitava, the way of cheating, which begins with religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and liberation. Among them, the foremost process of cheating is to desire to achieve liberation by merging into the Supreme, for this causes the permanent disappearance of loving service to Krishna.

Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Mahārāja :
“Mokshada Ekadasi, Dec 17, 2010, Kolkata”
Audio Series - Lectures - Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math
http://www.sreecgmath.org/scgmtimes/scgmtimes.php

CAN SPIRITUALITY AND BIG BUSINESS TANGO?

WHICH ROLE DOES SPIRITUALITY PLAY IN
HOW YOU RUN YOUR BUSINESS COMPANY?

www.huffingtonpost.com -  It is with great pride and excitement that I have once more accepted the invitation of LOHAS 2012 (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) to dialogue with some of the world's top business leaders attending their premiere gathering of thought leaders at their 2012 conference in Colorado this year - June 12-14th, Boulder, Colo. As a leadership and executive coach, privileged with influencing the influencers in business, the issue most on my mind is the necessity for imbedding spirituality back into our business infrastructures. In re-reading important data collected in 1999 by Ian I. Mitroff and Elizabeth A. Denton (A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America) and Dov Seidman's 2012, "The How Report," it is my strong feeling that old and new surveys reflect the same truth: Most human stress is linked to a loss of spiritual foundation in the workplace. Our modern-day plague is not a physical disease, it's an emotional one - unhappiness.

The greatest source of the problem is the lack of humanism in how business is conducted globally. Personally, I don't care how the story has been spun for generations - survival of the fittest, a company's only responsibility is to its profitability, no pain no gain. Bottom line: we do not leave our souls at home when we go to work. Here are the questions I posed: - Does spirituality play a role in how you run your company? - If yes, can you speak about the influence of spirituality in your business model? - If not, can you share your thinking about omitting spirituality? For example, Jay Coen Gilbert, Co-founder of B Lab, says "the social Gospel, engaged Buddhism, karma yoga, tikkun olam, the sufi mystics... all the world's wisdom spiritual traditions say the same thing: We are interconnected, we should treat others as we wish to be treated, and we must be the change we seek in the world".

The author of the article, Debbie Robins, M.A., defines spirituality as a deep sense of interconnectedness with the accompanying behaviors that honor that level of caring. Those behaviors would not include slamming down phones, repeatedly cancelling meetings, or blaming and shaming anyone in person, on the phone, in email, or by text, she explains. Generally, in the field of business, we are surrounded by people with selfish tendency - who act in the plane of explotation - thinking they can favour their interest at the cost of the rest.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Unless we cleanse the pollutions, the artificial impositions that are upon our mind we can’t understand our natural state of health. So the purpose of human life according to the great acharyas, according to the great scriptures is to clean the mind, to make it pure. ... Because think about it, is happiness something outside of yourself, is happiness something you can put in yourself? Real happiness is a state of consciousness. ... Every religious system every religious path that is actually authorized teaches how to clean your heart, how to purify your mind, how to see your true eternal self in the mirror of your consciousness. First thing is we have to stop throwing dirt in our mind by our activities. We should live according to ethical, moral principles. We should live in a spirit of service to others rather than exploitation of others.

Śrīla Radhanath Swami Mahārāja :
“Conquering The Greatest Enemy”
http://www.radhanathmaharaj.net/content/conquering-greatest-enemy-radhanath-swami
http://www.radhanath-swami.net/  -  http://radhanathswami.info

Announcement III

Dear Readers,
Please accept my humble dandabats.
As my daughter, Gopinath seva d.d., has been reported previously, on last April 21 I have suffered a traffic accident while driving my bike, as a result I have fractures in the leg, I had a very delicate surgery because there was danger of amputation and I'm still in bed. Doctors have put splints and screws into my lego and I can not walk or support myself on this leg for several months. I continue taking strong medicines.

I am away from my Deities, house, books, computer and affections. As I wish to continue writing these blogs even from the bed, BV Giri Swami Maharaja travelled to this city from Buenos Aires and he has lent me a netbook and thanks to Sri Krishna during this weekend I got a temporary connection to the Internet. As long as this web connection is mantained I will try to continue to provide some service from where I am now living.

My spiritual master is always executing tremendous tasks on behalf of Krsna. My gurudevas and my god-brothers are full time preachers also on behalf of all Vaishnavas around the world. That is their occupational duty Their glorious actions inspire me to follow in this tiny effort to attempt to serve them by these blogs of news with a Vedic viewpoint, in English as well in Spanish.

In order to try to please my Gurudevas, the Vaishnavas and all of you, my dear readers, today I am resuming the task of daily posting news and I will attempt to do this service to the best of my ability.

So, thank you for your support by reading and commenting the posts.
I hope this post meets all you well.
Hare Krishna.

Trying to serve,
dasavatara das

Announcement II

Dear readers of News Vina. This message is for those who wanted more information about health of dasavatar das prabhu and his accident on 21 April

 Prabhu  Dasavatara das is still recovering but will miss a few months to walk normally due to accidents caused by young people who were on a motorcycle. These young people, after the accident fled the scene and committed the crime of "abandonment of person" so he was assisted by people who were in the street where the accident occurred

This experience reaffirms the purpose of this blog news: to remember that this material world is not a very comfortable place to live and that it at every turn there is a danger, so we must serve a higher purpose. It also serves to remind us that in this age of Kali Yuga most men lack of mercy and compassion for other human beings or helpless beings like animals.

To finish this announcement let's think about the wise words of Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev Goswami:

"We must be aware that the obstacles will come to attack us, but we must deal with them with humility and patience, because this life is not a life of comfort. "

The adminsitrator of the page does not have internet connection but as soon as he gets one, he will continue with its service.

Hare Krishna




Gopinath seva d.d. (Daughter of Dasavatara das)

ANOUNCEMENT

Dear readers of Vedic Views on World News , daily news publications were suspended because the administrator of the web page Dasavatara das prabhu, had an accident and is currently recovering from an operation, and he also doesn't have acces to the Internet. 

We apologize for the inconvenience and when prabhu gets better and when he has internet access and a computer he will be able to continue with its daily service.

My bows and at your service
Gopinath Seva d.d

FEELING FAT? MAYBE FACEBOOK IS TO BLAME

FACEBOOK MAY AMPLIFY EATING
DISORDERS AND POOR BODY IMAGE

www.csmonitor.com - Facebook may be promoting poor body image among its users, a new report says, with more than half of survey-takers admitting that they feel more conscious of their weight because of the social networking site, and only a quarter saying they are happy with their body. The report, which was based on an online survey of 600 Facebook users and was conducted by The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore, also found that 32 percent of users feel sad when comparing Facebook photos of themselves to those of their friends, that 37 percent feel they need to change specific parts of their body when comparing their photos to others’, and that 44 percent wish they had the same body or weight as a friend when looking at the photos.  Even doctors at the mental health institution were surprised by the intensity of the survey’s findings.

“We’ve known for a long time that people in our culture were dissatisfied with their body,” said Harry Brandt, director of The Center for Eating Disorders. “But the degree of dissatisfaction really surprises me.”  Dr. Brandt said that while body image problems are nothing new in our society, he and colleagues suspected that Faceook might be amplifying the obsession with thin. He said they were hearing Facebook-related concerns from many of their eating disorder patients, and decided to commission the research, which polled Facebook users ranging in age from 16 to 40, to find out whether these concerns also existed in the wider population. The results, he said, returned a clear “yes.” While the studies showed that females were more slightly likely than males to worry about and compare their bodies to their friends’, the differences were usually within 10 percentage points; Facebook, it seems, can make everyone insecure.

Facebook is being criticised for making users worry more about their body image and weight, which could ultimately lead to them suffering from eating disorders, according to a study.  “Facebook is making it easier for people to spend more time and energy criticizing their own bodies and wishing they looked like someone else,” Dr Harry Brandt said. Maintaining a good shape is a healthy thing, but comparing yourself with others and making yourself thinner and thinner is something dangerous.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

In the history of humanity there is a long standing debate on theism vs. atheism. Better thinkers than you or I have pondered this issue reaching different conclusions. From this it seems that there is sufficient logic in support of the spiritual reality, at least as much as there is in support of atheism. Beyond logic lies the realm of spiritual experience. ... And we can proceed to experience ourselves. If you like the experiences you get from your practice, continue the practice, as there is no other proven method by which one can get such experience. Furthermore, the method prescribed by the saints for attaining spiritual experience involves becoming an ideal person, whose actions (karma) are integrated with knowledge (jnana), making one fit for a balanced emotional life (bhakti).

Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Tripurari Mahārāja :
“Difficulties on the Path: In the Hands of God”
Śrī Caitanya Sanga - Vol. II, No. 38 - November 2, 2000
http://www.swami.org/pages/sanga/2000/2000_38.php
http://swami.org/  -  http://www.swami.org/index.html