Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Natalia]

This probably could have gone in the current events forum, but I'm getting over a migraine, so bear with my slight insanity.

[Tiger Beer]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[Rteacher]

Resistance to integration in U.S. schools, and immigration issues bearing on education reflect similar sentiments in the west. (And in many cases there has apparently been a lowering of academic standards...)

The caste system is a corruption of the original Vedic division of society into four primary social orders (varnas) and four spiritual divisions (ashramas) based on one's nature and quality of work - not birthright. For a comparitive discussion of casteism and the varnashrama dharma check out this link:
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/casteism.htm

[flotsam]

Rteacher, what caste are you?

Please tell me you consider yourself a Brahman. Please.

[Rteacher]

OK: you consider yourself a Brahmana. Please...

At this stage of my life, I don't consider myself to be a qualified brahmana. I'm not following devotional regulative principles strictly enough, and I'm too worldly-minded and whimsical.

I did receive second (brahminical) initiation in 1975 from His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and received the powerful gayatri mantra which I was instructed to chant silently three times a day (ideally at dawn, noon and dusk...) on my "brahmana thread".

I no longer wear my brahmana thread (not having been associated with a Krishna temple in over ten years...) but I still chant gayatri at least once a day, eat no meat, fish or eggs, partake of no intoxication, and continue to chant my "16 rounds" (108 x 16 beads) of

HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

I will probably rejoin one of the Krishna temples in India in a few years, and I'll focus more seriously on spiritual progress before my time runs out this life.

A pure devotee of Krishna or Vishnu is actually transcendentally beyond a person who has only realized Brahman. In Bhagavad-gita (18:54) Krishna states:

brahma-bhutah prasannatma
na socati na kanksati
samah sarvesu bhutesu
mad-bhaktim labhate param

"The practitioner who has realized the Absolute Truth as the nondifferentiated impersonal Brahman does not lament over any material loss, neither does he desire any material gain. He is equipoised towards all objects of the material world, and these conditions make him fit to be promoted to the pure devotional service of Godhead."
http://www.bvml.org/ACBSP/isotugol.html

Higher than Brahman realization is realization of Paramatma (localized feature of Vishnu situated in the heart of every living being...) And higher than that is realization of Bhagavan (the original Supreme Personality who possesses all oppulences - strength, beauty, knowledge, wealth, fame and renunciation - to an unlimited degree...

[EFLtrainer]

[flotsam]

Outside of Vrindavan, to Indians, do you know what's funnier than a white guy from the States trying to lay claim to Brahman-ness?

This:






























































































































































.

[Rteacher]

You think you're so smarta, eh?

There's no shortage of ignorant (and/or envious) people anywhere, including in India (and even in Vrindavan...) Smarta brahmans, who are impersonalists in disciplic line from Shankarcharya, have a mundane conception and don't accept that low-born people can be elevated to brahminical status. Moreover, at the end of his life Shankarcarya condemned his own followers for not accepting Krishna (Govinda) as the Supreme Personality and called them fools (mudhas). Here are some verses directed related to acceptance of lower-class people as brahmanas.

"There is a difference between the smarta process and the gosvami process. According to the smarta process, one cannot be accepted as a brahmana unless he is born in a brahmana family. According to the gosvami process, the Hari-bhakti-vilasa and the Narada-pancaratra, anyone can be a brahmana if he is properly initiated by a bona fide spiritual master."
Caitanya-caritamrta, Madyam lila 23:10

"Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was previously a smarta-brahmana--that is, one who strictly follows the Vedic principles on the mundane platform. On the mundane platform one cannot believe that prasada is transcendental, that Govinda is the original form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or that a Vaisnava is a liberated person. These transcendental considerations are out of the ordinary Vedic scholar's jurisdiction. Most Vedic scholars are called Vedantists. These so-called followers of Vedanta philosophy consider the Absolute Truth to be impersonal. They also believe that a person born in a particular caste cannot change his caste until he dies and takes rebirth. The smarta-brahmanas also reject the fact that maha-prasada (food offered to the Deity) is transcendental and materially uncontaminated."
Caitanya-caritamrta, Madyam lila 12:18

There are two processes of Vedic understanding, Smarta-vicara and Gosvami-vicara. According to Smarta-vicara, unless a person born in a low-grade family takes another birth, he cannot be eligible to become a brahmana. But according to Gosvami-vicara, if he's properly initiated by a bona fide Vaisnava, then he becomes more than a brahmana. Svadyo 'pi sadyah. Immediately he becomes eligible to perform sacrifices. so the problem is that at the present moment we are not taking care... I mean that our Indian brahmanas, those who are spiritual leaders, they are not actually taking care of the fallen souls. But in the Bhagavad-gita it is sanctioned, it is said clearly: mam hi partha vyapasritya ye 'pi syuh papa-yonayah. Any person born of low-grade family, papa-yoni, striyo vaisyas tatha sudras te 'pi yanti param gatim... So it is the duty of the elevated person, brahmanas and Vaisnavas, to take charge of this business."
Srila Prabhupada Lecture on Nectar of Devotion, 11-06-72, Vrindaban

[Bulsajo]

Better he posts his crap here than in the Current Events forum...

[Rteacher]

You're next, "Bozo Bulsajo"...

[Bulsajo]

We're still waiting for you over in the CE forum to explain how it is that you have come out in favour of what you yourself call atrocities:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=57924&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[Rteacher]

OK - Maybe you're not a "Bozo Bulsajo", but I'm no bozo, either. I identified more with "Clarabelle":


(Is it just coincidence that the last guy who played "Clarabelle" passed away recently (May 17) the day after my birthday?...)
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/17/obit.clarabell.ap/index.html

[flotsam]

It's not so much a coincidence as it is a missed opportunity.

[Bulsajo]

So, my old nemesis "R", I see you have uncovered my achilles heel; please stop with the clowns, they're creeping me out!

[Rteacher]

I can't help myself - now I smell blood...!!!



I sincerely hope that I haven't gone too far here - pushing you over the edge or anything ... (Btw, chanting Hare Krishna drives away ghosts and evil clown-spirits, etc...)