Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Here is a link for an online version of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the Bhagavad-gita translation and commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.     http://vedabase.com/en/bg

Vedic Truth

According to the Vedas this material universe is a prison within the cosmic manifestation of God. Some of the charactaristics of this prison are as follows: There are miseries arising from 1) the process of birth; 2) death 3) old age; 4) disease; 5) other miseries caused by the material body and mind; 6) miseries caused by other living beings such as enemies, insects, snakes, etc.; 7) miseries caused by material nature such as heat, cold, wind, drought, etc. People are anxious to solve the world's problems but the above 7 problems will always be present in the material world whether for a homeless person or a billionaire or anybody in between. There is, however, another nature, a trancendental nature, free from misery and indestructable. We are in prison because we don't have pure love for God but rather we have some envy of him. If we rectify our attitude so that God is pleased with us then we can live peacefully in this life and eventually be transferred to the eternal nature of which this material nature is a reflection.

Pot

In my humble opinion, the pot (or alchohol or any other intoxicating drug) habit is a liability in a persons life. If you don't need pot then you are relatively more free. Instead of dealing with ones mind through pot, I recommend meditation. We discussed above about mantra meditation. Depression can be overcome by chanting. In fact the meaning of mantra, in the ancient sanskrit language is to deliver or free the mind. According to ancient tradition some people chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra  a minimum number of times a day. You can start with 108 times a day or 1 "round"  called as such because there are 108 beads not including the one large end bead on a strand of traditional chanting beads. If you don't have beads you can count in some other way for starters. Here's something cool  to check out:  http://www.krsnabook.com/george/

Vegetarian Diet

I am a vegetarian since 36 years. I eat dairy products from cows (no eggs).  Reasons for not eating meat could make a long article or even a long book. in fact there are many books on this subject. My idea for this blog, at least for now, is to  avoid long winded posts that may be tedious for the reader. I'll just make one point here. Eating the flesh of a dead animal does not seem desirable to me. That's my opinion. Here's a link for the online version of The Higher Taste- a book on vegetarianism. It's small but filled with useful information including some nice recipes.     ------------------------------ http://harekrishna.com/col/books/VEG/ht/                                     

The Hare Krishna Maha Mantra

The chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is potent meditation. Please click on this link : http://www.harekrishnatemple.com/chapter7.html