Sunday, January 31, 2010

Scientifically speaking,

Near-Death Experiences Convince Doctor of Afterlife

By Laura Fitzpatrick for Time.com on 22 Jan 2010

Is there life after death? Theologians can debate all they want, but radiation oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Long says if you look at the scientific evidence, the answer is unequivocally yes. Drawing on a decade's worth of research on near-death experiences — work that includes cataloguing the stories of some 1,600 people who have gone through them — he makes the case for that controversial conclusion in a new book, Evidence of the Afterlife. Medicine, Long says, cannot account for the consistencies in the accounts reported by people all over the world. He talked to TIME about the nature of near-death experience, the intersection between religion and science and the Oprah effect.

Medically speaking, what is a near-death experience?

A near-death experience has two components. The person has to be near death, which means physically compromised so severely that permanent death would occur if they did not improve: they're unconscious, or often clinically dead, with an absence of heartbeat and breathing. The second component [is that] at the time they're having a close brush with death, they have an experience. [It is] generally lucid [and] highly organized.

How do you respond to skeptics who say there must be some biological or physiological basis for that kind of experience, which you say in the book is medically inexplicable?

There have been over 20 alternative, skeptical "explanations" for near-death experience. The reason is very clear: no one or several skeptical explanations make sense, even to the skeptics themselves. Or [else ]there wouldn't be so many.

You say there's less skepticism about near-death experiences than there used to be, as well as more awareness. Why is that?

Literally hundreds of scholarly articles have been written over the last 35 years about near-death experience. In addition to that, the media continues to present [evidence of] near-death experience. Hundreds of thousands of pages a month are read on our website, NDERF.org.

In the book you say that some critics argue that there's an "Oprah effect": that a lot of people who have had near-death experiences have heard about them elsewhere first. How do you account for that in your research?

We post to the website the near-death experience exactly as it was shared with us. Given the fact that every month 300,000 pages are read [by] over 40,000 unique visitors from all around the world, the chances of a copycat account from any media source not being picked up by any one of those people is exceedingly remote. Our quality-assurance check is the enormous visibility and the enormous number of visitors.

You say this research has affected you a lot on a personal level. How?

I'm a physician who fights cancer. In spite of our best efforts, not everybody is going to be cured. My absolute understanding that there is an afterlife for all of us — and a wonderful afterlife — helps me face cancer, this terribly frightening and threatening disease, with more courage than I've ever faced it with before. I can be a better physician for my patients.

You say we can draw on near-death experiences to reach conclusions about life after actual death. But is that comparing apples and oranges?

Scientifically speaking, interviewing people that have permanently died is challenging. Obviously, given that impossibility, we have to do the next best thing. If these people have no brain function, like you have in a cardiac arrest, I think that is the best, closest model we're going to have to study whether or not conscious experience can occur apart from the physical brain. The research shows the overwhelming answer is absolutely yes.

You raise the idea that your work could have profound implications for religion. But is whether there is life after death really a scientific question, or a theological one?


I think we have an interesting blend. [This research] directly addresses what religions have been telling us for millenniums to accept on faith: that there is an afterlife, that there is some order and purpose to this universe, that there's some reason and purpose for us being here in earthly life. We're finding verification, if you will, for what so many religions have been saying. It's an important step toward bringing science and religion together.

Is there any aspect of human experience that you don't think science can touch?

Oh, absolutely. What happens after permanent death — after we're no longer able to interview people — is an absolute. To that extent, the work I do may always require some element of faith. But by the time you look at [the] evidence, the amount of faith you need to have [to believe in] life after death is substantially reduced.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Kirtan

heno nitai bine bhai,
radha krishna paite nai.

drdha kori dharo nitaier pai.
Mahaprabhu was engaged in high deliberations and ecstatic moods with Svarupa Damodhara and Ramananda Ray, Nityananda was having kirtan everywhere.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

At the critical hour

GOVINDA
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Śrīpāda Śańkarācārya
who preached Māyāvāda philosophy stressing on the impersonal feature of the Absolute,---did also at last recommend that one must take the shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa without any hope of gain from debating society. Indirectly Śrīpād Śańkarācārya admitted that what he had preached in the flowery grammatical interpretations of the Vedānta-sūtra cannot help one seriously at the time of death. At the critical hour of death one must recite the name of Govinda as is the recommendation of all great transcendentalists.


Śukadeva Gosvāmī had long stated the same truth that at the end one must remember Nārāyaṇa and that is the essence of all spiritual activities. In pursuance of this eternal truth Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was heard by the emperor Parīkṣit, and it was recited by equally able recitor Śukadeva Gosvāmī. And both the speaker and the receiver of the messages of Bhāgavatam, were duly delivered by the same one medium.

This commentary by ACBSP can be read in the first english edition of Srimad Bhagavatam, printed in 1962.

As it was and should remain !

Sri Vrindavan Dham

Sri Vrindavan should be understood in terms of Madhurya (sweet and simple village life), not Aishwarya (awe and reverence). Ideas like Krishna Disney world, 100-foot Vishnu statues, Durga riding a lion, and other tactless compromises with materialism should be opposed at all costs by all sincere devotees. Any malls or commercial centers catering exclusively to materialistic attitudes should be kept on the outskirts of the town. Attempts at creating and developing green public spaces like Seva Kunj and Nidhivan, etc., the Parikrama Marg and cleaning the Yamuna and the Dham should be encouraged.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Inform all devotees

VAsu-dev Krishna is shown here absorbed in Yoga Nidra, just prior to his departure from this planet. His mission is now complete and a hunter will soon launch an arrow ending Krishna's manifest pastimes.One thing you may inform all devotees that Maya cannot touch a pure devotee: When you find a devotee is supposed in difficulty it is not the work of Maya but it is the work of the Lord by His Personal internal energy. The Pandava's tribulation in so many ways, Lord Ramacandra's departure to the forest, His wife the Goddess of Fortune's being kidnapped by Ravana, Lord Krishna's death being caused by the arrow of a hunter, Thakura Haridasa's being caned in 22 market or Lord Jesus Christ being crucified are all acts of the Lord personally. We cannot always understand the intricacies of such incidences. Sometimes they are enacted to bewilder persons who are demons.

We should only try to understand everything from the standard of devotional service. It is stated clearly in the B.G. that any one who is cent per cent engaged in the service of the Lord is transcendentally situated and the influence of Maya has no more any action on such body. The Lord and His pure devotees are always beyond the range of Maya's action. Even though they appear like action of Maya, we should understand their action of Yogamaya or the internal potency of the Lord.

Your ever well wisher
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

They would play Football

Sometimes Krishna and Balarama would play on Their flutes, sometimes They would throw ropes and stones devised for getting fruits from the trees, sometimes They would throw only stones, and sometimes, Their ankle bells tinkling, They would play football with fruits like bael and amalaki. Sometimes They would cover Themselves with blankets and imitate cows and bulls and fight with one another, roaring loudly, and sometimes They would imitate the voices of the animals. In this way They enjoyed sporting, exactly like two ordinary human children.

SB 10.11.40-41

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Jai Sri Krsna

Sri Madana Mohana Temple

Madana-Mohan Temple

Here is what was then the new Madana-Mohan Temple, built by Sri Nanda Kumar Bose of Bengal in the early nineteenth century, at the bottom of the hill, where the Deity of Madana-Mohan is now being worshiped. Worship was moved to this new temple because the Muslims contaminated the old temple. This temple contains the pratibhu-murtis of the original Deities. It is considered that there is no difference in potency between the original Deity and the pratibhu-murti.

Interior of the Madana Mohana temple, a watercolor by Seeta Ram, c.1814-15


Directions: This temple is just off the Vrindavana parikrama path, about a half kilometre from Kaliya Ghata. It is between the Krishna Balarama Mandir and Loi Bazaar. It has a large ancient red tower and is on a hill, so it really stands out. To get to this temple you have to climb up a good-sized stairway. Besides the stairway from the road in front of the temple, there is also a stairway that leads from the parikrama path to the back-side of this temple.