krishna1008: Bhakti Vijnana Swami "Another Retired Guru"?
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PADA: A report has come to PADA that some Russian devotees will report Bhakti Vijnana swami to the authorities in Russia, due to some of his comments. I don't know, but it looks like he is having a hard time sitting on the fence with the Ukraine issue affecting everyone over there.
Meanwhile, other reports are that various folks are criticizing the GBC for not taking a more proactive role in addressing the Ukraine situation. I have to say, it is hard to make a comment without offending one side or the other.
Meanwhile, Bhakti Vijnana swami (a close associate of Radhanath) has allegedly taken money meant to build a Krishna temple in Russia -- and donated it to build a Synagogue in Ukraine, among a number of other scandals. Which is why some folks in Russia are saying, good riddance! There is also a rumor their bank account has been frozen, I am not sure. Basically, this guy has a pile of problems following him.
Personally, I have no horse in the Ukraine race. I really don't care who is in charge of what. That being said, I am watching some Tik Toks from over there, and it does look like Russia is just getting very frustrated and so they are just indiscriminately bombing more and more civilians out of sheer spite, rage and anger.
They have a giant country with a giant army, and yet seem to be only taking a few insignificant villages and towns here and there, all that only after they pulverize the citizens of those town with constant 24 / 7 bombarding and making these towns into uninhabitable ghost towns, with a bunch of stinky dead corpses of people and animals here and there under the rubble.
They even bombed some cow farms, killing all the cows, but we would rather not show you the photos. Evidently cows are military targets, and they are -- if the goal is to create mass world starving. Then again, cow killers are not going to get a nice situation from Yamaraja either, what to speak of bombing cows as military targets. Very sinful behaviors.
Clearly there is an effort to disrupt the world's food supplies, which is why Russia is also being blamed for setting up mass starving by cutting off food distribution to millions of people, especially in Africa. Also very sinful by Vedic calculations.
No problem! We won! A pile of rubble filled with dead bodies? We liberated you! Nope, you made our village into a pile of bricks full of corpses, we cannot live here anymore. And we had to starve a few million unrelated people in Africa in order to win the pile of rubble!
Therefore, we should analyze everything by VEDIC standards, and it is very sinful to attack the unarmed civilians. Indeed the VEDAS say that attacking the civilians is part of the sinful behaviors of bogus leaders of KALI YUGA. Such attacks are not authorized by the higher authority, and those who commit such acts will have to suffer severe karma.
Followers of the VEDAS also do not advocate killing helpless and unarmed animals for the same reason. Rather the unarmed and helpless citizens are meant to be protected, not pulverized to death with constant bombing.
Another Tik Tok shows some guy in Russia interviewing people on the street, showing those people the resulting blown up houses and public buildings, blown up civilian vehicles, mass grave sites etc. where it is self-evident many civilians are dying. And the Russia folks pretty much said, "Right, we have to bomb the civilians in order to convince their government to quit. What is the problem? Why are we not bombing many more of them every day, day in and day out?"
OK so they know they are targeting residences of women, children, babies, pregnant ladies, old people, ladies strolling their babies in a stroller etc. But a lot of them think that is a good way to do things. There is no other good option except, blowing up buildings full of civilians, and it looks like much of the Russia public is on board with that technique.
OK and that is why many other people in other nations are calling this a war crime and a genocide. And some are also saying, this is the same thing as animal slaughterhouses. Correct. Some of the Russian citizens even said, "Why are we not killing many more thousands or even millions of them, just blow them all up with nukes." Well there you have it. Just nuke em all and let God sort it out!
OK so that really means, Russia already lost the war -- of public opinion -- by default. They are looking like genocidal aggressors, if not creators of a human slaughterhouse. Add to that mass starving of millions of people by blocking food distribution, and the world opinion will go against them no matter what they "win." You beat up and killed the civilians, and now you -- won?
Hee hee! And we kicked all the devotees out of ISKCON -- and we won! Won what?
In fact, we find more of the media folks saying -- Ukraine is a slaughterhouse of people. Which confirms the Vedas, the slaughter of animals leads to the slaughter of people. Of course, the wholesale slaughter of either animals or people is not authorized, it is sinful.
Thus! Most of the citizens of the world are never going to want to endorse a policy of mass blowing up of unarmed citizens, especially non-combatants and what to speak of babies and children. So the Russians lost their credibility a long time ago -- and the sanctions may or may not work -- but even if they get to hold some land for some time, it won't be worth all the other costs.
Russia will look bad in world opinion, and that will not change for decades or even centuries. In other words, they are making the name and reputation of Russia toxic, just like the GBC leaders did all they could to make the good name of ISKCON toxic. Same process.
At the same time, he is right, lots of devotees will go back to maya. Of course, are the servants of GBC's gurus in or out of maya is the next question. Some devotees suggest: Maybe this was all done to stop people from worshiping these fools, the biggest "zone" of the GBC? Who can say for sure?
And then there is another group of devotees who said, "Wow Ukraine war is the best thing that ever happened in recent times. Now everyone will have to get serious about unplugging from the world's biggest gas tank, i.e. Russia. We will now see re-doubled efforts to build solar, wind, wave power etc." Well maybe! But for sure, the climate is in trouble and reducing carbon emissions won't hurt.
Anyway, it is what it is. If anyone has any updates in these Ukraine / Russia leaders and their latest proclamations on the war, or other updates, let us know.
ys pd
angel108b@yahoo.com
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[PADA: Lots of denial. Like ISKCON? Wow, how many times devotees yelled and screamed at me "none of this would happen in Krishna's movement"! Yep. But it did happen, and is happening still.]
Valery Panyushkin - Russian journalist and writer.
“The destruction of the father”
My father is for the war. Amidst the sea of troubles that my country has unleashed on Ukraine and the whole world, including its own population, I have my own personal trouble: my father, my daddy, a frail old man at 82, is for the war.
He is a nice guy and I love him. He taught me how to ride a bike, row a boat, work a saw, wood chisel and grater. He is a great craftsman, spent his whole life making models for the theater and exhibition halls. My kids love him because he plays with them and fixes their broken toys. My child loved and touched my mother all her life for two years before she died of brain cancer.
And now he supports war and we barely talk. The only thing to ask him if he took his meds on time and that's it.
When mom died 10 years ago, my dad suffered so much that he locked himself in his room and would only go out of there to eat or if needed. Went out rarely, no more than twice a day. And in the room, he spent time alone with the TV.
I was a journalist, I worked at Rain TV, which is now closed, I spoke at Echo Moscow radio station, which is now also closed, I wrote for Novaya Gazeta, and it stopped coming out. I told my dad not to fill his head with this malicious nonsense that the official TV channels broadcast. But my dad would reply he didn't watch news or political shows and only played football or animal shows.
I think this was not true. Dad was sleeping rough, the tv in his room almost wouldn't turn off. I suppose that in addition to football match results and details of whale and penguin life, the TV day and night told him about the vicious nazi that came to power in Ukraine, about the insatiable NATO, increasingly closely surrounding its military bases Russia, for transnational companies buying all Russian oil at a cheap price, for the dollar that didn't allow the ruble to become a world currency, for the traitor journalists (I'm one of them) slandering President Putin and his policies aimed at making Russia a great country again - that's what it's all about.
A few months after my mom died, when the pain of losing her subsided, my dad started leaving the room, visiting us, inviting us to come and visit him, playing with the grandchildren and talking to me. We talked mainly about various domestic trifles, but from time to time propaganda clichés crept into dad's words: "the pressure of the West", "aggressive NATO", "foreign to Russian values", "fifth column"...
- Dad, because I am the fifth column!
- "What fifth column are you? You're just an idiot," my father cashed me, ignoring the fact that his son is a famous journalist and writer, the subject of his father's pride, and laughing at his attempt to transfer the rising tension into a joke.
It seemed to me that uttering these propaganda prints, my father was as if he was testing me - would I not agree and arrange my opposition views with reasonable conformism.
It seemed to me that uttering these propaganda prints, my father was as if he was testing me - would I not agree and arrange my opposition views with reasonable conformism.
I did not concur and my father recededed to pre-prepared positions - to a good grandpa who has no political views, and his attention was entirely consumed by repairing his younger grandson's broken stroller.
So we lived until February 24, 2022. And then the war started.
The first week we didn’t talk about her at all, like we hoped she would just stop, go away like a nightmare. Then I took on writing a book about refugees and, when I'd come home from my travels to meet them, I'd go to my father and tell him. Very carefully, only human stories, no political conclusions. For the people who lost their home, for the old woman who fled Mariupol in the body of a refrigerated truck, for the boy whose brother died in the war.
My father listened to me, sympathized with my heroes, but persistently responded with propaganda arguments: "yes, but haven't the Ukrainians been fighting this war in Donbass for eight years?" ", "yes, but has NATO not surrounded Russia with military bases? ", "yes, but would the West not imposing foreign values on us? ". That's how he was talking, and I kept narrating. I was hoping to touch him with human stories of misfortune, to dispel the darkness of propaganda he lived in.
And then what happened to the Butcha. I met a refugee from this town where over 400 civilians were massacred during Russian occupation, I recorded her story. But as soon as I began to recount this woman's words to my father, he jumped to his feet and started screaming. I have never been yelled at like that before, not once in my 52 years:
- How dare you! Where does your conscience come from to tell me such things! How can you even think that a Russian soldier is capable of killing children and women!
He was screaming and I was afraid that he would have a heart attack, fall and die right in front of me...
And then I remembered - so he understands everything.
A person who does not understand, who is trapped in lies, tends however, especially in conversation with loved ones, to begin asking questions, to inquire or be suspicious, to draw counterarguments. And my father screamed with utter desperation. So do people who understand the horrible reality but cannot accept it because accepting it is scarier than death.
We are aggressors, that's the reality. But if we are the aggressors, then what about an 82-year-old man who was raised and who himself raised his children with tales of the feat of the Second World War heroes going to their death to stop the aggressor? What does "go to your death to stop the aggressor" mean if the aggressor - that is us? It only means one thing - to commit suicide.
My dad would yell, shake, and push things around him because he knew everything. He understood, but he could not accept reality because accepting it implied either his immediate death, or the total destruction of his personality, of all his values, all his moral understanding.
I've been sitting and being silent. And I thought, “Lord, so he understands everything, Lord!” "I then got up, got dressed and left, leaving the old man in his solitude. Since then, we only talk on the phone and only talk about whether he took his medication on time.
I've already stopped thinking that the Russians supporting the war were poisoned by propaganda. Poisoned, of course, but that's not the point. For the most part, they get it all. But the problem lies elsewhere - that no one in Russia has ever come up with a single reasonable action to take after realizing the reality that we are the aggressors.
No action but suicide. The only thing that saves me from suicide is the task that I desperately set myself and which I am obliged to complete - to write a book about refugees, to tell urbi et orbi that where arrows are drawn on the military cards, where bombs fall, so m there are people too. "
Via Linor Goralik, ROAR
