Very recently, Mark Bittman – a NY Times food journalist and renowned chef & author, made a presentation connecting the downfall of our planet and people to meat-eating. What is especially notable about this is that he himself is a meat-eater.

If prominent meat-eaters are pushing vegetarianism, there is an cultural revolution and redefinition about to happen. And it’s about time.

Few days ago at work, sitting at my desk, I sparked an interesting discussion with a colleague of mine has been flirting with vegetarianism for quite some time. She and several of her family members are convinced about the merits of a vegetarian lifestyle but can’t yet take the leap. I wanted to know why and so I turned my swivel chair around and asked one question:

What are your greatest obstacles in moving to a vegetarian lifestyle and diet?

Her responses validated my initial thoughts on this:

1. Association – While several of her family members were also in the same boat, other family members never really encouraged them (rather discouraged them) to have more vegetarian meals
2. Knowledge – She grew up in meat-eating family. No one really knows any vegetarian cuisines so she had to spend too much time researching.
3. Culture – This is connected to the above. Vegetarianism is something new and unknown to her and her family. It’s a break from what they know, enjoy and are habituated to. Change is hard.

I have several insights on this. I shared some of these with her as well:

• Association is everything especially when we are in minority and especially during times of change. From association, comes the encouragement and enthusiasm to push through the initial resistance to a new set of habits and culture. Food is such an elemental aspect of our lives. Changing our food habits can be one of the toughest things we have to do. Social support is essential to make this transition smoothly as possible and minimize fall downs.
• If you have to research it, the common person won’t do it. It needs to be simple and straight-forward. I told my colleague that this made sense. My wife has been vegetarian for life and mainly because it was simple and easy for her. It was simple and easy because she was trained from childhood to cook this way. The fact that you have to research is already an impediment because it takes lots of time and energy. And in the beginning, you won’t get it right. Therefore, training is essential.
• It has to taste goooooood. Many  Westerners don’t go for vegetarian lifestyle because when they think vegetarian they think boiled vegetables (probably lot of propaganda from meat industry).

If you think about it, these are some of the essentials for making spiritual progress especially in the beginning stages. It’s really about cultural revolution and evolution.

Prince Fielder is on an all-sunflower seed diet

By ‘Duk

Well, not quite. But the Brewers’ hefty slugger showed up to camp on Wednesday and dropped the mother of bombshells for someone of his considerable size: He is now a vegetarian. After learning the dirty truth about how cows are cut up, he now eats no meat and no fish but he does consume plenty of ketchup-drowned Boca Burgers.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

It wasn’t always this way. Fielder used to enjoy a stacked burger or a juicy steak as much as any carnivore, but a few weeks ago he received a book from his wife, Chanel, that changed his outlook on what he puts in his massive frame. The book described how certain animals are treated and slaughtered for food.

…

“After reading that, (meat) just didn’t sound good to me anymore,” Fielder said. “It grossed me out a little bit. It’s not a diet thing or anything like that. I don’t miss it at all.”

Over here at the BLS, I wish Fielder the best of luck with his new lifestyle, especially once he reports back to the knockwurst-laden burg of Milwaukee.

But I speak from experience when I say it’s not going to be easy. While a sophomore at the UW, I once tried to dabble in vegetarianism, but it only lasted all of about five or six hours. I blame Madison’s famous Plazaburgers for the death of my idealism.

Because how are you supposed to say no to an all-beef patty topped with a lot of secret sauce and grilled with just the right amount of love? If Prince bucks the odds and continues being all-veggie, all-the-time, I’d like him to tell me.

Yahoo! Sports

Though hundreds of billions of dollars are donated to various causes around the globe, there may be a surprising cause that trumps them all – cow protection. How is the plight of these simple, unassuming creatures greater than that of starving, disease-ridden children in Africa, victims of natural disasters or ravaged rain forests of South America? According to the great saints and books of knowledge of the Vaishnava tradition, cows embody the qualities and blessings needed to prevent the myriad of problems we face today. They are simple, innocent, eager to serve human-kind with their milk and most importantly, loved by the Supreme Lord Krishna. As such, if we abuse them, we abuse our own selves and our own destinies.

Ample evidence is now available on the ecological crisis caused mainly by agribusiness who exploit the animals and land to sell the global marketplace foodstuffs at a profit. The life-threatening, physiological problems of meat consumption are just as terrifying.

However according to the Vaishnava tradition, there is a deeper, more subtle effect of exploiting any living being and especially cows that manifests in the above mentioned external problems. Killing or neglecting this animal undermines the compassionate nature of humans. It cultivates qualities that lead to the degradation of our consciousness and character. A cascading, tragic impact on the welfare of all living beings is the end result.

With sincere and discerning attention to the wealth of insight found in this tradition, even the meekest of students can become an instrument of dramatic change in this world. Such is the promise of the great Vaishnavas.

I wish I could remember the last time I was wielded in the hands of a romantic, a connoisseur of writing, or a stubborn traditionalist. How beleaguered my existence has become? Bills, to-do lists, Post-its. Will my ink blot no other medium? The letter, the greeting card, the soft ‘I love you’ note.

Emails, e-cards, blogs. Blah! Where are Premavatar das’ meandering expositions jotted on cheap lined paper? How about the sweet strokes of that 16 year-old journaling her heartaches?

Oh age of Kali I have come into existence by the mercy of Vyasadeva and now I am being penned out. Humans are so anxious to become faceless masses. Computers and instant communication just means no patience to put pen to paper – to put thought to words. How I miss the eloquence of the great Rupa Goswami. Surely the perfection of my creation! An instrument in the hands of the great saint.

Mass produced but underused, I am now simply taunted by my potential. When again will I pen the flat earth with the hearts and minds of the great ones?

“Civic Ventures has opened nominations for the 2008 Purpose Prize. The Prize provides five $100,000 and ten $10,000 awards to U.S. residents over 60 who are creating innovation solutions to address society’s most pressing problems – domestically and abroad.

We’re looking for adults in the second half of life who are combining their creativity and experience to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges.”

I subscribe to this non-profit list serv where members post any grants, scholarships, jobs, volunteerships, etc. related to the non-profit world. Saw a interesting post where youth would be rewarded for creative social engineering.

On one level this is certainly empowering for those who wish to open pathways for the socially disenfranchised where only roadblocks exists. The poor, the minorities, the women, the diseased all have a social burden to carry in civilizations around the world. It is human nature and the soul’s nature to extend ourselves and our advantages to others less fortunate.

On another level I understood that this kind of encouragement is dangerous and all too pervasive in modern society. Many times in the form of altruistic activist movements. The danger lies not only in the potential harm that can be done in producing the wrong solution (see Third Reich and Communism), but the assumptions on which they are founded can cause tremendous spiritual damage – more specifically leading us to major identity crisis.

The assumptions that these modern altruistic endevours encourage are:

- Successful social and life is a product of human ingenuity

- We in modern society are qualified to institute social change

- There is no relationship between the spiritual and social

- There is no benchmark for social progress or lack thereof (i.e., there is no ideal social system)

- Social problems can be solved through patchwork and don’t require major transformation of value systems

These are just some thoughts rattling in my head on this subject for quite some time. I believe the Vedas or that body of knowledge and science manifested in Indo-Aryan civilization provides a completely alternative and time-tested means to understand social problems, the assumptions and qualifications required to implement a healthy social body and the values required of citizens to sustain it. Maybe sometime later I will get into that a bit more.

That being said, I don’t proclaim at all that there is no place for social change and entrepreneurship in Vedic culture. Every principle has to be applied to time, place and circumstance. However the underlying assumptions and ultimate purpose must be immutable and perfect and must always be at the forefront of social adjustments otherwise our solutions will only serve to agitate the problems or ‘engineer’ new ones.

Regarding Madhava Ghosh Prabhu’s post, just as Vaishanvas use everything material in service of the Absolute the materialist uses everything spiritual in the service of the material self.

This is the downward spiral of modern day religion. Actually modern standard of living and self-realization are becoming increasingly incompatible. So the every day Joe is just groping for any semblance of salvation as he loses himself deeper in the forest.

The biggest issue confronting today’s people is the transformation of values, something few ‘teachers’ are willing to touch. The same goes for the Environmental Movement where only a small sliver of its proponents see the need for substantive value reformation. This is the real spiritual vacuum of the day and the Gaudiya-Vaishnava lineage has the means to fill it.

Srila Prabhupada to Rupanuga:

“In your country the dog is protected, and the cow is killed. The dog is passing stool and urine in the street, he is considered the best friend of man, and the cow is all pure, stool, urine, and milk, but they are taken to the slaughter house and killed for food. What kind of civilization is this.”

Backwards.

In short, if Western civilization could profit more from the meat of dogs than cows, it would have done so. We are a society of selective compassion. Care and concern when it is convenient, when it doesn’t hurt our pockets, when it is self-serving.

The power of Krishna consciousness is that it bestows subadha or all auspiciousness. One of the forms of all auspiciousness is saintly qualities such as truthfulness, without desire, poetic, humility, tolerant, compassion.

Name any organization or society on the planet that is solely committed to cultivating these qualities in the hearts and minds of all people. Only Prabhupada’s society.

Without saintly qualities, there is no hope for us.

Ravindra-svarupa Prabhu once stated that the mind is the real environment that needs saving. Whatever is predominant in the mind manifests into words and deeds. If the mind is polluted, we will ultimately pollute our bodies and external environment. This is the situation we have today.

Solutions to our physical, external environmental crisis are certainly needed as they pose a serious threat to living beings on this planet. However, we can expect the same problems repeating themselves if we do not attack the heart of the issue here – the polluted mind and hearts of the planets human race.

The Krishna Consciousness movement and philosophy has most comprehensive solution to our internal and external environmental crisis. It offers a systematic and holistic approach called Vaishnava dharma in Sanskrit. It means that each individual is actually a Vaishnava or eternal servant of the Absolute Truth. This individual places godly qualities, harmonious coexistence and service to the Supreme on a pedestal. Actually, for the Vaishnava every activity, relationship and system (social, political, religious, economic, environmental) pivots on the essential characteristic of the Soul – service to the Supreme. If we keep service to the Supreme as our means and end, how to perfectly (and happily) relate with all the rest of existence becomes easily understood.

As such, to close the circle here, service to the Supreme Lord as the Supreme Lord intended is the medicine to scrub the pollution from the mind. How so? The Supreme Lord is so Supreme that he manifests in the heart of every living being as Paramatma and cleanses the heart and mind from within. He also directs us as to how to follow His instructions and guidance given in the Vedas. All solutions are given. Only faith and proper attitude are required.

Here are some thoughts that I meditated upon during my pilgrimage to Mayapur. I will elaborate on them over time as I research the modern and scriptural perspectives on this issue:

The apparent environmental crisis is a spiritual wake up call. It is a result of our excessive exploitation of the planet and its inhabitants to promote the well-being of a select species. This is born of greed and lust for wanting more than necessary for our sustenance. In a nutshell, consumerism is the driving force. Darwinism is the philosophical justification for our consumerist society. Without cultivating a higher consciousness, there can be no impetus to make necessary wholesale transformations in our activities and direction.

Whether or not you believe the planet itself is in peril, there is no doubt that our misuse and abuse of the planet is having a dramatically negative impact on the lives of its inhabitants.

The planet is arguably in the process of a major climatic shift to heal itself. This will result in a major readjustment of our lifestyle and standard of living.

Exploiting the planet, its resources and inhabitants will lead to greater troubles than even climatic and planetary changes. Namely the result will be increasing conflict and unrest in the within social body.

The spiritual solution will transform our lifestyles in a dramatically positive way but requires courage and determination to implement.

Mayapur Yatra 2007 is a record-breaker for Radhanath Maharaj yatras.  3600 registrants for the 12 day spiritual excursion. The logistics are immense however seasoned organizers from the Chowpatty community have ensured a smooth experience as possible for all. Of course occasional irritations like long lines for darshan and prasadam but all part of the austerity package. The austerity package consists of the various personal challenges a pilgrim experiences on his or her journey to and within a holy place. These austerities are actually personally positioned by the Lord so that the pilgrim develops humility and tolerance – two essential qualities required for spiritual advancement. And it works. It’s important not to make a pilgrimage into another vacation or tourist destination. Yatra is a spiritual activity with the expectation of spiritual benefit if performed properly.

 With the association of experienced, learned devotees and the direct guidance of the spiritual master, this Mayapur yatra is truly a transformational experience.