Vaiṣṇava Academy (Opposite Goshala) 3rd Floor, South Classroom (on the Left) February 18th and 19th (lecture) and 20th (workshop) From 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Presenters: Dāmodara Dāsa (BVKS) and Kṛṣṇa-kīrti Dāsa (BVKS)
Author: Krishna-kirti Dasa
Can society be moral without Varnasrama-dharma?
Over at American Greatness is this piece on recent revelations of child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church (bolding added): Even in a faith founded upon the notion that there is no such thing as an unforgivable sin, should the penitent be sincere, what has been occurring in the church over the past 70 years…
Rarely checking for errors not the same as never checking for errors.
Regarding the editing of Srila Prabhupada’s books, Srila Prabhuapda rarely checking his own books for errors during his life time is not the same as never checking them–not even close. Let’s say that a book has an average of one error every ten pages. That means that if you open up the book to any…
Pre-test of Survey for SB 4.25.41 comprehension
There is a pre-test of a survey on a statement of Srila Prabhupada’s from his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.25.41 that is currently in progress. The pre-test is accessible here. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CMXJ2ZQ You are encouraged to take the test and provide feedback, which will be used to improve the survey. The ongoing results are available here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-M8QDR6GWL/…
Most scientific studies are wrong
This recent bit of news shows why pratyakṣa (direct sense perception) and anumāna (inference) as pramāṇas are imperfect means of acquiring correct knowledge. Washington (AFP) – A few years ago, two researchers took the 50 most-used ingredients in a cook book and studied how many had been linked with a cancer risk or benefit, based on a variety of studies…
Social Science Requires Theism
Social science must have a theistic basis because the big issues in society cannot be decided merely by measurable characteristics or by speculative morality. Start with imprecise numbers. We are told that there are currently 11 million illegal aliens in the U.S. Others say it’s closer to 20 to 25 million. The point is, nobody…
People’s Egos Get Bigger After Meditation and Yoga, Says Study (qz.com)
The science is settled. You don’t want to be a science-denier, do you? In the paper, published online by University of Southampton and due to be published in the journal Psychological Science, researchers note that Buddhism’s teachings that a meditation practice helps overcome the ego conflicts with U.S. psychologist William James’s argument that practicing any skill…
A Most Unlikely Sanskrit Enthusiast
Born in Manhattan in 1902 to a pharmacist and a housewife, Berg played baseball at Barringer High School in Newark, NJ. He graduated from Princeton with a degree in classical and romance languages and became notorious for practicing Sanskrit from behind home plate. Michael Kaplan, “This baseball player was secretly trained as a government assassin”,…
Cheating in the Field of Psychology
One of the most famous experiments in the history of psychology turns out to have been faked. There is so much cheating in the field. Why do we put our trust in these “experts” and entrust our children to them? From Medium: It was late in the evening of August 16th, 1971, and twenty-two-year-old Douglas Korpi, a…
Psychotherapy is useless
It looks like psychotherapy doesn’t help people all that much. When it comes to America, we must notice, as I have often said, that far too much American therapy is of the touchy feely variety. Patients are induced to get in touch with their feelings and to feel their feelings. Beyond the fact that this…