19 responses so far ↓

• 1 Rati // May 2, 2008 at 10:03 am

  Hahahhahhaha!!!! Eric, how do you come up with this stuff?

• 2 jaganat // May 2, 2008 at 1:02 pm

  I foresee a great future for a much needed facility!!!
  Thank you BMHRS, you are here to stay.

• 3 Achyuta // May 2, 2008 at 5:46 pm

  Omg, that last line is funniest!

• 4 Dwija // May 2, 2008 at 5:53 pm

  I just noticed that it says “this is also powered by brocolli and tofu” at the bottom of the page. What a curious chap you are.

  All good stuff. There are so many funny things in this article but I think my favorite is “we keep our vows, so you don’t have to keep yours”. Pure genius.

• 5 Devak // May 3, 2008 at 9:19 am

  Dearest Manager…..Haribol!

  Even though I’m just mere semi-sannyasi I have some serious concerns about this new venture in retirement homes.

  I visited your establishment last weekend with my 600 chelas.

  First off the assistant manager didn’t recognise me with my dark glasses. Not a good sign.

  We toured the campus by autorickshaw. That was a nice touch for sure.

  All went well until I noticed that each and every bhajana kurtir contained one of those life-size plastic seated statues of our dear A. C. Bhaktivedanta. I counted seventy four statues! [Yeah, I know you bought them at a big discount.]

  My question is this. Who do you worship at your retirement home….us retired sanyasis or Srila Prahphupad? Is that fair?

  HH Devak…flying to Rishikesh immediately!

• 6 jayalila // May 3, 2008 at 12:12 pm

  i encourage you to read the ten offenses. especially the FIRST offense to the Holy Name.

  1. to blashpheme the devotees who’ve dedicated their lives to the propagation of the Holy Name of the lord

  i dont feel like this is innocent fun, this is taking a direct jab at SDG. youve made SEVERAL blogs entries taking jabs at him.

  why dont you focus on your sadhana, rather than others.

  ive stopped reading your blogs and the hing for quite some time. and this entry is the last one ill ever read.

  as long as you’re making offenses, eric, you’ll never get a taste.

  good luck.

• 7 jaganat // May 3, 2008 at 12:59 pm

  “Offense” is the favorite threat of the ignorant cheaters-cheated flock. Better to be a bit irreverent than to risk oneself to dissolve in the ignorance-bliss fools paradise.
  Take in consideration that these people base their devotional lives in such fears and want others to live likewise.
  I consider this articles educational in that they narrate tragicomic aspects of our movement through the light of humor. And that is a healthy way to prevent those things to happen again, through exposure.

• 8 Devak // May 3, 2008 at 11:33 pm

  Jaganat is correct. Devotees often use the word “offense” like the Pope uses the word “sin”. They use this word to scare people and keep them in line.

  I tell all of my chelas not to take themselves too seriously. After all, dear ones, we have a whole lifetime to improve and maybe even a few more. [Personally, I pray this is my last in human flesh form.]

  Laugh and the world laughs with you.

  All in good spirit.

  Devak….not drinking the Kool-Aid

• 9 exswami // May 4, 2008 at 8:45 pm

  You hit the spot. Nothing on any devotee related website has ever prompted me to such genuine laughter. A real catharsis. Thank you.

• 10 halava maharaj // May 9, 2008 at 5:37 pm

  Which Ex Swami are you?

• 11 Yashoda Devi dasi // May 11, 2008 at 1:13 am

  Pamho.
  All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga.
  All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

  I notice the motive of these texts are actually in a positive direction. Not offensive.

  We could mock ourselves also, not only sannyasis.

  Please continue writing, these is very talented writing. Please write also about brahmacaries, grihastas, ladies, children in our communities.

  And above all, please write about yourself in the same way. That is very, very advanced stage in one’s spiritual life. Honesty about ourselves.

  Your servant, YDd

• 12 Devak // May 11, 2008 at 10:24 pm

  Haribol!

  What can anyone say? I wonder if there is really any such person as an “exswami”.

  It may be just to what degree they are fallen. Are they fallen just a wee bit or are they buying lottery tickets and hanging out at Starbucks? God forbid an exswami is having s–. Yikes!.

  This coming week we are about to learn of that much reported riot in Chowpatty over who is most fallen. I did notice that my last taxi driver in Chowpatty was most fallen. (He claimed he used to be a swami. How can one be sure this is true?) He was hoping that a Bollywood director would cast him in his next movie as a ’swami’.

  I do understand that the Police Chief of Chowpatty did required that all convicted rioters wear swami saffron for a week just to see that it’s not easy to be a swami. No one respects them these days.

  Devak…..trying not to be just a fashion devotee.

  All glories to the devotees! (And to the guys that make that tangerine dye.)

• 13 Arjuna dasa // Jun 1, 2008 at 3:27 am

  Hare krsna. PAMHO. AGTSP.
  I would have to fully agree with Jayalila. the ten offenses is not some imagined list, bor of mental speculation, sense gratification and sinful activity. It is given to us if self-realized soul and the Lord Himself, so it would behoove you, if you call yourself a Vaisnava of any degree, to learn and observe the aparadhas, the detroyers of the devotee’s devotional creeper. And Jaganat and Devak, no matter how you spin and mentally speculate and compare devotees to meat-eating demons–”Devotees often use the word “offense” like the Pope uses the word “sin”. They use this word to scare people and keep them in line”–the Absolute Truth still stands. You should be offering devotees obeisances–vancha-kalpa-tarubhyas ca krpa-sindhubhya eva ca patitanam pavanebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah–instead of comparing them to non-devotee meat eating charlatans and atheists like the Catholic Pope.
  Devak you make light of the fact that “we have a whole lifetime to improve and maybe even a few more”…how sad and unfortunate, especially when your next birth may be that of a worm in stool…if that is your idea of irreverence and humor, then I pity you and those like you. And Eric, Jayalila is correct when he explains that your taste in chanting Krsna’s name and Krsna consciousness overall will not come to fruition with repeated offenses–yes I will say “offenses” because the predecessor acaryas and the Lord HIMSELF has said it. And i am curious as a Vaisnava why would you direct other Vaisnavasa to a link to the karmi site The Onion, full of prajalpa and gramya katha, which Srila Prabhupada forbade his followers to indulge in? A little mundane reading/news here and there is fine insomuch as it relates to the devotional service one may be executing. Have any of you read Sri upadesamrta lately? And this goes for temple AND outside devotees, bhaktas or initiated. And I know some of you will try to be clever and say I am being fundamentalist, orthodox, fanatical, etc. These are all code words words used by envious and hard-hearted so-called devotees and kali-chelas to chastise and discourage the serious and enthusiatic and sincere devotees from strictly following the teachings and instructions of Srila Prabhupada…the sour grapes theory…”if i can’t develop a taste for krsna consciousness and chanting harekrsna and rising at 4 am EVERYDAY for mangala arati then let me try to prevent other aspiring devotees from doing so also with scare tactics like calling them ignorant or comparing them to meat-eating demons, mental speculators and sense gratifiers when they take to task other non-serious so-called devotees on their offensive behavior and attitude or quote Srila Prabhupada in regards to proper Vaisnava etiquette and proper understanding of varnasama dharma and krsna consciousness.” It’s a verv slippery slope you are on Eric when you interact with Vaisnavas (if you are solely responsible for this endeavor you will have to absorb the sins and offenses commited by the members with their poisonous an devotional-creeper destroying comments directed at other Vaisnavas); and, Eric, you make a disclaimer about leaving comments about “ranting”. That’s the word non-devotees use to describe other non-devotees and their non-devotee submissions. You should learn to see the words of devotees not as “rants” but as an opportuntiy for association and an opportunityfor krsna katha instead of gramya katha. And lastly, I noticed there are no spoofs or comedy, as you and your minions here call it, directed specifically at Srila Prabhupada–his disciples and his teachings yes–so I see the true test that you really believe in this faux-Onion / Hare Krsna parodyand satire projet of yours is whether or not you will dare to offend Srila Prabhupada himself but manfacturing and concocting some joke or story in which you belittle His divine Grace, but since you have–as you can tell by some of the comments here–offended his followers, I would humbly conclude that you probably have aleady offended Srila Prabhupada, what to speak of the Lord Himself.
  Hare krsna,
  Arjuna dasa,
  disciple of HH Bhaktiswaruapa Damodara Swami

• 14 Arjuna dasa // Jun 1, 2008 at 3:59 am

  So Devak your “not drinking the Kool-Aid?”
  what’s this “Kool-Aid” you speak of ? I’m not a fool nor am I stupid and I know an insult when I read or hear one. Devak, you are just taking a thinly-veiled (with your so-called humor) stab at those Vaisnavas who do try to avoid commiting the 10 Offenses, who do take Srila Prabhupada instructions and the teachings of the predecessor acaryas of the Guru Parampara very seriously…do I detect a note of performance envy here? What, calling me and other sincere, enthusiastic and dedicated devotees Kool-Aid drinkers–a favorite insult traded by the karmis and demons by the way, as I am sure you know very well because it seems like you may have a little too much of one association(bad/karmi) and not enough of the other association (good/devotee)–is supposed to discourage us from strictly practicing the regulative principles of krsna consciousness? You had better come with something a little stronger. Better yet, just give up your enviousness of and anger at strictly practicing Vaisnavas and sadhakas (just because they CAN doesn’t mean you CANT; didn’t you, we all learn that in grade-school?) and chant 16 rounds , rise early for mangala arati, whether youre a temple OR outside devotee, bhakta or intitiated, perform devotional service, serve the devotees…dont DISserve them…This name-calling–”Kool-aid drinkers”, fanatics, fundamentalists, “like the Pope”–is juvenile, pre-juvenile, divisive, and in Reality, very offensive to the Lord, because as devotees we are all familiar with the mad elephant offense and what such an unfortunate result it has on the aspirant devotees devotional creeper. I am sure you thought you would never be called to task for that little slight that you made, calling devotees Kool-aid drinkers…but I caught it and I could care less what you say or do to me but please be careful in the future how you refer to my fellow Vaisnavas.
  Hare krsna
  Arjuna dasa,
  disciple of HH Bhaktiswarupa Damodara Swami

• 15 Arjuna dasa // Jun 1, 2008 at 4:38 am

  Devak, what exactly does “trying not to be just a fashion devotee.” Try as I might, i have yet to find such a statement in any of Srila Prabhupada’s books, lectures, conversations etc. In fact , Srila Prabhupada instructed exactly the opposite, that even a non-devotee who mocks the devotee’s chanting of the holy names receives spiritual benefit, that even a devotee who falls down on the path of devotional service is not lost and picks up where he left off….see, I think I actually know what YOU mean when you say that you are not “trying not to be just a fashion devotee” Its the same thing that envious karmis say in reference to another karmi who appears to be doing better than them in one area of fruitive activity or another but that envious karmi just doesn’t want to admit defeat or performing inferiorly so, instead they manufacture and concoct some weakness or failure on the part of the person they envy, just so that in their own mind they feel better about themselves because of course the person they envy is now in whatever it is he is in for all the wong reasons or is doing it just for show…now translate that into the world of devotees and devotional service and you have a much more serious situation…serious because whatever Vaisnava you are calling a “fashion devotee” is actually a devotee of the Lord and by your calling him a “fashion devotee”–an insult loaded with ulterior motive and hidden agenda as I have just showed–you are committing vaisnava aparadha, which is a very real thing unlike that old “sin” and that old “Pope” which is all illusory and maya…but see krsna consciousness and devotees in krsna consciousness are not illusory and not in maya, in fact they are both very dear to Lord Krsna…so, in the future I would hope that you could be any kind of devotee that you could possibly be just not an envious and offensive, name-calling (”fashion-devotees” “Kool-aid drinkers”) so-called devotee…just thought I would share with you my realizations and that I can detect an envious, disgruntled (”former”?) devotee when I hear one. Like I said earlier, instead of ending your comments with barbed and veiled insults at humble devotees I would recommend you end your comments in the Vaisnava Pranama signature…
  Hare krsna

  Arjuna dasa
  disciple of HH Bhaktiswarupa Damodara Swami

• 16 Devak // Jun 1, 2008 at 2:55 pm

  Dear Arjuna das:

  Haribol…!

  Nice to meet you on The Hing [a site devoted to happiness and not taking yourself too seriously].

  I see you were born in Peru and have been a sincere devotee of Lord Krisna for many years. In fact, all of your life.

  Every person on earth is trying to get back to Godhead…even if they are not aware that they seek God.

  Yes, even the so-called ‘fashion devotees’ seek Krsna in their own way. Each unto their unique understanding and desires. We’re all on a spiritual journey.

  Even A. C. Bhaktadevanta had a great sense of humor and could laugh at himself. He loved to tell jokes. I have read many of them. I like the one about the rats in the kitchen.

  I take all that relates to Krsna very seriously. When I go to the Temple I worship God in all of His many forms. But let me add that I also worship the devotees. I see God in you and all of the devotees. The devotees are an expression of Krsna Himself.

  Many blessings for you,

  Your servant,

  Devak

• 17 Appreciative Reader // Jun 3, 2008 at 10:06 pm

  Arjuna’s intrusive presence on this site is starting to become sorta toxic…..does anyone have a burlap bag and some duct tape?

• 18 Devak // Jun 3, 2008 at 10:37 pm

  All I know is that Krsna has a great sense of humor. Just look at any devotee. There he is with funny ears sticking out from his head and a nose smack dab in the middle of his somber face. It that funny or what? Even a devotee as sincere as I am, has ears and other strange parts for sure.

  I wear a dhoti and people at the market stare at me. They think I am funny but I don’t care. I worship Krsna and the devotees.

  And Arjuna das, here you are actually reading The Hing? Huh? What’s that all about? Don’t you know that this is a site devoted to the doings of the devotees?

  Devak…..pronounced day-vock

• 19 Anonymous das // Jun 29, 2008 at 4:01 pm

  What??? No golf course????

  I mean really!!!

Leave a Comment - If you have something to say, make sure it's topical and not just ranting. Rants will be deleted. Ok? Ok! Keep it clean and keep it fun. Play along or take it somewhere else.