27 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!!!

• 20 nitai-gauranga dasa // Mar 14, 2009 at 11:30 pm

  Dear author of this article,

  this may be a little late in the game, and i am not sure who will read this. my name is nitai-gauranga dasa and i currently live in san francisco. i just read this article for the first time. it seems like there is some debate over whether or not this is offensive or not, and considering how to walk the line between being offensive and being bold in the name of making commentary that seems needed in the vaishnava society. i, personally, am all for humor, but like all people, i have a line, and this article certainly stepped over it. and so i feel myself on that line… be mindful of the dangers of vaishnava aparadha or be bold and say something that you feel is compelling, perhaps necessary.
  Dear author, i will follow your lead. i will throw my trepidation to the wayside and be bold despite my fear of committing an offense to you, a supposed vaishnava. oh, i am telling myself no, but at the same time, i just can’t stop myself.
  Dear author, Fuck You.
  Yours in utmost sincerity,
  Nitai-Gauranga dasa
  ngdasa@gmail.com

• 21 thehing // Mar 15, 2009 at 2:02 am

  My my, do you chant your rounds with that mouth?

  Hope you get tons of spam from publishing your email address online.

  Hugs & Kisses,

  The Hing (RIP).

• 22 nitai-gauranga dasa // Mar 15, 2009 at 2:26 pm

  Dear Mr. The Hing,

  Why do i bother? i cant be sure. somehow i feel this thing in me, its pushing me, i cant seem to stop it? what to do?
  perhaps i feel let down. i remember when the hing first came out and i remember thinking that a few of the articles were so spot on. i held a certain admiration for you. i revere humor, and wow, you were funny. in all seriousness, the hing put a smile on my face on a few otherwise gray days.
  but at one point, i quit.
  it was really your jabs at Satsvarupa Maharaja, whom, let it be known, gave me initiation, and despite the apparent mistakes the he has made still occupies a very special place in my heart. i would go so far to say that i love this man. and as i was in “the mix” of his most recent investigation, the reference to retired sannyasa jumped out at me. i knew what you meant immediately.
  but what bothers me? why am i typing this right now. i have a paper due in two days that i should tend to. why?
  i think i figured it out last night. although your humor seemed quite similar to mine at one point, i had to come to terms with the fact that you represent something, whether you know it or not, and perhaps you dont, that makes me quite sick.
  as far as i can see it, its not like you missed a point of gaudiya vaishnavism, or spirituality in general, you missed THE point. the point being that spirituality, and especially gaudiya vaishnavism is not a behavioral system (bg 9.30, amongst others). your actions in accordance with rules and regulations, your being aligned with an in-group, your scatter-brained mumbling of mantras (16 times around, to be exact) amount to next to nothing. (and by you, i mean all of us who care). and its not that behavior doesnt matter, for it surely does, but morality is not static, and you can not make an assumption about the inner life, the inner workings, etc., of a person based on his behavior. it is utterly superficial and indicative of overall dullness.
  what a low level of inquiry! how pathetic! considering the externals to be the measure of a man (or a woman).
  still, to think of it behaviorally, we can set up a little game. since you are so quick to criticize, we can work it like this. you versus the person who covertly attempt to tear down. over 40 years of devotional service, much of it undeniably sincere, perhaps much of it quirky, but, hey, we all have to be human too, and in terms of following the rules, the rules, the rules, you can count your major slip ups on one hand. i will see you in 40 years at the finish line, smiling, handing you your last place trophy.
  but comedy aside, i guess i just want you to know how much hope i had for you, and how much of a let down it was to find out that you are really one of them! you really walk hand in hand with them, those who have made being around ISKCON sickening at times, who consider the whole enterprise of the attainment of love of god to be understood through behaviorism, who assess others through their keen sense of finding fault, who want all to follow their path of mindless loyalism, so lifeless, so hollow and existentially thin.
  although i consider myself to be a member of ISKCON, i must admit that i have found this attitude much too much (and ironically, one of the few that i found that was truly not afraid of their own freedom of thought was SDG, although there are others for sure). and it is all there, spelled out in your article, covered with with a thin, almost transparent veil of humor.
  in the end, i can say that i am glad that i spoke thus. it got something out of me that has not found voice in a long time. i havent felt this spiritual in quite some time. and in adding my email address, i was hoping not for spam, but to invite honest dialogue if you felt so inclined. although perhaps unconsciously i was hoping for fan mail and love letters from free spirits who rejoiced in my attempts to stab the devil, in his form of an oppressive moral-monger, in the throat. that devil whom i saw as being represented so openly by you.
  so feel free to write or feel free to make another one lined quip. either way i am breathing easier today.
  yours,
  nitai-gauranga dasa

• 23 jaganat // Mar 27, 2009 at 12:15 pm

  problem with you NGdas is that you fall in the same \offenses\ you despise so vehemently. Now, if offenses can be done as you do in almost all your paragraphs, you lose half of your arguments. The other half is who decides when, how and to whom it is allright to be offensive.

• 24 nitai-gauranga dasa // Mar 28, 2009 at 12:45 pm

  dear jaganat.
  sure, the f#@* thing was probably out of line. it was out of the ordinary for me. sorry if you found that offensive. i mean, you can kill someone or cut their tongue out for blaspheming a vaishnava, but i am much too nice for anything like that.
  the rest of it being offensive, hhmmm, i dont know. probably assumptive, certainly emotionally toned. i dont know. who decides what is offensive? there is no rule book, per se, and i think we are all left with the dilemma as to what to do when we feel slighted, or we feel that someone we know and love has been slighted. sometimes biting our tongues is the best. perhaps i should have. i dont know.
  but i looked at what i wrote, and yes, the first post is probably offensive. i am sorry. but then again, the article didnt seem like any small thing to me.
  the second post… i dont know. you stated that i was offensive in almost all of my paragraphs. well, that seems like an overstatement. which ones? how do you know they are offensive? id be curious to know how you figured such.
  so, “the problem with me”, i dont know. i dont think you know me enough to know the problem with me. it all feels dismissive. like you can call me “offensive” and therefore shut me up. and thats fine i guess. i dont know you and you dont know me. ill be out of your life soon enough. in the end, knowing SdG, and knowing his sincere desire to be left alone or forgiven for the mistake he made some 7 years ago is what really drove me. he is really one of the kindest and gentlest people i have ever encountered, and it is hard to see jabs being made at him. put in my position, would you act much differently? what would you do? its really not so easy, and to label it as “offensive” just seems not so much like an explanation, but more of an attempt to explain it away.
  to a greater or lesser degree, our spiritual lives are the deepest ways in which we make meaning of this world. we should be invested, deeply invested, and being invested opens us up to being hurt. that pain is hard to deal with and how we deal with it is extremely important. perhaps i was a little loud mouthed, and if i offended your sensibilities, i am sorry. i hope you can see some glimmer of sincerity in what i wrote and kindly forgive me.
  yours,
  ngd

• 25 jaganat // Mar 28, 2009 at 2:26 pm

  It is true. We do not know each other. But all of us are so similar in our psychology that probably we can get some help and counsel even from well wisher strangers.

  I understand your reaction all the way up to the “f” word. But that does not mean it is mature. To me SdG is a devotee not my spiritual master. And you cannot pretend make others feel like you feel.

  If you think he is a pure devotee (you have the right and I do not protest for that) you cannot expand your feelings to the rest of the world, specially when the pure devotion is apparently tinged with strong material inebrieties, such as reiterated sannyasi falldown.

  You can explain it through the eyes of your love but the fact remains and there is a reaction for that, even if it is only being ridicule by others. Sannyasi means respect and adoration of all the other ashrams and at the same time strong reactions for falldown should be accepted with humbleness. To me, SdG wasn´t exactly repentant, he did not disclose it but it was discovered and he should´nt be clinging to his sannyasa ashram as he did disobeying the GBC.

  All this said, it does not mean that SdG is bad, but his actions are being mocked by some sectors of society like in the present HING article. And finally to state the facts as I just did, does not mean “offensive”as some immature followers can interpret. It is just that they probably do not like it as does not fit their high expectations about a person.

  Just like a person who falls in love, refuses to see the defects of the partner, until some hard facts and reactions prove it otherwise. Then, who is at fault? The person who was blindly refusing to see the truth out of “love”. But that is just extended egotism.

  Me, My spiritual master, My life cannot be otherwise. They are perfect and when they are not am prepared to explain it in a 1000 ways except for the easy one. And I am prepared to slash anyone opposing my extended egotism conceptions. Because it is my life and I feel threatened.

  Real love, does not feel threatened cause it has nothing to “defend”. You can love a person and still see all his/her defects. That is more mature stage of love, and you will cause the faultfinders to retreat by your mature manifestation of the love you feel for your spiritual master.

• 26 nitai-gauranga dasa // Mar 28, 2009 at 6:28 pm

  dear jaganat.
  thank you for your honest and thought provoking response. i really appreciate it.
  the topic of SdG is a confusing one for me, and i would like to affirm my position that i am not coming from a place of seeing him as a “pure devotee” (although that is such an undefined term, and generally means anyone who is practicing, and i stress the term practicing, which means not perfected, pure devotional service in the vein of Sri Rupa’s anyabhilasita sunyam verse of BRS. It also tends to connote a maha bhagavata in some cases, and so when someone says “pure devotee” it requires some questioning as to what they mean.) I am really coming from a place of one person who has a relationship with another person, albeit a relationship of love and respect. Recently, a sort of non-friendly ex iskcon person asked me about my relationship with SdG and asked me if it was “spiritual”. i felt he was prying and that he wanted to somehow tell me that it was not. it felt like a silly question to me, and i replied that he has been a very important person to me over the past decade and that despite the fact that i have been let down, that i didnt always appreciate his actions or his responses to those actions, i still have a great deal of admiration for him. therefore, i try to support him in any way that i can. i am not sure if that is spiritual. it feels spiritual, but it is not like tad viddhi pranipatena or anything at this point.
  surely, i can understand how people can be upset. realistically it wasnt a small mistake, although i am not sure i would say that his devotion is tinged with “strong material” desires. it seems to me to be pretty normal material desires. to get through this life with a desire to serve guru and krsna, without making a mistake in terms of rules and regulations is extremely, extremely rare. most likely even those who we might think of as pristine pure have a skeleton or two in their closet.
  but either way, yes, a mistake for sure. we both know this, and i know that SdG knows it, although i agree with you that he didn’t convey his regret in a flawless manner. i can say that i know that the whole ordeal pained him considerably, and it still does to this day.
  what it comes down to in my mind is what i said in my second post, that thinking behavior to be the measure of a person is flawed and short sighted. there are a lot of people in this world that behave wonderfully externally, but are jerks when it comes down to it and wont really inspire us to be better devotees. all i can really ask for is inspiration. i think if we can appreciate a person for their intentions and their desire to be a devotee, we will be open to take that inspiration and we will be better devotees for it. i can say from my own personal experience that i have had considerable trouble in regards to rules and regs, and in the end i find that i am the same person that i was when i was a strict brahmacari, a person who has mixed intentions, mixed desires, a nothing special, mediocre person who really wants to get things right, but tends to fall short of the mark. behaviorally speaking though, i probably would look like two very different people if you put the me of 2001 next to the me of 2009. something in me endures, and something in everyone endures, despite where life takes them, and i think it behooves us all to try to get a deeper understanding of others rather than judge them by externals.
  you may or may not agree with this, and that is fine. for now i just appreciate your openness with me, and so i thank you.
  yours in friendship.
  ngd

• 27 Scott Wetherell // Oct 31, 2009 at 1:50 am

  I logged onto the Hing tonight because I wanted to laugh. I read a few articles in the past and enjoyed them. Tonight I dug a little deeper into the website to find something I hadn’t read before. It really stung to read this article. I had a lot of respect for the harmless, funny, witty approach that the website carried in general. I even thought it had a significant measure of value in what it provided, I pointed people towards a few of the articles, etc. This one crossed a line and I am simply disappointed that you couldn’t be a little more pensive regarding how specific attacks like this make many people feel. The website still has value in the laughs it provokes, but this one is offensive to me and my family and my friends. Couldn’t we all laugh at ourselves/institution together without gunning for specific attacks on personal disksa relationships? It was unnecessary, and it really bummed me out. Perhaps you have a personal relationship with someone who’s connected you in a significant way to Srila Prabhupada? I hope you do. It’s really not a laughing matter.

  Trying to remain your well-wisher, Mr. Eric, whoever you are…

  Scott Wetherell
  Boston, MA