Hare Krsna,
Please allow me to share a few things from my humble views.
śamo damas tapaḥ śaucaḿ
kṣāntir ārjavam eva ca
jñānaḿ vijñānam āstikyaḿ
brahma-karma svabhāva-jam
Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty,
knowledge, wisdom and religiousness — these are the natural
qualities by which the brāhmaṇas work.42
-Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 18.
(āstikyam — religiousness)
āstikyam — faith in the scriptures, the spiritual master and the Supreme Lord; SB 7.11.23
"So these things should be observed. Brāhmaṇa, a brāhmaṇa's duty is to present himself an ideal human being. Satyaṁ śamo damas titikṣā. Titikṣā means toleration. "Oh, it is very cold. No, I cannot take bath." No. You must tolerate. You must tolerate. Titikṣā. Ārjavam, simplicity; jñānam, full knowledge; vijñānam, practical application. Jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyam. Āstikyam means completely convinced of God and his relationship with God. That is called āstikyam. Or full faith in the statement of the Vedas. Whatever Veda says, that's right. Yes. No argument. That is called āstikyam. No argument."
-His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, Lecture on BG 2.32 -- London, September 2, 1973Middle English, from Anglo-French religius, from Latin religiosus, from religio. First Known Use: 13th century.In my humble opinion, sometimes the modern Western culture is about breaking every taboo and restraint, legitimizing even abusive or scandalous things, and hugely disrespecting life and the planet, as earlier post mentioned:
Definitions:
- obligation
- rite
- sanction
- sanctity
- supernatural constraint/taboo
- worship
Actually, the figure of Iraqi casualties related to the US invasion is closer to 1-2 million. The introduction of death squads, igniting a sectarian Sunni-Shia civil war, the use of incredible permanent toxins like depleted uranium are unconscionable, especially given that Iraq had no relationship with al Qaeda or the 9-11 attacks, and was a fabricated justification, later acknowledged by General Colin Powell.
To say this media figure, Mr. Hitchins had become a mouthpiece for a government military agenda (Both US and UK), which is now deemed to have been a colonialist business venture for oil... certainly does say something about the agenda of such a mouthpiece. It is the same US government which promotes fluoridation of water, a toxic by-product which calcifies the human pineal gland (believed by yogic schools to be the seat of spiritual consciousness). Recently a video surfaced which is a Pentagon briefing where a vaccine is being created which will destroy the centers of the brain discovered to be centers of religious thinking (The God Gene), or VMAT 2(vesicular monoamine transporter). Some call the video authentic, others fake. Personally, with the US government staging an anti-terrorist level war against raw milk with agents armed with machine guns against farmers... with the history of mind control experimentation, drugging, lobotomies, and even vaccine bioweapons like SV-40 cancer viruses and perhaps creation of polio epidemics... it's possible there is reality to this.
But the key is... why the warlike antagonism, against "religion" as if religion is something evil and not these governments? When in fact, even in the most egregious, colonialist crimes of the abrahamic religions... they marched lock step with the politicians/kings/government. And furthermore, a collusion between al Qaeda and the Pentagon can be established politically since the Reagan era.
So the worst criminals on the planet, even with "religious" justification, have acted for materialistic gain, to promote the power and wealth of a certain political elite. Now there seems to be developing technologies to destroy the religious thinking capacity of the brain, which includes water fluoridation. It certainly does nothing to prevent tooth decay but actually accelerates it. And it makes no logical sense for a government to dump toxic wastes into the water supply without... an agenda.
I rather respect the human body as it was designed, intact and whole, without putting "religious belief" in science or societies in Kali Yuga to warp and distort the design of the body to yoke itself with God. We understand from our great sages that the causes of criminality, sinfulness, evil-doing, are laid bare in Mahabharat as 3 gates leading to hell on earth: 1. Greed, 2. Lust 3. Anger. By learning the spiritual disciplines under a true guru, bowing the egotism down to a spiritual Master, one transforms the hellish consciousness."An American molecular geneticist has concluded after comparing more than 2,000 DNA samples that a person’s capacity to believe in God is linked to brain chemicals... The higher their score, the greater the person’s ability to believe in a greater spiritual force and, Mr. Hamer found, the more likely they were to share the gene VMAT2." -http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-111404-8087r/
I dare say, persons like Hitchins are dangerously wrong, in that they subvert the natural inclination to worship God, and begin to worship their own self-interest, or by extension, the interests of those who buy them off. This leads to a literal war on all religion, and in turn those religious principles, discipline and limits which, in proper context are designed to put an end to individuals who blindly follow a state. The state atheism of communists or Mr. Hitchins is downright diabolical.
And the reality is, religion is misused as a tool... for political and economic thefts which are achieved by mass murders (wars).
Trusting the atheistic paradigm that makes a god of science and
wages war on the humanity like rakshasas. (Pre-frontal lobotomy
performed on Howard Dully, 12 years old, because his step-mother
thought he was acting out, and the psychiatrist thought damaging
his frontal lobes would make him more compliant. circa 1960)
Pentagon Vaccine To Kill Religious Center of Brain
(Some have claimed this video was debunked because the brain scans are from a published medical journal in 2011 and the video is claimed to be from 2005. Others have pointed out the room number BC232 exists as a room located in the Pentagon (http://www.hqda.army.mil/aoguide/Pentagon_Map.htm). I believe it to be authentic because the US govt has been engaged in very similar experimentation for decades, even without consent of the public.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Lsvt1z0n4
-please forgive my mistakes
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