The Battle to Establish the Eternal Religion
Once upon a time, not so long ago . . . “Thenceforth living for hundreds and thousands of years, and bent upon the vows of the Law, men were wholly free from worries and diseases. The ksatriya kings once more governed the entire earth, with her ocean borders, with her mountains, wilderness, and woods. And while the baronage reigned over this earth in accordance with the Law, all the social orders, headed by the brahmanas, found surpassing joy. Casting off such vices as spring from lust and anger, the kings of men protected their subjects, using their staff according to the Law upon those that deserved it. As the ksatriyas were law-abiding, and sacrifice was performed according to scriptural injunction, Indra, the god of a thousand eyes and the one-hundred sacrifices, rained sweet rain at the right time and place, swelling the people. No infant died then, and no one knew a woman before she was of age. “Thus this ocean-girt earth was filled with long-living people. The barons offered up grand sacrifices for which ample stipends were given. The brahmanas studied the Vedas with their branches and Upanishads. The brahmanas rendered their services to all as sacrifice and not for personal gain, nor did they attempt to unduly persuade the lower social orders to religious causes beyond their ken. The farmers plowed the earth with bullocks: they did not put cows to the yoke, and they let the lean cows live. Men did not milk cows whose calves were still suckling, and merchants did not sell their wares with false weights. People did their lawful chores looking to the Law and devoted to the Law. All the classes devoted themselves to their own tasks, and thus the Law was in no way diminished in that age. The cows and women gave birth in time; trees stood in fruit and bloom in all seasons. And thus the entire earth became filled with many creatures. “In this flourishing world of men, the Asuras were born in the land of the kings. For the Daityas had often been defeated in battle by the demigods, and having fallen from their supernal estate, they took birth here on earth. Wanting to be gods on earth, the prideful demons were born from men and from all manner of creatures that live on earth, from cows, horses, asses, camels, and buffalo, from beasts of prey, elephants, and deer. And when they were born and went on being born, the wide Earth could no longer support herself. “Now some of them were born kings filled with great strength, the sons of Diti and Danu, who had now fallen from their world to earth. Powerful, insolent, bearing many shapes, they swarmed over this sea-girt earth, crushing their enemies. They oppressed the brahmanas, the ksatriyas, the farmers, even the serfs, and other creatures they oppressed with their power. Sowing fear and slaughtering all the races of creation, they roamed all over earth by the hundreds of thousands, menacing everywhere the great seers in their hermitages, impious, drunk with power and insensate with drink. “When she was thus tyrannized by the grand Asuras bloated with power and strength, Earth came to Lord Brahmā as a supplicant. Neither the wind, nor the elephants, nor the mountains, were able to support the Earth so forcefully overrun by the Dānavas. Therefore, Earth, sagging under her burden and brutalized with fear, sought refuge with the grandfather of all beings. Surrounded by worthy demigods, brahmanas, and seers, she saw Lord Brahmā, the creator of the world, his praises being sung by joyous Gandharvas and Apsaras, who are the musicians of the heavenly realms; and approaching, she too greeted him. “Then, seeking refuge, Earth spoke to him in the presence of all the Guardians of the Worlds. But Earth’s business had long before been known to Aja, the unborn, who dwells on high. For how could he, creator of the universe, fail to know entirely what is lodged in the minds of the Demigods and Asuras?”[1] The foregoing history of the earth is recounted from the epic Mahabharata. The peaceful and bountiful conditions described are of the previous age of Dvāpara-yuga, some thousands of years ago, and that pleasant atmosphere continued almost until the close of that age, at which time the Asuras invaded the earth.[2] Vaishnavas will recognize the story as the prologue to the advent of Lord Krishna Who appeared on the earth at that time, ostensibly to rescue the earth from her plight, but in actuality to display His transcendental pastimes for the purpose of attracting the conditioned souls back to home, back to Godhead. The Daityas, descendants of Diti, and the Dānavas, descendants of Danu[3], are of the race of the demons, and the story depicts their arrival on the earth toward the end of Dvapara yuga, having been expelled from the heavenly realms. Lord Krishna killed many of these demons who had assumed the forms of animals, such as Denakāsura, Aghāsura, and Kesi during His childhood pastimes, while those who had been born into the ruling class, the godless ksatriyas, were mostly all killed in the battle at Kurukshetra. However, some of the demonic remained. Aside from these, there remained on earth many other godless ksatriyas who had either abandoned Vedic culture, or fled greater India in fear of Parasurāma, as he waged his campaign of regicide for twenty-one generations. These godless ksatriyas established themselves as the ruling order of Greece, Europe and the Middle East.[4] This is not without sanction as each season has its purpose, and during Kali the earth has been given to ungodly for their use. Gradually the demonic class have increased their control and influence until they now dominate the entire earth, as Srila Prabhupada informs us: “At the present, especially on this planet earth, the influence of Lord Brahmā has decreased considerably, and the representatives of Hiranyakasipu—the Rāksasa and demons—have taken charge. Therefore there is no protection of brahminical culture and cows, which are the basic prerequisites for all kinds of good fortune. This age is very dangerous because society is being managed by demons and Rāksasas.”[5] Srila Prabhupada first mentioned this in a lecture in New York in 1966, and he repeats it several other times throughout his writing. It is my primary purposes here to raise awareness and understanding of this issue, therefore I offer another quote from Prabhupada: “Rāksasa are called man-eaters, more than tigers. They, for their self-satisfaction, they can eat, I mean to say, even their own sons. You see? They are called Rāksasa. No shame. ‘My sense gratification should be satisfied. Never mind. You go to hell.’ So this is the age. So we create a machine that everyone comes and becomes smashed in that machine, and my sense satisfaction is there, although I’ll never be happy by that sense satisfaction. This is going on. You can know this world is now managed by the Rāksasa. Rāksasa. They don’t mind what is happening. They are prepared to sacrifice everything for fulfilling their whimsical nonsense.” [6] For those who cannot take it on the authority of Srila Prabhupada we can offer several more quotes, from the many that are available. This of course is not the type of information put on the evening news, although there are plenty of sources available to anyone willing to simply look for them. Of course one will seriously question the credibility of men that reveal big secrets, both due to the almost unbelievable nature of many of them, as well as their motive. But we know for certain that Srila Prabhupada’s integrity is sacrosanct. Be that as it may, one such witness is L. Fletcher Prouty. Between 1955 and 1963 Prouty was one of Washington’s elite, indispensable breed of analysts with access to the very highest information. His job as a briefing officer was to deliver that information to high-ranking government officials. As he describes it he was “the ‘Focal Point’ officer for contacts between the CIA and the Department of Defense on matters pertaining to the military support of the Special Operations of that Agency. In that capacity I worked with Allen Dulles and John Foster Dulles, several Secretaries of Defense, and Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as many others in key governmental places.”[7] Being on the inside at the very highest levels, Prouty was privy to how this country is actually run. In his in his book The Secret Team, first published in 1972, he reveals a great deal. So much that the first edition soon after its release it completely disappeared—from store shelves, libraries, and even the Library of Congress. Apparently he said more than others wanted revealed. Part of that was the confirmation of Srila Prabhupada’s and Ford’s statements that a small cabal—the “Power Elite”—rules the world. They do so through a management team, as any good executive does, which he called the Secret Team because of their invisible presence and activities. He tells us that: “The Secret Team is the functional element of the dominant power. It is the point of the spear and is neither military nor police. It is covert: and the best (or worst) of both. It gets the job done whether it has political authorization and direction, or not. In this capacity, it acts independently. It is lawless. It operates everywhere with the best of all supporting facilities from special weaponry and advanced communications, with the assurance that its members will never be prosecuted. It is subservient to the Power Elite and protected by them. The Power Elite or High Cabal need not be Royalty in these days. They are their equals or better. Note with care, it is labeled a “Team”. This is because as with any highly professional team it has its managers, its front office and its owners. These are the “Power Elite” to whom it is beholden. They are always anonymous, and their network is ancient and world-wide.”[8] He goes on to explain in sometimes shocking detail just how “things” work. Prouty: “I am interested in setting forth and explaining what ‘secrecy’ and the ‘cult of containment’ really mean and what they have done to our way of life and to our country.” On half-truths: “In this book I have taken extracts from some of this writing and, line by line, have shown how it has been manipulated to give a semblance of truth while at the same time being contrived and false.” To say that this account of our modern world stands in stark opposition to what most people believe would be a significant understatement. These statements may simply refer to extremely powerful people, but are they Rakshasas? The notion that Rakshasas control society is as disconcerting as it is unsuspected by the general public. On Srila Prabhupada’s authority we accept it as fact, a fact that has tremendous impact on both our lives, and the nature of the activities that are taking place on the planet today. Discernment regarding the influence and activities of these personalities is the subject matter of this book, and who they are therefore becomes our point of departure. Those of Demonic Nature As Prabhupada was quoted earlier, it is not by external appearances, such as clothing, or hair style, conveyances, etc. that the nature of a person is known, but by their qualities and activities. In discerning the demonic element within this world therefore, we must know their qualities and character. The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna has therefore taken care to explain in detail the demonic nature in the sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. There He categorizes the demoniac as one of the two categories of living beings and He describes their nature. He says that those of a demoniac nature are arrogant, proud, angry, conceited, harsh in their dealings with others and ignorant of the spiritual values of life. They are generally unclean and impure, have no idea of proper behavior, and are prone to deceit and lying. Not believing in any Supreme Being, the demoniac say that there is no God in control, that this world produced of sex desire, brought about only by lust. Arising from matter alone it has no other foundation, and having a beginning it will likewise have a final end. Bewildered by such reasoning and lost to themselves, their so-called intelligent creations only result in unbeneficial and horrible works that act to further destroy the world. Attracted by the glaring material energy, they insatiably lust for possession and control of this world. False pride and prestige become the source of their illusions. Unlimited sense gratification is thought by the demoniac to be the very highest achievement of human civilization, and it is sought up until the very end of life, bringing with it endless anxieties. Driven by such limitless desires and longings, by lust and anger, the demonic acquire money by any possible means—no amount being too much, striving to be the richest. Regardless of how much wealth he may have today, his drive to get more becomes his topmost priority, regardless of the cost to others. If someone gets in the way of his ambitions they are seen as an enemy and are killed. The demoniac thinks himself to be the lord of everything, the best enjoyer, the most perfect, powerful and happy person. Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false prestige, the demoniac sometimes perform sacrifices as a make-show of piety, but follow no rules or regulations. Bewildered by a false sense of self, temporary strength, pride, lust and anger, the demon becomes envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in his own body and in the bodies of others, and blasphemes against the real religion and is cast into various demoniac species of life by the Lord. Perplexed by anxieties formed of crooked thinking, bound by a network of such illusions, and too strongly attached to sense enjoyment the demoniac quickly fall down into hell.[9] Are They Real? It is not uncommon for people to feel that such descriptions of demonic personalities are exaggerations, folk-lore, or ancient myth. In fact, as we shall later elaborate, much effort has been expended made to bring people to this conclusion through the manipulation of public opinion and literatures.[10] Modern literature does not constitute conclusive proof for the Vaishnava however. Our standard for discerning fact from fiction is the Vedic scriptures, and not flattering words that lull us into a dream state of false security. There we learn that those of demonic character are very real, both in history and in modern society. We also learn about their nature and activities which becomes our basis for discernment. The Vedic scriptures help us to understand this phenomenal world by examining it in terms of its parts and categories, of which there are many. One of the primary ways that living beings are categorized is according to their consciousness, and here there are two primary divisions: 1) those who are Godly, the theists, the devatas and 2) those who are opposed to God, the atheists, the āsuras, daityas. Those who are devotees of the Lord, they are called daiva or devata, demigods. And those who are just the opposite, they are called daitya or demon.[11] Among these there are many subdivisions as well, and in the atheistic camp are found bhutas, pretas, yaksas, asuras, rāksasas, pisācas, etc. Yaksas and Rāksasas, are part of the original creation of Brahmā and are represented even until today in the uncivilized men who are scattered all over the universe. They are born of the mode of ignorance, and because of their behavior, they are called Rāksasas, or man-eaters.[12] Because of being situated in tamo-guna, their living conditions and eatables are abominable, and it is no exaggeration to say that the Rāksasas in particular are very fond of eating human flesh and blood. About the Rāksasas, we learn from Srila Prabhupada’s commentaries that the are extremely intelligent as a class, and because they are very good organizers and convey strong leadership, they have little difficulty establishing themselves as the leaders in the world—the kings of the past and politicians of the present day. Moreover, Rāksasas possess another extraordinary ability: they can change their apparent form and appear differently than they are. Throughout the Vedic literatures we find many examples of rāksasas who change their shape in order to beguile others. In Lord Ramachandra’s pastimes, the rāksasa Mārīca assumed the form of a golden deer to lure Rama away from Sita’s side. In Krishna’s pastimes the witch Putanā was a great rāksasī who knew the art of covering her original form. She appeared in Vrindavana as a beautiful woman, but when she was killed her mystic power was halted, and no longer able to disguise herself she was seen in her original hideous form. Similarly, Cārvāka was a rāksasa who was a close friend of Duryodhana. He took the form of a brāhmana and tried to condemn Yudhisthira as an enemy of the people. And after Bhīma killed the man-eating rāksasa Hidimba, that demon’s sister, Hidimbī, assumed the form of a beautiful woman so as to associate with Bhima. This may be fine as far as distant history goes, but what about today? Is there any evidence that these shape-shifting, human-eating creatures still prowl the earth? Well, in fact, there is. David Icke is a Brit who has been traveling around the world telling people that there are a mysterious group of beings who, although not human, appear to be so. He reports that they have the ability to change their appearance from something resembling a reptile, having a lizard-like tongue and eyes, to that of ordinary looking humans. These beings are said to be a cross between an intelligent reptilian form of life and human beings.[13] Moreover, there is evidence that these beings have actually been controlling the earth for thousands of years. And as you may have guessed, they are reported to perform ritual killing of humans, eating their flesh and drinking their blood. His information comes not from one, but from many sources who have approached him to tell of their personal experiences, and from others who have witnessed this shape-shifting and written about it. He cites a number of people who tell of their first-hand accounts of witnessing shape-shifting humans, especially including many of the world’s leading politicians: Cathy O’Brien in her book Trance Formation of America, Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Alex Christopher in Pandora’s Box, and Credo Mutwa in The Reptilian Agenda.[14] Besides their individual presence they apparently also have the ability to influence humans by different psychic methods. While not occupying the body they can attach to humans through the two lowest energy centers (charkas), and thereby have a controlling influence over them. The sketches in Appendix B illustrate this concept.[15] The description of these reptilian shape-shifters is identical in most details to the Vedic description of the rāksasas, and they may even be exactly the same, since the un-transformed appearance of the rāksasas is not detailed in the pages of the Srimad Bhagavatam. Typically, the reaction to such news is often stunned disbelief, even among those who otherwise accept the Vedic worldview. Apparently testimony of such a present-day reality disturbs the pleasant world in which we seek false shelter, and which leaves us free to fritter-away our lives in attempted mirth and joy, while the demonic are working hard at undermining spiritual culture. And although we may feel more comfortable with our collective heads in the sand, such ignore-ance plays well into the hands of those who are indeed the nemesis of the theists. In any case, even for those who are reluctant to accept the Vedic version of history, there is corroborating information in the modern era for those willing to accept it. The Demoniac and Atheism We note that in the above discourse the Lord says nothing about appearances, dress, or other external symbols. Rather, He defines the nature of the demonic by their actions, and it is therefore on the basis or quality of their actions that such a personality must be discerned. “By external features one cannot understand who is favored by Krishna and who is not. According to one’s attitude, Krishna becomes one’s direct adviser, or Krishna becomes unknown . . . According to one’s receptiveness to Krishna—whether one be a devatā, asura, Yaksa or Rāksasa—Krishna’s quality is proportionately exhibited.” [16] And there is more. Specifically we want to understand the meaning of the term demonic in relationship to that of being godless, or atheistic. Earlier in the Gītā the Lord speaks about the four types of miscreants, duskritina, that do not surrender unto him: “Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me.” This last category particularly defines the meaning of atheist. Of them Srila Prabhupada writes: “The last class of duskritina is called āsuram bhāvam āsrita, or those of demonic principles. This class is openly atheistic. Some of them argue that the Supreme Lord can never descend upon this material world, but they are unable to give any tangible reasons as to why not. There are others who make Him subordinate to the impersonal feature, although the opposite is declared in the Gītā. Envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the atheist will present a number of illicit incarnations manufactured in the factory of his brain. Such persons whose very principle of life is to decry the Personality of Godhead cannot surrender unto the lotus feet of Srī Krishna.”[17] Later, the Lord gives further definition to the type of personalities that are attracted to atheistic views: “Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be. Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated. O son of Prithā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.”[18] And Srila Prabhupada comments there: “Persons who mock Krishna are to be understood to be demonic or atheistic. As described in the Seventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, such demonic miscreants never surrender to Krishna. Therefore their mental speculations to arrive at the Absolute Truth bring them to the false conclusion that the ordinary living entity and Krishna are one and the same. With such a false conviction, they think that the body of any human being is now simply covered by material nature and that as soon as one is liberated from this material body there is no difference between God and himself. This attempt to become one with Krishna will be baffled because of delusion. Such atheistic and demoniac cultivation of spiritual knowledge is always futile. That is the indication of this verse. For such persons, cultivation of the knowledge in the Vedic literature, like the Vedānta-sūtra and the Upanisads, is always baffled.” From the foregoing we understand that those of demonic consciousness forever deny the existence of a Supreme Being. For them such a thought is reprehensible since their desire is to become God themselves. “The rāksasa, āsuram bhāvam āsritam... asuram bhāvam āsritam means one who does not accept the supremacy of God. ‘What is God? I am God.’ These rascals are called māyayā apahrta-jnānām. Na mām prapadyante. They do not surrender to God, or Krishna. They pose themselves as God.”[19] In this sense of the word, God would mean the supreme or ultimate enjoyer. Possession of all things, exploitation of others, dominance in all spheres and absolute control are the characteristics of the Asuras. There is no end to their self-aggrandizement, nor is there ever enough for them. Whatever others possess should belong to them, regardless of how it is acquired. They constantly struggle with others be they theists or atheists—it doesn’t matter—for dominance and control. Whoever they can rule and control for the purpose of exploitation they will, and they constantly vie with each other to be on top. For all that they exact they begrudgingly give as little as possible in return. And their heightened envy is such that they become even happier when they see others suffer. The notably demoniac Attila the Hun aptly demonstrated the Asuric attitude when he supposedly said: “It is not enough for us to win. Everyone else must also lose!” Atheism in Vaishnava siddhanta further includes those who deny the conclusions of the Vedas. For example, those who consider that Krishna and the demigods are equals, or those who consider Krishna as an ordinary man, would also be considered pāsandī’s or atheists. Atheistic Controllers and Their Modus Operandi As noted from the Mahabharata above, the godless ksatriyas established themselves as the ruling order in what we call the Western world, that is, in the territories outside of greater India. Likewise, the now dominant Western culture counts its history beginning from the early days of those ‘civilizations’. One thing that clearly stands out when reviewing their history is war and conquest. The very earliest of these cultures were warlike in nature—not in the manner of the Aryans mind you—but in the sense of conquering and destroying their enemies and profiting from the booty of war. The Aryans had very specific measures in mind concerning warfare. As followers of Vedic dharma, or The Law, the ksatriya kings of India followed the prescriptions of Parāsara as given in his Parāsara-smrti: “The ksatriya’s duty is to protect the citizens from all kinds of difficulties, and for that reason he has to apply violence in suitable cases for law and order. Therefore he has to conquer the soldiers of inimical kings, and thus, with religious principles, he should rule over the world.”[20] The great kings were also very responsible in taking the instructions given by great saintly personalities like Parāsara, Vyāsadeva, Nārada, Devala and Asita. Doing so, and likewise directing the citizenry, everyone in his kingdom was happy, peaceful and prosperous, as we read in the opening paragraphs. This method of attaining a true and lasting peace stands in stark contrast to the political rhetoric of the current day that attempts to convince the public that peace can be fully achieved through acts of war. As many social observers have pointed out, this is nothing but subterfuge to achieve an altogether different end. Nonetheless, neither can peace be achieved simply by protesting avariciousness, as many protesters who are also ignorant of the control of the Lord, seem to think. The manner in which the Vedic kings would execute their duty is offered in exemplary manner by the pastimes of Lord Rāmachandra. After he disposed of the demonic Raksasa ruler of Sri Lanka, the ten-headed Rāvana, the Lord installed Rāvana’s brother Vibhīsana on the throne and blessed him that he would successfully rule that kingdom for an entire kalpa. Although Vibhīsana was also a Raksasa, he had given up his allegiance to Rāvana and surrendered to Lord Rāma, meaning that he was willing to follow the ways of Vedic dharma. Upon establishing a proper government there, Lord Rāma did not occupy Sri Lanka and exploit its considerable resources for his personal sense enjoyment, nor did he carry any plunders of war home. Rather, he returned to his own kingdom and continued His administration of the world from there. In His capacity as exemplar for the entire human society Lord Rāmachandra demonstrated the proper behavior for the Aryan, or Vedic rulers. Some of the Western cultures, the Greeks and Hittites among them, were renegades from Vedic culture, but continued to display some vestiges of Vedic dharma. Greece itself was once a province of greater Bharata[21] which had later given up Vedic culture, and the vestiges of Vedic culture can be discerned in a perverted or stunted way in the teachings of their philosophers. The Hittites are considered by modern historians to have descended from tribes migrating from the Caucasus area,[22] their culture flourishing around 1800 BC. These of course are the descendants of the ksatriyas that fled from Parasurama. Interestingly however, the warlike activities of these early Western peoples not only included their earthly populations, but the host of their gods as well. The Hittites would go to war only when their supreme God TESHUB (“The Stormer”) gave the word. He apparently gave his order often as the Hittites are said to have expanded their kingdom to imperial proportions. Teshub’s moniker translated into a more complete description of his nature. He was the “storm god whose strength makes dead”, and he was reputed to have joined in battle on the side of the Hittites, as did the ‘gods’ of the Greeks, Romans and others. I think it is safe to infer from his name and activities that Teshub can be placed on the demonic side of the ledger. Recall that this was likely of a time when there was still contact between humans and the beings of the higher realms. These beings, having powers that vastly superceded human abilities were regarded by the non-Aryans as gods, and were worshiped as such.[23] Later, as Kali progressed, interplanetary visitations to earth, witnessed by ordinary people, were curtailed. The Hittites expanded as far south as Canaan which they treated as a “neutral zone”, apparently not considering it as part of their kingdom. The Egyptians were of a different inclination however and sought to bring Canaan under their rule by repeated warfare, and eventually succeeded in doing so. Their manner of warfare was decidedly demonic as they attest to in their inscriptions. Thothmes III, the pharaoh who was victorious over the Canaanite kings describes his destruction of the conquered with apparent pride: “Now his majesty went north, plundering towns and laying encampments waste.” And of a vanquished king this pharaoh wrote: “I desolated his towns, set fire to his encampments, made mounds of them; their resettlement can never take place. All the people I captured, I made prisoners; their countless cattle I carried off, and their goods as well. I took away every resource of life; I cut down their grain and felled all their groves and all their pleasant trees. I totally destroyed it.” And he then notes that it was all done on the command of his god Amon-Ra.[24] The Assyrians challenged the Babylonians, the Egyptians the Israelites, and so on, and so on. The extant records indicate that it was the lust of their gods as much as that of the earthly kings that drove such avariciousness. In their joint efforts the gods gave powerful weapons to their favorites, just as Indra endowed his son Arjuna. They also directly challenged each other on behalf of their earthly kings. Yahweh, the god of the Israelites[25] threatened the god of the pharaohs: “I will punish Amon, God of Thebes, and those who trust in him, and shall bring retribution upon Egypt and its gods, its pharaohs and its kings.”[26] The Old Testament of the Bible, to the extent it is accurate, tells us that this feud continued for the better part of a thousand years. Recalling the description of the demonic nature from the Bhagavad-gita, we see it manifest in these accounts, both on the part of the earthly kings as well as their gods. This manner of killing and destruction—domination, exploitation and control—can thus be understood as the hallmark of the demonic Raksasas. We discern their presence by such activities, which stands in sharp contrast to that of the upholders of dharma, the ksatrīya kings of Bharata. Glancing through the pages of history, from these early ages to the succession of emperors of Rome and even beyond that to the popes of the Roman Catholic church, we witness a restless fury for domination and control. These rulers, one after another, conquered and were conquered, as often by their own relatives as by enemy rulers, as they wrestled for the crown and its powers. And not only do the people in Kali-yuga suffer indignations from challenging kings, but from their own rulers as well. The Twelfth Canto of Srīmad-Bhāgavatam describes how these thieves and rogues will prey on their own subjects: “As stated, prajās te bhaktayiñyanti mlecchā rājanyaurapinam: Proud mlecchas representing themselves as kings, will tyrannize their subjects, and those subjects, on the other hand, will cultivate the most vicious practices. Thus practicing evil habits and behaving foolishly, the subjects will be like their rulers.”[27] As Kali has progressed the rulers have abused the citizens to such an extent that the monarchies have been abolished all over the world, and the power of the papacy curtailed. Nonetheless, “the inhabitants of the world are still unhappy, for although the qualities of the former monarchs were degraded by taints of ignorance, these monarchs have been replaced by men of the mercantile and worker classes whose qualities are even more degraded. [Only] when the government is guided by brāhmanas, or God conscious men, can there be real happiness for the people.” [28] Greed, Licentiousness, Depravity and Blood-Lust Form the Raksasa Character “They believe that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no end to their anxiety. Being bound by hundreds and thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification. The demoniac person thinks: ‘So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes. So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and more. He is my enemy, and I have killed him; and my other enemy will also be killed. I am the lord of everything, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect, powerful and happy. I am the richest man, surrounded by aristocratic relatives. There is none so powerful and happy as I am.” Have we seen this type of behavior before? Too much I’m afraid—this description of the demonic by Lord Krishna has been observed in the behavior of ‘leaders’ through the entirety of Western history up to and including today. Conquest, control and exploitation have an end in mind: to establish the Rāksasa as a god who has a limitless supply of sense gratification and royal pleasures. Often far, far beyond what they are could even begin to enjoy, these Raksasas attempt to acquire unlimited resources to convince themselves at least, that as kings or popes they are the lord’s of all. But it wasn’t just the kings and popes. Just about any person in the orbit of ‘royalty’ could be courting visions of his, and yes, even her, own supremacy. These servants, family, ministers, and others would make their own attempts on the crown, by licentiousness, marriage, diplomacy, and of course, murder. It was often a melee in which one would remain on top for only a matter of hours before being deposed by his own ruthless family members or other ‘trusted’ aides and friends. If the gods were an important factor in conquest, then their care and feeding was extremely important as well, and as such the priests of the early Western cultures became significant personages. The priests might have been from human stock, or Raksasas themselves. Be that as it may, they were as avaricious as any of the so-called royal order. Stanton Coblentz recounts from the Great Harris Papyrus, the largest of the ancient Egyptian documents, the wealth of the priesthood in the days of Rameses III, about 1200 BC: “As part of their endowment the priests held 169 towns in Egypt and Syria, 113,433 slaves, 493,386 head of cattle, more than one-seventh of the land in the kingdom, and a fleet of 88 barques (large sailing ships) and galleys; they enjoyed an annual income of nearly half a million sacks of corn, over six million loaves of bread, a quarter-million jars of wine, nearly half a million jugs of beer, and more than two million jars of incense, oil and honey. And this at a time when workmen were denied the pittance necessary to keep them alive! At a time when some of them went on strike, complaining that they had no clothes and no oil, and were starving for lack of fifty sacks of grain.”[29] Such abuses of the priesthood are undoubtedly the reasons that brought about their demise as the preeminent leaders of society. Of course the kings took as much advantage or more. Greek historian Thucydides, in his report of the Peloponnesian War, tell us that it was “the love of power, originating in avarice and ambition” that was behind many of the evils, tumults, conspiracies and revenges that characterized that war. Roman Emperor Caligula (37-41 AD) announced his self-deification, building temples and erecting statues to his glorified self. He even ordered that a statue of himself should be placed in the Temple of Jerusalem and the Jews be forced to worship him. Unbeknownst to him it was never enforced, in Jerusalem anyway, and this god Caligula was assassinated by members of his own Praetorian Guard shortly thereafter. And then the Popes of the Roman church, who had become a blend of both temporal and ecclesiastical power were not found to be wanting. If the members of ISKCON consider themselves as tortured for the almost fifteen years it took to establish some semblance of reformation, consider that the members of the Roman church not only stood idly by as the following papal improprieties took place—they also were forced in many ways to finance them for hundreds of years: “Clement VI, who succeeded John after the reign of Benedict XII, bought the town of Avignon [France] for 80,000 gold florins, and built the mammoth three and a half acre Palace of the Popes, which still stands on a solid rock foundation called Notre-Dame des Doms. He built it as a fortress with five-yard-thick walls and machicolated battlements, towers, and gateways, and surrounded it with further battlements flanked by eight towers. He filled it with chapels, halls, salons, dining rooms (the banquet hall is 156 feet long), private apartments, business offices, storage space, military barracks, and servants quarters. One can still admire today the fresco depicting nymphs and hunters at pastoral play that Clement commissioned for the papal bedchamber. “Over a period of seventy-two years (1305-1377), however, pastoral play at Avignon corroded the very core of the papacy. The popes decorated and enriched this palace with paintings and other art treasures. They and their cardinals amassed great wealth and spent huge sums, acquired by heavy taxes on church estates in France and Italy. When Cardinal Hugo Ranieri died at Avignon in 1364, his personal coffers yielded twenty-two purses each containing 500 gold florins and several others with thousands of gold and silver coins from Italy, France, England, and Spain. At Pope Urban V’s death, 200,000 gold florins lay in his personal treasury. “ ‘You have neglected,’ Dante wrote in a letter to Clement V, ‘to guide the Chariot of the Bride of the Crucified along the path so clearly marked for Her.’ Dante called the papal court at Avignon the gasconum opprobrium, or the Gascon shame, a reference to Clement’s nationality. Petrarch described Avignon as “the fortress of anguish, the dwelling-place of wrath, the sink of vice, the sewer of this world, the school of error, the temple of heresy, once Rome, now the false and guilt-ridden Babylon, the forge of lies, the horrible prison, the hall of dung.” Clement’s city and court of Avignon was “home to wine, women, song, and priests who cavorted,” Petrarch said, “as if all their glory consisted not in Christ but in feasting and unchastity.” “Wolves,” screamed poet Alvaro Pelago, “have become the masters of the Church.” And St. Catherine of Sienna stated: “At the Papal Court which ought to have been a paradise of virtue, my nostrils were assailed by the odors of Hell.” Petrarch’s characterization later became a label conveniently affixed to the papal years at Avignon—“The Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy.”[30] Nor can it be said that Clement V was an exception to the rule. The majority of the vicars of Rome by all appearances and activities can safely be discerned to be something other than holy men of God. And of course no bid to become God, would be complete without the twenty-seven principles dreamt up by Pope Gregory VII including:
Observance of Atheism in Modern Western Culture In seeking to establish themselves as the supreme enjoyer the raksasas not only conquered who they could but out of envy of the Supreme Lord, forever engage in activities of propaganda meant to disparage any idea of religion. Vena, Hiranyakasipu, and Kamsa, each one typical of the Rāksasa host, stopped the sacrificial fires and the chanting of Vedic hymns. In other times followers of genuine religious principles were simply killed. Our modern day however people are more ‘civilized’ and these demonic tendencies to suppress religion are done in subtle, but still very effective, ways. Mainly these results are achieved through the teaching of irreligion and atheistic propaganda. This pressure is felt among by the sensitive observers within society and in recent years a series of books have come out detailing the atheistic influence that pervades our modern culture. Huston Smith, professor emeritus at University of California, Berkeley, wrote about the influence of atheistic propaganda in all sectors of society. Citing at length from others’ respected work he details the omnipresent atheistic propaganda that emanates from many quarters of society: the halls of science that unquestioningly support the flawed and failed atheistic-based ideologies of Darwinism and the Big Bang; “higher” education in which an implicit atheistic orientation operates in the guise of “value neutral” objectivity; the media wherein “liberal” atheistic values are presented without question, yet theism is made to appear as a silly superstition of an earlier, unsophisticated day; and within the application law in America, with a view towards diminishing the protection of the first amendment which is supposed to support the citizens’ practice of religion. [31] Observance of this influence among the various segments of society also includes religion. William Buckley, Jr. quite soon upon his graduation from Yale University (1950) stunned the Eastern Establishment with his acerbic review of religious instruction and (its lack of) influence at the prestigious university. In God and Man at Yale, he took the university to task for, at best, benign neglect of religious instruction, despite the fact that the university began its life, as did all of the early New England universities, as a seminary. He details an overriding academic “tolerance” of theism felt by students in many of the university’s social sciences including economics, sociology, history and government. Particularly acute was his exposure to atheistic influences within the Department of Religion, where Religious Professor Goodenough described himself to his students as “80% atheist and 20% agnostic.” Says Buckley “no wonder that the preponderant influence of a scholar of his persuasion is to drive his students away from religion, the subject he ‘teaches.’” One other example that I would like to bring to the reader’s attention comes from Srila Prabhupada’s Renunciation Through Wisdom, wherein he quotes from an address by a certain Dr. Ane at the Calcutta University convocation on January 12, 1957. Dr. Ane was at the time the governor of the state of Bihar. The ‘distinguished’ guest offered that, “Our youth are being brought up in a tradition of veiled contempt for religion and everything religious. Spiritualists and religious devotees are the laughing-stock of the educated youth, and as the general masses are religious-minded and have great respect and reverence for such devotees and spiritualists, they feel generally disgusted with the attitude of the educated class and have no regard for them. The educated class has also no affection for the masses, whose way of life is mostly molded by religious ideas. The result is that the educated classes have not been able to produce a sufficient number of servants to work with a real missionary spirit for the amelioration of the suffering of the masses.” Dr. Ane then went on to suggest that the existing academic courses in schools and colleges exclude classes on religion. Steeped in our culture as we are perhaps we find instances such as these to be almost imperceptible and therefore innocuous, but these few examples illustrate the presence of the influences of atheism in Western culture. There are many, many more that we could cite. Since our information and media sources do not offer warnings such as: “the following is atheistic propaganda”, some may have trouble identifying the propaganda of atheism. Perhaps that is because the word has become a pejorative, a ‘bad’ word that is associated with ‘bad’ people, not good people like, me. Since most people can’t begin to see themselves as ‘bad’, they have also stopped seeing any reason that would make them so. This contention can be avoided by de-structuring the word and using its definition. Our use of the word is in keeping with its meaning within Vaishnava siddhanta, that is, as any concept that runs counter to the teachings and conclusions of the Vedas, or decries the Vedas or the supremacy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna. One may even engage in performing sacrifices and severe austerities for perfection, but they must be for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. lf such activities are performed for personal satisfaction, one is a pāsandī and is involved in pāsanda, or atheism[32]. This would of course include the establishment of false religious systems as well as that of blatant irreligion, although the difference is oftentimes cloudy. In the worst cases atheism is paraded in the guise of religion itself, in which an unsuspecting and unsophisticated public is deliberately led away from the goal of religion. Our purpose right now is more specific: to look for the presence of atheistic influences within religion. Atheism in the Guise of Religion An essay entitled Putana written by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Maharaja, published in The Harmonist, January 1932[33], focuses on the atheistic elements active in this world and their efforts to suppress the appearance of truth and transcendence. He describes these elements as Kamsa’s and Putana’s—demons present in Krishna’s earthly lila—and offered as icons for their descendants in the present generation. As noted above, such agents actively control the world, although they keep themselves hidden and disguised. In this article Srila Bhaktisiddhanta tears off the disguise and exposes them, alerting us to their presence and activities. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta instructs us that Kamsa’s agents immediately react to any manifestation of transcendence, writing: “King Kamsa is typical of the aggressive empiricist (those who place faith in their fallible senses only, read as atheist or demonic) who is ever on the lookout for the appearance of the truth for the purpose of suppressing Him (Him being the Truth manifest in this world) before He has time to develop.” He elaborately explains that this suppression is handled through Kamsa’s agents (the Putanas) who, skilled in the art of word-jugglery, deliberately misinterpret the truth to arrive at a deviant materialistic conclusion. Kamsa then takes advantage of the human being’s tendency toward faith in a power greater than themselves by misdirecting it toward this dogmatism and hypocrisy represented as religious mystery. Under the guise of religion those souls who are compromised by materialistic attachments and motives, become misdirected and remain attached to the impermanent, material energy of the Lord. They are thus in a condition to be manipulated by Kamsa to serve his material interests, while their genuine spiritual interests are neglected and abused. As with all of his writing, his analysis cuts through the illusory and materialistic externals such as institution, position and dress, that so enamor us ordinary folk, and directly shines a brilliant light exposing the actions of the pāsandīs. It is an amazing reckoning, and because it is generally beyond our ken, he takes care to thoroughly develop the lesson through several pages of text, offering this uncompromising observation in his characteristically strong language: “The church that has the best chance of survival in this damned world is that of atheism under the convenient guise of theism. The churches have always proved the staunchest upholders of the grossest form of worldliness from which even the worst of non-ecclesiastical criminals are found to recoil.” Atheism under the convenient guise of theism! Amazing indeed, but given the history of the age, perhaps it is not surprising that the doctrine of atheism is most effectively promulgated through the aegis of theism. Where best, and most effectively, to hide the antithesis than in what is supposed to be the thesis? Like a map that has been altered it cannot be effective, and all effort spent in travel yields only confusion, frustration and disappointment instead of bringing the traveler to a happy destination. It takes only a brief examination to realize that no other vehicle can do so much for the destruction of the spiritual beliefs and sentiments as when the tender creeper of devotion is crushed by agents of Kali who appear in the guise of the spiritual preceptors. History offers many notorious examples. And that, of course, is how so many people around the world have justifiably come to condemn the religious ideal as the perpetrator of so much evil throughout Western history—until, as would be expected in the terrible age of Kali, the institutions of religion themselves have become the doers of evil and perpetrators of grief. Under the influence of tamo-guna, so-called religion has become the home of irreligion and what is irreligion is foolishly taken as religion. The sinful acts perpetrated in the name of religion have so insulted people’s sense of decency that they have come to believe that true peace can only be attained in the absence of religion! Such ideas have been popularized in songs such as John Lennon’s Imagine: “imagine there’s no heaven . . . and no religion too . . .you may say I’m a dreamer . . . but I’m not the only one; perhaps someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.” The portion of the essay Putana pertinent to our discussion is provided in Appendix A, and the reader is encouraged to read it thoroughly. For brevity I have summarized and enumerated the salient points for easy reference in the chapters to come, where we will refer to them again. 1. The atheistic rulers of this world, Asuras and Rāksasas , have a natural repugnance for transcendence and are ever on the lookout for the appearance of Truth in this world for the purpose of immediately suppressing it before it has the opportunity to become established within the masses. 2. Kamsa employs word-juggling intellectual agents (academics) who place their materialistic interpretation on any manifestation of the Truth the moment appears. They interpret the scriptures according to their own manufactured ideas, and make “unbiased and scholarly” assessments of scripture that are “value neutral”. Their interpretations are given the highest credence by the public due to their respectable academic credentials and standing. These academic serfs make interpretations of scriptures based on specious arguments and all manners of hypothetical possibilities, using a high-sounding specialist vocabulary in order to obfuscate the true understanding of the eternal religious principles revealed in scripture, and thus mislead the general mass of people. 3. Human beings have a natural inclination toward faith in a power that is greater than themselves—a transcendence that is beyond their comprehension. They naturally and continually seek a suitable repository for their faith. 4. Kamsa takes advantage of tendency toward faith by misdirecting it to dogmatism and hypocrisy, which is presented as religious mystery and accepted as such by both those of an atheistic or materialistic bent, and the innocent who have only limited powers of discernment and discrimination. 5. Faith in the transcendent can be circumvented and made to yield to a materialistic understanding if prompt and decisive measures are immediately adopted. Therefore, to maintain his materialistic domination Kamsa must demean and disparage any understanding of the transcendent truth the instant it makes it appearance. 6. Due to the general prevalence of atheistic disposition in the people the Putanas have complete control of the pulpits of the great ecclesiastical institutions. No human contrivance can shake their hold of the institutions, therefore no effort should be made on the part of the aware to reclaim them to the cause of the Absolute. But the current followers of these institutions by their own inspiration (the Absolute within) may, at His instigation, be re-directed to seek spiritual fulfillment elsewhere. 7. The church that has the best chance of survival in this damned world is that of atheism under the convenient guise of theism. Therein they are the staunchest upholders of the grossest form of worldliness from which even the worst of non-ecclesiastical criminals are found to recoil 8. The acarya makes use of the most unconventional methods to teach his followers the eternal religion. However, the mechanical adoption of the unconventional life by any person does not make him a fit teacher of religion. The acarya may abandon convention, but conditioned souls require principles of regulation for reigning in their conditioned worldliness. 9. The appearance of the organized church marks the close of the living spiritual movement. It also unmistakably indicates the end of the absolute and unconventional guidance (on the material plane) of the bona fide spiritual teacher. 10. The great ecclesiastical institutions are established to act as dikes and the dams for the purpose of controlling a spiritual current that cannot possibly be limited by any such contrivances. That is, the churches seek to redirect the spiritual emotions and sentiments of people, but in fact it cannot be so restricted. 11. Such institutions are created and followed because of a desire on the part of the mundaners to exploit a spiritual movement for their own material purposes. 12. Not all humans are of an atheistic bent. There are surrendered souls, great devotees, who are not limited by mundane understanding. 13. The Lord’s surrendered devotees are immunized against atheistic propaganda. Regardless of their age, sex and physical or mental condition, they display an apparently causeless faith, frustrating all attempts to mislead them to an atheistic conclusion. The manifestation of the un-compromised Truth within those protected souls thwarts the monopolization of thought by the atheistic agenda. “Religious Atheism” Established in Kali Yuga The atheistic influences are explained further in the Śrīmad Bhagavatam and by Srila Prabhupada throughout his books. For example in the Bhagavatam, Fifth Canto, we learn of the establishment of “atheistic religions” in Kali: “Śukadeva Gosvāmi continued speaking to Mahārāja Pariksit: My dear King, the King of Konka, Venka and Kutaka whose name was Arhat, heard of the activities of Rsabhadeva and, imitating Rsabhadeva’s principles, introduced a new system of religion. Taking advantage of Kali-yuga, the age of sinful activity, King Arhat, being bewildered, gave up the Vedic principles, which are free from risk, and concocted a new system of religion opposed to the Vedas. That was the beginning of the Jain dharma. Many other so-called religions followed this atheistic system.”[34] And in the purport to this verse Srila Prabhupada comments: The people in this age are described as mandäù sumanda-matayaù. Generally they have no spiritual culture, and therefore they are very fallen. Due to this, they will accept any religious system. Due to their misfortune they forget the Vedic principles. Following non-Vedic principles in this age, they think themselves the Supreme Lord and thus spread the cult of atheism all over the world. And in another place Srila Prabhupada makes it clear that much that goes under the guise of religion in Kali is actually atheism: “Foolish Māyāvādīs say that worshiping demigods is as good as worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but that is not a fact. This philosophy misleads people to atheism. One who has no idea what God actually is thinks that any form he imagines or any rascal he accepts can be God. This acceptance of cheap gods or incarnations of God is actually atheism. It is to be concluded, therefore, that those who worship demigods or self-proclaimed incarnations of God are all atheists. They have lost their knowledge, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gitā (7.20): kämais tais tair håta-jïänäù prapadyante ’nya-devatäù. “Those whose minds are distorted by material desires surrender unto demigods.” Unfortunately, those who do not cultivate Krishna consciousness and do not properly understand the Vedic knowledge accept any rascal to be an incarnation of God, and they are of the opinion that one can become an incarnation simply by worshiping a demigod. This philosophical hodge-podge exists under the name of the Hindu religion, but the Krishna consciousness movement does not approve of it. Indeed, we strongly condemn it.”[35] With these warnings and the guidance of the disciplic succession we should be alert for such manifestations of irreligion. But do we recognize it? Do we even look for it? How would we recognize and understand such contemptuous parody of truth, disguised to the eye of the uninitiated and inexperienced? We take it on the strength of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s eminent stature as a Vaishnava acharya that such conclusions are both valid and undeniable, and there must be some manifestation of which he writes. Beginning from the threshold of his good advice we will embark on a journey through time examining the historical record for indications of such delusory activity. It is my intention to show herein that such evidence exists and willingly exposes itself to those who will assume an orientation of looking for it. For what purpose? To reconstruct the map to Transcendence that has been, and is being altered, so that those who are able to discern the truth may properly direct their own path and guide others as would be directed to follow them, not to be misled from their destination of the Absolute. Come with me on this journey to the past, both distant and near, and we shall see how the Kamsa’s of Kali attempt to put down the truth as before it has time to develop. What Will We Believe? As explained by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, the necessary requirement by which the Kamsas and Putanas achieve their success is the willingness of the masses to accept as true their atheistic propaganda. Naturally we ask how can they be successful with lies. Why are people not able to discern truth from lies? The answer is that their understanding and acceptance of what is true depends entirely upon the purity of their consciousness. Those with pure consciousness will feel something amiss when faced with falsity. Those with a crooked heart will hear what pleases them, and on this basis, accept it true. Benjamin Franklin noted that it is impossible to cheat an honest man—he is immunized by his righteousness. Conversely, con artists are most successful when soliciting the help of people to engage in crooked and dishonest schemes. Using the victim’s willingness to reap unearned rewards by cheating someone else, the con swindles them in such a way that they have no recourse to legal authorities, since the entire endeavor was illegal to begin with. Spam email promising large sums in exchange for assistance in removing stolen millions of dollars from fratricidal African nations seems to be the latest ‘craze’ con. These same principles apply in the area of religious belief. The cheating business can go on only because the atheistic tendencies of the masses, by which they would ‘cheat’ religion by making it the tool of their own pleasure seeking efforts. Truth is revealed to a sādhaka because of his submissive aural reception, who, in the surrender process gives up his false understanding. If the hearer is not submissive however, and maintains an attitude of superior understanding, he provides no fertile field in which the truth can be sown. Rather than surrendering to the truth he rejects it because he does not perceive in it what he wants to hear. In this way the crooked hearts place themselves as unqualified arbiters, reject truth, and purchase falsity. But what qualification does a common person have for such a distinctive position? None in fact. Whereas the devotee understands the truth by the verification of guru, shastra and sadhu, those with a cheating mentality rely on their own understanding, or that offered to them by seeming ‘authorities’. It is my position that the words of Vyasadeva, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta and Srila Prabhupada are not written allegorically, but are factually true: that there are demonic personalities that control the earth at this time, and they are staunchly opposed to any manifestation of the Absolute Truth. Their efforts to suppress the truth by any means fair and foul, and to exert their control in every facet of life is a given, and if it can be accepted, this one fact can do more to explain many of the stunning events and illogical trends on the world scene in the early 21st century than the host of alibis offered to, and reported by, an unquestioning press by the so-called leaders of the world. That is, the activities of the demonic controllers now go far beyond the domain of religion to include control of the entire globe. This understanding is the basis for my views throughout this work, and I urge my reader, if only temporarily, to adopt it, as it is this perspective that permits us to discern the truth behind the anomalies that confound us. The reader should not be surprised then by my bias and attitude. Footnotes: [1] Mahabharata, translated and edited by J.A.B. van Buitenen, Uof Chicago Press 1973, Vol. 1, p. 136-7 [2] According to modern accounts, history prior to some 5,000 years ago is considered to be pre-history. Since the demons had not much experience here on earth prior to that time, for them it is pre-history. That would be the history of the Godly ages, an era of no interest to the Rāksasas. [3] Srimad Bhagavatam 6.18.12-13. Also: “Diti and Aditi are two sisters. The sons of Aditi are called Adityas, and the sons of Diti are called Daityas. All the Adityas are devotees of the Lord, and all the Daityas are atheistic.” Purport Bhagavad-gita 10.30 [4] The Greeks: known as Pulindas. It is mentioned in the Vana-parva of Mahäbhärata that the non-Vedic race of this part of the world would rule over the world. This Pulinda province was also one of the provinces of Bhārata, and the inhabitants were classified amongst the ksatriya kings. But later on, due to their giving up the brahminical culture, they were mentioned as mlecchas. Hunas [Germans]: The area of East Germany and part of Russia is known as the province of the Hunas, [a race of people addicted to sinful acts who can become purified by taking shelter of the Lord’s devotees]. Abhīra [Arabs]: This name also appears in the Mahābhärata, both in the Sabhā-parva and Bhīsma-parva. This province was situated on the River Sarasvatī in Sind. The modern Sind province formerly extended on the other side of the Arabian Sea, and all the inhabitants of that province were known as the Abhīras. They were under the domination of Mahāräja Yudhisthira, and according to the statements of Mārkandeya the mlecchas of this part of the world would also rule over Bhārata. Later on this proved to be true, as in the case of the Pulindas. On behalf of the Pulindas, Alexander the Great conquered India, and on behalf of the Äbhīras, Muhammad Ghori conquered India. These Abhīras were also formerly ksatriyas within the brahminical culture, but they gave up the connection. The ksatriyas who were afraid of Parasurāma and had hidden themselves in the Caucasian hilly regions later on became known as the Abhīras, and the place they inhabited was known as Abhīradesha. The Turks: Yavana was the name of one of the sons of Mahäräja Yayāti who was given the part of the world known as Turkey to rule. Therefore the Turks are Yavanas due to being descendants of Mahāräja Yavana. The Yavanas were therefore ksatriyas, and later on, by giving up the brahminical culture, they became mleccha-yavanas. Descriptions of the Yavanas are in the Mahābhärata (Ädi-parva 85.34). Another prince called Turvasu was also known as Yavana, and his country was conquered by Sahadeva, one of the Pāndavas. The western Yavana joined with Duryodhana in the Battle of Kurukñetra under the pressure of Karna. It is also foretold that these Yavanas also would conquer India, and it proved to be true. Purport Srimad Bhagavatam 2.4.18 [5] Purport SB 7.3.13 [6] Lecture on Bhagavad-gītā 9.11-14 New York, November 27, 1966 [7] The Secret Team, Preface to the1972 edition. [8] Ibid., [9] Bhagavad-gita, see Chapter16, texts 4-20 [10] Manipulation of literature, particularly scripture is covered in detail in later chapters. As an example of social indoctrination I cite here an article entitled The Language Police in The Atlantic Monthly, March 2003. Professor of Education Diane Ravitch reproduces there a list of words that have been banned from use by writers of textbooks and tests for K-12 students. Included in the list are God, hell, devil, dogma, fanatic, insane, and Satan among dozens of others. Obviously if children are not to read, and hence discuss, God, hell, the devil or Satan they will have little or no conceptualization of these ideas, or the use of them to understand their world—especially if their parents don’t take them to church or otherwise provide any spiritual education. Such ignorance opens these individuals to exploitation by the ill-motivated, at the expense of untold karma. [11] Srimad-Bhägavatam 7.6.1 -- Hong Kong, April 18, 1972 [12] Srimad Bhagavatam 3.20.21 [13] There are many such highly-intelligent other-than-human life forms described in the Vedic literatures. The Yaksas, for example, although demons have mystic powers with which they bewildered Dhruva when he fought with them. The Nagas are a race of intelligent serpents also endowed with intelligence and even mystical abilities. Apparently they can also adopt different forms since Arjuna married a Naga King’s daughter and had a son by her, just as Bhima had a son by the rāksasī Hidimbī. [14] David Icke, The Biggest Secret, p. 29-40. Also with Arizona Wilder in private conversation. [15] See the illustrations in The Biggest Secret, p. 204. [16] Srimad Bhagavatam, Purport 7.1.9 [17] Bhagavad-gita 7:15 [18] Bhagavad-gita 9.11-13 [19] Lecture on ŸSrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.10.20 -- London, May 24, 1973 [20] Bhagavad-gita 2.32 purport [21] Bharata at one time extended from what is now the Middle East to the far reaches of the East. We note with interest that first century Roman historian, Flavius Josephus, indicates that what is known as mythical and idyllic Garden of Eden appears to be the entirety of Bharata and included the territory between the rivers Ganges and Nile! “Moses says further, that God planted a paradise in the east, flourishing with all sorts of trees; and that among them was the tree of life, and another of knowledge, whereby was to be known what was good and evil; and that when he brought Adam and his wife into this garden, he commanded them to take care of the plants. Now the garden was watered by one river, which ran round about the whole earth, and was parted into four parts. And Phison, which denotes a multitude, running into India, makes its exit into the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates also, as well as Tigris, goes down into the Red Sea. Now the name Euphrates, or Phrath, denotes either a dispersion, or a flower: by Tiris, or Diglath, is signified what is swift, with narrowness; and Geon runs through Egypt, and denotes what arises from the east, which the Greeks call Nile.” Josephus Antiquity Book 1, text 3 [22] Historians consider these descendents from the Caucasus region as Aryans, naturally due to the culture they carried with them. They had not the true Aryan culture however, and they were not genuine Aryans—they were the rejects of true Aryan culture of India. [23] Recall: “Men in the mode of goodness worship the demigods; those in the mode of passion worship the demons; and those in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.” Bhagavad-gita 17.4 [24] Ibid., p. 5 [25] Jehovah is the purported God of the Old Testament. However, we will learn in the next chapter that the 1st century Jewish Christians considered the Torah to have been falsified, the true loving God being replaced with the angry, vindictive, and blood-thirsty god Jehovah. [26] Ibid. p. 6 [27] Srimad Bhagavatam 12.1.40-41 [28] Ibid., Purport 9.15.15 [29] Stanton Coblentz, Avarice, A History, p. 21 [30] Malachi Martin, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church, p. 179-80 [31] Smith, Huston, Why Religion Matters—The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief Books on atheistic agenda referenced by Smith include the following: Brian Appleyard, Understanding the Present: Science and the Soul of Modern Man; Page Smith, Killing the Spirit: Higher Education in America; George Marsden, The Soul of the American University—from Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief; Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate over Science and Religion; Stephen Carter, The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion [32] Srimad Bhagavatam 4.2.34 [33] The article Putana regarding the efforts of atheism within the guise of theism has been reproduced in Appendix A. The reader is urged to carefully study this document. [34] Srimad Bhagavatam 5.6.9 [35] Ÿrī Chaitanya-charitāmrta, Adi 10.11 |
