Concious Hip Hop

KRS-One raps about meat eating way back in 1990.
This song entitled 'Beef' is from his Boogie Down Productions album.





Lyrics:
Beef, what a relief
When will this poisonous product cease?
This is another public service announcement
You can believe it, or you can doubt it
Let us begin now with the cow
The way it gets to your plate and how
The cow doesn't grow fast enough for man
So through his greed he makes a faster plan
He has drugs to make the cow grow quicker
Through the stress the cow gets sicker
Twenty-one different drugs are pumped
Into the cow in one big lump
So just before it dies, it cries
In the slaughterhouse full of germs and flies
Off with the head, they pack it, drain it, and cart it
And there it is, in your local supermarket
Red and bloody, a corpse, neatly packed
And you wonder about heart attacks?
Come on now man let's be for real
You are what you eat is the way I feel
But, the food and drug administration
Will tell you meat is the perfect combination
See cows live under fear and stress
Trying to think what's gonna happen next
Fear and stress can become a part of you
In your cells and blood, this is true
So when the cow is killed, believe it
You preserve those cells, you freeze it
Thaw it out with the blood and season it
Then you sit down and begin eatin it
In your body, it's structure becomes your structure
All the fear and stress of another
Any drug is addictive by any name
Even drugs in meat, they are the same
The fda has america strung out
On drugs in beef no doubt
So if you think that what I say is a bunch of crock
Tell yourself you're gonna try and stop
Eatin meat and you'll see you can't compete
It's the number one drug on the street
Not crack, cause that was made for just black
But brown beef, for all american teeth
Life brings life and death brings death
Keep on eatin the dead and what's left
Absolute disease and negative
Read the book 'how to eat to live'
By elijah muhammad, it's a brown paperback
For anybody, either white or black
See how many cows must be pumped up fatter
How many rats gotta fall in the batter
How many chickens that eat s*!t you eat
How much high blood pressure you get from pig feet
See you'll consume, the fda could care less
They'll sell you donkey meat and say it's
Fresh! for nineteen-ninety, you suckers

Nectar of Instruction Seminar - New Varshan

Not to be missed!!!!

A 4 part Nectar of Instruction seminar presented by her grace Urmila devi dasi.

This is a very in depth and inspiring course which includes a professionally bound handout for all attending.

New Varshan Temple, Auckland , NZ.
Every Sunday, 7.30am starting 22nd March thru to 12 April.

Helpful Hint: Please read thru the verses before class if possible.

Parampara pics - High resolution

Hare Krishna - I'm looking for high resolutions pics of our disciplic succession (just of the main personalities we have on ISKCON temple alters) to print onto canvas.

Can anyone please help me?

Thankyou

your servant, Aghahanta das

garden update

Hare Krishna!
Well its been ages since I posted last. The nature to start or create something is a characteristic of the mode of passion (raja guna). Starting something is quite easy. Now maintaining it, a characteristic of the mode of goodness (sattva-guna) is another story. Hence my initial burst of blog posts and then ..errrrrrrrrrr... Nothing! Anyways no time like the present to get back on the horse.

The snake beans or yard long beans. They have been really sad ever since I transplanted them, couldn't figure out why. So the other night I got onto google and found out that they are a tropical bean and prefer warm soil, frequent watering among other things. Not so hardy as the scarlet runner or other common beans. When I planted them it was just kicking into Spring and there were a few frosty mornings and cold days still so that's what probably freaked them out. But since I gave them some sheep pellets the other day and a good watering they are looking much better and shooting off new stems.

Lettuces are pumping! Most probably the easiest and quickest thing to grow! Low maintenance.

Since this photo was taken the tomatoes plants are filling up with green tomatoes. I finally understood what my mum meant by the picking laterals and they are doing well. Also quite a easy plant to grow like the lettuce it seems.

Ahh the bitter melons or kerala. If this ever bears its fruits I'll be in bliss. Since this photo the left plant shriveled up and died after being peeked at by pukekos (see previous posts for the pukeko profile) and the 3rd plant is just hanging in there some how. But the middle one is the winner it has since taken off right up the trellis - looking forward to seeing some flowers soon. I think the sheep pellets once again are doing their thing.

I pulled out a batch of lettuces today, we just can't keep on top of them so I did some some drop offs to my neighbourly friends. Also it created a spot to plant something new - peas! I picked up some cheap seedlings on the weekend.
Also planted some more zucchini and silverbeet today.

My garden realisation for the day- "Sheep pooh rocks!"

"Ahhh, the good life" as my good friend Dharmasetu would say.

The Bramhacari garden

A few snapshots of the amazing vege gardens at the Brahmacari ashram in Otahuhu.

The landlord doesnt seem to mind that the whole section front and back without an inch to spare (except to park a car) has been converted into an abundant and colourful vegetable garden. pumpkins, tomatoes, bittermelon, potatoes, eggplant, beans, lettuce, passionfruit, lemons, grapes, beetroot, spinach, silverbeet etc etc the list just goes on and on.

Surpisingly enough the whole thing is practically managed and maintained by one devotee -

Yadu raya prabhu
(I hope I spelled that right Yadu!)
Here he is about to transport the prasadam the other devotees just cooked for the University program.

*please note his fingers are actually green, its just the angle of the light.










The photos don't really do justice as most things have only just been planted after the winter harvest so you don't get to see it in its most amazing looking state. Don't worry I ll be sure to post some of those photos in Summer!

To give you an idea of how valuable space is when you're pumping out a garden in surberbia for 10 or so very hungry sankirtan men heres a pic of the roadside potatoes out the front of their place..















Anyways, thats we I get my inspiration from.

Now heres a couple of pics of my puny little garden in comparison after planting the seedlings. The other pic also shows a second bed ready to plant out this weekend.
I picked some yard long beans (snake beans) to plant. They are nectar, i'll have to get a good subji recipe for them..got any?



If foodstuffs cooked in devotion for the Lord purify ones existence so what then of honoring prasadam cooked from vegetables that have been grown right from the very seed state in the same consciousness. (What to speak of all the extensive health benefits for the body)

HARE KRISHNA!

Damodara masa

Todays the first day of Kartika. I missed out on singing Damodarastakam this morning because i had to get ready for work. But not to worry as the Lord is so merciful he allows you to come and sing and offer a candle for him in the evening too.

I just brushed up my mrdanga skills before heading over by going over Sitapati's achived post on Damodarastakam beat. I'm supposed of already practised for a month! Oh well.

My 3 year old daughter Vedapriya has been waiting all day to see Lord Damodara and offer a ghee lamp. So she gets to stay up past bedtime to sing for the Lord. My not so fortunate memories of staying up past bedtime were to take darshan of the one eyed guru - T.V.ji.

Lord Damodara ki, jaya!!!

Growing veges for the 1st time

Gardening - can't say i ever really had the desire for it.
Hard work, dirty and takes so long to reap the fruits I always thought.
All the outlook of someone too influenced by the modes of passion and ignorance.

Well, for some reason or another I've become inspired to get my gummys on and give it a go out there. Which after thinking about all the positive benefits its hard not to become enthusiastic about growing your own.

We have heaps of space here at the place we rent on New Varshan.
There was also an existing overgrown vege garden. Its also Spring now in N.Z. great time to start planting.

This is what it looked like after we cleared out all the weeds and got things ready for planting. The frame with netting over the garden is to keep the pooks out!





Pook is short for pukeko, a NZ native bird.

They are a swamp bird. See the long claws, there for walking over swamps without getting stuck. Actually there more like a swamp crow. A scavenger.
Whatever you did that reacted in taking on a pukeko body must of been real sinful man as these guys continously fight, mate and steal food all day from each other as well as the ducks. Actually they even eat the ducklings - we were counting the ducklings each day to see how many were left. - 7 out of 11 I recall.

"Among envious birds I am the pukeko."
- Street Samhita

Anyways among their tastes is veges and little seedlings hence the enclosure over our garden.

To prepare the soil we didnt have any compost on hand so we bought some standard organic bags. Mixed that through the top layer of soil. Then on the advice of the seedling guy at the markets I also put some lime in too which apparently many gardens commonly lack. (No lime for tomatoes and potatoes though I was told).i then gave it a quick watering and left it for a week.

SEEDLINGS
I picked up a whole lot for a $1 each at the Avondale Markets. Not organic but hey I guess you gotta start somewhere especially with limited time. Also i figured it would easier on myself first time round to start with seedlings rather than start from seed. Next year I may be more prepared and go all the way. That would be really good. We have a few things in seed, like basil and corriander so we'll raise them over the next few weeks.




FERTILIZER
I'm using this seaweed fertilizer just cause its what we had lying around. I mixed up some with water and poured into bottom of the seedling holes and then covered that over with a little dirt to avoid burning roots.
Now my seedlings were ready for transplanting.
My next garden blog will show photos of seedlings in place as well as cultivation of a a second garden bed.
So far so good.
Hare Krishna!