FRENCH OLYMPIC HERO COMMITS SUICIDE

PIERRE QUINON, VETERAN POLE VAULTER
 CHAMPION FROM FRANCE COMMITS SUICIDE

Paris (AFP) - Former Olympic pole-vault champion Pierre Quinon has committed suicide at the age of 49, the French Athletics Federation announced on Thursday.  The news was confirmed by family members.  Quinon’s hour of golden glory came at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, a year after he broke the world record with a leap of 5.82m.  He retired in 1992 and entered the restaurant business in the south of France, and had also been involved in preparations for the 2015 World Masters Athletics in Lyon.  Quinon was part of a golden generation of French pole-vaulters coached by Jean-Claude Perrin that included Thierry Vigneron and he reached the summit when he smashed the world record with 5.82 metres at Cologne in 1982.  That mark lasted just four days before Vigneron went one centimetre higher, but it was Quinon who took gold at the Los Angeles Games ahead of Mike Tully of the United States with Vigneron settling for the bronze.

Among other major achievements during the professional career of the French athlete, we have a silver medal at the 1984 European Indoor Championships, where again, he finished just behind traditional rival, Vigneron. On his sad demise, the world athletics body, the French athletics federation and spectators of the vaulter world around mourned the loss. He was indeed a great champion and a greater player.  It was the first time that a Frenchman had won Olympic gold in the pole vault and represented the peak of his career with injuries spoiling his form in later years before he finally retired in 1992 and entered the restaurant business in the south of France, and had also been involved in preparations for the 2015 World Masters Athletics in Lyon. A police inquiry has been opened into the circumstances of his death.

Former Olympic pole-vault champion Pierre Quinon has committed suicide at the age of 49, the French Athletics Federation announced.  Quinon’s hour of golden glory came at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, a year after he broke the world record with a leap of 5.82m.  Sources of Athletics Federation said Quiñones "suffered from depression" and was on medication.  A confused, frustrated man cannot get relief by committing suicide because suicide will simply lead him to take birth in the lower species of life or to remain a ghost, unable to attain a gross material body.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The reason for depression may be different for each person, and there are a variety of causes. ... And what is worse, if the depression is not remedied, then it can escalate to feelings of suicide.  When a person in despair feels that all of their basic defenses are broken and there is no one to turn to, nor can they find a comforting voice to console or support them, then they may conclude that there is no way out but through death.  If their cry for help is not heard or seems to be ignored, or if they do not know where to find help, then suicide may be considered as a last resort.  But it must be understood that suicide is never the end.  And suicide, and the state of mind that one has to compel one to commit suicide, is never a way for progressing into the next realm.  Death is never the final act.  It only opens the door to additional challenges that must be met or endured, depending on how one leaves their body.

Stephen Knapp (Śrīpad Nandanandana dasa) :
“Curing Depression with Spirituality”
http://www.stephen-knapp.com  -  http://www.stephenknapp.info/
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/curing_depression_with_spirituality.htm

POPE LAMENTS ‘AMNESIA’ ABOUT GOD DURING SPAIN TRIP

POPE LAMENTED “AMNESIA” ABOUT GOD,
A DENIAL OF THE TREASURE OF OUR FAITH

Madrid (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI lamented Friday what he called modern society’s “amnesia” about God as he traveled to a famed Spanish monastery on the second day of his four-day visit for the church’s world youth festival.  Several hundred young nuns cheered, waved flags and performed the “wave” at El Escorial monastery as they waited for Benedict inside a courtyard of the 16th-century complex, a UNESCO world heritage site.  Benedict told them their decisions to dedicate their lives to their faith was a potent message in today’s increasingly secular world.  “This is all the more important today when we see a certain eclipse of God taking place, a kind of amnesia which albeit not an outright rejection of Christianity is nonetheless a denial of the treasure of our faith, a denial that could lead to the loss of our deepest identity,” he said.

As he arrived Thursday, Benedict offered words of encouragement to young people facing precarious futures because of the economic crisis, calling for policy makers to take ethical considerations that look out for the common good into account when formulating economic policy.  Benedict’s main priority as pope has been to try to reawaken Christianity in places like Spain, a once staunchly Catholic country that has drifted far from its pious roots.  He has traveled here three times as pope, an indication that he views it as the key battleground as he tries to remind Europe of its Christian heritage and the place he believes God should still have in everyday life.  Later Friday, he will have lunch with a dozen young volunteers of World Youth Day.

Pope Benedict XVI has said modern society is suffering “amnesia” about God on the second day of his four-day visit to Madrid for World Youth Day events.  Benedict denounced the profit-at-all-cost mentality that he says is behind Europe’s current economic crisis and said morals and ethics must play a greater role in formulating economic policy in the future.  Addressing the nuns, Benedict said “In a world of relativism and mediocrity, we need that radicalism to which your consecration, as a way of belonging to the God who is loved above all things, bears witness.”  Unless one practices celibacy, advancement in spiritual life is very difficult.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Celibacy is such an important part of Vedic education that the Sanskrit word for student is brahmacari (“celibate”).  The pressure to give up celibacy begins, of course, in adolescence, the most dangerous age and often the turning point of one’s life.  Young adults need guidance before and during the teenage years to recognize and follow the right path.  Celibacy trains adolescents for self-restraint, whether they stay single or get married.  It develops their inner strength, self-control, and good character.  It also fosters good health and a fine memory.  Without celibacy we can never realize that we are spirit soul, distinct from the body.  Sex reinforces the illusion that we are these bodies.  Sexual attraction and its extensions in family and society are the main knots that bind us to material identification. Vedic education aims to free the child from these knots so the adolescent can act on the spiritual plane.

Śrīmati Urmila devi dasi :
“Teens and Celibacy”
http://urmila.me.uk/
http://www.brahmacarya.info/2010/03/teens-and-celibacy/

UNPLANNED CHILDREN DEVELOP MORE SLOWLY

CHILDREN BORN AFTER UNPLANNED
PREGNANCY ARE SLOWER TO DEVELOP

www.foxnews.com - Children that are the result of unplanned pregnancies tend to experience developmental delays, according to a new study published by the British Medical Journal.  The study found that other factors, like disadvantaged socioeconomic situations, also limit the child’s vocabulary and spatial abilities.  Those pregnancies that are unplanned are also less likely to make it to childbirth.  In the UK, where the study was conducted, nearly 30 to 40 percent of pregnancies that continue through childbirth are not planned.  It is already known that children born after a prolonged time to conception or assisted reproduction are at greater risk of poor health outcomes, such as preterm birth, low birth weight, and congenital anomalies, and some researchers have reported lower cognitive (mental) scores in such children.  So a team of UK researchers set out to investigate in 12,000 children how pregnancy planning, time to conception, and infertility treatment influence a child's cognitive development at three and five years old. 

The study looked at how pregnancy planning, time to conception and infertility treatment affect cognitive development.  Researchers looked at whether the pregnancy was planned, the mother’s feelings at the beginning of her pregnancy, the time to conceive and infertility drug use.  Children were tested for verbal, non-verbal and spatial ability.  Results originally showed that kids born from unplanned pregnancies were four to five months behind planned children in verbal abilities, while those kids born after assisted reproduction were three to four months ahead. 
Though, these findings were later attributed to the children’s disadvantaged home situations.  The study also said that there are no adverse effects of infertility treatment on the children.

Young children born after unplanned pregnancies tend to have a smaller vocabulary and poorer non-verbal and spatial abilities than other children; however, these problems are actually due to socioeconomic factors, a new study suggests.  The differences in verbal abilities - between children born after an unplanned pregnancy and planned children - disappeared when the researchers took into account the socioeconomic circumstances of each child.  Beyond the results of this study we should understand that respecting the link between sex and reproduction is part of a foundation upon which one can exhibit real love.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

If we ask, “Why are so many children today not raised with love in a stable home?” and “Why do people use birth control?” the answers will be practically the same: the parents think sex is for pleasure only, not for reproduction. ... Those who try to prevent pregnancy - through surgery, devices, chemicals, or unnatural sexual practices - develop a mentality of seeing their body as meant for their own purposes, rather than seeing both their body and the bodies of their children as gifts from God to be engaged in His service. The contraceptive users so much despise Krishna’s plan for the human body that they alter its natural function. They come to hate the responsibilities integral to their own bodies. When those responsibilities take the form of children, they may resent the children as well.

Śrīmati Urmila devi dasi :
“Birth Control Myths”
“All Children Raised With Stability and Love?”
http://www.vaisnavafamilyresources.org/content/birth-control-myths
http://urmila.me.uk/

TORTURE CAMP REVEALED IN ZIMBABWE

DIAMOND “TORTURE CAMP”
DISCOVERED IN ZIMBABWE

London (www.nytimes.com) - Britain has urged the authorities in Zimbabwe to investigate a BBC report that its security forces are beating and raping prisoners at two camps in the Marange diamond fields in the east of the country. International monitors voted to allow exports from the fields to resume in June despite objections from the United States, Canada and the European Union.  The BBC’s documentary program “Panorama” said the camps hold workers who were recruited by the police and the military to dig illegally for diamonds for them, but who then demand too large a share of the profits or civilians caught mining for themselves.  A  released prisoner who was not named said guards at the camps were beating prisoners three times a day, with 40 lashes at a time.  Dogs were loosed to bite shackled inmates, and imprisoned women were frequently raped, the program said.  The Zimbabwean authorities offered no immediate comment.

The government of President Robert Mugabe has been working to increase its legal sales of diamonds. Mr. Mugabe’s political opponents fear that he will use diamond income to finance a violent campaign to win elections that are likely to be held next year.  One of the torture camps identified, Diamond Base, is about a mile from the Mbada mine, which the BBC says is run by a friend of Mr. Mugabe. Witnesses cited by the program described Diamond Base as “a remote collection of military tents, with an outdoor razor-wire enclosure” to hold the prisoners.  “They beat us 40 whips in the morning, 40 in the afternoon and 40 in the evening,” said the man, who still could not use one of his arms after the beatings and could barely walk.  “They used logs to beat me here, under my feet, as I lay on the ground. They also used stones to beat my ankles.”

A torture camp run by Zimbabwe’s security forces is operating in the country’s rich Marange diamond fields and it is known locally as “Diamond Base”.  Witnesses said it is a remote collection of military tents, with an outdoor razor wire enclosure where the prisoners are kept.  They are routinely subjected to rape; sexual assault; severe beatings and some are mauled by dogs.  Civilians are recruited to illegally dig for diamonds for them and they are taken to the camps for punishment if they demand too large a share of the profits.  There are many kinds of vikarma, such as greed, cruelty, violence and lust for the wives of others.  

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The more you try to satisfy your senses, the more you will come under the control of lust, greed and anger. Lust is there when you want to satisfy your material desires. Greed is there when you want more than you need.  Anger will always be there in some form when you fail to achieve what you want, or when you attain it but then lose it. The unmerciful masters of lust, greed and anger will never leave you alone. ... A good standard of morals must be followed because such rules promote the prosperity of social life.  If a standard of morals is not followed, then the lack of respect people will have for each other, and the crimes that follow, will force all social happiness to quickly disappear.  Therefore, we should cultivate the principle sentiments of love, kindness, friendship, and mercy, for the promotion of social good and prosperity.

Stephen Knapp (Śrīpad Nandanandana dasa) :
"Toward World Peace: Seeing the Unity Between Us All"
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/toward_world_peace_ebook.htm
http://www.stephen-knapp.com  -  http://www.stephenknapp.info/

JUNO IS ON THE WAY TO JUPITER

NASA’S JUNO SPACECRAFT
HEADED TO JUPITER FRIDAY

‎http://www.accuweather.com - NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 12:25 p.m. EDT Friday to begin a five-year journey to Jupiter.  Juno’s detailed study of the largest planet in our solar system will help reveal Jupiter’s origin and evolution. As the archetype of giant gas planets, Jupiter can help scientists understand the origin of our solar system and learn more about planetary systems around other stars.  “Today, with the launch of the Juno spacecraft, NASA began a journey to yet another new frontier,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “The future of exploration includes cutting-edge science like this to help us better understand our solar system and an ever-increasing array of challenging destinations.”

After Juno’s launch aboard an Atlas V rocket, mission controllers now await telemetry from the spacecraft indicating it has achieved its proper orientation, and that its massive solar arrays, the biggest on any NASA deep-space probe, have deployed and are generating power.  Juno will cover the distance from Earth to the Moon (about 250,000 miles) in less than one day’s time. It will take another five years and 1,740 million miles to complete the journey to Jupiter. The spacecraft will orbit the planet’s poles 33 times and use its collection of eight science instruments to probe beneath the gas giant’s obscuring cloud cover to learn more about its origins, structure, atmosphere, and magnetosphere, and look for a potential solid planetary core.  With four large moons and many smaller moons, Jupiter forms its own miniature solar system.

A sun-powered robotic explorer named Juno is rocketing toward Jupiter on a fresh quest to discover the secret “recipe” for making planets.  It will take five years to reach Jupiter, the solar system’s most massive and ancient planet.  With Juno, scientists hope to answer some of the most fundamental questions of our solar system: “How Jupiter formed. How it evolved. What really happened early in the solar system that eventually led to all of us?”  As the modern scientists are conditioned souls liable to so many errors and mistakes, the safe side as regards the creation of the universe is to accept the version of Vedic literatures.  

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

In the creation of the Lord there are many wonderful things we can see with our own eyes every day and night, but we are unable to reach them equipped by modern materialistic science. We should not, therefore, depend on the fragmentary authority of materialistic science for knowing things beyond the range of scientific purview. For a common man, both modern science and Vedic wisdom are simply to be accepted because none of the statements either of modern science or of Vedic literature can be verified by him. The alternative for a common man is to believe either of them or both of them. The Vedic way of understanding, however, is more authentic because it has been accepted by the ācāryas, who are not only faithful and learned men, but are also liberated souls without any of the flaws of conditioned souls.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam - Canto 2: “The Cosmic Manifestation”
Chapter 2: “The Lord in the Heart”- Verse 26
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase

ANTIDEPRESSANTS BEING PRESCRIBED NEEDLESSLY

ANTIDEPRESSANTS ARE OFTEN GIVEN
WITH NO PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSES

http://www.medscape.com - Antidepressant prescribing by nonpsychiatrist providers in the United States has increased substantially in recent years.  What’s particularly “worrisome,” say the report’s authors, is that a “large and growing” proportion of antidepressant prescribing by nonpsychiatrists happens without an accompanying psychiatric diagnosis.  “Many of the patients who are receiving these medications are dealing with the stresses of life or physical illness, and there is no evidence that antidepressants are effective in these groups of patients,” lead author Ramin Mojtabai, MD, PhD, MPH, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, said in a statement.  Dr. Mojtabai and coauthor Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, from the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University in New York City, examined national trends over 12 years (1996-2007) in antidepressant prescribing by office-based nonpsychiatrists. 

According to the results, the proportion of antidepressants prescribed for patients WITHOUT a psychiatric diagnosis increased from 2.5% of all visits to nonpsychiatrist providers to 6.4% between 1996 and 2007.  In contrast, antidepressants prescribed WITH a psychiatric diagnosis increased only slightly over the study period, from 1.7% 2.4%.   “In patients with very mild symptoms of mental disorders,” Dr. Narrow explained, “usually the best mode of action is to provide psychotherapy, behavior changes, exercise, and other lifestyle changes, which are often very effective, whereas antidepressants, for example, in very mild cases of depression, tend not to work very well.”  The study is published in the August issue of Health Affairs.

More Americans are being prescribed antidepressant medications by their doctors even though they were not given a psychiatric diagnosis, according to a new study.  Antidepressants are increasingly prescribed for people who have not been diagnosed with an actual psychiatric disorder.  Inappropriate prescribing of antidepressants can expose patients to withdrawal symptoms when they go off the drugs.  In addition, antidepressants are under increasing scrutiny for their side effects, which include weight gain, sexual problems, and diabetes.  

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

So with all this progress why the greatest medical problem is mental health, mental disease, depression. This is a serious problem today, depression and it’s not the problem is not amongst just the poor people. It’s the upper class, the aristocrats as well as the middle class. So much depression. Insanity, frustration, suicide, just people minds just burst with craziness, they just go on rape people, shoot people. ... So yes, so much tremendous progress but Prabhupada our Guru Maharaj said there is a pinprick in society. There is frustration, there is depression, and there is loneliness. The mind is simply not satisfied. The mind will never be satisfied no matter how much you money you make, no matter how much sex you have, no matter how much power you have, no matter how much position you have, no matter how much land you own. The mind will never be satisfied.

Śrīla Radhanath Swami Mahārāja :
“Conquering The Greatest Enemy”
http://www.radhanathmaharaj.net/content/conquering-greatest-enemy-radhanath-swami
http://www.radhanath-swami.net/  -  http://radhanathswami.info/

IN INDIA, ‘CHEER QUEENS’ OPT FOR SARIS

INDIAN CHEER SQUAD WEARS
SARIS, THE TRADITIONAL GARB

New Delhi, India - Cheerleading arrived in India three years ago with the inception of a shorter, more TV-friendly form of cricket, a three-hour version of a game that, in its purest form, lasts five days with breaks for tea.  To attract audiences to the glitzy new Indian Premier League, organizers drew on an age-old principle - sex sells - and introduced U.S.-style cheerleaders in bikinis, miniskirts and high boots.  Many male fans welcomed the idea. But right-wing, religious and feminist groups quickly condemned it as “vulgar,” “walking porn” and “frivolous eye candy” in a nation where, sensuality is not frequently discussed or displayed in public.  At least half the cheerleaders were foreigners, including several members of the Washington Redskins cheerleading squad who wear short skirts.  They’re “worse than bar dancers,” complained Maharashtra state minister Siddharam Mhetre. “Mothers and daughters watch these matches and it does not look nice.”

In a bid to appeal to the cultured side of the sports-fan brain, the Warriors introduced its traditional-culture, fully clothed approach to crowd excitement. Cheerleaders juggle seven traditional dance forms and multiple costumes in a bid to encapsulate India’s 5,000-year diversity before spectators, all in a heat that can reach 120 degrees Farenheit.  The cheerleading squad for the Indian cricket team Pune Warriors takes a traditional-culture, fully clothed approach to motivate players and fans. It calls for complex hand waves and traditional dance steps in saris. “The concept of Cheer Queens is an extraordinary way of showcasing our national artistic heritage to the world,” says Abhijit Sarkar, director of the Pune Warriors.

An Indian cricket team said it is “showcasing our national heritage” by employing cheerleaders dressed in full-length traditional clothing.  Abhijit Sarkar, director of the Pune Warriors, said the “cheer queens” reviving up the crowds for the teams are dressed conservatively and use complex hand waves and traditional dances in the place of high kicks and splits.  He said the idea of the “cheer queens” is an incredible means to expose to the world their ancient artistic tradition.  Keeping traditions and avoid losing the sense of decorum and decency are the basis of social morality.  

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Tradition includes dress-code, demeanours and flexibility or by its popular name, social freedom, as diagnostic devices for nature, impression and depiction of inner discipline. It describes about the subtle impact of every inch of thought, exposure and action in character, which may not be digestible to the fashion world. ... Unfortunately, this is branded as a western culture, whereas it is a degraded form of global cultural stamina, which has infected the western community.  Due to continuous engagement in scientific and economic pursuits, west has lost its immunity in self and social control, which has made it the first and the worst vulnerable region for ethical degradation. ... Without cultural framework, any self styled discipline, audacity and insecure freedom will certainly dismantle any orderly society or even an organised one.

Śrīla S.A.R. Prasanna Venkatachariar Chaturvedi Swamy :
Acarya de la Ramanuja Sampradaya
“International Conference on Interfaith” - “Culture”
“Culture, Philosophy, Literature and Religion” 2009, Mumbai, India.
http://saranagathi.org/blogs/members/chaturvedi
http://www.sriramanujamissiontrust.org

KAMLA COMES HOME

KAMLA COMES HOME,
AND IS MUCH HAPPIER FOR THAT

India - www.hindustantimes.com - In an article written for the Hindustan Times, the author - Tavishi Paitandy Rastogi - explains that in the Seventies, feminists urged women to go out of their homes and work. Domesticity limited their potential, women were told, and they could do much more with their lives than remain restricted to their nurturing and homemaking roles. “What men can do, women can do too, and maybe better” was their anthem.  Now, the idea of women going out to work is commonplace.  Economic independence has been the buzzword for women for years now. However, a growing number of women today are actually choosing not to go out into the workplace. Maybe they’ve tried working and opted out because they couldn’t manage home and office. Maybe they’ve stopped working to bring up their children. Or maybe they want to stay at home.  Today, women can choose - to step out or to stay in.

Dr. Syed Mubin Zehra, social analyst, says “It is a very conscious and individual decision, without any sort of pressure. And thus holds a lot of value and is far more fulfilling.”  The choice to stay at home, however, is governed by a host of factors.
Unnati Kant, an HR professional, decided to quit and stay at home because she felt that her responsibilities towards her home were higher on her priority list. “Work was important but there were other things as well. We wanted to start a family. Bringing up a child, I knew, was a full time job, so I gave up the other one. Also, the decision was purely mine. No one told me to quit. But I didn’t want to compromise on the quality time that I could devote to my child if I stayed at home. 
Besides, the choice to go back to work is always open, right? My qualifications exist and so does the support from family.”

Analysts of this issue say that unlike men, who grow up with the notion that they have to provide for the family, the idea of going out to work was not ‘intrinsic’ to women in general. It was a certain section of feminists who propagated the idea and it became a movement.  Most marriages are based on this unwritten understanding that the man holds the responsibility to generate income to run the house. The woman may choose to earn but if she doesn’t, it is the man’s duty to cater to her needs.  The Vedic scriptures, source and pattern of spirituality, have taught how the members of the Hindu family can live happily.  

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Hindu families all over the world are struggling - some failing, most succeeding. Our experience is that those most rooted in their Hinduness cope better and are the better survivors. Hindu households, sheltering one-sixth of the human race, are being threatened. ... Hinduism teaches a constellation of principles which, if followed by husband and wife, make the bold assertion that preserving the marriage and the integrity of the family.  Hinduism teaches them the ideals of dharma, which includes duty, selflessness, virtue and faith. When dharma is the shared ideal of every family member - as opposed to self-fulfillment or social-economic objectives - it is easier to navigate troubled waters, easier to persist in seasons of loss or lack, in times of emotional or mental difficulty.  An important ideal that help a family survive in Hinduism is that father and mother are the children’s first guru, first teacher of things of the spirit.

“What Is Hinduism?” :
Chapter 10: “Family Life and Monastic Life”
“The Spiritual Ideals of Hinduism’s” - “The Hindu View of Family”
Hinduism Today Magazine - Himalaya Academy, India - USA - 2007
http://www.hinduism-today.com/modules/wfdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=25&lid=40

DELHI STAGES ‘SLUTWALK’ AGAINST SEXUAL VIOLENCE

INDIAN WOMEN HELD SLUTWALK
SEX HARASSMENT PROTEST IN DELHI

http://www.bbc.co.uk - A rally has taken place in India’s capital inspired by the “Slutwalk” protests held in a number of countries.  The protest is to challenge the notion that the way a woman looks can excuse sexual abuse or taunting - “Eve teasing” as it is known in India.  The protests originated in Canada after a policeman said women could avoid rape by not dressing like “sluts”.  The organisers are trying to challenge the mindset that the victims of sexual violence are to blame for the crimes committed against them.  Delhi can be a very difficult city for women, with sexual harassment commonplace, and rapes and abduction all too frequent.  And according to a recent survey, India remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women.  One protester told: “Every girl has the right to wear whatever she wants, to do whatever she wants to do with her body.  It’s our lives, our decisions, unless it’s harming you, you have no right to say anything.”

Hundreds took part in Delhi, though there was little of the skimpy dressing that has marked protests elsewhere.  Most of the marchers in Delhi were soberly dressed in jeans and T-shirts or traditional shalwar kameez.  “You stare at me not because of my clothes but because I’m a woman”, read one of the placards.  Another protester said: “There are a lot of problems for women in Delhi because a lot of women do face sexual harassment and just a couple of weeks ago the chief of police of Delhi said that if a women was out after 02.00 she was responsible for what happens to her, and I don’t think that’s the right attitude.”  India recorded almost 22,000 rape cases in 2008, 18% up on 2004.  “The purpose of this Slutwalk is to address three issues of gender inequality, gender stereotypes and victim blaming,” Mishika Singh, one of the organisers said.

An Indian version of Slut Walk was held on Delhi's streets on Sunday with women - mainly of school and college students - along with many men who support them to protest against harassment and abuse.  The concept of a Slut Walk started in Toronto, Canada in April this year after women there staged a protest against a police officer’s remark that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised,” which is another way of blaming the victim.  “The clothes we wear, don’t give anyone the right to rape us”, read one of the placards.  The consciousness of the conditioned living being is covered by lust.  

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Prema, and Kama (or sensual love in any form), are on two different levels. Prema is possible in the transcendental Realm of God alone, while Kama or sensual love is on the plane of mundane senses. It will be an utter mistake to attempt to understand Prema in terms of the knowledge of mundane love or lust (be it human or animal). It is only by honest and earnest spiritual practices or sadhana that an individual may gradually climb the different steps of the ladder, from the lowest step of Sraddha to the highest step of Prema. A mere jump from the lowest to the highest, from Kama or mundane love (which is only another form of mundane lust) to Prema will simply hurl one into the abyss of mundane lust, and such a person can never realise and relish the mellow-sweetness of supra-mundane Krsna-Prema.

Śrīla Bhakti Hridaya Bon (Vana) Mahārāja :
Sri Rupa Goswami’s “Bhakti-Rasamrta-Sindu”
Transliteration in English with Translation with Comments
http://bvml.org/SHBM/brs.htm - Bhaktivedanta Memorial Library