HEALT CONFERENCE

1. Chocolate

2. Garlic, chocoalte and the worst: TV

3. Garlic &

4. Electric & electro magnetic fields

1. Chocolate

Ugresa (das)

I published a 12 page brochure about chocolate featuring a description on "Methylxanthines" a nasty group of chemicals also contained in chocolate in the form of "Theobromine" a close relative of caffeine, teein, guaranin and other alkaloids from the methylxanthine family.

Methylxanthines are very dangerous to health. Many health problems are related to them, without people knowing the connection to chocolate, tee, coffee guarana etcetera.

I could upload the brochure to the conference but I wrote it in German and had no time to translate it to English. It had the strongest effect on people I ever seen. Mothers where shocked when reading, what junk they gave to there children all the while and most of them stopped tacking chocolate right away, even persuading their friends to do so.

I am not fanatic about it and if people want to eat it, its their choice, but I want them to know what they are doing and not act like brainwashed zombies, thinking everything you see in TV commercials is good for them. Chocolate is far from being vegetarian, much further away than flour and other foods which usually also contain some bugs.

Having all this wonderful sweets in our cooking tradition I really dont understand why and how devotees can be attracted to it. I guess it is simply ignorance about the "quality" of this useless chunk food, a bad habit (even theobromin addiction might be possible) from before, or simply a way to show ones independence: I am not so fanatic like the others. I eat chocolate and commercial ice creme with animal derived emulsifiers. What is the big deal?

Hope not having offended anyone I beg to remain,

your servant Ugresa das

(Text COM:987005)

2. Garlic, chocoalte and the worst: TV

Radharadhya (das)

Chocolate is a known drug for the simple man, just like alcohol, caffein, cigarette and above all television (the biggest and most efficient electromagnetic drug on earth). TV is for sure more dangerous than chocolate and caffein together.

In my humble opinion we should never try to justify our small sins with the big sins of others. We have to start with ourselves, in this way we will change society (ours and theirs). We simply try to follow Srila Prabhupada's standard continued by his bona fide followers, and there is no need to water down or argue away their instructions in order to justify our sense gratification.

And another note of caution: medicines can easily serve to justify overstepping our principles (the whole garlic discussion which then was continued with chocolate). E.g. Hansaduta's addiction to alcohol and drugs started with him taking more and more alcoholic homeopathic medicines and then other stronger allopathic stuff. So we have to be careful, in spiritual life we are walking on a razor's edge, and it starts with the small transgressions that become normal and accepted.

(Text COM:990975)

3. Garlic &

Mangala (dd)

We don't mention onion and garlic particularly on the initiation, but we are not supposed to eat them becuse they are affecting the consciousness by increasing the mode of passion, and thus lusty desires. They are also not offerable to the Deities (it is mentioned in the sastra, perhaps in Narada Pancaratra, I'm not sure), that's one more reason not to eat them. I've looked in the Folio, and Srila Prabhupada was always saying no to these things. In one place he said, they are prohibited. So although we don't say it in particular, I always knew they are prohibited. Srila Prabhupada mentions them in the same line with meat, fish and eggs. Perhaps one can make an exception when one ABSOLUTELY needs it as medicine, I cannot say. But it was very intelligently decided by Srila Jayapataka Maharaja to get his disciples particularly mention it on the initiation, since it is so widely used in India, and people are really addicted to it because they think it is so healthy.

Alcohol however, is properly used for making tinctures from herbs, and there is no harm taking alcohol in that form, as a medicine, in small doses, when one is sick and needs it. This is an excerpt from my spiritual master's letter to me: "Medicines which include alcohol are alright, for example homeopathich medicines in alcohol are fine. Caffeine is also a drug and is very useful in migraine headaches. If used as a drug under proper medical direction there is no harm in using these things or other things."

We also don't eat mushrooms because they affect us by increasing tamo guna. Soya and karmi made cheese are also in tamo guna, and is best to avoid them. Karmi cheese is also creating kidney stones.

Chocolate contains coffeine, therefore it was always considered as intoxication, at least in our zone and Sivarama Maharaja's zone where I joined. I know that in America there are different opinions. I heard that there is a GBC resolution on the matter, but I can't quote it, and I don't know what it was exactly. But besides that, chocolate contains lots of insects in it when the karmis make it, and it is also causing one to get oxalat stones in the kidneys.

It is also good to avoid karmi made fruitjuices and other fruit preparations, because the karmis don't clean the fruits out from worms, and thus it is not suitable to be offered to Krsna. At least not to the Deities. The sankirtan devotees told me in Zurich that my spiritual master told them not to buy these fruitjuices for this reason, and also because they don't contain useful vitamins, even if it's mentioned on the package. They are too much processed, and they are useless for our health. They also contain many artificial chemicals which are bad for our bodies.

Grains cooked by the karmis absorb the karma of the materialists who are cooking them. Therefore they are to be absolutely avoided. These are all kinds of breads, crackers, corn flakes, even muesli. Grains are in fact so much absorbing the karma, that even by grinding, and preparing them without cooking, they absorb some karma. Therefore our spiritual master even says that we shouldn't use karmi made pasta, although that's not cooked. Nectar of Instruction, Text Four, Purport: "Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has also warned, visayira anna khaile dusta haya mana: 'By eating food prepared by worldly people, one's mind becomes wicked.'" 'Anna' in particular means foodgrains, but it also refers to food in general.

We should be very careful however, not to get hung up on the smaller

things unneccessarily, like powdered sugar on Ekadasi etc. Sometimes

those devotees who make a fight in the kitchen with the others on these smaller details, aferwards go out and break the four BIG principles. (These statements are from a lecture of my spiritual master.) My conclusion was that it is best to follow all big and small principles strictly because the small ones help for the big ones, but we should not criticize good standing devotees if they eat karmi pasta or cheese sometimes.

Ys. Mdd.

(Text COM:988683)

4. Electric & electro magnetic fields

Ugresa (das)

> Here in California the electricity provider monopolies now in place will

> soon end. Among the hundreds of new companies that will be seeking

> electricity customers in California, some offer what they call "clean" or

> "green" power, that is power from wind mills, rivers, and, eventually,

> from solar devices.

> [1] What are the advantages, if any, for people's health and for the > planet (i.e. to avoid increasing the burden on Bhumi devi), of the above

> mentioned alternative power sources.

RIVERS: Water dams which are erected to produce electricity ruin the ecological balance of nature. The World bank finances huge projects in this regards and each and every of this dams is an disaster in many aspects. Now China wants to make such an monster project which will make it necessary to relocate millions of people!

The black sea is ecological dead because of the dams in the Danube (Donau). The minerals needed for the plankton in the black sea, dont reach their destination because of this artificial gates. In tropic countries this artificial water surfaces are the breeding place of unlimited Malaria mosquitos.

WIND: Wind power stations cause serious disturbances in people who are living in the moving shadow of the rotating blades. If you live 200 meters away from such an beautiful monster of steel and concrete you might get mad because the whole day you will be subjected to flickering light (Schlagschatten). I saw a whole army of this machines every time I drove to San Francisco from the south. Its simply a disgrace for nature.

SUN. Most energy is consumed in places with little sun. So you would have to send it for very long distances. Sun energy is not very efficient at present since still huge areas have to be occupied to produce a little electricity. Being very ugly, they are also a disgrace for nature.

> [2] Whether electricity from wind mills, etc. has the same adverse effects > in terms of electric fields that electricity from other sources (coal, > nuclear, etc.) has.

It has the exact same influence. The problem started when energy had to be transported over long distances to facilitate cities with its insane demand of power. Cities, and their shop windows have to be illuminated the whole night in order to prevent crime! Once when there was a powerful failure in New York the criminal rate was skyrocketing. To reduce power loss while transport, the electricity has to be transformed to many millions of volt and than be transformed back to 110/220 Volts.

Transformation works only with alternating currents (AC), never with direct current (DC). That is were the 50/60 times per second, alternating current comes from, which gives us so much headache in the true sense of the word. Alternating currents produce an electromagnetic field with negative effects on life. The accumulation of electromagnetic radiations is called "electro smog".

There is no limit to the energy our "society" demands. The only alternative energy which is beneficial for mother Bhumi was outlined by SP. Simple living, high thinking. The most beneficial energy is the energy which is not used.

Ys Ud

(Text COM:993077)