{"id":11065,"date":"2012-12-03T07:58:48","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T06:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=11065"},"modified":"2012-12-03T07:58:48","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T06:58:48","slug":"interfaith-meeting-for-peace-in-mendoza-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=11065","title":{"rendered":"Interfaith meeting for peace in Mendoza, Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Baladeva das <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Vaisnavas
\nPlease accept my humble obeisances
\nAll glories to Srila Prabhupada!<\/p>\n

On November 22, the Interreligious Council of Mendoza, Argentine, organized the yearly meeting of \u201cDays of Reflection for Peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Before entering into the Hall of Deputies of Mendoza, a walking was realized by the streets of the city with a banner saying \u201cThe word as expression of love builds the peace\u201d. Hereby the people could see that in spite of the current wars, a Jew and a Muslim can walk together in God’s name\u2026<\/p>\n

Then the Vice governor welcomed the religious leaders at the Legislature Hall.<\/p>\n

After reciting the Mangalacarana prayers, Baladeva das and his daughter Mangala Gita d.d. read some mantras from Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita, which were very well accepted by all.<\/p>\n

We choose mantras: 66, 70 and 59 from Bhagavad-gita Chapter Two:<\/p>\n

One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Krishna consciousness] can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?<\/p>\n

A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires \u2014 that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still \u2014 can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.<\/p>\n

The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness. That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. If one is thus situated even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

From Srimad Bhagavatam were chosen mantras from Canto 1, Chapter 2 \u201cDivinity and Divine Service\u201d. There it is given enthusiasm to the people to develop all their activities as an offering of love to Krishna, making it clear that without it there is no chance of reaching peace, nor individual not collectively.<\/p>\n

All religious leaders read extracts from The Koran, The Torah, The Bible and the Tibetan book of the dead called “Bard Thodol”.
\nOne of the quotes that more impressed me, was that of James’s Bible 3<\/p>\n

\u201c My friends, we should not all try to become teachers. In fact, teachers will be judged more strictly than others.
\n2 All of us do many wrong things. But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body.
\n3 By putting a bit into the mouth of a horse, we can turn the horse in different directions.
\n4 It takes strong winds to move a large sailing ship, but the captain uses only a small rudder to make it go in any direction.
\n5 Our tongues are small too, and yet they brag about big things.It takes only a spark to start a forest fire! 6 The tongue is like a spark.<\/p>\n

It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person\u2019s entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself. 7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be tamed and have been tamed. 8 But our tongues get out of control. They are restless and evil, and always spreading deadly poison.9-10 My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses. We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this isn\u2019t right.11 Can clean water and dirty water both flow from the same spring? 12 Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?<\/p>\n

At this moment I remembered the quote of the Upadesamrita of Srila Rupa Goswami\u2026 \u201cvaco vegam manasah krodha vegam jihva vegam udaropastha vegam\u2026 ”<\/p>\n

\u201cA sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind’s
\ndemands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and
\ngenitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interreligious dialog is such an enriching experience! In fact, a member of the Catholic Church confessed me that after he listened to the wisdom of the Vaisnavism, he took more enthusiastically his own Christian prayers.<\/p>\n

I remember Srila Prabhupada saying, \u201cI come to help the Catholic people to become better Catholics, Jewish become better Jewish … etc\u201d. This situation left my heart very satisfied, because I understood that a grain of sand was helping to build the house that Srila Prabhupada constructed, that in which the entire world can live, even the members of different religions.<\/p>\n

Many songs were intoned and local invited musicians sung allusive songs.<\/p>\n

Finally there was a wish of peace to everybody and were encouraged to construct the peace by the dialog in God’s name.<\/p>\n

Devotees distributed prasadam and in this way the yaj\u00f1a was complete\u2026<\/p>\n

Wishing you the best.
\nYour servant Baladeva das <\/p>\n

Link for pictures:
\nhttps:\/\/plus.google.com\/photos\/107927084509554539067\/albums\/5816265832322775201?authkey=CO_V-bGpo_HizgE<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Baladeva das <\/strong><\/p>\n

One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Krishna consciousness] can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}