Reflections in the Speculum of Gambling

BY: HARAKUMARA DASA

Ameyatma dasa's Initiation, December 1973

Mar 02, TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA (SUN) —

1.1 "No Meat-eating. No Illicit Sex. No Intoxication. No Gambling." When the bona fide, cent per cent, Krsna conscious spiritual master gives Hari-Nama initiation, he looks on his prospective disciple and asks, as he holds the japa-mala, "What are the rules and regulations?" And the more-often-than-not awe-struck bhakta replies "Chant 16 Rounds Daily" (of the mahamantra:

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare ,)

and repeats the 4 prohibitory regulations listed above. Srila Jiva Gosvami has explained the meaning of this spiritual initiation (diksa) in his Bhakti-sandarbha, 283:

divyam jnanam yato dadyat kuryat papasya sanksayam
tasmat dikseti sa prokta desikais tattva-kovidaih

"That spiritual undertaking which awakens divya-jnana (trans- cendental knowledge) and destroys all sinful reactions at the root is called diksa by authorities learned in the Absolute Truth." (Translated by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura)

Such a spiritual master, a pure representive of the Personality of Godhead, imparts divine knowledge and executes complete destruction of sin (and sinful reaction) by granting diksa. The two components of the initiation, DI- -KSA, correspond to the above-mentioned two-part reply of the candidate for initiation:

DI- standing for divya-jnana, divine (transcendental) knowledge, is effected by the practice of chanting 16 rounds (at least) daily of the Hare Krsna mahamantra (Bg 4.34-35);

-KSA standing for papa-ksaya, destruction of sin, is effected by following the 4 prohibitions accompanied by chanting of the mahamantra, Hare Krsna (Bg 4.36-37).

In Bhagavad-gita 7.28, Bhagavan Sri Krsna, Whose representative the spiritual master is by way of disciplic succession, again refers to these two components of DI-KSA:

yesam tv anta-gatam papam [papa-KSAya] -- sin terminated
jananam punya-karmanam -- of pious action
te dvandva-moha-nirmukta [DIvya-jnana] -- free from dual illusion
bhajante mam drdha-vratah -- bhakti with firm vow

"Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life and whose sinful actions are completely eradicated are freed from the dualities of delusion, and they engage themselves in My service with determination."

As Bhagavan Sri Krsna replies to Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita 6.35:

asamsayam maha-baho mano durnigraham calam
abhyasena tu kaunteya vairagyena ca grhyate

"O mighty-armed son of Kunti, it is undoubtedly very difficult to curb the restless mind, but it is possible by suitable practice [chanting Hare Krsna] and by detachment [from sinful actions]."

Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu also explains to His disciple Srila Sanatana Gosvami in Caitanya-caritamrta 2.20.108 that, although the jivatma, spirit soul, is the marginal energy of Lord Krsna, as he is situated on the margin between His spiritual energy, cit-sakti, and His material energy, jada-sakti, his inherent nature or true form is to be an eternal servant of Krsna:

jivera 'svarupa' haya -- krsnera 'nitya-dasa'
krsnera 'tatastha-sakti', 'bhedabheda-prakasa' .

Thus we can see the twofold action of genuine diksa in effecting the realization of the real identity of the spirit soul. By imparting divya-jnana, DIksa 'pulls up' on the spiritual side to direct the jiva to surrender in full knowledge to Krsna and His internal potency by devotional service (Bg 9.13-14). By also radically effecting papa-ksaya, diKSA 'pushes down' on the material side to direct the jiva to abandon his attachment to the three modes of material nature (Bg 7.13; 13.22) by undercutting its sinful radication. And yet these two facets are one process, called DI-KSA, as Srila Prabhupada states in the purport to Bhagavad-gita 5.5: "Detachment from matter and attachment to Krsna are one and the same. One who can see this sees things as they are."

2.1 Gambling, of the four prohibited sinful activities [SBhag 1.17.41: "Therefore, whoever desires progressive well-being, especially kings, religionists, public leaders, brahmanas and sannyasis, should never come in contact with the four above-mentioned irreligious principles."], is the one which is considered to vitiate especially truthfulness, which is one of the four pillars of dharma, genuine religious life. In the purport to Bhagavad-gita 10.36, Srila Prabhupada states "of all cheating processes, gambling stands supreme". Gambling is iniquitous because at its fundament is the inracinated rationale of 'something for nothing' (Bg 3.12). Whether it is directed for the sake of winnings (wealth won without work), amusement ('heaven' won without sacrifice) or, on higher levels, gnostic liberation (mukti without bhakti, salvation without service, release without religion), gambling as we know it is antithetical to the spirit of the Vedas, which is sacrifice for Lord Visnu, the primeval lord of sacrifice and Personality of Godhead (yajno vai visnuh; Bg 9.24). All the followers of the Vedas believe in "pay as you go" (up -- Bg 4.30), but gamblers tend toward the view "play 'til you go" (down -- Bg 4.31). Instead of expanding social horizons toward "can't we all just get along?", the selfish intensification inherent in gambling fosters rather the perspective "can't we all just get it on?" It is no accident that wherever gambling casinos open, organized crime arrives tout de suite. Gambling is sinful, functioning as a syndrome of trigunamayi-maya, divine authoress of sense-gratificatory illusions of 'I' and 'mine' (Bg 7.13-14; janasya moho 'yam aham mameti) for those who are averse to serving the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna (Bg 3.30-32).

2.2 Therefore, there is no happiness for the gambler (Bg 16.23): If he wins, he is envied or hated; if he loses, he laments or despairs. Since, by odds over time, it is more probable to lose than to win, while even winning is based on iniquitous principles, gambling tends toward self-dissipation or a centrifugal disintegration of the inner psyche -- a 'loss of self' (akrtatmata, see Bg 15.10-11). And eventually every inveterate gambler over-reaches himself, and falls down. For example, Napoleon, who was wont to gamble staking the lives of 'lesser' men, unnecessarily invaded Russia, but he received the coldest reception after he found that 'the plains' of Russia were even wider than his false ego. While 'the time of his life' ticks away with each rising and setting of the Sun (SBhag 2.3.17), the gambler, instead of involving himself in the topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead (or at least acting to actually improve his future by good works), tempts fate by blind faith in the punya-phala of his purva-karma. He gambles away his future by betting on his past. Therefore, gambling is contrary to the sempiternal principles of (bhakti-) yoga. As Vaisnavas, we should not forget that every action in the world extraneous to sacrifice for Visnu means bondage under the law of karma (yajnarthat karmano 'nyatra loko 'yam karma-bandhanah) which entails taking another miserable temporary material body on the mrtyu-samsara-vartma (Bg 9.3; SBhag 5.5.1-6).

3.1 Gambling, as we have seen, is intrinsically sinful and therefore is to be earnestly eschewed by the bhakti-sadhaka. Gambling corrodes truthfulness, making it harder to know Krsna in truth and therefore harder to engage in devotional service to Krsna, or vice versa (tattvatah--Bg:10.7<=>18.55). Truthfulness is deemed to be one of the four pillars, or legs, of religion (dharma) -- the other three being austerity, cleanliness and mercy. In this last and most degraded of the cyclic ages, kali-yuga, true religion is seen as standing on the leg of truthfulness only, the other three having fallen down by the sequentially increasing onslaught of irreligion, and this last listing leg is now trembling under assault (SBhag 1.17.24-25). In that 17th chapter, 1st canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Suta Gosvami describes how Maharaja Pariksit, the ruler of the earth, discovered Kali, "quarrel personified flourishing by deceit" (v.25), evident as a sudra but dressed as a king, who was beating the only leg of a bull (Dharma, religion personified) and also a cow (Earth personified). "Maharaja Pariksit, who could fight one thousand enemies single-handedly, thus pacified the personality of religion and the earth. Then he took up his sharp sword to kill the personality of Kali, who is the cause of all irreligion. When the personality of Kali understood that the King was willing to kill him, he at once abandoned the dress of a king and, under pressure of fear, completely surrendered to him, bowing his head. Maharaja Pariksit, who was qualified to accept surrender and worthy of being sung in history, did not kill the poor surrendered and fallen Kali, but smiled compassionately, for he was kind to the poor." The King then banished Kali, saying "If the personality of Kali, irreligion, is allowed to act as a man-god or an executive head, certainly irreligious principles like greed, falsehood, robbery, incivility, treachery, misfortune, cheating, quarrel and vanity will abound. Therefore, O friend of irreligion, you do not deserve to remain in a place where experts perform sacrifices according to truth and religious principles for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead." Kali then fearfully petitioned the King to give him some place of shelter within his realm. "Maharaja Pariksit, thus being petitioned by the personality of Kali, gave him permission to reside in places where gambling, drinking, prostitution and animal slaughter were performed. The personality of Kali asked for something more [for the kingdom was pure], and because of his begging, the King gave him permission to live where there is gold, because wherever there is gold there is also falsity, intoxication, lust, envy and enmity. Thus the personality of Kali, by the directions of Maharaja Pariksit ... was allowed to live in those five places." (v.28-40) Thus Kali dwells where there is gambling and where there is gold.

3.2 Gambling, being intrinsically sinful, threatens to complete the terminal collapse of religion by supplanting truthfulness with deceit and by fostering all six enemies of the human race (lust, anger, greed, inebriation, illusion, envy). And extrinsically also, gambling is bad because it is both directly and indirectly related with Kali (quarrel and hypocrisy).

4.1 Gambling has a direct connection with Kali, because Kali was allowed to remain where there is gambling. Therefore, wherever gambling proliferates, along with hypocrisy there will be quarrel. The acme of quarrel is war ["politics with violence"], which could be called maha-kali. The direct relation between gambling and war is best epitomized in the Mahabharata, in which the 'father of all gambling sessions' held in the "vicious assembly", as recounted in the Sabha-parva, led to the Battle of Kuruksetra. The high-souled and righteous Yudhisthira, whose enemy was never born, heading his brothers such as Arjuna, pure devotees of Lord Krsna all with all heart and soul, was the rightful heir to the Kuru world-throne, erstwhile bearer of his royal father Pandu but now seen seating his blind uncle, Dhrtarastra, whose sinful eldest son Duryodhana, devoted to his own self-centered usurpation, made himself that enemy born by envy. Finally to settle the anti-fraternal fractious issue, Duryodhana having recourse to Sakuni, his very dice-gambling-savvy maternal uncle, schemed to scam his most faultless but inadept-at-dice cousin via invitation-challenge to a rather dicey gambling match, in which the wagering acceptance of Yudhisthira made fatal discovery, by way of the dice-covering fate-overthrowing hands of dice-cleverly unscrupulous Sakuni, of the total reducing dicing of the external fortunes of the ostensibly hapless Pandavas who, though all-devoted to the Lord [fated by His Will for a greater purpose, Bg 10.36], suffered the loss of all they owned, then themselves, and at last their Krsna-devoted queen of virtue, Draupadi. This last and greatest wager of the heir Yudhisthira having been lost in both senses, was then offended most outrageously and bhima - unforgettably by the uncivilized denizens of the vicious assembly and its paralyzed onlookers. Further details aside, this sealed the fate of the miscreants by the future bhima-karma requital in the fratricidal maha-kali Kuruksetra War, which violent fate was instigated and solidified by the bloody-envious ever-refractory evil-mindedness of the gambling Duryodhana.

4.2 Another example of this gambling-war syndrome-motif we can see in Srimad Bhagavatam 10.61 [taken from Krsna Book, with some underline emphasis added]:

"The King of Kalinga was a friend of Rukmi and gave him the ill advice to play chess with Balarama and thus defeat Him in a bet. Among ksatriya kings, gambling on chess was not uncommon.

If someone challenged a ksatriya to play on the chessboard, the ksatriya could not refuse the challenge. Sri Balaramaji was not a very expert chess player, and this was known to the King of Kalinga. So Rukmi was advised to retaliate against the family members of Krsna by challenging Balarama to play chess. Although not an expert chess player, Sri Balaramaji was very enthusiastic in sporting activities. He accepted Rukmi's challenge and sat down to play. Betting was with gold coins, and Balarama first of all challenged with one hundred coins, then one thousand coins, then ten thousand coins. Each time, Balarama lost, and Rukmi was victorious. Sri Balarama's losing the game was an opportunity for the King of Kalinga to criticize Krsna and Balarama. Thus the King of Kalinga was talking jokingly while purposefully showing his teeth to Balarama. Because Balarama was the loser in the game, He was a little intolerant of the sarcastic joking words and became somewhat agitated. Rukmi again challenged Balarama and made a bet of a hundred thousand gold coins, but fortunately this time Balarama won. Nonetheless, out of cunningness Rukmi claimed that Balarama was the loser and that he himself had won. Because of this lie, Balaramaji became most angry with Rukmi. His agitation was so sudden and great that it appeared like a tidal wave in the ocean on a full-moon day. Balarama's eyes are naturally reddish, and when He became agitated and angry His eyes became more reddish. This time He challenged and made a bet of a hundred million coins. Again Balarama was the winner according to the rules of chess, but Rukmi again cunningly claimed that he had won. ... During the dispute there was a voice from the sky, and it announced that for all honest purposes Balarama was the actual winner of this game, that He was being abused, and that the statement of Rukmi that he had won was absolutely false. In spite of this divine voice, Rukmi insisted that Balarama had lost, and by his persistence it appeared that he had death upon his head. Falsely puffed up by the ill advice of his friend, he did not give much importance to the oracle, and he began to criticize Balaramaji. He said, "My dear Balaramaji, You two brothers, cowherd boys only, may be very expert in tending cows, but how can You be expert in playing chess or shooting arrows on the battlefield? These arts are well known only to the princely order." Hearing this kind of pinching talk by Rukmi and hearing the loud laughter of all the other princes present there, Lord Balarama became as agitated as burning cinders. He immediately took His club in His hand and, without further talk, struck Rukmi on the head. From that one blow, Rukmi fell down immediately and was dead and gone. ...

The King of Kalinga, afraid that he would be the next one attacked, fled from the scene. Before he could escape even a few steps, however, Balaramaji immediately captured him, and because the King had always shown his teeth while criticizing Balarama and Krsna, Balarama broke all the King's teeth with His club. The other princes supporting the King of Kalinga and Rukmi were also captured, and Balarama beat them with His club, breaking their legs and hands. They did not try to retaliate but thought it wise to run away from the bloody scene. During this strife between Balarama and Rukmi, Lord Krsna did not utter a word, for He knew that if He supported Balarama, Rukmini would be unhappy, and if He said that the killing of Rukmi was unjust, then Balarama would be unhappy. Therefore, Lord Krsna was silent on the death of His brother-in-law Rukmi on the occasion of His grandson's marriage."

4.3 More space should be given for discussion of the very direct relation between gambling and war in modern times. War has always been promoted with alacrity by plutocratic luciferic elites, who are deeply involved in both financial and occult speculation (Godless gambling in a banking context, detailed below) and who thereby control society (for now in a semi-covert way) with an aim toward a New World Order (NWO). Ever warmongering according to their wont and financing both sides of the conflict (see Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, by Prof. Antony Sutton), they never came across a war that they didn't like.

["If my sons did not want wars, there would be none."-- Gut(e)le Schnaper, wife of Mayer Amschel Rothschild.

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.]

The motivation of the fondness for war of the plutocratic, luciferic elites is twofold: plutocratic and luciferic.

4.4 From the plutocratic angle, in the interim times between NOW and NWO, wars are the most profitable generators of near risk-free debt, guaranteed as made to governments, which can and do tax their people (therefore both sides are issued loans, which guarantees near double the profit). Thus their financial hegemony is ensconced. More loans are then required for reconstruction (and re-armament). Arms industries are also super-sanguine investments in their cornucopia of profit.

4.5 On the luciferic (satanic) side, these bloodline elites want to overturn the 'Altar' (they are opposed to and fight against God and genuine personalistic religion established by God [as per Bg 16.8,10,18], especially the Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ, but being demonic they will definitely not tolerate Krsna Consciousness either) and overthrow the 'Throne' (all legitimate national governments, not just monarchical in order) in dis-order to usher in a 'New World Order' of totalitarian and total demonic control over the totality of humankind, in all spheres: religious, political, economic, cultural. Wars of all kinds constitute the number one, and the hegelian dialectical, tool on the 'drop down or die' menu of those demonic elites: Thesis (one power) combats Antithesis (the other), from which the elite cabal, having covertly conspired and craftfully controlled to contrive another sanguinary conflict in the churn of war, extracts the essential Synthesis, a new 'order out of chaos' one step closer to their ultimate 'new world order'. War is a hot crucible, an intense change agency which transforms the whole world in ways expedient for that next step and demonic gambling elite aims in general. It acts and tends to: improve weapons and communications technology (originally the Internet came from a Pentagon program), hone propaganda and mind-control techniques (to brainwash the masses), damage and discourage faith in God (the only hope for people to escape from their grasp), degrade moral standards ("he who commits sin is a slave of sin"-- someone easier for them to control or kill), and spread systems of totalitarianism (the 2nd World War in effect, as Churchill admitted, made the world safe for Russian communism which, with help from the 'generals' of Wall Street and Germany, stood up within the 1st World War), concentrate power through creation of blocs (most importantly, the European Union), lay the ground for institutions of centralized world control (such as the UN), as well as blame nationalism, or religion, as the cause of war to discredit them (with a view to justify and claim need for global governance -- under their control, of course). It is no wonder that warfare is their political currency.

4.6 War brings the realization of many other tactical goals which are desired by the demonic elites, who "lost to themselves, and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world" and who "absorbed in the conceit of pride and false prestige, ... are always sworn to unclean work, attracted by the impermanent" (Bg 16.9-10). As enemies of God and man, these gambling agents of Kali know that war greatly weakens the masses for more efficacious control. Thus they take advantage of their covert opportunity to warmonger in 'banking' on the belligerent enhancement of the influence of kali-yuga:

prayenalpayusah sabhya kalav asmin yuge janah
mandah sumanda-matayo manda-bhagya hy upadrutah

"O learned one, in this iron age of Kali men have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed." (SBhag 1.1.10)

The pros of war disorder the masses by: keeping them in debt and financial need (e.g. by taxation to pay interest), disturbing and uprooting them by chaotic conditioning (cutting them off from basic stabilizing anchors such as home, family and nation with their infrastructure), wide destruction spawning fear, depression, despair and fatalism (to conduce them to submission), habituating them to believe lies and conceive hatred (via all that propaganda), alienating them from genuine religion and God (thus thwarting their real purpose of life, depriving them of the benefits and merits of religion, causing disintegration by repression of the Truth with a view to decrease their resistance), vitiating their morality and increasing sin (with a view to enslaving them), and last but not least killing, or culling, them (to reduce the population to a more manageable size). [Besides war, there are many other tools that click on the 'drop down or else' menu of those demonic elites who gamble for Kali. These will be touched on in paragraph 6.4 below.]

4.7 As one of the elite protégés (see Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, by Prof. Antony Sutton), Trotsky, the founder of the Soviet Red Army, put it succinctly: "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." Not just you, but your sons (even your daughters), and your taxed-to-death money too (if you do not die in war, you shall work for war). [And it's not just war that's interested, but also its outriding companions, famine and pestilence. For these are days of Kali-yuga within the matrix "duhkhalayam asasvatam" (Bg 8.15), wherein all things must pass "ksine punye martya-lokam visanti" (Bg 9.21).] As a matter of fated fact, modern wars seem to be as insatiable as greed for money and lust for power within the plutocratic minds and luciferic hearts of the demonic gamblers who arrange for; finance (both sides) for; provide for; provoke, ignite and lie for such wars. Consequently, the distant children of the booming inter-bellum should not recline afar too comfortably distracted, because war is interested in them ["wars and rumors of wars"], especially considering that inside writers for the freemasonic organ of such bloodline elites predict, or invoke, Three World Wars to bring to completion their ' New World Order'. 'Order out of Chaos', as they conceive it, will not be a matrix conducive to the birth and nurture of Krsna-bhakti, or devotional service to the Supreme Lord (Bg 16.18-20). No Sireee! As Srila Prabhupada spoke at the end of his final Bhagavatam lecture on the multiple devolutionary depredations of Kali-yuga at the Gerrard Street Radha-Krsna Temple in the summer of 1975, "just take full shelter of Krsna -- otherwise, there is no hope".

5.1 There are also indirect relations between gambling and Kali. They both are linked with gold (i.e. money, and the illicit desire for the same), which is the usual medium of gambling wagers and with which Kali was allowed to stay. A fine example of how gold dwells with or leads to quarrel and hypocrisy is found in Srimad Bhagavatam 10.56-57 (taken from the chapter summaries with some underline emphasis and [comments] added):

"King Satrajit received the Syamantaka gem by the grace of his best well-wisher, the sun-god, Surya. After fastening the gem to a chain, which he then hung around his neck, Satrajit traveled to Dvaraka. The residents, thinking he was the sun-god himself, went to Krsna and told Him that Lord Surya had come to take His audience. But Krsna replied that the man who had come was not Surya but King Satrajit, who looked extremely effulgent because he was wearing the Syamantaka jewel. In Dvaraka Satrajit installed the precious stone on a special altar in his home. Every day the gem produced a large quantity of gold, and it had the additional power of assuring that wherever it was properly worshiped no calamity could occur. On one occasion Lord Sri Krsna requested Satrajit to give the gem to the King of the Yadus, Ugrasena. But Satrajit refused, obsessed as he was with greed. Shortly thereafter Satrajit's brother Prasena left the city to hunt on horseback, wearing the Syamantaka jewel on his neck [this could not be considered proper worship and calamity soon occurred]. On the road a lion killed Prasena [a sort of quarrel] and took the jewel away to a mountain cave, where the king of the bears, Jambavan, happened to be living. Jambavan killed the lion [a second quarrel] and gave the jewel to his son to play with. When King Satrajit's brother did not return, the King presumed that Sri Krsna had killed him for the Syamantaka gem [here is hypocrisy, because Krsna had wanted the jewel for King Ugrasena, whereas Satrajit wanted it (and the gold) for himself]. Lord Krsna heard about this rumor circulating among the general populace, and to clear His Name He went with some of the citizens to find Prasena. Following his path, they eventually found his body and that of his horse lying on the road. Further on they saw the body of the lion Jambavan had killed. Lord Krsna told the citizens to remain outside the cave while He went in to investigate. The Lord entered Jambavan's cave and saw the Syamantaka jewel lying next to a child. But when Krsna tried to take the jewel, the child's nurse cried out in alarm, bringing Jambavan quickly to the scene. Jambavan considered Krsna an ordinary man and began fighting with Him [another quarrel]. For twenty-eight days continuously the two fought, until finally Jambavan grew weak from the Lord's blows. Now understanding that Krsna was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Jambavan began to praise Him. The Lord touched Jambavan with His lotus hand, dispelling his fear, and then explained everything about the jewel. With great devotion, Jambavan gladly presented the Syamantaka jewel to the Lord, together with his unmarried daughter, Jambavati. Meanwhile Lord Krsna's companions, having waited twelve days for Krsna to come out of the cave, returned to Dvaraka despondent. All of Krsna's friends and family members became extremely sorrowful and began regularly worshiping Goddess Durga to assure the Lord's safe return. Even as they performed this worship, Lord Krsna entered the city in the company of His new wife. He summoned Satrajit to the royal assembly and, after recounting to him the entire story of the Syamantaka jewel's recovery, gave the jewel back to him. Satrajit accepted the jewel, but with great shame and remorse. He went back to his home, and there he decided to offer Lord Krsna not only the jewel but also his daughter so as to atone for the offense he had committed against the Lord's lotus feet. Sri Krsna accepted the hand of Satrajit's daughter, Satyabhama, who was endowed with all divine qualities. But the jewel He refused, returning it to King Satrajit [Satrajit, in contrast with Jambavan who offered the jewel "with great devotion...gladly" (which Krsna accepted -- bhaktya...bhakty-upahrtam...prayatatmanah, Bg 9.26), was not on the platform of pure devotion but merely wanted to atone for his shameful defamation of the Lord and was in fact still greedy for the jewel he offered (which Krsna thus declined to accept -- Bg 4.11)].

When Lord Sri Krsna heard that the Pandavas had supposedly been burned to death in the palace of lac, He went to Hastinapura with Lord Baladeva to maintain the principles of worldly protocol, even though, being omniscient, He knew the report was false. With Krsna out of Dvaraka, Akrura and Krtavarma incited Satadhanva to steal the Syamantaka jewel from Satrajit [and suggested that he kill him, which he then did and which virtually constitutes further quarrel]. Bewildered by their words, the sinful Satadhanva murdered King Satrajit in his sleep and stole the gem. Queen Satyabhama was overcome with grief at the death of her father, and she rushed to Hastinapura to report the sorrowful news to Sri Krsna. Together with Lord Baladeva, Krsna then returned to Dvaraka to kill Satadhanva [a retributory quarrel]. Satadhanva went to Akrura and Krtavarma to beg for help, but when they refused he left the jewel with Akrura and fled for his life. Krsna and Balarama pursued him, and Lord Krsna beheaded him with His sharp-edged disc. When the Lord could not find the Syamantaka jewel on Satadhanva's person, Baladeva told Him that Satadhanva must have left it in someone's care. Baladeva further suggested that Krsna return to Dvaraka to find the jewel while He, Baladeva, would take the opportunity to visit the King of Videha. ... Lord Krsna returned to Dvaraka and had the funeral rites performed for Satrajit. When Akrura and Krtavarma heard how Satadhanva had met his death, they fled Dvaraka. Soon many kinds of disturbances...began to afflict Dvaraka ... Lord Krsna knew that Akrura's exile was not the main cause of the disturbances. Still, He had Akrura brought back to Dvaraka, and after properly honoring him with worship and greeting him with sweet words, Krsna told him, "I know Satadhanva left the jewel in your care. Since Satrajit had no sons, his daughter's offspring are the just claimants to whatever property he has left behind. Nonetheless, it would be best for you to keep the troublesome jewel [which produced both gold and quarrel] in your care. Just let Me show it once to My relatives." Akrura presented Krsna with the jewel, which shone as brilliantly as the sun, and after the Lord had shown it to His family members He returned it to Akrura."

Gambling and Kali are also indirectly related because they both assault and damage truthfulness. For example, according to Bhagavad-gita 16.7, satyam is not found in the demoniac, such as those herein described, who gamble in money-lending and who provocatively enable wars. And Bhagavad-gita 10.36 implies that gambling is the greatest cheating process.

5.2 "The lie is sacred."-- Lenin. "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."-- Mao. These demoniac, end-justifies-means opinions from two prominent communists suggest that lying (asatyam) and warring (maha-kali) are associated and mutually coordinated. This is not surprising when we understand that communism is just another tentacular branch operation (one of many the discovery of which is easier for those who follow the money) of the occult plutocrats and elite bankers -- one which merely broaches another take on a Godless new world order. Many persons have noted how Kali (i.e. war), gambling's bad tenant, assaults truth (the last leg of dharma). Aeschylus, a Greek tragic dramatist of the 5th century BC, noted "In war, truth is the first casualty." Sun Tzu, the famous author of The Art Of War, a catalogue of trenchant principles for winning any war, wrote:

"All warfare is based on deception." [As he advised the Leader: when you are weak, pretend to be strong; when you are strong, pretend to be weak.] The maxim of Aeschylus was again repeated by Hiram W. Johnson, a Republican Senator from California who in 1917 was one of only six to vote against the entry of the USA into the 1st World War. Senator Johnson knew that untruth (the lie) is often (almost always) employed to start wars. [The many examples in history of lying to start warring are too numerous to list comprehensively, but since it is un-real I mean UN just for US to become so very i-rate in I-raq, the usual suspect elite lies applied to monstrous weapons were spun im-media-tele for those not mc-clued-in, and were dis-covered in sites by very un-manageable i-media. It's as easy as ever for the I-mine crowd to feed or eat unholy propaganda, but since I-net truth here it's becoming harder for them to get away with it.]"

6.1 Some gamblers, with skills like those of Sakuni, are notorious for their sleight of hand. Here our concern turns to financial gambling (leaving aside the obvious examples of speculation for gain in various markets), which falls under the category of, not Kama, but Artha -- economic, and political, development. This kind of gambling is financial speculative activity (with the focus on Banking) which begins to grasp at 'something for nothing' and tends to move farther and farther away from the foundation of reality (Bg 5.19-22), until the day of its downfall:

"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero." -- Voltaire;

"Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of iniquity, so that when it fails, they will receive you into eternal habitations. ... No-one can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon." -- Jesus Christ.

It's either Brahman or maya; God or gambling.

6.2 "The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is, perhaps, the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented."-- Josiah Stamp, President of the Bank of England, 1927.

"The fact that the Banker is allowed to extend credit several times his own capital base and that the Banking Cartels, the Central Banks are licensed to issue fresh paper money in exchange for treasury paper, (has) provided them with free lunch for eternity... Through a network of anonymous financial spider-webbing, only a handful of global King Bankers own and control it all. ... All have become slaves chained to the Banker's credit ropes."-- financial commentator Hans Schicht.

How are they gambling, and how do they do it? In brief, here are four basic Instruments of Bank-based Gambling:

Bank Lending with Usury: Modern banking began in the 1600s in Europe where people deposited for a fee their gold coins in the safes of the goldsmiths, for which they were issued paper receipts, which could then be used economically in the stead of the coins. The goldsmiths also issued paper receipts as loans.

"The mischief began when the goldsmiths noticed that only about 10% to 20% of their receipts came back to be redeemed in gold at any one time. They could safely 'lend' the gold in their strong-boxes at interest several times over, as long as they kept 10% to 20% of the value of their outstanding loans in gold to meet the demand. They thus created 'paper money' (receipts for loans of gold) worth several times the gold they actually held. They typically issued notes and made loans in amounts that were 4 to 5 times their actual supply of gold. At an interest rate of 20%, the same gold lent 5 times over produced a 100% return every year, on gold the goldsmiths did not actually own and could not legally lend at all. If they were careful not to overextend this 'credit', the goldsmiths could thus become quite wealthy without producing anything of value themselves. Since only the principal was lent into the money supply, more money was eventually owed back in principal and interest than the townspeople as a whole possessed. They had to continually take out loans of new paper money to cover the shortfall, causing the wealth of the town and eventually of the country to be siphoned into the vaults of the goldsmiths-turned-bankers, while the people fell progressively into their debt."-- Dr. Ellen Brown, based on Modern Money Mechanics, Chicago Federal Reserve.

Since loan collateral provides for insurance against potential default by the borrower, interest charged on the principal amount loaned by the banker at levels far beyond his costs, consists of 'something for nothing'. Also collecting interest on loan-principal is non-productive economic activity. And worst of all, arbitrary adjustment of the interest rate allows the Banker to manipulate the economy for his own interest, not the nation's interest, and certainly not that of the people. [This (something for nothing) mayika principle of gambling, as it involves profit-seeking non-service, is the negation of sakama-yajna, which is profit-seeking service (something for something), and it is also the inversion of niskama-bhakti, which is selfless service (nothing for something) which is pure devotion to Krsna, as best practised by the Gopis, which moved Sri Krsna to frankly admit that He was unable to meetly compensate them for their spotless spiritual service.]

Fractional Reserve Lending: This is lending at interest much more money, up to 10 X more, than the commercial banker has on deposit in his reserves, as he banks, or gambles, on the improbability of (many) of his depositors wanting (large quantities of) their deposited funds withdrawn all at once (i.e. a run on the bank). It is this multiplication of the quantity of money by a factor of up to 10 that enables a multiplex of profit for the banker and ensures an inflation of prices for buyer.

"For every $1 ... which people or the government deposit in a bank, the banking system can create out of thin air and by the stroke of a pen some $10 of check-book money or demand deposits. It can lend all that $10 into circulation at interest just so long as it has the $1, or a little more, in reserve to back it up." -- Rep. Jerry Voorhis, 1973.

"When a bank makes a loan, it simply adds to the borrower's deposit account ... by the amount of the loan. The money is not taken from anyone else's deposit; it was not previously paid in to the bank by anyone. It's new money, created by the bank for the use of the borrower."-- Robert Anderson, former Secretary of the Treasury, 1959.

Fiat Money System: Here the gold, which was the original basis 'grounding' the banking system, is abandoned to allow higher levels of speculation. (Currency not tied to gold but issued by governments to match goods and services, such as in pre-revolutionary America, succeeds well. It is private speculation, gambling, that is the problem, and in that context fiat currency makes things worse.) Fiat currency is intrinsically worthless money, such as paper notes or credit in a borrower's account, not related to or redeemable into an intrinsically valuable real commodity, such as gold. "Fiat", = 'let it be done', is all that is needed for the money-lords to create and profit unrestrictedly or arbitrarily from new money which is not backed up by anything of real value. Hence it is intensified gambling.

"Banks create money. That is what they are for. ... The manufacturing process to make money consists of making an entry in a book. That is all. ... Each and every time a Bank makes a loan ... new Bank credit is created: brand new money."-- Graham Towers, former Governor of the Bank of Canada.

Private Banking Debt-Money Creation: Here the expanding speculation reaches the political level. According to the United States Constitution, "Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof." This is the rightful power and duty of government to create and control the nation's money (debt-free) according to the state and need of the real economy. Usurpation of this power by private banking interests, which benefit by a debt-money system by which they lend the new money to government at interest, has subverted proper (honest) economic and political order. Incredibly, government has been persuaded to borrow its own money at interest from private banking interests. These private central bankers make financial decisions in their own interest, not in that of the nation. For example, the Federal Reserve, primarily by contracting the money supply, caused the Great Depression in pursuit of elite aims. The famous economist Milton Friedman, who criticized this crime, said "... money is much too serious a matter to be left to the central bankers". In this dishonest gambling debt economy, since interest is attached to money creation, more money is owed than has been created (the central bank creates only the principal and not the interest), and all the debt can be paid only by more and more loans, all at interest, and by taxing the taxed people (who are in virtual debt serfdom).

"The Federal Reserve Banks create money out of thin air to buy Government Bonds from the US Treasury... (creating) out of nothing a... debt which the American people are obliged to pay with interest."-- Wright Patman, Chairman of House Banking & Currency Committee, 1964.

None of these undesirable anomalies are at all necessary.

"President Andrew Jackson observed (that) if anyone was given the power to issue money, it was Congress, not a private banking elite. For a full century before the American Revolution, the colonists funded a period of unprecedented prosperity and productive enterprise with paper money issued directly by their own local governments or government-owned banks. According to Benjamin Franklin, it was chiefly to get that power back, after King George halted the practice [really Parliament motivated by the privately owned 'Bank of England ' imposed its will on the Colonies], that the colonists fought the Revolution. They won the war, but lost the money-creating power to a private banking cartel."-- Dr. Ellen Brown, author of The Web of Debt.

"It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."-- Henry Ford.

6.3 "Web of Debt gives a blow by blow account of how a network of private bankers has taken over the creation and control of the international money system and what they are doing with that control. Credible evidence is presented of a world power elite intent on gaining absolute control over the planet and its natural resources, including its subservient 'human resources' or 'human capital'. The lifeblood of this power elite is money, and its weapon is fear. The whole of civilization and all of its systems hang on this fulcrum of the money power. In private hands, where it is now, it can be used to enslave nations and ensure perpetual wars and bondage. ... Brown's book... by exposing the present unsustainable situation, it is a first step toward loosening the malign grip on the world held by a very small but powerful financial faction. ... Her book is a raised clenched fist of defiance and truth smashing through their finely spun web of disinformation, distortion, deceit, and boldfaced lies concerning money, banking, and economics."-- banker Reed Simpson, graduate of the London School of Economics.

6.4 Artha is also political development. The plutocratic elites and central bankers are not satisfied with owning everything. (Does greed have any limit? 'Hell does not stop half-way.' -- Bg 16.13-16) They want to 'own everyone' also. They want their version of a New World Order: usurpation of total power on a world scale (overturning the Throne) by those without divine authority or the mandate of heaven (overturning the Altar), on the basis of world-monopolistic economic control. Their conceited world empire would be militantly atheistic and distinguished by totalitarian draconian control and high-technology-assisted enslavement.

They actually believe that they can succeed to establish firmly that New World Order because they neither know nor believe in God, the Lord of the external material energy (Who has His own spiritual agenda-- Bg 16.8-9,16 & 9.10-12; 9.13-14 & 10.7-9), and so they believe their own propaganda. ["Iniquity has lied to herself."] Is there honor among thieves? Is there harmony among demons? (Bg 16.13-15) Nevertheless, they will try (hard). Their attempt really got rolling with the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694 (world's first privately owned central bank for national money creation) and also of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 (occult conspiratorial freemasonry). Besides wars, there are many organic dimensions and directional components which constitute their hydra-headed efforts which include, but are not limited to: pre-vetting and controlling all politicians in important positions to ensure that their agenda stays on track; using their controlled media, their education system and their entertainment industries to dumb down, degrade, distract and deceive the people; media-illusioning the masses with show-bottle dualities such as sports, partisan politics or 'the cold war'; ruining national economies with wasteful wars, crippling debt and onerous loan conditions; provoking chaotic (un-)civil conditions, by political manipulation, by 'dividing-and-conquering' along any expedient social, racial or religious fault of division, by contrived economic collapse, or by some other means, with an aim to imposing a new tyrannical order; financing and promoting abortion and contraception to reduce the population; manufacturing and distributing (e.g. by chemtrails) toxins (later, disease-agents) to lower the immune threshold of the population; laying the foundation for a virulent pan-epidemic by engineering new disease-agents or enhancing old ones; laying the foundation for widespread famine by near-total depletion of national food reserves (not including their private stocks), monopolizing and modifying seed stocks with a view to making them scarce, and detrimentally altering the weather by various available means with a view to damaging agricultural production (as well as increasing damage by violent or irregular weather -- less food, more debt); financing through their ('philanthropic' or 'charitable') tax-exempt foundations (such as the Rockefeller Foundation) any radical (anti-)social impetus which works toward breakdown of theistic religion, the family, heterosexuality, conception and birth, the nation or country, ties to the land (as in agriculture), and any other natural or super-natural asset which supports or assists the living entity in his struggle to revive or practise God-consciousness; infiltrating organized religions with non-devotional elements seeking to vitiate divine faith and moral order by doctrine-subversion and scandal-promotion; and most dangerously their plan to enforce the injection of sub-dermal networked micro-chips with mind-control capabilities in the bodies of all human beings, for total control and enforced worship of their coming world-dictator. The verity of this decidedly anti-human elite agenda can be confirmed by authentic (unmotivated independent) research and attentive (scripturally prophetically informed) observation. But to adapt a verse written by Sankaracarya in his glorification of Bhagavad-gita, it is naturally impossible to cross an ocean with waves such as these. We can reach the other side only under the merciful shelter and divine guidance of Lord Krsna, the protector of the Pandavas, who has promised and is inclined to save His devotees (Bg 9.29,31; 18.78; 4.8; 9.22).

6.5 To help us to comprehend part of what is intended by the New World Order, here is a sampling of quotations from the book Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (published 1966) by Dr. Carrol Quigley (deceased 1977), Professor of International Relations, Georgetown University, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and mentor to Bill Clinton:

"The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the American branch of a society which originated in England [and] believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established. I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years, and was permitted in the early 1960s to examine its papers and secret records. ... The powers of financial capitalism had (another) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be ... a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank ... sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence co-operative politicians ... For the first time in its history, Western Civilization is in danger of being destroyed internally by a corrupt, criminal ruling cabal ... This junta took control of the political, financial, and cultural life of America in the first two decades of the twentieth century." (Quigley's book was later suppressed.)

["Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something -- are afraid of somebody. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." -- President (1912-1920) Woodrow Wilson.

"In the first place, it is obvious that not only is wealth concentrated in our times but an immense power and despotic economic dictatorship is consolidated in the hands of a few... This dictatorship is being most forcibly exercised by those who, since they hold the money and completely control it, control credit also and rule the lending of money. Hence they regulate the flow, so to speak, of the life-blood whereby the entire economic system lives, and have so firmly in their grasp the soul, as it were, of economic life that no one can breathe against their will."-- Pope Pius XI, On Reconstruction of the Social Order.

6.6 The occult NWO money-masters, "the world rulers of this present darkness", who may have had powers of blackmail over Woodrow Wilson due to something they knew about his past, bid their representatives to direct his naive idealism through a course of indoctrination in return for their financial support of his political career. Under Wilson's administration were set up these elements of the Banker's agenda: first a graduated income tax (necessary to pay the interest on the soon coming government debt), then the Federal Reserve (their private central bank which creates money out of nothing and lends it to the government at interest), and finally American participation in the 1st World War (in their plutocratic interests; Wilson had promised the people that he would not do this). Robert Owens, co-author of the Federal Reserve Act, testified before Congress later that the banking industry had conspired to create a series of financial panics earlier (especially in 1907) in order to provoke the people to demand reforms that served the interests of the financiers. [This standard tactic from the toolkit of the craft practised by all the conspiratorial cabal is called 'problem, reaction, solution'. They craftfully cause a targeted problem or crisis, which arouses (and they stir up) the people to react to reject current conditions, allowing them to insinuate the solution they preplanned all along. It works for starting an unpopular war, getting their own central bank, or any other project of social engineering they desire. For example, as David Rockefeller put it, "We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis, and the nation will accept the New World Order."] As for Woodrow Wilson, disappointed and disillusioned by his several manipulated experiences in the hands of that power "above the President" (as they say), he later commented: "Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men... We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world -- no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men." Just before he died, the idealistic Woodrow Wilson confessed to friends, regarding the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which he signed, that he had been "deceived" and he exclaimed: "I have ruined my country!" He naively, though with ambition, acted in deference to a luciferic plutocratic oligarchy ordinated towards its version of a 'new world order': a worldwide militantly atheistic empire of tyranny and total high-technology enslavement, the top echelons of which are all satanists anti-consecrated to "the 'god' of this world". This is indeed a Tragedy, but there is always Hope -- the same hope that is present in any age: take shelter of the Supreme Lord, Krsna (isvarah paramah krsnah), the Supreme Personality of Godhead (sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah), Who is Bhagavan, the all-original source and proprietor of all wealth (anadir adir), Who satisfies the senses, cows and land (govindah), and Who is the Real Power behind the scenes -- the generating, or annihilating, controller of all gods and demons (sarva-karana-karanam), in full Krsna consciousness (Bs 5.1). This total taking shelter from the stormy blast, as Sri Krsna upheld Giriraja Govardhana over the sheltered heads of the harassed Vrajavasis with one lotus hand, is the final, main and sole, most confidential instruction in Lord Krsna's Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

7.1 The economy of this present world of sinful karma revolves round around three things: Oil (and gas), Drugs (especially illegal) and Guns (weapon systems). That is so because these three are so hugely profitable, more than the rest. But enormously more humongously profitable is Money, i.e. money creation and making money on money (usury). Therefore the financial powers, i.e. the central bankers and elite plutocrats (not the governments), are on top of the pyramidal economic-political system. [Study the back of the US $1 bill; they like to display their symbols to hint at who's in charge. "The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes."-- Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, 1952] Here are two gambling examples of 'the hidden hand above the stage, that moves the glove to turn the page' (and to pull the strings).

7.2 From The House of Rothschild, by David A. Rivera [with a few comments]: "Developing circumstances soon allowed the Rothschilds to formulate a plan which would guarantee them the financial control of Europe, and soon the world. [The sons of Mayer A. Rothschild were very fond of wars since the loans they made were to governments, which can always tax their people to repay, and the winner guaranteed to pay, if necessary, the debt of the loser. So, as ever, they funded both sides: Nathan loaned gold to the British, and Jacob to the French.] It began with taking advantage of the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo [just outside] a suburb of Brussels, Belgium. Early in the battle, Napoleon appeared to be winning, and the first secret military report to London communicated that fact. However, upon reinforcements from the Prussians, under [General] Blucher, the tide turned in favor of [the British General] Wellington. On Sunday June 18, 1815, Rothworth, a courier of Nathan Rothschild, head of the London branch of the family, was on the battlefield [because the savvy Rothschilds had an efficient intelligence network with speedy couriers and secret private postal routes all over Europe -- better than those of any national government], and upon seeing that Napoleon was being beaten, went to [the Channel], and for 2000 francs, got a sailor to get him to England across stormy seas. When Nathan Rothschild received the news on June 20, he informed the British government, which did not believe him [they made a very big mistake]. So, with everyone believing [i.e. speculating on the basis of the first tentative report] Wellington to [have been probably] defeated, Rothschild [who was always watched closely, standing as was his wont near a pillar on the floor of the London Stock Exchange, with a somber dissimulation, with a signal to his agents] began to sell all of his stock [British bonds called consuls] on the English Stock Market. Everyone else [speculating that British defeat was the cause, with some of them exclaiming "Rothschild knows!", gave in to fear and promptly] followed his lead, and also began [franticly] selling, causing [all the] stocks to plummet to practically nothing [less than 5%]. At the last minute [on his glancing signal], his agents secretly began buying up [quickly all] the stocks at rock-bottom prices. On June 21, at 11 PM, Wellington's envoy, Major Percy showed up at the War Office with his report that Napoleon had been crushed in a bitter 8 hour battle, losing a third of his men. [You can imagine what happened to Rothschild's holdings when this news became public. They rapidly soared to levels higher than before, yielding a return of at least 20 to 1.] This gave the Rothschild family complete control of the British economy [which after Napoleon's defeat was the center of the world economy], and forced England to set up a new Bank of England, which Nathan Rothschild controlled. However, that wasn't the only angle he used to profit [enormously] from the Battle of Waterloo [in which many men lost their bloody miserable lives]."

7.3 On January 27, 2009, the Chairman of the Capitol Markets Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives, Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D. Penn), was being interviewed on C-SPAN. After being criticized by an angry American woman calling in to ask why rich bankers were doled a whole $700 Billion Bailout [on the backs of the taxed] while there was little help for her and her children in their struggle, and after the program host followed this up by wondering out loud if the economic stimulus package up for debate in the Congress might be solely for the benefit of Wall Street rather than Main Street , Rep. Kanjorski tried to explain the congressional approval of the bank bailout with these comments [with comments] which reveal the hidden cause of the financial problem faced before the bailout approval, which was motivated by a dangerous provocation of great proportion.

"Why did we do that? We did that because… Look, I was there when the Secretary [of the Treasury] and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve came those days and talked with members of Congress about what was going on; it was [on] September 15th. Here's the facts and we don't even talk about these things. [i.e. the information had been suppressed until then, but was blurted out during this interview] On Thursday [September 11, 2008 -- exactly seven years after September 11, 2001] at about 11 o'clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed [it's easy when you know to look] a tremendous drawdown of money market accounts in the United States to the tune of 550 Billion dollars, being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help; they pumped 105 Billion dollars in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic out there, and that's what actually happened. If they had not done that, their estimation was that by 2 o'clock that afternoon, 5.5 Trillion dollars would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States , would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. Now we talked at that time about what would happen if that happened -- it would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it, and that's why, when they made the point -- we've got to act and do things quickly -- we did. ['someone' up there certainly did make the point] ... Why? Because if you don't have a banking system you don't have an economy, and although we did that, it wasn't enough money, and as fast as we did that, the economy has been falling and the reason last week -- we're really no better off today than we were 3 months ago, because we've had a decrease in the equity positions of banks because other assets are going sour by the moment. ... Somebody threw us in the middle of the Atlantic ocean without a life-raft and we're trying to determine which is the closest shore and whether there's any chance in the world to swim that far. We don't know."

7.4 So, who threw "us" ('US')? The NWO plutocratic banking powers who got what they wanted -- the $700 Billion Bank Bailout -- even though the American people (who pay, and shall pay) and initially Congress were much opposed.

[=> It's not a Democracy; It's an Plutocracy:

"I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the Empire on which the sun never sets. The man who controls Britain's money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply."-- Nathan Rothschild.

"Let me issue and control a nation's money, and then I care not who writes its laws."-- Mayer Amschel Rothschild.

"Those who create and issue money and credit direct the policies of government and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people."-- Banker Reginald McKenna.]

They staged the largest and fastest transfer of money in history (at a rate of over 4.6 billion dollars per minute) in the form, as their fellow insiders -- Secretary of the Treasury Paulson and Chairman of the Federal Reserve [which "noticed" these things at just around "11" in the morning] Bernanke -- testified before Congress four days later, of an "electronic run" on US money market accounts on Thursday, September 11, 2008 between the hours of 9 and 11 AM. Treasury estimated that the (taking-the-country-for-a-) "run" exercise would, if allowed to continue, wipe out about 90% of US financial liquidity. It is worthwhile noting that this not-so-fun "run" [that is, not unless you're one of 'them'] took place exactly 7 years after the 9-11 exercise on September 11, 2001, with the 'attack' taking place within the same period of morning. With all false flags set aside: it takes an insider to do an inside job. So let us not then, TV en-trained, just watch the puppets, the patsies, and the point men, but rather open the doors of perception in intelligent Krsna consciousness to see the causes (and the cause of all causes).

7.5 "Banking was conceived in iniquity, and was born in sin. The Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen, they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. ... But, if you want to continue to be the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers continue to create money and control credit."-- Josiah Stamp, former President of the Bank of England.

In a sinful, luciferic world in which money trumps morality, finance beats goods and services, 'our gain' counts more than 'their pain'; where genocide for profit is the norm, and the oil of greed floats over and pollutes the milk of human kinds of value -- in this might-makes-right-inverted kind of world, "the troubled blood-stained arena of man's strife and passions" (Bg 3.37-40) -- elite gamblers rule!

8.1 In order to examine some of the finer details of the now global financial meltdown, with a special regard for their relation with gambling, here are two excerpts from an interview with Dr. Peter Chojnowski, a Catholic university professor specializing in Ethics (in theoretical terms and practically related with such human works as finance and business) who characterizes the current critical collapse as the "Fall of the House of Usury":

8.2 "In the [ America Foreclosed: the 500 Trillion Debt Bubble Pops] article [written in June 2008], I tried to trace the origins of the sub-prime housing crisis that was then very much in the news. Much of the present crisis can be traced to the action of Richard Nixon taking the United States off the gold standard and, thereby, creating an infinite possibility ... to create an infinite supply of money to benefit [the elite masters of money, their agenda, and the political puppets they currently favor]. The ability to create money or credit (n.b. these two are actually identical in our present financial system) at will, without having to worry about a tie to a very finite quantity of a precious metal, was the necessary condition for the "liquidity and credit binge" which marked the years 1987-2006, the years that Alan Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. Through constant interest rate cuts and incessant liquidity injections, Greenspan created the largest debt bubble in the history of the human race. As an example,... in the year 2001... this amounted to a 14% yearly increase in the money supply. Easy credit and an abundant supply of money created the biggest financial bubbles that the globe has ever seen. ... These financial bubbles ... drove the American people into a chasm of debt. The United States became ridiculously 'overleveraged'. As I mention in the article, the American people racked up [almost as much] mortgage debt from 2003 to 2005 ($3.7 trillion) as they had in all the years since the founding of the United States to 1990 ($3.8 trillion). ...

According to [The Fall of the Phantom Assets: Economic Autumn, 2008] [which he wrote in August 2008],... an economic form in which speculative risk has been 'eliminated' ... is actually the most proximate cause of the present financial meltdown. ... It was only beginning in the '80s under Reagan, intensifying in the '90s under Clinton, and finally reaching absurd heights of recklessness under Bush in the years 2003-2007, that there has been a New Economy conceived of in which financial speculators and banks can eliminate risk, or so they thought, by "packaging" and "securitizing" debt. If the mortgage-issuing bank could sell the debt [and] gain all relevant fees for initiating the loan, it had made money and was free of any worries concerning defaults on the loans [it] issued. The loan-initiating bankers were willing to issue loans to any and all, since they benefited by the initial fees taken and did not have to worry about ... defaulting. Masses of mortgages were packaged up into CMOs (collateralized mortgage obligations) and sold to investors who believed that they were investing in risk-free securities since the mortgage investment 'packages' were tranched so that high-yield, but high-risk, 'junk bonds' were supported by low-yield but 'investment' grade, 'secure' bonds. ... Risk had been 'eliminated'.

All variety of derivative contracts also "hedged" investments so that they seemed relatively-risk free. ... Options, puts, futures contracts, credit-default swaps, were all ways of hedging risk by either "swapping" debt liability (thereby providing a kind of insurance against the risk of default) or "betting" on the rise or fall of stocks. There was a derivative contract for every taste. Such was the "financial economy" that was estimated to be (i.e. before the crash) worth 1000 X the "real economy" (i.e. the one that actually produces goods and services). It was a huge inverted pyramid of debt and financial claims upon debt, with a question mark where the asset capstone was supposed to be."

8.3 "If you have had a people who have been taught for generations that the essence of life is the fulfillment of the 'American Dream', a purely secular fulfillment, then we wonder how these people can maintain their equilibrium when that Dream, which for the past 40 years or so has depended upon cheaper and cheaper credit, begins to resemble a nightmare. Clearly most people in our own civilization do not understand St. Augustine 's famous prayer: "You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O Lord." Personally, I have held for a long time that it was the easy credit economy which propped up the 'liberal' political, economic, social, and educational system. Without this prop, the inherent instability of such a system will reappear. ... When all the credit cushioning is taken away, how will we react to the primary realities of human existence that we have covered over by comfort and technology, realities which our ancestors knew about and dealt with daily? More and more we are going to have to have mercy in our hearts and pity in our minds for the people around us as they suffer through the downfall of the phantasmagoric world that Wall Street has created. If times get tough, how will we cope? Most people have lost those survival skills, the self-sufficiency, and the familial and community ties necessary to continue on even when the system has ceased to function. One opinion I will venture here: we miss the point if we only focus on the obvious day to day unfolding of the economic implosion or the stock market crash. I believe that what we are going through is a 'paradigm shift', a changing of the 'world-view' or the philosophical, religious, and ideological scheme that has dominated our world since the [so-called] Enlightenment. The change may be slow or very fast, but very soon we will realize that while we were watching the market crash, the 'Liberal System' began to implode at near free-fall speed. We always knew that it would. ... What will replace the 'Liberal System'? I really cannot even guess, other than to say that whatever it is, it will be more 'real', either in an enlivening way or in a very frightening way." [i.e. a God-conscious society, or a Godless NWO tyranny]

8.4 What the good doctor is saying is that fundamental saturnian change hard to bear, bearing down on sense gratification and crossing the lines of paradigms, is now underway. But the jovial, well-advertised zeitgeist afforded by cheap and easy, jovian credit expansion and bullish markets since the end of WW2 still casts a spell over the minds of many people (Bg 3.38-40) -- so much so that the vast masses of sheeple don't realize that they are being railroaded into a grand funk. There's still green grass before the doors of imperception open for the slaughterhouse. Culture wars on us so counter-culture's needed -- Krsna consciousness. Yet the spirit of the rocking, rolling, flower-over-power-ing Sixties still enthralls the minds of many: "don't follow leaders, watch your parkin' meters". In translation: watch out for leaders who watch television (a form of gambling), and don't park too long near the feet of anyone who cannot take you back home, back to Godhead (SBhag 5.5.18 -- read the purport, por favor).

9.1 Gambling can take many forms and multifarious manifestations but these can be categorized into two: gambling by the way of karma and gambling in the modality of jnana. Both of these, being prohibited, are incompatible with uttama bhakti, pure devotional service to Sri Krsna:

anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam /
anukulyena krsnanusilanam bhaktir uttama (BRS 1.1.11).

9.2 The first is sense-gratificatory gambling and it is indeed the more common (as Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught Srila Rupa Gosvami, karmis are much more numerous than jnanis).

The obvious example is wagering one's money, usually acquired by fruitive activity, on games of chance. However, one who is found gamboling down the broad avenues and wide streets of frivolous diversion can correctly be thought of as gambling in the broad senses, which consists of whimsical activity for the sake of sense gratification (maya). Gambling can be 'fun', and people do think that, and that is an obstacle, a great matrix of distraction, against the (mass) cultivation of pure devotional service. Omnipresent non-stop mundane entertainment, pan-ramified by high-tech electro-magnetic media like television -- the real opiate of the masses ('bread and circuses') -- constitutes prajalpa and jana-sanga, which are destructive of devotional service, according to Upadesamrta 2. As Bhakta Prahlada teaches (SBhag 7.6.1-10), the human form of life is very rare and very short -- too short to afford long stays in 'the plains' of gambling if we want to make a success of it by attaining the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna. Avyartha-kalatvam is one symptom of the bhava-bhakta, one who is not found gambling (or dreaming) his life away (Bg 2.69).

9.3 The second sort is mental speculative gambling, which is conceived as a quest after knowledge, often for liberation from temporal material misery, which subtle cultivation is devoid of or contrary to the benign guidance of divine revelation, which the speculators do not regard as being on or coming from a higher level than human intellect. According to the summary of all divine revelation, known as Bhagavad-gita (Song of God), Lord Krsna is the ultimate and only goal of knowledge (15.15) and He (God) can be known in truth only by the path of ananya-bhakti, which is pure devotional service to Him (8.22; 11.54; 18.55). Following this eternal wise, the ultimate real goal of life, Govinda who is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha, cannot be reached by some mere mental speculation (SBhag 10.14.3-4, 29), also considering that all forms of gambling are detrimental to the practice of pure bhakti. As those who are demigods prayed to Lord Krsna in the womb of Mother Devaki: "O Lord, Your transcendental name and form are not ascertained by those who merely speculate on the path of imagination. Your name, form and attributes can be ascertained only through devotional service." (SBhag 10.2.36) However, as many others hold, the speculative search itself can be 'fun'. It is written, "seek and ye shall find", but for some it is even more fun to seek than to find. These are they who are forever plucking tasty strawberries on the fields of mental speculation. Imagine that. However, they are certainly most free to exhilaratingly enquire into life's perennial questions, and express the direction of their perspective views to the extent that they can be finely resolved, preferably within context of an earnest effort to know the truth (Bg 7.16, jijnasuh), especially Krsna in truth (Bg 4.9, tattvatah). However, according to Sri Krsna's Bhagavad-gita 7.3, knowing Krsna in truth is rare even among those attuned to the cultivation of knowledge, and very many of those attuned exercise their propensities to wonder as they wander upon astral planes (and even in 'the plains' where 'the stars' revolve), although one German philosopher did brightly exhort everyone to "seek Him beyond the stars".

10.1 But, then again, mere gambling can be 'fun', which is one reason why there is so much vega in Vegas.

vaco vegam manasah krodha-vegam
jihva-vegam udaropastha-vegam
etan vegan yo visaheta dhirah
sarvam apimam prthivim sa sisyat

As any dhira can perceive, if we desire to be Krsna-conscious, then consonant with Srila Rupa Gosvami's Upadesamrta 1, it behooves us to choose and we are obliged to select the sreyas, and to let go of the preyas necessarily when the latter falls out detrimental to the former (anukulyasya sankalpah pratikulyasya varjanam..., Bg 18.66 purport). When gambling manifests itself as mental speculation, it can be distinguished as mental activity which misleads the mind away from or stops its progress towards total absorption in the Self, samadhi, or Krsna-consciousness (by a centrifugal tendency opposed in writing by Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami), by way of a material direction toward sense-gratification and/or fruitive activity [Bg 4.19: ...kama-sankalpa-varjitah...; Bg 6.24: ...sankalpa-prabhavan kamams tyaktva sarvan asesatah...; Bg 6.2,4,18: the mind, like a swan midst the lotus-stems, must be totally absorbed in the lotus-feet of Sri Krsna], or by way of excessive activity or subtle agitation [Bg 6.26: yato yato niscalati manas cancalam asthiram / tatas tato niyamyaitad atmany eva vasam nayet; Bg 6.15,19,27; Bg 6.25: gradually one should cease (uparamed) all passionate or speculative mental action, and having reposed the mind in the Self (atma-samstham manah krtva) should not even think of anything (na kincid api cintayet), that is to say anything other than Krsna-nama Krsna-rupa Krsna-guna Krsna-lila], or by way of irrelevant, insignificant function [phalgu-vrtti: (pre-)occupation with merely theoretical quizzical conundra which, while draining away precious time and energy from true sadhana (SBhag 1.2.6), do very little to advance that mental speculator toward sadhya--Krsna-bhakti--the ultimate goal of life, or even to improve the world as physical foundation of bhakti-sadhana]. But the unruly elephant of untrammeled speculation in the unquiet room of the uncontrolled mind (Bg 6.34) can be domesticated primarily by the two-pronged practice of Krsna consciousness (Bg 6.35: as chanting Hare Krsna and following 4 regulative principles), especially in this kali-yuga, as Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught: harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam / kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha. This, and not mental speculation, is the path to real knowledge (Bg 10.10-11) by way of cleansing the mirror of the karma-dusty mind (ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-mahadavagni-nirvapanam sreya-kairava-candrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanam ...). As far as managing the mind goes, this is the proper way to speculate (from the Latin, speculum = mirror, as in 'mirror of the mind').

nitya-siddha krsna-prema 'sadhya' kabhu naya
sravanadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya (Cc 2.22.107)

Pure love for Krsna, and every entity non-different from such love, arises self-manifest when the speculum of the heart has been clarified by Hari-nama-sankirtana in the line of pure Krsna consciousness.

10.2 It's only natural that Bankers monitarize, Businessmen commercialize, Psychologists psychologize, Protestants protestantize, and Philosophers philosophize. Atheistic philosophers habitually will speculate atheistically, but as Srila Prabhupada writes in Bhagavad-gita As It Is 3.3, purport: "... philosophy without religion is mental speculation." This mental speculation is to be distinguished from the true version, called philosophical speculation: speculation in context, ordinated to vidya-vadhu-jivanam, for in fact reason is the maidservant of bhakti. "Our education should be such that we can become elevated to Krsna consciousness." (SBhag 4.29.49: ...sa vidya tan-matir yaya). Real science, vidya, is that which helps one fix one's mind on Krsna. According to Professor N. K. Sanyal (a learned godbrother of Srila Prabhupada), writing on the student, then the teacher, life of Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu: "Study divorced from religion is not only considered now-a-days to be useful, but also as a necessity. Religion, which appeals to 'authority', is supposed to be the antipode of that 'freedom of thought' which is considered necessary for really successful pursuit of knowledge. Knowledge is never [properly] pursued for its own sake. ... Interpretation means the establishment of the connection of a subject with the self. The interpretations of Nimai were true. The interpretations of everybody else were fallacious. In the absence of the right nterpretation, all so-called knowledge remains external to the self and is liable to be used in a way that is harmful to the self. The right interpretation of phenomena can be known by the mercy of Godhead and learnt only by submission to Him. Without this allegiance to the Supreme Lord, all so-called knowledge becomes only a dangerous delusion, although we, in the unsubmissive state, are not properly aware of this. --- The pursuit of the knowledge of the things of this world with reference to ourselves as enjoyers of them is not the function of the pure soul. By all knowledge, Godhead alone is properly served. The pursuit of secular knowledge is productive of spiritual well-being if it possesses this exclusive reference to Godhead both as regards its object and method. The acceptance of this true principle does not destroy any value; it only removes our ignorance and fulfills the only real object of all knowledge. God certainly indwells all knowledge, but inaccessibly to the conditioned soul. As soon as the conditioned soul is enabled to realize His Presence in all learning, his object and method of pursuing knowledge ceases to be secular and harmful." This passage also criticizes the fallacious assumption of the rationalist (absolute truth without faith / real religion) is belied as well by Srila Prabhupada's words: "But even though the soul is the master of intelligence and mind, and the senses also, still, unless it is strengthened by association with Krsna in Krsna consciousness, there is every chance of falling down due to the agitated mind." (Bg 3.42, purport) Mankind ever falls in need of "an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil" (Sri Isopanisad 15-16).

10.3 Commenting on the causes and consequences of man's mental speculations (e.g. opining that all of the problems of the modern world stem from, or are based on, bad philosophy), the late Pope John Paul II, echoing St. Augustine 's synthesis of religion and philosophy ("I believe in order to understand -- I understand in order to believe"), began his encyclical entitled Faith and Reason with this pithy preamble: "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth, and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth -- in a word, to know himself -- so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves." This statement, which resonates harmoniously with the integral meaning of sambandha-jnana, the knowledge of relation [God is Krsna-- Bg 7.7 & 10.8; I am a spirit soul, part & parcel of God, Krsna-- Bg 4.35; I am related to Krsna as His eternal servant-- jivera 'svarupa' haya -- krsnera 'nitya-dasa'], implies that philosophy shorn of religion shall fail in its prime directive ("Know Thyself"), thus not fencing man from, or even pushing him toward, the agitated anxiety of existential emptiness, or even demonic life.

For both grace and welfare, one really should heed the aphorism written by Boethius in his Consolation of Philosophy: "As far as you are able, join Faith to Reason." As per Srila Prabhupada quoted above, like a soul apart from God, like a spark away from the fire, philosophy doth not prosper apart from religion.

10.4 "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities."-- Voltaire (Voltaire, who should have practised as he 'preached', got this one right despite absurdities which led to atrocities of the French Revolution). It should be noted that this ancient and beneficial wisdom in the union of True Religion and Real Philosophy is diametrically antithetical to the familiar modern modus operandi, epitomized in the eclairement faux of (pre-)revolutionary France, which is to divide Reason from Faith (rationalism) and then to pit Reason against Faith (atheism). The unhappy consequence is the experiential cacophony (or worse, pandemonium) of disintegral interior war leading to, among other evils, escalations by multiple orders of magnitude of exterior wars within a global ambience of practical (social), and even militant, atheism which tends to culminate in the global gulag of Godless tyranny. (Because Russia errs and because Rome lies between Moscow and Fatima, first comes apostasy, and then comes anti-christ.) Regardless, every human being should not merely watch out (reason), but should serve God as well (faith). Mankind can in no way attain peace by waging war on Faith (genuine religion, the essence of which is devotional service). As Lord Krsna infallibly states in His absolute essential summary of all revelation (which applies to all people, all times, all places, all circumstances), Bhagavad-gita: "But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next." (4.40); "Anything done as sacrifice, charity or penance without faith in the Supreme, O son of Prtha, is impermanent. It is called asat and is useless both in this life and the next." (17.28); "Those who are not faithful in this devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of enemies. Therefore they return to the path of birth and death in this material world." (9.3).

bhoktaram yajna-tapasam sarva-loka-mahesvaram
suhrdam sarva-bhutanam jnatva mam santim rcchati

"A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries." (Bg 5.28)

10.5 Mental speculators often try to justify their subtle escapades (escape-aids?) by appealing to the need to acquire knowledge, a sort of gnostical imperative, and they sometimes accuse religion of being merely a repressive regime of hierophantic height dealing opiates to the masses instead of knowledge, or an obscurantist obstacle to every exo/eso-teric cultivation of so-called 'higher knowledge', much familiarity with which often leads to an ornery species of gnostical conceit perched high behind a supercilious demeanor which jesting twits all the common folk of humble devotion as unseemly dwelling in the tenebrous darkness of abysmal ignorance---such ignorant opinions feeding 'smiles of reason' (such as Voltaire sported) decorating rather unseemly syndromes of contempt suggesting twits as those not to be devotees of the Lord, Sri Krsna. "Sometimes philosophers criticize the devotees because they think that most of the devotees are in the darkness of ignorance and are philosophically naive sentimentalists. Actually that is not the fact. There are very, very learned scholars who have put forward the philosophy of devotion. But even if a devotee does not take advantage of their literatures or of his spiritual master, if he is sincere in his devotional service he is helped by Krsna Himself within his heart. So the sincere devotee engaged in Krsna consciousness cannot be without knowledge. The only qualification is that one carry out devotional service in full Krsna consciousness. The modern philosophers think that without discriminating one cannot have pure knowledge. For them this answer is given by the Supreme Lord: those who are engaged in pure devotional service, even though they be without sufficient education and even without sufficient knowledge of the Vedic principles, are still helped by the Supreme God, as stated in this verse." (Bg 10.11, purport)

11.1 As Vaisnavas meeting or making waves of sound, we should not jetison overboard the ship Vaisnava principles of spiritual knowledge, which are supposed to be absolute, to hop here and there 'round moonlit fields of mental speculation (SBhag 3.26.61 & purport) like rabbits in the moonlight (Bg 10.21). The captain would not approve, and those principles deserve better than to toss as jetsam on the wavy, foamy, frothy surface of the vastly agitated ocean of material existence: "That which is beyond our power of conception is called acintya, inconceivable. It is useless to argue or speculate about the inconceivable. If something is truly inconceivable, it is not subject to speculation... Our energy is limited, and our sense perception is limited; therefore we must rely on the Vedic conclusions regarding that subject matter which is inconceivable. Knowledge of the superior nature must simply be accepted without argument. How is it possible to argue about something to which we have no access? The method for understanding transcendental subject matter is given by Lord Krsna Himself in the Bhagavad-gita [as it is], where Krsna tells Arjuna at the beginning of the Fourth Chapter: "I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun-god, Vivasvan, and Vivasvan instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Iksvaku." ... This is the method of parampara, or disciplic succession. Similarly, Srimad Bhagavatam explains that Krsna imparted knowledge into the heart of Brahma, the first created being within the universe. Brahma imparted those lessons to his disciple Narada, and Narada imparted that knowledge to his disciple Vyasadeva. Vyasadeva imparted it to Madhvacarya, and from Madhvacarya the knowledge came down to Madhavendra Puri and then to Isvara Puri, and from him to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. ... The knowledge of that disciplic succession actually comes from the Lord Himself, and if the knowledge descends unbroken, it is perfect. Although we may not be in touch with the original personality who first imparted the knowledge, we may receive the same knowledge through this process of transmission. In Srimad Bhagavatam it is stated that Krsna, the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, transmitted transcendental knowledge into the heart of Brahma. This, then, is one way knowledge is received -- through the heart. Thus there are two processes by which one may receive knowledge: One depends directly upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated as the Supersoul within the heart of all living entities, and the other depends upon the guru, or spiritual master, who is an expansion of Krsna. Thus Krsna transmits information both from within and from without. We simply have to receive it. If knowledge is received in this way, it doesn’t matter whether it is inconceivable or not. ... The knowledge simply has to be accepted. According to the Vedic method, sabda, or transcendental sound, is regarded as evidence. Sound is very important in Vedic understanding, for, if it is pure, it is accepted as authoritative. Even in the material world we accept a great deal of information sent thousands of miles by telephone or radio. In this way we also accept sound as evidence in our daily lives. Although we cannot see the informant, we accept his information as valid on the basis of sound." -- Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Introduction.

11.2 "Against a fact there is no argument."-- St. Thomas Aquinas. The following example, even though it may seem arcane, is meet because it relates to the Personality of Godhead and it illustrates how mental speculation functions to deviate the mind from its repose in the Self by way of, in this case, ignoring or discounting transcendental sound, leading to over-active defeat by daivi mahamaya (Bg 7.14; 16.23), manifested in a passionate but futile quest for occult power by putative appropriation of a divine object. Not hearing and heeding the spiritual vibration emanating from the breath of God and non-different from God (Bg 3.15: brahmaksara-samudbhavam, "the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead"; SBhag 6.1.40: vedo narayanah saksat, "the Vedas are directly the Supreme Person-ality of Godhead, Narayana"), one falls short of the suddha-sattva platform of pure devotional service (Bg 14.19-20,26-27) to be materially exercised by rajo-guna (Bg 14.7,12). This is the result of intelligence in the mode of passion (Bg 8.31). "Discretion (as knowing dharma) is the better part of valor (as doing karya)."

11.3 The Ark of the Covenant, the yoga-pitha of Israel, was a sacred gold covered chest, built by Moses and Aaron to exact divine specifications ("see that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain"), which contained two stone tablets inscribed with the ten commandments, Aaron's self-budding rod, and a jar of manna, and which was supporting the glorious Real Presence of Yahweh (God) on the 'mercy seat' between the two cherubim above. The potencies of this virtual Deity form were legendary, as for example after it was captured and taken away by the Philistines. Just as we know which books are Vedic sastra by the testimony of the guru, so certain books are known to be holy scripture (inspired by God and biblical) by the testimony of the magisterium (teaching authority) of the Holy Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. One of those books is Second Maccabees. In chapter 2, verses 1-8, the present location of the 'lost' Ark is alluded to: "You will find in the records, not only that Jeremiah the prophet ordered the deportees to take some of the aforementioned fire with them, but also that the prophet, in giving them the law, admonished them not to forget the commandments of the Lord or be led astray in their thoughts, when seeing the gold and silver idols and their ornaments. With other similar words he urged them not to let the law depart from their hearts. The same document also tells how the prophet, following a divine revelation, ordered that the tent and the Ark should accompany him and how he went off to the mountain which Moses climbed to see God's inheritance. When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a room in a cave in which he put the tent, the Ark, and the altar of incense; then he blocked up the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the path, but they could not find it. When Jeremiah heard of this, he reproved them: 'The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy.

Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord will be seen in the cloud, just as it appeared in the time of Moses and when Solomon prayed that the Place might be gloriously sanctified.'" This pericope makes it clear on divine authority that the location of the Ark of the Covenant is presently unknown to human beings, and acceptance of this fact constitutes a feature of devotional service in the Judeo-Christian context, while evincing the operation of intelligence in the mode of goodness (Bg 18.30).

11.4 Intelligence can also be in the mode of passion or the mode of ignorance. In rajo-guna, buddhi motivated materially discounts and sets aside the divine revelation as contrary to its desires or goals, with rationalization if necessary. In tamo-guna, buddhi in the darkness of ignorance disbelieves the divine revelation and believes something contrary to it. In this context, these can result in an adventurous quest for the lost Ark, going down the road of Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark, who believed that when Pharaoh Shishaq captured Jerusalem and plundered the Temple, he carried away the Ark with many golden artifacts, in spite of the revealed fact that the Ark was present in the Temple until the time of the Babylonian Exile. In similar ways, they waste their time in fruitless material activity due to a mindset informed by unbelief. Others, accepting the most prominent legend of the Ark, think that "The biblical Queen of Sheba was actually Queen Makeda of Ethiopia. After adopting Mosaic laws for the Ethiopian people, she sent her son Menelik and members of his staff to steal the Ark and bring it to Aksum, a small mountain town about 300 miles north of the capital, Addis Ababa. There, ostensibly, it remains housed in the Church of Saint Mary of Zion, a relatively modest 17th-century stone building." An entire Ethiopian Church believes this and large pilgrimages are conducted to this site. But, quite tellingly, no-one is allowed to actually look at what is rumored to be the unlost Ark.

11.5 Such a fake ark, even if cleverly crafted with finest gold, has no better chance of floating over cosmic seas of space and time to hold the glorious Shekinah of almighty God in the millennial Temple of the heavenly Jerusalem than a lead zeppelin. No-one can pay for or ascend a stairway to Heaven, hallowed home of the spirit soul as well as non-modal abode of the Original Person (Bg 8.9; 15.4), by whimsical activities, which constitute another connotation of this word 'gambling'. Such 'filler' activities are symptomatic of ontological vacuity born of atheism (be it theoretical or practical, total or partial, militant or benign), for "nature abhors a vacuum". [For example, Buddhism broaches an illuminary philosophical development, and such an intricate subtle elegance often attracts persons with intelligence in the mode of passion (Bg 18.31), but what is the real merit of such philosophy without religion which functions to fill the void left by inattention to the small spirit soul and to the Supreme Spirit Soul, as well as to their divine relationship? Whatever spiritual merit inheres in Buddhist philosophy is only due to the fact that Lord Buddha is the ninth avatara of Lord Visnu, Who is the Personality of Godhead, the author of genuine religious principles.] Once Yamaraja the mahajana told his servants, dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam na vai vidur rsayo napi devah (SBhag 6.3.19).

Just as the sages and demigods cannot comprehend the divine Personality of the Lord (Bg 10.2), so even they cannot be the authors of real religion. What then of the speculations of mortal merely human beings?

bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah
tato mam tattvato jnatva visate tad-anantaram

The original author of all genuine religion, Sri Krsna, in this verse (Bg 18.55) reveals the supreme summit of sacred mysteries that the authentic stairway to Heaven (tad anantaram) is the path of devotional service to Him, by which way only can He be known in truth.

11.6 The golden path of perfection consists not in chasing after the counterfeit arks of mental speculation, but rests in aurally discerning the genuine Ark which is the boat to cross over the ocean of material existence. "When you are situated in the boat of transcendental knowledge you will be able to cross over the ocean of miseries." (sarvam jnana-plavenaiva vrjinam santarisyasi, Bg 4.36) And what is that boat? The demigods pray to Lord Krsna effulgently hidden within the womb of Mother Devaki: "O lotus-eyed Lord, by concentrating one's meditation on Your lotus feet, which are the reservoir of all existence, and by accepting those lotus feet as the boat by which to cross the ocean of nescience, one follows in the footsteps of mahajanas [great saints, sages and devotees]. By this simple process, one can cross the ocean of nescience as easily as one steps over the hoofprint of a calf.

O Lord, who resemble the shining sun, You are always ready to fulfill the desire of Your devotee, and therefore You are known as a desire tree. When acaryas completely take shelter under Your lotus feet in order to cross the fierce ocean of nescience, they leave behind on earth the method by which they cross, and because You are very merciful to Your other devotees, You accept this method to help them." (SBhag 10.2.30-31) The Vani is still here, along with the Holy Name.

dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam
mahajano yena gatah sa panthah

The Truth of Religion is hidden in the Heart and the Way the Mahajana has gone is the Path.

12.1 Another example can now be given, this time illustrating mental speculation resulting from, not ignorance, but rather uncomprehending abuse of transcendental sound. The ravinal Ravana, that scourge of gods and men, and of their sacrifices (Bg 3.10-12), although the son of Pulastya and studied in the Vedas, longed to erect a soaring stone stairway to heaven's nandana-kanana with its delightful sapsarasa-svargamrta in dis-order that his raksasa race could climb, sans-sacrifice, to the high place where deva-raja Vasava erstwhile dwelt secure. However, his extraneously sensual plans with insensate insatiable lust inflated fell to earth like faulty towers, smashed to dust by the Lord of every Vedic sacrifice, Sri Rama, well served by His huge hordes of boulder-heaving valiant-roaring simian-seeming servitor-forces. Unlike that of the ocean-crossing Rama-bhaktas, Ravana's unjustly presumptuous plan depended upon another sort of stone 'bridge' which the "fallible soldiers" of his raksasa relation just could not 'float' to facilitate a vertical crossing. The radical reason for this reality is that that infamous raksasa-raja, though longing for immortality (although in sense gratification: Bg 16.10-11), lived and breathed against the ineluctable plan of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

12.2 In other words, the most malign and relatively puissant Ravana (yet only the slave of lust: Bg 3.37-40) over-reached himself by trying to kidnap Mother Sita to enjoy. Lost to himself with no real intelligence (despite his brahminical birth and Vedic learning), that king of the demons chained to the gates of hell (lust, anger and greed -- Bg 16.21-22), conceited by prestige and illusioned by insatiable lust (thus not knowing what is to be done and not done), hard-avowed himself to unclean horrible work which was unbeneficial to the world (Bg 16.7-10). In the ignorance of his godlessness, he gambled against God -- and lost. That is not at all surprising, as Lord Krsna says, dyutam chalayatamasmi tejas tejasvinam aham / jayo 'smi vyavasayo 'smi sattvam sattvavatam aham -- "There are many kinds of cheaters all over the universe. Of all cheating processes, gambling stands supreme and therefore represents Krsna. As the Supreme, Krsna can be more deceitful than any mere man. If Krsna chooses to deceive a person, no one can surpass Him in His deceit. His greatness is not simply one-sided -- it is all-sided. Among the victorious, He is victory. ... No one can surpass Him in cheating, no one can surpass Him in splendor, no one can surpass Him in victory, no one can surpass Him in enterprise, and no one can surpass Him in strength." (Bg 10.36 & purport)

12.3 Ravana, the godless gambler, was cheated in two ways. First, it is not at all possible for any bahiranga-maya-mrga, modal creature, like Ravana to place his hands, no matter how powerful, on the personified internal potency, antaranga-maya-sakti of the Personality of Godhead. In Caitanya-caritamrta 2.9.178-196, Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja describes Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu's tour of south India during which He arrived at southern Mathura where He met a great brahmana devotee of Lord Rama, who invited the Lord to his home. According to the inner timing of his siddha-seva, he eventually prepared and offered food for the Lord, who accepted it, but noticed that the brahmana was fasting.

"While the brahmana was fasting, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked him, 'Why are you fasting? Why are you so unhappy? Why are you so worried?' The brahmana replied, 'I have no reason to live. I shall give up my life by entering either fire or water. My dear Sir, mother Sita is the mother of the universe and the supreme goddess of fortune. She has been touched by the demon Ravana, and I am troubled upon hearing this news. Sir, due to my unhappiness I cannot continue living. Although my body is burning, my life is not leaving.' Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied, 'Please do not think this way any longer. You are a learned pandita. Why don't you consider the case? Sitadevi, the dearmost wife of the Supreme Lord Ramacandra, certainly has a spiritual form full of bliss. No one can see her with material eyes, for no materialist has such power. To say nothing of touching mother Sita, a person with material senses cannot even see her. When Ravana kidnapped her, he kidnapped only her material, illusory form.

As soon as Ravana arrived before Sita, she disappeared. Then just to cheat Ravana she sent an illusory, material form. Spiritual substance is never within the jurisdiction of the material conception. This is always the verdict of the Vedas and Puranas.' Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then assured the brahmana, 'Have faith in My words and do not burden your mind any longer with this misconception.' Although the brahmana was fasting, he had faith in the words of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and accepted food. In this way his life was saved."

Secondly, due to his own faults and demonic demeanor, Ravana was misled by Lord Rama's pastimes as a naravad-avatara into thinking that Rama was merely a human being, a member of one class that raksasas never fear. [Even demigods are bewildered encountering Lord Krsna when He descends in His humanlike spiritual form (muhyanti yat surayah), such as Brahma and Indra. -- Bg 4.6; 10.14] As Lord Krsna states in Bhagavad-gita 9.11-12:

avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam
param bhavam ajananto mama bhuta-mahesvaram
moghasa mogha-karmano mogha-jnana vicetasah
raksasim asurim caiva prakrtim mohinim sritah

"Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of 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."

This was certainly the case with the rapacious Ravana, the gambler.

12.4 As Srila Prabhupada states commenting on the four types of living beings that do not surrender to Lord Krsna: "The atheistic planmakers are described herein by the word duskrtinah, or "miscreants." Krti means one who has performed meritorious work. The atheist planmaker is sometimes very intelligent and meritorious also, because any gigantic plan, good or bad, must take intelligence to execute. But because the atheist's brain is improperly utilized in opposing the plan of the Supreme Lord, the atheistic planmaker is called duskrti, which indicates that his intelligence and efforts are misdirected. In the Gita it is clearly mentioned that material energy works fully under the direction of the Supreme Lord. It has no independent authority. It works as the shadow moves, in accordance with the movements of the object. But still material energy is very powerful, and the atheist, due to his godless temperament, cannot know how it works; nor can he know the plan of the Supreme Lord. Under illusion and the modes of passion and ignorance, all his plans are baffled, as in the case of Hiranyakasipu and Ravana, whose plans were smashed to dust although they were both materially learned as scientists, philosophers, administrators and educators." (Bg 7.15, purport)

13.1 So now we come to the last leg of our long look into the golden speculum of gambling to see past the mysterious smoke and mirrors of 'the big game'. Hopefully this time of now is also the last leg of our last fleeting foray through the underworld wanderings of material existence as well we take the narrow higher path back home, back to Godhead, following impressions in the sands of time impressed by the lotus footsteps of mahajano yena gatah sa panthah. In this final yuga of the cyclic time when Kali roams at will most free, the last intact standing leg most true of holy religion's rsabha is bruised, battered, bending, rending, wobbling, hobbling, trembling traumatised and about to topple (not unlike some of those we see in the Care For Cows newsletter). For Dharma's sake, Lord Krsna said (Bg 4.7-8):

yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham
paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge

Kali's tsunami of irreligion in five waves can be diverted by the greater flood of love of Godhead let loose by the two brothers Nityananda Prabhu and Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Who are much too intoxicated with the divine love of Radha for Krsna to care who is fit to be immersed in Their mercy and who is not. Let us not therefore gamble away our wavy lives, but hasten to grab the life-raft by Their navy thrown over Kali's shoreless drowning sea, storm-tossed and steep with waves of woe, by chanting the mahamantra for our deliverance, Hare Krsna, and trying to understand Lord Krsna in truth all along the line of Lord Caitanya.

Soooo..., No Gambling.

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