My name is Gaura Rader. I'm a philosopher, MA in philosophy from the University of Florida, a social scientist. M.A. in social psychology from Ohio University. Currently, my Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies is ABD.
I've been a lifelong seeker of knowledge and wisdom about the nature and meaning of life and how to live better. The first 10 years of my life were spent in religion as a monk travelling and teaching, including 2 years in India. Since then I've been in and out of graduate school while raising my daughter who is currently 10 1/2 years old.
At the moment I'm focused on my current book project on God, religion and morality and videos related to that project but ultimately life is too short for metaphysics and I'm more interested in how we can live well, including psychology, diet, exercise, yoga, movements disciples, and much more,.
Please keep in touch. My websites socials and email are listed below.
Replete w/frogs of the pond 'supporting' 'corroboration ' the antithesis of Self-reliance ,victimhood cries out as real knowledge goes down the drain of the mayayaapahrta gnana replacement illusion. And thus, the rolling stone, rolls on, never finding home, lost in the world of envy, the apogee of uselessness
More allegations regarding other company stores and branches overseas in London have been made by some, claiming that money was funneled into Swiss bank accounts from there. The GBC, to this day, has not investigated this incident, regarding any possible involvement of ISKCON officials, affiliated individuals or even Jayapataka Swami, who was the GBC for this area during the time of the murder and a possible beneficiary of this money in question. VNN has learned that in both cases, ISKCON members have been told by ISKCON management not to cooperate with law enforcement officials investigating these cases. In recent developments in Europe, Harikesa blackmailed the GBC for millions of dollars, threatening to expose other criminal activities of "senior ISKCON member, that will have to spend 20 years in jail", as Harikesa put it. Some reports claim that he actually managed to extort $500,000 so far from ISKCON management and may demand more in the future for his silence. Reports of Sannyasis financing their expensive travel itineraries with "lost" traveler checks and "lost" airline luggage, as well as gurus encouraging disciples to file fraudulent personal bankruptcies, defraud insurance companies and a host of other illegal activities, raise serious questions, of just how vulnerable the GBC and other ISKCON leaders are to such blackmail and extortion by current and former members
More allegations regarding other company stores and branches overseas in London have been made by some, claiming that money was funneled into Swiss bank accounts from there. The GBC, to this day, has not investigated this incident, regarding any possible involvement of ISKCON officials, affiliated individuals or even Jayapataka Swami, who was the GBC for this area during the time of the murder and a possible beneficiary of this money in question. VNN has learned that in both cases, ISKCON members have been told by ISKCON management not to cooperate with law enforcement officials investigating these cases. In recent developments in Europe, Harikesa blackmailed the GBC for millions of dollars, threatening to expose other criminal activities of "senior ISKCON member, that will have to spend 20 years in jail", as Harikesa put it. Some reports claim that he actually managed to extort $500,000 so far from ISKCON management and may demand more in the future for his silence. Reports of Sannyasis financing their expensive travel itineraries with "lost" traveler checks and "lost" airline luggage, as well as gurus encouraging disciples to file fraudulent personal bankruptcies, defraud insurance companies and a host of other illegal activities, raise serious questions, of just how vulnerable the GBC and other ISKCON leaders are to such blackmail and extortion by current and former members
all the commenters who talk about, "I never experienced anything bad" can F*ck all the way off. this cult has destroyed countless lives and the lives of small children who's only fault was their parents were stupid enough to join this disgusting cult. 25 of these kids have unalived themselves and many more are traumatized for ever. and the disgusting sexual abuse continues, the perps are still protected to this day. how do the children win a 400 million dollar child abuse lawsuit, but no one is convicted of child abuse? no one did it? it happened but no one did it? no one arrested charged and jailed? because they are still leading the cult to this day. and all you people cant see it, and defend these creeps.
Eye 🥐 . There are perfect beings and have always existed as such. They exist as human beings in the physical form but are not held to the same material energy. The bonds of material energy are what entangle humans and keep them from their original relationship with Krsna. Krsna and his associates are having their pastimes this very moment on other planets. The pure devotee becomes pure in spirit and the material body is simply a vessel for service. The soul is free and pure while simultaneously existing in an imperfect shell. I think perhaps you missed the point. A "perfect human being" has a body that is still subject to the laws of nature.
I like in the books only the spiritual value,so the real meaning of it.I couldn't be a bhakta cause I cannot fit into some of the rules.For example gurus must be treated as Krishna.That's against my belief which is a guru is a teacher and not Krishna. Or when there is the demonising of the material world but they are asking money which is a material. Or when they tell the bhaktas are immedietly on Krishna loca.While others are getting an astralbody and building it through the forces and that's only a lower level to them cause bhaktas are the highests.And I don't believe that.That's only the negative side of my opinion.The positive side is two word vedic knowledge.So I think only the knowledge is a thing from the bhaktas,their thinking style towards everything else is not a thing to me.I like to do japa daily cause I don't do meditation to me it's better to focusing on God than thinking of nothing,I cannot think of nothing in a full time job time.This guy is very nice in the video.I think bhaktas are an interesting experience and the connection to God is possible without them as well.
Morals and ethics are not what the companies and popularity decide. No creation should be worshiped. Rape and kidnapping are part of pretty much every religious tradition, except Islam. The feminist definition of rape is shown in context, because Prabhupada mentioned what the woman wanted. Women are just as deserving of punishment for crimes as men. Americans do most of the rape and child sex abuse. Physical and psychological abuse becomes more common with the repressed modern secular system. Denying the differences between the genders They do know that brain size doesn't make women and Negroid people less intelligent. Autism, schizophrenia, and retardation are different conditions. You seem more indoctrinated than scientific. You assume much about secret intentions and gaps in the narrative.
I think as you get into Pabhupada’s books and lectures you end up making constant excuses for the content. The racism, misogyny, homophobia, hooky science, it’s absolutely disgusting but the sentimentality of it kinds of blinkers your common sense. As for the devotees, the leaders are mostly pathological narcissists with temper issues and that filters down to the followers emulating them. Most of the leaders aren’t even practicing what they preach, I had first hand experience of that by having the misfortune of having to serve some of them. Even a few years ago I was in India sitting in a restaurant when a Sanyasi from ISKCON was in the corner in normal clothes behaving like a regular tourist eating all kinds of junk. I knew guys who regularly beat their wives up like it was normal, they send their kids to private ISKCON schools knowing they’re riddled with pedophiles, just last year the headmaster of Mayapur gurukula was expelled for years of physical and sexual abuse with both boys and girls and that’s not even breaking the surface of the child abuse issues they’ve had in 50 years. The kids who’ve grown in ISKCON can be seriously messed up. The only thing I miss perhaps is some regular spiritual practice. The art and deity worship was also very nice as well as kirtan but it’s not enough to digest all the bullshit that goes along with it. Massive emphasis on money collection also, spiritual advancement is measured by it there, sell more books and you’re a saint.
Guilt, shame, and fear are the basic drives and any wholesome lifestyle will direct that. Perfecting and accomplishing more is key to any type of system towards success. Seeking mere pleasure tends to reduce it by more means than frustration. Not all sexual and other behavior or tastes are equal.
Some are over defensive and it isn't the path itself. Sometimes, we need to put our character over specific relationships. The false ego cares very much about social rank on a personal or subjective level. Intoxicant use is not good for mental and physical health; even so called moderation. I know people do it like the drug pushers that disguise it as medicine speak of legal drugs. Charitable institutes of a religious nature drive charity and stability. Illusion and delusion are supposed to be culled by spiritual practice and replacing fiction and empty entertainment take time.
People traumatizing others is basically in violation of the spiritual laws the devotees are calling towards. Thus far, this seems like it is going to be psychologist hatred of religion; despite the poof that any type of religion is better than none on mental health.
I’m a gay man. So, during our local annual India Festival in Oklahoma I chatted with the Hare Krishnas, I talked about their acknowledgement of the diversity of God expressed thru myriad forms in Hinduism. I politely asked them why are they so exclusionary towards LGBTQ people? Is God exclusionary? Were they doing that because of culture or because they “know” that God is exclusionary. It was a struggling conversation. So, I ended it and just said, “you all have such amazing ideas for our planet, but you’ve got to get over yourselves as having any privilege to demand anything of devotees. You invented an organization, and that’s the beginning and end of it.”
I agree there are some amazing ideas but I think they are mixed with so much garbage that the ideas packaged that way don't end up helping anyone, like literally no one is able to benefit from the good ideas because the harm of the bad ideas is so powerful.
My understanding of Hinduism is that it is inclusive, and of course human culture fu@ks that up. When I’ve observed the Hare Krishna’s exclusion of so much, to me that’s not God Consciousness. That’s humans projecting onto God.
I am an Indian Hindu Vaishnavi. --- maximum of people r don't know about ISKCON , and coz of some bad people that r present in ISKCON and try to mislead people by doing bad work , or by doing insult to woman n all .. --- maximum of people don't know about Acharya Shrila Prabhupada😃 and without knowing much about him people just judge him, his iskcon . --- ISKCON IS A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO COME FROM ANY RELIGION,, CAN COME AND GET THE DIVINE BLESSINGS AND PRASADAM FROM LORD . ISKCON SERVED NEEDY PEOPLE BY DISTRIBUTING PRASADAM ( FOOD) TO LAKHS OF PEOPLE 😃... YES THERE R SOME BAD PEOPLE WHO R WEARING DEVOTEES DRESSES AND BEHAVE BADLY WITH PEOPLE , JUST THEY WANT TO MISLEAD PEOPLE FROM ISKCON . BUT👉👉👉👉 ITS NOT GOOD BY BLAMING ISKCON BECAUSE OF BAD BEHAVIOUR OF SOME PEOPLE NA🙃🙂🙃 .... IN ISKCON HERE WE TEACH EVRY MAN SHOULD SEE AND RESPECT OTHER WOMEN AS MOTHER , DAUGHTER IF YONGER . AND WOMEN TOO SHOULD SEE AND RESPECT EVRY MEN AS HER FATHER AND SON IF YONGER IN AGE🙏😃 BECAUSE OF SOME BAD PEOPLE WHO INTENSIONALLY JOIN ISKCON AND DOING BAD BEHAVIOUR ITS NOT GOOD TO JUDGE ISKCON WHERE ISKCON SERVED DIVINE FOOD TO MEEDY PEOPLE🙏😃🤗💛 Kindly don't blame ISKCON 🙏🙃🙂becoz of some bad people who r doing INTENSIONALLY bad behaviour to people by wearing ISKCON dresses ,🙂 Gyaan or divine knowledge is the MAIN POWER OF A DEVOTEE🖐️ , if a devotee is blaming or insulting you then you should understand that he is a lower class devotee , just like a child in spiritual path . He doesn't have that humanity to see which one is good behaviour n bad .
I’m not one of your students, but I am a student currently taking this course. And I just wanted to say thank you! Our professor just pretty much tells us to read the chapter and doesn’t engage us or even put up lectures or notes. I’m preparing for an exam on the first 5 chapters and you just don’t know how helpful your videos have been because I was in panic mode. Thank you again for making these public.
There are two kinds of people, one is like a bee and the other is a fly. The bee is looking for nectar and the fly is looking for shit. Everyone can decide for themselves which insect this film represents.
The present Prime Minister India, Narendra Modi, has nothing but praise for AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and the contribution of the Hare Krishna movement to India as well as the world. After watching the first 7 minutes of your presentation, I'll leave it at that. Firstly, because you want to make an academic case from speculators who have their own motives and limited viewpoints. Most of what we are taught by so called academia is conjecture, if not purposeful misinformation, without full consensus or validation. You quickly jump from being brought up in the Krishna movement and into your adult life, - until you became an atheist. So your mission now is to convince people not to believe in God, but to believe in you instead - and therefore believe in your atheist ideology. As a member of Prabhupada's spiritual family since I was 18 (I"m 70 now) I can understand how the institution that is now "ISKCON" has changed after Prabhupada's departure in 1977. Although there are very sincere devotees inside and outside of ISKCON who faithfully follow what Prabhupada gifted the world with, you have people like Radhanatha, who simply are not on a very high level trying to step into Prabhupada's shoes - by maybe mechanically following the process, maybe. and by promoting his own books, which are also questionable. It's painful to see how conflicted you are, and I feel bad that somehow you have been disappointed by the institution to the degree that your mission now is to try to spread atheism, and save people from the Hare Krishnas. The Hare Krishna faith, or more specifically Brahma Gaudiya Vaishnavism is booming in India and other places like Russia, where there is much appreciation. There also may be detractors like yourself, but life goes on and people make their own choices, and judge for themselves. One can note also that he other three Vaishnava sampradayas are also continuing on, as they have for centuries. The biggest flaw of the mindless extreme so-called liberalism that pollutes modern dialog, is the complete ignorance of the fact that everyone is conditioned by their past actions and desires to think their body is their self, and distress to the mind and body should be adjusted forthwith, without understanding having a body itself the principal problem - whatever it's condition may be. There is no awareness that the eternal spark of life which is symptomized by consciousness, continually goes on to another body and it's challenges, created by ones actions and desires in this life. As sparks of spiritual energy, we cannot be destroyed, but can choose our next destination (body) by our desires. Or one can believe there is no soul or God; that everything is random chance, and if one in a male body identifies more as a female, one can just cut off the penis, in order to live happily ever after. Conclusion? Whatever you choose to believe and act upon, do it wisely, because time and death are always there to remind us of what is real.
To understand Absolute Truth first condition is sraddha,some faith in God and His Authority is needed ! Faithless persons can not progres in spiritual life, what to speak of bhakti yoga ! Then enough sincerity and seriousness is needed ! That may lead one to proper spiritual connections, genuine sadhus, sadhu sanga ! By such associations own adhikar and sraddha will improve ! This also includes proper vichar, wich includes Tattva jnana ! Then one will understand that Vedas are APAURUSHREYA, SABDHA, TRANSCENDENTAL SOUND VIBRATIONS , coming down from God Himself ! Without that understanding and realization, jnana and vijnana, it is out of question that one will be able to progres in spiritual life ! Those who derided this facts and Authority of Vedas are atheists, Faithless persons and may belong in maya apahrta jnana category if they have material intelligence, or they are mudhas, naradamas or asurim bhavam and they never surender to Sri Krishna ! All this is explained by Sri Krishna Himself in Bhagavad Gita As It Is ! Choice is given to accept Him or reject Him as Supreme Authority and Absolute Truth !
Eating vegetarian food that is not offered to God is sinful. In the bible God says - "I've given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth And every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food." If God says what we should eat there cannot be any sin. "So Bhāgavata can be expanded to any unlimited. So anything in relationship with God, that is Bhāgavatam. >>> Ref. VedaBase => Six Gosvāmīs Lecture, Śrī Śrī Ṣaḍ-govāmy-aṣṭaka -- Los Angeles, November 18, 1968
ISKCON is dirty organization involved in drugs, human trafficking, murders, beat downs and so on. I worked at one of they restaurants for 7 years. The leaders of this cult are criminals. That's why they change they names.
I dont follow Iskcon; I follow Prabhupada. He fed many people and taught them Vedic Knowledge. Action speaks louder than words. Any Rascal can make a RU-vid video.
Secular organizations feed far more people than Prabhupada ever did. Not to mention, he used food as a weapon to manipulate people and take everything from them.
I don’t think he would be ok with the greatest prophet of the religion marrying a child (Sunan an-Nasa'i 3378), which is why you can marry children according to Quran 65:4. He’d consider this, and many more teachings of Islam, as proof of the problem of evil. But he should research Christianity. Its emphasis on love, forgiveness, and more is the solution to all problems.
If you were in New Vrindavan, and other places where the great sinister movement had their agents from the satanic cabal dressed as vaisnavas, these places were home of the super abuse and mind programming, mk ultra. You are acting on your programming to destroy everything good and Godly and their agenda above all was to attack Srila Prabhupada and what he gave. You are unable to separate Srila Prabhupada from all that was done in his name. You are in deep spiritual danger .
I watched the first couple of minutes of your video and I think you are missing the point of what Hare Krishna devotees and in general what the religious people are looking for.. I'll speak for the devotees of our movement, we want GOD. Of course the world has its problems and if you've read the Bhagavad Gita, you'd know that the material world was created to satisfy our foolish desires (which only leads to frustration) and to realise that we can't be happy without God..
Well, people say they want God of course, but there’s no reason to thank God exists so what we do as psychologist is understand the underlying motivations of someone who says they want God. Another way of phrasing that is, what are peoplewho join religions and cults missing from their life that causes them to join such organizations. And of course, with any human phenomenon, the answer is always multifactorial. We know that religion fulfills some basic needs like the need for community and need to manage existential terror.
@@GauraRader Ok. You are entitled to your opinions but as we are advised to stay away from atheists, you leave me with no choice but to end this conversation here but I wish you good luck nevertheless 🤞
@@RadharamanDas-x4u And you don't think that is a red flag? They tell you to stay away from people who think differently, which is exactly what cults do.
@@GauraRader Nope. Not for a neophyte like me. These rules are there to safeguard our bhakti creeper in the beginning stages of bhakti but someone like Srila Prabhupada is beyond all these rules as he personally demonstrated.. Until then, I'll have to follow these rules. 🙏
Not that I disagree with some of the things in Krsna Book and so many of the story's are definitely kind out there although look at all the things that are going
I have been a devotee a sents 1972 when my parents joined the movement in Ohio went to Dallas Gurukula, west Virginia, and married at 12 years old and I never never heard of anything like what your talking about and as far as being pregds sinful activate in every spiritual scripture is the same
Sadly, misogyny is rampant throughout Buddhist cultural traditions, too. I lived in Myanmar for 4 years. The Burmese have so many beliefs about how only a man can be eligible for buddhahood, women must be born as men, womens bodies are gross etc etc. At the same time, it isn't actually part of the Buddhas teachings. The same can be said of Krishna's teachings in the Gita. We have transposed our own cultural values onto the system. I for one think that religion can be used for learning about our societies, history and traditions but eventually is overcome by personal truth through the long road of life, the only spiritual quest. Our personal truths temper the received wisdom with unique perceptions and contributions. In fact, without personal experience of a living God (that appears in the form of your life) all beliefs are ultimately placebos and idols. Thanks for bravely calling attention to the Prabhu-problematics. I don't think the only answer is to abandon the ship. Another is to course correct.
For everyone that are saying that something is a cult because makes vows, or some terrible arguments, please study what is a cult. To be a cult there is 5 main points that belong to TOTALITARISM. EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS CAN BECOME A CULT, it depends if it has the five main points that makes the totalitarism happens. It can be religious or not. It can be literally anything, it does not depends on the thing it self, but if there is totalitarism in that. So a literature group, can become a cult, if it has the totalitarism caracterists. Please people, try to understand that, because this is something serious for everyone and for everything in life. Academic programrs can become a cult, a religious can become a cult, its not about the thing it self.
@@GauraRader 1) charisma and totalitarianism 2) isolation from the rest of the world from peers and from oneself 3) total ideology, cognitive rigidity 4) extremes of fear and love, an emotional cognitive dissociation, a confused emotional attachment to the source of the fear 5) followers neglect their personal needs The MAIN point I'm trying to bring here: when we highlight this characteristics we can understand that any religion, any spiritual practice, any ideological movement of a group of people, any political party, etc, can become a "totalitarian cult" if these characteristics are present in it. Very Important: as we learned from the history of Christianity, it is possible that small groups within a larger religion present totalitarian characteristics, but this does not mean (it is illogical by the way) that the larger segment, that philosophy itself, that everywhere of the world where there are practitioners of this religion are in totalitarian cults. And I present this as my personal account of how Krishna consciousness happens in Brazil. We have a group in the south of Brazil that specifically presents these characteristics, I have directly experienced this for a long time (I'm from the south of the country) but I have traveled a lot and lived in several places, I am clear that this is a specificity of specific groups in the south of Brazil and not of iskcon as a whole in Brazil, which presents OPPOSITE symptoms to the symptoms of totalitarianism. Was my point clear?
I want to highlight here that this is not a trivial opinion of mine, a devotte from italy also observed, what me and many other devottes from south of brazil have reqalized and understood. He came to brazil to become CGB, and he was impressed of how this specific groups of south of brazil behave. He wrote a PDF with 50 pages explaining how they were acting as cult. For most of people it was so shocking, for women like that have lived with them, this was clear for so many years already. This is a serious thing here. I just dont want it seems that I am arguing as if I was someone that doenst SEE this things, and doesnt have LIVED directly this things. As women, as you seems to you, this impact can be much bigger (of religious cults). The thing is the way you approach to the theme is so GENERAL that it seems you want to prove something like: "Everyone who is in CK is deluded in a harmful cult, and everyone who has left is outside of that illusion." This is as childish as the devotees who think that everyone in CK is outside maya and everyone outside CK is in maya.
@@radhashakti108 I know you don’t get this right now, but everyone who believes any aspect of the philanthropy is deluded. And anyone who believes anything Prabhupada says is brainwashed and everyone’s life is either directly controlled by the cult or indirectly profoundly influenced by the cult. The thing is no one who is in a cult believes they’re in a cult. You can’t understand its influence on you until you start to take steps backwards.
@@GauraRader Its clear now that you are not a serious person on talking about the subject, imagine if I started the answer for your question "what are the five main characteristics?" Saying that "I know you cant understand this right now... (because you are out of CK)" do you have any idea how arrogant is this? I just brought you many aspects about a cult and you didn't even commented directly what I said. The symptoms of brainwhashed are not coming from me, you asked, and I answered you. But you have ignored everything I said about the importance of the concept of what is a cult and how it manifests, just to repete your believes. So I ask you: What is the concept of a cult? Not your imaginnary idea, or what you think it is, but the concept of the word.
It is so convenient for us to judge people based on our modern sensibilities. Everything that you're saying may be true but trying cancel people is immature and childish sounding. It is far far more intelligent to say let's be critical of this man and his legacy rather than saying let's cancel him. Canceling is often times a very ignorance driven kind of activity. Criticize the the man fine. He may deserve every bit of but approaching it in this fashion invites people to just agree with you rather than dig any deeper. Also always always always encourage people to do their own research and clearly present your sources. For all we know the quotes that you are reading were just made up by somebody when you don't tell us where they come from. 🤨
The word canceled doesn’t mean that much. I could make my same point without using that word and the point is this person has nothing of value to say and everything he says is actually so wrong and so harmful that he just should be completely ostracized from society so that no one ever hears This garbage again. Cancellation is just an extreme form of being critical of someone. it is the conclusion of a series of arguments. We don’t need to read the speeches of hitler, generally. There may be some specific reason to read him for academic purposes or to make a point, but generally speaking, there’s no value to society to reading him or rather the value of reading him is much worse than any benefit that would be derived.
The sheer amount of hypocrisy in India and India's religious groups is quite profound and widely known and published upon. faith followers are living under a rock when at your temples meanwhile at ashrams and other religious centers there are documented and exposed and reported by different levels of media about a variety of immoral and hypocritical activities. Your attempt to invalidate video footage of such activities is quite profoundly immature and your representation of Srila Prabhupada movement or whoever is grossly low.
