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Published on December 20th, 2023 | by Madhudvisa dasa
190A Regulated Life is Very Important
"There is no possibility of one's becoming a yogi, O Arjuna, if one eats too much, or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough." (Bhagavad-gita 6.16)
If we want to become Krishna conscious we have to live a regulated life. We can not eat too much or too little or sleep too much or too little. Too much eating means eating more than is required to keep the body and soul together.
There is no need for humans to eat animals because there is a good supply of grains, vegetables, fruits and milk available. Such simple foods are considered to be in the mode of goodness according to the Bhagavad-gita. Animal food is for those in the mode of ignorance therefore those who eat animal food and engage in other sinful activities like drinking alcohol and smoking will suffer sinful reactions because of eating only polluted things.
Anyone who eats for his own sense pleasure, or cooks for himself, not offering his food to Krishna, eats only sin. One who eats sin and eats more than is allotted to him can not practice perfect yoga. One should only eat the remnants of food offered to Krishna. A person in Krishna consciousness does not eat anything which is not first offered to Krishna.
Therefore only the Krishna conscious person can attain perfect yoga practice.
It is also impossible for a person who artificially abstains from eating, manufacturing his own personal practice of fasting, practice yoga.
The Krishna conscious person observes fasting as it is recommended in the scriptures. He does not fast more or eat more than is required and he is thus competent to perform yoga practice. One who eats more than required will dream very much while sleeping, and he must therefore sleep more than required.
One should not sleep more than six hours daily. One who sleeps more than six hours out of the twenty-four is certainly influenced by the mode of ignorance. A person in the mode of ignorance is lazy and prone to sleep a great deal. Such a person can not perform yoga.
"He who is temperate in his habits of eating, sleeping, working and recreation can eliminate all material pains by practicing the yoga system." (Bhagavad-gita 6.17)
Extravagance in the matter of eating, sleeping, defending and mating–which are all demands of the body–can block advancement in the practice of yoga. As far as eating is concerned it can be regulated only when one is practiced to take and accept prasadam, sanctified food. Lord Krishna is offered, according to Bhagavad-gita (9.26), vegetables, flowers, fruits, grains, milk, etc. In this way a person in Krishna consciousness becomes automatically trained not to accept food which is not meant for human consumption, or which is not in the category of goodness.
As far as sleeping is concerned, a Krishna conscious person is always alert in his discharge of duties in Krishna consciousness, and therefore any unnecessary time spent sleeping is considered a great loss. A Krishna conscious person can not bear to pass a minute of his life without being engaged in the service of the Lord. Therefore his sleeping is kept to a minimum.
His ideal in this respect is Srila Rupa Gosvami, who was always engaged in the service of Krishna and who could not sleep more than two hours a day, and sometimes not even that. Haridas Thakur would not even accept prasadam nor even sleep for a moment without finishing his daily routine of chanting with his beads three hundred thousand names of Krishna.
As far as work is concerned, a Krishna conscious person does not do anything which is not connected with Krishna's interest, and thus his work is always regulated and is untainted by sense gratification. Since there is no question of sense gratification there is no material leisure for a person in Krishna consciousness. And because he is regulated in all his work, speech, sleep, wakefulness and all other bodily activities, there is no material misery for him.
190 Responses to A Regulated Life is Very Important
I am a Christian who wants to know God fully even as I am fully known.
Hare krishna prabhu !! All glories to srila Prabhupada!!
I have this question for a long time,
Which projects are currently to be undertaken or can be started
( I will personally distribute books but because I will be doing my business work side by side, I can hire expert technical persons for doing the projects)
So which ones can be started Prabhu .
Especially prabhu, is there a plan to do a project which contains Prabhupada audio( like KrishnaKirtan, which once existed with srila Prabhupada's audio), there are few of them ,but they contain bogus and changed books alongside.
Please tell Prabhu.And Prabhu , is there a problem with KrishnaConnect; I am unable to login
Hare Krishna !!
Pr I'm a 16 years old student and my target is to chant sixteen times but because of atmosphere I'm not able , can I chant without making sound and remembering him ?
Sorry Prabhu but I will try to follow the principles as soon as possible
Prabhu, I am started following the regultive principles. I began to chant 16 rounds. It is a very good experience. I am surprised that I can even give up musturbation which I am addicted to, I again stop eating meat. But still I dont eat prasada, and don't rise early or read any Prabhupada book. My mother who advised me to focus on education instead of talking about mythology or God who won't save me from being unhealthy from eating only veg. or from low grades in school and college, but she is impressed by my chanting the 16 rounds which seems like an impossible task for them . I have so many bad habits including even bad names for lose sexual character during my teenage. People seems to forgive my bad deed only because I was underaged. So my mother is impressed when she see changes in my character. She began to atleast appreciate Krishna consciousness when she is reminded even drugusers give up drug when Prabhupada started Iskcon. She even chant 10 times(even though it's little) when she is about to sleep. and I told her mantra meditation improve brain. Prabhu I was so depressed and had offensive behavior to Prabhupada. I am happy that at least now I am free from that mentality due to Your help from reading your comments. I will continue to chant but still not ready to follow all principles. Thanks
Hare Krishna Prabhuji. I am following the four principles but I am only doing 4-6 rounds of chanting. plus i live outside india and the only way i participate in sankirtan is internet videos. also i am doing some foreign language courses but i dont know how is that going to be of any service to krishna. i feel dejected at times that i am not doing everything that is expected but only what i am able to do.
Prabhuji m so fallen i cant stick to regulative principles can i play Visnujana Svami kirtan in non devotee surrounding will my bad name polute Visnujana Svamis name
Hare Krishna prabhu
Dandavat pranam
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!Prabhu, I have made three promises to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna- first is not reading any other books than Srila Prabhupada's, second is not getting married and third is not asking any questions to anyone except to Srila Prabhupada. But I'm now finding it very difficult to keep these promises, especially the first and third one as I like to read Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura's book as well and maybe some other books as well which help in Krishna Consciousness and also I like to ask questions to devotees especially you. So I want to know if I should not promise to Srila Prabhupada things which he has not asked? I will bow down before Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna and pray to forgive me but should I stop promising anymore and simply follow Srila Prabhupada's instructions? Please help prabhu.
Can you please suggest an action plan to come in mode of goodness at least as due to passion and Ignorance I am suffering. Thank u
Jai Shri Krishna
Sir,I m a student and preparing for my board exams I work hard and study for hours and hours but I do not get marks at all.l decided to wake up early every morning and do meditation by chanting Shri Krishna but still my concentrating power is not improving .please tell me what should I do?? -
god has everything so why did he create us
Hare krsna Madhudvisa dasa,How to deal with sex desire and masturbation,My friends are to much addicted to it,i told them to hear prabhupad lectures and read his books,but they said to me that even they cannot help it.Whats to be done with this sex desire,its a great problem? Even some times i get some lusty thoughts,i control them only after hearing prabhupads lectures for long time.Almost 90 percent of indian youth are to much addicted to sexual way of living.How to control this Demoniac deadly desires of sex.One saint in india told that
"poison may kill man for his birth,But the poison which is the body of Beautiful women burns the soul Birth after Birth. -
Im student right now reading in class 12 i do everything to reach to krishna and my age is only 17 years only and i always love krishna only i dont see anyone but i have little quires that my family not so much devoteee to krishna in that cas eit difficult for me to make them understand what is krishna counciousness . They force me eat onion and garlic and gives me idiotic excuses but how could i do that im wearing tulasi mala i make them understand but they start to quarrel with me its like taughter to me . How i manage all this thing please help me . And another im not follower or nither i have taken dhiksa in iskcon can i apply gaudiya tilak on my forrhead . Or can i bring archa vigraha (radha krishna and ladoo gopal to serve and to provide service mentally and physically ) cause i got to heard from some people who have taken dihksa they can bring radha krishna at home is it true . And another thing it is very diificult to chant 16 round hare krishna cause therre were so many studies and home work i was left to do. In that case i have wake up early and just open the book do study thats all . And my family always a durga devotee and they always force me to worship durga maa but i always feel attracted to lord hari from my childhood in that case what should i do? Please help
Hare krsna Madhudvisa prabhu,All my humble obeisances un to u.Prabhu i am very much rapidly dismayed and unable to cope with krsna consciousness.I am chanting Hare krsna mantra,Reading SP books,Hearing SP lectures but one big problem is i dont like kitchen and cooking.
I dont like to cook,and for my being eating the food cooked by nondevotees its causing bad effect on my Mind. Lusty and undesirable thoughts breeds in my mind by eating food cooked by nondevotees.presently i am trying for job and also trying to avoid bad association.
This two things are dangerous obstacles to my progressive krsna conscious
1.Eating food not offered to lord krsna
2.Bad association
Lord Chaitanya mahaprabhu has said 2 important points regarding the execution of krsna consciousness
1.The first and foremost behaviour of Vaishnava is to give up Bad association.
2.By eating the food cooked by Worldy persons one's mind becomes wicked.
Srila prabhupad has stated that krsna consciousness is possible only in the association of devotees.
I am trying very much to get job and completely lead krsna conscious life style,but I have many problems
1.No Job,Trying to get it but facing many issues,and always depending on others for money.
2.My health is very bad-Have many problems physically and mentally.
3.personal problems
4.Problems from relatives and family people-They are completely against krishna consciousness and humiliating me badly for leading spiritual life.
Considering all these i am unable to lead krsna conscious life style,its seems very difficult to me and i am facing many obastacles on spiritual life.I am becoming quite depressed
Madhudvisa prabhu,Can u kindly pray to Srila prabhupad and Nityananda prabhu, for my well being in spiritual life -
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji ,
Dandvat pranaam..??..
One of a brahmchari devotee from iskcon .told me that according to vedic scriptures English is a impure language of a impure malech people. .n by speaking English we become impure n but can use for Krishna consciousness ..is it true ,? N i wana know that how can we overcome the impuritiness in us by speaking English other than Krishna consciousness ?
Hare Krishna -
Pranam Madhudvisa prabhu,i am trying to control all bad thoughts from my mind,but it is impossible for me to do it. Very dangerous and offensive thoughts breeds in my mind again and again, even though i dont desire them.I am quite depressed every day.My mind is always breeding bad thoughts i dont know how to stop them.My mind never produced any good thought in my whole life.I showed my horoscope to astrologer he said My ascendant lord Is Moon-So my personality and health is influenced by moon planet,but my moon is very weak and badly placed in 8th house -House of death, obstacles,Grief,pain and with malefic planets.He said overall my mind and Horoscope is very bad.
,I am struggling to chant even 4 rounds,I can hear srila prabhupad lectures and read them for many hours a day,but chanting 1 round seems very difficult.Before coming to krishna consciousness,i am very much addicted to meat eating,intoxication,illicit sex(masturbation).Now i strictly gave meat eating and intoxication,but illicit sex (masturbation) i am unable to give it up.I tried all my best to stop but it seems very difficult.And then Cooking prasad,it is very difficult because busy work schedule,and mostly ends with eating food cooked by Non devotees.
What i must do,not to become controlled by nonsense thoughts of mind,I like very much self realisation and spiritual life,but uncontrollable sex drive,and nonsense thoughts of my mind seems bad obstacles seems Oceanous obstacles to me. -
Hi i read all the comments u guys informing chant this much time,be krishna concious ,sleep this much ,etc etc then.
Why not your teamworking on eradicating poverty in india,educating poor, making our country rich once again?????? -
pls guide me to become a devotee of hare Krishna thanks .
Person sleep more than 6 hours considered to mode of ignorance.what could the person sleep in 6 hours in day time and do work in night time?
Prabhuji how can I connect my daily office work to Krishna.
Question came in my mind after reading this post that if too much eating is sin then what can be said about Bheem, son of Kaunti?
Hare Krishna my question is if we don't work how do we survive what do we do to pay rent of the house for food. Even I temple they give respect to the person who spend money. They always ask for money what do we do
Hare Krishna, Prabhu what is Bhakti, what are the different stages of Bhakti and how to attend the highest form of Krishna Bhakti..
Guruji. I do agree i eat too much and do not sleep enough. Working for an American BPO i work during night and hybernate during day. It is never sound sleep. As a result I am fat and overweight.
I would like to know more about Krishna
Hare Krsna,
Should water also be offered to Krsna before drinking it? -
hare krishna
i am apoorva, 22 years of age, a krishna devotee and i follow the sattvik diet and chant the mahamantra daily..i also read the bhagvad geeta and srila pabhupada's books..i have started this schedule from past 2 months and my life has complelety changed..i am a doctor by profession and trust me it's not hard to take out time for krishna..u just need dedication..
i have a question regarding a dream i saw a few days back..i was crying and remembering krishna it was a dark night and it was raining heavily with thunder and lightning the sky was red i heard krishna's flute and ran towards the sound it was melodious..when i reached the place where the sound was coming from i looked around there was complete darkness and water all around me..i got scared..then i saw some light and when i looked it was krishna coming towards me..he was wearing yellow clothes and had a morpankh mukut on his head and he was dark blue in color i started crying with joy and held his hand and said i was waiting for u govinda he smiled and said that is why i am here..i have something to tell u..i asked what..he said i want u to treat all the living entities the same..i also want u to do good to them..whenever u will look around u will find me in everyone and everything so u should treat them the same way u would treat me..spread my love everywhere and i promise to be with u forever u just need to do this small task for me i believe u will..i am giving u a new name VAISHNAVI people will know u by this name..i need to go now but i will come whenever u will call me with all ur heart..saying this he disappeared slowly in the sky..tears were running down my eyes and when i woke up i still had tears in my eyes..how should i interpret my dream?
i had a dream when i was only 6 years old and i still remember that..i saw krishna lying down in vishnu ji's posture and i was stiing beside him holding his legs and he was smiling at me..it was the same face i saw that day..i am confused can u help me interpret the dream? -
Hare Krishna Prabhu Ji,
I am living in a small town in India. Please tell me from where i can get original Srila Prabhupada's books?
Hare Krishna prabhu ji
all glories to srila prabhupad ji
all glories to lord Shri Krishna ji
very true and nice mail. Its true all written in this article that a person engaged in materalistic things always suffers in a lot of ways but a person engaged in the service of the supreme personality of godhead is happy in the happiness of his/her lord. Lord's satisfaction is his satisfaction.
deep respect for you
Hare Krishna prabhu ji -
pranam guru ji and jay shree krishna.i want to know about how many times we hv to sleep,wht we shud eat?i eat onion and garlic in my cury every day except thursday and saturday.these 2 days is my fasting and i eat nonveg twice in a week.everyday i sleep at 2 o' clock in the night and wake up at 9 o' clock.and the whole days of mine going in frustration.everyday i cant able to sleep before 2 .and i heardly chant 10 mins in evening.how many times i hv to chant mahamantra in a day.please guide me guru ji.i want to go in right way so show me the path.
Hare Krishna Sandhya
It is simple. You have to follow the four regulative principles: No illicit sex, No meat eating, No gambling and No intoxication and you have to chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra every day and you have to read Srila Prabhupada's books at least 1-2 hours a day.
As far as sleeping it is better to take rest early and get up early in the mornings. We need to be out of bed before the Brahma-muhurta which is the most auspicious time of the day and which is very good for chanting Hare Krishna. And that starts 1.5 hours before sunrise. So in ISKCON Srila Prabhupada standardized this and had Mangal-aroti at 4:30 AM. So it is good to get out of bed before 4:00 AM and have Mangal-aroti at 4:30 AM. Then you have all those morning hours for chanting Hare Krishna and reading Prabhupada's books.
So we can not expect to make very significiant advancement in Krishna consciousness if we are still eating meat and still eating food with onion and garlic in it [that means it is not prasadam]. If we really want to advance we have to adjust things in our lives so we only accept Krishna prasadam, nothing else.
You know living a Krishna conscious life is practically opposite to living a materialistic life so if we are to actually make progress we have to make adjustments in our lives.
Of course it may not be possible to do everything all at once instantly, but you have to make a plan with the goal of being able to chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, strictly follow the four regulative principles, and read Srila Prabhupada's books daily. These are the main thing, of course there are many other things that we have to do and many things that we can not do, but if you just concentrate on the four regulative principles, chanting Hare Krishna and reading Srila Prabhupada's books then you will find that automatically all other things will come.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
srila prabhupada book i cant able to find pls send me the link bt it is free of cost or wht?yes 1 thing everyday i read bhagbat geeta 2 times a day from my childwood.i love to read geeta .
You can purchase Prabhupada's original books at http://www.KrishnaStore.com and you can read them online for free at http://www.PrabhupadaBooks.com and you can download the PDF files to your computer for free at:
Haribol, Prabhu!
Thank you so much for your service and patience. I have a question. Ever since I have taken up chanting, offering bhoga, and association with Devotees, I find that I am less interested in the topics my older friends like (i.e. Sex, gossip, etc.). I have so much history with these people, and they are dear to me. I am afraid to ask but I must; is it best to limit my association with them so that I may grow in Bhakti? Or should I try to tell them more about Krishna Consciousness (with Prabhupada's books)?I say that I am afraid to ask because I don't feel like I am any better of a person than they are. Although my tastes have changed, I am still a know-nothing rascal. I feel that I am no Devotee, just a wannabe. I, however, do know that to move forward in Bhakti and to attain love for God I must have sadhu-sanga. I hope this makes sense to you and you understand what I am asking. I am really hoping you can give me a little clarity, Prabhu.
Hare Krishna Prabhu
I have a query…….How one can satisfy Krishna by his job/occupation?And one other query…
I distribute newspapers early in the morning. And for this I have to go to shop at 4:30 a.m. and become free at about 8:00 a.m. Then how can I be able to do japa at early morning and attend Mangala Arti at Temple. -
Hare Krishna Prabhu…:)
We see many people wasting food unnecessarily…!! Instead if each individual think about the people who cant even afford for food not even once in a day.. then probably would reduce to a little extent.. In this case I do convey my heartly regards to ISKCON association which has been providing food to lakhs of poor and needy people in different names like AKSHAYA PATRA, ANNAMITRA.. etc:) We all wish for the grand success in the future too:)
Hare Krishna:)
Hare Krishna,
Kindly accept my humble obeisance Prabhu……
All Glories to Srila Prabhupad, Sree Guru and Gouranga.
By the Grace of Lord Sri Krishna Im ok now Prabhu….and thank you so much for your valuable & devotional guidence and advice. Yes I accept whatever I getting from Krishna….. Because everything should be planned by Krishna…I will increase my chanting and reading Srila Prabhupada's books. I fully confident with Krishna, definitely He never loose me. I will follow the devotional procedures at my home which i got from you..That is Krishna's voice. Thank you so Much…..
Hare Krishna.
Yours sincere Servant
Manimekalai.S -
Hare Krishna Prabhu……..
Please accept mu humble obeisances….
All Glories to Srila Prabhupad Sri Guru and Gouranga………….Iam confusing about my marriage. My family members arranging a non devotee for marrying me. But I wish to marry one Lord Krishna's devotee. Regarding my marriage im confusing now and my thought is full of if sometime i will loose Kriahna Conscious…And I will not ready to lose K.Conscious Prabhu. Because I love Krishna too and I never ready to forget Him…I wish always remember Him. I searching a devotee partner since 3 years, But I couldn't get yet now. I don't know what i can do…… If you give your valuable guidence i think my mind will be clear….Expecting your valuable reply Prabhu.
Yours Sincere Servant
Manimekalai.S -
I continues my krishna conscious but after some days i fails again and again
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji,
& Thanks from Heartfor sending the news letter…
Hari Bol
I am not getting your mails for the past few weeks. May i know the reason?
Natarajan G
hare krishna prabhu.
all glories to srila prabhupada.
im having a bit of trouble controlling sexual urges.
they arise out of mind even when absorbed in krishna.
I feel like thats the biggest sin of all because even when im chanting my mind drifts away and thinks about sex. I feel so degraded and embarrassed at myself from these thoughts that arise especially while im engaged in devotional service.
im tired of it and I want to control these urges. I want my mind to only think of krishna and nothing else. where I work females come in all the time with skimpy outfits so its hard to avoid females.
please swamiji, any advice?
your servant, marvin. -
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji,
All glories to Shri Srila prabhupada & Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.Prabhuji,
i have read your valuable lecture about "A regulated life is very important". i also want to follow a regulated life, But now i am not able to do my chanting & Krishna conscious duty daily due to family life. During my study at IIT, Kharagpur & after that also i was chanting regularly at least 2 rounds the HARE KRISHNA MAHAMATRA (HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE. HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE). But now due to family life & due to my laziness i am discontinued my chanting.please give some advice so that i can chant daily without fail.
Hare Krishna
Hari bol!
Thank you for all of the news letters and replies.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare HareSincerely,
hare krishna prabhu.
all glories to srila prabhupada.
my question ro you is when can a devotee put tilak on? -
my respectful obiesances unto you madhudvisa dasa. your a really great person. you help everybody whos lost and fallen. I just wanted to acknowledge that. im really really lost right now.well I surrendered completely in september. since then ive purchased japa beads. and I chant everyday somedays 16 rounds some maybe 8 or more but I always try for 16. my parents or family do not understand this movement at all (im of hispanic descent) so its hard to explain to them. but they just dont get me they cal me crazy and tell me im to sunk into these books. and ive realized that working at McDonalds is not helping me at all as I sell meat products to people all day it just brings me down to even go to work. I want to quit but I know my parents dont want me to because they say money is very important. but they dont understand im following my spiritual life and working at such a place is degrading. all they see is the fruititve results of my work. but I just dont know what to do. should I quit my job and just ignore my parents? Im going to purchase the book distribution box and distribute people and as I know I must serve his divine grace and krishna. I also wanted to live In the iskcon temple in los angeles. but I see know that iskcon isnt truly following srila prabhupadas teachings. and if I quit my job my parents are going to think that I want them to maintain me. all I want in my life is to serve srila prabhupada and krishna nothing more. im only 19 and dont have many responsibilities I understand my constitutional position to serve both my spiritual master and krishna. I dont want to work at a job and earn money. I just want to serve. im wiling to give up everything in my life but I just dont know where to go. I accepted srila prabhupada as my spiritual master. ive renunciated all material objects all I do all day is read about krishna or listen to srila prabhpada lectures on youtube or read the bhagavad gita. when im not im, working at the wretched place called McDonalds. I just dont know what to do im so frustrated on where to turn. where to go im willing to leave my house. I want to live with devotees. where I live, in a city called santa clarita. in california its nothing but ignorance every where I turn im probably the only devotee in my city. ive been to the temple in los angeles once it was about 3 days ago and It felt great to be around other devotees. but im just so confused as of what to do. please help me. sorry for the long post.and repetativeness. im just frustrated.I appreciate your time and kind words.sincerely marvin.
I read in today's newspaper that a BBC Radio One breakfast DJ
who started getting up very early for his program wasn't getting enough
sleep . First of all he was partying late at night and getting up very
early ( and struggling to) . Then he started to go to bed at 7pm at
night – and still he felt tired . He found the solution he only needs
six hours sleep ! – and he wakes up refreshed.
Krishna consciousness is right in saying you only need six hours sleep . -
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji!
i have prabhupadji books i read it some what regularly but still iam not able to cross 3rd chapter of BG AS IT IS . i m listening to discourses too.
i chant 4 rounds a day which consumes 40 min a day with less concn. i listen to songs of krishna also.but i lose the grip very often. my friend devotee told me it is bcoz u dont chant mahamantra. it is 100% true.
u hv only two path: krshna sampraday or maya sampradaya. who wins our heart? krishna or maya. and that is the game of perfection of life. There is always a race between the two and mostly maya wins if our heart is impure. and when the heart is pure and your mind is filled with thoughts of lord u produce tears from your eyes .i hv joined very recently with you sir
thank you
hare krishna! -
Hare Krishna Swamyji
my humble obeisances to you. Thank you very much for your enlightenig reply to my question.Thank you once again.
All glories to Prabhupada.
natarajan -
Hare Krishna,
Prabu One simple Question ?
Have u ever felt the presence of GOD in your life? if so, How?
I feel it everyday because today what I have achieved in my material life, it is not at all by my capability, it is absolutely by the blessings of GOD. I achieved more than I am capable of – I know more than anyone.
I am a little curious about the vegetarian aspect of this preaching. Whilst not an avid meat eater and I do espouse the benefits of diet more in favor towards vegetarian, I believe as humans we are designed to be meat eaters. Taking into account our teeth design construction. Our incisors are obviously present to tear flesh.
There is also the aspect of food chains and inter-dependency of all living things which I attribute as Gods design. Food chain is just the scientific expression. Within these food chains, it is obvious the world couldn't sustain itself on a vegetarian diet alone as such would create imbalance within other cycles, de-harmonizing life as we know it.
I can appreciate aspects of over indulging ie eating, mating, resting etc can adversely effect ones development of spirituality, but shouldn't spirituality be a sense of oneness and detachment from materialistic dependency.
American Indians and certain tribes like the Kalahari bushmen killed other creatures for sustenance, but only did so out of necessity not taking more than their immediate need. They also offered prayer to the creature that provided sustenance and proffered it first to their revered spirits. Is this akin to the suggestion of offering food to Lord Krishna first for sanctification? Since these tribes were deeply spiritual in their own ways, would I be right in assuming it is not the content, but the act of proffering, reverence, appreciation and the acceptance of a greater entity, in whose shadow you mold your own being that should be the crux.
Wpuld I be wrong in deriving at these conclusions?
Hare krsna.
How much tym does it normally take for one round of chanting ?..
For how much tym(minutes)we shld offer prasadam to god?.
Can we nt chant any other mantra like om namo bhagvate vasudevay.
Thanks for your mail:delighted.
Hare krsna -
Hare Krishna,
Please accept my Pranams.Ihave a clarification and can you answer that through my mail.I am currently chanting and doing devotional service to lord.
After our death in case we go to Spiritual Kingdom Golaka Vrindavan, how will the body look like.As mentioned Soul is so tiny and what body it will accept.
I will be eager for the reply.
harish -
I want to ask a question.The question may seem harsh.If I am wrong please do correct me:"What is the mission of ISCKON,is it to increase the love for god in the people,or lead people of spiritual mindset to achieve enlightenement?..please clear my doubt..
tHare Krishna Swamyiji
My obesiences I submit at your lotus feet. Kindly accept. Regulated life is an exellent article which paves way not only to become one into Krishna consciosness but also one to lead a self disciplined life. Thank you. There is one concept of life. It is as follows: Does God exist or not, one should not worry but the man exists. So he should look after his welfare because he only can do it.
Please comment. Also if such a man leads this type of regulated life he van be on the path of liberation. Is it not?
Hari bhol.Natarajan
thank you for your articles…are you a monk?why do you preach?what do i do to taste what you preach? thank you
What a person should eat and howmuch?
How to offer and what to offer krishna.
Onion and garlic can be offered or not.
Thanks for the info -
even great guruus and great mothers are making to rape for revenges and dharma and karma
hara krishna prabu
is it ok to chant one round of hara krishna mantra as i am suffering from schizoprenia
utsav -
It a nice article to regulate life.
Ramesh Sharma -
Is very difficult to me to sleep less than 8 hours. What I could do? Ayurveda talks about it? Hare Krishna!
Thank you so much Prabhu, reading the newlsletter gives the knowledge of control food and sleeping, i had really happy to get the newsletter again. There is no difference between thinking & reading always KRSNA'a news and KRSNA. Your news letter gives the news of KRSNA, so we thinking more about KRSNA. All credits goes tto LORD SRI KRISHNA……………
Hare Krishna.
Hare Krsna – AGSP AND GAURANGA
Part of the comment made is that a person in krsna consciouness does not do any work not related to Krsna. In Gristha ashram it is easy to acheive this especially if one has deities – however how does one make a material job Krsna conscious?
Can you give some recipes of prasadams and daily food. I would like to prepare such food and offer them to the Lord.
Hare krishna….
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa Prabhu,
Namaste, All glories to SrilaPrabhu Pada!!
I am eating some time numkins or sweets, which is not offered to Krishna?
But I do remember the taste is Krishna? How can I stop that?
One can have sex only begetting KC Child? How to overcome this?
You have enlighten my ignorance, but again I am like a mad elephant?
How can I get rid of This?
Your humble servant,
In the service of Srila Prabhupada.
Thanyou ver much Madhudvisa Dasa, reading the newlsletter brights my day, i had really missed my beautiful emails of kknowledge. Hare Krishna <3
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
What is more important to do.. (1) Completing 16 rounds of chanting the Holy Name or (2) Deity worship in early morning (Mangala Aarthi). As I do morning aarthi but not able to complete 16 rounds daily.
Please guide me.
Jagatguru Srila Prabhupada Ki jai.
Your servent,
Sujoy Goswami -
My father didn't work for a living and therefore lived with his family (wife and 5 children)dependent on his relatives' families. Thus we had to suffer the ignominy of being dependent. Later he fixed my marriage without my knowledge and consent which destroyed my life altogether because our ideas are poles apart. She wanted me to leave my parents who then had become dependent on me after I got a job to which I didn't agree. Now I'm a retired man at 67 and my aged parents at 92 & 87 respectively are still with me. I'm well settled in life in financial terms but am UNHAPPY all the time in my heart with anger towards my father, and despite reading/consulting from books by the likes of Swami Vivekananda have been unable to rid myself of this negative emotion. I don't know if it's relevant but am telling you that I have been honest in my personal & professional life and have no vices (drinking, gambling, smoking,etc.) and have tried to do my best for my family.
Although we all aspire to be a part of spiritual world and merge with effulgence of Brahmajyoti and reach the spiritual planet of Golak Vrindawan, It is not easy.
Especially when you are leading a life where you are thinking of earning a livelihood and keeping up the job and take care of the family. Although I am following the four regulative principles, sometimes chanting 16 rounds or read Prabhupada's books becomes hard to keep up. But I keep on doing it no matter how many times I fail. The real thing as emphasized in the BG is that if the mind is not focused on supreme personality of the Godhead, a person gets distracted and fall in the trappings of the material world. In the mode of passion or in the mode of ignorance, there is always pain to be followed when we either indulge in sense gratification or lording over worldly resources.Another thing to keep in mind which I do is to find pleasure in chanting.. This is a process of evolution for the new practitioner of Bhakti Yoga…It takes time to fall in love with Krishna…
I have been in and out going to the local Gita meetings. but I have tried to follow things at home….
I am not trying to change any rules or justify anything… but relating to my experience. -
Haribol Madhudvisa, Nice to recieve some more articles after a long break from your part. I thought you had forgotton me. Still, regarding Offering to Krishna first and also Prassadam. I live with people oppossed to KC so I am handicapped regarding offering to Krishna but do go to the temple now once a week for Kirtan and prassadam. Will eating prassadm make any difference as oppossed to eating any food not offered to Krishna first. What are the benifits of Prassadam compared to no prassadam? Regards….Steve
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa sasa,
I enjoyed the article about eating and sleeping practices to develop Krishna conciousness Offering food and fruits to Krishna first and then eating as Krishna prasadam.
Can you clarify one doubt. Normally children sleep for more than 18 hours a day and old people also sleep for long hours. Is this permitted?
After following your lectures and due comments I am chanting Hare Krishna Mantra daily and remembering Krishna always. I read regularly some chapters from Bhagavad Gita to have mental peace. I chant Vishnu Sahasranamam daily to remember Gods names. What other advise you give me apart from reading Prabhupada books .
Thank you very much.Now a days I started to visit temples whenever I find time.Expecting your advise eagerly.
Hare Krishna K.V.RANGASWAMY. -
Very good to know that i can spend some extra hours for the better purpose. But prabhuji I always have to sleep 8 hours normally or at least 7 hours minimum in order to be productive during the day. Otherwise i feel bodily weakness during the day.
Also i dont eat much. I mean I eat as much as I feel I need. Not much, not less.So kindly suggest me how can I change from 8 hour to 6 hour sleep-cycle.
Hari Hari Bol…
Pls advise – how do we know the job we are doing is helping us or not.
During work, we are not able to remember krishna.
Duty towards family can't be avoided. -
I enjoyed reading your article. It is good reading which is always good to listen and read about Krishna .
I am a 7th standard student. At home I am fine where I can read books of Krishna and chant. However in school all my friends are atheists. They try to convince me in each and every possible way that Krishna is fiction. Also they are very corrupted and talk very bad things in loud voices which distracts me. I can't stop going to school,so what should I do?
Hare Krishna!
Hare Krishna Prabu. How do we regulate and keep our mind under control when our house is burglared. Some jewelleries were taken away. My two year old son and two maids were not harmed and I'm thankful to the Lord to have shown mercy. My mind however is still in a disturbed state. Why this happened? What is the meaning when robbery happens even though all security measures have been taken? Is this some kind of pay back for my past or present karma? Who are the robbers? Why are the souls engaging in this kind of activities? I'm not concerned about the jewelleries, everything is temporary but it should be decided by us and not the burglars. Please accept my humble obeissances and enlighten me on this. Thank you.
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.Recently i was reading SB Canto 2.10, Bhagvatam is the Answer to all the Questions.
There it was written that when lord desired to taste, tongue(adhibhuta) was generated along with it's controller Varuna(adhideva).
Question: When we say we are servant of our senses, does it mean we are servant of these adhidevas? As senses are instrumental and have no conciousness(matter), how can they control us?
As we don't have control over our senses and sometimes we desire to enjoy them and are we are driven by them, does that mean that we are surrendered to demigods and are worshiping them by satisfying them through the senses?Prabhupada also writes in BG Introduction:
"Here it is plainly said that those who are directed by lust worship the demigods and not the Supreme Lord Krsna"Please clarify the point in detail.
Your servant
N.k Dasa -
Hare Krishna Prabu
How do we differentiate between working honestly and not..??most of the business practices are corrupt, according to the present materialistic approach.If we do business on simple terms which u feel should be the basics according to the scriptures than people cheat you..they can easily manipulate the situation using dishonest ways..please guide what should be our stand and are their any guidelines to the ways u can earn your livelihood.. -
Hare krishna prabhu ji,
Please keep on posting regular updates, they are really encouraging.
Hare Krishna -
Hi i am a student in new jersey. I had a question, that the radha character is not mentioned in the authentic bagavatham which is writtend by the vyasha maha rushi. Is it true. please solve my dought.
Hare Krishna,
Prabhuji Dandvat Pranam , thank you so much for your wonderful teaching . -
Hare Krishna
I have a general query.
Why are most of the people who indulge in bad things such as, having a sadist behaviour, blackmailing, cunning mindset have a very good family life, have lot of money and don't see much of the suffering.
Whereas on the contrary most of the very good persons, god fearing persons and people who always think good about public don't have very good family life, don't have enough money and see much of the sufferings.
I know you would say it is the result of the past "karma". If you are born with lot of sin , I would say accumulated sins or inherited sins then what ever good you do you will have to suffer till the sins are nullified.
I have a question,,, DO YOU have the choice of controlling the past or inherited sins. In this life I don't even remember what and how I have committed the sins and how it is thrust on me at my birth.
So I f am made to suffer for the sins which I don't have control, remember, why should I do good things ? Whether I am doing good or bad I am suffering , so let me do the bad things and at least get satisfaction that I am suffering because I doing some bad things. -
For those like me having difficulty for a regulated life I advice with urgency that they should catch the lotus feet of Panca Tattva by chanting this mantra constantly. Panca Tattva, as Prabhupad often says in his lectures and books, They do not accept offences, therefore it is our good sense to chant Jay Sri Krsna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita Gadhadara Srivas adi Gaura bhakta vrinda if we want to reach Krsna very fast although our fallen conditions.For sure we cannot jump with our offensive mentality on Radha Krsna without first receive full Panca Tattva mercy. Panca Tattva appeared to just give,give give Krsna prema to everybody, but especially to the most fallen. NOW,if we have understood this point and we accept the fact we are fallen we will not be happy by chanting one or two times Panca Tattva before Hare Krsna, and forget it. Panca Tattva is the mantra we should always have around our necks to maintain humbleness and enthusiasm in Krsna consciousness, and it is therefore the most important mantra for us to take as a medicine to counteract kali yuga effects. The more you chant Panca Tattva mantra the more you chant Hare Krsna, therefore how can be neglected such a wonderful gift? Chant chant always this compassionate mantra and soon we will find out that spiritual life is something real and feel so much bliss, bliss. If somebody think I am deviated from Prabhupad I am ready to challenge him even if he is a guru, gbc sannyasi o whatever. Hare Krsna Arthada das
Hare Krishna Prabhuji,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Please accept my humble obeisance
We consider killing of plants sinful unless its for the pleasure of Krishna. However in our daily life we use so many products that are laced with animal products or fat or vegetable products or fat etc like shampoo, soaps, basic cosmetic, medicines, shoes, jacket etc only to name a few. Now in this contemporary age to live a life without these things in unimaginable and going for organic pure natural products is again expensive and not within the reach of common man. Again Krishna consciousness recommends frugal living and devote more time to spiritual than material well being which automatically stunts your material prosperity and growth. Then how to finance pure and natural products for e.g Organic vegetables in the mall are three times more costly than local produce. Karma free footwear is very expensive than normal footwear. Even many times they are not available everywhere easily. Even natural medicines does not provide instant relief in case of many ailments. If my child is running temperature I immediately give Allopathic medicines not caring what is it composed of or if I have a head ache I immediately pop a pill least caring what it holds. As natural Ayurveda methods are too time consuming and that branch is not yet fully developed to treat various diseases. Even shampoos and body lotion are laced with animal products. Can we do away with washing hair? I am apologizing if I am offending in any way but where to draw the line is always dicey and contradictory. I will be greatly obliged if you can throw some light on this matter. Hare Krishna With regards Mrs. Sudha Mehta -
Lord Shiv is said to have consumed alcohol. Is it true?
It is important to know how to use the body and the mind. Regulated life as Krsna says in Bhagavad Gita helps us to do our devotional service, specially chanting japa. If we don't have the time or phisical energy to chant japa in the morning, so we must adjust or routine to have the needed time, energy and health. It is important not to loose this grat oportunity in life.
hi im new to krsna consciousness. im 18 years old and live with my parents I work at mcdonalds and am not going to college. I want to become krsna conscious but not sure what I have to do. or how to help my parents accept this way of life. my mom just calls me crazy. I need help. both my parents are stuck in the materialistic life so they dont understand. I do read srila prabhupada book: journey of self discovery but im just confused on what to do. and also is smoking marijuana for spirtual reasons forbidden by krsna?
When will one get the honour to c kalki avtar ?
Whn shall this world regain its peace like the one in satyug?
Even though v try to b peaceful within the outside pressure makes u dll n sucks the energy? How can one face this? -
HARE KRISHNA Madhudvia dasa prabhuji
The article provided by you is really nice and helpful for advancing in krishna consciousness for a fallen a soul like me…..
I'll surely regulate my habits of eating and sleeping, and will utilize my time by chanting HARE KRISHNA maha mantra
Wanted to ask you few Questions! and Chanting!
1. What is mean by DVIJA?
2. How a rigid person can come out of SINs(Having Meet Eating Exercise & Cutting the Meat )?
3. Is there any SIN Cutting meat (Our friends who works in Hotel – Who cut the meat everyday)
4. Why do people don't have Love on god?
5. Can't People Turn into normal (Spiritual)
6. If the People who does not have time to chant, Cant they reach Lord Krishna?there are another 12 Questions which i have.
but me expecting your valuable reply for the same– Please do not think its a unusefulness Questions.
I need answers for above mentioned details, without Joining Krishna's Consciousnesses(Coz, in few villages does not find Krishna's Consciousnesses)
and without Chanting Hare Krishna Mantra!Thanks for viewing my question! it's all common question which you can answer well but required me to take this for other people who is suffering from SINs.
With warm regards
a Broker of Radhe-Krishna -
Thanks for thoos words.Well regulated life is importan for any kind of living.A sports man who is unregulated will not last long either.Neither a teacher etc.
Yes its not easy to keep up the sadhana standard of the Tempel espeically when the bodie gets weaker and one cannot just push it to mave like when the bodie was young with so much extra energi to spend.I try to seriosly keep focus on chanting hearing and reading and talking prasad and now and the do some kind of preaching on the street or on internet.
Most of all I focus on chanting since Srila Prabhupada Garantied one deciple in a personal letter that If he just chants his 16 rounds to the end of his life he will go back to GodHead.
So the Round are the basis and one should keep trying no matter how bad one self thinks the rounds are.After all practice makes expert and also the Great saint said to the IMPERONALIST :Even jus Nama Basa is enough for liberation!!??So then; what to speak of any tendencies to chant with a little personal taste??!!Guru and Krishna Kindly engage in some seva.Any seva will do because any seva is enogh powerfull to conquer mayas power and She is powerfull!!!So powerfull she can make enourmous amounts of Universes.
SO WHY IS THIS??Well Maya is allound to ONLY put her spell upon thoose who doesnt want to be engage in seva!!!!So WE CAN NEVER OVER ESTIMATE THE POWER OF ANY SEVA
Hare KRISHNA!
some close friend of mine who was very dear to me has cheated me.i had never thought.survival has become tough.what to do.
Rupa -
I feel like new born baby. but suferring by body pain. I used to get early morning 4.00 am and go to sleep in night about 11:00 pm please guide me to surrender to complete whole Shri krishna. I also like to teach religeous regularities and rising up from worldy life and to relieve from lusts and desires.
I humbly request you to guide me how I can come from these difficulties.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krshna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama RAma Rama Hare Hareyours obedient
devotee -
Very nice article.I am very happy to receive more.Hare krishna.
I am a bit confused about how to seek assistance to make sure I am chanting correctly along with what seems like a million other things in my later life. I understand what you mean about all of the fallen gurus in America and I am not so much looking for a rivtik to initiate me and have His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Founder-Acharya as my master because I am still cleansing my self of maya.
I know you say read his books and I do that and I accept His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Founder-Acharya as the spiritual master. But is everyone fallen but you? I do not mean to offend you, I REALLY do not know where to get association from other devotees if they are all on the wrong track here in America.
In busy schedule of the software world,how can one have proper regulated life with appropriate sleep? It is like sleeping less on some days and sleeping more on the other days. How can one be regulated being in job?My working shift is from 2pm to 10pm.What should be my routine?
Hare Krishna!!
Thanks a lot for the article.
I would like to know at what time a Krishna conscious person must go to bed and wake up in the morning?
Hare krishna.
Before my baby was born,though I was working but I coulld gv quality time for my krishna but nw I m t home takin care of my child,it has become difficult for me to gv such tym to lord.help me to attain that spiritual tym again
I feel guiltu for same
Hare krishna -
Lord Krishna says…………….eeswara sarva bhutanaam hrudese arjuna tishtati…………….
doings of everyman is according to lord's wishes only
how we can overcome all these bad things……..over eating of food, over sleep, bad companion………without Krishna's blessings. -
Thanks for a mind blowing article regards eat/food.
One of my question..it has proven that trees has also life.subsequently if we take vegetables isn't we kill something.Pardon me if i do any mistake.
Hare Krishna!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thank you for taking the time to write such a wonderful article imparting spiritual knowledge.
Steve Harvell 🙂 -
I know that I am living in darkness but still cant help myself.
I can see the effect of materialistic things on me but still cant get over it. -
Who has time to chant for 12 rounds a day!!! Wake up do some exercise go to office and come back around 8 …. So rather then sticking to a jap mala isn't it far better to sing songs in praise of Krsna while driving , visualize Krsna while you doing exercise….. Why there are so many barriers between me and Krishna …


text:
As the death toll in Syria climbed over the past two years, many critics charge that President Obama has not done enough to aid the opposition. In an op-ed in today's New York Times, former Ambassador Christopher Hill argues that the administration has made a serious mistake, but, quote, "The real shortcoming of the administration's policy on Syria has not been an unwillingness to engage militarily, but the ill-advised decision in August 2011 to preclude the possibility of a diplomatic resolution involving all sides."
In other words, says Ambassador Hill, the error was to call for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad. Christopher Hill joins us now from his office at the University of Denver, where he's dean of the School of International Studies. He's former ambassador to Iraq, Macedonia, Poland and South Korea, a former assistant secretary of state as well. Nice to talk with you again.
CHRISTOPHER HILL: Good to talk to you.
CONAN: And you concede in your piece that President Assad should be tried for war crimes. How can he be part of a diplomatic solution?
HILL: Well, that's not a concession on my part. I'm simply pointing out that the conflict in Syria is a pretty complex one. And the issue often is not how do you get rid of these guys, these dictators, but how do they get there in the first place. And when we start looking into Syria, you see that it wasn't quite the same pattern as Moammar Gadhafi or even the situation in Egypt or some of these other places associated with the Arab Spring, you have a very complex problem. And to this day, some couple years later, you have a lot of people fighting on Assad's side, and they're not fighting on his side because they like him, support him, want to see him continue.
They just fear the future even more than they fear him. And so I think the problem was that in calling for his ouster, we didn't explain what would happen the day after he's gone.
CONAN: And how do we say that? I mean the United States has very limited influence in Syria.
HILL: Well, first of all, I don't want to presume that I'm smarter on this than the people doing it. We have a lot of talented people working on this problem. But I do believe there needs to be a greater effort on the part of the international community, and I would expect the U.S. to play a kind of leading role in this in kind of articulating what the political arrangements will be in the future. For example, in Bosnia, we had something called a contact group plan. It was something hammered out between the U.S., the Brits, the French, the Germans, the Italians.
We showed it to the various factions within Bosnia, and we came up with a plan. And over the course of months, and frankly, even years, we got to a plan that every one kind of more or less agreed with or didn't object to. And then we went, finally, to a conference known as the Dayton - at Dayton, Ohio, and we were able to kind of put this together. I don't see any effort to get down some of these political arrangements in writing. I mean I've heard people talk about we need an election.
OK, we need an election. But often, in the context of a sectarian situation, the election will simply be if the Sunnis have a majority, they're going to win the election. We already know that, even without an election. What we need is a better definition of what Syria is going to look like so that people like the Alawites, the Christians, the Kurds, the Druze, et cetera, all of whom have concerns about this - the Sunni majority - that they can feel comfortable that life after Assad is actually going to be better for them.
CONAN: And we will get to those ideas in just a moment. But it's important you mentioned the example of Dayton. At - in this process, you were talking with some very bad people, some of whom would later, in fact, go to be tried for war crimes.
HILL: Well, you have no idea. I mean the sense you had of wanting to take a shower after talking to Slobodan Milosevic. But what we're trying to do is kind of deal with the practicalities of working out what - working out the details of what Bosnia was going to look like in the future. What you want to tell people who are out there in trenches, literally in trenches, you know, the shooting at other people in trenches, you want to tell them, hey, the political arrangements are already identified. Why are you fighting at this point? Shouldn't you be at a table talking about these political arrangements, how are they going to be implemented, because they've already been agreed.
There is no point in going out and shooting anyone over something that's already been agreed. So you want people to understand what that future is going to look like. And I think there, in the case of Syria, which is as bad as complex and difficult a problem as there is in the Middle East, we need to do a little better job of explaining to Syrians what the future looks like.
CONAN: And who should be involved in this process of hammering out the future of Syria?
HILL: Well, you know, I know it's customary not to be particularly enthused about the Russians these days, but I think they ought to be part of that process. I think the United States should be a big part of that process. You know, I'm not one to say that the United States can solve everyone's problems, but, you know, we need to be part of it, and part of it in a big way.
I would suggest the European Union needs to be there. I would suggest the Arabs need to be there in various configurations. So I think we need to do that. And I think we need to be much more cognizant of the fact that Syrians are really fearful of the future even more than they are of this hideous Assad regime.
And I want to make very clear, I have absolutely no sense that this guy, Assad, should, you know, lead that country in the future. I'm just saying, from the practical task of trying to enlist various factions, you might start with doing that rather than delisting various factions.
CONAN: Well, it was interesting, the - I think the first effort involved the Kofi Annan effort sponsored by the United Nations. And they're broke down over the insistence by Mr. Assad and his backers, including Russia, that he be part of the transition.
HILL: Yeah. Well, there's no question that Assad made Kofi's job almost impossible. But, you know, we're now well over a year after that, and I think if there are better coordination with whoever the envoy is, if it's another Kofi, if it's Secretary Kerry or some former senate colleague, say, of Secretary Kerry, I think you could kind of work with the Russians to say, OK, we're going to propose this. Assad won't like it. But Russians, do you agree with what we're doing? If you do, we'd like you to put a little heat on Assad to get him at least not to explicitly oppose it.
So it amounts to, you know, an American football. You gather up in a huddle and, you know, somebody goes long, somebody goes short, somebody stays back and blocks. I mean, this kind of thing, we need to put together this as a team. And I think the Russians could have a role, especially on the question of getting this terrible guy, Assad, to go along with these things.
CONAN: And you outlined some of the alternatives, a centralized Syria with - in this case, post-conflict via a Sunni-dominated government. You could have a federated Syria with different states, one for the Alawites, one for the Kurds, one for the Sunnis, one for the Druze and various things like that. Or the other alternative, of course, is we end up with a mess.
HILL: Yeah. You could have - there are all kinds of political solutions. You know, political scientists can do this stuff in their sleep. I mean, you could have a bicameral system where you have a parliament that is a parliament of nations where you have an Alawite representative and a Kurdish representative, et cetera. Or you could just go with one person, one vote type systems. There are means to deal with this. But we haven't articulated one that we, together with some other countries, can support.
Instead, it has gone to this nasty question of how to exclude this very, very nasty guy. So I think a little more focus on what would happen in the future. I think Kofi Annan had some good ideas, but too much of it was related to the issue of let's have elections. And I don't think people in these circumstances are looking for elections because they already know who is going to win, because people vote according to their sectarian affiliations. So they already know who the winner is. They want to know what the system will be in the future.
CONAN: And is this idea of Secretary Kerry's of a U.S.-Russian-sponsored conference in, I guess, about a month or so, maybe, is that a good start?
HILL: Well, you know, call me an old fashioned guy, but I like to see the U.S. and the Russians figuring out areas where we can cooperate and going at it from there. So I think it's a good idea. But I do have a little caution about the notion that you bring people together and they're going to hit the side of the head with the palm of their hand and say, oh. Now we see this other guy isn't so bad.
Actually, they've been murdering each other for a couple of years now. And so bringing people together isn't necessarily going to help. I think what's more important is not so much getting people around a table, as getting people around some ideas for what this crazy country is going to look like in the future.
CONAN: Again, going back to the example of Dayton, you said getting people together in one room did not work so well there.
HILL: Oh. You know, we had an opening banquet, which we had in this museum. I mean, it was an air museum, so, ironically, above the head of one the Serbs, we had a cruise missile, which had recently...
HILL: That was quite a coincidence. We didn't mean to do that. It had to do with the seating chart. But anyway, it all went very well and we saw that President Izetbegovic, the president of Bosnia, was talking to President Milosevic. So we thought, wow. This is going to be easier that we think, you know? Hold the food order. We think we can get out of here pretty quickly.
So the next day, we brought them all together, and they all screamed at each other so much so that I said to Holbrooke, we better not try this again. He said, you're not kidding. This could be the end of the whole conference. So we never did it again, until the very last day when we asked - when we had an agreement, and the three leaders of the three, what we called, warring factions, which a term they never liked, got together and actually initialed the Dayton Peace Accods.
CONAN: Holbrooke, of course, former - the late Richard Holbrooke...
HILL: Yes.
CONAN: ...the special envoy and former - and we miss him. The other part of this, though, this was after three years of terrible conflict. The atrocities are still accelerating in Syria.
HILL: Yes.
CONAN: Are people exhausted enough for this yet?
HILL: Well, that is a very good point because, often, you need people to be exhausted to really be more interested in peace than in war. But the Syrian conflict has been pretty horrific. I mean, it usually picks - pits one guy's armed faction against the other guy's civilians. So you have - in the case of Assad - essentially, his army is lobbying artillery shells into civilian areas. So this is pretty brutal stuff. You have lots of non-combatants being killed in this, so it is not easy to go from there to sit at a table.
So I would not advocate going to table immediately, but I do think it's fair to start talking about what the country is going to look like, put down some principles of what you think Syria could be in the future. And I think that could get people's attentions without having the sort of added element of people having to look across the table and see a killer of one a member of their family.
CONAN: We're speaking with former Ambassador Christopher Hill, the author of an op-ed in today's New York Times, "When to Talk to Monsters." You can find a link to that at our website. Go to npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION. He served as ambassador to Iraq and many other nations: Macedonia, Poland, South Korea, and he is now dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
And it's not just exhaustion, Ambassador. It's a belief on all sides that they cannot win on the battlefield.
HILL: Yeah. And I think that is beginning to dawn on people. There is this view that somehow if the U.S. launches air strikes on behalf of the rebels that this could somehow turn the tide. But I think if you're in the military and the Pentagon, you start looking at what exactly your target sets are going to be. You're going to see this as a pretty complex problem and then maybe air strikes are not going to solve it.
There's also the idea of a no-fly zone because the Assad forces have used air strikes on others. And there is no question that could have some impact on the ground, but none of these things are a sure bet. And the only sure bet is that they would - the first step in any of these things is an act of war, whether we like it or not.
CONAN: And imposing a no-fly zone is an act of war. You mentioned some people who ought to be involved in this conversation. You did not mention a player with a major stake in Syria, and that's Iran.
HILL: You know, I think that's a tough problem. And what you don't want is a situation where, in inviting Iran, you get into this whole question of whether the U.S. is now giving Iran a pass on its nuclear program. But I think there needs to be a way to handle that. I think you need to get that Iranian perspective expressed so whether you have some proxy member sitting there or whether you simply say, look, we have a huge problem with Iran over nuclear, but with respect to Syria, Iran needs to be at the table with the understanding that this doesn't mean anything, some kind of declaratory thing with the understanding, this doesn't mean anything with respect to our concerns about Iran and its nuclear program. But I think you would have a better chance at getting some kind of agreement if you had some kind of representation from Iran, whether Iranians or someone who is kind of talking for them.
You know, we went through this whole issue with Milosevic as well because we didn't want to talk to those Bosnian Serbs. So ultimately, we had a situation where Milosevic was speaking for them. Now, you may ask, you know, wasn't he the worst of the worst? But at the time, he was not indicted for war crimes the way a number of these Bosnian Serbs were.
CONAN: There is also the question that in Bosnia, we knew who could speak for each faction. We don't know that in Syria.
HILL: Well, that is a big problem with this opposition. And this is why I think Secretary Kerry has done a good job to bring in some energy there and to look at what kind of non-lethal assistance we can give to these people. I think that's important not just because they need non-lethal assistance, but as a means to get to know them a little better. And, you know, often, these people - the people you meet with who might reside outside of Syria are quite different from the people who are actually fighting in Syria. So I think the more contacts with them, the better.
CONAN: Given the scale of what's happened in terms of tens of thousands killed, given the escalating partisan-sectarian nature of this conflict, do you hold out much hope that diplomacy can play a constructive role?
HILL: Well, diplomacy doesn't always work. And believe me, I could testify to that. I dealt with the North Koreans for four years. And even the Serb/Kosovo issue didn't actually end with a diplomatic agreement, although we would not have gotten the Europeans on board for NATO action, had we not gone through the diplomatic process. But I would say the hope of getting a diplomatic agreement in Syria is certainly probably greater than getting a military victory of one side or the other.
Plus, even if you get a military victory, you still have the same problems of what this thing is going to look like after someone claims victory. So I think we do need to give this our best shot, get everyone who wants to see a solution in Syria together. And if the net result of this has been to somehow improve U.S.-Russian ties, which could use a couple of upticks, so be it.
I mean, that was certainly the upshot of the - of our North Korean negotiations. We didn't dissuade them from nuclear programs. But we sure as heck got the U.S. and China on the same page. And, you know, sometimes things take a lot time in diplomacy. But I think we're seeing some of the benefits of that now several years later.
CONAN: Ambassador Hill, thanks very much.
HILL: My pleasure.
CONAN: Christopher Hill joined us from the University of Denver, where he's dean of the School of International Studies. Tomorrow, it's TALK OF THE NATION: SCIENCE FRIDAY. Ira Flatow will be here. And this is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Remove ads with our VIP Service Ratings / Reviewssequences of intense sci-fi action and violence throughout, and brief suggestive content View movie reviews Iron Man 3 in 3D Academy Award® Nominee Marvel's "Iron Man 3" pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy's hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man? Starring Robert Downey Jr., Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley, Jon Favreau, Don Cheadle, Cobie Smulders Directed by Shane Black Running Time - 2:15 Genre - Action/Adventure Opened in Theaters - Friday, May 3, 2013 (11 years ago) ShowtimesThis movie is not currently playing in theaters. Home VideoThis movie may be available now on home video.MultimediaRelated News Articles and Web SitesLooking for More Information?Search Google for more information about this movie: |
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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) _ Hundreds of students have been evacuated from a dorm on the University of Central Florida campus in Orlando after explosives devices were found while authorities were investigating a death.
Police were called to Tower 1 early Monday after a fire alarm went off.
Arriving officers found a man dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police told local TV stations they found an assault weapon and improvised explosive devices on the scene.
About 500 students were evacuated from the dorm and a parking garage was closed.
The university has cancelled classes through noon Monday as a precaution.
A statement on the university's website said the UCF Arena will open Monday morning to accommodate displaced students.
It was not immediately known whether the dead man is a student.


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
Hari,that picture is very helpful. Do you mind if I put it in the Wiki? Maybe other people would like to add pictures of their mobile orbiters as well, so people get a feeling for size and readability.rgdsOliver
Thanks Hari.The quality is good enough for me.BTW: What version ipaq is that?rgdsOliver


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An Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) is a fundamental part of an organization's risk management strategy. Implementing an OHSMS enables an organization to:
- Protect its workforce and others under its control
- Comply with legal requirements
- Facilitate continual improvement
ISO 45001 is the new international standard for an OHSMS. While it is similar to OHSAS 18001, the new ISO 45001 standard adopts the Annex SL top-level framework of all new and revised ISO management system standards.
ISO 45001 can be aligned with other management systems standards, such as ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015. ISO 45001 was published in March 2018.
Below are key requirements and differences from OHSAS 18001.
ISO 45001 Standard – Key Areas and Organization Context
ISO 45001 places a strong focus on an organization's context. It requires the organization to consider what stakeholders expect from it in terms of occupational health and safety management. The organization must determine which interested parties are relevant to its OHSMS and also determine the relevant requirements of those interested parties.
The intent of ISO 45001 is to provide an organization with a high-level understanding of the important issues that can affect it either positively or negatively and how it manages its occupational health and safety responsibilities towards its workers.
Issues of interest are those that affect the organization's ability to achieve its intended outcomes. These include the objectives it has set for its OHSMS, such as meeting its OHS policy commitments.
OHS Leadership
Top management must now demonstrate its involvement and engagement with the OHSMS through direct participation, taking OHS performance into account in strategic planning.
Top management must also contribute to the effectiveness of the OHSMS by playing an active role in directing, supporting and communicating with workers, and promoting and leading organizational OHSMS culture.
This new standard clearly defines the requirements for top management responsibility and accountability regarding occupational health and safety management. This is to ensure that ultimate responsibility cannot be delegated to health and safety or other managers within an organization.
Participation and Consultation
The standard requires the organization's top management to encourage consultation with, and participation from workers and their representatives, as these are key factors in OHS Management.
Consultation implies two-way communication – dialogue and exchanges – and involves the timely provision of the information that workers and their representatives require before the organization can make a decision.
The OHS management system depends on worker participation, which enables workers to contribute to decision making regarding OHS performance and provide feedback on proposed changes.
The organization must encourage workers at all levels to report hazardous situations, so that preventive measures can be put in place and corrective action taken. Workers must also be able to report and suggest areas of improvement without fearing dismissal, disciplinary action or similar reprisals.
Risk-Based Approach to the OHSMS
Closely aligned with the focus on organizational context is the requirement to adopt a risk-based approach when developing and implementing an OHSMS. An organization must identify the risks and opportunities that it must address to ensure that the OHSMS can achieve its intended outcomes.
These risks and opportunities include those relevant to, or determined by its organizational context. The organization must plan actions that address these risks and opportunities, implement them into its OHSMS processes and evaluate the effectiveness of these actions.
The standard requires an organization to ensure that outsourced processes affecting its OHSMS are defined and controlled. When outsourced products and/or services supplied are under the control of the organization, supplier and contractor risk must be managed effectively.
Documented Information
The term "documented information" is used instead of "documents and records", which was present in OHSAS 18001. Evidence from processed information not held in a formal document system, such as electronic information held on smart phones and tablets, is now accepted.
Migrating from OHSAS 18001 to ISO 45001
If your organization currently holds accredited OHSAS 18001 certification, you have three years from the formal publication of the new standard (published in March 2018) in which to migrate to the new ISO 45001 standard.
A copy of the ISO 45001:2018 standard is now available and can be purchased from the ISO Store.
How can SGS help?
We can provide awareness training to help you to understand the requirements of ISO 45001, Annex SL, Risk Based Thinking and Empowering Leadership. On request, we can provide a gap analysis which can be used to highlight the changes that will need to be made for migration from OHSAS 18001 to ISO 45001 certification.
Contact us to learn more about ISO 45001 migration.
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This is a re-interpretation of that concept but on a much smaller (and more diy friendly) scale using the "art" found inside the pages of a passport. But if travel isn't your bag, you could easily apply the same concept to lots of other scannable pieces like children's artwork, photographs, concert tickets, vintage receipts, cool advertisements, etc..
First off, I purchased some 6x6 wooden panels from an art supply store. These were onsale for a less than $5 each.
Opened my quart of trusty gold paint and applied to the sides...
Allowed to dry...
Trolling our passports for worthy stamps, I realized that I didn't have one from Paris!! So not happy about this. I'm told that if I ask for one, I might get lucky so perhaps this is a good excuse for another trip? Either way, I was bummed I couldn't include it in this project.
Enlarged the images to suit the size of the panels.
Cut the prints down to a size slightly larger than needed.
Coated the reverse side of the paper with spray adhesive.
Laid the paper on top of the wood and pressed down all over. Let dry.
Flip the whole thing over. Using the edge of the panel as a guide, cut to size.
Repeat until you've done the whole lot.
I added a light spray of clear top coat over all of them. Not sure if that was really necessary but since I had it already, no harm in adding it. The last step was to hang. Spacing them just so took longer than making them!
If I exclude the materials I had on hand like the paper, and glue, etc - this project costs about $5 each.
I also like how these pieces are personalized but it doesn't hit you over the head with it either. I know they are my stamps but no one else would know unless they asked.


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Joe Blanton (9-13, 4.97) vs. Bronson Arroyo (12-8, 3.74).
The last two months, the Dodgers have been one big kick to the nuts. Just when you think we're going to break out of our offensive miasma, due to one breakout game or a ninth-inning, doubleheader-saving homerun, we slip back into our noffense ways. Even Jon Weisman can't take this shit any longer.
So here we go, a three-game series with the NL Central-leading Reds, kicking off with Samson Arroyo in the opener. Twelve games to go, so all we need is the Giants to go 1-11 on their last twelve games, while we go 12-0 and take the NL West crown. Or something like that. PLAYOFFS!


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Defying the label of Pop Artist, David Spiller's latest offering at Beaux-Arts, London, uses colour, form and familiar icons to conjure up memories of the past.
In a 1960 essay titled Popular Culture and Personal Responsibility, Richard Hamilton listed the essentials of Pop Art as: "glamour, overt sincerity, wit, direct appeal, professionalism, novelty, an ability to co-exist within an existing pattern of style, and, lastly, expandability." It would, therefore, be easy to label David Spiller (b. 1942) as a Pop Artist, as his work exhibits all of those traits, especially that of expandability – meaning the ability as an artist to expand, grow, and adjust with time.
Spiller, would resist this label as he sees the act of labelling as being much too prolific and restraining an act, and he simultaneously falls within and outside the category of Pop Art. He occupies a unique position in the contemporary art world: he belongs to the Pop tradition but is not a Pop Artist. He is more than that. His work draws on the iconography and sounds of popular culture: comics, TV cartoons, art history and song lyrics (Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and The Troggs), but also on graffiti, which he uses to subvert his pristine canvases with scribbled text and images to create a dialogue with the viewer that anchors the work firmly in the present.
The works produced for Forever Young, Spiller's latest exhibition, which opened in November at Beaux-Arts London, illustrates the aesthetic for which he is renowned: a colourful, playful style with a polish that is far from naïve. This refinement and polish is so very Pop Art, reminiscent of the silk-screens of Andy Warhol and the smooth canvases of Roy Lichtenstein, and simultaneously so rough – the graffiti-like scrawls a spooky combination of David Shrigley's doodles and On Kawara's perfectly executed date paintings. Spiller's work has the effortless element of accessibility, of allowing his audience to see the influence of other artists upon him, as well as how he has influenced others, yet by doing this one avoids viewing his work on its own, which is where it is at its most powerful. For his work is incredibly emotive, teasing out responses from an audience that can be at times quite staid and stoic.
The emotive element of his work is what motivates him each day: "When I go down in the morning, I open the door and there are these paintings, and it's like here is my world and I have to get on with it." There is a truth and sincerity to this statement that can be difficult to grasp, as he does not mean that he sees painting as an arduous task that one must "get on with." It is the exact opposite for him, a man who stated: "It would break my heart if I couldn't do any more painting…if they took it away from me, it would break my heart." Spiller grew up with art from an early age, with his brother sitting him down and teaching him how to draw cartoon characters like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, characters that still play a role in his aesthetic repertoire. The youthful innocence with which he drew those figures still resonates in his contemporary work, and they have not changed in terms of their purpose: to instigate joy and frivolity. His Mickey Mouse has not grown up, as Banksy's tough street-art version has, for Spiller does not view the characters he depicts as of paramount importance in his work – they don't need to grow-up. They exist as a symbol of his desire to draw, the manifestation of this desire being their reproduction on canvas: a reproduction that may not be the best rendition of Mickey Mouse, but as Spiller points out, it is the best Mickey Mouse that he can do and hence is a success.
The choice of comic-book and cartoon characters is an accessible one, in that the audience can easily identify with the subject, which they see painted on the canvas. Spiller recalls how at one of his first exhibitions of works utilising these visual motifs, children were literally dragging their parents into the galleries, and he realised he had found a new audience (albeit one that probably couldn't afford his work). These works provide visual pleasure at a most basic level, exhibiting an inherent playful energy that jumps off the canvas and invites the viewer in. For Spiller it is of paramount importance that his audience derive emotive pleasure from his work, whether it makes them laugh out loud or simply enables their imagination to run away with them for a few moments: "That is the truth in painting. If we each, all of us, see something else." The canvas acts as a doorway, in an almost Alice in Wonderland rabbit-hole kind of way, inviting the audience into a world of excessive emotion, incredible images, and indescribable states of mind. Dan Graham, whose work in comparison appears so bland and minimalist, states: "The artist is not a machine; the artist shares in mankind's various media of expression having no better 'secrets' or necessarily seeing more inside or outside of things than any other person; often he is more calculating; he wants things to be as interesting as possible; to give and have return pleasure; to contribute to the life-enhancing social covenant." Graham and Spiller may have different methods of delivery, but they both aim to arrive at the same end goal in their work; to give and derive pleasure.
The use of humour and satire in art stems back to William Hogarth's (1697-1764) A Harlot's Progress (1732), which satirises John Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress, though the first true comic strips as such first appeared over 100-years-ago with Winsor McCay's strips for the New York Herald. Hogarth's series utilised a specific cast of characters that became recognisable and identifiable to his viewers. Hogarth's finely illustrated prints became the template from which McCay and artists, like Spiller, worked from and were inspired by. The visual imagery of cartoon characters like Felix the Cat, Otto Messmer's black and white cat from the 1900s, are nostalgic forms that express a sense of popular history for Spiller's audience. He subverts these conventionally humorous characters through the application of text that is much more emotional and mature, but asks the viewer to "Stay Forever Young at Heart." The text does not appear in cartoon-like bubbles, as in Roy Lichtenstein's paintings, but is scrawled across the canvas, almost as a form of urban graffiti. Spiller is not belittling the characters by doing this, but instead questioning their visual weight and importance as icons of popular culture.
The influence of other artists upon Spiller, surprisingly that of Rembrandt and other Great Masters, cannot be negated: "To paint after another artist, my life is full of those artists; they echo in my head, and I'm not going to ignore them." He nominates Rembrandt as one of the best draughtsman he's ever encountered, with Rembrandt's drawings having a life and sense of dynamism that he has yet to see replicated in any other artists' work. The refined quality of Rembrandt's drawings is reflected in the precision with which Spiller creates his own canvases. He states that he wants his work to have the same strength and impact that he finds in a Rembrandt, Picasso, or Michelangelo.
Perhaps more so than Rembrandt or Michelangelo there is a stronger case for the influence of Picasso in Spiller's work; both depict their subjects as strong, angular forms that are depicted in and against rich, luscious colours. Though the disjointed, Cubist reality of Picasso's figures often seems antithetical to Spiller's figures, such as that of the monochromatic block-like female standing atop a dog in Fools for Fun (2010) versus the contoured, organically angular female nude figures of Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), it is their use of colour, not as a means to an end, but as colour itself, that ties them together. For Spiller, who compares painting in colour to "playing with a rainbow everyday", colours are, as well as being a deeply sublime and tangible material, psychologically associative, acting as a trigger for memories and emotions. Picasso utilised colour as a weapon: he battled against the flat surface of the canvas, struggling to situate his figures on a two-dimensional plane without the use of chiaroscuro, thereby resisting the temptation to depend on the depiction of light as a method of illustrating form within space. Spiller instead seems to negate the quality of representational life in his subjects, focusing on the form and colour rather than their three-dimensional likeness as a representation of form.
Understanding the text in Spiller's work is not vital, for he asks his audience to take from each piece what they can, not what they "should". Spiller, like Picasso, uses text in a simplistic way: words are words, but the letters that comprise the words become in themselves pieces of work. The detail and attention paid to the painting of each letter is painstakingly precise and methodical: created in the same way that graffiti artists methodically tag a building, and although done quickly, they are meticulous in their intent. Letters become symbols of aesthetic beauty as well as representations of a deeper importance that is bound up in their literal form. Picasso and Spiller flatten form in their paintings, text merging with the picture plane and becoming not only a method of conveying a message but a single medium as well.
Spiller uses song lyrics and oft-quoted phrases, but in a deliberately vague and ambiguous way. He challenges the viewer to derive meaning from a single line or piece of text: phrases such as, "Look at the stars, look how they shine for you." Often they allude to love, which for Spiller, is an intrinsically sad emotion, because he believes each and every one of us is bound to have our hearts broken. Though unavoidable, he doesn't see it as a necessarily bad thing to happen, as the saying goes, it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all: "I love passion, I love the idea of desire, I like all those strong emotions, they're fantastic." Painting thus becomes a form of poetry for Spiller – quite literally when he scrawls across one of his painted canvases. He articulates through the painted image and word the emotions and desires that his audience is too reticent and scared to voice themselves, but juxtaposes these demands (e.g. "Sweep me off my feet") with the child-like characters of youth so that the viewer is never intimidated by their own demands.
Spiller studied at the Slade School of Art during the 1960s, a time in which artists such as Richard Hamilton and Harold Cohen were studying at the same school. A formative period for Spiller, as it was for many young art students, he credits the work and teachings of Frank Auerbach as being incredibly influential. Auerbach, whose work has a surface of thick impasto paint that almost vibrates with raw emotion, has an ability to articulate sentiments through the painted canvas. This had an obvious impact on the way in which Spiller's oeuvre developed as he used colour and material to visually express emotions and beauty.
Auerbach, who, coincidentally exhibited at Beaux-Arts, London, for a number of years, paints in a much more sculptural, abstract manner than Spiller, but has the same mastery of draughtsmanship, colour, and sentiment that one sees embodied on Spiller's canvases. Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, the leading Cubist art dealer for Picasso and George Braque during the early 20th century, stated in a 1916 essay that: "Painting in our time has become lyric, its stimulus the pure intense delight in the beauty of things. Lyric painting celebrates this beauty without epic or dramatic overtones." Kahnweiler goes on to explain this new language of art as a language that literally and figuratively allows artists to expand beyond the picture plane and that which can be optically perceived through sensory illusion. Though Kahnweiler wrote this essay almost 100-years-ago, and specifically in relation to Cubism, it is applicable in many ways to Spiller's work.
Spiller celebrates colour, beauty, and the lyricism of life through the painted image. His visual vocabulary, which relies on the viewer's a priori knowledge of form and structure, very seriously embraces the frivolity of popular culture. Just as a comedian must take humour seriously, as it is their livelihood, Spiller values humour in his own work, using it as a playful way to convey a serious message about the power of human emotion.
Forever Young was on at Beaux-Arts London until 11 December 2010. www.beauxartslondon.co.uk.
Niamh Coghlan


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Over a career spanning more than four decades, composer LOUIS KARCHIN has amassed a portfolio of over 95 compositions, appeared as conductor with numerous performing ensembles, co-founded new music groups, including the Chamber Players of the League-ISCM, the Orchestra of the League of Composers, the Washington Square Ensemble, and the Harvard Group for New Music, and overseen the formation of a graduate program in music composition at New York University. His works have garnered distinguished honors, including three awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, four National Endowment for the Arts Awards, and Koussevitzky, Barlow, and Fromm commissions. A citation from the American Academy praised his Songs of John Keats as "a striking conception, in which the sonic properties of the poetry interact with musical material in unprecedented fusion." The New Yorker hailed Karchin as a composer of "fearless eloquence," and the British music journal, Contemporary Music Review, singled out Karchin as one of twenty-five of the most exciting American composers born in the decade of the 1950's. He was selected as one of 53 composers to represent New York at the turn of the millennium in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's "Great Day in New York" Festival at Alice Tully Hall.
Karchin (born Philadelphia, 1951) studied at the Eastman School of Music and Harvard University; his principal teachers were Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, Fred Lerdahl, Earl Kim, Gunther Schuller, and Leon Kirchner. Additional study included two summers as a Leonard Bernstein Fellow in Composition at the Tanglewood Music Center. He is Professor of Music at New York University.
Karchin's first opera, Romulus, received its premiere in May of 2007, at the Guggenheim Museum's Peter B. Lewis Theatre and is now available on a much-heralded 2011 Naxos release. His second opera, Jane Eyre, based on the Charlotte Brontë novel, was premiered by the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York in October, 2016, with soprano Jennifer Zetlan and tenor Ryan MacPherson in starring roles, and is now available on a critically acclaimed Naxos double-CD with the original cast, the Orchestra of the League of Composers, and the composer conducting. Performing and sponsoring organizations championing Mr. Karchin's music have included the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall, the Louisville Orchestra, The Fort Worth Opera (TX), the Da Capo Chamber Players (NYC), the Plurimo Ensemble (Venice, Italy), Spectrum Sonori (Seoul, South Korea), the Delta Ensemble (Amsterdam, Holland), Earplay (San Francisco, CA), Voices of Change (Dallas, TX), the New York New Music Ensemble, and the Portland (ME) Symphony. Soloists have included Lucy Shelton, Fred Sherry, Rolf Schulte, Stephen Gosling, Steven Beck, Miranda Cuckson, Thomas Meglioranza, and Marilyn Nonken, among many others. His music is published by C. F. Peters Corporation and the American Composers Alliance. CDs of his works are available on Bridge, Naxos, New World, Albany and New Focus labels. Mr. Karchin has been Composer-in-Residence at the Composers Conference at Wellesley College, Indiana University, the University of Buffalo, the University of Iowa, and the University of Utah, and he has presented master classes at Harvard, Columbia, Boston, Brandeis, Cleveland State, and Rutgers Universities, as well as the Juilliard School, Westminster Choir College, the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College, and Queens College, CUNY. In 2010, he was a guest composer at the Etchings Festival in Auvillar, France.
As a conductor, Mr. Karchin is Music Director of the Orchestra of the League of Composers, and with them has conducted New York or world premieres of works by Elliott Carter, Joan Tower, Charles Wuorinen, David Rakowski, Arthur Kreiger, Missy Mazzoli, Julia Wolfe, and Milton Babbitt, among many others. He is also a conductor of the Washington Square Ensemble and the Chamber Players of the League–ISCM.
Mr. Karchin lives in Short Hills, NJ, with his wife, Julie Sirota Karchin, and their daughters, Marisa and Lindsay.