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Suhotra Swami's Journal - Any opinions?



Jagat - Mon, 26 Apr 2004 03:31:08 +0530
I notice a lot of people are quoting Suhotra Swami's website, hardly ever recognizing him as the author. Looking it over, I find he is quite prolific, fairly interesting.

I have heard that he has been more or less marginalized in Iskcon, but I would be interested in hearing comments on what he is doing, what his standing is, etc.

Suhotra Swami's journal.
jatayu - Wed, 05 May 2004 02:17:30 +0530
QUOTE(Jagat @ Apr 25 2004, 10:01 PM)
I notice a lot of people are quoting Suhotra Swami's website, hardly ever recognizing him as the author. Looking it over, I find he is quite prolific, fairly interesting.

I have heard that he has been more or less marginalized in Iskcon, but I would be interested in hearing comments on what he is doing, what his standing is, etc.

Suhotra Swami's journal.

He resigned his post as GBC what is not unusual but in this case resulted in communicating with his disciples only from a very great distance. Therefore his focus of writing daily for in2-mec.com. He somewhat seems to feel badly guilty of having left the continent where his disciples live and tries to compensate being absent by daily posting a sign of living. One surely comes about to compare his decission with a mother who consciously left her children. He openly writes that the reason he left was because he suffers from uncurable depressions ( http://www.in2-mec.com/J-Pages/J030809.htm ) especially at huge gatherings of people. He requested however after resigning as GBC to be a member of SAC, giving advice to devotees with spiritual problems. His writings are very deep and there is surely not one single book on earth about science, religion, philosophy, education, esoteric, psychology which he has not read and commented on vedic perspective.
Many students are asking him questions and if you are searching for lets say "what happened in Babylonia" he just knows everything.
nabadip - Wed, 05 May 2004 03:18:36 +0530
QUOTE
He openly writes that the reason he left was because he suffers from uncurable depressions ( http://www.in2-mec.com/J-Pages/J030809.htm ) especially at huge gatherings of people.


Hmmm, another one of them, a sannyasi sick through and through... There is no such thing as incurable depression, I guarantee you. And the cure is not in the arms of a woman, even though that may ease the pain also.
nabadip - Wed, 05 May 2004 03:47:15 +0530
QUOTE(nabadip @ May 4 2004, 11:48 PM)
QUOTE
He openly writes that the reason he left was because he suffers from uncurable depressions ( http://www.in2-mec.com/J-Pages/J030809.htm ) especially at huge gatherings of people.


Hmmm, another one of them, a sannyasi sick through and through... There is no such thing as incurable depression, I guarantee you. And the cure is not in the arms of a woman, even though that may ease the pain also.

Suhotra writes in the link given:

QUOTE
My Godbrothers recognize I have a problem with depression. Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja, for example, has much to say about that. Depression is a serious world health problem. In my case, it has affected my spiritual life. Now it is under control. But I still get depressed even by very little reverses in my life. To counteract this depressive kapha nature I have to assume the stance that gives me the most strength. And that is: 1) I must be happy, which means 2) I must be free of stressful conditions. Then I can go on as a sannyasi, and travel and preach.


Depression, the world problem (certainly the org-problem): It means that the body is overloaded with toxins of all kinds so that endogenous or exogenous stimuli (stimuli from inside or outside the body) cannot be properly processed anymore. A chaos in endocrinal secretions confuses the body.

QUOTE
Now it is under control.


huh.gif
Jagat - Wed, 05 May 2004 03:53:21 +0530
Suhotra is originally what nationality?
nabadip - Wed, 05 May 2004 03:57:30 +0530
U.S. citizen.
Babhru - Wed, 05 May 2004 04:01:11 +0530
He's American. However, he has spent almost no time in the US for a very long time. I ran into him at an LA rathayatra a few years ago after butting heads with him on some mailing list. He's pretty sharp, and I found him easier to deal with in person than on a mailing list (less posturing for both of us).
nabadip - Wed, 05 May 2004 04:05:11 +0530
I remember him as a particularly happy, frolicsome kind of person ( a far-out kind of guy, as the org-language dictated it) when he was regional secretary in Germany; I saw him only for a few weeks in Heidelberg though.
Who knows, maybe he was depressed already then. Otherwise his sannyas has done him in, along with the long-term malnutrition, esp white-sugar abuse, which is normal in the org.
Elpis - Wed, 05 May 2004 04:25:56 +0530
QUOTE(nabadip @ May 4 2004, 06:35 PM)
I remember him as a particularly happy, frolicsome kind of person ( a far-out  kind of guy, as the org-language dictated it) when he was regional secretary in Germany;  I saw him only for a few weeks in Heidelberg though.
Who knows, maybe he was depressed already then. Otherwise his sannyas has done him in, along with the long-term malnutrition, esp white-sugar abuse, which is normal in the org.

I was his disciple for some months in 1999. What can I say? His behaviour was certainly bizarre!

Regarding his eating habits, then he once asked me to get him a certain medication, a medication used by people suffering from obesity. I forget the name of it, but it works by destroying a certain percentage of the fat present in the stomach thus diminishing the amount of fat absorbed by the body. This was no over-the-counter drug, but a strong medication requiring a prescription. In other words, he wanted to continue to eat all the fatty and sweet preparations that he would eat while watching film noir movies in his room all night and at the same time avoid gaining weight. Not exactly a sattvic course of action in my eyes...
nabadip - Wed, 05 May 2004 13:53:03 +0530
Strange eating habits and sleeping patterns, already early 80ies, yes. Neglect of a healthy, wholesome life-style in favor of cerebral over-stimulation. Same as with Satsvarup das and Harikesh.
Anand - Wed, 05 May 2004 14:51:06 +0530
nabadip, I am curious, are you a physician?
nabadip - Wed, 05 May 2004 15:41:35 +0530
A meta-physician. biggrin.gif

I have researched some successful cancer-therapies in orthodox and unorthodox traditional knowledge-systems in India, and am currently working on a therapy protocol that has shown success with advanced cancers after failed chemotherapy/radiation in Caucasians.
jiva - Wed, 05 May 2004 19:53:13 +0530
QUOTE
His writings are very deep and there is surely not one single book on earth about science, religion, philosophy, education, esoteric, psychology which he has not read and commented on vedic perspective.
Many students are asking him questions and if you are searching for lets say "what happened in Babylonia" he just knows everything.


Some couple years ago (may be more) I ask him some questions on the concept of the time in Gaudiya Vaisnavism. He said that he's very busy but anyway -'' it's too tiresome subject ''.

Little strange answer for the scientist ? huh.gif
jatayu - Wed, 05 May 2004 21:52:31 +0530
QUOTE(Babhru @ May 4 2004, 10:31 PM)
He's American. However, he has spent almost no time in the US for a very long time. I ran into him at an LA rathayatra a few years ago after butting heads with him on some mailing list. He's pretty sharp, and I found him easier to deal with in person than on a mailing list (less posturing for both of us).

Suhotras Swami says he is a relative of Aleister Crowly from Ireland.

http://www.in2-mec.com/J-Pages/J030604.htm

Harikesas chart, 23.10.48 13.31 NY

user posted image

Field two, material constitution in Pisces, material facilities are taken away. The time he left his guru post was transit neptune in conjunction with ascendent, what dissolved his artificial role of being a genuine spiritual master. Pisces in field two as karmic disposition will not allow artificially trying to live a life of material opulence and in some cases causes difficult to cure illness.
purifried - Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:53:57 +0530
QUOTE(jatayu @ May 4 2004, 08:47 PM)
He openly writes that the reason he left was because he suffers from uncurable  depressions ( http://www.in2-mec.com/J-Pages/J030809.htm ) especially at huge gatherings of people. He requested however after resigning as GBC to be a member of SAC, giving advice to devotees with spiritual problems.



If I remember right, I looked at this article when this post was originally made. Now in accessing Suhotra's site, it seems like the article has been modified. Can anyone confirm this?

Ys,
Madhava - Thu, 18 Nov 2004 09:09:53 +0530
QUOTE(purifried @ Nov 18 2004, 04:23 AM)
If I remember right, I looked at this article when this post was originally made. Now in accessing Suhotra's site, it seems like the article has been modified. Can anyone confirm this?

Well, it still says that he suffers from depressions. What might have changed there?

However, fortunately it seems as if he has found a cure, or at least a way out, a route of escape if you will. (NB: there is no Don Key out there. This is one of the infinite aliases of Mr. Swami.)
braja - Thu, 18 Nov 2004 09:20:31 +0530
Oh please. I think this board can only sustain a maximum of one ISKCON notable a day. wacko.gif
jatayu - Thu, 18 Nov 2004 16:29:58 +0530
QUOTE(purifried @ Nov 18 2004, 03:23 AM)
QUOTE(jatayu @ May 4 2004, 08:47 PM)
He openly writes that the reason he left was because he suffers from uncurable  depressions ( http://www.in2-mec.com/J-Pages/J030809.htm ) especially at huge gatherings of people. He requested however after resigning as GBC to be a member of SAC, giving advice to devotees with spiritual problems.



If I remember right, I looked at this article when this post was originally made. Now in accessing Suhotra's site, it seems like the article has been modified. Can anyone confirm this?

Ys,




Yes, he changed the whole thing into everything under control now. First it says he made all kinds of therapies and then went to another GBC meeting but after a short time he again felt so depressed that he resigned his GBC post and left Europe. But wished to become a member of SAC what was granted to him.
Mina - Sat, 20 Nov 2004 08:47:47 +0530
Well, he traveled on the Radha Damodar party with us and was there at the Schloss (temple president) when I was Sanskrit editor for BBT West Germany. He had a keen sense of humor and definitely loved the sweets (but then again, we all did). I am sorry to hear about his depression problem.
Madhava - Sun, 21 Nov 2004 06:02:05 +0530
Looks like we're in the news again, this time Suhotra's review of Braja's post on Hindu Encounters on Modernity is being reviewed.

QUOTE
Suhotra Swami's essay is pretty long. If the opinions of some Gaudiya bourgeois bohemians and their new-found Bible did not matter much beyond themselves, then why would an ISKCON Swami and leading intellectual attack them? I'm going to say what Maharaja won't: Shukavak's work is influencing ISKCON--helping to gradually turn ISKCON into something that is not ISKCON.

http://siddhanta.com/archives/culture/000148.html

"Bourgeois bohemians" - now this is about the neatest thing I've heard anyone say since a long time in describing the folks here. smile.gif Bourgeois got the Nobel prize for peace. Perhaps if people were a bit more bohemian, we too could put an end to all these insane conflicts that rage rampant all over the Vaishnava world.
Madhava - Sat, 27 Nov 2004 04:15:11 +0530
"What follows below is a list of links to my more unbridled writings. Some of these ramble just too far off the happy trail of Krsna consciousness."

http://in2-mec.com/In2-DeepFreeze/frontp.htm


Be sure to also check out his new animations available by clicking some of the planets in the intro. To spare you from the planet hunting, here are a couple of new entries:

http://www.in2-mec.com/Monsters.html
http://www.in2-mec.com/SpiritSuicide.html
http://www.in2-mec.com/Grape.html
http://www.in2-mec.com/ModernScience.html
http://www.in2-mec.com/Yantra.html

"None of these [mayavadis, smartas, cheaters, composers of unauthorized songs] can be compared to a person who is purely engaged in preaching Krishna consciousness. Every Krishna conscious person is constantly endeavoring to utilize different transcendental devices in the service of the Lord." - ACBVS

Suhotra sure has the devices under control.