[Posted May 24, 2008]

Give us a leader we can look up to

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Dear Senator Clinton: Lead with an Apology

MSNBC.com May 23, 2008 - KEITH OLBERMANN

Clinton, you invoked a nightmare

...A special comment on Senator Clinton's assassination remark to the editorial board of the Argus Leader newspaper of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Once again, it was this. Asked if her continuing fight for the nomination against Senator Obama hurts the Democratic Party, she said:

"I don't, because again, I've been around long enough. You know, my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California Primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know, I just don't understand it. You know, there's lots of speculation about why it is."

...To invoke it 2 weeks before the exact 40th anniversary of the assassination is an insensitive and heartless thing, and certainly to invoke it 3 days after the awful diagnosis and heartbreaking prognosis for Senator Ted Kennedy is just as insensitive and just as heartless, and both actions open a door wide into the soul of somebody who seeks the highest office in this country, and through that door shows something not merely troubling but frightening and politically inexplicable.

...And to not appreciate immediately and to still not appreciate tonight just what you have done today is to reveal an incomprehension about the America you seek to lead. This, Senator, is too much. Because a Senator, a politician, a person who can let hang in midair the prospect that she might just be sticking around in part just in case the other guy gets shot has no business being and no capacity to be the president of the United States. Good night and good luck. go to videoclip

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Change that Can't Wait

Breaking History's Patterns: Change Yourself and the World will Change Hansadutta das

GUEST: I think it is really almost impossible to have a spiritual president in our era, due to the money-hungry leaders of the corporate industries. HANSADUTTA: But you yourself can be Krishna conscious. You do not have to wait for the president. You can be Krishna conscious at once, so that at least your life will be successful. It does not depend on others. If everyone takes it up, one after the other, then gradually the whole world can become Krishna conscious, and then people will elect a Krishna conscious leader. more

Lead by example

excerpt from lecture on Bhagavad-gita 3.18-30, Los Angeles, December 30, 1968

TAMAL KRSNA: [Reading from Bhagavad-gita As It Is:] Twenty-one: "Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men will follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues [Bg. 3.21]." PRABHUPADA: This is very important. Therefore leaders must be very ideal men. Then automatically the country or the society becomes nicely situated. Because if the leader of the society is perfect... Therefore formerly, monarchy, monarchy was current, and the king was educated very highly, how to administer state. Just like Maharaja Yudhishthira. Maharaja Yudhishthira, ideal king. Lord Ramachandra, ideal king. Somebody came to Lord Ramachandra and made Him responsible that "How Your kingdom is going that my son in the presence of his father has died?" You see, king was responsible for that. If there is severe cold, the king is responsible for that. If there is severe heat, the king is responsible for that.

Just try to understand how much a king was responsible for the happiness of the citizens. They were ideal king, and therefore the citizens also followed. They became Krishna conscious, they became all devotees. And if the leader is a sinful man and doing all impious activities, then how you can expect the citizens to be all good and pious? It is not possible. Therefore here, it is a very important subject matter. "Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men will follow in his footprints." Therefore good leader wanted. You haven't got to educate individually every citizen. If you have got a good leader, then the citizens automatically become good. "And whatever standard he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues."

Sri Guru and Gauranga

"Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men will follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues."

Give us a leader we can look up to

Clinton, you invoked a nightmare

Lead by example