[Posted October 3, 2009]

So you wanna live forever?

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

False promises, false hopes and science

Breitbart Oct 1, 2009 -

Scientists find path to fountain of youth

Scientists have shown since the 1930s that reducing the calorie intake by 30 percent for rats, mice and — in a more recent finding — primates can extend their lifespan by 40 percent and have health benefits.

"Blocking the action of the S6K1 protein helps prevent a number of age-related conditions in female mice," explained UCL professor Dominic Withers, the study's lead author.

"The mice lived longer and were leaner, more active and generally healthier than the control group. We added 'life to their years' as well as 'years to their lives.'" go to story

New York Daily News Oct 2, 2009 - NATHANIEL VINTON

Ted Williams' frozen head for batting practice at cryogenics lab: book

Workers at an Arizona cryonics facility mutilated the frozen head of baseball legend Ted Williams - even using it for a bizarre batting practice, a new tell-all book claims.

In "Frozen," Larry Johnson, a former exec at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., graphically describes how The Splendid Splinter" was beheaded, his head frozen and repeatedly abused.

...Holes were drilled in Williams' severed head for the insertion of microphones, then frozen in liquid nitrogen while Alcor employees recorded the sounds of Williams' brain cracking 16 times as temperatures dropped to -321 degrees Fahrenheit. ...The head was balanced on an empty can of Bumble Bee tuna to keep it from sticking to the bottom of its case. ...An Alcor employee removed Williams' head from the freezer with a stick, and tried to dislodge the tuna can by swinging at it with a monkey wrench. go to story

The Bhaktivedantas World Sankirtan Party and Inside Nam Hatta are hosted by Hansadutta das, a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada and trustee of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Participate or learn more about World Sankirtan Party.

Missing the point

Don't wait for a cure A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Although we should use our developed human consciousness for going back home, back to Godhead, we are not doing so. Why should we waste our human intelligence? Suppose you study the human machine throughout your whole life. What will you get? Can you adjust the machine so it will not be lost, so there will be no death? All you scientists who are studying the machine, have you found any means by which there will be no death? Where is that knowledge? Death will come. You may study the machine or not study the machine, but in due course of time death will come and take you. You cannot cure even one disease. You are embarrassed by the cancer disease. So, find out how the cells are working and how they can be changed, and then there will be no more cancer. No, that you cannot do. You go on studying and simply waste your time. more

Can they stop suffering? Can they eradicate disease? Can they stop death?

excerpt from conversation, Oct 20, 1975, Johannesburg

PRABHUPADA: They kept dead body frozen?

HARIKESA: It hasn't become very popular.

PRABHUPADA: Why? Why? The scientists' failure?

HARIKESA: Maybe people don't believe it.

PRABHUPADA: No, it is made by the scientists. [break]

PUSTA KRSNA: ...behind the frozen body was that if someone had an incurable disease, they thought that they could suspend the life by freezing it, and then, when they found the cure for the disease, they would unfreeze him or thaw him out and cure him of his disease so that he could live again.

PRABHUPADA: And these childish activities are taken as scientific advancement.

PUSTA KRSNA: Is there a Vedic definition of science?

PRABHUPADA: Vijñana. Jñana-vijñana. Not this science, experimental. That is not science. Vedic knowledge is science.

PUSTA KRSNA: So there is no experimental science in Vedic culture.

PRABHUPADA: Experimental science is condemned. What you will make, experiment. You are imperfect. What is the value of your experiment? Therefore it is rejected. Whatever you'll do, that is imperfect. First of all you become perfect; then you make experiment. But you are... You remain imperfect, and you making experiment. What is the value of it? Science is no experimental knowledge. All established truth. That is vijñana, or science.

PUSTA KRSNA: Established truth.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. The sun rises on the eastern side; that is established truth. You cannot change it. And that is vijñana. Man dies. This is established truth. You cannot make any change by experimental knowledge. This is vijñana. Nripa nirnita: "It is already settled." In the Vedic knowledge there is no such thing as laboratory or experiment, discovery, nothing.

PUSTA KRSNA: People blindly would accept that cow dung was purified without having to test it.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. But you make experiment; you will find it all right. So we save time. No experiment. [break] Experiment has become successful? Hm?

PUSTA KRSNA: Well, they've cured certain diseases by experimentation.

PRABHUPADA: That is success? You stop disease. What is this, "cure disease"? Malaria, if it is not here, it is somewhere there. And if I am not suffering from malaria, I am suffering from syphilis. So what is this cure, experiment? Disease must be there. So you stop it. Then it is success.

PUSTA KRSNA: So it is not possible to stop disease.

PRABHUPADA: No. How it is possible?

PUSTA KRSNA: Is it worthwhile to try to prolong life?

PRABHUPADA: It is also condemned. Prolonged life... Suppose you live hundred years and a tree lives five thousand years, ten thousand years. Then what is the use of prolonging life, life like this? Is that very good life?

PUSTA KRSNA: No.

PRABHUPADA: Standing in one place for ten thousand years? Why should you prolong your life? For suffering? You are suffering, that is your problem, so what is the use of prolonging your life? This is foolishness. What do you gain by prolonging life if you are suffering? Stop suffering. That is wanted. How you can stop suffering? With suffering, prolonging life, what is the benefit?

PUSTA KRSNA: Just means more, longer suffering.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. And even if you prolong life, how long you'll prolong? There are trees. They are thousand times prolonging than your life. In... What is called? San Francisco, the Golden Gate Park...?

PUSTA KRSNA: Redwood trees.

PRABHUPADA: Redwood trees. One redwood, already seven thousand years old, they told me. So what is the benefit, seven thousand years standing in one place, very long? Hm? What is the benefit? You are trying to prolong life. Very good idea. But what is the use of prolonging life while suffering? One side, you are trying to prolong life; the other side, for acute suffering, one is committing suicide. So why this contradictory proposal?

HARIKESA: Well, only some people commit suicide. As far as I'm concerned, I'm very happy. I have my car, my air conditioner...

PRABHUPADA: That means you are fool number one. That means you are fool number one. As soon as you say, "I am happy," it is immediately proved that you are a rascal, fool number one.

PUSTA KRSNA: But everyone is afraid of death. They don't like the idea of dying. Put if off.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. So therefore, you cure that first of all; then prolong life that there will be no death.

HARIKESA: So it's not possible that anyone's happy? There is no possibility of anyone being happy.

PRABHUPADA: No. One who thinks he is happy, he is number one fool.

PUSTA KRSNA: Everyone is searching after material happiness.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. But there is no happiness.

HARIKESA: What about if one is in the mode of goodness? Maybe one or two...

PRABHUPADA: Mode of goodness... If he thinks that he is happy, then he is fool. The mode of goodness means one must know that we cannot be happy here. That is mode of goodness. And if he thinks, "I am happy," then he is not in mode of goodness. He's in darkness.

PUSTA KRSNA: So everyone at present is trying to become happy by this or that activity.

PRABHUPADA: They are fools, rascals.

PUSTA KRSNA: So if everyone accepts that there is no happiness at all to be found in this world...

PRABHUPADA: Then they are intelligent.

PUSTA KRSNA: Then what to do?

PRABHUPADA: Yes. Tad-vijñanartham... Therefore you go to guru. Go to Krishna.

PUSTA KRSNA: So you were saying, Srila Prabhupada, that if there is no happiness and one recognizes it, then he goes to guru. PRABHUPADA: Then he must... Just like Arjuna submitted to Krishna because he was disturbed. So that is the point where one must approach a guru, how to become happy. That is intelligence. Athato brahma jijñasa: "Now inquire about real happiness."

PUSTA KRSNA: So one who is looking for material happiness...

PRABHUPADA: He's a fool.

PUSTA KRSNA: ...it is very difficult for them to approach guru.

PRABHUPADA: He is a fool, rascal, blind. Where there is happiness not possible, he is trying to find out happiness. Therefore he is a fool. Which is not possible, if one tries for it, then he is fool.

HARIKESA: But I look around and I see everybody else enjoying.

PRABHUPADA: Because you are fool, you are seeing like that. That is the proof that you are a fool.

HARIKESA: They all tell me what a great time...

PRABHUPADA: Krishna says, duhkhalayam ashashvatam [Bhagavad-gita 8.15], and you are finding out happiness. Then how much fool you are. The best authority says that "This is a place of suffering," and you are finding out happiness. So how much fool you are, it is very difficult to estimate. Therefore Vedic knowledge is perfect. Now just like there is signboard, "No admission." So who is the fool, create some trouble by entering into it? He's a fool. If there is signboard, "There is no admission," and if somebody enters to create some trouble, he is not a fool? So Krishna says, "There is no happiness," and if somebody searches happiness, he is not a fool? That is... Therefore Krishna consciousness required, that he gets perfect knowledge from Krishna. He has no trouble. Krishna said, "There is no happiness," and if somebody thinks, "All right, although Krishna said, let me try for it," then he is a fool.

PUSTA KRSNA: Similarly, they say that they can cure disease, but it's impossible.

PRABHUPADA: How it is possible? The disease is suffering, and this place is suffering, so where is the question of curing disease? Krishna consciousness means intelligence. We are guided by Krishna, so there is no trouble. Everything is all right. That is Krishna conscious. And as soon as you make experiment like fools and rascal, then you are doomed.

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