Tunnel of Love

Sometimes things happen on the internet and nobody can explain why. Here is the video that started it all.

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Will it go on forever??!! I hope so.

Snow Fear

Snow. Once a charming climatic surprise that would innocuously drift from the skies as if a gift from baby Jesus himself. Now... THE SOURCE OF ALL DEATH AND MURDER IN THE WORLD!!!!

That's right, its been snowing here in the UK for quite some time now. Perhaps seen in a more positive light were the calendar open on Christmas Day, the media has made it clear that ice is an unwelcome guest in 2010. The UK press treats snow in the same way it catalogues immigrants, murderers and pedophiles. ie. it's ruining the economy, taking innocent lives and disrupting our children's education by hanging around outside schools.

Menacing snowflakes are ornamenting my windowpane as I type these words so I'd better be quick. Lets just say that its no surprise the media unveils each newsworthy event with a dramatic cyclone of neurosis - its what society wants after all, we've chosen a life of fear...

We go to work because we're afraid of poverty, we forge social relationships because we're afraid of loneliness, we build houses because we're afraid of the cold, and when we get in the car we immediately strap on a seatbelt because we're afraid of crashing and dying. Everything we do is motivated by fear.

Those in the know will tell you fear comes from our attachment to matter, or rather our attachment to the idea that:

1. I am the enjoyer

2. I am the propriator

3. I am the controller

We give up these three concepts and fearlessness will undoubtedly ensue.

Similarities between Edward Cullen and KRISHNA

First of all I'd like to clarify that I'm not a Twilight fan. Mandy has been on at me to see New Moon with her for months, and since I consider my cinema days kaput I've always refused. As a great sage once advised a King... "there is no stronger obstruction to one's self-interest than thinking other subject matters to be more pleasing than one's self-realisation." However my reaction was more along the lines of "it's for little girls! Leave me alone!"

Nevertheless we made a deal. I'd go and see New Moon if she read a Krishna book cover-to-cover. Astonishingly she began reading at a rate of 2 hours a day so I had to do the noble thing and view this topless hunk-fest on the big screen (see trailer here if you don't know what I'm talking about). Upon watching I couldn't help but notice a striking number of parallels between the story of Bella and Edward, and the original pastimes of Radha and Krishna.

Similarities:

Edward Cullen is 17 years old for the rest of eternity
Krishna never ages past around 17 years, and is eternity youthful

Edward Cullen's body dazzles whenever he steps into the sun
Krishna is beautifully effulgent, and the rays from his body give light to the entire creation

Edward Cullen has many fangirls who scream and follow him everywhere he goes
When Krishna walks through the streets the women all stop what they're doing and run to see Him. Some of the younger girls even faint.

Edward leaves town to protect Bella from danger of being killed
Krishna temporarily disappears to protect the Gopis from the danger of false pride (spiritual death)

When Edward leaves Bella, she runs through the forest completely distraught, looking for him everywhere, eventually falling to the floor
When Krishna seemingly leaves Radharani and the Gopi girls, they run through the forest, desperately looking for Him everywhere, weeping in the immense fire of separation

For months afterwards, Bella is sat in her room, completely still and morose as the seasons go by
In Krishna's absence the Gopis remained standing still like painted pictures. They describe themselves as dead bodies without Krishna.

Bella starts to hallucinate and see Edward everywhere, especially when she is in danger
Radharani becomes mad in Krishna's absence and see's Him in everything. Krishna always appears when there is danger.

Alice comes to deliver a message to Bella that Edward is always thinking of her
Uddhava comes to deliver a message to the Gopis that Krishna is always thinking of them, and in fact their separation is impossible at any time because He is all-pervading

Bella offers to give up her life to spare Edward's
Radharani was prepared to go to hell for eternity, simply to relieve Krishna of a headache.

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So really both tell the story of selfless love, which is really what we are all searching for. The love in this world generally consists of "If you do something that pleases me, then I'll love you," which isn't love at all, its a business transaction. So its understandable that stories like twilight are popular, because they speak of a love that can't be accessed in our present condition. Our relationship to the temporary bodies of this world are just that. Even Bella herself admits that her death will separate them eventually, which is why she begs him for immortality (to be turned into a vampire).

Is it any coincidence that Twilight, the most popular love story of modern times, resembles to some extent the eternal pastimes of Radha and Krishna. Probably not.

The condition of the living entities in the material world is that they are in an illusioned state of consciousness. That is they don't know who they are, where they come from or where they are going. But one thing we do know is that we need relationships, this is always present. Naturally we'll try and fulfill this desire through matter... hence the many material relationships of this world, affection for people, things, pets etc. But the ancient texts tell us that the personal form of Krishna is the ultimate object of affection. Any attraction we feel to something material is only due to the presence of Krishna.

There are many forms of yoga and philosophical speculation out there, and largely they will say that the goal is to live in the moment and become one with God (or become God). Higher authorities understand however that this will not fulfill the hunger of the soul, because when there is only one there can be no relationship.

Endeavoring to realise our eternal relationship with the supreme whole (or Krishna), and the love between Radha and Krishna is described to be the highest platform of spiritual bliss. These pastimes aren't just stories, but the greatest transcendental meditation. So perhaps if the many millions of teenage girls who meditate daily on the story of Edward and Bella, were to simply turn their attention to Radha and Krishna in the same way, they could become the topmost yogis.

Differences:

Edward is a teen vampire played by actor Robert Pattinson ("KPatz")
Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the unlimited enjoyer of everything

Not sitting on the floor

This past week you surely will have been an elated jubilant mess if you are [a] a Hare Krishna Devotee, or [b] an avid fan of the number 40 (you know who you are!). On Sunday, the Hare Krishna's celebrated 40 years in London with an inspiring 7-day festival, bringing together many respected spiritual-types from around the world. I watched online everyday and then on Saturday I attended the gala event at London's palatial Troxy venue along with 1700 other guests.

Apparently it was noted in a recent survey, that when asked to name three things the average Londoner associates with the capital, the most popular answers were 1. Black Taxi Cabs, 2. Red Buses, and 3. Saffron clad Hare Krishna's (dancing & singing through Oxford Street)...suggesting that the movement has well and truly established its place in London.

I didn't actually manage to get a ticket originally as the event had sold out, but luckily Matt, Jamuna, Jahnavi and their family were kind enough to allow me a spare ticket. It felt very surreal sitting around tables with devotees (as apposed to on the floor). The event was wonderfully hosted by Kripamoya das and featured special guest speakers HH Radhanath Swami, current temple president Jai Nitai das, and former temple president Ranchor Prime, who I spoke to recently about his new book - click here to see the video. There was music from Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits, and the night culminated with 4 of the original 6 devotees from America (and a 5th via satellite) who pioneered the movement in the UK , made friends with (and gave spiritual guidance to) the beatles, achieved a number 1 spot in the charts, and very much led the way for the monumental community that stands today. All varieties of people from all walks of life, coming together to live under simple spiritual principles. Unlikely in this day in age, but it happened.

For more photos of the event see http://davidc.zenfolio.com/troxy

Hello. This blog is made of words

I feel an update is in order! I've totally neglected this blog lately. If this blog were a child I'd totally lose custody.

Anyway, how are you? You can't answer that so I'll keep talking. I seem to have been off the internet for the last month or so due to an increase in real-life happenings. This is most inconvenient, why did I have to take birth in such a world. Oh well, can't dwell on that now.

Just wanna share with you guys a video I love. I was in central London on Saturday and spotted this guy on Oxford Street while I was on Harinam, not really knowing what was going on. Now I've just seen it via buddhiyogi.blogspot.com (one of my favourite google reader feeds), and it all makes sense... genius.

So yeah, I was in London giving out a few flyers for our next Loft event. I designed them myself, look at how shiny they are. Also, consider yourself invited.

I bought a new phone last week, so hopefully from now on I can start taking more pictures and post them on here, or twitter, or maybe I'll just look at them myself and not tell a soul. The man in the O2 phone shop had a really unique sales technique. He emerged from the backroom hobbling on two crutches, and for every phone he was describing he used one of the crutches as a 'pointy' stick to illustrate what he was saying, which was subsequently followed by a mini trip-over. I found it both endearing and amusing how a man would endure actual physical distress simply to demonstrate the sliding function of a sony ericsson C903, and so I thought I would save him any further bother and go with this one.

Youtube-wise, I actually have a bunch of videos I've made, but simply no time to edit them. I'm currently editing some stuff for Charlie, (you may remember him from my temple video), and then I'll get started on my own stuff. I just got an e-mail from him in India, he's over there for three months studying, sooo wish I could have gone to that, feel like I've missed such a great opportunity. But of course I have to let go of that idea. Time and space do not define us. The world is simply a manifestation of our own consciousness. You project whatever you are.

Another significant thing that happened recently was the interview I did with HH Devamrita Swami. Such an incredible personality and masterful speaker on the philosophy of Krishna. Here are the first two videos, a third is on its way.

Evidence of my cow face

OK, so the above picture illustrates the fact that I was indeed dressed as a cow in central London the other weekend. What purpose could this serve you may ask. Was there some sort of moo'ing contest? Or were you simply walking the streets offering undignified milk to thirsty hobos? The answer lies within this short film:

That's right, we were doing it for Ahimsa - cruelty free milk! We believe - like Jesus - that all animals should be shown compassion and care. ie. not hung upside down in a slaughter house with their throats slit. No sir-eee.

We rode around for hours on bikes and rickshaws, and raised a a total of 5 billion dollars. Or something similar. Hooray! Or should I say Moo-ray. No I definitely should not.

Talking of Jesus - see what I did there - do you guys remember my friend Rasa? Well he's been through a lot, and thats a long story, but now he's back with a groundbreaking new youtube channel! Some of you may find it a little controversial, but the fearless among you on a quest for truth may like to take a look.

www.youtube.com/TheyBastardisedJesus

Hot Stone Therapy

So I had to write an article on this thing called "hot stone therapy" the other day. Basically its all the rage at certain swanky-pants spas to have hot stones placed at certain pressure points on the back, and people pay a tonne of money for it. Well upon learning this, my brain automatically throught "What! I could well easily do that myself and not spend ANY money!".... so I did.

Well... I tried it out on Mandy, but didn't have any stones, so I just used pebbles from my driveway. I boiled them in a pan, then proceeded with the highly technical operation of putting them on the back. However, by the time they had reached the back area... all heat had alas depleted.

Mandy said "Ben, you've just put lukewarm gravel on my back. You're not normal"

Sometimes I look at my life and can't help but agree.

Do have a cow man

You know when you agree to something that's not due to happen for a while and you think "yeah, that probably won't happen". Well it IS happening. This Sunday, 10:30am, Trafalgar Square. I'm gonna be dressed as a cow and cycling around central London with a flock of similar cow/human associates.

I only bought my new bike a week and a half ago, and its the first time I've ridden since childhood. Since my younger years I've grown progressively worse at a number of things: optimism, being small, times tables... and now I can add riding a bicycle to the list! I'm so very out of practice and quite simply doomed to failure. If you would like to witness this failure in high definition 4-dimensional reality, please comes along. Or better still, sponsor me to do so at www.justgiving.com/benloka

Spiritual Revolution

Hey everyone, I haven't blogged for ages. Sorry about that. I've just been busy, so busy that I've barely had time to perform the most basic of human functions and thoughts, let alone put them into a cohesive blurb on the internet.

To make up for it, here is a picture of me at the London Ratha Yatra festival yesterday with my eyes closed.

I stole that from Yeo's facebook as I no longer seem to take pictures of my own anymore. It was such a nice day, and we spent the second half of it promoting our new club, which I'm gonna tell you about now.

THE LOFT is a new thing we're doing every 2 weeks in central London. We're calling it a SPIRITUAL CHILLOUT SESSION for young people. Like a cool place to hang out on a Saturday afternoon, and it's just off Oxford Street so really easy to get to. Please come along if you would like to, and we can hang out, eat free vegetarian food, and chant Hare Krishna. Plus its all totally free! See details below...

EVERY OTHER SATURDAY • 2PM - 4PM

@”Radha Krishna temple”, 10 Soho Street, London. W1D 3DL

Nearest Tube: Tottenham Court RD (JUST OFF OXFORD STREET)

CLICK HERE for a map

CLICK HERE to join the facebook group

- Free vegetarian food (2PM - 3PM)

- Interactive Discussions

- Live Music ‘Sounds for the soul’

- And a chance to meet like minded people

ALL ABSOLUTELY FREE!

COME ALONG TO THE LAUNCH EVENT! 'MORE TO LIFE'

Saturday 4th July 2009, 2PM - 4PM

Live cooking show this monday!!

Hello blog enthusiasts! I have an announcement to make. As some of you may know, its WORLD VEGETARIAN WEEK this week, and I know some of you may find this hard. So as a handy solution to all your woes, I've got together with the people at Ahimsa, and we're gonna do a live Blog TV show this bank holiday Monday (25 May) at 3pm - 9pm GMT to show you how to cook!!



DATE: 25 May:
TIME: 3pm - 9pm GMT
or 10am - 4pm EST
WHERE: www.blogtv.com/people/benloka

In the process we're also hoping to raise some money for Ahimsa, which is charity that seeks to improve the lives of cows and attempt to stop all the current cruelty thats going on. So if you care about all living beings within this universe - and I know you do - please please donate whatever you can HERE at www.justgiving.com/thelotustrust/donate

For everyone who donates... drop me an e-mail here to let me know, and I'll put you into a prize draw which will be picked later this week. The winner will receive the following:

- Cookies (personally cooked by me)
- A "You're cool" certificate
- Personal DVD message from me to you
- Plus a MYSTERY GIFT

To win all that, simply donate whatever you can, and then send me a quick email to benloka@googlemail.com saying you did! eg. "Hi Ben, I gave £10, aren't I good"

On the topic of competitions, I've been so rubbish at not announcing the winners of the last competition! Fear not, the winners were notified immediately, but I seem to have left a few of you hanging. So here we go... WHAT IS THE GOAL OF LIFE? The supreme winner of all the humorous answers was Craig (verywittyname on youtube) from Brighton in the UK.

He correctly answered. "The Goal of Life does not exist, as there is no Wikipedia article."

Of the more poetic entries, our winner was Leanne (iamleanne on youtube) from West Sussex.

Then a number of runners up prizes (the same prize) went to the following:

Ryan (eshninerforest) from Georgia, USA

Alexandra (M4rple) from Canada



Shiva from Leicestershire, UK

Asal from London, UK

Shruti from Georgia, USA

Kara from San Diego, CA, USA
(well done for guessing the goal of life is Chuck Norris)



Jennifer from Torronto, Canada

All the above won a copy of The Science of Self Realisation AVAILABLE HERE. If you still want to enter please feel free, some more free books may be given out in the future if I can get hold of some. =D

Thankyou SO much to everyone who entered. There were hundreds of entries, and so many amazing answers. One of the criterea for the competition was to keep answers to one sentence only which hardly anyone kept to, but I'm glad because I got to read some really nice e-mails, like this one from Elizabeth, which I'll finish on...

For attractive lips speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes see the good in people.
For a slim figure share your food with the hungry.
For poise walk with the knowledge that you never walk on your own.
People, even more than things have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed. 
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older you will realise that you have two hands for a reason.
One for helping yourself and one for helping others.

Fun with Google Image Search

Google image search your answers to the following questions, then click here to summarise yourself in grid-form...

1. What is your name?

2. What is your favourite food?

3. What is your hometown?

4. What is your favourite colour?

5. What is your favourite movie?

6. What is your favourite drink?

7. What is your dream vacation?

8. What is your favourite desert?

9. What is one word to describe yourself?

10. How are you feeling right now?

11. What do you love most in the world

12. What do you want to be when you grow up?