Vedabase about internet

bh. Jan, 2013

This is a compilation of quotes including the word 'internet' found in 
Vedabase. It nicely illustrates the evolution of internet's impact and 
devotees's attitudes to it. First mentions about the internet are in 
Back to Godhead magazine (BTG). The very first is in BTG #28-05 1994:

"A reader who got in touch with us on the vast network of computer 
networks known as the Internet..."

In BTG #29-03 1995 an American student asks if ISKCON maintains some 
LISTSERV group about Krsna. The answer is no but there is already a 
first BTG site: http://www.webcom.com/~ara

BTG #29-04 1995 (The Vedic Observer) shows the ambivalent position of 
the internet: "And the Internet is a network to nowhere unless we use 
it to link up to God."

Editorial of BTG #30-06 1996 is dedicated to the Hare Krsna computer 
virus. ;)

Editorial of BTG #31-04 1997: "But people are on a joyride. There’s 
money to be made, sex to be celebrated, we’ve got movies and parties 
and corporate conquests. Surf the sea, surf the internet, surf your 
own cerebral dendrites and synapses. It’s idiocy. And it’s the kind of 
idiocy that can well lead to war. While we’re out surfing and enjoying 
the party, we’re missing the real point of life—spiritual realization. 
And we’re building up a stockpile of karma that could explode into war 
at any time."

Most of the BTG reader's feedback comes from the internet as seen from 
words "via the Internet" behind a reader's name.


Most mentions are in Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa Puja offerings.

SP VP 1997 New Dvaraka/LA: "Other devotees are working to publish your 
books and spread Krsna consciousness through television, radio, the 
Internet, and other media."

In SP VP 1998 offering Vipramukhya Swami speaks about starting the 
CHAKRA site for defense of ISKCON from anti-ISKCON propaganda and the 
Internet Radio site with lectures and kirtans. (In 1997 he became the
first and so far the last head of department for the Internet under the
Ministry of Communications.)

SP VP 1998 Baltimore: "People who look at our Websites on the Internet 
wonder why we have so much disagreement."

Yogesvar dasa in his article Spiritual Television: Is the World Ready 
for a True Spiritual Network? (ICJ #6.1 January/June 1998) speaks 
about media in general and briefly mentions the internet as well: "It 
is worth noting that in their thirst for spiritually satisfying 
programmes, seekers have abandoned television and turned to the 
Internet. 'The Net encompasses many strange things, but those who use 
it often and understand it well know it has a rich and haunting 
mystical side', writes Jon Katz, media critic for Wired Magazine. He 
goes on to say: Along with pornographers and teenagers, it attracts 
deeply religious people of countless denominations engaged in 
extraordinary searches into their own and others' souls. Ascetics, 
heretics and true believers searching for God (or his or her 
equivalent) flourish in zines, religious and mystical conferences, and 
on bulletin boards ... The business of sending and receiving messages 
has always been a core notion of mysticism and spirituality. Countless 
millions believe, or want to believe, that there are larger forces at 
work in the universe. And they want to chat with them. Those millions 
of Internet users might return to watching television if they heard 
someone had started a truly spiritual television network." ... "For 
television, the Internet or any form of media to carry spiritual 
potency, its content must be supervised by a council of qualified 
spiritual leaders."

The same ICJ issue speaks about the problem of child abuse and 
mentions the internet as a medium which can help to prevent the 
influence of negative information but only there where devotees can 
access it: "Fortunately, modern communications such as the internet, 
are having a positive effect in this area. Since bad news travels 
swiftly (almost instantaneously on the Internet), members of 
communities can grasp the magnitude of the abuse problem and ring the 
‘alarm bells’ before the ‘fire’ hits their communities. A third 
possible reason for poor compliance is, regrettably and paradoxically, 
bad communication. Despite the internet, mass mailings and word of 
mouth, for some reason rank-and-file devotees, especially in areas 
outside North America and Western Europe, simply remain unaware of the 
scope of the problem of abuse, or obtain their information from 
questionable sources, which puts them in the position of either acting 
on unreliable information or disbelieving information which is 
accurate."

SP VP 2000 Tucson is a poem about the internet as a source of prajalpa 
and quarrels among devotees.

SP VP 2000 Radio Krsna Centrale:
"You are here on the Internet and Com,
even when some discussion gets hot."

In his SP VP 2002 offering Bhakti Ballabh Puri Goswami writes about a 
sort of 'Harinam spam', sending the holy names to emails of various 
religious communities. ;)

SP VP 2002 BTG: "The most significant development for Back to Godhead 
in the past year was that BTG and the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust 
launched an ambitious project to increase the spreading of Krsna 
consciousness through the Internet. Although this medium was 
unavailable for use in your mission during your time with us, we’re 
confident that you are pleased to see us taking advantage of it for 
Krsna’s service. If the printing press is the brhad-mrdanga, the World 
Wide Web must be the brhad-brhad-mrdanga. You were always eager to 
give value to the inventions of the nondevotees by using their 
materialistic progress to defeat their material illusion. You 
challenged us to use our intelligence to preach Krsna consciousness, 
to always be on the lookout, as you were, for novel ways to inject the 
antidote for Kali-yuga into the tortured minds of the misled masses. 
Through the Internet we can reach the masses in every country of the 
world in seconds, opening up a broad new avenue for increasing the 
distribution of your books and Back to Godhead. Our focus, as always, 
is to bring people to the shelter or your books and magazine."

SP VP 2003 Umapati Swami: "Now maybe it is because I am active on the 
Internet that I have to deal with so many people who call themselves 
devotees but refuse to purify their consciousness with the words 
emanating from the lotus mouth of Srila Prabhupada."

VP SP 2004 Sankarsan das ACBSP: "For spreading Krsna consciousness I 
have gotten the inspiration to start an E-course for introducing the 
science of Krsna consciousness on the Internet. By your inconceivable 
mercy I have gotten results far, far beyond anything I could have ever 
imagined. So far over 10,000 spiritual seekers from all over the world 
have joined the course. We have named our sign-up web page 
www.backtohome.com, after your famous slogan. Please bless me, Srila 
Prabhupada, that this humble attempt to purely pass on your teachings 
may become unlimitedly successful for pushing forward Krsna 
consciousness and sending the personality of Kali into an early 
retirement."

VP SP 2004 Chandigarh: "Similarly, Your Divine Grace pervades the 
ISKCON world, inside and outside. For those who wish to stay connected 
to you, all means to do so are available: holy dhamas, 
twenty-four-hour kirtanas, temples, yatras, festivals, sadhu-sanga, 
books, videos, audios, construction, Deity worship, meetings, courses, 
go-seva, and, not the least, e-mails and the Internet."

VP SP 2004 NE-BBT: "To date, 400 million books have been distributed, 
and that is just the beginning. Your works are in libraries, in 
universities, in schools, in private homes, on the Internet, in the 
ether, and in purified minds."

VP SP 2006 Helsinki: "Dear Srila Prabhupada, please give us the 
intelligence to expand the sankirtana movement here on all levels. We 
want to preach your message directly, indirectly, and in between, to 
young and old, to academics and the uneducated, through 
person-to-person preaching, and through books, newspapers, television, 
radio, the Internet, public programs, vegetarian workshops, and the 
Vedic arts. We want to do all this to please you, while always keeping 
our main focus on the primary angas of the sankirtana movement — book 
distribution, harinama-sankirtana, and prasadam distribution."

VP SP 2007 Bhaktivaibhava Swami: "Of course, technology is not 
inherently bad. You taught us that utility is the principle in our 
attempt to spread Krsna consciousness, and many devotees are using 
technological devices in their preaching work. The Internet world is 
increasing, and many devotees take advantage of it to distribute 
devotional items to thousands of people. When I asked one devotee in 
the country where I live what item is being ordered in large quantity, 
he replied that your books are being ordered the most."

VP SP 2007 New Dvaraka/LA: "The temple broadcasts our morning and 
evening programs of kirtana and lectures to hundreds of internet 
viewers."

VP SP 2007 Rio de Janeiro: "The spiritual energy that continues to 
electrify our earth is coming from Prabhupada. We can feel it when we 
see his smile, when we sing together, or when we hear the maha-mantra 
on a corner, in a store, at an event, from a good man, on a flute, 
from the new generation of devotees, or in a choir. Let us not forget, 
of course, about Krsna on the Internet."

VP SP 2007 Western Pacific BBT: "How else could all of this worldwide 
book distribution and these global preaching projects continue and 
expand so nicely? If we but open our eyes and ears, we can see that 
your transcendental magic is happening, in some way, nearly everywhere 
on the planet (e.g., your divine message now travels and changes 
hearts through the Internet, through Krsna.com, to those rare places 
where we may not be able to physically go at present)."

VP SP 2007 BTG/Krsna.com: "You followed in the footsteps of Srila 
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, using technology in the service of Krsna. 
Someone once said to me, “Srila Prabhupada would never have used 
computers or the Internet. His message was all about simple living.” I 
couldn’t disagree more. We cannot forget about the “high thinking” 
part, without which the “simple living” has no spiritual basis or 
significance. You were in the forefront of dovetailing technology in 
the 1960s and 70s, using everything for Krsna, including jet airplanes 
and printing presses and the then state-of-the-art Dictaphone tape 
recorder. You knew that the perfection of these devices was to use 
them to spread Krsna consciousness, just as Srila Rupa Gosvami taught 
with his principle of yukta-vairagya. Krsna.com also tries to follow 
in this tradition and use everything at our disposal to bring Krsna’s 
holy name and message to every town and village. I can’t help thinking 
that you would be so pleased to see your movement and the message of 
Lord Caitanya spread so widely over the Internet through Krsna.com. 
Over one million people came to the Krsna.com website last year, 
including over 10,000 unique visitors on Janmashtami day 2006 alone! 
Through the use of webcams, Krsna.com is now bringing the temples to 
people who would otherwise have no access. Temple kirtanas, programs, 
and lectures are broadcast on our website and heard by thousands of 
people as part of their daily sadhana. All of your books are available 
online for persons in other countries who have no access to your books 
or who are forbidden by their country to receive this literature. 
Anyone can listen to your bhajana recordings on our website. Krsna.com 
Live Help volunteers are available to chat online with persons with 
questions about Krsna consciousness. And new this year is Krsna.com’s 
weekly Sanga podcasts, designed to bring news, discussions, 
interviews, and meditations to our worldwide audience. This is your 
brihad-mridanga at work today. Krsna.com has been translated into 
Chinese and Portuguese, too, with more languages to come. All of your 
timeless teachings are freely available with just a click of the 
mouse, and they continue to inspire devotees and aspiring Vaishnavas 
alike, reaching households everywhere in this digital age. I strongly 
believe that these technologies have been created just so that we can 
archive all of your recordings, books, videos, photos, etc., to 
preserve them and to share them for generations to come."

--

The attitude of Srila Prabhupada to modern technologies is shown in 
this experience (SPL 5.40):
"Ananga-manjari: Prabhupada was going around looking at all the 
different temple offices. In one office Karandhara was showing 
Prabhupada a new computer. "Prabhupada," he said, "all we have to do 
is type the words Rupa Gosvami, and then it will automatically write 
everything you have ever said or written about Rupa Gosvami." 
Prabhupada had been looking at the computer without showing much 
interest. But when Karandhara said the name Rupa Gosvami, Prabhupada 
raised his eyebrows and said, "Oh? Yes, everything can be used in 
Krsna's service."
Then we walked out of that office and went to the telex machine. 
Prabhupada sat before it in the chair, and everyone stood around him 
while Karandhara explained what the machine did. "It can write a 
message all the way to New York, and they can send a message back 
immediately, Srila Prabhupada." So Karandhara typed on the telex 
machine, "Hare Krsna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Please 
respond."
There was no answer, so he typed it out again, and again there was no 
answer. So he typed it out again, and this time he typed out, "All 
glories to Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada is sitting right next to 
the telex machine. Please respond."
All of a sudden the machine started typing out a reply, and Prabhupada 
was sitting there watching it. The type read, "Dear Srila Prabhupada, 
please accept our most humble obeisances at your lotus feet. We will 
be very eager to see Your Divine Grace in three days in New York." 
Srila Prabhupada spoke out, "Jaya! Haribol!" The message from New York 
was signed by many devotees, and Prabhupada just smiled and said, 
"This is very nice."

--

VP SP 2007 Sankarsan das ACBSP: "By your mercy, in December of 2002 I 
experimented with starting a Krsna consciousness training program, an 
e-course, on the Internet. Since Krsna consciousness is the ultimate 
self-realization system, I named the course the Ultimate Self 
Realization Course. By your mercy, the program has expanded like 
anything. There are now over six thousand people enrolled in over a 
hundred countries. In order to provide the best possible support for 
my readers, I am now traveling and preaching all the over the world 
practically full time to meet as many of them as possible, to 
encourage and help them fully surrender themselves at the lotus feet 
of Lord Sri Krsna. I have never before tasted such wonderful, sweet 
happiness. This is all due to your mercy because you are engaging me 
constantly in propagating your mission. I have unlimited preaching 
work to do every day. I have weekly lessons and daily meditations to 
write. Plus every day I have a large volume of correspondence to 
answer, responding to the questions of my students from all over the 
world. While all of this writing is going on, I am also simultaneously 
traveling and preaching in an ever-expanding number of countries 
around the world."

VP SP 2008 Mumbai (Juhu): "With the increased number of visitors, our 
book distribution has also increased. In addition, we are distributing 
books on the Internet under the “e-distribution” program."

VP SP 2008 ISKCON Television (ITV): "Now you are available on 
television stations, Internet sites, and DVDs, and the conditioned 
souls can experience your darsana and receive your teachings just by 
pressing buttons. Your face and voice transcend the chasms of time. 
There you are, instructing anyone who will listen about topics 
relating to Krsna."

VP SP 2008 Sankarsan das ACBSP: "So this accepting everything in 
relation to Krsna is what you are teaching your followers how to do. 
It is the essence of Krsna consciousness. Entering into this spirit, 
we at The Ultimate Self-Realization Course are engaged in utilizing 
the Internet to spread the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to the 
far corners of the earth. By the power of the Internet we are reaching 
and guiding more than eight thousand people every day in over one 
hundred countries in English, Spanish, French, and Russian. By your 
mercy and the mercy of the previous acaryas, so many people are 
learning about Krsna’s teachings in the Bhagavad-gita, so many people 
are feeling enlivened to take up the simple and wonderful path of 
chanting Hare Krsna. In fact, we are considering that this Internet 
technology is simply one of the instruments given by Sri Caitanya 
Mahaprabhu to rapidly expand the Krsna consciousness movement further 
and faster than anything before. Indeed, people are taking to chanting 
Hare Krsna and reading your books that haven’t had any contacts with 
devotees other than through the medium of the Internet, and they are 
very quickly coming to the standard of initiation."

VP SP 2009 BTG/Krsna.com: "There are now 1.6 billion people online. 
The Internet, an invention intended to facilitate communication, has 
become a virtual world, where people spend many hours a day trying to 
find 'something or other' and attempting escape from 'whatever.' As a 
result, people often become more isolated; their demands for faster 
and more easily available information and/or sense gratification only 
increase, causing more frustration in their lives than ever before. By 
spreading Lord Caitanya's movement, you showed us how to truly unify 
people which the World Wide Web can't do. The holy names of Krsna are 
your prescription. What you said in 1968 is as true as ever: by 
chanting Krsna's names we are truly together, though physically 
separated by thousands of earth miles. At BTG/Krsna.com, we are trying 
to make your association available to the often-lonely virtual world 
of the Internet. By your grace, many people in every nook and corner 
of the world can now read your books, hear the chanting of Krsna’s 
names, and see the worship of Deities you or your followers have 
established. Where there are no temples, where devotees haven’t even 
visited, Krsna.com is able to go."

BrendaLee Riley in How I Came to Krsna Consciousness (BTG #43-01 2009) 
writes about the preaching of Sankarsan das (see above) on the 
internet:
"I started going to school early so I could do Internet searches about 
Krsna consciousness. One day I came across "The Spiritual 
Revolutionary," the website of the ISKCON devotee Sankarsana Dasa 
Adhikari. He had an e-mail course on the Gita, so I enrolled. I 
started sending him my questions, and he always kindly answered them. 
Over time, I began depending on him more and more. I already knew the 
rule against meat-eating, and he taught me the other three "regulative 
principles" that ISKCON devotees follow. Whenever I've had trouble, he 
has given me helpful suggestions. I look forward to meeting him soon, 
and I hope to take initiation someday. Coming to Krsna consciousness 
is a continuous progression for me, and as I learn new things, I put 
them into practice the best I can. Since that first encounter with Jun 
at school, my progress has been steady. And I love every minute of it. 
I've learned to get up early in the morning to practice my spiritual 
disciplines and to chant and pray. I watch the morning lecture at the 
Los Angeles temple live on the Internet. I can even use the chat box 
to ask questions about the topic of the lecture. I'm learning so much 
and will be forever grateful to the young man who handed me that 
Bhagavad-gita in the supermarket parking lot so many years ago."

VP SP 2010 Richmond Hill/Markham: "You encouraged, for Krsna, the use 
of all sorts of communications. Now devotees use everything from radio 
to the Internet to create the Krsna connection."

VP SP 2010 Padayatra Worldwide (by Lokanath Swami): "The night before 
we left, Cesar came before the Deities to offer prayers. Afterwards, 
without any trace of shyness, he asked if he could have a picture of 
Them. When we gave him a picture, he said very happily, “I am going to 
put Them on an altar and pray to Them.” He took his picture, thanked 
us, looked one last time at the murtis of Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundara, 
and just before we left asked us to keep in touch with him through the 
Internet."

In his book Jayananada Thakur its author Vishoka dasa explains that 
this books of memories originated as a web site.

--

From the above it's obvious that internet is a tool which can be used 
both positively and negatively. It's going to stay with us so we 
should learn to use it positively for Krsna's service in the spirit of 
yukta-vairagya as many of the above examples show.