Society and practice
How belief and practice shape communities, ethics and daily life.
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The Bizarre Christian Defenses of Meat EatingArjuna argues, against Christian interlocutors from Facebook apologetics circles, that every standard Christian defense of meat eating fails — necessity is obsolete, soul-based speciesism parallels racism, and the skeptical attack on moral intuitions destroys the Christian's own ground — while the way ex-bhaktas resume meat only upon converting shows Christianity actively un-teaches animal compassion. · Lecture · 18m· Jan 2025
Christspiracy Debate ReviewReviewing the Cam Waters vs Tony Jones Christspiracy debate, Alex Gallagher argues that Thomistic 'humans have special souls' metaphysics is unprovable speciesism indistinguishable in form from racism, and offers the Vedic alternative: one kind of soul migrates through all bodies, so animal suffering matters even though not everyone must be vegetarian. · Debate · 17m· Mar 2024
Why Your Career Isn't Fulfilling & Why It MattersCareer Dharma authors Urmila (Dr. Edith Best) and Rukmini (Dr. Ruchira Dutta) argue to Alex Gallagher that career misery comes from working against one's nature, replacing 'anyone can get rich' self-help with the Vedic four fields of work and six prosperity types.Ruchira S. Dutta, Urmilā devī dāsī · Interview · 1h 46m· Mar 2024
The Israel-Hamas Conflict A Bhagavad Gita Perspective ft.@ChaitanyaCharanofficialAlex Gallagher and Chaitanya Charan Das argue, against Western apologists for the October 7 attacks, that the Bhagavad Gita's three-modes framework shows extremism (not religion) drives atrocity, and that grievance must rise toward tolerance and transcendence rather than descend through vengeance into malevolence. · Lecture · 1h 22m· Nov 2023
A Deep Dive on the Pitfalls of Organised Religion @SwamiPadmanabhaSwami Padmanabha, author of Radical Personalism, joins Alex Gallagher in a loving self-critique of organized religion: 'requirement religion' of box-checking and over-absolutized gurus who pass unresolved trauma down as divine revelation, versus 'relationship religion' grounded in vulnerability, wholeness, and unconditional love.Padmanabha Swami · Lecture · 1h 14m· Oct 2023
The surprising Reason for Dysfunction in Religious Organizations - W Dr. Urmila Edith BestDr. Urmila Devi Dasi (Edith Best), an ISKCON educator with a doctorate in educational leadership, argues to host Arjuna Gallagher that religious organizations become dysfunctional when their form contradicts their function - imposing corporate, bureaucratic, centralized models on what Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and Prabhupada explicitly demanded be an organic, decentralized, family-like body.Urmilā devī dāsī · Lecture · 1h 46m· May 2023
Discovering Hare Krishna Views on Social IssuesAtheist broadcaster Matt Dillahunty and first-generation Prabhupada disciple Yogeshwara (Joshua Greene) find startling agreement, hosted by Alex Gallagher: Yogeshwara argues Krishna consciousness must stop behaving like a religion, drop its bastardized karma vocabulary, and engage hard social issues or collapse into sentiment.Matt Dillahunty, Yogeshwara (Joshua M. Greene) · Lecture · 1h 34m· Nov 2022
Comedian Investigates Hare Krishnas for Disinformation #Shorts @Ryan LongA Ryan Long comedy sketch reposted by the channel satirizes self-appointed disinformation police auditing a Hare Krishna temple, with the devotees flipping the premise: the real universal disinformation is believing you are your body rather than a soul. · Other · 1m· May 2022
A Jordan Peterson Style Approach to Bhagavad-Gita Psychological Insights from the VedasMonk Caitanya Charan argues to host Arjuna Gallagher that Jordan Peterson's psychology of meaning - structure, voluntary responsibility, facing distress - is anticipated and deepened by the Bhagavad Gita's three-level reality, three gunas, and a karma doctrine that is prognosis rather than predestination.Caitanya Charan Prabhu · Lecture · 1h 54m· May 2022
The Real Reasons why Religons Have so Much AbuseIn a scripted solo essay, Alex Gallagher — a believer, against New Atheist blame-religion framing — argues that abuse in religious institutions is driven by three corruptions rather than inherent features: misplaced trust in leaders, repression without healthy outlets, and above all the shielding of perpetrators from the secular justice system. · Lecture · 10m· Nov 2021
The Caste System Debunked with Urmila devi dasi (Dr. Edith Best)Urmila Devi Dasi (Dr. Edith Best), pressed by Alex Gallagher with the standard Christian-apologist and progressive objections, argues that varna-dharma is a proclivity-based division of work that any healthy society needs, and that hereditary caste — Brahmin privilege by birth, untouchability, the mistreatment of Karna — is its racism-like perversion, not its content.Urmilā devī dāsī · Lecture · 1h 11m· Jul 2021
Vedic Economics with Dr. Howard ResnickHarvard Sanskritist Howard Resnick (HD Goswami) argues, against host Alex Gallagher's Sowell-inspired free-market case, that there is no 'Vedic economics' — only markets constrained by spiritually grounded ethics — and that Marxists and laissez-faire capitalists share the same naive view of human nature.Hṛdayānanda dāsa Goswāmī · Lecture · 1h 31m· May 2021
Hare Krishna Brainwashing Debate Ted Patrick vs Hridayananda Das GoswamiIn an archival televised debate from the height of the American cult scare, deprogrammer Ted Patrick charges that Hare Krishna chanting is self-hypnosis producing 'mindless robots', while Hridayananda Das Goswami and Bala Vanta answer that ISKCON presents the documented oldest religion in the world, demand evidence for the charges, and counter that secular universities are the real coercive indoctrination.Bala Vanta, Gene Greisman, Hṛdayānanda dāsa Goswāmī, Sandra Sachs, Ted Patrick, Unknown Audience Member B · Debate · 35m· May 2015