Buddhists - why have children?

[Aupmanyav]

On worship seeking rewards - from Gita 2:42-4 with comments by Swami Rama. This is a kind of 'spiritual materialism'.

42. This is the flowery speech that the unwise speak, absorbed in the discussions of the Vedas,
saying ‘There is nothing else.’
43. Totally identified with their desire, intent upon heaven, uttering the speech that leads to the
fruit of karma in the form of rebirth, ample in specific rituals, resulting in pleasure and power;
44. Since they are attached to pleasure and power and their minds are plundered by that speech of
theirs, their determinative wisdom does not succeed in leading to samadhi.

You have to understand various things in this context.
1. Vedas are more than 4000 years old. They are prayers of herders and agriculturists in Central Asian steppes. The hymns eulogize their Gods. There is history and philosophy, but that is not the main purpose of Vedas.
2. Philosophy came in with the Upanishads and when Aryans had settled in India and interacted with the indigenous philosophy around 4,000 years ago after the fall of Indus valley civilization.
3. Gita and Bhagawat Purana are Vaishnava book. So, one can take what one likes from Gita, but it is no Bible or Quran for Hindus. People who follow other views - Shaiva, Shakta or Smarta, do not go by Gita.
4. Gita is as quite recent book, not much older than the beginning of the Christian era. It is written in modern Sanskrit.

Samadhi is a state of no thought for a short time. It does not achieve anything other than calming the mind. Samadhi will not get you to levitate

 

[Aupmanyav]

Swami Rama is clearly correct that one cannot assimilate theoretical knowledge and live according to it without sadhana or cultivation of higher parts of mind. So it is not amount of or the ratio of theory & practice, but the union of or yoga of the two.

Swami Rama is basically an unknown entity in India. Like Yogeshwar, he was a 'Swami' for Americans.