Today I saw your smiling face, and read about you, on dandavats.com. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: you are setting a magnificent example for the entire world. Your irrepressible love for Krishna, your humble kindness toward the Lord's servants, your constant compassion for the fallen souls, are all exemplary and inspiring.

Bhakti Swarupa Damodar was not only a promoter of Vaishnava culture, he was himself a great Vaishnava singer, who sang like a Gandharva for the Deity's pleasure. On this occasion, I extend my heartfelt condolences to all of his disciples, followers and friends, and to the members of his personal family.

The question is, why should those who were the victims should be forced to appear as animals who are lower and more envious than snakes? What did they do to have to be forced to take birth in hell and in those forms? After all, they were the victims?

There is another point. Ultimately the essence of pure devotion is the pure desire to please Krishna. Krishna Himself makes perfect arrangements to save the fallen souls and assigns a sufficient number of devotees to preach. As I said, since everything depends upon the free will of the conditioned souls, there is, in a sense, a finite amount that can be done for them.

The strains are usually resolved satisfactorily. The word ‘Hindu’ never appears in a purely intra-communal Hindu context and has no significance in the central religious concerns of the texts, the expositions of bhakti. (emphasis mine) ... there is to be found no explicit discussion of what ‘Hindu’ or ‘Hindu dharma’ means in any of the texts surveyed.

My basic point is this: as Vaishnavas, we should feel great compassion for every sincere soul who is struggling to become Krishna conscious in this very difficult age. I have no doubt that there are sincere souls, with real devotion to Krishna, who cannot completely avoid homosexuality.

Ironically, the philosopher who best explains this problem may be Karl Marx, who famously concluded from his study of history that the means of production determine social and political relationships. In other words, the way that a society secures its basic material needs will shape the social and political institutions of that society.