To this day, almost forty years after the passing of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, confusion still reigns among some devotees about his desires and instructions regarding how he wanted his main legacy, his transcendental books, taken care of. Thus some devotees continue to express doubts regarding the posthumous editing and correcting that have been done on Srila Prabhupada’s books by his publishing company, The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. These doubts have in some places escalated to the point of causing s...

“In the above chart aquatics are occupying 11%, plant kingdom is occupying 24%, reptiles are occupying 13%, birds are occupying 12%, beasts are occupying 35% and humans are occupying mere 5%. When we analyze this point there is a possibility of understanding the gravity of the situation. This implies that obtaining human form of life is very rare” I started explaining with patience. “Yes, I indeed agree. Anybody who looks at this chart surely gets worried. He immediately comes to point of human life rarity” devotee accept...

“My heart aches for love,” she said. “We all do,” I said. “Our need to love and be loved originates in our innate love for God.” I quoted words Mother Theresa had spoken to me years before. “The greatest problem in this world is not the hunger of the stomach but the hunger of the heart. All over the world both rich and poor suffer. They are lonely, starving for love. Only God’s love can satisfy the hunger of the heart.” “Bhakti, the means to access God’s love, doesn’t necessarily make our material situation go away...

A devotee from a remote village finds an innovative way to share Srila Prabhupada’s message with everyone. "I own a cell phone shop in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. While commuting between my village, Kotoli, and downtown Kolhapur, I used to observe how most passengers spent their travel time sleeping. What a waste! I thought. Somehow I must give them transcendental knowledge of the divine pastimes of Lord Krishna. I used to take a great deal of interest in marketing, so I decided to use my marketing skills in Krishna’s service".

Our tale goes back to one of the first Indian benefactors of the Hare Krishna movement in America, Sajjan Singh Sarna (1897–1978), who is more or less unknown to most devotees. He ran a major Indian handicraft/importing business called “Bells of Sarna.” Its first warehouse was founded in New York, just as a fledgling ISKCON was gaining steam. Sarna, originally from Rawalpindi, a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan, was a Sikh from the Punjab who had come to America in 1920. He was eager to learn about Western culture and was surpr...

This meditation is concluded by the realisation that the contemplation of beauty by the soul, or by a conditioned soul, teaches the soul to discover a corresponding beauty within itself (Cooper, 2015). The real artist is one who views and pursues beauty as a means of self-contemplation and self-discovery, and so true art has a vital use for conditioned living beings. True art inspires the viewer with a sense of his own beauty as a spiritual spark which is truth and beauty at the same time, and which participates in a greater all-encompas...

Of the late, mantra meditation has sparked an interest in the lives of many, regardless of whether their background might origin from an Indian or Asian background, or of an ethnic or aboriginal group. However, meditation does not appeal to the majority of today’s world. Have you ever tried to sit down, close your eyes, and meditate for 10 hours straight? Me neither. Sit with an upright back, and folded legs in the lotus yoga position, control your breathing until it steadily slows down, keep the eyes half-closed, and concentrate at the t...

"Regarding the Christmas Day meal with your family, I do not think you should partake of the food prepared by non-devotees. Better you should prepare your own foodstuffs and offer to Krishna and then, if you like, you may offer these remnants to Lord Jesus. I think that Lord Jesus will also appreciate this. Of course you may sit down with your family and take fruits and milk which they offer but rather than taking the foods which they have prepared, you may prepare and offer your own prasadam for Lord Krishna, and then offer the same to Lor...

The highest reason to keep a promise is to please the Supreme Lord. Truthfulness is a divine virtue, possessed by those rare godly souls, and by being truthful one pleases the Absolute Truth and moves closer to Him. One who is serious about spiritual life therefore makes a commitment to a bona fide discipline and sincerely follows its attendant principles. At the time of initiation, ISKCON devotees vow to their spiritual master that they will follow the four regulative principles – as described in the following paragraph – and...

Cremo states that the book has "over 900 pages of well-documented evidence suggesting that modern man did not evolve from ape man, but instead has co-existed with apes for millions of years!", and that the scientific establishment has suppressed the fossil evidence of extreme human antiquity. Cremo identifies as a "Vedic archeologist", since he believes his findings support the story of humanity described in the Vedas. Cremo's work has garnered interest from Hindu creationists, paranormalists and theosophists. He says a knowledge filter is ...

One morning when going through an Indian daily, I came across the obituary section and a list of deceased people being fondly remembered by their close relatives and friends. Each departed soul was given the title svargavasi, "a resident of heaven." Although modern secular education teaches nothing about life on other planets—and knows nothing about it—I was surprised to see that people still believe their departed relative attained heaven. Has this person really gone to heaven? I wondered. Was he qualified to enter heaven and enjoy t...

"Merciful music and Krishna’s transformative power saved me from a life of impersonalism." What was I, a nice Jewish fellow, doing in front of the Radha-Krishna temple? I didn’t fit in there with the Indian culture. I couldn’t relate to the women in saris. I wasn’t wearing a dhoti. I wasn’t wearing tilaka. I didn’t belong there. Maybe I should have gone back to my local synagogue and looked for God there. That’s where I belonged. But I didn’t go there. I persisted in looking for my self-realization at this ISKCON Temple in Philad...

(A freak accident reveals lessons for a lifetime). A few minutes later my train arrived. As I sat in the compartment, I started pondering over the unusual incident. Two thoughts sprung to my mind. Firstly, that we take for granted whatever possessions we have. But we only begin to really appreciate their value when we almost lose them. Secondly, I remembered how baby Krsna fell out of Vasudeva's basket as he carried Him across the flooded Yamuna, at night, to Nanda Maharaja's residence. Krsna did this to please His devotee Yamuna Devi,...

The question now arises and which has puzzled many persons is how could it be possible that if both the spiritual and material world are infinite how then can the spiritual world be three times bigger than the material world? How can one infinity be three times bigger than another infinity? The concept of infinity itself boggles the mind what to speak of different sizes of infinity.

(Religious affairs correspondent, BBC News) They are uninspired by the secular culture of the West with its maximum of choice and minimum of meaning. "In a democracy, the will of the majority should prevail whilst ensuring that the minority views are safeguarded. How that balance is struck is clearly never easy." So persecution or victimisation of people for their faith - or indeed lack of it - is not simply an issue for the religious. It should be of concern for everyone, of all religions or none. So why is it in these early years of the 2...

Once upon a time at dusk I was strolling on the streets of Kothrud, Pune. I was superficially observing shops, restaurants, people, vehicles but my mind was absorbed in some other thoughts. I was an engineering student studying in MIT college. From my childhood I always used to deliberate on subjects like the mind, consciousness, sufferings, Death. After coming to engineering college my thoughts on these topics intensified. I used to think why I am suffering? Was there any time I was not suffering? What is the purpose of the univers...

When her son joined the Hare Krishnas, she wasn't sure what to think, but was determined to find out more. At age nineteen, my son moved to Portland, Oregon, to live with a friend and his family. His goal was to be in a rock-and-roll band and become rich and famous. During this same time, my oldest daughter was getting ready to have her first child. When she went into labor, it was exciting, but the labor became long and difficult, with complications. In the midst of an atmosphere of anxiety and concern, my children's father calle...

The truth is, neither the U.S. nor the U.S.S.R. is a free agent. They are both acting under the influence of the inescapable law of karma. An example from the Vedic literatures, the timeless books of knowledge from ancient India, may help us understand. The sages explain that although two bamboo trees rubbing together sometimes ignite a forest fire, the real cause of the fire is not the trees themselves but the wind that brings them together. The trees are only instruments. In the same way, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. are not the real causes ...

Even before founding ISKCON in 1966, during Srila Prabhupada’s beginning times in New York City, he had recorded himself singing Kunti’s prayers. These prayers are the only section of verses Srila Prabhupada ever recorded from the Srimad-Bhagavatam. He was living alone in what was an office on West 72nd Street in New York during the winter of 1965–66, after having come to New York from Butler, Pennsylvania. These were difficult days. Not only was Srila Prabhupada alone, but his quarters offered no shower or kitchen. To bathe and to...

Motorcycles were fashionable amongst boys my age. One day I took a drive on Mirco's motorcycle. At one point I became so excited that I lost control and … bang! I lost my balance in a turn and crashed into a wall, face first. I broke my jawbone, one tooth broke into pieces, another fell out, and a piece of my lower lip was almost cut off. It was a wake-up call. The following year I had so many painful meetings with dentists that the situation became unbearable. That's when I seriously started thinking about my life. Inside I was crying out...