Pleasure can turn into pain and celebration can turn into tragedy within no time. Srimad Bhagavatam narrates the story of Gajendra, a gigantic elephant, who was happily wandering in the valleys of Trikuta Mountain with his family members and friends. To relieve his fatigue he entered a lake, which was filled with beautiful lotus flowers, for a bath but was soon caught by a death personified crocodile. His life changed within few seconds.

New Vrindaban, May 20th, 1969 – A small cluster of devotees waited at the entrance to the rural West Virginia property, hearts beating with anticipation. As the Lincoln town car turned the corner, they hit the gravel driveway in obeisance. Srila Prabhupada stepped out of the car. “Oh, there are many waiting here,” he said, looking around with a smile that lit up his entire face. “Jai Sri Krishna!”

The very question of "who came first" is problematic, given that God is beyond time. Vishnu and Krishna exist eternally, though it might be said that one is the source of the other, much like the sun and its rays: The sun globe is "prior" in the sense that its rays emanate from it, and not the other way around. But they both exist simultaneously: As soon as there is a sun, there are sunrays. The question, then, becomes this: In the case of Vishnu and Krishna, who is the sun and who the rays?

Although Ambarisha could understand that by Vishnu’s grace he had become powerful, he was not interested in material opulence. He wanted only to serve the Lord. By that service the king had fully realized the Absolute Truth. For him even the highest material planet is no better than hell. Absorbed in thoughts of Vishnu, he accepted the vanaprastha order to engage only in spiritual practice. After handing over the kingdom to his sons, he dressed in simple clothes and made his way to the for...

The body of God is not material. It is a spiritual or transcendental form – sach-chid-ananda-vigraha, an eternal form of bliss and knowledge. Though differentiated by limbs or parts, a spiritual body is nevertheless completely unified and identical with its own possessor. Therefore, in God there is no difference between body and soul, mind and body, soul and mind. Every limb or part of that body can perform all functions of every other limb.

When we tell someone that we worship Lord Krishna, they are often taken by surprise: “How can you worship a God who is immoral?” They refer to Krishna’s stealing the garments of the young gopis (the cowherd damsels of Vrindavan) and later dancing with them. How could Krishna dare to take away the clothes of young girls and force them to stand naked before Him? How could He dance with other men’s wives in the middle of the night? And for all this, He is worshiped as God? That’s outrageo...

We found that no reading program supported values such as vegetarianism, reincarnation, simple living, spiritual life, and love for Krishna. Indeed, all existing programs promoted the opposite. This problem is not new, and Prabhupada expressed concern about it in 1970: "What one learns as a child is not lost throughout life. So [producing children's educational books] is a very important business. Please execute it with great care and seriousness of purpose."