In her prayers, Queen Kunti speaks of attaining the Lord through pure devotion: “Your Lordship can be easily approached but only by those who are materially exhausted. One who is on the path of material progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education, and bodily beauty, cannot approach You with sincere feeling.”

The hundred participants created a powerful atmosphere by their common intention: to improve the quality of their chanting and make progress in their spiritual lives. The devotional mood of acceptance and support made me feel emotionally and spiritually protected. It seemed we'd left our emotional baggage outside the retreat center and had entered with expectancy and hope for spiritual renewal, clarity, and discovery.

“This time new year begins with ‘Vaikuntha Ekadashi’ (the only one Ekadasi that all people in south India try to observe). This is very auspicious. Previous year started with New Moon day” my aunt said very thoughtfully. Her statement stirred many thoughts in me resulting in wonderful realization. "Wow! Indeed, the New Year 2015 is a special year with many great events. Surely it inspires everybody towards the golden jubilee celebrations of ISKCON in 2016" my inner sense happil...

One day, however, was especially memorable. As I entered the temple, I was surprised to see an Indian sadhu sitting at the front of the room, being fanned by two devotees. Although I had seen many such persons before, he looked especially serious and focused. Still, the first thought that came to my mind was “Here is another Indian who has come in America to make dollars, just like me.” Nevertheless, as I heard from Srila Prabhupada on this and a few other occasions, his speaking was so pow...

We experience life-giving heat in two ways from the sun. One is directly on our skin and the other indirectly through digestion, which releases the sun’s energy transformed into food through photosynthesis. For warm-blooded creatures like us humans, eighty of the food we eat is used to produce internal heat. Yet we forget how this heat outside and inside our bodies sustains us. Heat is, after all, invisible.

I was looking forward to an afternoon of celebrating and expressing gratitude towards a spiritual teacher who I have come to hold very dear and seek to serve. I was not disappointed. Running throughout much of the afternoon were his lectures. It was especially sweet that one of the lectures played was the very first lecture I had ever heard from Radhanath Swami, “The Essence of Religions”.

Thus the left half of the body is more feminine, the right side more masculine. Generally if there is twitching on right side of male body it bodes good luck but if on left bad luck. Opposite is the case for females. (In some instances it can be good or bad no matter what side it is.) And we note that in North India the male deity is always to the right of the female deity, and the female is always to the left of the male deity. And, in palmisty we read both hands but emphasize right hand for males and left for females.

Duress is caused when there is a need to make a decision that has undesirable elements- in order to avoid a decision that has greater undesirable elements. It is a moral dilemma.