Frustration gives way to illumination during one extraordinary night in the life of a prostitute. While prostitutes are often depicted negatively in traditional literature, some religious texts depict them positively as testimonies to the transformational potency of divine grace. Thus, in the Gospel is found a story of a prostitute (considered by some to be Mary Magdalene) who was redeemed by Jesus. In Gaudiya Vaishnava literature such as the Chaitanya Charitamrita comes the story of the saint Haridasa Thakura, who delivered a prost...

There are two strong arguments advanced by reincarnationists against the teaching of one earthly life. The first argument regards reincarnation as a more reasonable expression of divine mercy and love than the disproportionate and unfair infliction of eternal punishment by God upon a human being for a single morally corrupt lifetime. The second argument finds reincarnation to be necessary for the continued exercise of creaturely freedom required for true moral and spiritual maturation. Catholic teaching, by contrast, asserts that a single earthly life followed by purg...

Over the years I have been approached by many a devotee in distress. Though I grew up in ISKCON and have been slowly cultivating my own Krishna consciousness, I am very much a neophyte. I was blessed by Krishna’s will in that I became a physician. I went forward to specialize in general and forensic psychiatric medicine. It is for this reason, I am often approached by devotees when their emotional life becomes overwhelming. Often they are told to chant better rounds or seek shelter of Krishna. Well, perhaps Krishna guides them in their heart to talk to someone like me. One of my ...

In each of its twelve cantos, Srimad-Bhagavatam, the "flawless ripened fruit of all Vedic scriptures," tells of miracles and mysticism, of the esoteric and extraterrestrial. We hear a cow, bull, elephant, monkey, and bird speaking deep philosophy. We learn of the four-headed creator who sits atop a lotus flower, of a magnificent aerial mansion, and of a five-year-old who pushes down half the earth with his toe and makes demigods suffocate. We learn of people giving birth...

“Anyway, money can’t buy everything,” members of all social tiers often quip. Daily life, however, regularly belies this old mantra. Happiness and even love often seem to have a price tag, or at least a significant financial correlation. Whatever our level of income and indulgence, we all long for true happiness and genuine well-being, however defined. Shouldn’t personal contentment become enshrined as a basic human right, for all people, everywhere? Then again, what about the special ...

"Please cancel my tickets," I said to my friend on the phone. "I won't be able to go." I hung up the phone and sank down onto my bed, my head in my hands. My friend had arranged my tickets for the trip to Jagannatha Puri and Mayapur I had been so eagerly looking forward to, and now I had to cancel. The past few weeks in my life had been very turbulent, so when my friends proposed a spiritual retreat to these two holy places so dear to the followers of Sri Chaitany...

It is natural that at some point in our lives we ask, "Why is there suffering?" Or "Why am I not happy?" "Why can't we simply go on with life and not undergo so many trials and tribulations? Why can't God make a universe or world where there is no suffering?" Well, my answer to that is He already has, but we are simply in the wrong one. Let me explain it a little more fully. First of all, we are all spiritual beings within material bodies. Most people at least u...

As a snake-bitten man is brought back to consciousness by the chanting of certain mantras, so one in the unconscious state of material life can be revived by hearing the maha-mantra: In the Garuda Purana the stress on hearing is expressed very nicely. It is said there: "The state of conditioned life in the material world is just like a man Iying unconscious, having been bitten by a snake. This is because both such unconscious states can be ended by the sound of a mantra." When a man is snake-bitte...

In the interactions between the Lord and His devotees, both relish the highest happiness. Bhagavad-gita and other scriptures praise Arjuna for his close relationship with Krishna. Arjuna is known for his mood of friendship (sakha-bhava). Since relationships are by definition reciprocal, not only is Arjuna known as Krishna’s friend, but Krishna is known as Arjuna’s friend. Krishna drove Arjuna’s chariot and is therefore called Partha-sarathi, the “charioteer of Partha.” This name shows Krishna’s special relationship with His devotee Arjuna.

Lord Caitanya says: one should offer ALL respect to others and should not demand or seek respect for himself. When your peers do better than you, are you happy? Do you appreciate what they’ve done or do you feel concerned or upset that you are not getting as much attention as they are? Do you sometimes not even acknowledge that they have, in fact, been successful (“Anyone could have done that. It’s no big deal”)? Do you seek more to be appreciated than to appreciate? Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains that grass doesn’t resist when it is walked on or thrown around. It doesn’t complain or...

We all have heard Srila Prabhupada warn us that television and media strengthen our materialistic mentality and divert us from service to Krishna—our consciousness being formed largely by our association. However, it is often difficult to keep our children away from the influences that are so pervasive in our culture. Aggression and Television Viewing: The problems associated with children watching TV go beyond moral and spiritual concerns. There is mounting evidence of the many negative psych...

Sir Isaac Newton once made a remarkable model of the solar system. Thanks to a clever hand-cranking mechanism, all of the tiny spinning globes orbited a small "sun." On entering Newton's study, one of his colleagues, a materialist, couldn't help noticing the model. He was flabbergasted. "Dr. Newton," the man stared, "who made this wonderful contraption? The planets move with utter precision, you know. Why, it's ingenious. Who made it?" "No one," Newton replied. "One da...

Action is what catches our attention. For example, in a cricket test match, when the action slows down as the batsmen start playing defensively, our interest sags. But when the action rises – the bowler delivers a googly that clean bowls the batsman or the batsman hits a huge six, for example – then our attention peaks effortlessly.

One morning, soon after our arrival at Kailash Seksaria’s home, Srila Prabhupada called on a male devotee to chant the new melody of Gurvastakam. After two lines of the prayer, he asked him to stop and then requested another devotee to continue. The same thing happened, and he asked another devotee to chant, with the same result. Then he asked me to lead the prayer, and he did not stop me. So later, I asked him why he had done that, and he replied: Learn to listen. You cannot follow nicely unless you hear nicely, and you cannot lead nicely ...

Journalist Thomas Paine in 1776 sparked the American Revolution by writing and widely distributing his pamphlet, Common Sense. Fidel Castro – while in a Cuban prison – crafted his speech History will Absolve Me, had it smuggled it out of the prison and distributed to the masses. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati encouraged his followers to distribute books, saying: “As soon as a single person will have conceived the sincere desire of undertaking the promulgation of the tidings of the Gaudiya literature to the ...