The Mayavadi sannyasis asked, “You belong to our Sankara-sampradaya and live in our village, Benares. Why then do You not associate with us? . . . You look as brilliant as if You were Narayana Himself. Will You kindly explain why You have adopted the behavior of lower-class people?” Mayavadis address each other as “Narayana” because they think they are all going to become Narayan a or merge into the energy of Narayana when they reach perfection. Seeing Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s gorgeous effulgence, they were astonished. Per...

Controlling one’s mind is the purpose of yoga, and Krishna consciousness is the yoga of bhakti, or service to Krishna with love. As with any type of yoga, practicing bhakti-yoga in an atmosphere where we’re deluged with information can be tough. The digital age seems to control us, as yesterday’s inventions become today’s necessities. When I compare my childhood to that of kids today, I wonder how they can concentrate on anything, their minds so easily disappearing into a virtual world that’s becoming more and more like the bricks a...

I will have to tell you that today science education- people are taking it as very important. Scientific civilization, or scientific knowledge or scientific education, people are becoming engineers, doctors, telecommunication engineers, IT’s. It is important–the material education. But unless those fields of knowledge are applied in the understanding of higher or deeper dimension of knowledge it becomes a total material waste. In other words if one is not able to understand what the most important duty of the life is, it becomes useless.

When a devotee is weak, is having difficulty, or in a spiritual crisis, the Vaisnava family should be there to uplift and restore their strength and enthusiasm. Selfless service to each other, with Krishna in the center, creates trust. Trust nourishes love. Loving relations in Srila Prabhupada's service is the string that binds all of us together on the necklace of bhakti.

The Vedic literature explains that what is one year for us, is just one day for the demigods in swargaloka. It's not that they just have longer days: they really perceive the time differently. Similarly, what is 4.3 billion years for us, is just a day for the inhabitants of Brahmaloka. Their lifespan equals trillions of years of our time.

When I was a young devotee, I was strict about attending all the temple programs. But I found myself critical of devotees who didn't always attend. One devotee suffered from an illness and did her best to come when she could. But I felt she could do better. Not long after those thoughts contaminated my consciousness, however, I became ill and often missed mangala-arati, the early-morning worship. Krishna accomplishes many things by one action, and one result of my illness was a diminis...