My father, perhaps despairing of my dreams of the East and of becoming an artist, urged me to try for officer selection for the British Army, enticing me with stories of travel, adventure, and a decent salary to boot. To my surprise I passed the entrance exams, and before I knew it I was attending a Sixth Form boarding school for potential officers, located in a wonderful old English stately home. My mind kept returning to those initial strong impressions I had when ...

When it comes to humanity’s conception of God, it seems that each religion and culture describes the character of God differently. In some we find God described as an angry and jealous God. Or we find the God of the Old Testament of the Bible with lots of rules but little mercy. Or in other religions we read about a God who is heartless to any nonbelievers, even if they merely lack understanding. In other cultures, God recommends killing all that do not wish to surrender to the local faith. Others may describe that there is a just and loving God watching over you. So, what are we...

This is the point in time when the Hare Krishna devotee shines a torchlight of knowledge into the darkness. Krishna has arranged the stage and the spotlight. The vicious virus is yet another 9/11, a pause, of silence in which the conditioned soul can hear the chanting of the holy names, the transcendental sounds of the Gita and Bhagavatam, come into contact with the pure devotee. Let us use our intelligences to take advantage of this Golden opportunity. Maybe our message can go viral.

Smiling in which the teeth are slightly visible is called hasita smiling. One day Abhimanyu, the so-called husband of Radharani, was returning home, and at that time he did not know that Krsna was there. But Krsna immediately changed His dress to look exactly like Abhimanyu and approached Abhimanyu's mother, Jatila, addressing her thus: “My dear mother, I am your real son Abhimanyu, but just see — Krsna, dressed up like me, is coming before you!” Jatila, the mother of Abhimanyu, immediately believed that Krsna was her own son and thus became very angry at her real son who was comin...

This material world is always an extremely difficult place to be in with danger at every step. But sometimes we may feel a little bit comfortable and then sometimes, due to different circumstances, it can seem more difficult than ever. Now the world is terrified by the threat of a worldwide pandemic. However, as Srila Prabhupada says…. “This is the way of materialistic life: not being satisfied by the absolute necessities of life, people ambitiously create extra demands, and their illegal desires are checked by the laws of nature, or the laws of God, appearing as famine, war, pes...

When the media assault our eyes with images of half-naked bodies, lawmakers fight back with anti-obscenity laws, and the media complain that the government is policing personal morality. "Who are you to restrict our sexual enjoyment?" cry the libertines. "Ubiquitous sexuality," say the cultural conservatives, "degrades society." Everyone cherishes the right to enjoy life, and libertines, to defend themselves, appeal to this right. But could they be defeating the very purpose they clai...

The last month has been a rollercoaster journey. For over 40 years I have spoken about the harsh reality of life in lectures, funeral sermons, congregational gatherings and personal meetings. Now I am facing those same realities in my own life. It is not an easy pill to swallow. The Bhagavad-gita explains that we are spiritual beings on a material journey. This life is simply a chapter, and according to the spiritual consciousness we develop now, the rest of the sto...

You are asking what should your preaching work be now that you are attending the university. So the first preaching work is that yourself should become an ideal devotee. Lord Caitanya said that one should first make himself perfect and then attempt to instruct others. There is no point in telling another man to stop smoking if you yourself are smoking cigarettes. Even though you are mixing with all kinds of the student class at the university, you must strictly...

Cutting through the web of illusion, The overflowing ocean of mercy called Sri Nityananda Rama Ordained that the flood of love of God bestowed by Him be distributed throughout the world. Unfortunately, those persons to whom the noble responsibility was given to spread this divine God-consciousness Were tragically stricken by the disease of caste-consciousness, And in their hands which were always busy performing formal ritualistic ceremonies, the exalted title “Goswami” became merely another family surname, And the channel of divine current became blocked. Therefore you ...

In its most recent survey on the subject of God, the National Centre for Social Research found that some ninety percent of us claim to be believers. One in five even said they had no doubts about God’s existence. Such statistics are perhaps surprising, given that education today tends to steer us toward more atheistic notions such as the’ Big Bang’ and evolution. Surprising also in the face of the widely touted suggestion that religion is the cause of most ...

Thanks to many popular books and articles, the mysteries of quantum theory are now quite widely familiar even amongst the non -scientific public. Heisenberg's uncertainty relations (one cannot 'simultaneously know' both position and momentum of a particle beyond a certain inaccuracy), Schrodinger cat paradox (quantum cats capable of being both dead and alive, simultaneously) are known, at least by name, to many

In Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Srila Prabhupada explains the reasons for Sri Krishna Chaitanya’s appearance. Lord Krishna, in His pastimes, was unable to experience the glory of Srimati Radharani’s love for Him, the wonderful qualities in Krishna that She relishes through Her love, and the indescribable happiness She feels when She realizes the sweetness of His love. Thus, Lord Krishna, assuming the guise of a devotee, adopted the mood and complexion of Srimati Radharani and descended in Navadvipa-dhama to fulfill His innermost desire: to experience Srimati Radharani’s e...

The Moment we turn away from Krishna our misery begins. The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty, by David G. Myers, is one among several books that use telling facts and revealing statistics to examine the reality behind the globally glamorized American dream of the happy life through wealth and sensual enjoyment. Since 1960: • The divorce rate has doubled. • The teen suicide rate has tripled. • The recorded violent crime rate has quadrupled. • The prison population has quintupled. • The percentage of babi...

Our retreat-hosting cancer charity, Smiling Soul, recently evolved from an initiative originally set up by Janakinath dasa (JD), a resident monk for over a decade at Bhaktivedanta Manor. JD cannot, unfortunately be with us today. The man affectionately known as ‘The Smiling Monk’ was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer early in 2017.