Have any of us ever thought that high living is possible within a spiritual domain like ISKCON? There is such a thing as rising high, and living high, but not in the way that some of our corporate methods of management might teach us. Improper use of such management will lead to low living. Is […]
Here is a fictional conversation between a ‘heavy’ preacher – used to calling people mudhas, canines and other low descriptions, and is badly in need of reform – with a reformer preacher trying to strike a balance. Let us see how the ‘heavy’ and negative can remain without turning people off. One can easily take […]
I had been a Bhakta for about two weeks. Up until that fateful morning, in early 1980 at Chaitanya College, I had relished whatever prasada lay on my plate – except my first taste of upma. Upma seems to be one of those dishes we either love or loathe, except of course when it is […]
If we look back into Vedic history we will probably find many incidents that contravene modern-day standards of human rights and discrimination. If say, a liberal human rights monitor group were to go back 5,000 years to observe human conduct as portrayed in the Mahabharata for example, they would likely report negatively to the UN […]
We never cease to be amazed or shocked. Thinking that nothing really surprises us anymore, the shock-value of what could happen to us, intrudes impolitely into our sense of peace and harmony, when fellow devotees are struck by sudden death, earthquakes, accidents, illness and coma. Krishna’s ability to astonish us in ways not easily understood […]
Is this a ghost story? It could be if we consider how many of us are nitya-baddha wandering spirits searching for a permanently settled situation. But now we have human occupancy we still like to be scared and awed by graveyard tales. Since the word human sounds better than subtle body, this could be described […]
It can sometimes be tough being an intellectual in Iskcon. The tendency to keep one foot in the empirical camp and the other in the devotional arena can cause incompatibilities of faith, especially when continuing to grapple with “oddities” like elephant sized mangoes, airborne mountains, talking hyenas and bodily exuded cosmic bubbles. Almost everything is […]
Many devotees are convinced that by buying shop milk and then offering that milk to Krishna with love and devotion, this will benefit the abused cows whose milk has merged together. Yet other devotees would appreciate some scriptural evidence to support this claim.
Just imagine the confusion, especially for our newcomers, well-wishers, younger devotees, and even for some senior devotees. Everybody who “loves” Srila Prabhupada, and is “loyal” to him, must be a bona-fide follower of his, or so it seems.
Sometimes our fixation on who’s “junior” and who is “senior” within our ranks, can inhibit proper devotee relationships. And introducing corporate ideas for managing our devotees can hinder, rather than promote healthy interactions between ourselves.
