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 […]
Krishna’s final and concluding instruction in the Gita is that we should give up all materially motivated religions and just surrender unto him. Since surrender could be considered a filled out application for the keys to the Kingdom, so to speak, we need to really understand what “surrender” means.
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 […]
Unlike the ancien regime wherein the king represented the link between man and God and the clergy were secondary to the king, in a Vaishnava society, the invert is true. The guru/sannyasa is the link between man and God – he occupies the topmost position in society and is the unifying figure. In Krishna Consciousness, […]
“They [the masses] must have their illusions at all costs, they turn instinctively, as the insect seeks the light, to the rhetoricians who accord them what they want. No truth, but error has always been the chief factor in the evolution of nations…. The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence […]
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.
During the world cup, the country was flavoured with good will, a willingness to serve and the spirit of ubuntu. Being fully aware of the country’s history, South African’s irrespective of caste, colour or creed readily and gladly embraced the river of euphoria that flowed and coursed its way throughout the country nourishing all who […]
Diary of a Traveling Monk – Volume 11, Chapter 7 – July 1 – 25, 2010 When I flew from the United States to Warsaw at the beginning of July, Poland was still grieving the loss of President Lech Kaczynski, who had died in a plane crash in Russia in early April. His wife and […]
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.
