New Vrindaban, united in Krishna Consciousness, is now taking shape under the guidance of Srila Prabhupada. The hills of West Virginia are vibrating with the Hare Krishna Mantra, and it is certain that the forests, fields and mountains have entered the spiritual sky of Vaikuntha.
Krishna the Chariot Driver holds the reins of His chariot, the Creation. He is no inexperienced charioteer. He is very adept at driving the universe through space.
The President was informed that the earth and life on it are slowly dying. And that’s putting it euphemistically. The outlook is bleak. The report, entitled “Global 2000,” paints a landscape of a wasteland that makes T. S. Eliot’s portrait paradisal.
Today, for the majority of students attending universities and institutions of higher learning, the question of the end of knowledge, the destination of the long pursuit, hardly ever comes to mind. One’s eyes are usually fixed on graduation day and the diploma that signifies entrance into a good-paying job. For most, the goal of knowledge is money and the material pleasures it buys.
We stood on a rooftop in Manhattan, gazing out over the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge toward Brooklyn. I asked him, “Do you actually love Krishna?” He thought for a second. “I love pleasure,” he said finally. “To be truthful.”
Vrndavana, India, the land of Krishna five thousand years after the disappearance of the Supreme Person, is invaded by eighty American and European disciples of Srila Prabhupada. The white and saffron robed pilgrims arrive in Vrndavana for Karttika, a celebration of Krishna’s rasa dance with the cowherd girls
Srila Prabhupada dropped a bomb no one was expecting. At the morning lecture, someone asked him about the significance of initiation, and he answered, “Initiation means you accept a spiritual master and agree to worship him as God.” There was a stunned silence.