There are two kinds of living beings in the creation—the divine and demonic. A demon need not be a huge monster with ten heads, nor a red fiend with a pitchfork. In fact, the demons who live among us generally appear quite ordinary.
I’m in a peaceful little village, seventy kilometers north of Pondicherry. But while I write, trying my best to concentrate, the villagers we’re staying with have gathered in the next room—to watch the cinema, on television.
Traveling north from Kanya-kumari, in a few days we come to the village of Tirukkurungudi, once visited by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu nearly five hundred years ago.
Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya tested the transcendental condition of Lord Caitanya in the light of authentic scriptures. He checked His pulse, heartbeat, stomach movements, etc., and found that His bodily functions were all in complete suspension.
The soul is like a sleeping man. When a man sleeps at night, he forgets his real life to wander in a world of dreams. As a sleeping man can be called back to consciousness when he hears the sound of his name, so the dormant spirit soul is stirred to transcendental life by the vibration of the name Krsna.
The person who has tasted the bliss of Krsna consciousness soon loses all interest in material pleasure. As his consciousness becomes cleansed by chanting Hare Krsna, he comes in contact with superior spiritual pleasure.
Krsna consciousness is meant for the most intelligent persons. Although it is available for everyone, those who are not intelligent will not be interested in this transcendental movement, but will continue to engage in illusory happiness on the material platform.
Sukla was one of those rare children whose testimony and behavior give evidence for the theory that your personality survives the death of your body and travels on to live in another body. This is the theory of reincarnation.
The big change is that no longer will we be a magazine you see now and then or pick up when you meet a devotee on the street. At least in America, BACK TO GODHEAD is now a subscription magazine. You won’t see BTG on the streets anymore.
Srila Hridayananda dasa Goswami, thought of putting himself to the challenge. He had never formally studied Sanskrit—but he knew the Sanskrit basics, he had something of a genius for languages, and he thought he could learn whatever he still needed to know.
Attempts to establish equality among all people are naive and superficial unless supported by spiritual understanding. Materially, we are not equal. Some people are geniuses; others are fools.
Whoever you are, your body is changing. You once had the body of a child. Now you have the body of a young person or old person. The change is gradual, yet continuous.
The word karma literally means “action,” yet it also carries the import of “fate” or “destiny.” This is entirely reasonable, for it is our actions that determine our fate.
By mental speculation one concludes that because material forms are temporary, spirit, to be eternal, must be formless. This reasoning, however, is illogical, like the conditioned thinking of a cow in a barn.
Attacked incessantly for one hundred years the five-hooded serpent began to lose his strength and Puranjana became extremely anxious. One may struggle against time for one hundred years, but eventually one’s vitality weakens, and one’s bodily limbs become feeble.
We inhabitants of earth are quite likely the only civilized beings in our galaxy. So contends a scientific study that recently won front-page attention in the “Science” section of the New York Times.
If we analyze our bodies we’ll find nothing more than a barrelful of water and five or six dollars’ worth of chemicals. Yet if we meditate on our selves—who we really are—we intuitively know that each of us is something more.
Our dear Lord, You have appeared in Your original unalloyed form, the eternal form of goodness, for the welfare of all living entities. Taking advantage of Your appearance, all of them can now easily understand the nature and form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
August 1973 at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, in the countryside near London. Several thousand guests (including the Indian High Commissioner) listen to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speak about the day Lord Krsna made His appearance on earth.
Bahudaka dasa has been the president of the Vancouver ISKCON center for six years. When he first joined, in 1970, the center had only four full-time devotees. It is now a community of more than ninety.