Festival of the Chariots USA
The three towering chariots, their brightly colored silk canopies billowing, glide slowly down streets that on every other day of the year are reserved for a heavy traffic of cars, trucks, and buses.
Abortion’s Trial—And Error
Even most pro-abortionists would agree that, biologically speaking, life begins at conception, when the sperm mixes with the ovum in one of the fallopian tubes. But the abortion debate hinges on the question not of when life begins but of when human life begins.
Honor Among Thieves
A “briefing book” drawn up to help President Carter prepare for his 1980 campaign debate with Ronald Reagan allegedly found its way to the opposing camp.
Behind The Facade Of Health Care
From the Bhagavad-gita we learn that no matter how much or how little we spend for health care, we’re guaranteed to suffer the miseries of birth, old age, disease, and death.
Confronting The Politics of Atheism
As Marx observed, when we deny God is the ultimate proprietor, master, and friend, the powers and privileges normally recognized as His are up for grabs. And they are grabbed by men who use the advantages of absolute power for their own corrupt, selfish purposes.
Harvard, SDS, drugs, Skinner, James. Then what?
Having just spent four disappointing years at the Exeter Academy, in New Hampshire, I was enjoying a new freedom at Harvard. I could choose my own courses, make new friends, and take part in Boston’s collegiate youth culture.
The Most Confidential Knowledge
Engage your mind always in thinking of Me and become My devotee. Offer obeisances and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me.
Varnasrama — The Anatomy of the Social Body
The Vedic scriptures, the oldest scriptures known to man, describe four principal classes. These are (1) an intelligent class (brahmanas), (2) a martial or administrative class (ksatriyas), (3) a mercantile class (vaisyas), and (4) a laborer class (sudras).
Krishna, Counting the Ways to Love Him
Krishna, the original person, is no less a person than we are. Most religions teach us to respect God as the almighty father. But we overlook His true greatness and power if we ignore He can relate to His devotees in loving relationships.
Baseball, Caste, and the Whole-Hog Syndrome
Confusing “cast” with “caste” is an innocent error, but mistaking Lord Krsna’s varnasrama system for an oppressive, hereditary class structure is a far more serious blunder. By Mathuresa Dasa Baseball, to most anyone’s mind, has little in common with the Indian caste system, which rigidly divides society into four hereditary classes. But for me there’s […]
Neighbor James
William James’s “Soul Theory” seemed imposing at first—as imposing as William James Hall must have looked to my grandmother. As it turned out, James was pretty close to home. by Mathuresa Dasa Gammy, my grandmother, had a passing acquaintance of sorts with William James, the great American psychologist and philosopher. She owned a two-century-old white […]
Why we Read the Newspapers
Reading the newspaper this morning: Officials at the University of Nevada have OK’d a site in Reno for a sheepherder monument. Two young female tourists have drifted ashore in their disabled motorboat near Jakarta, Indonesia, after living for twenty-two days on short rations and rainwater.
The Many Loves of Auto Man
There’s a long history to bumper stickers. It began with Stone Age cave dwellers, who sometimes painted pictures on the walls of their homes. Later on, the Egyptians invented pyramids and decorated them with hieroglyphics.
Festivals of India Come West
The festival shows how Vedic concepts and the Vedic lifestyle are, ever relevant in guiding human society and in fulfilling man’s quest for timeless knowledge. The festival is always “a surprise,” both visually and culturally.
Lord Caitanya’s Childhood Pastimes
The seemingly ordinary activities of Lord Caitanya as a child are entirely transcendental. Who would have thought that a child at play could topple the bastions of monism and pantheism?
Falling for Fido
The dog-food aisle runs the full length of the store, where, set against the back wall, one finds an equally long display: the meat cooler. Chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, and sheep.
The Yogi in the River
To practice yoga you need a secluded place. Traditionally, yogis have retired to Himalayan caves, to remote corners of dense, unexplored jungles, even to the depths of an ocean or river. The great yogi Saubhari Muni meditated for many years within the Yamuna River.
Can God Do That?
If I were to tell you I knew a story about a boy who swallowed a raging forest fire to save his friends and relatives, you’d probably think it was a fairy tale. Boys don’t swallow forest fires.
Reflections At The Zoo
I spent an afternoon at the Zoo with my two-year-old son. As I carried him from the elephant compound to the lion house to the bird sanctuary, I began to wish I had heeded my wife’s advice to bring along the stroller. “Why He knows how to walk.”
Overpopulation—A Popular Myth
Social scientists from around the world gathered in Mexico City last August to discuss the alarming growth of the world’s population.