According to some anthropologists, the human being is essentially an animal. “It is clear that we are an extremely old animal, perhaps three million years old, and we were evolved to live as hunter-gatherers,” says a Rutgers University anthropologist Lionel Tiger.
Time noted recently, “surgery offices were under siege by callers who had seen the results of a notable example of cosmetic surgery, evident in before-and-after pictures of the former First Lady in the Sunday newspapers.
When Srila Prabhupadas bus arrived at the terminal, it was past midnight. Mr. Gopal Agarwal, his sponsor, was waiting with the familys Volkswagen bus to drive him to Butler, about an hour north.
Almost all of Prabhupada’s Bowery friends were musicians or friends of musicians. They were into music—music, drugs, women, and spiritual meditation.
In recent years thousands of religious figures have taken up faith healing. They use all kinds of approaches, but basically they claim that through their charismatic prayer and laying on of hands, God acts: He cures everything from cavities to brain tumors, releases sexual inhibitions, and even increases earning capacity.
“I would be delighted if there were life after death . . . but I am also a scientist . . .” Apparently he thinks that as a scientist, he has a right to demand that the Supreme Being come under his scrutiny. — Astronomer Carl Sagan’
Robert Nelson and Srila Prabhupada made an odd combination. Srila Prabhupada was elderly and dignified and was a deep scholar of the Bhagavatam and the Sanskrit language, whereas Robert was artless in both Eastern and Western culture and inept in worldly ways.
Prabhupada was convinced if he could start a place where people could come and associate with a pure devotee, the genuine God conscious culture of India could begin in America. But because his plans depended on obtaining a building in Manhattan, his goal seemed unreachable.
I read with much dismay your reflections (“Healer, Heal Thyself”) in Vol. 13, No. 9. What gives you the right to criticize faith healers and charismatics? Most of them that I know have never killed anything in their life….
Old age means a bit more than having to cut out baseball and tennis. It means we’re going to die. So before we get too far along in years, we have to start a spiritual fitness program. We have to exert ourselves strenuously for self-realization.
The incarnation for Kali-yuga is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is also called Gauranga or Gaurasundara because of His golden hue. His complexion is golden, and His activities engage everyone in chanting Hare Krishna.
Gurukul students will be the best educated children in society. Not only will they have knowledge of math and English and history, but they’ll also know their relationship with God. They won’t need material things to keep them happy. They’ll be very strong.
According to the 1973 United States Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, only in the last twelve weeks of pregnancy does the growing fetus have a right to live despite the mother’s wish to abort him.
It’s difficult to understand how someone on the path of spiritual realization can reject the things most people find enjoyable. Renunciation of worldly pleasure is possible only if one experiences a higher satisfaction.
The precious Bhagavatam has been handed down in disciplic succession, from guru to disciple, in an unbroken chain, and today Srila Prabhupada, spiritual master of ISKCON, is delivering it in turn to his disciples.
Srila Prabhupada has been extensively traveling. Satsvarupa dasa Gosvami traveled with him and kept a personal diary. These are excerpts from that diary.
The universal form is the form of the Supreme Lord in which one can see everything in the universe, all at once. In the universal form, one can see past, present and future. One can see all the demigods of the material creation, and all other living beings.
For a typical initiation, about one hundred devotees gather in the temple. The devotees to be initiated—perhaps a dozen of them—sit in two rows, facing the devotee designated to be the priest of the ceremony.
Gurukula, a school for children ages five to fifteen, was founded by ISKCON in 1971. It is the only school teaching one how to be eternal, blissful and full of knowledge.
We should not be surprised if Krishna had married sixteen million wives, for Krishna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is unlimited. Indeed, we may note with wonder that Krishna married only 16,108 wives.