Because of their unusual dress, the men’s shaved heads, the behavior of chanting and dancing, and the preaching of a philosophy little known to most, devotees of the Hare Krsna movement appear strange to many Westerners.
Prahlad Maharaj was a boy who, at 5 years of age, preached to his school-fellows of their urgent need for taking to Krishna Consciousness without delay. Prahlad was the son of a very powerful atheist king, Hiranya Kashipu.
The Bhagavad-gita educates us about the self beyond the body. Whether Eastern or Western, black or white, male or female, the body is an external covering of the real self, the eternal spiritual soul.
There are sufficient resources in the world to support the human community. And, as we go into 1969 with all our schemes for the relief of poverty and suffering, we may also ask what “rich” means, what “poor” means, what “happy” means, what “wretched” means…
One Saturday night a woman stopped before our chanting party and shook her head in disbelief. Finally she exclaimed, “Only in Georgetown!” and walked off in shocked dismay.
The Supreme Lord appeared on this planet as the Warrior Ramachandra, in order to display the Pastimes of the Personality of Godhead. As is stated in The Bhagavad Gita, “I come, in order to vanquish the demons and rescue the devotees.”
“The Hare Krsnas have a holier-than-thou attitude,” some people say. And whenever I hear that kind of talk, I start to reflect on why someone would think that.
The eternal religion, called in Sanskrit “Sanatan Dharma,” has no history of beginning or end. By the analytical processes of modern science, we can see that Sanatan Dharma is the business of all the living beings of the Universe.
We are servants sitting in the court of the Supreme. We are here! Jagganath is worshippable Krishna—and we are here! All Glories to Jagganath’s kindness! All Glories to our Spiritual Master, whose mercy has placed us at Your Lotus Feet, liberated and joyful!
Oh, I can finish very quickly, but I have to present it for your understanding. It requires deep thought, very careful thought, to present it for the common man.
Srila Prabhupada was much more than the spiritual master of a few thousand disciples. He was truly a spiritual teacher for the millennium, because he revealed the pure spiritual path that humanity can follow for thousands of years to come.
While recently watching the evening news, I saw that almost the entire show was about killing and death: a murder, a rash of drug poisonings, a massacre of refugees by military forces, and a sampling of wars and preparations for war.
So God’s role in preventing a nuclear holocaust is not peripheral—it is crucial. Humankind, having created such a disastrous situation, should study God’s instructions in the revealed scriptures and try to understand how to rectify their mistakes.
Sesa dasa, my traveling companion, says that in this pleasant tropical clime people don’t watch the problems of world politics so closely. They tend to drift mildly in this climate, where you can pick ripe mangoes from the trees.
If you practice in dream that you are chanting Hare Krishna you are dancing in the temple you are seeing Lord Jagganath you are seeing Krishna you are talking with Swamiji or your friends, it is simply practice.
This Lord Krishna Blackish, plump Standing on the shoulders of His pals, His two hands around the covered bowl of butter hanging on ropes from the ceiling, has stolen my understanding.
Unemployment. Inflation. Recession. High interest rates. Mounting personal, national, and international debt. Depression. The litany of economic woes pours from television, radio, and printed page, and no one can seem to explain them, much less do anything about them.
Historically, men have chosen to sacrifice individual autonomy for the benefits of life within human society. Nations, communities, tribes, communes—all attest to the truth of John Donne’s famous adage: “No man is an island.”
In 1952 Srila Prabhupada began preaching Krsna consciousness in Jhansi. With the support of local doctors and businessmen, he began an organization—the League of Devotees—dedicated to spreading Krsna consciousness in India and abroad.
Observers of the Krsna Consciousness Society’s educational system often admire the joyfulness of the Society’s children, but they also sometimes criticize the devotees for teaching “only about Krsna.”