Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was dedicated to using the printing press as the best medium for large-scale distribution of Krsna consciousness. He thought of the printing press as a brhat mrdanga, a big mrdanga.
The crash of a Boeing 737 jetliner in which 78 people died, raises the perennial question of why people feel compelled to travel so much. Domestically, Americans travel more than a trillion miles every year by air, rail, car, and bus, at a cost of $250 billion.
Abhay considered Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura his spiritual master from the time of their first meeting in 1922, but business and family commitments kept Abhay from participating full-time in Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s mission to spread Krsna consciousness.
From time to time God incarnates on earth to impart His instructions and enact His pastimes. One incarnation is Lord Ramacandra, who appeared in India millions of years ago as the ideal king. His purpose was to teach us perfect government—God-centered government.
Abhay wanted to have his own cart and to perform his own Ratha-yatra, and naturally he turned to his father for help. Gour Mohan agreed, but there were difficulties. When he took his son to several carpenter shops, he found that he could not afford to have a cart made.
Srila Prabhupada’s Krsna books directly tell us what God is like in His original, personal form and what He and His liberated associates are doing in the eternal, spiritual world.
Srila Prabhupada (then known as Abhay Charan De) was skeptical: he had seen too many “holymen” at his father’s house—professional beggars, ganja smokers, and the like. But this person was different . . .
The Krsna conscious way of life, aside from solving its followers basic social and personal problems, also overcomes the greatest problem of all—the problem of repeated birth and death.
Many people haven’t given much thought to the question of whether there is life after death, and many even prefer to ignore death. Still, we all must die. Like a tiger, death stalks each of us. Sooner or later it will strike.
Is there life after death? If so, what is the nature of that life? These questions have always been with us, and the search for their answers is an intrinsic function of the human psyche.
Srila Prabhupada had come to San Francisco as the hippie movement was reaching its height. He found his small temple on Frederick Street, in the heart of the Haight-Ashbury district was becoming a spiritual haven for troubled, searching, and sometimes desperate young people.
Since everyone, no matter how he chooses to define the self, is interested in self-fulfillment, it is of paramount importance to know what the self is. Generally our concepts of the self are vague and speculative; so we often feel unfulfilled, even after attaining our goals.
San Francisco, 1967. Prabhupada’s temple had become an integral part of the youth scene in the Haight-Ashbury district. Now, unexpectedly, the Lord of the universe came to the temple through the agency of a local import store.
Karma is the law of cause and effect: there is a reaction for everything we do. If we throw a coin up, it will come down. If we regularly put money in the bank, our wealth will accumulate. If we drink too much, we’ll get drunk. These are natural laws of cause and effect.
Srila Prabhupada had planted the seed of Krsna consciousness in the fertile ground of New York’s Lower East Side and seen it take root and flourish. But when he came to San Francisco, his International Society for Krishna Consciousness truly began to blossom.
For the successful transcendentalist entering the spiritual world, death is a glorious experience. For the sinful person, however, death is ultimately a painful and horrifying passage into a hellish life of suffering.
An astrologer did a horoscope for the child, and the family was made jubilant by the auspicious reading. The astrologer made a specific prediction: When this child reached the age of seventy, he would cross the ocean, become a great exponent of religion, and open 108 temples.
You should become a devotee of Krsna is that devotion to Krsna is your original nature. You and I—all of us—are eternal servants of God. But you have temporarily forgotten this.
Though some of the New York disciples had objected, Srila Prabhupada was still scheduled for the Mantra-Rock Dance at the Avalon Ballroom. It wasn’t proper, they had said, for the devotees out in San Francisco to ask their spiritual master to go to such a place.
There is a great need to distribute Krsna’s message. So a devotee can go on enthusiastically, even if not appreciated by the public, because he knows that by spreading Krsna’s message he pleases Krsna and works for the greatest benefit of all people.