The Knowledge Implosion
There is no benefit or public welfare in material questions and answers, because ultimately they cannot save us from—nor clearly explain—death. This is illustrated in the story of the scholar and the boatman.
Dr. Spock & The Good Guys & The Bad Guys
By Rayarama Das Brahmachary On Tuesday evening, October 8, Dr. Benjamin Spock received the Gandhi Peace Award at the Community Church of New York. This award is a far-distant poor relative of the Nobel Prize, which went this year to the less controversial figure of a French jurist. There was no big money gift at […]
Just Like a Ghost
Ghosts are denied any existence in the modern scheme of things, but nevertheless the exploits of such beings are widely reported in newspapers, periodicals and books, and on television as well.
Elections: Changing Guards
The trouble with elections is they give us the sensation things have changed because our representatives have changed. Year after year, century after century, institutions, administrations and world leaders come and go while the common never gets what he wants: satisfaction.
The Final Point for the Bubble of Illusion
People do not know that they are spoiling their life. They are thinking, “I’ve got a very nice apartment, a very nice car, a very nice wife, a very nice income, a very nice social position.” All these material attractions make us forget the purpose of our life—to worship Krsna.
Death on the Evening News
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.
Morality the American Way — Piety at the Pig Roast
The Bible says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Yet this simple moral maxim seems impossible for most Americans to accept, or even understand—even those clamoring for a return to morality.
Unemployment or Employment In the Service of Krsna
In this era of rising unemployment, it is common to see hundreds of people lining up at the doors of companies offering a few jobs—and those who don’t get those jobs often wind up at the doors of other institutions, namely our hospitals and prisons.
Women in Krsna Consciousness?
The solution to the problem of male domination and exploitation is not for women to become dominators and exploiters—to compete for social, economic, and political supremacy. So-called supremacy can’t satisfy women any more than it satisfies men.
Krsna’s Message at Westminster Abbey
One of the highlights of last summer’s Festival of India in Britain was an ecumenical dialogue at Westminster Abbey, where British clergymen gathered to learn more about the Hare Krsna movement and its role in English society.
Sex is Only for Having Children
Sex life, according to the Vedic wisdom, is the greatest cause of material bondage because it is the greatest pleasure of material life. Therefore it must be restricted, and the restriction is to marry and to have sex only for the purpose of generating children.
The Focus for True Global Unity
There are many international societies, such as the United Nations. So the idea of an international society is very nice, but we must try to understand what the central idea of an international society should be.
Survival in the Nuclear Age
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.
Petty Nationalism — Reigning Cats and Dogs
Nationalism demands that we abandon our real spiritual identity and instead fight like dogs and cats. Since conflicts of interest between nations are endless, nationalism can never be the basis of lasting peace, which must stand on a superior awareness of the oneness of all life.
Service or Slavery—The Choice Is Yours
This material nature is constituted in such a way that we have to suffer; it is God’s law. And we are trying to relieve the suffering by patchwork remedies. Everyone is trying to get relief from suffering; that is a fact. The whole struggle for existence is aimed at getting out of suffering.
John Berryman — “The Dream Songs” & Krsna’s Song
The poet John Berryman was my teacher at the University of Minnesota the year he jumped from a bridge over the Mississippi and killed himself at the age of fifty-seven. In some respects, his suicide puzzled me.
Hare Krsna—A Spiritual Force at the Antinuclear Rally
The majority I suppose, came to express—well, in a word, fear. Fear that thermonuclear weapons might blow the world, or a big part of it—or at least their part of it—to pieces. Hot pieces.
Freedom of Religion — A Spiritual Challenge for Hare Krishnas
West Virginia Sheriff Robert Lightner doesn’t like people to shave their heads and wear long robes. “When the founding fathers wrote about freedom of religion,” he says, “they didn’t have people like these in mind.”
Rioting at Columbia University 1968 — Editorials
The present state of chaos in education throughout the world is no more than the natural result of the aims (or, rather, aimlessness) of the modern educational system.
Economic Sanity
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.