Religion – Material and Spiritual
Religion refers to our constitutional position. It is different from faith. Faith can be changed but according to the Vedic system, religion cannot be changed.
Holy Men & Hypocrites
To avoid confusion, one must use careful intelligence to discriminate between the saints and the swindlers, the incarnations and the imposters, the holy men and the hypocrites.
Living in the Material World — The Cheaters and the Cheated
If the democratic form of government is to be at all meaningful, the voters must be qualified voters who know how to discriminate between a Madison Avenue illusion and a genuinely substantial political leader.
The Education to End All Miseries
Human education must not merely instruct us how to prepare for a job or how to speculate upon the imperfect views of great thinkers. Rather, it must enable us to solve the problems of life.
Sense Gratification: The Opiate of the People
The lifetime of the materialistic man is passed at night either in sleeping or in sex indulgence and in the daytime in making money, by any means, for gratification of the senses.
Living in the Material World — Running Out of Gas
There is enough energy–but we do not know where to get it or what nature’s laws for its distribution are. And by wastefully exploiting whatever sources of energy we have found, we have technologically outfoxed ourselves, like the man who cuts off the branch of a tree, not realizing, until he hits the ground, that he was sitting on the branch.
The Four Enemies of Spiritual Life
The characteristic of this Kali-yuga age is men become inclined toward four basic sinful activities that break the four pillars of religiosity, leading men into the darkness of passion and ignorance. These four degrading activities, are gambling, intoxicating habits, illicit sex, animal slaughter and eating of animal foodstuffs.
The Vedic Conception of Communism
The other day I was reading the paper, Moscow News. There was a Communist congress, and the President declared, “We are ready to take others’ experience to improve.” So I think the Vedic concept of socialism or communism will much improve the idea of communism.
Are We Really Free?
For America to fly the banner of “human rights for the world” presupposes that human rights flourish in our own land. True, we have a representative government and the Bill of Rights, and we enjoy many civil liberties not found in other countries.
Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out On Christ, Christians and Krishna
“Thou shall not kill” Christians like to misinterpret this instruction. They think the animals have no soul, and therefore they think they can freely kill billions of innocent animals in the slaughterhouses.
The Things Christ Had to Keep Secret
“I have yet many things to say unto you,” Christ told a world, filled with crudeness and ignorance, “but ye cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).
Searching for the Place of No Anxiety…
Atheist-existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre writes that because man wants to be God but cannot, he is a “useless passion” in a universe that has no purpose—and thus, he is always in anxiety.
Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out On Christianity and Cow Killing
Jesus Christ said, “Thou shall not kill.” So why is it that the Christian people are engaged in animal killing? The Bible does not simply say, “Do not kill the human being.” It says broadly, “Thou shall not kill.”
From Despair to Love (Part 2) Making the Leap of Faith
Soren Kierkegaard, the father of existentialism, said we have to make the leap of faith and he saw the goal as God. He wrote, “There is a God—His will is made known to me in holy scripture and in my conscience.”
Nirvana – Annihilation or Devotion?
German pessimist philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) thought that nirvana, (freedom from suffering) means becoming desireless—putting an end to our will. But His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada disagrees.
Abortion: Setting the Matter Straight
Abortion is a grave transgression of the laws of nature and of God. So those who are anxious to enjoy sexual pleasure, yet wish to avoid the responsibility of rearing children, should soberly consider abortion’s severe consequences.
Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out on Illicit Sex and Public Opinion
Society is just like a child. If a child wants to go to hell, should the father allow it? Society may want so many nonsensical things, but it is the duty of the government to know how to uplift the citizens.
Religion: Separating the Bogus from the Bonafide
Who will say which religion is false and which genuine, which harmful and which beneficial? What we need is not someone’s self-interested opinion but a reliable, nonsectarian standard for separating the bogus religions from the bona fide.
What Augustine Knew and Didn’t Know About The Science of the Soul
Early Church father Augustine thought God eternally abandons some souls to soul-death. This is not so, our consciousness can always be revived, and that is the conviction of the Krishna consciousness movement.
From Despair to Love
Soren Kierkegaard was a mid-nineteenth-century Danish philosopher who is generally regarded as the father of existentialism. A devout Christian, he believed that religious truth is not innate within man, and that man must therefore receive this truth from God.