Srila Prabhupada addressed this topic once in a discussion with Syamasundara prabhu. “Miracles means you cannot conceive how it is being done. The same example, as I said, that if you want to paint one rose flower you require so many things, but that also is not real rose flower. But imitation, it may be perfect, but you have to take so much trouble in collecting the paint, the colors, and your energy, then duration of work, and some day it may come out perfect. But the same energy is working so swiftly that you see automatically a rose flower is coming out. The same example again: just like this airplane, there are thousands of complicated electronic machinery arrangements, but you see that the pilot is simply pushing a button. That’s all. But layman is seeing that, “Simply by pushing a button, a miraculous thing is happening.” But no, with the pushing of the button there are so many complicated machineries, they work one after another, one after another. So similarly, God’s energy is so subtle that simply by His willing, the process takes place, but it takes place so swiftly and quickly, we see it as miracle. So there is no such thing as miracle. The process is there, but it acts so quickly and nicely, we see it as miracle.”

In the book, “Life Comes From Life,” Srila Prabhupada talks about lagima, or the mystic power of humans becoming “lighter than air” and flying like birds. He says that in this way birds have natural mystic power.

Published 16 February 2002 IS THERE such a thing as a param dristvam or ‘higher taste?’ And if there is, what is it? Is there anything beyond the simple God-given pleasures of eating and sex? The Gita tells us that “One whose happiness is within, who is active and rejoices within and whose aim is inward, is the perfect mystic”. (5.24) What’s natural for a human is different from what’s natural for an animal. True, we are animals, but we are also human. So what’s the difference? It’s the human part that we tend to forget, sometimes in the name of being ‘natural’ or ‘nature-like’. Words like ‘normal’, ‘natural’, ‘unvarnished’ and ‘pure’ are as misconstrued and misused as the word ‘spiritual’. In the 1960s, many thought ‘free love’ was spiritual. What do we mean by ‘spiritual’? Love for our own children is a pure (almost spiritual) love. We see forms of parental love every day. We call the child on the mother?s lap a ‘burden of love’. According to the commentator, Vishvanatha Chakravarty Thakur, to remove the child can be more burdensome than the child’s weighty presence. Parental love is quite different from the male-female conjugal form of love. The latter relationship often deteriorates into mutual gratification of desire and the discharge of loneliness and anger. What’s taken to be love may be lust, just as iron pyrite (fool’s gold) is sometimes mistaken for gold. Spiritual love operates in a different dimension. It’s interesting that both the British Oxford and American Webster’s dictionaries put the sexual and even romantic aspects of love after their first definition. Both define love first and foremost as an intense feeling of deep affection and a ‘profoundly tender’ relationship with another person. Spiritual love, like love in this world, is natural, but like lasting love in this world, it includes friendship, protection, servitorship, knowledge, ongoing cultivation, and deep understanding. Spiritual love, or love of God is totally free of desire for return in the material sense. It is pure and not based on mutual sensory satisfaction. Does pure or spiritual love include and enable human love? Can it save a shipwrecked marriage? The answer is yes. Without knowledge of transcendental love, there is no full knowledge of love. The writer is emeritus member of the ISKCON Governing Body Commission

“If one considers the system of sampradaya, naturally one will find that there are more good qualities than faults. If the major portion of an object is good, even though there are some bad elements, learned people eagerly accept it.” (Bhaktivinoda Thakura from Sajjana-tosani 4/4)

Having been asked to speak on “The Advent of Krishna” at a Janmastami lecture, Srila Prabhupada made a heartfelt appeal to his audience by concluding his talk as follows: “But it is Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission. He says any Indian, bharata bhumite manusya janma, if he’s human being, he must make his life perfect by taking advantage of this Vedic literature and distribute the knowledge all over the world…. kindly cooperate with this movement, and try to make successful your life and others’ life. That is the mission of Krsna, advent of Krsna.” (London, 21st August, 1973)

“By nature, an embodied soul is a materialist. When he obtains the shelter of a bona fide spiritual master and desires to become free from material enjoyment, he gradually endeavors to free his mind from material contamination. When he achieves success in this attempt, he becomes liberated.” (from Sajjan-tosani, 4/2, from Sri Bhaktivinoda Vani Vaibhava, translated by Bhaumipati dasa, page 208)

‘Ecstatic’ feelings may be interpreted as quasi mystical visitations. How does this relate to the importance of Harinam Sankirtana and Srila Prabhupada’s insistence on examinations and scholarship? Is bhakti primarily ‘feeling?’ I thought Drutakarma prabhu addressed this question nicely when in 2000 he wrote : “This clash of images –science and street religion—is nothing new. For ages, the bhakti tradition in India has always been a mixture of two seemingly contradictory elements – the emotional statement of bhakti through public chanting and profoundly deep scholarship.”

Krsna declares in the Gita, “…of bodies of water I am the ocean.” (10.24)

“As the sun cannot enjoy its shadow, Krsna cannot enjoy maya. What to speak of Krsna enjoying maya, He is not even seen by persons who are under the shelter of maya. Yet simply by the mercy of Krsna one can easily see Him through samadhi.” (from the Sri Krsna-samhita, Chapter 3.15 by Bhaktivinoda Thakura)

In the face of a new proclamation by US President George Bush, that his country will “go to Mars” (apparently having abandoned the Moon excursions), Srila Prabhupada often appealed to the public, that the US could have used the money more humanely to irrigate deserts and thus feed millions of people. On a morning walk he said: “You cannot do anything. Water is here, so much water. Why don’t you make this sand fertile by bringing this water? Fertilization made by supplying water in the desert. So here is water, here is desert. Why don’t you do it? You cannot do anything. They are going to the moon planet, the dusty planet, to make it fertilized. Why don’t you do here? Sahara desert, Arabian desert, or Rajasthan desert. And the sea water is there. Bring it, and make it fertile, fertilize.”