Archive - 2006

The phrase "I am not this body," has become almost a worn cliche. Nevertheless, Srila Prabhupada stressed this point again and again, especially during his early lectures (1966-1968).

Srila Prabhupada has said that to be CONSTANTLY in touch with Krsna is to be Krsna conscious. He often said that iron constantly in touch with fire becomes red-hot. The analogy was that one could become "spiritualized" or Krsna-ized. In this connection he sometimes quoted the verse from Bhagavad-gita 14.26.

It's part of Hare Krishna lore that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was once challenged that a paper containing news of the spiritual world would necessarily be limited. According to this story, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami replied that a newspaper about the spiritual world could be issued every second.

The newspaper/magazine Sajjana Tosani was edited by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami. It was in this publication that Srila Prabhupada's poem ("Adore ye, adore ye.") was first printed. The paper was founded in 1879 by Bhaktivinoda Thakura.

During a lecture (Kolkata, February 23, 1972) Prabhupada mentioned that Kolaveca Sridhara refused the offering of a house by Lord Caitanya. Srila Prabhupada told us that Kolaveca's reason was that the holes in his roof were better than a birds' branch-home, because the birds had no roof whatsoever. Kolaveca said the only benediction he wanted was pure devotion to the Lord's feet.

Around the end of the calendar year, a "mood" of kindness and politeness tends to prevail in the West (even in New York City), if only for a few days. The sentiment is often filtered, refracted and distorted through intoxication of various sorts. But the best feeling happens eternally in the Vaikuntha realm, and saintly persons preserve this throughout time by their purity, which keeps the message unchanged and pure.

Unity in Diversity was the theme of my 2005 Vyasa Puja offering. The idea is (was) that both unity and diversity by themselves are wrong. Even unity in diversity itself is wrong if a spiritual principle does not undergird it.

Many schoolchildren are required to read "To Kill a Mockingbird." At the end of this novel, one of the book's characters, who is a lawman, quotes from the Bible, saying "Let the Dead Bury the Dead." This saying virtually becomes the turning point of the story, probing the question of right versus wrong.

Srila Prabhupada was once asked why his father accommodated or honored sadhus who came to his home and smoked ganja, while Srila Prabhupada strictly prohibited his followers from taking all forms of intoxication, even tea and coffee. His answer: "that was my discretion."

In the light of persecution by the Kazakhstan Government, one might recall the words of an American politician named William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), who said the main duty of government was to give citizens the right to worship God, according "to the dictates of one's conscience."