Psychologists are fond of noticing that we are often “in denial” of many things. Srila Prabhupada said that even Dhrtarastra was “in denial” of the wrongs he was perpetrating on the kingdom. In an interesting analysis of the materialist and criminal mind, he said this: “So Dhrtarastra said that `I know that what I am planning, that is not good. I know Krsna -the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And He has requested me. But I tell you frankly, I cannot do without it.” (Bhagavad-gita lecture in London, 1969)

It was Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja who made a distinction between those attached to rules, who act extremely humble, and those who are eager to hear. Srila Prabhupada cited his guru maharaja in this Srimad Bhagavatam lecture in Vrindavana on the 29th of October, 1972. He said, “My Guru Maharaja used to say… One who was not interested in hearing, he used to call him a dandavat-class. Dandavat-class of men. That means simply he knows how to make dandavats, that’s all. Anyone who will come to him, he would see whether he is a dandavat-class of man or hearing class of man. So dandavat is nice, but by offering dandavat, if one does not develop the intent of hearing, sravanam, then he is not making very much progress. As you know, because I was little interested in hearing, my Guru Maharaja, he accepted me as his disciple. He marked this. ‘This boy is interested in hearing. He does not go away.’ Actually, I do not know. I could not understand what he was speaking in the beginning, but still I was very much interested to hear him?So hearing is very important thing.”

Ultimately everything is Krishna, even maya, who performs the thankless task of keeping conditioned souls imprisoned (and attached to) the material world. Our attachments are intimated in Bhagavad-gita As It Is, 10.41: “Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.” Purport – “Any glorious or beautiful existence should be understood to be but a fragmental manifestation of Krsna’s opulence, whether it be in the spiritual or material world. Anything extraordinarily opulent should be considered to represent Krsna’s opulence.”

One of the six opulences of Bhagavan is beauty. Srila Prabhupada referred to female beauty in a lecture in Los Angeles on February 2, 1968. He said: “If you have got beauty, you can conquer over very stalwart, very strong men. Just like what is the… Cleopatra. You have heard the history. She was very beautiful, and she conquered many great warriors. So beauty sometimes can conquer even the greatest man, but that does not mean beauty can conquer God.” Also Srila Prabhupada has written in the purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 3.31.38: “When we are attracted by kladana-mohana and the beauty of Krsna and His consorts, then the shackles of conditioned life, namely the beauty of a material woman, cannot attract us.”

One of Ksirodakasayee Visnu’s sons, while a student at Oxford, wrote to Srila Prabhupada asking what was wrong with mental speculation. Srila Prabhupada wrote back that when Krsna says, “I am the taste of water” we should try to understand HOW Krsna is the taste of water, and that that is REAL mental speculation. The specific reference reads as follows: “As for the difference between mental speculation and philosophical speculation, we take it that everything is known by the psychological action of the mind, so that philosophical speculation is the same as mental speculation if it is merely the random or haphazard activity of the brain to understand everything and making theories, “if’s” and ‘maybe’s.” But if philosophical speculation is directed by Sastra and Guru, and if the goal of such philosophical attempts is to achieve Visnu, then that philosophical speculation is not mental speculation. It is just like this: Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita that “I am the taste of water.” Philosophical speculation in the accepted sense then means to try to understand, under the direction of Sastra and Guru, just how Krishna is the taste of water. The points of Bhagavad-gita, though they are simple and complete, can be understood from unlimited angles of vision. So our philosophy is not dry, like mental speculation. The proper function of the brain or psychological activity is to understand everything through Krsna’s perspective or point-of-view, and so there is no limit to that understanding because Krsna is unlimited, and even though it can be said that the devotee who knows Krsna, he knows everything (15th Chapter), still, the philosophical process never stops and the devotee continues to increase his knowledge even though he knows everything. Try to understand this point….” (letter dated 21 January 1972).

Sir Isaac Newton, who created physical laws that became cornerstones of physics, chemistry and astronomy, is said to have built an orrery, or a clockwork solar system. When queried by a colleage as to who built it or where it came from, the great scientist is said to have replied, “No one. It just got here.” This story, related by Srila Prabhupada, indicates that, indirectly, the great scientist was telling us that God is behind every law of the universe, including the movements of heavenly bodies.

Xerox Corporation already has a prototype. You take their foldable sheet of plastic into a phonebooth and download the daily news. When you return the next day the cyber connection will erase the previous news and fill up your transparent film with the latest happenings. The idea is to save paper. Srila Prabhupada didn’t like the cutting of trees or the cluttering of streets with throwaway papers. He writes in the Seventh Canto: “The cutting of trees simply to manufacture paper for the publication of unwanted literature is the greatest sinful act.” (7.2.12)

One of the reasons Srila Prabhupada was convinced that current astronomical knowledge is incorrect, was because of the theory that the moon reflects the sun’s rays. Srila Prabhupada was convinced that dust could not provide the illumination that emanates from the moon. Regarding the moon, he said in a public lecture in New York on October 12, 1966, “And from your practical reason also, you can just understand that a lump of dust cannot be so brilliant so that it is illuminating the whole earth. It is not possible.” Also on December 14, 1999, lecturing on Caitanya Caritamrta, Madhya-lila 20.172, he said, “Just like they are thinking of this moon planet – a lump of dust. I cannot, of course, think like that. How dust can remain in a lump and how so much illumination come out from the dust? But they are putting the theory that the moon planet is a lump of dust.”

“Nobody is more attractive than Krsna within this universe?or within anywhere,” writes Bhaktivinoda Thakur in Sri Sri Kayana Kalpa-taru.

Devotees often ask: “How can my spiritual advancement be measured.” There are, in fact, many correct answers to this question, but this is one that I think stands out: “Devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord, and detachment from other things-these three occur simultaneously for one who has taken shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the same way that pleasure, nourishment and relief from hunger come simultaneously and increasingly, with each bite, for a person engaged in eating.” (Maharaja Nimi speaks, Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2.42)