The aftermath of the passing of Gaur Govinda Swami, Tamal Krsna Goswami, and Bhakti-tirtha Maharaja has shown that Vaisnavas do not die; that even after they leave their bodies, their preaching continues.

In the purport to Srimad Bhagavatam First Canto, Chapter Seventeen verse Thirty-two, — BEFORE 3.25.21) Srila Prabhupada writes: The principles of religion, namely austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness, as we have already discussed, may be followed by the follower of any faith. There is no need to turn from Hindu to Mohammedan to Christian or some other faith and thus become a renegade and not follow the principles of religion. The Bhagavatam religion urges following the principles of religion. The principles of religion are not the dogmas or regulative principles of a certain faith. Such regulative principles may be different in terms of the time and place concerned. One has to see whether the aims of religion have been achieved. Sticking to the dogmas and formulas without attaining the real principles is not good.

In the same section of Srimad Bhagavatam, we find the following verse (11.7.48): “The various phases of one’s material life, beginning with birth and culminating in death, are all properties of the body and do not affect the soul, just as the apparent waxing and waning of the moon does not affect the moon itself. Such changes are enforced by the imperceptible movements of time.” This is one of the things we can learn from the moon.

(The following article was posted in the “Inner Voice” column of the Hindustan Times, one of India’s largest English language daily newspapers, on 17 July 2004.) ANXIETY IS a bummer. When it strikes, some resort to counselling and others to drugs, legal and illegal. Distress is what nobody wants, like garbage in your bedroom. Wished for or not, feelings of quiet desperation, call it depression, descend on us all. When it’s a daily occurrence enduring for all one’s waking hours, something drastic needs to be done. Switching on the tube, shopping, going to the movies, and bingeing on food or alcohol just don’t get it, not long-term anyway. What we do and the people we see most often affect us. Adages like Shaw’s ‘you are what you eat,’ and ‘A man is known by the company he keeps’ reflect this. The jury’s still out on the ‘heredity versus environment’ debate, and genetic engineering will further confuse things. The foundling baby Karna was raised by a charioteer and displayed extraordinary martial skills in later life, but Patty Hearst, daughter of media magnate William Hearst, lived over two decades in prison because of crimes due to an alliance with the Black Panthers. Association, particularly intimate association — chosen or otherwise — rules us, just as ingesting tablets unknowingly alters behaviour and physiology. One can contract malaria or TB by mosquito sting or by breathing a sick patient’s single bacterium. One scant cell can do great harm; disease knows no mercy. The Bhagawat Purana (7.11.35) says symptoms or tena (behaviour) ullimately determine character, and character is what finally determlnes mental state. Hanging out with the rich, successful, popular, sexy set shreds inner peace to bits. If we model ourselves internally and externally on people we respect, maintaining their values, we unconsciously exhibit their qualities, whatever our everyday life and work circumstances. (The writer is emeritus memberoftlrelSKCONgrmuning bodycornmission)

(The following article was posted in the “Meditations” column of the Hindustan Times, one of India’s largest english language daily newspapers, on 10 February 2003.) Beyond time and space TIME AND tide wait for no man, so the saying goes. And Chanakya Pandit wrote that unlimited amounts of gold cannot purchase even a second of time gone by. An elated J. Robert Oppenheimer, chief creator of the atomic bomb, thought it apt, after his fierce invention, to quote from a Gita verse (“Time I am, destroyer of worlds”, 11.32). Billions are spent annually on gerontology to learn the secret of prolonging life, in effect buying time. Some are utterly convinced deathlessness will be achieved by the year 2099 – for those with fat enough pocketbooks of course. Yet no amount of plastic surgery (a growing multi-billion-dollar annual industry), organ replacement or genetic manipulation has been able to arrest the seemingly inexorable flow of time. For those convinced about transmigration and the eternality of the soul, time is still in perpetual motion. Its shameless march always causes shifting, aging, natural erosion, and transference of souls to different planetary systems and into different species (humans or higher preferred). Time is often thought of as destiny, an inscrutable force never fully understood or even partially harnessed. Many think the future cannot be predicted. It was reported that immediately after Gandhi’s assassination someone said, “The meaning of being Indian is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.” Who would have thought that a life like Gandhi’s would end so abruptly and so brutally? Similarly, who at the time could have forecast the fall of the Roman, Ottoman or British empires? Yet the demise of all civilisations and their leaders relegates them to footnotes in history, ultimately to oblivion. The stoppage of time, reversing or accelerating it, has been the subject of countless fictions and fantasies (such as H. G. Wells’ “Time Machine”) for centuries. But the Gita shlokas about the Lord’s appearance and ability to alter time, to dissipate clouds, part the seas, water the deserts and crumble mountains have been with us since time immemorial; and He’s always supporting the good. The Bhagavata (2.3.17) speaks of “Ksanah”, or time utilised for the purpose of meditation on God as freeing the practitioner from the ravages of age – a state all life-extension aficionados would love to attain. In the spiritual world there is no time (no past or future), only an inconceivably jubilant and delightful present.

In lectures Srila Prabhupada has said that we’re annoyed when a dog barks, but we’ll pay money to hear a man bark like a dog (e.g. December 9, 1973, Los Angeles, Srimad Bhagavatam, 1.15.31) In a way modern technology is but an imitation of God’s creations. In other words, He can perform far more magic than so-called advanced civilization.

Photographs or pictures of Krsna can help us remember Him at every moment. Srila Prabhupada once said, “There is no difference between Him and His picture.” (from a lecture, September 8, 1973, at Upsala University, Stockholm).

Although I generally avoid the use of in-house terms like “karmi,” it is interesting to find three types of fruitive worker mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam. These are the bhukti-kamis, mukti-kamis, and siddhi kamis, or sense enjoyers, liberation seekers and yogis. (Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2.43/purport)

We’ve often heard George Bernard Shaw’s famous saying, “You Are What You Eat.” Speaking in England, Shaw’s country of birth, Srila Prabhupada said this about him: “Modern thinker also says, in your country, Dr. Bernard Shaw? He has written one book. I think it is named You Are What You Eat. So eating is very important thing. If you eat like cats and dogs, then you’ll become cats and dogs even in this human form of life.” (from a lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 5.5.1 at home of the late John Lennon, September 1969

It’s often been debated that varnasrama is Srila Prabhupada’s ‘unfinished business,’ his yet-to-be-obtained vision of the future. He wanted, it seems, that world society should change. When we look at the present world, the McWorld dimension of it, it’s clear why Srila Prabhupada wanted such a radical social change. He could see the new world dis-order, the commercial, totalitarian aspect of what is often called the celebration of diversity, or simply synergy.