Wild Animals in Africa What’s the use of coming to Africa if one doesn’t go see animals in the wild? Thinking like that, we arranged with locals to have my teenaged granddaughter and I visit a wild animal reserve. Altogether four women and three girls (aged 7, 12, and 14) set off on our journey of over an hour with some homemade sandwiches, uniced cupcakes, and juice. I chanted softly on my beads, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,...

Material same old thing In reference to material life, Prabhupada instructs us: “You put any eatable either in the gold pot or in the iron pot: the taste is the same. ..The taste of these sense enjoyable things are the same everywhere.” Material life may seem to be full of variety, but is it really? Everything is just protons, neutrons, and electrons… not much variety, really! Prabhupada’s instruction reminds us of the...

What’s the importance of the family in society? Are men and women the same? What value, particularly, do women have to social peace and harmony? If women have a special role, how is it best accomplished? This article from First Things gives a simple and interesting perspective. As an introduction to the article, here is a quote from Prabhupada that makes the same point… This is from a lecture by Srila Prabhupada about the value of...

The happiness of bhakti is very hard to understand. Generally in the world we take “happiness” as being satisfaction for our body, mind, or both: pleasure of the senses, pleasing thoughts, pleasing emotions, pleasing relationships. Those who are intelligent enough to understand that we are different from body and mind seek a very different kind of happiness: liberation. In the happiness of liberation, peace and freedom are key....

The Sound of Nrsimhadeva before He emerges from the Pillar In three parts From the Bhagavatam (7.8.15-16): Then from within the pillar came a fearful sound, which appeared to crack the covering of the universe. O my dear Yudhisthira, this sound reached even the abodes of the demigods like Lord Brahma, and when the demigods heard it, they thought, “Oh, now our planets are being destroyed!” While showing his extraordinary prowess,...