When people want to know WHY many Hare Krishna monks wear the saffron color, it can be explained that the Sanskrit word for this color is kinjalka, the color of Krsna’s lower garment.

(The following article was posted in the “Meditations” column of the Hindustan Times, one of India’s largest English language daily newspapers, on Monday, 23 June 2003.) WILLIAM GLADSTONE (1809-1898), four-time Prime Minister of Great Britain, is said to have become a horse. A visitor who came to see him was told to wait. After an hour impatience took hold, and when the visitor was alone he peeked through a door to see what was preoccupying the Prime Minister. Gladstone was on his hands and knees, and his grandson was sitting on his back playing the horserider. It’s also said that in their next lives people become their pets, ornithologists birds, big game hunters lions and tigers, lepidopterists butterflies, naked yogis monkeys, ivory poachers pachyderms, and surfers fish. The Gita states that whatever we’re thinking of at the time of death determines our next body (8.6). Unfortunately human life, although endowed with advanced brainpower and other faculties, is unstable and precarious. Human life is a precious gift for which there is no guaranteed continuation after death. If used for the right purpose, it’s a blessing; if misused, a curse, says the Gita. Sometimes children discard old and worn out dolls or toys that were once coveted presents. But at other times, childish playthings endure for years, and are treasured throughout life. American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst supposedly at the time of his death uttered the brand name of a snow-sled given to him one Christmas. It was his only happy memory. Maybe he became ‘the abominable snowman!’ Those with spiritual intelligence might ask ‘what is human life for? or ‘how can I keep this human form?’ Even more advanced would be to ask ‘what can I do to maintain my humanity after this life, but without misery, disease and death? Given the abilily to think things over, one might wonder why human life appears to have a beginning and an end and why the onslaught of danger and uncertainty never stops. Humans have the capacity to gain a non-physical existence that is free from birth, death, disease and old age – neither human nor subhuman. This is possible in this day and age through bhakti. Fortunately, devotion can be practiced by anyone, anytime and anywhere. One develops devotion through acting according to the Lord’s Instructions, obtaining an existence that is superconscious, above human and animal. It’s easy and sublime, but we have to make a start. (The writer Is emeritus member of lSKCON Governing Body Commission)

Is it not amazing that at any one time many millions of tons of water are gently floating thousands of feet above the earth?in the form of clouds.

One of Srila Prabhupada’s greatest achievements is that he ‘created’ something from nothing. That is, he ‘created’ a taste for Krsna consciousness, where there was none. He acknowledges this himself: “Because at the present moment there are sudras, they are lacking taste. But our propaganda is, by some way or other, even they are sudras, even they’re demons, we are creating the taste. That is our Krsna consciousness movement. Even there is…, there is no taste for vasudeva-katha-ruci, still, our process is so nice that we create the taste. Nobody was interested in Krsna consciousness, but there are thousand now. How? Because we are trying or we have created the taste, by this process. The process will be explained in the next verses very nicely, but the main principle is to hear.” (from a lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1, chapter 12, verse 16, spoken in San Francisco on 19 August, 1972).

In a bizarre recollection heard in an informal setting, Srila Prabhupada told about a freakish incident that involved a devotee: “Recently, within ten years. And he committed suicide, this my godbrother. Everyone is, every father is affectionate to the son, and when he saw, This is my wife, and she has killed my son.' And the son saw the paramours were coming, and he says,Who are these men, coming?’ You see?” (June 28, 1975)

The “I” and “Mine” topic comes up again and again in our preaching and in Srila Prabhupada’s writings and lectures. Some things, it seems, can’t be emphasized enough. We have heard that if something is said three times, that is has extra powerful prominence. Here is an excerpt from a lecture I discovered in which Srila Prabhupada says “I” and “my” many times: The foolish conditioned souls are absorbed in two things: “I am,” and “mine.” “It is my, it is I am.” “I am the lord of all I survey,” or “This is my country, this is my society, this is my body, this is my son, this is my children, this is my home.” This is…, this is the absorption. Although nothing belongs to him-in a moment’s notice everything finished-but still he’s so much vikatthante. “O my society, my country, my father, my mother.” So many, “Mine, mine.” Nothing belongs to him, but he says always, “Mine, mine.” “My” and “I.” This is maya.’

Music has become an integral part of life for almost everyone. The march of technology has made it possible for people to hear music constantly – while driving, walking, working, and caring for the family. Car stereos, walkmen and discmen, home sound systems and non-stop music in the workplace have made musical sound ubiquitous and accessible almost everywhere. It’s almost sensory overload, especially when we see people jogging or repairing our telephones while deeply aborbed in the the music coming through their headphones. But no music is as mystifying and as hauntingly beautiful as the Venu Gita. Srila Prabhupada writes in Chapter 35 of Krsna Book, “When He [Lord Krsna] plays, either in the morning or in the evening, all the demigods, including Lord Siva, Brahma, Indra and Candra, bow their heads and listen with great attention. Although they are very learned and expert, they cannot understand the musical arrangements of Krsna’s flute. They simply listen attentively and try to understand, but they become bewildered and nothing more.”

Srila Prabhupada was so eager for his devotees to take examinations that he personally wrote, administered and graded Bhakti Sastri exams, as well as issuing certificates in England, back in 1969, at John Lennon’s house.

Sometimes the Hare Krishna Food for Life program has been used in mundane ways, and sometimes even proper spiritual use of Food for Life has been criticized as mundane. Part of the answer to this controversy lies in the purport Srila Prabhupada wrote to the tenth text in the twelfth chapter of the Fourth Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. Here he writes, “The Krsna consciousness movement is based on this principle, and, and far as possible, both inside and outside of the temple, and, as far as possible, distribute prasada. This process can be accelerated with the cooperation of state administrators and those who are producing the country’s wealth. Simply by liberal distribution of prasada and sankirtana, the whole world can become peaceful and prosperous. Also, the Isopanisad invocation reads: “The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.” From this verse, one can infer that it is primarily avarice that causes apparent food shortages from time to time. “The earth has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed,” is a maxim attributed to Gandhi.”

The common mentality of atheists is to think good fortune comes from them and that bad fortune must be blamed on God, or anyone other than themselves. A theist sees good fortune as the hand of God, and misfortune as his or her own misdoings.