In the purport to the thirteenth text of the twelfth chapter of the Tenth canto Srila Prabhupada writes, “Therefore every day a demon would come and interrupt their sporting pastimes. The demon would be killed, and then the boys would engage again in their transcendental pastimes.”

The metaphorical illustration of the soul in Srila Prabhupada’s BGAII, shows a passenger riding in a chariot. The senses and the driver seem oblivious of the passenger. Similarly the mind and body and even the intelligence (the stage driver in the illustration) are oblivious to the soul. According to Hrdayananda and company, writing in the purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 10.87.17, the soul is like “a passenger in a mechanical vehicle. The soul undoubtedly is alive, and irrevocably so, but in his ignorance that inner life is covered and forgotten. In its place, the automaton of the external mind and body carries out the dictates of the modes of nature, which force one to act in a way altogether irrelevant to the dormant needs of the soul.”

(The following article was posted in the “Meditations” column of the Hindustan Times, one of India’s largest English language daily newspapers, on 1 September 2003.) According to World Bank figures: * More than 1 billion live on less than US$1 a day – that’s poverty by many standards. * 3 billion live on US$2 per day * More than 1 billion don’t have access to clear water * 3 billion do not have sanitation facilities * 2 billion don’t have access to power * 1% of the world’s population can’t read * Less than 1% has access to the Internet. Not that the World Bank can be trusted as unerringly accurate, but these statistics are food for thought. Do the rich get richer and poor poorer? It would seem so. Maybe life’s just not fair. After all, none of us remembers asking to be born. The age old question is why many live short painful lives and others are born with silver spoons in their mouths. Why the massive inequalities? Why are there always more poor than rich? Recently I was invited to speak to a class of 17-year olds in a New Zealand school. The course was history and the subject that day was ‘war’. An inconclusive discussion ensued about ‘innocent Iraqis’ and ‘innocent’ people in the New York’s trade towers dying by the thousands. Then I broached the subject of karma. The class, for the first time, went silent and began to listen. The students seemed to realize that karma might be the answer to one of the most perplexing problems of all time, namely, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” In that classroom a new topic of interest has been floated, and the pupil’s awareness extended. Every generation seems to claim ownership of different events in history. Yet many think any time in which they live is pivotal and important, so the global technology revolution is seen to make this era unique. On the other hand, many teenagers say that the end of history coincided exactly with their arrival on earth. Beyond, but not opposed to these radically different positions, is that we all come into this world as a result of prior actions in previous lives, and personal and global circumstances reflect this. By knowing how to overcome and transcend our not so apparent birth ‘rights’ we can become free from resentment or fatalism, discover what we have to learn, and positively work for change.

Richard Corliss, author of over 55 books and consultant to Time-life Books and the General Electric Company, wrote of the incorruptibility of the Ganges. According to Corliss, twenty-seven major towns dump 902 million litres of sewage into the Ganges each day. Yet Ganges water does not putrefy, even after long periods of storage. River water begins to putrefy when lack of oxygen promotes the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which produce the telltale smell of stale water. British physician C.E. Nelson observed that Ganges water taken from the Hooghly – one of its dirtiest mouths – by ships returning to England, remained fresh throughout the voyage.

One of the great qualities of Srimad Bhagavatam is its ability to predict the future. The translation to text nine in chapter twelve of the Ninth Canto affirms this, as Sukadeva Goswami says: “All these kings in the dynasty of Iksvaku have passed away. Now please listen as I describe the kings who will be born in the future. From Brhadbala will come Brhadrana.” (Srimad Bhagavatam 9.12.9)

Sometimes people ask what ISKCON’s stance is on issues such as genetic modification. According to the principle of yukta vairagya, ‘gm’ is neither good nor bad. In agricultural gm for example, if more nutritious foods or more copious quantities of vegetables and grains can be produced in the same amount of space, well and good. But gm ‘experiments’ are still being enacted and we the general public are the test rats, so, if the present dangers of gm outweigh its potential to help, then we must be opposed, even officially. As long as we don’t take stands on certain issues, even if they have become politically charged (like the abortion issue), we shall remain irrelevant. Srila Prabhupada didn’t want his movement to become political, but he didn’t want it to be irrelevant.

The male/female debate rages. Srila Prabhupada’s perspective was based on flexibility, or what we might call a preaching perspective. Here are some of his words on the topic: “So a brahmacari is strictly prohibited not to see even one young woman. But what can be done? In the Western countries, the boys and girls, they mix very freely. And if I say, ‘My dear boys, you cannot see even a young girl,’ then finished. My business there is finished. Therefore I have to arrange according to the country, according to the circumstances, as far as possible. So gradually, they are coming to the perfectional stage. So we have to adopt desa-kala-patra, according to time, according to… But we are keeping our principles as it is, but making arrangement according to the circumstances. That is required.” (public lecture in New Delhi, November, 1973).

According to some sources, this planet is primarily water – at least on the surface it would appear that way – and it is a known fact that our bodies contain a very high percentage of water. In Bhagavad-gita As It Is (3.14) Lord Krsna says, “All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains [parjanyat]. Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and yajna is born of prescribed duties.” As much as we’re addicted and depend on “weather forecasts,” only the Lord brings and withholds rainfall.

Srila Prabhupada has told us that a living body is lighter than a dead body. This indicates two facts: a. That the soul or life force is non-material; it has no weight and in fact has an ‘upward thrust;’ b. It is life, original life, that keeps the heavy planets afloat, not gravity.

A book by husband and wife team Dinah Zohar and Ian Marshall is called “SQ – Spiritual Intelligence.” The authors posit that after IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence) comes “SQ” or spiritual intelligence. They’ve authored other books, e.g., “The Quantum Self,” “The Quantum Society,” “Who’s Afraid of Schrodinger’s ‘Cat?,” and “Rewiring the Corporate Brain.” The book is published by Bloomsbury (ISBN#- 0 7475 3644 9). It’s a fun read (if you like this kind of thing) and great for preaching. “Scientific advancement should have a great goal to attain, and that great goal should be the Personality of Godhead.” (CC Adi, 5.51/purport)