We westerners are taught in school and almost made to believe that the space between the nuclei of atoms, (neutrons and protons) and their surrounding electrons, is millions of times greater than the diameter of each nucleus. This would mean that even solid matter is mostly space; nothing (even wood and stone) could actually be solid. Also, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms would have to be totally invisible. Otherwise how could we see?

In the wake of phrases like ‘Hindus, Shmindus,’ and the ongoing controversy about Indian ethnicity versus host communities in the Hindu diaspora, Srila Prabhupada at least once called Indians seeking a would-be better life in the West, the ‘new crows.’ Yet he DID say this about Indian piety, “…through the veins of Indians, the spiritual fluid is flowing.” (13th Nov, 1973, lecture in New Delhi.)

Krsna never has a bad day!

That Krsna consciousness is a naturally occurring phenomenon within every living entity is a fact we often forget. A Caitanya Caritamrta verse says it beautifully: nitya-siddha krsna-prema `sadh ya’ kabhu naya, sravanadi-suddha-citte kara ye udaya. “Pure love for Krsna is eternally established in the hearts of living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, the living entity naturally awakens.” CC, Madhya 22.107

What most people think are curses-things like disease, old age, loss of loved ones, bad luck, and death-are like blessings to a devotee. The essential verse in this regard is when Queen Kunti prays: “I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.” (S.B.1.8.25)

The English word “initiation” comes from the English root “initial” defined in the dictionary as meaning the beginning of something, “occurring at the beginning; first: the initial step in a process.” It is not that at initiation, a spiritual name is given, one has a guru, has passed an examination of sorts, is formally admitted into ISKCON, and that’s the end. No, rather it is, as Webster intimates, a first step in the usually lengthy journey Back to Godhead.

In the Caitanya Caritamrta, there is a description of a Ratha car that Krsnadas Kaviraja says was “as high as Mount Sumeru.” In the purport, Srila Prabhupada refers to a photograph that appeared in London’s Guardian newspaper, a photo which made the London Rathayatra canopy seem almost as tall at the 170-foot-high Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square (CC, Madhya, 13.19). Was the verse an example of hyperbole? Not quite! (Admiral Nelson was a well-known colonizer).

We in the West have been taught that winter and summer in earthly regions, above and below the equator, occur because the direction of the world’s vertical axis is slightly tipped, the top leaning generally towards the sun in summer and away from it in winter. However Srila Prabhupada, on a walk with Jayadvaita Maharaja, indicated that this is incorrect.

In his Sri Manah-sika, Srila Bhaktivinoda says, “The energy and the energetic are simultaneously one and different; therefore, by nature, the object and its energy are inconceivably one and different.” (from Sri Bhaktivinoda Vani Vaibhava, translated by Bhumupati dasa)

Who is winning the GMO (genetically modified organism) vs the expanding world economy propaganda war? A recent law passed in Australasia will require any food containing 0.1 per cent or more of GMO to be labeled as such by January 2003. Although anti-GMO advocates have tended to herald this law as a victory, one needn’t wonder how the multinational food corporations, with endlessly resourceful spin machines, will respond. Surely they will use their seemingly limitless marketing capital to convince an unsuspecting worldwide public that all genetically modified foods are safer, cheaper, disease-thwarting, crop-increasing and more nutritious, i.e. “better for the national economy” and hence your salary! The corporate spin machine is likely to convince the masses that the ‘old fashioned’ ways of farming, that for centuries have produced predictable yields, could have caused bubonic plague and other diseases that resulted in mass destruction. Who knows what bacteria people in days of old might have been prey to — in the days before antibiotics were discovered? Antibiotics that have saved millions of lives. Ironically, billions of tons of these same antibiotics are now fed daily to cattle eaten by humans, thus creating immunity in those who consume them. So when antibiotics such as penicillin, and amphicillin are actually needed their effect is weakened, or even nullified. The TV watching, newspaper gobbling, billboard gazing, radio listening public is sure to give the nod to corporate messages glorifying genetically modified foods. Labels will say the packages contain genetically modified foods, and the public will pay the price, believing that it is better for them and their families. Even today many shoppers tend to avoid “old fashioned,” “disease-ridden,” “ugly,” misshapen, unevenly colored and sized, organic vegetables and fruits. But what kind of bacteria might seep into genetically modified foods? What were the dangers of nuclear power plants, DDT and thalidomide? The public didn’t discover these dangers until it was “too late,” and tragedy had already struck. Today nuclear energy plants aren’t built, DDT isn’t used to spray crops, and thalidomide is no longer manufactured. Why? Because these substances have been proven dangerous to human life. These are some of the reasons why Krishna consciousness is sometimes described as a more “natural way of life” and why Srila Prabhupada stressed self-sufficiency as a goal of the Hare Krishna movement. Point six in Srila Prabhupada’s original “seven purposes” of ISKCON reads, “To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler and more natural way of life.”