Is Krnsa’s beauty superior to nature? In his purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 1.11.26, Srila Prabhupada describes the beauty of nature like this: “What they call beautiful nature is but His smile.”

Despite many billions spent on law enforcement and on other measures to reduce the drug problem in the USA, substance abuse, smuggling and dope-selling continues, effectively unabated. This is due to people’s desire to get high. Srila Prabhupada explains in Srimad Bhagavatam (4.20.21) how the Indian government realized its impotence to stop alcohol consumption in Maharashtra, as well as the potential profit if they sold it themselves. He writes: “Just today we have seen in the newspapers of Bombay that the government is going to repeal its prohibition laws. The government failed to change the hearts of the citizens from indulging in sinful life, so instead of losing the taxes they collected to inflate the treasury, they have decided to manufacture liquor to supply to the citizens who hanker after it.”

Although the phrase “body bag” has lately come to mean a plastic bag to encase a recently killed human, Srila Prabhupada often referred to the human body as a bag, containing the energies known as kappa, pita and vayu.

A materialist will perpetually see a Krishna Deity (made of marble) in an ISKCON temple as stone. In London Srila Prabhupada told us, “If one is stone-hearted, then Krishna will stand as stone forever. But if one is soften-hearted by chanting Hare Krishna mantra, then he’ll talk with Krishna. That is the difference. Krishna is always present.”

Krsna is said to be Tri-kala-jna, or one who knows past, present and future. It’s clear that only Krsna knows the future. Many seers, prophets, crystal-ball gazers, astrologers, and mystics have attempted to predict coming events, but it’s clear that only Krsna knows ALL the details.

Here is an exchange that took place in Mauritius on the 4th of October, 1975: Indian man (2): I want to know one thing, Prabhupada. You have just said that in the moon there is a cold atmosphere and there is still a living entity there? You see? But what the Americans have said… Of course, they have sent man there, different rockets there, satellites… Prabhupada: So I understand. Your authority is America, and my authority is sastra. That is the difference. Indian man (2): But they… Prabhupada: That is the difference. That means your authority is America. You say through the words of the American. You have not experienced. Your position: you have no experience. My position: I have no experience. But you accept the Americans, authority, and I accept the sastra as authority. That is the difference. Indian man (2): This I want to know the difference, whether it is true or not. Prabhupada: That is up to you whether you accept American or the sastra. That is up to you. But you cannot say because you have learned from America, therefore it is correct. Indian man (2): But they have revealed to the world that there is no living entity there, but the sastra says there is… Prabhupada: Why? Reason does not say so. Why there is no living entity? We see living entities are everywhere. Why you say that there is no living entity? Indian man (2): But when these fellows have come there… Prabhupada: These fellows… Therefore your authority are these fellows. These fellows will say something now, and after ten years they will change. These fellows are like that.

Although philologists have grandstanded Sanskrit, devotees have a different vision. The new Concise Oxford Dictionary is said to have over 900 entries that give Hindi or Sanskrit as the origin of an English word. Here’s a “Prabhupada said,” from the 10th of November, 1975 in Mumbai: [excerpt:] Dr. Patel: …that man, and then Krodha Maharaja knew that this man would be perhaps hanged by the officials. So the engineer… [break] He was smuggled into Africa. And there, in Africa, he learned Bengali by himself, reading book. And he was Bengali scholar. [break] Prabhupada: He was professor of Presidents’ College, Calcutta. Their opinion is Sanskrit is the mother of all languages.

(The following article was posted in the “Inner Voice” column of the Hindustan Times, one of India’s largest English language daily newspapers, on 8 June 2004.) ‘WASTE IS preventing us from getting ahead’, says Angus Maciver of Prudential UK. On average, English people waste Rs 1,38,000 per person per year. Simple arithmetic reveals that the Briton’s annual waste bill is enough to cover their government’s combined budget for transport, defence, industry, agriculture, employment, housing and the environment. Frugality is often thought to be the emblem of the misers; Fagins, and Ebineezer Scrooges of the world. But there’s a philosophy that teaches that everything ultimately belongs to the Supreme Lord. According to the Gita (5.29), God is the ultimate owner of everything. But ‘everything’ must include our own families, bodies, thoughts, and senses. According to this theory, everything has a limit and nothing is ‘ours’. The questions that next arise are: If we don’t own anything, why do we think we possess our land, our house, bank account, family, body, brain and mind? And how is it that it’s the duty of government to protect our rights, especially our property and our lives? Are we no more than the flutter of an eyelid or a bundle of loose nerve endings, or do we occupy a significant place in the universe – a place we can call our own? Is there such a thing as proprietorship? Good questions, but the answer is simple, if not obvious. We live on borrowed plumes – God’s benevolence. Ultimately nothing is ours, the future’s not ours to see, whatever will be will be. No one knows the intricate workings of karma. Thrift is not miserliness or parsimony, but the wise application of resources. Anything engaged in the service of God never goes in vain, and it benefits the human situation long term. Gratitude, not greed, is the key. The writer is emeritus member of the ISKCON gQverning body commission

In her one and only novel, Harper Lee’s character Atticus told his children not to shoot mockingbirds because they didn’t hurt anyone and they `sing their hearts out for you.’ The aged tend to love bird calls and sometimes pride themselves on being able to match the birds to their sounds. This is what Srila Prabhupada says about birdsongs: “what they call the sweet songs of the birds are but specimens of the whispering voice of the Lord.”

Psychologists are fond of noticing that we are often “in denial” of many things. Srila Prabhupada said that even Dhrtarastra was “in denial” of the wrongs he was perpetrating on the kingdom. In an interesting analysis of the materialist and criminal mind, he said this: “So Dhrtarastra said that `I know that what I am planning, that is not good. I know Krsna -the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And He has requested me. But I tell you frankly, I cannot do without it.” (Bhagavad-gita lecture in London, 1969)