Ultimate generosity, or giving up one’s own self, is described by Sukadeva Gosvami in terms of nature, in Srimad Bhagavatam 10.20.6: “Flashing with lightning, great clouds were shaken and swept about by fierce winds. Just like merciful persons, the clouds gave their lives for the pleasure of this world.”

Some of us have experienced life in a desert. Statistics reveal how increasing desertification is a sign of deteriorating environment. This is written in the Srimad Bhagavatam as part of the sinful reaction land had to accept in an exchange with Lord Indra. “Since the land accepted one fourth of the sinful reactions, a portion of the land turned into desert.” (from the summary to Srimad Bhagavatam chapter nine, canto 6.) In the purport to text seven chapter nine of the sixth canto, Srila Prabhupada writes: “Because deserts are manifestations of the earth’s diseased condition, no auspicious ritualistic ceremony can be performed in a desert. Persons destined to live in deserts are understood to be sharing the reactions for the sin of brahma-hatya, the killing of a brahmana.”

The scientific world tends to praise the human genome project (the mapping of human DNA configuration), cloning of animals and genetically modified organisms, including seeds for food plants. The genetic mapping or genetic code for a banyan is certainly to be found in the seed of such a tree. Now science can predict from the genes of tree seed, what the tree will look like. But it cannot explain why the seed should transform into a tree. In other words, science can observe the phenomenon of growth and even make predictions about it, but it cannot explain exactly why it happens. Even scientists ‘create’ clones of moving creatures, they are ‘engineering,’ not creating. The raw substances are already there, produced by God.

On February 27, 1976 on a morning walk in Mayapur Srila Prabhupada said, “Bengali culture was very much adored all over India. Even one big politician, Gandhi’s guru, Goke, Gokule, he remarked, ‘What Bengal thinks today, other provinces will think tomorrow.'”

After his first arrival in San Francisco in 1967 and his first aviation journey, Srila Prabhupada talked about how the houses of San Francisco looked like “little match boxes.” We’d hardly started smiling when just then he said, “Just imagine how Krsna sees things.”

If any of us living entities cease to work, we’ll be criticized or will fail. We must act because that is our nature. Just eating, sleeping, mating and defending requires organization and energy. But Lord Krsna, unlike us, doesn’t HAVE to do anything. He only acts out of love, and only when He wants to. “Krishna the son of Nanda Maharaja never at any time leaves Vrndavana. ” — from Laghu-bhagavatamrit 1.5.451 by Rupa Gosvami as quoted in Caitanya Caritamrta, written as CC Antya 1.67

In many statements and written documents Srila Prabhupada said that preaching was the most important thing a Vaisnava should concentrate on, and that preaching success would depend upon dedication and purity. Srila Prabhupada once said, “I want to die with my boots on.”

Once a leader in the San Franciso Haight-Asbhury of the sixties said to me, “Hey! We’re living in Kah-leefornia.” He thought it was great. But there’s some truth to his feeling. Although the iron age of quarrel is a miserable age in which to live, the Srimad Bhagavatam extols this yuga as being highly conducive to spiritual advancement. HH Hridayananda and company write, “It is stated here (11.5.36) that among the four ages—Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali—Kali-yuga is actually the best because in this age the Lord mercifully distributes the highest perfection of consciousness, namely Krsna consciousness, very freely.” The verse reads, “Those who are actually advanced in knowledge are able to appreciate the essential value of this age of Kali. Such enlightened persons worship Kali-yuga because in this fallen age all perfection of life can easily be achieved by the performance of sankirtana.”

(This article was posted in the “Meditations” column of the Hindustan Times on 18 June 2002.) MODERN SCHOLARSHIP demands discovery from “original” sources, while Vedic scholarship relies more upon knowledge from historical roots (Siddhanta). Both systems have their validity. Practitioners of these two systems tend to conflict, but can converge. Last month, B. G. Matapurkar, a surgeon with the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, announced to the All-India Biotech Association that he was “thrilled” to encounter a statement in the Mahabharata indicating that stem-cell research and cloning are nothing new. He informed his audience that the Kauravas “had the technology to grow human fetuses outside the body of a woman — something that is not known to modern science.” Scientific methodology is empirical, often mechanistic, and infers that we know only by direct perception, which includes using instruments. This is the pratyaksha or ascending process of gaining knowledge. But Matapurkar indicates that the ancients knew something we don’t yet know. This implies appreciation of the descending process of acquiring knowledge – a method also known as shabda. It’s popular to trash anything that smacks of pedantry, dogma or authoritarianism. Many customs, and traditions are simply rammed down our throats and are not open to debate. We prefer to deny all such knowledge, and to consider it invalid, untested and highly questionable. Matapurkar, as a medical surgeon, must be dedicated to the ascending model. Yet he seems glad to tell us how things practiced in days of yore may be precursors to knowledge medical science has laboured hard to learn. Indirect though it may be, Matapurkar appears to appreciate the descending method of gaining knowledge. He expressed elation to find something that the ancients knew, and yet we have not learned to replicate. In fact many types of other ‘modern’ phenomena are found in the Mahabharata, including atomic weaponry, outer space travel and medical marvels (physicians healed dangerous warriors’ wounds each night after battle). This leads us to consider the difference between knowledge gathered from ‘original’ sources and that knowledge which dignifies conclusions brought forward from the remote past. The former process essentially involves ascension, and the latter descension (not the astrological variety). But truth be told, both always operate. As Matapurkar found out, ‘realised’ or ancient knowledge is not ignorant or invalid just because it’s come down to us from by-gone eras. (The writer is emeritus member of the ISKCON Governing Body Commission)

“The Lord’s inconceivable energy displays its power through variety in the Lord’s body, the entity’s body, the situation of both, and the spiritual realm.” Prema-pradipa, Chapter 9, by Bhaktivinoda Thakura.