The debate rages on: should governments abandon or embrace capital punishment? Some parts of the USA have cast it aside only to reinstate it. Here’s what Srila Prabhupada wrote about it in a purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 6.1.9: “The dharma-sastras like the Manu-samhita prescribe that a man who has committed murder should be hanged and his own life sacrificed in atonement. Previously this system was followed all over the world, but since people are becoming atheists, they are stopping capital punishment. This is not wise. Herein it is said that a physician who knows how to diagnose a disease prescribes medicine accordingly. If the disease is very serious, the medicine must be strong. The weight of a murderer’s sin is very great, and therefore according to Manu-samhita a murderer must be killed. By killing a murderer the government shows mercy to him because if a murderer is not killed in this life, he will be killed and forced to suffer many times in future lives. Since people do not know about the next life and the intricate workings of nature, they manufacture their own laws, but they should properly consult the established injunctions of the sastras and act accordingly. In India even today the Hindu community often takes advice from expert scholars regarding how to counteract sinful activities. In Christianity also there is a process of confession and atonement. Therefore atonement is required, and atonement must be undergone according to the gravity of one’s sinful acts.”

The phrase “lateral thinking” was coined by Edward DeBono. According to DeBono, creative and innovative thought is considered “thinking outside of the box.” To understand the concept of transmigration requires spiritual intelligence, and this type of intelligence, at least for Westerners, can be considered “lateral thinking.”

Sometimes devotee ask what should they be thinking about or doing or seeing while chanting? Sometimes Mahanidhi Maharaja has asked chanters to put a blanket over their heads. The following is how Srila Prabhupada once answered this question: “Chanting. You simply hear. When you say ‘Hare Krsna,’ you try to hear the very sound, ‘Hare Krsna.’ That’s all. Nothing more. This is meditation. Your tongue and your ear should be engaged in sounding this transcendental vibration, ‘Hare Krsna.’ Best meditation. This is also accepted in Bhagavad-gita: the best meditation. You don’t keep your mind elsewhere. You keep your mind on the chanting. ‘Hare Krishna,’ and hear. So this is responsive. When I was chanting, you were hearing; when you were chanting, I was hearing. So it is exchange. I hear your chanting, you hear my chanting. This is the process. So there is no possibility of thinking anything else. Best and the easiest type of meditation. Fully.

Srila Prabhupada has often warned about seeing God as an order supplier. Frequently he said that the prayer for us to be given daily bread is an elementary form of worship. The phrase, attributed to Mathew in the New Testament section of the Bible, is part of the well known “Lord’s Prayer.” It goes precisely like this: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

According to some historians, the British sugar plantations in the Caribbean were the beginning of the British empire. In 1750, the British developed huge cane plantations, importing millions of Africans as slaves to harvest the fields and process the cane. This form of capitalism turned the luxury of sugar into a necessity for millions of Britons. Adam Smith, the so-called father of capitalism, author of Wealth of Nations and ideologue of the “invisible hand,” thought it would all work out well in the end, and that the empire would preserve “liberty.” Sounds familiar?

It’s important to remember that fully transcendental personalities, especially nitya-siddhas, defy the ‘laws’ of the material world. In August of 1971, Srila Prabhupada reminded his audience that Srila Sukadeva Goswami PURPOSELY remained in the womb of his mother for sixteen years and that he IMMEDIATELY left home after his birth.

I’m told that there is a rule in the Chowpatty temple that runs something like this: if a Brahmacari criticizes a householder for being a householder, he (the Brahmacari) is kicked out of the temple with no recourse to an appeal.

This excerpt is from my Vyasa Puja offering made last year. It recalls that Srila Prabhupada’s guru saw him as – among many other things – a talented writer: “In fact, according to your official biography, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta saw this as proof that you knew the mind of your master. You were in ecstasy when you heard this. Your gurudeva showed this couplet to many guests and ordered that whatever you wrote should be published in his journal, the Harmonist.” This is the phrase (couplet):

Absolute is sentient,
Thou hast proved,
Impersonal calamity
Thou hast moved.

According to Gaura Narayana Swami (of ISKCON), professional Delhi well-drillers told devotees at Bhaktivedanta Asrama (on the Govardhana parakrama path) that “sweet water” could be reached only if they could get below the subterranian stone. They bored in front of the asrama (finding the stone at about 30 feet below the surface) and they bored behind it (finding the stone at about 200 feet below the surface). In both cases they said that they could not get through the stone. This indicates that Govardhana is a sinking stone mountain, too thick with rock to penetrate, even with hi-tech equipment.

Srila Prabhupada compared Sanjaya’s mystical powers to see the battlefield of Kuruksetra – beyond what his eyes could see – to television. He explained that Vedic sciences exist and existed on earth thousands of years ago; sciences far more subtle and more powerful than those of today, however amazing they seem.