Because people in the USA celebrate this day as the day they became an independent nation, one pauses to wonder what ‘independence’ means. As soon as we step out of our front door, we are independent to select conveyances, clothes, banks, and foods. When at home we can now choose from literally thousands of channels of Internet. Our choices seem greater than ever before, yet economically, socially, politically, and even intellectually, we are more DEpendent now than in the past. These are thoughts to meditate upon. I am convinced that only through Krishna consciousness can anyone be truly free. By following the regulative principles of freedom we become liberated, happy and fully independent.