Sometimes the way Srila Prabhupada said things was exceptionally strong. Once, in 1973, when he was speaking about abortion and the punishment that accompanies it, he raised his voice so that it sounded like the highest notes of a song. He was at Bhaktivedanta Manor, speaking on the twelfth text of the Gita’s second chapter. He said, “Now the man who causes his abortion, he also being punished, that ‘You’ll never see the light of this world. You’ll simply have to live one womb to another, one womb to another. Go on.’ So nature’s punishment is like that. But these foolish people they do not know.”

One of many frequently asked questions is about the shaven heads on men. One way to respond is to say that monks in most faiths shave their heads because they are renouncing personal beauty. In general men style their hair to attract the opposite sex. Shaving all the hair off tends to `put them out of the running.’

The principle of humility was obviously important to the early Christians. In the Bible, Jesus says: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Lord Siva bowed down to the sage Markandeya. Shortly afterward Markandeya said: “It is indeed most difficult for embodied souls to understand the pastimes of the universal controllers, for such lords bow down to and offer praise to the very living beings they rule.” (Srimad Bhagavatam, 12.10.28)

In the purport to Srimad Bhagavatam First Canto, Chapter Seventeen verse Thirty-two, — BEFORE 3.25.21) Srila Prabhupada writes: The principles of religion, namely austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness, as we have already discussed, may be followed by the follower of any faith. There is no need to turn from Hindu to Mohammedan to Christian or some other faith and thus become a renegade and not follow the principles of religion. The Bhagavatam religion urges following the principles of religion. The principles of religion are not the dogmas or regulative principles of a certain faith. Such regulative principles may be different in terms of the time and place concerned. One has to see whether the aims of religion have been achieved. Sticking to the dogmas and formulas without attaining the real principles is not good.

After reciting the punar musiko bhava story in 1972 in Los Angeles, Srila Prabhupada immediately explained its relevance. This is the excerpt from that lecture: “So this mouse also came and begged the saintly person, ‘Sir, I am in difficulty. If you give me some blessing?’ ‘What is that?’ ‘The cat chases after me always. I’m very unhappy.’ ‘So what do you want?’ ‘Now, if you make me a cat, then I can get relief from this thing.’ ‘All right, you become cat.’ So he became cat. So after few days, again he comes. ‘Sir, again I am in trouble.’ ‘What is that?’ ‘The dog is chasing me.’…. ‘All right, then, what do you want?’ ‘Now, make me a tiger.’ ‘All right, you become a tiger.’ So when he became a tiger he was staring on the saintly person like this. So he asked, ‘Why you are staring upon me? You want to eat me?’ ‘Yes.’ So he again curses, punar musiko bhava: ‘Again you become mouse. Again you become mouse.’ So that is our position. We are advanced in civilization. Now we want to kill God. So we are again going to be uncivilized, to remain in the forest and to remain naked.”

According to the Website “Refdesk” there are currently 400,000 frozen human embryos in Medlabs in the USA. According to the original source [unnamed], “a large proportion will never be needed.” The booming fertility industry says it wants “only the best.”

Here what scientist William R. Corliss (55 books and a consultant to several corporations including Time-Life Books and General Electric) wrote in 2000: * Ganges water does not putrefy, even after long periods of storage. River water begins to putrefy when lack of oxygen promotes the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which produce the telltale smell of stale water. * British physician, C.E. Nelson observed that Ganges water taken from the Hooghly – one of its dirtiest mouths — by ships returning to England remained fresh throughout the voyage. * In 1996 the British physician E. Hanbury Hankin reported in the French journal ‘Annals de l’Institut Pasteur’ that cholera microbes died within three hours in Ganges water but continued to thrive in distilled water even after 48 hours. * A French scientist, Monsieur Herelle, was amazed to find “that only a few feet below the bodies of persons floating in the Ganges who had died of dysentery and cholera, where one would expect millions of germs, there were no germs at all. * Quantitatively, the Ganges seems to clean up suspended wastes fifteen to twenty time faster than other rivers.

Marriage is an institution which has evolved in Catholic encyclicals from “contract,” to “covenant” to an “interpersonal union.” This last one is a bit of a “new agey” way to say “soul mate.” Sorry, but even the Vatican has taken on the Hollywood mood. Something nearer to the Vedic model of marriage would be a word like “companionship,” which comes from the Latin roots comor “with” and panis meaning “bread.” A companion is one with whom with one shares bread in both the material and symbolic sense. Carrying these metaphors further, children of a successful marriage may be considered as the “bread” or “fruit” (outcome). Procreation, the bringing forth of Godly offspring who work to improve the quality of life on earth, is a sacred duty not just the result of a compulsive urge.

Strictly speaking, “incarnation” means “in the flesh.” The Christians say, “veiled in flesh the Godhead see,” when speaking of Christ. Sadly, there’s no proper single-word English translation for “avatar.” So we say avatar refers to “one who descends.” It’s our great fortune that Srila Prabhupada left us so many books. These words are incarnations – that is plenary (full) parts ? of God, incarnations in English, avataras in Sanskrit. The message of this thought: read Srila Prabhupada’s books and associate directly with Krsna!