# Back to Godhead Magazine #17 *1982 (09)* Back to Godhead Magazine #17-09, 1982 PDF-View ## Service or Slavery—The Choice Is Yours A lecture given in September 1968 ### by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, at the Hare Kṛṣṇa center in Seattle. In this material world, everyone is trying to search out happiness and get relief from misery. There are three kinds of miseries caused by our material condition: **adhyatmika*, ādhibhautika,* and *ādhidaivika. Adhyatmika* miseries are those caused by the body and mind themselves. For example, when there is some disarrangement of the different functions of metabolism within the body, we get a fever or some pain. Another kind *of *adhyatmika** misery is caused by the mind. Suppose I lose someone who is dear to me. Then my mind will be disturbed. This is also suffering. So diseases of the body or mental disturbances are *adhyatmika* miseries. Then there are ā*dhibhautika* miseries, sufferings caused by other living entities. For example, human beings are sending millions of poor animals to the slaughterhouse daily. The animals cannot express themselves, but they are undergoing great suffering. And we also suffer miseries caused by other living entities. Finally, there are *ādhidaivika* miseries, those caused by higher authorities such as the demigods. There may be famine, earthquake, flood, pestilence—so many things. These are *ādhidaivika* sufferings. So we are always suffering one or more of these miseries. This material nature is constituted in such a way that we have to suffer; it is God's law. And we are trying to relieve the suffering by patchwork remedies. Everyone is trying to get relief from suffering; that is a fact. The whole struggle for existence is aimed at getting out of suffering. There are various kinds of remedies that we use to try to relieve our suffering. One remedy is offered by the modern scientists, one by the philosophers, another by the atheists, another by the theists, another by the fruitive workers. There are so many ideas. But according to the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you can get free of all your sufferings if you simply change your consciousness to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's all. All our sufferings are due to ignorance. We have forgotten that we are eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa. There is a nice Bengali verse that explains this point: > kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha haiyā bhoga-vāñchā kare > nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare As soon as our original Kṛṣṇa consciousness becomes polluted with the consciousness of material enjoyment—the idea that I want to lord it over the resources of matter—our troubles begin. Immediately we fall into *māyā,* illusion. Everyone in the material world is thinking, "I can enjoy this world to my best capacity." From the tiny ant up to the highest living creature, Brahmā, everyone is trying to become a lord. In your country many politicians are canvassing to become the president. Why? They want to become some kind of lord. This is illusion. In the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement our mentality is just the opposite. We are trying to become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa *(gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsah).* Instead of wanting to become a lord, we want to become the servant of Kṛṣṇa. Now, people may say this is a slave mentality: "Why should I become a slave? I shall become the master." But they do not know that this consciousness—"I shall become the master"—is the cause of all their suffering. This has to be understood. In the name of becoming master of this material world, we have become the servants of our senses. We cannot avoid serving. Every one of us sitting in this meeting is a servant. These boys and girls who have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness have agreed to become servants of Kṛṣṇa. So their problem is *so*lved. But others are thinking, "Why should I become a servant of God? I shall become the master." Actually, no one can become the master. And if *so*meone tries to become the master, he simply becomes the servant of his senses. That's all. He becomes the servant of his lust, the servant of his avarice, the servant of his anger—the servant of *so* many things. In a higher stage, one becomes the servant of humanity, the servant of society, the servant of his country. But the actual purpose is to become the master. That is the disease. The candidates for the presidency are presenting their different manifestos: "I shall serve the country very nicely. Please give me your vote." But their real idea is somehow or other to become the master of the country. This is illusion. So, we should understand this important point of philosophy: constitutionally we are servants. Nobody can say, "I am free; I am the master." If someone thinks like that, he's in illusion. Can anybody in this meeting say that he's not the servant of anybody or anything? No, because our constitutional position is to serve. We may serve Kṛṣṇa, or we may serve our senses. But the difficulty is that by serving our senses we simply increase our misery. For the time being you may satisfy yourself by taking some intoxicant. And under the spell of the intoxicant you may think that you are nobody's servant, that you are free. But this idea is artificial. As soon as the hallucination is gone, again you see that you are a servant. So we are being forced to serve, but we don't wish to serve. What is the adjustment? Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If you become the servant of Kṛṣṇa, your aspiration to become the master is immediately achieved. For example, here we see a picture of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna. [*Śrīla Prabhupāda points to a painting of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra.*] Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord; Arjuna is a human being. But Arjuna loves Kṛṣṇa as a friend, and in response to Arjuna's friendly love Kṛṣṇa has become his chariot driver, his servant. Similarly, if we become reinstated in our transcendental loving relationship with Kṛṣṇa, our aspiration for mastership will be fulfilled. If you agree to serve Kṛṣṇa, gradually you will see that Kṛṣṇa is also serving you. This is a question of realization. So, if we want to get free of the service of this material world, the service of our senses, then we must direct our service toward Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī quotes a nice verse in his *Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu* concerning the service of the senses: *kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśā.* Here a devotee is saying to Kṛṣṇa that he has served his senses for a very long time *(kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā). Kāma* means "lust." He says, "By the dictation of my lust I have done what I should not have done." When someone is a slave, he's forced to do things he does not wish to do. He's forced. So, here the devotee is admitting that under the dictation of his lust he has done sinful things. Then someone may say to the devotee: "All right, you have served your senses. But now you are done serving them. Now everything is all right." But the difficulty is this: *teṣāṁ jātā mayi na karuṇā na trapā nopaśāntiḥ.* The devotee says, "I have served my senses so much, but I find they are not satisfied. That is my difficulty. My senses are not satisfied, nor am I satisfied, nor are my senses kind enough to give me relief, to give me pension from their service. That is my position. I had hoped that by serving my senses for many years they would have been satisfied. But no, they're not. They are still dictating to me." Here I may disclose something one of my students told me: In old age his mother is going to marry. And somebody else complained that his grandmother has also married. Just see: fifty years old, seventy-five years old, and the senses are still so strong that they're dictating, "Yes, you must marry." Try to understand how strong the senses are. It is not simply young men who are servants of their senses. One may be seventy-five years old, eighty years old, or even at the point of death—still one is the servant of the senses. The senses are never satisfied. So this is the material situation. We are servants of our senses, but by serving our senses we are not satisfied, nor are our senses satisfied, nor are they merciful to us. There is chaos! The best thing, therefore, is to become a servant of Kṛṣṇa. In *Bhagavad-gītā* [18.66] Kṛṣṇa says, > sarva-dharmān parityajya > mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja > ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo > mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ You have served your senses in so many lives, life after life, in 8,400,000 species. The birds are serving their senses, the beasts are serving their senses, the human beings, the demigods—everyone within this material world is after sense gratification. "So," Kṛṣṇa says, "just surrender unto Me. Just agree to serve Me, and I will take charge of you. You will be free from the dictation of your senses." Because of the dictation of the senses, we are committing sinful activities life after life. Therefore we are in different grades of bodies. Don't think that every one of you is of the same standard. No. According to one's activities, one gets a certain type of body. And these different types of bodies afford one different grades of sense gratification. There is sense gratification in the hog's life also, but it is of a very low grade. The hog is so sensual that it does not hesitate to have sex with its mother, its sister, or its daughter. Even in human society there are people who don't care whether they have sex with their mother or sister. The senses are so strong. So, we should try to understand that serving the dictations of our senses is the cause of all our misery. The threefold miseries that we are suffering—the miseries we are trying to get free of—are due to this dictation of the senses. But if we become attracted to serving Kṛṣṇa, we will no longer be forced to follow the dictation of our senses. One name for Kṛṣṇa is Madana-mohana, "He who conquers Cupid, or lust." If you transfer your love from your senses to Kṛṣṇa, you will be free from all misery. Immediately. So this endeavor to be the master—"I am the monarch of all I survey"—should be given up. Every one of us is constitutionally a servant. Now we are serving our senses, but we should direct this service to Kṛṣṇa. And when you serve Kṛṣṇa, gradually Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself to you as you become sincere. Then the reciprocation of service between Kṛṣṇa and you will be so nice. You can love Him as a friend or as a master or as a lover—there are so many ways to love Kṛṣṇa. So, you should try to love Kṛṣṇa, and you will see how much you are satisfied. There is no other way to become fully satisfied. Earning great amounts of money will never give you satisfaction. I once knew a gentleman in Calcutta who was earning six thousand dollars a month. He committed suicide. Why? That money could not give him satisfaction. He was trying to have something else. So my humble request to you all is that you try to understand this sublime benediction of life, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa you will gradually develop a transcendental loving attitude for Kṛṣṇa, and as soon as you begin to love Kṛṣṇa, all your troubles will be eradicated and you will feel complete satisfaction. Thank you very much. Are there any questions? Question: When we engage the material energy in the service of Kṛṣṇa, what happens to it? Does it become spiritualized? Śrīla Prabhupāda: When a copper wire is in touch with electricity, it is no longer copper: it is electricity. Similarly, when you apply your energy to the service of Kṛṣṇa, it is no longer material energy: it is spiritual energy. So as soon as you engage yourself in the service of Kṛṣṇa, you become free from the dictates of the material energy. Kṛṣṇa states that in the *Bhagavad-gītā* [14.26]: > māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa > bhakti-yogena sevate > sa guṇān samatītyaitān > brahma-bhūyāya kalpate "Anyone who seriously engages in My service immediately becomes transcendental to the material qualities and comes to the platform of Brahman, or spirit." So, when you apply your energy in the service of Kṛṣṇa, do not think that it remains material. Everything used in Kṛṣṇa's service is spiritual. For example, each day we distribute fruit *prasādam* [fruit that has been offered to Kṛṣṇa]. Now, one may ask, "Why is this fruit different from ordinary fruit? It has been purchased at the market like any other fruit. We also eat fruit at home. What is the difference?" No. Because we offer the fruit to Kṛṣṇa, it immediately becomes spiritual. The result? Just go on eating kṛṣṇa-*prasādam*, and you will see how you are making progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Here is another example. If you drink a large quantity of milk, there may be some disorder in your bowels. If you go to a physician (at least if you go to an Ayurvedic physician), he'll offer you a medical preparation made with yogurt. And that yogurt with a little medicine in it will cure you. Now, yogurt is nothing but milk transformed. So, your disease was caused by milk, and it is also cured by milk. How is that? Because you are taking the medicine under the direction of a qualified physician. Similarly, if you engage the material energy in the service of Kṛṣṇa under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master, that same material energy which has been the cause of your bondage will bring you to the transcendental stage beyond all misery. Question: How can you make everything so simple to understand? Śrīla Prabhupāda: Because the whole philosophy is so simple. God is great. You are not great. Don't claim that you are God. Don't claim that there is no God. God is infinite, and you are infinitesimal. Then what is your position? You have to serve God, Kṛṣṇa. This is simple truth. The rebellious attitude against God is *māyā,* illusion. Anyone who is declaring that he is God, that you are God, that there is no God, that God is dead—he is under the spell of *māyā.* When a man is haunted by a ghost, he speaks all kinds of nonsense. Similarly, when a person is haunted by *māyā,* he says, "God is dead. I am God. Why are you searching for God? There are so many Gods loitering in the street." People who speak like this are all ghostly haunted, deranged. So you have to cure them by vibrating the transcendental sound of the Hare Kṛṣṇa **mantra*.* This is the cure. Simply let them hear, and gradually they will be cured. When a man is sleeping very soundly, you can cry out beside his ear and he'll awaken. So the Hare Kṛṣṇa *mantra* can awaken the sleeping human society. The *Vedas* say, *uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata:* "O human being, please get up! Don't sleep any more. You have the opportunity of a human body. Utilize it. Get yourself out of the clutches of *māyā.*" This is the declaration of the *Vedas*. So continue to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Awaken your countrymen from illusion, and help them get relief from their miseries. ## A Spiritual Challenge *Nescience News and Our Retort* ### American media try to cover the quest for spiritual understanding. ### by Śrīla Hridayananda Dāsa Goswami When ecstatic devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa dancing on the sidewalks of New York danced onto the cover of the July 5 *U.S. News & World Report,* the headline warned, "America's Cults—Gaining Ground Again." Of course, journalists don't expect people to know much about spiritual science. And any attempt to explain things in depth, they must figure, would leave most people behind. So they just trot out that old pejorative *cult* and treat readers to a blow-by-blow of how various religious "*cult*s" try to get along peacefully with their neighbors. In keeping with all this, *U.S. News* sails right past the philosophy of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement and focuses on "a fragile truce" between the members of the movement's New Vrindaban community in West Virginia and Sheriff Robert Lightner, who doesn't like people to shave their heads and wear long robes. "When the founding fathers wrote about freedom of religion," he says, "they didn't have people like these in mind." By now we've come to expect such trivia when great national news magazines like *U.S. News* cover spiritual topics. Example: *U.S. News* tells us that the followers of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon are grossing millions of dollars through their seafood business. And the important thing here is the money. Forget that slaughtering millions of innocent creatures—fish—may not be a very spiritual act, nor a symptom of saintly behavior. Overlook the hypocritical spectacle of a so-called messiah organizing an industry for wholesale killing. What matters to the writers of *U.S. News* is the profit turned over. Such are the issues of the day. And superficiality is by no means restricted to journalists. America's leaders—whether in the media, politics, economics, psychology, sociology, education—are virtually all ignorant of God and His laws. Even religious leaders just can't seem to muster a scientific understanding of God: witness the recent attempts of Christian "scientific creationists" to impose their medieval religious views on the Arkansas public school system. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, however, does present scientific information about God, information gleaned from a vast Vedic literary tradition covering five thousand years of scriptural revelation. Unfortunately, most people are not interested in this information. They are satisfied with trying to save their own necks through their salvation-obsessed mainstream religions or to fashionably remain members of a spiritually impotent community church or synagogue. The "American way" has become to enjoy life and forget God. If we do think about God, it is often simply to relegate Him to the post of order supplier. Yet contrary to the megalomaniacal fantasies of the human race, God is not a mystical appendage to human prosperity. God is not a humanist, and we are not the center of the universe. God is the center. He is the supreme enjoyer, the controller of all that be. The human being's natural occupation is to serve Him. And to serve Him means to carry out His will, which is not always identical with sentimental humanism. Modern men, however, foolishly try to invoke God's mercy upon their material, bodily ambitions. When "religious" people speak of the kingdom of God, they generally describe an earthly kingdom extended into the hereafter. Few people seem interested in recognizing their true existential relation with God as His eternal loving servants. Despite outward protestations of faith in God, most of us live a life of materialism. As sincere Americans face the all-devouring spiritual vacuum called modern society, it is no wonder they seek relief. Those who join Kṛṣṇa consciousness are fortunate to find a bona fide spiritual shelter in an authorized science of God. Broadsides from the opponents of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and claims to spiritual validity from the imitators of Kṛṣṇa consciousness do not change the fact that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a bona fide science of God realization. Just as nothing else is a Volkswagen, nothing else is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If the journalists for *U.S. News* had examined the spiritual substance of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they might have learned something worth getting across to their millions of readers. Instead, they merely contributed to the spiritual sterility of American life by thin coverage of people's search for spiritual understanding. Spiritual understanding is life's deepest need. And many religious movements today have come forward to cater to that need. But when leading American magazines merely peer at the outside packaging without trying to understand the spiritual substance inside (or the lack of it), these magazines unwittingly weaken our sense of spiritual discrimination, thus nurturing the problem for which they want to sound the alarm: the growth of so-called religious movements founded on speculation, whim, concoction, and fraud. ## Hare Kṛṣṇa—A Spiritual Force at the Antinuclear Rally *Report from New York* Some were there to drink or get high, find a girl or bring their own, and have a good time. Others had some political or social view to push—the Socialist Labor Party or what have you. And still others, the majority I suppose, came to express—well, in a word, fear. Fear that thermonuclear weapons might blow the world, or a big part of it—or at least their part of it—to pieces. *Hot* pieces. As one sign had it, a sign a child was holding in her hand, "I don't want to be melted." These people know what a nuclear bomb can do. And if you're not up on the gruesome details, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Ground Zero, and other groups are working to make sure you get the picture: The blast. The heat. The winds. The shock waves. The fallout. Your neighbors sick, bloody, and dead all around you. Your family— And finally you yourself, annihilated. Or worse than annihilated. (Under what specific circumstances—at what threshold of pain and torture—would you prefer to be put out of your misery?) So people are concerned—scared—about what might happen. And they want to do something about it. And the idea of a cause we all can agree on—a whole park full of us, not only Joan Baez or Dr. Spock but even Mayor Koch, even the 4,000 cops keeping order, even *The New York Times* and CBS—well, it's heartening. A mellow afternoon of human beings coming together in the park to call for restraint, for sanity, for human brotherhood, for peace. As you see all those people out there with you, as you listen to the songs and speeches, as that lump comes to your throat and that feeling of hope floods your heart, you know, you just know, things can change. Or can they? We sat a little apart from the demonstration, outside the main center of action. On a lawn by a park drive, near the obelisk behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, our group sat in the sun, on a bright blue cloth, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. That Hare Kṛṣṇa vibration, we knew, was eternal. And for that matter, what was happening at the peace march was also eternal. People would always come together to search for peace, to cry out against war and destruction, to stand up and be counted for the sacredness of human life. And their efforts would always fail. The arrows would always be released, the muskets shot, the missiles launched, the bombs exploded. The way we saw it, neither the warmakers nor the peacemakers had the answer. The warmakers: security through strength. You know just what that means—bigger, faster, more horrible weapons. And no way are we going to make them and not use them. They have a life of their own. You can't build those missiles and just keep them in their silos, any more than you can own a dog and keep it from voiding its bladder. And the peacemakers: Their hearts are in the right place. But the Russians are poised for war, folks. Whatever the rhetoric, whatever the gestures, the nuclear Ivan the Terrible would like nothing better than to blow Manhattan Island to smithereens—Central Park and all. The trouble is: The Russians have all sorts of people—sweet and nasty, peaceloving and warloving, sensitive and brutish—and so do we. The Russians are tightly bound by their *karma,* and so are we. The Russians don't know who they are, and neither do we. The Russians have forgotten Kṛṣṇa, and so have we. We're not Russians or Americans. We're eternal spiritual beings, all of us. And none of us have any business staying in this material world. This material world is designed by nature to be a miserable place, a place of fear, suffering, and death. Do you really think that marching on the UN or Central Park will change that? Whether you're obliterated by nuclear weapons, by conventional weapons, or by the weapons in nature's own arsenal, every man, woman, and child on earth is going to die, no matter what we do. The only question is whether we're going to die like human beings or die like dogs. All right, we're all going to die like dogs—death is death. But at least we shouldn't live like dogs. Dogs live without self-realization. They just eat, sleep, have sex, and fight over which dog gets which bone, which territory, which bitch. And the nuclear arms race is just another sign that men, those most noble of all creatures, are busy barking and clawing to be top dogs, scrambling for their own comfort, their own pleasure, their own human counterparts of bones and bitches. Dogs want peace too. They want to chew their bones and raise their puppies in peace. But by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, we were moving toward a peace beyond all this, an eternal, unconditional, unassailable peace. And we were giving those who heard us a way to move toward that peace too. It was the peace that comes when we free ourselves from thinking that we are whatever our minds and bodies make us, that whatever we can grab and hold on to is ours, and that the hands that must balance the fate of the earth are ultimately our own. It was the peace that comes when we look inside ourselves—inside our bodies, inside our minds—and find a still higher self, a self that can't be melted, burned, gassed, bayoneted, or blasted apart, a self that lives forever, come what may. It was the peace that comes when we see that the stuff we call our own—our homes, our nations, our families, our skins—all arrive on loan from time's prop department and get sent back Federal Express after each scene is over. It was the peace that comes when we see that the fate of the earth is resting in the transcendental hands of Kṛṣṇa. The Kṛṣṇa conscious person sees Kṛṣṇa's hands everywhere, and holds on to those hands in love. Those who ignore Kṛṣṇa take their fate into their own hands—and come out empty-handed. Sometime early in the afternoon, our group had gone chanting into the center of the crowds. While we were there, a press photographer in blue jeans clicked off a shot of us chanting behind a little girl who held a hand-lettered cardboard sign: SURVIVE. I’m not sure what irony the photographer saw in this, but we saw a meaning of our own. In one sense, no one in the park would survive. Sooner or later, war or no war, nuclear-bombed or not, every one of us would die. And in another sense—spiritually—all of us would survive forever. But those who thought of life as the life of the body—who wanted to live on in this material world, grab what they could, hold on to what they had, and enjoy it—would survive only in a perpetual cycle of birth and death. And those who lived to love Kṛṣṇa would survive in freedom. —Jayādvaita Swami. *Report from Bonn* On a warm, clear day last June; Ronald Reagan came to Bonn. So did at least 300,000 peace demonstrators. And so did twenty-five members of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. Each—Reagan, the peace marchers, and the devotees of Kṛṣṇa—presented a program for demilitarization and for reducing world tensions. President Reagan told the German federal parliament that his program for a massive buildup of U.S. military strength was a sure sign of American determination to live up to its commitment of protecting its allies. "You are not alone," he reassured the German people. Then, after brandishing the big stick, the President spoke softly, repeating his proposals for eliminating intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe and reducing strategic nuclear arms. Reagan also introduced a new peace plan by suggesting that NATO and the Warsaw Pact nations mutually cut back their conventional forces. Referring to the demonstrators, he said, "To those who march for peace, my heart is with you. I would be at the head of your parade if I believed marching alone could bring about a more secure world. . . . The question is how to proceed." The President's speech was interrupted twenty-one times by applause. The peace marchers did what peace marchers do everywhere: They paraded with signs and banners, sang songs and chanted slogans, and listened to impassioned speeches by anti-nuke leaders. Joseph Beuys, Germany's top modern artist and sculptor, entertained the crowd with an ironic song of his own composition: "Sonnenschein Statt Reagan" ("Sunshine Instead of Reagan"—a play upon the German word *regen,* which means "rain"). But there were problems amid all the idealism. The Bonn demonstration was organized by an uneasy alliance of the German Communist Party (DKP) and the Greens, a coalition of young and politically aware environmentalists who define their ideology as an alternative to both capitalism and communism. At one point during the planning stages the Greens pulled out, accusing the DKP of manipulating the event for Moscow's interests. They grudgingly attended the demonstration anyway, but kept a low profile. Peace groups sponsored by the German Lutheran Church stayed home, fearing that the demonstration would appear too anti-American. Peace groups from Holland also stayed away, fearing that the demonstration was too nationalistic. Gerd Bastian, a former general in the West German army who had retired from his post as the commander of a panzer division to stump for peace, was on hand to represent the peace-loving members of the establishment. But radical hecklers interrupted his speech. And another speaker ruefully noted that too many people had come just to enjoy the sunny day. Meanwhile the highly visible Kṛṣṇa devotees chanted the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra constantly during the eight-hour demonstration (to the dismay of some speakers) and distributed delicious sanctified cookies to at least 30,000 people (to the delight of all). They also distributed 20,000 copies of a leaflet entitled *The Peace Formula*, outlining a program for spiritual peace on earth through Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now let's look at the programs presented by President Reagan, the demonstrators, and the devotees of Kṛṣṇa. President Reagan's speech, for all its charm and enthusiasm, was contradictory, in keeping with the Alice-in-Wonderland logic of the arms race itself. It called to mind that favorite cliche of the Vietnam War: "To save the village we must destroy it." To preserve the peace we must build more weapons—and *talk* about disarmament. The Russians have already promised the world that if America boosts its military might, they will follow suit, missile for missile, bomb for bomb. And as both sides increase their already astronomical capacity for overkill, they *talk* about reducing it. As for the peace demonstrators, they clearly showed the flawed premise underlying their materialistic idealism: "We are our bodies, so let's save them." As soon as we define our existence in physical terms, we become entangled in all sorts of dualities: heat and cold, happiness and distress, love and hate, birth and death. The Bonn peace march was beset with a myriad of dualities: Communists versus environmentalists, liberals versus radicals, Germans versus Dutch, young versus old, the serious versus the whimsical—all hoping for peace versus war in an existence of life versus death. Dualities of pleasure and pain, birth and death, peace and war are insurmountable on the bodily platform. Therefore, if we want real peace we must rise above the bodily platform and understand ourselves to be spiritual beings, unchanging and indestructible. We are *not* our bodies; we are eternal spiritual souls living in temporary conglomerations of matter called bodies. This was the message of the Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees on that fine June day in Bonn. We are seeking peace in this human life only because as spiritual entities we hanker for that half-remembered "peace of God, which passeth all understanding." This is the eternal peace of Lord Kṛṣṇa's own spiritual kingdom, where everyone centers his love and his energy on God. In God's kingdom there are no dualities, no pain, no death, no war—only perfect harmony. This harmony and perfect peace are available even in this material world, once we reject the petty distinctions between nations, races, and ideologies (all of which stem from our misidentification with the body) and accept our true oneness as spiritual souls, servants of the Supreme Soul, Kṛṣṇa. Now we are experiencing the duality of matter and spirit because we are out of harmony with Kṛṣṇa's desire. We have forgotten Him by misusing our free will. In this Age of Quarrel, we can reestablish our relationship with Him by the simple, sublime process of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and accepting the Lord's mercy in the form of *prasādam,* vegetarian food offered to the Lord in love. By centering our lives on Kṛṣṇa instead of on the struggle to preserve the ever-dying fleshy covering of the soul, we can experience peace by His grace, even in this material world. Those who argue that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is too simple and naive to solve the complex problems of the world are themselves too complex—they're unwilling to let go of the dualities that bind them. The struggle against the death of the body is hopeless. But hope for peace matures into realization as soon as we take a step in the right direction—away from material duality and toward spiritual reality. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is itself the testing ground of this principle, and the proof of the principle is available for anyone to experience. —Suhotra dāsa ## "The Dream Songs" & Kṛṣṇa’s Song *The shattered life of an American poet impels a young man to search for a way to make his own life whole.* ### By Tattva-Vit Dāsa The poet John Berryman was my teacher at the University of Minnesota the year he jumped from a bridge over the Mississippi and killed himself at the age of fifty-seven. In some respects, his suicide puzzled me. He'd won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his long poem *The Dream Songs,* and he appeared to enjoy his fame and money. We admired our intense Professor Berryman, who would sit, always well dressed, at the head of our seminar table in Ford Hall, chain smoking Pall Malls while he lectured with candor and erudition on the American character. But his personal life was a mess. He'd been through adultery, alcoholism, and two divorces, and for all his achievements he considered his life misspent. I felt shocked by Berryman's suicide, the climax of his abandonment to self-destructive impulses. Along with his various vices, he cultivated a sensibility of insolence toward God, to which he freely admitted in his final poems: > I'm not a good man, I won't ever be, . . . > his great commands have reached me here—to love > my enemy as I love me—which is quite out of the question! > and worse still, to love You with my whole mind— It surprised me that poetry, scholarship, and literary acclaim hadn't made Berryman feel his life was significant. He rejected his unfortunate life on an overcast January day, and his smashed body was recovered near the west bank of the icy river. I wondered if I would end up like him. Both of us were lapsed Catholics, both immersed in academic pursuits. I was planning a scholarly career, and Berryman had generously supported my application to graduate school. Now, with his suicide, I had second thoughts. I belonged to an anti-establishment generation whose quest for peace and pleasure in a youthful counterculture failed as sex, drugs, and alcohol obliterated our ideals. I came to my senses about the time that billboards appeared in Minnesota informing everyone that venereal disease was at an all-time high. Then Minnesota legalized abortion. My reaction to Berryman's death, and to the social chaos I saw around me, was to look inward. I decided that if I wanted to become wise and truly human, I needed to take up some form of spiritual life. So I gave up my plans for graduate school and started searching. I examined *The Dream Songs* for a sense of direction. Despite the dreary bitterness in which Berryman's life ended, I knew that his conscience had been unappeasable. Some of his poems agonize over the modern American delusion that we've achieved civilization as we try to become happy in a world in which God seems absent. Berryman saw appetites gone wild, people without any sense of higher purpose, and an amoral society unwilling to foresee the results of its own nasty behavior. Berryman saw America headed for a dead end, exemplified by racial conflict and the Vietnam War: > So now we see where we are, which is all-over > we're nowhere, son, and suffering we know it, > rapt in delusion, . . . Berryman had searched for the meaning of life in art. He wrote, "All the way through my work is a tendency to regard the individual soul under stress. ... I don't know what the issue is, or how it is to be resolved—the issue of our common human life, . . . but I do think that one way to approach it, by the means of art, ... is by investigating the individual human soul." But his art, "coming out of Homer and Virgil and down through Yeats and Eliot," proved of little use to him. He'd lost faith in the spiritual order of the universe. "My father's suicide when I was twelve blew out my most bright candle faith, and look at me." My own inherited faith resurfaced, however, and I began to broaden my spiritual search by turning back to Catholicism. I considered entering the priesthood. A matronly librarian named Mrs. Peterson, who'd taught me French in high school, advised that if I were going to become a priest I'd better be a good one. We both knew that some priests married or had drinking problems. I even knew of mini-skirted nuns who were developing the knack for social drinking. Mrs. Peterson's warning struck home. I deeply dreaded being a pseudo-renunciant—one who enters the priesthood and then commits abominations. Moreover, I had no faith that Catholicism could give me the strength to lead a good life. In Catholicism you go to a priest to confess your sins and you do your penance, but then you go out and commit the same sins again—only to return for another confession. From practical experience I knew that repeated sinning and atonement hadn't purified my heart of sinful desires. The new goodness, after a certain point, had no longer canceled the previous evil, and eventually I'd given up the charade of atonement entirely. Berryman had had his own peculiar style of atonement. I was in the Newman Center bookstore one evening and purchased a copy of his *Sonnets,* a book about adultery that raises the question of "whether wickedness was soluble in art." Berryman thought so, and he apparently tried to counteract his immorality with artistic merit. But that didn't make his life more tolerable: "At fifty-five half-famous & effective, I still feel rotten about myself." Having found both Berryman and Catholicism lacking, I now turned to the philosophies of the East. I'd studied Asian religions ever since leaving the Church, and now I delved into a serious investigation of **yoga*.* I learned that *yoga* aims at controlling the sensual urges and liberating the spiritual soul from repeated material lives beset by the miseries of birth, old age, disease, and death. Eventually I found that I had some things in common with the Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees, who arrived one day on campus distributing free food and literature. They were practicing *bhakti-*yoga*,* they said, the *yoga* of linking with God through devotional service, and they demonstrated an admirable freedom from materialism. They didn't eat meat, fish, or eggs, and they refrained from intoxicants, including even coffee, tea, and cigarettes. They didn't gamble or have free sex. They lived the Vedic principle that the purpose of life is to surrender to God and realize our eternal relationship with Him. Here, it seemed, was a practical form of spiritual life that really could purify the heart. I started discussing the Kṛṣṇa conscious philosophy with the devotees and reading *Bhagavad-gītā As It Is,* by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. *Bhagavad-gītā* means "the Song of God." It's *Kṛṣṇa*'s song—God's own instructions on the science of self-realization. From reading *Bhagavad-gītā* and talking to the Hare *Kṛṣṇa* devotees, I soon learned the basics of *bhakti-yoga.* I learned that the name *Kṛṣṇa* means "all-attractive" and tells us that God possesses in full all the attractive qualities we have in minute degree: beauty, knowledge, strength, wealth, fame, and renunciation. By definition, no one's qualities equal or excel *Kṛṣṇa*'s, for no one is equal to or greater than God. I found the personal conception of God taught in Kṛṣṇa consciousness to be a revelation. Up till then I'd more or less accepted the idea of God taught by Catholics, who understand that He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent but that's about all. Their understanding of God comes down to something abstract. For them, God has no concretely personal qualities: He's a formless being. Therefore, Catholics have no conception of engaging their senses in satisfying the senses of the Supreme Lord. Of course, priests and nuns renounce the satisfaction of their own senses (at least ostensibly) for "the greater glory of God," but Catholic laymen, like everyone else, want to satisfy their senses, and they pray to God to fulfill their desires. Studying with the Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees, I found it easy to see that because we are all people with forms, God must also be a person with form. But not a perishable, material form like ours. In other words, God has an eternal, spiritual body with eternal, spiritual senses. Unfortunately, because we are frustrated with our temporary, limited, troublesome bodies, we think that for God to be eternal, unlimited, and free from misery He must be formless. But Kṛṣṇa proclaims in the *Bhagavad-gītā* that while He has a form, that form is fundamentally different from ours. While our body is painfully mortal and full of ignorance and misery, Kṛṣṇa's is eternal, full of infinite knowledge and bliss. Śrīla Prabhupāda states in his commentary on *Bhagavad-gītā* that we shouldn't expect Kṛṣṇa to satisfy our senses but should try to satisfy His. Then we will automatically feel satisfied. Since Kṛṣṇa is the root of all existence, the Soul of our souls, satisfying Him through loving devotional service brings a spiritual satisfaction—a true self-satisfaction—far more complete than the flickering satisfaction of the physical senses. Thus a devotee of Kṛṣṇa neither renounces sense activity nor tries to enjoy sense pleasure. Rather, he uses his senses to serve Kṛṣṇa and thus achieves transcendental bliss and detachment from matter. In the *Bhagavad-gītā* (5.21) Kṛṣṇa describes the perfection of devotional *yoga:* "A liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure, but is always in transcendental consciousness, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme." The Catholic doctrine offered an abstract idea of a formless God and no way to transcend material desires, because a God without form, without a concrete personality, is not an object of the senses. If we can't learn what will please God's senses and engage in His service accordingly, then we'll simply use our senses materially. But our constitutional need as spiritual souls, part and parcel of God, is to have a personal loving relationship with Him. Although now we don't know it, our deepest desire is to engage in loving pastimes with Kṛṣṇa, because we're eternally related to Him as devoted servants. So if we are to find spiritual satisfaction in our present materially embodied state, our constitutional need to love Kṛṣṇa must be expressible through our sense activities here and now, in the material sphere. Learning to love Kṛṣṇa by engaging our senses in practical devotional service to God is what Kṛṣṇa consciousness, *bhakti-yoga,* is all about. If our constitutional need to love Kṛṣṇa is misdirected, then no matter how hard we try to enjoy a life centered on family and friends, career and fame. race and nation, or even a stunted conception of God, we're on a self-destructive course. That's a lesson I learned in part from John Berryman and *The Dream Songs:* > Hunger was constitutional with him, women, cigarettes, liquor, need, > need, need, > until he went to pieces, Berryman's artistic efforts and search for truth yielded no ultimate answers. "I have no idea whether we live again. It doesn't seem likely ... If I say Thy name, art thou there? It may be so." Here was a man confessing his ignorance of God. Śrīla Prabhupāda, however, was a fully self-realized soul. Through his *Bhagavad-gītā As It Is* he convinced me to try to realize my self by practicing *bhakti-yoga,* beginning with the chanting of the holy names of God: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Chanting these names, the *Vedas* declare, is the most effective method of self-realization in the present degraded age. *The Dream Songs* reveals a desperate man, a poor soul plagued by the ills of lust and mortality. I feel deeply grateful that I met another teacher, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who was unaffected by those ills and who offered me the invaluable cure for them in the form of Kṛṣṇa's song. Now, at last, I feel I'm waking up from the nightmare that consumed Professor Berryman. ## The Yoga Dictionary *The Sanskrit language is rich in words to communicate ideas about spiritual life,* yoga, *and God realization. This dictionary, appearing by installments in BACK TO GODHEAD, focuses upon the most important of these words (and, occasionally, upon relevant English terms) and explains what they mean..* Caittya-guru—the Supreme Lord acting as the spiritual master within one's own heart. As Lord Kṛṣṇa says in *Bhagavad-gītā,* He is seated within the heart of every living being, and it is by His grace that we can receive transcendental knowledge (or materialistic illusion, if that is what we desire). When we sincerely search for self-realization, or try to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, Kṛṣṇa acts from within our own heart to help us. He does this by guiding us in such a way that we come in touch with His representative, His pure devotee. By the mercy of Kṛṣṇa and the mercy of the pure devotee, we get the seed of devotional service, which matures into a plant that gives forth the fruit of love of Godhead. The more we sincerely serve Kṛṣṇa according to the instructions of His pure devotee, the more Kṛṣṇa gives us transcendental intelligence from within our heart so that we can progress in spiritual life and ultimately go back to Him. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita—the *brāhmaṇa* who acted as advisor and prime minister to the Indian king Candragupta (c. 321–296 B.C.). Cāṇakya is the author of the well-known *Cāṇakya-slokas,* a book of moral aphorisms. Examples: > Dressed in fine cloth, > A fool can dazzle us from a distance— > Until he speaks. > If you want wisdom, give up sense pleasure. > If you want sense pleasure, stop looking for wisdom. > How can a hedonist acquire knowledge? > How can a seeker enjoy his senses? > What good is scripture > If you have no insight? > What good is a mirror > If you have no eyes? Cārvāka Muni—"Beg, borrow, or steal, but somehow get *ghee* [fine clarified butter] so that you can eat well and enjoy. Seek pleasure in this life, and don't worry about any karmic reactions you might suffer in the next. There is no next life. When you die, everything's over. Your body turns to ashes, and then you no longer exist." Such are the doctrines of Cārvāka, an ancient Indian teacher. Almost nothing is known of Cārvāka himself, but his ideas live on, and materialists everywhere will feel themselves right at home with his philosophy. Caste—To make a complex topic simple: The teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa divide human society into four divisions (or "castes," if you will), according to people's personal qualities and the work people do. These divisions are the *brāhmaṇas* (the intelligentsia), the *kṣatriyas* (the social administrators and the military), the *vaiśyas* (farmers and tradesmen), and the *śūdras* (ordinary workers). Lord Kṛṣṇa says that people work these four ways all over the world, and He tells how to organize society so that these four kinds of people can work together harmoniously for both material and spiritual progress. Unless organized along these lines, people will find themselves unemployed, struggling with jobs they can't handle, or bored with jobs they can barely put up with. People won't know what they should do and what they shouldn't. The result: social turmoil. So each person, according to his personal qualities, should have his own work to do, and he should do it for the satisfaction of God. But there shouldn't be hereditary barriers to hold people back. That's where Lord Kṛṣṇa's social system differs from the social system we find in India today. The system of "caste by birth" imposes false, material social structures on Lord Kṛṣṇa's spiritual social plan. Cāturmāsya—The rainy season in India lasts from about July through October, and this four-month period is called Cāturmāsya. During this time, saintly persons who wander from place to place stay steadily in one place, and all of Kṛṣṇa's devotees try to strengthen their spiritual determination by giving up some of the pleasures to which their senses are usually accustomed. Basically, the way they do this is by eating more simply and by fasting from certain kinds of food. In the first month they fast from spinach, in the second from yogurt, in the third from milk, and in the fourth from *urad dāl* (a kind of protein-rich bean). If you want to become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, following these simple austerities will help you progress more quickly to your goal. ## Śrīla Prabhupāda Speaks Out *Modern Civilization: A Deluxe Edition of Animal Life* *The following conversation between His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and a life member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness took place in August 1976 on an early-morning walk in Hyderabad, India.* Member: What is your view on birth control by contraception? Śrīla Prabhupāda: That is the most sinful activity. Birth control should be done by restraining sex. Member: That is one way. Śrīla Prabhupāda: That is the only way approved in the *śāstra* [scriptures]. All other ways are sinful. Member: But people are committing sinful activities like contraception and abortion. What will happen to them? Śrīla Prabhupāda: They will suffer. Those who are killing children in the womb will themselves be killed. They will enter into a mother's womb and be killed. They will be punished, tit for tat. But that they do not know. These rascals have no education about the laws of nature. They're acting very independently, but Kṛṣṇa says in the *Bhagavad-gītā* [3.27], *ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate:* Those who think they can act independently of nature are *vimūḍhas,* rascals. They will be punished by the laws of nature, just like a thief who defies the laws of the government. Member: What is the qualification of someone fit to have children? Śrīla Prabhupāda: The husband and wife should not have a child unless they can take full responsibility for saving him from the repetition of birth and death. This is the śāstric injunction—*pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt . . . na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum.* In the material world everyone is rotating in the cycle of birth and death, transmigrating from one body to another *(tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ).* And after many millions of years, one gets the chance to become a human being. Now, in this life, one can stop birth and death. That is Vedic culture—learning how to conquer the process of repeated birth and death *(punar-janma-jaya).* But that is possible only in human life. So the parents' duty is to train their children in such a way that their present birth is their last. And that training is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Unfortunately, people are ignorant of this science. So both parents and children are staying in the cycle of birth and death and wasting the opportunity of having a human body. This is modern civilization. People do not know this science; they are kept in darkness. Their so-called education is useless, because they do not learn what the destination of life is *(na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum).* Practically speaking, there is no education. The modern so-called education teaches you how to eat nicely, how to sleep nicely, how to have sex nicely, and how to defend nicely. And that is the business of the animals. They know how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex, and how to defend. So the extra intelligence of the human being is making a deluxe edition of eating, sleeping, sex, and defense. The modern civilization is a deluxe edition of animal life. That's all. Member: But many people would insist that the material progress of present-day society makes life worthwhile. Śrīla Prabhupāda: What will you do with your material progress at the time of death? Suppose you have a big bank balance, a nice house, good friends. At any moment death can come and kick you out. What can you do? *Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham:* as death, Kṛṣṇa will come one day and take everything you have. Finished. And He may make you a dog. Now bark. How can you stop it? You have practiced how to bark in the legislative assembly. Now become a dog and go on barking—yow, yow, yow! This is going on. No one knows the purpose of life. As Kṛṣṇa says in the **Bhagavad-gītā*, asatyam apratiṣṭham te jagad āhur anīśvaram.* People are claiming this world is false *(asatyam),* there is no cause *(apratiṣṭham),* there is no God *(anīśvaram).* So the modern civilization denies God, yet it is still trying to mitigate the miseries of life. But *Bhagavad-gītā* proposes that first of all you should try to understand what your real misery is. Do you know what the real misery of your life is? What is the misery of your life? Member: The misery of life is to live without divine knowledge. Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. The real misery of life is that while you are an eternal soul, with no birth or death, you are suffering repeated birth and death of the body. Therefore birth and death are your real miseries *(janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam)*. This is knowledge. But people have no brain to understand these things. Kṛṣṇa clearly says, *na jāyate mriyate vā:* "For the soul there is neither birth nor death." But the rascals never think, "Why am I suffering birth? Why am I dying?" Where is their education? They are struggling to get free of misery, but they don't know what their actual misery is. They foolishly engage in the struggle for existence and hope for the survival of the fittest. Member: The theory of the survival of the *fit*test may be applicable in our case because *fit* means— Śrīla Prabhupāda: *Fit* means "not getting another material body." That is being fit, because as soon as you get another material body you must suffer. People are mad, working day and night, but they are acting adversely to their own interest. You already have a body that is causing you suffering, and by your *karma,* your fruitive work, you are creating another body. And as soon as you get another material body, you'll have to suffer, whether you become a king or a dog. People have no brain to solve this problem, although there is a solution. *Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti:* Kṛṣṇa says in *Bhagavad-gītā* that if you understand Him in truth, you can get out of the cycle of birth and death and go back to Godhead—no more birth and death. So you have become our life member. Try to broadcast the philosophy of *Bhagavad-gītā.* That is the meaning of membership. Everything is there in *Bhagavad-gītā.* Thoroughly study *Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.* Understand the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, apply it in your own life, and try to spread it among your friends. ## Every Town and Village ### A look at the worldwide activities of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) *All-Kṛṣṇa Radio Station Can Reach 2½ Million* Florence, Italy—Any time of the day or night, 2.5 million people here and in surrounding cities can tune in the Kṛṣṇa conscious news, music, philosophy, and culture broadcast by Radio Krishna Centrale, Italy's first all-Kṛṣṇa radio station. Owned and operated by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Radio Krishna Centrale was conceived and developed by Kṛṣṇa Caitanya dāsa (formerly Claudio Rocci), a nationally famous singer-songwriter. One of the most popular shows, *Beati Voi,* fills the air waves for three hours every afternoon. Kṛṣṇa Caitanya plays cuts from popular songs, movies, or TV shows and then gives a Kṛṣṇa conscious commentary. Other regular features include a show for children, a course on Vedic cooking, and classes on the *Bhagavad-gītā.* *Devotees Feed Thousands at Festival in Bengal* Panihati, West Bengal, India—Each year just before spring begins, tens of thousands of pilgrims flock to this village on the Ganges to observe a festival called the Cida-dadhi Mahotsava. This celebration, commemorating a similar one five hundred years ago, features a bath in the sacred Ganges and the partaking of chipped-rice-with-yogurt *(ciḍā-dadhi)* that has been first offered to Kṛṣṇa. This year the ISKCON devotees were at the festival, distributing the chipped-rice-with-yogurt free to thousands. The devotees also erected a huge tent, where Śrīla Jayapatākā Swami, one of the spiritual masters in the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, sang Bengali songs glorifying Kṛṣṇa and spoke on Kṛṣṇa consciousness by the hour. More than two thousand people came forward to enroll in the movement's Nāma-haṭṭa program, thus joining thousands of other Bengali villagers who have agreed to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa *mantra* on beads every day and follow basic devotional principles. *Washington Monument Is Site of Ratha-yātrā Festival* Washington, D.C.—On August 21 the Washington Monument, site of massive peace and civil rights demonstrations in the 60's, became the site of the world's most famous religious celebration—Ratha-yātrā, the Festival of the Chariots. Devotees from the Potomac, Maryland, Hare Kṛṣṇa center organized the event with the help of others from centers throughout the Northeast. At noon, three colossal chariots bearing the Deity forms of Lord Jagannātha, Lord Balarāma, and Śrīmatī Subhadrā began rolling down the Washington Mall amid a sea of dancing devotees chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa *mantra.* From the Capitol building the parade went along the 1.2-mile route to the spectacular festival grounds at the Washington Monument. Featured at the festival were world-renowned Indian classical violinist L. Subramaniam and *tabla* drum player Alia Rakha, plus a full-course feast of vegetarian food offered to Kṛṣṇa and a broad array of cultural displays: video shows, fine art and sculptural exhibits, photo and philosophy panels, and a special booth dedicated to the festival's theme—"World Peace Through Kṛṣṇa Consciousness." *Holiday Inn Promotes Tour Of Prabhupāda's Palace* New Vrindaban, West Virginia—The Holiday Inn in nearby Wheeling is now promoting a tour package that includes admission to Prabhupāda's Palace of Gold, the memorial the devotees here built for the founder and spiritual guide of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. The package also covers lunch at the newly opened Palace restaurant. West Virginia's officialdom has also recognized the Palace. The state's Travel Development Department recently announced that last year only four other attractions in West Virginia drew more visitors. And in a meeting with Mahābuddhi dāsa, the general manager of the Palace, Governor John D. Rockefeller IV said, "I have no doubt now of the tremendous drawing power the Palace of Gold has for tourism in West Virginia." The governor backed up his praise with a pledge to push for much-needed repairs on New Vrindaban's main road. ## Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Cuisine *The Last Word in Health Food* Far above the fray of contending nutritionists, devotees simply eat food offered to Kṛṣṇa *and* enjoy physical *and* spiritual health. ### by Viśākhā-devī dāsī While researching for this feature, I consistently find that nutritionists clash on all fronts. “Cow’s milk is not suitable for human consumption… Milk causes constipation, biliousness, coated tongue, headache… ” “As a daily guide, adults should take two or more glasses of fresh milk …” “Saturated fatty acids are not needed in the diet at all.” “A rational fat consumption … balances saturated and unsaturated fats … .” “The vitamins and minerals contained in natural foods are much more usable than those derived from other sources.” “The body cannot distinguish in any way between a vitamin from a plant or animal and the same vitamin from a laboratory.” And on it goes. But for most of us it really doesn’t mater that the experts disagree, since we have only a hazy and haphazard interest in the nutritional value of the food we eat, anyway. Generally we eat what we like to eat, we eat what we’ve always eaten, and we eat what’s available without too much trouble. And, provided we’re fairly healthy, we don’t concern ourselves about it much more than that. There’s a minority, however, that is concerned—about pesticides and chemical additives, about high calorie and cholesterol counts, and about food industries that create their products with high profit margins in mind rather than health and nutrition. Devotees of Lord Krishna stand worlds apart from both groups: those who choose their food by habit, and the conscientious health and diet fans. Śrīla Prabhupāda asks, “By whom are you being taught what is healthy and what is not healthy? What is you authority? Actually this ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ is a material consideration. We are simply interested in what Krishna wants. So we offer Him whatever He wants to eat. And He asks for food prepared from grains, milk and milk products, vegetables, and fruits.” A nondevotee eats what he deems tasty or healthy. But what is tasty for one is unpalatable for another, and what is healthy for one is poison for another. A devotee doesn't hover in this way, on the sensual and mental platforms. He eats only what's been offered to Kṛṣṇa, and he offers Kṛṣṇa only what Kṛṣṇa likes. And by the Lord's arrangement, the staple foods He likes make a perfectly nourishing and balanced diet. For example, on an average day a devotee might breakfast on fruit, hot milk or yogurt, cereal, a little ginger root, and some chickpeas. For lunch: rice, *dāl* (bean soup), *capātīs* (unleavened bread), and vegetables. And in the evening: fruit, hot milk, and a light snack. Now, if you were to analyze this diet for its nutritional content (which we can't do here for lack of space), you'd find it has all the protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, fiber, fat, and minerals you need for good health. You'd find that it has enough calories to maintain your weight, but not so many as to give you unwanted and unsightly bulges. You'd find it low in cholesterol, as well as sugar and salt. You'd find it economical, tasty, and full of variety. (For example, there are fifty common vegetables you can combine with milk products, grains, spices, and herbs, and then bake, steam, saute or fry. The range of flavor, texture, aroma, and color is astonishing.) To put it simply, you would find the devotee's daily diet ideal by modern standards of nutrition, economics, and eating pleasure. And because it's been formulated by the ideal person, Lord Kṛṣṇa, and the dishes have been offered to Him, you'd also find that it helps you advance spiritually. A devotee doesn’t offer Kṛṣṇa food cooked by someone who's materially motivated, who's in it for the money. The proper mood in cooking for Kṛṣṇa is one of gratitude and love: "My Lord has kindly provided these ingredients, so let me combine them and cook them in such a way that He will be pleased." Thus in one easy step the devotee is saved from all the health hazards and empty calories that accompany processed, precooked junk food. In the past few months we've presented recipes for rices, *dāl* soups, whole-wheat bread, and vegetables. And in the near future we'll be presenting elegant side dishes—homemade snacks, savories, and desserts—that are ideal for special days and special guests. You'll find Kṛṣṇa conscious dishes to fit any occasion, any mood, any time, and any person—dishes that can fully satisfy a child or a connoisseur, a nutritionist or a fast-food addict, a dieter or a football fullback. All you need to make these dishes are a few simple ingredients and a little practice. By preparing and offering these wholesome foods, we step beyond the world of mundane wrangling, of charts and percentages and profit motives, and quietly enter another world—a world where Kṛṣṇa stands supreme, where He enjoys our cooking and offering and appreciates our love and devotion. And in this world, unlike ours, there is no disease, no old age, and no death. What could be healthier? (Recipes by Yamunā-devī dāsī) In the Vedic tradition, *raita* is a name given to a wide range of raw or semicooked fruit and vegetable salads. These simple, easy-to-prepare salads provide a light, cooling contrast to the elaborately seasoned, cooked preparations of the luncheon or evening meal. A *raita* generally features one or two main ingredients that float in lightly seasoned, creamy fresh yogurt. Serve *raita*s in small bowls, allowing ½ cup per serving. *Chopped Spinach in Yogurt* *(Palak Raita)* Chopped spinach is marbled in yogurt to form this colorful, delicious *raita.* > Preparation time: 20 minutes > Servings: 5 or 6 > ¾ pound fresh spinach > 1 ½ cups natural yogurt (or 1 ¼ cups yogurt and ¼ cup cream) > 1 teaspoon cumin seeds > 1/8 teaspoon Kashmiri cumin seeds, if available > 1 teaspoon salt > Ÿ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1. Wash the spinach; sort out and remove the thick stems. Steam the leaves on a metal rack above boiling water for ten to twelve minutes. Remove, cool slightly, press out the water, and chop very finely. 2. Heat the cumin seeds and Kashmiri cumin seeds (if available) in a dry, heavy iron pan over a low flame, tossing and roasting for approximately 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove and crush to a coarse powder. Add the salt and pepper. 3. Whisk the yogurt in a medium-size bowl until creamy. Add all the ingredients and mix well before offering to Kṛṣṇa. *Sliced Bananas in Creamy Yogurt* *(Kela Raita)* With a hint of heat from fresh green chilies and a hint of sweet from ripe bananas, this *raita* has an intriguing combination of textures, colors, and flavors. > Preparation time: 10 minutes > Servings: 4 or 5 > 1 ¼ cups natural yogurt > ¾ teaspoon salt > 2 smallish, firm ripe bananas, peeled and cut diagonally to make slices 1/8 inch thick > 1 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil or ghee (clarified butter) > ¼ to 1 small hot green chili, seeded and cut into paper-thin julienne strips > 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds > 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint leaves 1. Whisk the yogurt, salt, and finely chopped mint leaves in a small bowl and then fold in the sliced bananas. 2. Heat the ghee or vegetable oil in a small saucepan over a medium flame until it is hot. (A drop of water flicked into it should sputter instantly.) Add the mustard seeds. When they pop and crackle, remove the pan from the heat. Toss in the strips of green chili, swirl and tilt the pan, and then pour the seasoning into the yogurt. Blend well and then cover. 3. Refrigerate for at least one hour before offering to Kṛṣṇa. *Carrots, Cashews, and Dates in Yogurt* (*Gajar-Kaju Raita*) This colorful, naturally sweet *raita* is healthful and pleasing when a cool dish is required. Adjust the amount of sweetener according to the tartness of the fresh yogurt. > Preparation time: 10 minutes > Servings: 5 or 6 > 2 medium-size sweet carrots, peeled and shredded > 5 pitted dates, sliced into thin round pieces > ¼ cup chopped cashew nuts, dry-roasted or fried > 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg > 2 tablespoons honey > 1 ¼ cups natural yogurt 1. Remove all excess water from the shredded carrots by pressing handfuls between your palms. 2. Combine all the ingredients in a 1-quart bowl and blend well. Refrigerate for about one hour before offering to Kṛṣṇa. Sliced Cucumbers and Tomato Cubes In Yogurt *(Kakri Raita)* > Preparation time: 10 minutes > Servings: 5 or 6 > 1 medium-size cucumber > 2 teaspoons salt > 1 medium-size, firm ripe tomato, cut into ½-inch cubes > 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander or parsley leaves > ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper > ¼ teaspoon garam masala, if available (try an Indian grocery) > 1 teaspoon cumin seeds > 1 ¼ cups natural yogurt > 1 tablespoon sliced almonds > 1 tablespoon currants 1. Dry roast the cumin seeds and crush them coarsely. Whisk the yogurt. 2. Peel the cucumbers, quarter them lengthwise, cut out the seeds, and slice thinly crosswise. Sprinkle the slices with 1 teaspoon salt, mix well, and set aside for 6 to 10 minutes. Then gently squeeze the cucumbers between your palms to remove excess liquid. 3. Combine the tomatoes, cucumbers, black pepper, *garam masala,* and roasted cumin seeds in a bowl. Pour in the yogurt and salt and gently blend. Pour into individual serving dishes or a serving bowl and sprinkle the surface with almonds and currants. Offer to Kṛṣṇa immediately, or chill if desired. ## Spiritual Places *A Special Temple In The Land Of Kṛṣṇa* In Vrindavan, India, the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma project shines with the mood of pure devotion to God. ### by Yogeśvara dāsa I first learned about Vṛndāvana from my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who at seventy had come from Vṛndāvana to the streets of New York to found, in 1966, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. I remember once sitting with him years later in Rome. He had already established many temples in the West, but few of his disciples, myself included, had visited Vṛndāvana, the town ninety miles south of present-day Delhi where Kṛṣṇa enacted His childhood pastimes some fifty centuries ago. When I asked him what it was like, he smiled and said, "Oh, it is such a wonderful place that I did not want to leave. But then I thought, 'Why should I be so selfish? Let me bring Vṛndāvana to the West and share it with you.' " To that end Śrīla Prabhupāda dedicated his every moment. He spread the glories of Vṛndāvana not by encouraging tourism to India but by teaching the Vṛndāvana mood of pure devotion to Lord Kṛṣṇa. In the *Bhagavad-gītā* Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself describes that mood as "the most secret of all secrets," the treasure hidden inside India's vast scriptural library, and the full, ultimate blossoming of the human spirit. Śrīla Prabhupāda knew how difficult it would be for visitors—especially Westerners steeped in their habits of empiric judgment—to understand the esoteric mood of Vṛndāvana, for the city is decrepit by Western standards and many temple *paṇḍitas* close their doors to foreigners. So in 1971 he initiated construction of the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple. Here, in relative comfort and opulence, visitors can learn the true secret of this ancient city. Here they can enter into the Vṛndāvana mood. * * * Five hundred years ago, according to scriptural references, Kṛṣṇa appeared in Bengal as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and inaugurated a renaissance in devotion to Himself. Through philosophical discourses and public chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa *mantra.* Lord Caitanya established *bhakti* (devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa) as the essence of the Vedic literature and the very goal of human life. Before Lord Caitanya's advent, faulty scriptural interpretations had brought *bhakti* into disrepute, and the sacred city of Vṛndāvana had become unmanifest—it now seemed little more than some open fields in northern India. Eager to revive the city, Lord Caitanya empowered His principal disciples, the Six Gosvāmīs, to begin reconstruction and simultaneously to compile books on the science of *bhakti*. Lord Caitanya's purpose was to create in Vṛndāvana an atmosphere in which one could feel and imbibe the spirit of pure love for God. This purpose the Six Gosvāmīs fulfilled. Unfortunately, in recent years so-called priests known as caste *gosvāmīs,* claiming to be direct descendants of Lord Caitanya, have neglected that spirit. They have privately introduced demigod worship (although no genuine devotees of Kṛṣṇa take part in this) and have allowed their sectarian proprietorship over temples to replace their duty of receiving everyone, regardless of background, and encouraging devotion to Kṛṣṇa through proper instruction. The Vṛndāvana mood is one of giving, not possessing, and such small-minded practices have compromised this mood. Although the caste *gosvāmīs* are only a small minority of Vṛndāvana's temple leaders, their influence has had grave consequences. Since Kṛṣṇa's temples have been treated as material objects, their sanctity has been ignored. Walls crumble and go unrepaired, sanitation remains hopelessly inadequate. Perhaps most distressing for devotees is that many residents of Vṛndāvana are now unaware of the greatness of their heritage because of inadequate or inaccurate instruction. As a result, although many people traveling between Agra (the Taj Mahal) and Delhi stop in Vṛndāvana to sightsee, they miss the real point. Between 1959 and 1965. Śrīla Prabhupāda resided in Vṛndāvana, in a small room at the Rādhā-Dāmodara temple, translating the Sanskrit texts that would form the foundation of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. At last, at seventy years of age, he set out for the West to broadcast the message of Lord Kṛṣṇa: All living beings are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, and the goal of human life is to revive our lost relationship with Him and return to His spiritual kingdom, the original Vṛndāvana, known as Goloka-Vṛndāvana. Before he passed away in Vṛndāvana in 1977, Śrīla Prabhupāda urged his disciples (now several thousand strong) to take seriously their duty of preaching the glories of Vṛndāvana all over the world. The secret of Vṛndāvana is that it is not different from Kṛṣṇa Himself. So a visit to Vṛndāvana is a direct experience of the eternal spiritual world. The Vedic literature describes that everything connected with the Lord is as worshipable as He, for it partakes of His spiritual nature. A piece of cloth worn by the Deity or a pinch of dust from the land of Vṛndāvana is often kept in a container on a temple altar and worshiped. Just as Kṛṣṇa is glorious and worshipable, Kṛṣṇa's abode—Vṛndāvana—is glorious and worshipable. The trees, the roads, the rivers, the peacocks—everything is of the same spiritual nature as Kṛṣṇa Himself. When Kṛṣṇa descends to this material world, His spiritual kingdom also descends, just as an entourage accompanies an important head of state. So devotees do not consider Vṛndāvana part of the material world, and they take shelter there with full faith that they are living in Kṛṣṇa's own abode. Another reason Vṛndāvana is glorious is that Kṛṣṇa's divine qualities reveal themselves here in full. Love of God in Vṛndāvana is devoid of the awe and reverence generally equated with devotion in Western religions. The unique mood of Vṛndāvana is pure attachment to Kṛṣṇa without reverence or personal motive. There is a particular glory to that part of Vṛndāvana called Ramana-retī. The name literally means "pleasurable sands," or, as Śrīla Prabhupāda described it, "the shimmering silver sands" where the Lord enjoyed pastimes as a cowherd boy with His brother Balarāma and Their friends. It was here that Śrīla Prabhupāda chose to build the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma project. The location was ideal, but for the glories of Vṛndāvana to be properly broadcast, the project would have to be built and expanded by expert devotees who understood the Vṛndāvana mood. Śrīla Prabhupāda envisioned a team of fully surrendered devotees who would rebuild the city—starting with Ramana-retī—and inspire others to carry that devotional spirit to all corners of the globe. The devotees of the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma project have worked hard to fulfill Śrīla Prabhupāda's vision. Their success is visible in the progress of constant construction and expansion, in the vitality of the international *gurukula* school, in the hundreds of guests from around the world who visit each month after hearing of the project. It is there in the constant chanting of the holy names, in the mass distribution of *prasādam* (sanctified foods offered to the Deities of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma), and in the consummate devotional practices. In fact, there is no higher standard of worship anywhere in Vṛndāvana. *Pūjārīs* (temple attendants) from other temples come to study the standard set by Oṁkara dāsa, head *pūjārī* at the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple. "I try to instill a real sense of personalism in the Deity worship," French-born Oṁkāra says. "After all, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Person. *Pūjārīs* must learn to care for Him as such, with love and devotion. That is what pleases Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, just reciting *mantras* and going through the motions—ritual, that's all." In Vṛndāvana and surrounding villages, devotees live happily by protecting cows and cultivating simple crops. Kṛṣṇa Himself showed how an agricultural economy based on cow protection could solve all economic problems. Bulls pull the plow, dried cow dung serves as fuel for heating, cooking, and even electricity, and cow's milk of course is a staple food from which hundreds of other preparations can be made. Guṇārṇava dāsa, the Welsh-born president of the Vṛndāvana project, remembers when the temple acquired its first cow. "Śrīla Prabhupāda told me back in 1972 that his disciples in India were getting sick from drinking buffalo milk. It was necessary, he said, that we produce our own cow's milk. So I saved up a few rupees and bought two cows. Now there are nearly seventy in our *gośāla* [dairy complex], and some government officials who recently came to inspect said this was the best *gośāla* in the whole Agra district. That's because the cows know they are loved and protected and in return they give abundant milk, just as when Kṛṣṇa was present." The *gośāla,* a mile down the road from the main temple, resounds with the cooing of peacocks and wild parrots. Time seems to stand still here, and that may be a mixed blessing: while invoking Kṛṣṇa's presence with its tranquility, the country-resort-like atmosphere can lead to lethargy. "Staying in Vṛndāvana can be both agony and ecstasy," says Dutch-born Surabhīr-abhipālayantam Swami. Architect for many ISKCON projects, including the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple, he has spent the last ten years traveling extensively throughout India. "In one sense, the very deep relationship between the individual and God that is nourished in Vṛndāvana is just too high for most people to grasp. Without great spiritual insight, you can fall asleep here. So Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us a varied program of worship and practical service. Actually, he wanted *gosvāmīs* [advanced, renounced devotees] to run our temple in Vṛndāvana, people one hundred percent committed to Vṛndāvana, like the Six Gosvāmīs. Of course, the original *gosvāmīs* are still known and accepted by scholars as the founders of the Vaiṣṇava [devotional] renaissance, but the concept of how *bhakti* can be applied in the world today—that was Śrīla Prabhupāda's specific contribution. He translated Lord Caitanya's vision into a contemporary, international language." Surabhi Swami envisions great things for the future. His main project now is building on the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma grounds an elaborate *samādhi* tomb, a memorial to Śrīla Prabhupāda, whose body is interred near the entrance to the temple. In addition, Surabhi Swami has planned several more guesthouses (the present one can receive up to 250 visitors), a theater for devotional dramas, another building for the *gurukula* school, expansion of the *gośāla* into a full-fledged dairy farm with the biggest cow protection program in all of India, and more renovation efforts elsewhere in Vṛndāvana. "It will start here," he says, "from Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. Then we can extend the Kṛṣṇa culture around the world." That expansive ambition seems to pervade the project. Nobody thinks small at Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. American-born Dhanurdhara Swami, who holds a degree in education from the State University of New York and is headmaster of the Bhaktivedanta Gurukula at Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma, sees the school as Vṛndāvana’s gift to the future. “It may be India’s traditional system of education, but it is meant for the whole world,” he says. “In this country we receive great encouragement, because people are aware of the importance of spiritual training for young people. During the hot summer months we take the boys traveling all over India, and people constantly shower us with gifts and invitations to their homes. They feel honored to receive *gurukula* students, whom they see as the spiritual leaders of tomorrow.” In addition to standard academic instruction, *gurukula* students learn devotional arts. Bhaktisiddhānta dāsa, who met devotees while studying art in Italy on a U.S. Government fellowship, directs the crafts workshops in Vṛndāvana. Trained as a professional painter and sculptor, he finds working in Vṛndāvana both materially and spiritually advantageous. “The traditional arts evolve from realization,” he explains. “In Vṛndāvana, an artist is surrounded by Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental world, so the inspiration for making art happen is always around us. Not only for its inception, but for its meaning and growth as well. Also, primary materials are in abundance, so production costs are lower than anywhere else I know of. It's an ideal combination." Bhaktisiddhānta has taken part in the expansion of the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma complex for more than five years, acting as draftsman in the arduous task of translating concepts into detailed architectural plans. He is Surabhi Swami's chief assistant on the *samādhi* construction. Apart from the hundreds of European and American devotees who come to visit Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma twice a year during traditional festivals, tourists constantly fill the guesthouse and vegetarian restaurant, which are considered Vṛndāvana's finest. The Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma devotees bend over backwards to make their guests feel as comfortable as possible. Indian-born Tapo-maya dāsa, manager of the guesthouse, generally has to bend a little more than the others. "A pilgrimage doesn't have to be a great austerity," he says. "Many people just wouldn't come if there were no guesthouse." He proudly pulls out the house's guest book. Comments such as "a memorable visit" and "a very cordial stay" are signed by government officials, university scholars, and a few notable celebrities from the stage and screen. Cuban-born Kṛta-karmā dāsa, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma's vice-president, reflects on the project's mosaic of nationalities. "Śrīla Prabhupāda broadcast Vṛndāvana's glories through his books, which have gone out by the millions around the world. That is why we receive so many nationalities here. Sometimes, in our *Bhagavad-gītā* classes, we have to translate into five languages. Among the devotees living here are Americans, Italians, Indians, Swiss, and Canadians. The leader of our chanting party is the son of the British attache to Israel. Our registrar is from Scotland. As for me, well, we get a lot of Russian visitors, and they are often surprised to find a Cuban who has renounced the materialism of the West to take to spiritual life. This is really a United Nations of the spiritual world." Kṛta-karmā tells about an elderly man from Damascus who had received an Arabic translation of Śrīla Prabhupāda's *Bhagavad-gītā* and decided that to find spiritual life and God he would have to see India. "Not just anywhere in India," Kṛta-karmā recalls, "but Vṛndāvana. He came and spent practically the whole time here at Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. Of course he visited the many temples and holy places, which is only proper, but like many others he soon realized that at Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Śrīla Prabhupāda has built an oasis of pure spiritual life. There are no caste distinctions here, no decay from negligence—nothing but devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. Naturally, Kṛṣṇa is everywhere in Vṛndāvana, but here His presence is distinct and clear." Surabhi Swami adds, "I remember my own initial contact with devotees, when I was first coming around to the temple in Amsterdam. Everyone there spoke so eloquently about this magical place called Vṛndāvana that I decided I had to go and find out for myself whether everything they were saying was true. I think that's what Śrīla Prabhupāda had in mind for the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma project: a confirmation that the spiritual world really does exist." After you speak with the devotees, your vision of Vṛndāvana changes. The squalor fades and a sense of transcendence emerges. To enhance that sensation, sit in the marble courtyard of the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple and listen to the Sanskrit and Bengali poetry the devotees sing while playing *mṛdaṅga* drums and small brass cymbals. Watch the constant flow of visitors, or go chanting in the afternoon with the sixty children of the *gurukula* through the streets and marketplaces of the city. Gradually the Vṛndāvana mood sets in, and one begins to appreciate some of the glories of this wonderful place, Vṛndāvana. ## Letters We welcome your letters. Write to BACK TO GODHEAD 51 West Allens Lane Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19119 Could you answer some questions of mine? I have been a life member of your movement for six years and have read every book by Śrīla Prabhupāda. I've visited many temples the world over and I've read every BACK TO GODHEAD magazine for the last twelve years. I would like to know why you never seem to write articles on Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the black community? I've seen so many talented black devotees. I feel you owe it to yourselves to do some articles about them. I have also met Bhakti-tīrtha Swami, who I thought and think to be a great pure soul. I feel you should at least do a full-length article about him, not just a news story. I feel that this would enliven black people by helping them to see that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is international and not restricted to a particular class of people. I also wish to request more articles on Latin people. I've visited many temples in South America. Why not do an article on Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Latin America? You've done some on Australia, New Zealand, Paris, Germany, etc. Why not some articles on the two classes of people I have mentioned? D.A. Cooper San Francisco, California OUR REPLY: Thank you for your suggestions, especially the one about Bhakti-tīrtha Swami. He's on the move so much it's hard to catch up with him. But as soon as we can we'd love to run an article on him. Within the last several years, we *have* published articles on Latin America—"The Saṅkīrtaneros of Mexico" and "The Kṛṣṇa Culture Comes to Latin America," to mention just two. And just after you wrote us we published '"A Great Fortune for the People of Trinidad,'" an article about how black devotees in that Caribbean island opened a new temple. In a higher sense, of course, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa knows that the color of someone's skin is no more important than the color of his shirt. He sees the inner self, the soul, which is neither black nor white nor Latino. According to the *Bhagavad-gītā,* each of us, regardless of what kind of body we have, is a spiritual soul, a part of Kṛṣṇa eternally related to Him as a loving servant. Here at BACK TO GODHEAD, this spiritual identity concerns us more than what percentage of black, white, or Latino faces appears on our pages. * * * I have received your magazine for many years, and I always look forward each month to receiving such a wonderful magazine in my mail. Without this magazine I have no spiritual life; it's like a life raft in the ocean of materialism. Raymond Spahn Mt. Shasta, California ## Akiñcana Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja Passes Away On April 12, 1982, at about 8 p.m., Akincana Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja passed away from this world. A pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he was a disciple of Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Goswami Mahārāja. Thus he was also a Godbrother of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the founder and spiritual preceptor of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda himself had spoken of Kṛṣṇadāsa as *niṣkiñcana,* "having no material attachments," and *paramahaṁsa,* "a swanlike pure devotee." In November of 1977, just a few days before Śrīla Prabhupāda himself had passed away, Kṛṣṇadāsa had come to visit him. Kṛṣṇadāsa would chant for a while, talk with Śrīla Prabhupāda, and sometimes break into laughter, even while everyone else in the room was somber and silent. Because Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī had a transcendental viewpoint, he did not mourn or feel morose; he knew that Śrīla Prabhupāda was always with Kṛṣṇa in this life and would be with Him in the next. Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja was a great well-wisher to Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciples. And when they would ask him questions, his usual answer was "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare." Although highly educated in the schools of his native Bengal and fluent in English, he spoke English only rarely. Mostly, he just kept chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes when a devotee would offer him respect by bowing down before him and say, "Please give me *your* mercy,” Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī Mahārāja would say, "No. You please give me *your* mercy. I need it more." That Kṛṣṇadāsa was a *bābājī* meant that he did not actively preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but that he always engaged in devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa, especially by hearing and chanting Kṛṣṇa's holy names. He had no disciples, but he was dear to Śrīla Prabhupāda and his disciples and all the devotees of the Lord. We would see him in Māyāpur or Vṛndāvana, the holy abodes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. He would be dressed in a simple white cloth that reached barely to his knees, and he seemed to have no other worldly possessions. He was always jolly—wherever he was, whatever was going on, his response would be to say, “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa,” and sometimes laugh, like a Bengali version of a leprechaun. But when he picked up a drum and began to sing the glories of Kṛṣṇa, he would play the drum with masterful expertise and sing with intense devotional concentration, his voice expressing his deep inner feelings of love for Kṛṣṇa. He would go to various places in Vṛndāvana and sit and chant Kṛṣṇa's glories, with tears of ecstatic love in his eyes. In March of 1981, after a serious illness, Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī decided to go to Nandagrāma to spend his last days. Nandagrāma is the part of Vṛndāvana to which Lord Kṛṣṇa, in His pastimes on earth, had been brought by His father for protection from the demonic king Kaṁsa. On the edge of Nandagrāma there is a place called Pāvana-sarovara, where Sanātana Goswami, the great devotee of Lord Caitanya, had performed devotional service. This is the place where Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī chose to stay. He asked us to arrange to bring him there from Vṛndāvana City, and we did so. When we asked him if there was any instruction he could give us, he just laughed and said that his only instruction was to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. "That's all there is." He didn't keep a diary, but he kept a small songbook in which he would write notes. On the last page of this book, which was located near his bed, he wrote that the chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is the true nectar. The holy name is like honey, he wrote. The last entry in the book was "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare." ### —Bhaktisiddhānta dāsa ## Notes From The Editor *Caribbean Journal* (Aboard Dominican Airlines, en route to Santo Domingo) On this plane almost all talk is in Spanish. Reading matter reflects a Spanish bias: the newspaper report on the war in the South Atlantic calls the islands "Las Malvinas" rather than "the Falklands." I realize how language alone counts for a lot. For example, Spanish-speaking Venezuela is threatening to annex a large part of English-speaking Guyana, and the Guyanese associate the Spanish language itself with the threat. I see a cartoon in a Guyanese newspaper that shows some boys talking among themselves. "What's the Spanish word for welcome?" one of them asks. Then Pat the Patriot comes upon the boys and says, "You shouldn't be interested in the word for welcome. If you want to learn Spanish, you should learn how to say, 'Invasores, Mantengase Afuera' ('Invaders Keep Out'). " I reflect that if people were Kṛṣṇa conscious, they would find a basis for agreement despite differences of race, nationality, or language. Life in the temples of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement demonstrates this power of Kṛṣṇa consciousness for reconciliation. There devotees learn pure God consciousness, love of God beyond all bodily designations. Even from a cultural or humanistic perspective, the Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees in temples throughout the world show a remarkable ability to mix together different races and languages and still live in peace. * * * *(At the Hare Kṛṣṇa temple in Santo Domingo)* The buildings in this quarter are squeezed tightly together, and I hear rock guitars playing now, the music drifting through the jalousied windows of my room above the temple. The buzz of a motorcycle passing on the road soon mingles with auto horns and the sound of the *pūjārī* (priest) ringing his bell in the temple downstairs. Śeṣa dāsa, my traveling companion, says that in this pleasant tropical clime people don't watch the problems of world politics so closely. They tend to drift mildly in this climate, where you can pick ripe mangoes from the trees. Is it wrong to live this way? From our point of view, the only thing wrong is that human beings are ignoring the ultimate problem of life—namely, the cycle of repeated birth, old age, disease, and death. Anything that keeps one from pursuing self-realization is wrong, whether it be the passionate money-making of the northerners or the more ease-loving way of the tropics people. Unless a person comes to understand his eternal, spiritual nature, he wastes his rare human life. * * * Some friends tell me that if I want to communicate seriously with those who are not devotees of Kṛṣṇa, I must immerse myself more in topical events and world politics. They say the "average man" is always thinking of politics, war, and the economy. But is that actually his main concern? Or is he more like the devotee of Kṛṣṇa: tired of the tragic spectacle of world events? The experts tell us we are products of our cultural conditioning. And it's a fact: We are taxed, abused, flattered, brainwashed, wooed, titillated, corrupted, misled, and ignored by those who control the government, the media, and educational institutions. The public is also to blame for the current state of things, which finds us with no goal but gratification of the bodily senses, cynical toward higher truth as we work daily in tedious jobs, addicted to harmful substances and activities, morally irresponsible, and not really thinking much about life except for how to survive from one day to the next. From what I've seen, most people are rather hopeless: they don't think they can solve their problems themselves, and they don't expect anything from the government. Then where is hope? In Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The real difference between the devotee of Kṛṣṇa and the nondevotee is that the nondevotee doesn't think that the prospect of self-realization offers him any hope but the devotee does. So from our viewpoint the people of Kali-yuga, the present Age of Quarrel, have boxed themselves in. Although they know they're not happy in the materialistic rat race, they're not interested in the way out: Kṛṣṇa consciousness. * * * *(Evening arrival on El Gurabo Mountain, Puerto Rico)* Birds' singing like chimes, whistles; three-note melodies, crickets making sounds like delicate hammers chipping a fine stone; also hoots, twitters, coos, a faraway rooster crowing—a chorus of evening creatures rises to the top of this mountain. Early next morning I am also about to vibrate, by chanting on my beads Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. This countryside mountain is a delightful place, but we don't conclude, as do the pantheists, that the birds' songs are equal to the singing of the name of God. Yes, in one sense everything is God: He is present in all of nature through the expansion of His energies. But He is personally present in full in His holy name, and one must be able to hear the holy name of God and the science of God to understand Him fully. I know that more wars are coming. Death is taking its toll at every moment, for both the devotees of Kṛṣṇa and the nondevotees. Each person's death is coming before long. But chanting the Lord's names will save us, whether we're in a cabin atop El Gurabo Mountain amid birds' choruses and predawn-dark trees, or in any other part of the world. * * * *(Guyana)* In Guyana there are shortages of basic commodities, like food. Government signs along the highways urge people to grow their own: "Heed the need, plant a seed." My disciple Abhay dāsa (his name means "one who takes shelter at the feet of Kṛṣṇa, the fearless one") comes into my room carrying a kerosene lantern. A minute ago the lights went out. Abhay smiles and says, "They give us one week with electricity and one week without." "Why?" I ask. "There is no money," he replies, smiling. His smile reassures me and we laugh. I can see he is transcendental to the deprivation. And despite the shortages, our temple in Guyana holds a wonderful festival while I am there. Ten new devotees are initiated, a young couple is married, and the Deities of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda are installed on the altar. Two hundred guests attend the festivities and enjoy a sumptuous feast, just as in other ISKCON centers around the world. I return to America confident that Kṛṣṇa is flourishing in the Caribbean. —SDG