# Back to Godhead Magazine #48 *2014 (05)* Back to Godhead Magazine #48-05, 2014 PDF-View ## Welcome Readers outside India may never have heard of Noida, where an impressive ISKCON temple opened in February. It's a planned township across the Yamuna River from New Delhi. Started in the 1970s, it has grown steadily, and since 1998 ISKCON's presence has grown along with it. By focusing on spiritual education, Govind Dham, as the temple is known, is sure to benefit many people in the greater Delhi area. Skeptics sometimes challenged Śrīla Prabhupāda on whether ISKCON was helping people in any practical way. He would often reply that ISKCON's contribution was education—giving people the highest spiritual knowledge, to their eternal benefit. An example of the refined spiritual information that ISKCON, in the line of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, presents to the world appears in Satyaraja Dāsa's article in this issue, "Sehnsucht: When Vocabulary Encourages Yearning for Kṛṣṇa." Another example of the practical value of ISKCON's message appears in "Death and Dying in the Vedic Tradition," an excerpt from a new book by Giriraja Swami. What could be more relevant than learning how to face one's death? "Finding Shelter," by Navina Syama Dāsa, also gives practical knowledge. Faced with the unrelenting challenges of life, where can we turn for sure relief? Hare Kṛṣṇa. —*Nagaraja Dāsa, Editor* ## Letters *Raising Devotee Children Among Meat-Eaters* How can I raise my children (ages six and ten) in Kṛṣṇa consciousness when we are surrounded by close family who are nondevotees. It is a constant challenge for me. I teach my children about Kṛṣṇa consciousness at home and take them to the temple so that they can associate with other devotee children. My other family members are meat-eaters. Associating with close family who eat meat can be very confusing for my children, as they will sometimes want to copy other children and adults in the family. It's very difficult because we can't just stop associating with close family who live nearby. Saroj Via the Internet *Our reply (written by Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciple Laksmimani Devī Dāsī, one of Kṛṣṇa.com's Live Help volunteers):* Your problem is certainly a common one, especially in today's society. Often children find themselves at odds not only with family, but also with classmates and even teachers. Although vegetarianism is becoming more popular, it is still not the norm, and thus vegetarian children can be challenged and even taunted. Your task is to give them confidence and ammunition to answer questions and understand differences and still remain strong. Your children are at good ages for you to begin giving them the training they will need to live as devotees and vegetarians in a nondevotee family and society. The training needs to come on several levels. First they need to feel good about what they are doing. Your telling them that Kṛṣṇa said that meat-eating is bad won't necessarily make them feel good about what they are doing, especially the ten-year-old. The children should develop a love for life—whether human, animal, or plant. Often overlooked in our training of children is the need to impart the understanding of the deep connection between animals and life. They should know what happens at death, and what killing animals—or any life form—means. The consequences of loss, killing, hurting, and death are often neglected in movies, cartoons, video games, and our own training of children. Death and dying are not comfortable topics, but their lessons are profound. In movies and games, people and animals "die" and return to life, and one never sees the lamentation of the parents or siblings. The ramifications of death are hidden. Help your children love life and understand the deep relationship between animals and the animals' children, and between animals and human beings. Let them know animals and see them up close. And let them experience the pain and sadness of death. They can do that through quality books and videos of animal stories—movies about animals and children, for example. This will help them to get a real picture. And then help them make the connection between what people are eating and the animals the children respect and have affection for. Help them understand that meat-eating means that an innocent animal has lost a family member. They can also learn about health reasons for vegetarianism, and other arguments as well. There are many sources of this information that can be very helpful. This type of training and learning will give them strength and conviction to defend themselves against those who taunt or challenge them. It will help them feel satisfied with their diet. They may even feel sorry when they see family members doing things contrary to their own conviction. On another level, they must learn to be respectful and tolerant, especially with family. Unless asked they should not challenge anyone (although as the ten-year-old becomes a teenager, that ban might slacken a bit). That said, they should be prepared to speak their mind if asked or challenged. They can learn to speak to people willing to hear about why they are vegetarians. If they are educated and well spoken, you will see that they can have a very powerful effect on others. So far, I have spoken only from the material side of things, and certainly there is more to our vegetarianism than just the material point of view. But it is essential that young children have a strong personal conviction about what they are doing. If what they convey to others seems to be well thought out and makes sense materially, it will have more impact and greater success than spiritual arguments written off as "brainwashing" and met with pity for the child. For the children to have success in standing up for themselves, they must be able to defend their spiritual beliefs with rational and even passionate conviction. They must be strong and not attracted to degraded habits. They should see the connection between their strong convictions and such things as reincarnation, nonviolence toward animals, the sanctity of the soul, protection of the environment, and God's compassion. Then they will have a dynamic, powerful defense that will strengthen their own beliefs and change the hearts of others. *Impressive Article on the Gita* Regarding Caitanya Carana Dāsa's article "Why Is the *Bhagavad-gītā* So Pessimistic?" (March/April 2014), I agree that the accusation that religious folk are morbid and life-negating is all too common, so I'm glad he challenged it. And probably because he has meditated on this topic for many years (as he says in the article), the result was impressive. I have heard before the example of how our little finger can hardly give us any pleasure but, if injured, can give so much pain, but his DIVE exposition so thoroughly expanded on this point, it left no doubt that this body is a vehicle for suffering. I also thought his analogy on religious practice being like chemotherapy was excellent. Through it, he acknowledged that *sadhana* [daily spiritual practice] can be trying at first, but also showed how it still makes sense to take it up, given the alternative. Finally, I appreciated his directly attacking mainstream consensus reality, boldly pointing out its flaws. (The observation about boredom was especially poignant. I have often said that, the threefold miseries aside, the real problem in the material world is that it's so boring!) I thank him for continuing to write. I hope he can inspire others to follow in his footsteps. Navina Syama Dāsa Dallas, Texas *Please write to us at: BTG, PO Box 430, Alachua, Florida 32616, USA. Email: editors@Kṛṣṇa.com.* Founder's Lecture: Rādhārāṇī, the Pleasure Potency of Kṛṣṇa Rādhāstami, London, August 29, 1971 By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Founder-*Acarya* of the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness *The best way to please Kṛṣṇa is to please His greatest devotee.* This evening we are talking about Rādhāstami, the appearance day of Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī. We are trying to understand the chief potency of Kṛṣṇa. Rādhārāṇī is the pleasure potency of Kṛṣṇa. As we understand from Vedic literature, Kṛṣṇa has many varieties of potency. As a big man has many assistants and secretaries and hasn't got to do anything personally because simply by his will everything is done, similarly the Supreme Personality of Godhead has got varieties of energy, and everything is being done so nicely. The Sanskrit name for the material energy is *bahir-anga-sakti,* or the "external energy" of Kṛṣṇa. How nicely everything is being done by the material energy. Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the *Bhagavad-gītā* (9.10), *mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram:* "Under My superintendence the material energy is working." The material energy is not blind. Kṛṣṇa is there in the background. *Prakrti* means the material energy, the external energy. There is another energy, the internal energy, by which the spiritual world is being manifested. *Paras tasmat tu bhavah anyah* (*Gita* 8.20). It is *para:* superior, transcendental, the spiritual world. As this material world is being manipulated under the external energy, the spiritual world is conducted by the internal potency. That internal potency is Rādhārāṇī. Today is Rādhārāṇī's appearance day. We should try to understand Rādhārāṇī. She is the pleasure potency, *hladini-sakti.* *Anandamayo ’bhyasat.* In the *Vedanta-sutras* (1.1.12) the Absolute Truth is described as **ananda*maya,* always in the pleasure potency. When you want **ananda*,* pleasure, you cannot have it alone. You cannot enjoy alone. When you are in the circle of friends or family or other associates, you feel pleasure. I am speaking, and the speaking is very pleasing for me when there are many persons here. I cannot speak alone here. That is not **ananda*.* I can speak here in the dead of night when nobody is here, but that is not **ananda*.* For *ananda* there must be others. So because Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Truth, is **ananda*maya,* He has become many: *eko bahu syam.* We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa and are meant to give pleasure to Kṛṣṇa. The chief pleasure potency is Rādhārāṇī. Kṛṣṇa is Param Brahman, as you know from the *Bhagavad-gītā.* When Arjuna understood *Bhagavad-gītā,* he affirmed Kṛṣṇa as Param Brahman (*Gita* 10.12). In the material world we see that a great saintly person gives up all material enjoyment simply to enjoy *brahmananda,* the bliss of spiritual existence. He becomes a *sannyasi,* renouncing the world to gain Brahman realization. So if one has to give up everything material for Brahman realization, do you think that Param Brahman, the Supreme Brahman, can enjoy anything material? No. Kṛṣṇa’s enjoyment is nothing material. This point should be understood. For Brahman realization we are giving up everything material. So how can Param Brahman enjoy anything material? This question has been very much nicely discussed by Jiva Gosvami in his *Bhagavata-sandarbha.* Information about Param Brahman is not there in this material world. A little Brahman information is there, a little Paramatma information is there, but not Param Brahman, or Bhagavan, information. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, > manusyanam sahasresu > kascid yatati siddhaye > yatatam api siddhanam > kascin mam vetti tattvatah "Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth." (*Gita* 7.3) *Siddhaye* means to understand Brahman or Paramatma, the Supersoul. Out of many persons who have realized Brahman and Paramatma, hardly one person can know Kṛṣṇa. What can we understand about Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure potency? Without knowing a big man, how can I understand his internal affairs? Similarly, if we do not understand Kṛṣṇa, how can we understand how Kṛṣṇa is enjoying? That is not possible. But the six Gosvamis, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's leading disciples, have given us information about Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure potency, Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī. We have given information about the loving affairs of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in our book *Teachings of Lord Caitanya.* If you have got this book, you can read about the transcendental loving reciprocation between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. *Pray to Rādhārāṇī* We pray to Rādhārāṇī because She is the pleasure potency of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means "all-attractive." But Rādhārāṇī is so great that She attracts Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is all-attractive, but She is the attractor of Kṛṣṇa. So today we should try to understand the position of Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī and offer our obeisances to Rādhārāṇī. > tapta-kancana-gaurangi > radhe vrndavanesvari > vrsabhanu-sute devi > pranamami hari-priye "I offer my respects to Rādhārāṇī, whose bodily complexion is like molten gold and who is the Queen of Vṛndāvana. You are the daughter of King Vrsabhanu, and You are very dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa." Our business is to pray, "Rādhārāṇī, You are so dear to Kṛṣṇa. So we offer our respectful obeisances unto You." Rādhārāṇī is *hari-priya,* "very dear to Kṛṣṇa." Approaching Kṛṣṇa becomes very easy when done through Rādhārāṇī, through the mercy of Rādhārāṇī. If Rādhārāṇī recommends, "This devotee is very nice," then Kṛṣṇa immediately accepts us, however great a fool we may be. Because we have been recommended by Rādhārāṇī, Kṛṣṇa accepts us. Therefore in Vrindavan today you'll find all the devotees chanting Rādhārāṇī's name more than Kṛṣṇa’s. Wherever you go you'll find the devotees are addressing one another with "*Jaya Radhe!*" You'll still find this in Vrindavan. They are glorifying Rādhārāṇī. They are more interested in worshiping Rādhārāṇī than in worshiping Kṛṣṇa, because however fallen I may be, if some way or other I can please Rādhārāṇī, then it will be very easy for me to understand Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, if you try to understand Kṛṣṇa by the speculative process, it will take many, many lives. But if you take to devotional service and just try to please Rādhārāṇī, Kṛṣṇa will be gotten very easily, because Rādhārāṇī can deliver Kṛṣṇa. She is such a great devotee—the emblem of the *maha-bhagavata,* the greatest devotee. Even Kṛṣṇa cannot understand Rādhārāṇī's qualities. Kṛṣṇa says in the *Bhagavad-gītā* (7.26), *vedaham samatitani*—"I know everything"—but He fails to understand Rādhārāṇī. Rādhārāṇī is so great. *Kṛṣṇa as Caitanya Mahāprabhu* To understand Rādhārāṇī, Kṛṣṇa came as Caitanya Mahāprabhu to accept the position of Rādhārāṇī. Kṛṣṇa wanted to understand the potency of Rādhārāṇī. He thought, "I am full. I am complete in every respect, but still I want to understand Rādhārāṇī. Why?" This desire obliged Kṛṣṇa to accept the propensities of Rādhārāṇī. This is a very great transcendental science. Only one who is advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and well conversant with the *sastras*, the Vedic scriptures, can understand. But still, we can discuss from the *sastras*. When Kṛṣṇa wanted to understand Himself, He took the tendencies of Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī, and that is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. *Rādhā-bhava-dyuti-suvalitam:* Caitanya Mahāprabhu is Kṛṣṇa, but He has accepted the propensities of Rādhārāṇī. As Rādhārāṇī is always in feelings of separation from Kṛṣṇa, similarly, in the position of Rādhārāṇī, Lord Caitanya was feeling separation from Kṛṣṇa. The process of devotional service taught by Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His disciplic succession is how to feel separation from Kṛṣṇa. That is Rādhārāṇī's position—always feeling the separation. The six Gosvamis, also, when they were in Vrindavan, never said, "I have seen Kṛṣṇa." Although they were the most perfect devotees, they never said, "I have seen Kṛṣṇa." Their prayers were like this: *he radhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-suno kutah.* "O Queen of Vṛndāvana, Rādhārāṇī! O Lalita! O son of Nanda Mahārāja! Where are you all now?" Rādhārāṇī does not remain alone. She remains always with Her friends Lalita, Visakha, and other damsels of Vrindavan. The Gosvamis, in their mature stage, when they were living in Vrindavan, were praying in this way. "Rādhārāṇī, where are You? Where are Your associates? Where are You, son of Nanda Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa ? Where are all of you?" They were always searching. They never said, "Last night I saw Kṛṣṇa dancing with the *gopis.*" A *sahajiya* will speak like that, not a mature devotee. One who considers Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes to be something very cheap is called a *sahajiya*. Kṛṣṇa very cheap, Rādhārāṇī very cheap—as if they can see Them every night. No. The Gosvamis do not teach us like that. They were searching after Rādhārāṇī and Kṛṣṇa. *Śrī-govardhana-kalpa-padapa-tale kalindi-vane kutah:* "Are You at Govardhana Hill? Are You on the bank of the Yamuna?" Their business was crying like this. "Where are You, Rādhārāṇī? Where are You? Where are you, Lalita, Visakha, the associates of Rādhārāṇī? Where are You, Kṛṣṇa ? Are You near Govardhana Hill? On the bank of the Yamuna?" Throughout the whole tract of Vrindavan they were crying and searching after them. *Khedair maha-vihvalau:* as if madmen. This was the devotional example of the six Gosvamis: Rupa Gosvami, Sanatana Gosvami, Raghunatha Dāsa Gosvami, Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, Jiva Gosvami, and Gopala Bhatta Gosvami. *Caitanya Mahāprabhu's Process of Worship* We have to follow the footprints of the Gosvamis to learn how to search out Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī in Vrindavan or within our hearts. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's process of worship: feeling separation, or *vipralambha-seva.* Caitanya Mahāprabhu felt such separation from Kṛṣṇa that in the dead of night He left His room, and nobody knew where He had gone. He was searching for Kṛṣṇa, and He fell into the sea. This is the process of devotional service taught by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It is not that one thinks, "I have seen Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī in the *rasa-līlā.*" No, not like that. Feel the separation. The more you feel separation from Kṛṣṇa, the more you are advancing. Don't try to see Kṛṣṇa artificially. Be advanced in feelings of separation, and then your devotional service will be perfect. That is the teaching of Lord Caitanya. *With our material eyes we cannot see Kṛṣṇa.* > atah sri-krsna -namadi > na bhaved grahyam indriyaih > sevonmukhe hi jihvadau > svayam eva sphuraty adah "No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality, and pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality, and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him." (*Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu* 1.2.234) With our material senses we cannot see or hear Kṛṣṇa, but we can realize Him through service to Him. Where does the service begin? *Jihvadau:* with the tongue, not the legs, eyes, ears. It begins with the tongue. How? Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. And take *kṛṣṇa-prasada*. The tongue has got two businesses: to articulate sound and to taste. So chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and take *prasada.* By this process you'll realize Kṛṣṇa. Don't try to see Kṛṣṇa. You cannot see Kṛṣṇa with your material eyes. Nor can you hear Him with your material ears. Nor can you touch Him. But if you engage your tongue in the service of the Lord, then He'll reveal Himself to you: "Here I am." That is wanted. So feel separation from Kṛṣṇa just like Rādhārāṇī, as Lord Caitanya teaches us, and engage your tongue in the service of the Lord. Then one day, when you are mature, you'll see Kṛṣṇa eye to eye. Thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out: "We Have Created So Many Unprescribed Masters" *The following conversation between His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and Dr. Chaturbhai P. Patel took place in Bombay on March 23, 1974.* Dr. Patel: The other morning, when a young lady told you, "I am practicing medicine and serving people," you said, in effect, "You are a fool." Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. She is not serving. Of course, as they say, "Everyone is serving"—serving money. Everyone is serving, but unless he gets paid, no service. That is not service. Everyone in the material world is serving somebody. Because by nature he is a servant. Dr. Patel: He's serving everyone. Śrīla Prabhupāda: No, no. As the English proverb says, "Everyone's servant is no one's servant." Anyway, service is required. You cannot live without serving. That is not possible. Every one of us is serving somebody. But the result of this material service is disagreeable. I have given before the example that Mahatma Gandhi gave so much service. But the result was he was killed. He was killed. That person who killed him did not think, "Oh, this old gentleman has given so much service to us. Even if I do not agree with him, how can I kill him?" But people are so very ungrateful—you see?—that whatever service you may render, they'll never be satisfied. Dr. Patel: Gandhi's service—he was doing his prescribed duty. Śrīla Prabhupāda: No, actually. But first of all, let us define service. What is service? Service means there is a servant and a master. And service is the transaction between the servant and his master. But we have created so many unprescribed masters. The wife master, the family master, the country master, the legislative master, this master, that master—you see? And we are giving service. "Oh, it is my duty. I am giving service." But ask any of these masters, "Are you satisfied?" He'll say, "What have you done?" Dr. Patel: The master won't be satisfied. Śrīla Prabhupāda: No. These self-created masters will never be satisfied. And really, by serving them we are trying to serve and satisfy our own senses. I am giving service to my wife because I think she will satisfy my senses. Therefore I'm not giving service to my wife—I'm giving service to my senses. So ultimately, we are servants of our own senses. We are nobody's servants. This is our material position. Yes, ultimately, we are servants of our senses. Constitutionally, I am a servant, but at the present moment, being conditioned by the material nature, I am giving service to my senses. But my senses are not independent. They are totally dependent. For instance, I am now moving my hands, but if the true master of my hand, Kṛṣṇa, paralyzes it—no more moving. Nor can I revive the moving capacity of my hand. So although I am claiming I am master of my hand, master of my leg, and so on, actually I am not. The master is different. One of Kṛṣṇa’s other names is Hṛṣīkeśa, "the creator and master of all senses." Therefore we should transfer our service to Lord Kṛṣṇa. *Hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate:* we have tried in so many ways to serve our senses, but when we engage our senses in serving the master of the senses, we get the spiritual satisfaction of *bhakti,* devotion. Devotional service to Kṛṣṇa is also service, but it is not service to the inert senses—it is service to the living master of the senses. This is real satisfaction. So constitutionally I am a servant. I cannot become the master. My position is that I have to serve. And if I don't serve the master of the senses, then I will have to serve the senses and go unsatisfied. Dr. Patel: Now, the fact remains that each man does have prescribed duties to wife, family, country, and government. Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. Dr. Patel: We have different kinds of bodies and senses, also, and that gives us different duties. One man has to act as a priest or teacher, another as an administrator or military man, another as a farmer or merchant, and still another as a laborer or craftsman. And when a man does his duty without expectation of any fruits, this is as good as devotion to the Lord. Śrīla Prabhupāda: No, no. Not expecting any fruits is not enough. You must do more than that. You must give the fruits unto Kṛṣṇa. Give the result of your prescribed duties to Kṛṣṇa. You can earn a million dollars, but don't simply take it all yourself or lavish it on your family. Give this fruit to Kṛṣṇa. That is real service. Just like you are working as a medical practitioner. So give your earnings to Kṛṣṇa. Then you become perfect. We simply have to see that by our work Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. Kṛṣṇa says *yat karosi:* "Never mind what you are doing." *Tat kurusva mad-arpanam:* "Give Me it." [*Śrīla Prabhupāda laughs.*] And people say, "No, no, no, sir. I am serving You, but the money is in my pocket." Dr. Patel: Everything is Kṛṣṇa’s. How can you give anything? Even a leaf? Śrīla Prabhupāda: Oh, yes, yes. Just like these boys and girls are giving. They are giving their whole life. They do not ask me for money: "My dear sir, please give me some money; I will go to the cinema." They are serving, and they have given everything. This is service. They are not poor. They're earning, but everything for Kṛṣṇa. If you divide your income partially—"Some percentage for Kṛṣṇa, some percentage for my sense gratification"—then Kṛṣṇa says, *ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham:* "As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly, proportionately." If you have spent cent percent of your energy for Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is cent percent for you. And if you have spent one percent for Kṛṣṇa. He is one percent for you. Responsive cooperation. This movement has advanced so much all over the world because we have these boys and girls who have dedicated everything for Kṛṣṇa. Therefore it has so quickly advanced. They do not think of anything personal. Only how to serve Kṛṣṇa. *Samsiddhir hari-tosanam:* the highest perfection is to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. ## "Do You Still Believe in God?" *A skeptical friend challenges a devotee's faith after the devotee's painful injury.* *by Caitanya Carana Dāsa* I recently came across a Gallup poll, conducted in 2011, in which Americans were asked, "Do you still believe in God?" Ninety percent answered yes. The poll reminded me of an exchange I had with a college friend that same year. “Do you still believe in God when He didn’t—or couldn’t—protect you in His own temple?” This blunt question in my friend’s email brought a smile to my face. Some months before, I had slipped on some spilled water in the ISKCON temple at Juhu, Mumbai. The fall was minor, but the pain was severe. An x-ray showed a cervical hip fracture that had dislocated the bone at its neck. I was rushed to the devotee-run Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mumbai, where the orthopedic surgeon Giriraja Dāsa (Dr. Girish Rathore) performed a 4.5-hour surgery and advised a three-month rest for healing. When a former college roommate came to know about the fracture, he wrote offering his good wishes for a speedy recovery. After a couple of email exchanges, he asked his blunt question. I knew he had a good heart, but he had always found it hard to understand why I had thrown away a bright career to become—of all things—a monk (*brahmacari*). His question about my continued belief in God had reminded me of his loving exasperation with my life’s choice and so had brought a smile to my face. After due prayerful contemplation, I replied to him as follows: Dear . . . , Thank you for your email with your candid question. I am sure several of my acquaintances had this question, but you alone had the forthrightness to raise it upfront, and so I appreciate your candor. In reciprocation, I will give you my frank answer: a resounding “Yes.” Not only do I continue to believe in God, but this accident has increased my faith in Him enormously. Let me explain why. To start off, I would like to remind you of an incident when we were staying in the same hostel room during our first year in college, in 1993. One night I was gripped by an agonizing pain in the abdominal area. I couldn’t reach a doctor till the next morning due to a variety of factors: it was a Sunday night, there had been a public strike the previous day, and we didn’t know what to do, as we were away from home in a new place where we had just arrived a few days earlier. As I lay moaning in pain throughout the night, you tried your best to help me. But little could be done till the next morning, when a doctor dealt with the kidney stone that had been piercing—“biting” would be a better word—me from within. *A Subconscious Tolerance Strategy* My recent fall was much more painful. But my suffering was much less. Here’s why. When I fell I instinctively tried to remember Kṛṣṇa—not out of devotion, but as a subconscious tolerance strategy. Since my college days, I had read many self-help books and was struck by one consistent theme in them: the enormous role of the mind in shaping our perceptions. Life presents problems to all of us, but we—or rather our mind—determine their sizes. When we let our mind dwell on a problem for too long, we blow it out of proportion and increase our misery many times over. If we take our mind off the problem whenever we are not doing something specific to deal with it, we can prevent the problem—no matter how big—from overwhelming us, and can go on with other aspects of our life. I had found this strategy to deal with the mind’s influence highly sensible—and extremely impractical. It seemed that problems had powerful inbuilt glues that enabled them to stick to the mind. Despite knowing that I was wasting my time and mental energy fretting over an unsolvable problem, I had often found myself utterly unable to take my mind off the problem. It was only when I started practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness that I discovered the practical means to counter the adhesive power of problems. The first and foremost principle of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as suggested in the name itself, is to be always conscious of Kṛṣṇa, for this increases our desire and devotion for Him, as stated in the *Bhagavad-gītā* (12.9). A fringe benefit of keeping our mind on Kṛṣṇa is that it no longer dwells on problems. Over the fifteen years that I have been practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, I have repeatedly experienced that irritating or painful situations become less troublesome when the mind is taken off the disturbing stimuli and fixed on Kṛṣṇa. Consequently, I have tried to cultivate the habit of calling out Kṛṣṇa’s names whenever I have to do something not so pleasant, be it routine, like a cold-water bath on a frigid morning, or occasional, like a medicinal injection in a sensitive body part. *Suffering Happily* On that fateful morning, as soon as I fell I started feeling excruciating pain, like no other pain I had felt before. It seemed as if a live electric current was shooting up and down my thigh with no sign of abating. After several awfully long minutes and a few desperate prayers, I got the idea from within to start reciting verses from the **Bhagavad-gītā*.* Within moments, as if by magic, I found my mind getting absorbed; a calming, comforting sense of relief started sweeping over me. For the next several hours as I was taken first to the x-ray clinic, then to the hospital, to the CT scan center, and to the hospital bed, I was almost continuously reciting verses from the **Gita*.* Thanks to the many opportunities to study, speak, and write about the *Gita* that Kṛṣṇa had presented me, most of its verses were a quick recall away. As I remembered and recited the verses, I found myself relishing one of the most sublime experiences of my life. I had just recently taught the full *Bhagavad-gītā* to a group of devotees, and our many discussions based on the commentaries of various *acaryas,* especially Śrīla Prabhupāda and Visvanatha Cakravarti Ṭhākura, were fresh in my mind, enhancing my absorption in the *Gita* verses. I have often found contemplating the *Gita* absorbing, but this time, in great pain, the absorption was unparalleled. The main reason for the absorption obviously was not devotion, but necessity. Letting the mind wander away from the *Gita* verses meant that it would by default go to the hip pain, which was intolerable. When the doctor at the hospital saw my x-ray and then saw me, he remarked in surprise, “Normally a patient with a fracture like this is never as calm as you are; he is crying in pain.” When I reflect on that remark, I know that I too would have been crying in pain, as I indeed had been several years ago on that frightful night in the hostel. But thankfully in the interim period I had discovered Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I remembered an incident in which my spiritual master, His Holiness Rādhānath Swami, had asked an ailing godbrother, “How are you?” When he candidly answered, “Suffering," my spiritual master replied, “Suffer happily.” When I had heard of this incident, I had thought of “suffer happily” as delightful wordplay, but now I had a glimpse of the words' profound import: even when our body is suffering, we can still be happy by cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness. *From Cricket to Kṛṣṇa* In the months since the fracture, I have been analyzing that extraordinary experience of pain relief. Was the relief due specifically to Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Or was it merely due to mental absorption—irrespective of the object of absorption? If I had been a cricket lover, could I have tolerated the pain by absorbing myself in cricket thoughts? For a decade before I was introduced to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, I was a passionate cricket lover; I could effortlessly rattle off the names of not just the players of all the cricket-playing countries, but also the detailed statistics of their stellar performances. From my own experience I can say that absorption of any kind can offer relief; I vaguely recollect seeking relief by mentally going over cherished cricket memories and fantasies while lying in pain on the night of the kidney stone. But experience testifies for me that the relief from Kṛṣṇa consciousness is substantially greater. Moreover, Kṛṣṇa absorption differs from mundane absorption in two fundamental ways. 1. It is independent of externals: Any mundane absorption has nothing to do with my essential being, the real “me.” The real me, the *Bhagavad-gītā* (2.13) explains, is a soul. When I as the soul seek happiness by absorption in cricket, I do so by a chain of misidentifications with temporary externals: I, the soul, identify first with the material body that I presently have, then with the country in which that body has been circumstantially born, and then with the game that is currently popular in that country. As these externals keep changing unpredictably and uncontrollably, so does my happiness. If India wins, I rejoice; if India loses, I lament. But when I seek happiness by absorption in Kṛṣṇa, I am re-identifying myself as what I am eternally: a beloved part of the all-loving Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. That’s why happiness through Kṛṣṇa absorption remains accessible amidst all externals, even if India loses and even if the body breaks. The *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* (3.25.23) describes the transcendental, matter-independent nature of divine absorption: “The devotees do not suffer from material miseries because they are always filled with divine thoughts.” 2. It is enhanced by Kṛṣṇa’s reciprocation: Absorption in Kṛṣṇa is not only real, but also reciprocal. Kṛṣṇa is a living, loving person, who graciously reciprocates with our attempts to think of Him. In stark contrast, if we think of cricket it can’t reciprocate. Even if we think of not the general game of cricket but the specific cricketers, they, being limited persons like the rest of us, can’t reciprocate in the way Kṛṣṇa can. Kṛṣṇa describes in the *Gita* (18.58) how He reciprocates with those who think of Him: “If you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all obstacles by My grace.” This verse had become a living reality, thanks to the accident; I had passed over the obstacle of the intolerable pain with the divine grace of absorption in Kṛṣṇa. I know from experience that this divine absorption is not automatic or mechanical; it is a gift of Kṛṣṇa’s grace. I have recited the verses from the *Gita* before and after the accident, and though I generally find such recitation relishable, I have rarely been able to replicate the sublimity of the absorption during the post-fracture period. *The Protective Value of Pain* Now, coming to your insinuation that Kṛṣṇa didn’t protect me, my response is that He did protect me. First, He protected me from the intensity of the pain by giving me His remembrance. Second, He protected me from the complications that could have resulted from the fracture by arranging to send me to a state-of-the-art devotee-run hospital for treatment by a caring and competent doctor who is a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Third, and most important, He protected me from the painful illusion that life in the world can be peaceful and joyful. You will probably be surprised with my use of the words “painful illusion.” Let me explain with the example of a medical disorder called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (CIPA). Children with CIPA feel no pain, nor do they sweat or shed tears. They are highly vulnerable to injuring themselves in ways that ordinarily would be prevented by feeling pain. Often they have eye-related problems, like infection due to having unfeelingly rubbed the eyes too hard or too frequently or having scratched them during sleep. CIPA children often play recklessly, being unafraid of banging into anything. From a child’s perspective, obliviousness to pain may seem a blessing that grants fearlessness. But from a mature parental perspective, that same obliviousness to pain is seen as a curse that impels foolhardiness. Parents of a CIPA child often have one prayer: let our child feel pain. Just as intellectual maturity helps the parents understand the protective value of pain in this particular case, spiritual maturity helps us grasp the protective value of pain in general. Unfortunately, we are kept spiritually immature by our present materialistic culture, which by its incessant promises of worldly pleasures makes us forget or neglect the unpalatable yet undeniable signs of suffering that surround us: acquaintances get agonizing cancers, energetic people get mortifyingly immobilized by old age, thousands are instantaneously wiped out by a sudden tsunami. Thus, we unwittingly become like the CIPA patients, recklessly playing our corporate and family games, oblivious of the dangers that may befall us at any moment. And when the dangers come—as they inevitably will, sooner or later—we often resent having been unfairly singled out by misfortune. But everybody will be singled out. Though the specifics of how different people suffer vary according to individual past *karma*, the universal fact is that everyone has to suffer the inescapable onslaught of old age, disease, and death. Serious contemplation on these miseries, the *Bhagavad-gītā* (13.9) informs us, begins our spiritual maturation. By spiritual maturity we gain the understanding that the sufferings of this world: a. Protect us from the futile and fatal illusion that we as eternal beings can be happy in a temporary setting. b. Provoke us to redirect our desires to the spiritual level, where we can reclaim the eternal happiness that Kṛṣṇa wants us to relish. I chose to redirect my desires about fifteen years ago when I made cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness my life’s primary focus. For me, the recent accident—with its physical pain and spiritual relief—served as a definite vindication of my choice. Of course, the accident also showed me that I still have a long way to go in redirecting my desires; during the aftermath of the accident, I chanted not out of devotion, but out of necessity. Still, Kṛṣṇa implies in the *Gita* (7.16) that necessity is often the mother of devotion. I hope and pray that in the future a day will come when I will chant the verses of the *Gita* with devotion. I feel confident that such a day will surely come if I diligently keep cultivating my absorption in Kṛṣṇa. But till that day, I am happy and grateful to seek relief in Kṛṣṇa memories—and not cricket memories. Material pains are inevitable for all of us, and we usually either complain publicly or suffer privately. Why not explore another option, offered by spiritual growth: joyful transcendence of the pain? Your loving friend in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Chaitanya Charan das *Caitanya Carana Dāsa is a disciple of His Holiness Rādhānath Swami. He holds a degree in electronic and telecommunications engineering and serves full time at ISKCON Pune. He is the author of eleven books. To read his other articles or to receive his daily reflection on the* Bhagavad-gītā, "Gita-daily," *visit thespiritualscientist.com.* ## Book Excerpt *Death and Dying in the Vedic Tradition* *by Giriraja Swami* *A talk presented to the doctors and nurses of San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine in San Diego, California.* [*Adapted from* Life's Final Exam: Death and Dying from the Vedic Perspective, *edited by Giriraja Swami.*] It is a great pleasure for me to address you all here, especially because this hospice is recognized as one of the best and largest in the world and as the global leader in hospice education. In the *Bhagavad-gītā*, which is considered the essence of the *Vedas,* Lord Kṛṣṇa informs us: > yam yam vapi smaran bhavam > tyajaty ante kalevaram > tam tam evaiti kaunteya > sada tad-bhava-bhavitah “Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kunti, that state he will attain without fail.” (*Gita* 8.6) > anta-kale ca mam eva > smaran muktva kalevaram > yah prayati sa mad-bhavam > yati nasty atra samsayah “And whoever, at the end of his life, quits his body remembering Me alone at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.” (*Gita* 8.5) In 1969, when I was a student of psychology at Brandeis University, I met my spiritual teacher, Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. In 1970, after studying with him for a year and a half, I accompanied him to India. And in 1977, he taught us by his example how to leave the world in proper, pure consciousness. He retired to Vrindavan, a holy place in India, and surrounded himself with devotees who were always chanting or reading to him from sacred literature. Being in such a holy place was itself conducive to spiritual consciousness, to God consciousness. And the atmosphere was enhanced by loving disciples singing songs of the Lord and reading books about Him. Some years later, one of my students, who was older than me, was diagnosed with cancer. She was a renowned artist from South Africa who would travel all over the world to find subjects for painting. At one point, she decided that she wanted to combine her spiritual interests with her artwork, and so she bought a plot of land in the same holy place, Vrindavan, to establish a studio, and she was kind enough to build a floor upstairs for me, for when I would visit. Although the doctors had given her six months, she actually lived for three years. For the last two or three months of her life, I was with her almost constantly, because the goal—not just in the Vedic tradition but in others as well—is to think of God, to chant the name of God or at least hear the name chanted, at the time of death, and I wanted to help her do that. During the thirty years that I was based in India*,* I would travel frequently to Pakistan and Śrī Lanka*,* and in Pakistan I came across a book called *The* *Ninety-nine Names of Allah*. *The*re is a similar work in Sanskrit called *The* Thousand Names of Visnu (another name for Kṛṣṇa )*,* the *Visnu-sahasra-nama.* So*,* in *The* *Ninety-nine Names of Allah* there is a section about how a pious Muslim should meet death. *The* best thing a dying Muslim’s friends and relatives can do*,* the book states*,* is chant the names of God and help the loved one to either chant or at least hear others chant the name of God at the final moment. *The*re is a similar tradition in the Jewish religion*,* where the ideal is that at the time of death the family and friends are chanting the name of God*,* or reciting a prayer that contains the name of God. I saw that the same tradition that we have in Vedic philosophy*,* in Kṛṣṇa consciousness*,* is also there in Islam and Judaism*,* and it is there in other traditions as well. With my student, we followed the same practice that we had seen with our spiritual master, and devotees would come and chant. The chanting can be done individually in a quiet, meditative way or communally and more loudly, with musical instruments. The whole idea is to help the person fix his or her consciousness on the Supreme and keep it fixed on the Supreme at the time of death. And along with the chanting is the reading and talking about God consciousness. In Vedic culture, the time of death is considered life’s final test. In school we attend lectures, complete assignments, take quizzes, and write the midterm, but whether or not we graduate depends on whether we pass the final examination. In life, passing the final examination means thinking of God. That is why the whole focus at the time of death is to help the person remember God. And the other activities that we perform during our lives, besides freeing us from activities that will result in our taking birth again, are practice for thinking of God. And we get little tests along the way—sicknesses, setbacks, and various hardships. When we face them, do we remember God, or do we look only for material solutions? These are the tests along the way. And then the time of death is the final examination, and if we can remember God then, we graduate. We are free: no more material bodies, no more repetition of birth and death. *Dealing with Physical Pain* Lady (1): In the work we do we are often looking at physical pain. Should medication to alleviate physical pain and suffering be discouraged? Would it interfere with consciousness at the time of death? Giriraja Swami: Very good question. The goal is to remember God at the time of death. So our general approach is that we want to take enough medication so that the pain is not so excruciating that our consciousness is just absorbed in the pain. But at the same time, we do not want to take so much medication that it dulls us to the point that we cannot really think of God. That is the delicate balance we try to achieve. Gentleman (1): Is remembering God just saying the name or thinking the name of God, or is it something else—coming back into a state of divine consciousness where one actually feels a connection with God? Giriraja Swami: All right, so what do we mean when we talk about remembering God? Now, God is a person—that is the first point. He is not a person like you and me, with a body made of flesh and bones. He is spiritual, transcendent. But He is a person. The Bible says, “Man is made in the image of God.” We are persons, and so our supreme father or mother must also be a person. This is a difficult point, because we are so conditioned by the material concept of personality that when we hear about God’s personality we think in terms of our material experience. Sometimes people think, “If you say that God is a person, you are limiting Him.” For example, I am sitting here. Because I am sitting here, I cannot be in the temple at Pacific Beach; I cannot be at my ashram in Santa Barbara. But God—He is a person, but He is in this room, He is in the temple in Pacific Beach, He is in Santa Barbara, He is in our hearts, He is in every molecule and every atom. But He is still a person. Let us take the example of a person who holds a high office, say the *president* of a country. The term *president* describes his office. But there is also the person who occupies the office. And that person has a name, an appearance, and personal qualities; he or she engages in certain activities. When we remember the *president* . . . yes, there are things about the office that we consider, but to really remember the *president* means to know his name, his form, his features, his qualities, his activities. So, God, too, has a name—He has many names. And He has a form—many forms. And He has many qualities and engages in many activities. The real goal is to love God, because when you love someone, you naturally think of the person. When we develop love for God, we will naturally remember Him and think of how beautiful His form is, how sublime His qualities are, how wonderful His activities are. We will like repeating His name, just as one would repeat the name of a loved one, and we will think how best we can serve Him and please Him. But how can we know God well enough that we can actually come to love Him? Well, one distinction between Vedic literatures and other scriptures is that the *Vedas* give more details about the Personality of Godhead. They describe not just that He is the supreme authority, the creator, the maintainer, the destroyer, and the protector, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent—which He is—but also His personal attributes: His names, His forms, His qualities, and His activities. And when one comes to know Him in a more personal way and develops affection and attachment—love—for Him in a personal relationship, it is very easy to think of Him all the time, and very natural to think of Him at the time of death. *Comfort for Family Members* Gentleman (2): As hospice workers we work with the families of patients and deal a lot with the grief, the loss of the soul in this body that they have enjoyed in the physical context. It seems that after a loved one’s death, a family member could hear the name of God or think of the name of God, but because we’re outside of that person, we don’t know what he or she is actually feeling. So in what ways can we bring comfort and assurance to the family members? How can we support them in their grief and the loss of their loved one? Giriraja Swami: The first instruction of the *Bhagavad-gītā,* which is also a central principle in many other traditions, is that the person is not the body. The person is the soul living in the body. When the person leaves the body, we say that the person is dead, but actually the body was never really alive; it was just animated by the presence of the soul. At the moment the soul leaves the body, all the elements of the body are still there, lying on the bed. You may lament: “Oh, my husband is gone.” “My wife is gone.” But why do you say they are gone? The body is lying on the bed. You might have thought that the body was your husband or your wife or your father or your mother, but when they pass away, you say, “Oh, my father is gone.” “My mother is gone.” But the body is still there. So why do you say they are gone? Intuitively, we know that the person was not the body. That loved one is something other than the body that he or she now has left; that person is the soul. When a person has led a good life, and even more so when he or she has tried to develop a relationship with God and hear the name of God and think of God at the time of death, we can be assured that the person will go to a better destination. There are many emotions. There is the sense of personal loss, that the person whom we loved and shared so many good times with is gone. Out of love, there is also concern. Where is the person now? But if we know that the person has gone to a better place, we feel solace. And in painful illnesses such as cancer, we may also think, “All right. The soul has left this body, and I am sad, but this body had become very difficult; it had become a painful place for the soul to inhabit, so it is actually better that the person has gone elsewhere.” The person, the soul, continues to exist. He or she has gone to live somewhere else, where there will be less pain and suffering. Still, we do not deny the sense of personal loss. Even among transcendentalists there are various emotions. When a perfect *yogi* leaves the body, we know that the person is qualified to enter the kingdom of God, so we are happy. We are both—happy and sad. We are happy because we know that the person has gone to God, to serve God, but we are sad because we will miss the person’s association. Still, such departed souls, we believe, can inspire and guide their loved ones who remain behind. Then there is also the idea that God is responsive to prayer. When a loved one leaves the body, we know that the soul exists somewhere. We don’t know where, but we want to help the soul, because we love that person. So we can pray to God, “Wherever my mother is now”—or my father or whoever—“please be merciful. Please help her come closer to You.” And I believe that those prayers will not only help the departed soul but will also give us a chance to continue the relationship and to try to help our loved one even after he or she has left the body. Then there are the bereaved’s own spiritual practices—chanting or meditation or prayer or whatever. Yes, we are attached to and miss our loved one, but through genuine spiritual practice we come in contact with the Supreme. Of course, in the initial stage the bereaved may be too distraught. But then when we do engage in some practice that brings us in touch with God, we feel, “God is there. It is all right. God is taking care. My real relationship is with God. By God’s grace I can gain His shelter in the future.” *When the Dying Ask "Why?"* Dr. Bharadwaj: Many patients ask, “Why is this happening to me? Is God punishing me?” and this causes a lot of spiritual suffering. How would you approach this? Giriraja Swami: If someone is suffering from a terminal disease, I would not get into the idea that God is angry with the person or is punishing him. Rather, I would say, “Anyone who takes birth in a material body has to die.” That is the point. “Birth, disease, old age, and death are inevitable for every conditioned soul. It may be this disease or that, it may be this symptom of old age or that, or it may be this or that way to death. But these factors are there for everyone. And now that you are in this position, you should use what time you have to develop your relationship with God, so that you do not have to take birth in another material body and suffer through the same cycle again.” And if patients feel some specific spiritual regret or guilt, we can hear them with empathy and help them work it out—perhaps take some practical measures to resolve it—and go beyond it. As for the suffering, on the material platform its value is that it burns up bad *karma*. That is why many Hindus prefer to tolerate rather than protest, because they know that by tolerating their suffering they are exhausting their sinful reactions, and they feel that they would rather get it over with than try to postpone it and then have to suffer the bad *karma* later, in some other form. That is on the material platform. On the spiritual platform, the benefit is that suffering can serve to make us more detached from the body and from the world. We are trying to become transcendentalists, yet we still have material attachments. But when there is some upheaval or calamity, we can realize, “Yes, actually the material world is not a happy place. I should not be spending my energy trying to make it happy, because by nature it is not a happy place. I should be using my energy to realize the Supreme and get out of here.” Lord Kṛṣṇa confirms in the *Bhagavad-gītā,* *duhkhalayam asasvatam:* “This material world is a place of misery, and it is temporary.” Dr. Bharadwaj: A lot of patients fear that bad *karma* is causing their suffering. Giriraja Swami: Well, it may be. Still, our teacher gave the example of someone drowning and another person coming in a boat to rescue him. The drowning person says, “Now, wait a minute. How did I get here?” But that is not the point. The rescuer would say, “Don’t worry about the past; we can talk about that later. You are drowning. Just get in the boat!” So, we are drowning in this body, in this *samsara,* this ocean of repeated birth, death, old age, and disease. Let’s not worry how we got here. Let’s try to get out. And it is never too late. That is the power of God’s name and God’s mercy. There are stories in the Vedic literature of people who were very sinful but at the last moment chanted God’s name and were delivered. So it is never too late. *Dying Young* Lady (2): A lot of our patients never make it to old age, and it’s very difficult for everybody–the patient’s family and us–when they seem to not complete, in our perception, their life. What’s the approach to that? Giriraja Swami: Their destiny is caused by their activity, their *karma*. For whatever reason, they did something that is causing them to leave the body before the normal time. But the positive side—we always have to see the positive, the spiritual side—is that, depending on the circumstance, a younger person may be better equipped to think of God at the time of death than an older one who has lost more of his or her faculties. In fact, there is a Sanskrit prayer: > Kṛṣṇa tvadiya-pada-pankaja-panjarantam > adyaiva me visatu manasa-raja-hamsah > prana-prayana-samaye kapha-vata-pittaih > kanthavarodhana-vidhau smaranam kutas te The devotee prays to the Lord, “My dear Kṛṣṇa, please let me die immediately so that the swan of my mind may be encircled by the stem of Your lotus feet. Otherwise, at the time of my final breath, when my throat is choked up, how will it be possible for me to remember You and chant Your holy name?” This may seem contrary to our materialistic culture, which is so preoccupied with pampering and preserving the body, with staying in the body as long as possible and squeezing out of it the last possible drop of pleasure. This prayer, in opposition to that mad, vain pursuit, offers a more philosophical perspective. It is a different perspective on dying, even before old age—one that is positive and spiritual. *Giriraja Swami is based in Carpinteria, California, where he is focusing on Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instruction to him to write. He is the author of* Watering the Seed *and* Many Moons: Reflections on Departed Vaishnavas *and* is working on several publications, including books about his search for a spiritual master *and* his early days in the Boston temple, his travels with Śrīla Prabhupāda in India *and* Śrīla Prabhupāda’s monumental efforts in Bombay, *and* Vaisnava holy days. He was instrumental in acquiring *and* developing the Bhaktivedanta Ashram in Govardhan *and* led the development of the Kirtan Ashram for women, the Bhaktivedanta Hospice, *and* the Vrindavan Institute of Palliative Care, all in Vrindavan. ## Inaugurating Govind Dham *by Lokanath Swami* *A grand temple opens in Noida, one of New Delhi's important satellite cities.* After one crosses the Yamuna River from Delhi, India’s overcrowded capital city, the sight of Noida, a large satellite city in the National Capital Region, creates a welcoming impression. Since 1970, eight hundred thousand people have moved to Noida (short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority) to take advantage of its wide roads, expansive residential townships, successful economy, excellent infrastructure, and emergence as a major hub for outsourcing and education. Naturally devotees in the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness saw an opportunity to build and sustain a congregation here, and their vision proved to be true. Devotees opened a small center here in 1998. Over time, the congregation of families, working youths, and college students grew, as did the need for a suitable temple. Following almost eight years of planning and development, the temple opened on February 12, 2014, with the installation of Deities of Rādhā-Govinda, Gaura-Nitai (Caitanya and Nityānanda), and Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra. Situated on a main boulevard and adjacent to Kṛṣṇa Jayanti Park (owned by the government, maintained by ISKCON), the temple is highly accessible and visible. As modern and progressive as the city it overlooks, still it represents the Caitanya Vaisnava tradition. On either side of the front of the temple are giant reliefs of Śrī Caitanya and Nityānanda, and the temple opened on the anniversary of Lord Nityānanda’s appearance. *ISKCON Establishes Itself* The plot ISKCON secured is small, so the strategy was to “go vertical” to accommodate all of a temple’s typical elements. Topping the seven stories is a sixty-foot spire, its tip 130 feet from the ground. In the mid 1970s Śrīla Prabhupāda supervised the design of the first full-fledged ISKCON temple in a major Indian city, in Mumbai (Juhu). The Noida temple follows a similar model, with a large temple room, an auditorium, an adjoining guesthouse, a restaurant, a hall for weddings and birthday celebrations, a floor for education, and a kitchen and bedrooms in a residential wing. The temple, shops, offices, and hall are ready for use. The stone faśade, with balconies, is similar to Śrīla Rupa Gosvami's sixteenth-century Rādhā-Govinda temple in Vrindavan. The faśade and the interior also feature hand-carved stone peacocks, elephants, a hundred intricate pillars, *jalis* (latticework), *jharokhas* (balconies), and *chhatris* (domed pavilions). *A Boon for Outreach* The new temple will increase and improve ISKCON Noida's outreach, festival planning, and congregational development. The building will include the Bhaktivedanta Academy, ensuring that education will be easily available to the congregation. The Academy will have five classrooms, administration space, two large seminar halls, a play school for young children, and a library where visitors can sit at computers to read e-books or download lectures and *kirtanas.* Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted ISKCON temples to be places of education, and the Noida temple already offers courses in partnership with the Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education, organized by devotees at ISKCON's Kṛṣṇa -Balarāma temple in Vrindavan. A commercial center being built a few blocks away will give devotees quick access to many people, improving the opportunity to attract the spiritually inclined to true higher education. *The Temple Courtyard* On a visit to the temple, at the entrance you see an elevated platform holding a nearly life-sized sculpture of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna on a chariot. The temple's planners chose this scene because Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna's conversation, *Bhagavad-gītā,* epitomizes spiritual education. Because Lord Kṛṣṇa’s temple is a replica of the spiritual world, at the foot of the staircases on either side of the entrance stand the traditional statues of Jaya and Vijaya, doorkeepers in the spiritual world. A statue at the entrance honors the cow, favored by Lord Kṛṣṇa (the transcendental cowherd boy), and one of humanity's mothers because she provides us milk. Inside the temple’s balcony window you see Garuda, the Supreme Lord’s eternal winged carrier, ready to carry Him anywhere He desires. *Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda Preside* A skilled craftsman carved the beautiful white-marble form of Rādhā and the black-marble form of Govinda, following directions given in the Vedic scriptures. The scriptures and the Vaisnava tradition teach us that the duly installed Deity is in fact an incarnation of the Lord, known as *arca-avatara* ("incarnation for worship"). The Lord appears as the Deity in the temple to accept the worship of His devotees. “The spiritual master’s duty," Śrīla Prabhupāda said, "is to engage the disciples in Deity worship. In all our centers we have the method of Deity worship: to dress the Deity very nicely, to cleanse the temple very nicely, to offer nice foodstuffs to the Deity and accept the remnants of the Lord’s foodstuff as our food.” Following the tradition of Caitanya Vaisnavism, as well as Śrīla Prabhupāda's general practice, devotees at ISKCON Noida worship two other sets of Deities besides Rādhā-Govinda: Gaura-Nitai, and Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra. *The Special Moment* Behind the temple a huge tent on an empty lot served as the site for the sacred installation, which started Tuesday evening and concluded with the temple's official inauguration on Thursday. As the elaborate ritual was about to begin, thousands anxiously awaited their first viewing of the Deities, hidden onstage behind curtains. Finally the curtains opened, and the moment surely captured everyone’s heart eternally. As if a flood of light engulfed the tent, the Deities’ radiant beauty poured forth and the devotees roared with delight and amazement. From the few who could speak came shouts of “*Haribol!*” “Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī stole the show!” and “Wow! So incredibly beautiful!” It was apparent to everyone that these Deities were not concealing their beauty at all. At that moment we could also truly appreciate the extraordinary skill and artistic flair of the craftsmen. As prescribed, the Deities had their eyes covered with cloth when the curtains opened during the Tuesday-evening ceremony. After some rituals, the *netronmilan* ("eye opening") was held, and they opened their eyes for the first time, mercifully gazing upon the worshipers, who received great spiritual benefit. The Vedic scriptures tell us that whoever witnesses a Deity installation is most blessed, and this was surely a moment of mercy. The last item on Tuesday evening was *sayana adhivasa,* when the Deities lie down in beautiful beds to rest for the night. This is a one-time occurrence, because after the full-size Deities are installed on their altars, only the smaller Deities are bathed and put into beds daily. Behind where the Deities had been standing throughout the evening, a large bedroom had been set up. When all the other rites for the evening were over, all the stage items had been removed, and most of the crowd had dispersed, a peaceful atmosphere reigned in the tent. In that quietude the *sayana adhivasa* was performed. In the bedroom were night lamps, fragrant flowers, mosquito nets, and soft, melodious chanting of *mantras* in praise of the Lord. The privileged few witnessing the ceremony included some of the ISKCON leaders and members of the congregation. The experience left a deep spiritual impression on our hearts. On Wednesday, leading devotees continued the auspicious installation rites with fervor and enthusiasm while others brought forth offerings to please the Deities. An extraordinary shower of the colors of nature’s beauty concluded the bathing ceremony, as flower petals of every color of the rainbow showered upon the Deities and accentuated Their beauty. During the Deities' two-hour procession from the tent to the temple, a helicopter circled repeatedly and poured colorful flowers on the Deities and the temple spire. After discharging one load of flowers, the helicopter would land, reload with flowers, and fly again. “Helicopter Showers Flowers on ISKCON Deities” read one newspaper headline. *Official Opening* The temple officially opened to the public on the third day of the festival. Cabinet Minister Ujjwal Raman Singh cut the ceremonial ribbon and offered *puja* to the Deities. Twenty-five thousand Noida residents streamed in. Śrīla Prabhupāda's followers have placed a new religious landmark in Uttar Pradesh. The temple is a magnificent monument to celebrate the glorious beauty of Their Lordships, and it will attract devotees for hundreds of years to come. ## Taking Shelter *by Navina Syama Dāsa* *For relief from life's inevitable distress, we need to stop looking in all the wrong places.* In ISKCON we often speak of “taking shelter” of Lord Kṛṣṇa or His devotees. For example, a new member who has expressed his or her interest in a particular initiating spiritual master is said to have “taken shelter” of that *guru*. And every morning at centers around the world, members glorify the sacred *tulasi* plant, proclaiming that all who take shelter of her will have their desires fulfilled. A similar proclivity is found among other Vaisnava groups. As their *maha-mantra,* members of the Vallabha *sampradaya* chant *sri Kṛṣṇa saranam mama,* claiming the Lord as their only shelter. But what does it really mean to take shelter? And if we’re supposed to turn only to Kṛṣṇa or His devotees for shelter, to whom (or what) should we not turn? Perhaps the most precise English equivalent of the Sanskrit term *saranam* is “refuge.” *Merriam-Webster* defines refuge as “protection from danger or distress” or “something to which one has recourse in difficulty.” Etymologically, the word indicates an escape. All of this accurately conveys the sense of the word *shelter* in the devotional context. Taking *shelter* is about what you do when you are upset, or tired, or depressed. For children, the answer is usually straightforward. Whenever my three-year-old daughter trips and falls, or has had a sleepless night, my wife and I know what to expect: “Mama, baba, can you pick me up?” For adults, unfortunately, running to our mommies or daddies is generally not an option. Yet we experience as much distress as children, and—given our amazing ability to induce unwarranted mental anguish—likely more. To whom, then, should we run? The Vaisnava scriptures provide an emphatic and singular answer: Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and our original and eternal father. Indeed, Kṛṣṇa’s ultimate instruction in the *Bhagavad-gītā* is mam ekam *saranam* vraja—“Come to Me as your only *shelter*.” For followers of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the prescription is even more specific: seek refuge in the Lord’s holy name. Thus, we know the only real cure for our material blues is to immerse ourselves in the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa *maha-mantra.* Still, most of us reflexively fall back on other sources of solace. Specifically, we use food, sleep, intoxicants, sex, and various self-protective measures to negate what is disturbing us and provide some pleasure in its place. Śrīla Prabhupāda characterized these activities—eating, sleeping, mating, and defending—as animalistic: in some ways unavoidable for humans as living organisms, but secondary to the finer features that distinguish us from the beasts. As it turns out, we can understand the specific vows that he asked ISKCON members to take at initiation, as well as his general instructions to minimize our basal bodily activities, as a way of redirecting our reliance on these temporary means of escape to reliance on the infallible feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa as our only true salvation. *Physical Protection* Let’s start with the most primal urge, fear. Prompted by fear, we defend ourselves, using clothing and dwellings to protect us from the elements, and weapons and walls to protect us from other beings. These measures constitute shelter in its most literal form. They are necessary, no doubt, but they can involve great expense and endeavor. That is why Śrīla Prabhupāda encouraged his followers with families to live in farm communities, where they could shelter their bodies in simple homes made from indigenous materials and use the rest of their time in seeking shelter for their souls. As he states in his commentary to *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* (2.2.4): The necessities of life for the protection and comfort of the body must not be unnecessarily increased. . . . The reserve energy of human life, which is far superior to that of animals, should simply be utilized for self-realization. . . . Great sages and saints in the days of yore were not living in palatial buildings furnished with good furniture and so-called amenities of life. They used to live in huts and groves and sit on the flat ground, and yet they have left immense treasures of high knowledge with all perfection. The *Bhagavatam* also relates the history of young Prahlada, whose only protection—from the tridents of fiends, the stomping feet of elephants, the bite of fearful snakes, body-crushing boulders, and exposure to extreme heat, cold, and wind—was his unflinching faith in and mediation on Lord Kṛṣṇa. *Psychological Escape* But shelter is about more than physical protection; those harried by life’s struggles often also long for psychological escape. For this, many people turn to sleep and intoxication. After a rough day, who doesn’t like to indulge in an extra hour of shut-eye the next morning? Why should we get up and face the cruel world again, when we can peacefully lie on our beds in a soft and hazy dreamland? To be sure, it is natural to wake up from a good night’s sleep—or a well-timed nap—feeling refreshed and in better spirits. But to wallow in the semi-conscious stupor of the morning hours and postpone waking up, not because one is getting necessary rest but merely to avoid encountering reality, leads only to lethargy and dullness. As Śrīla Prabhupāda instructed, “The more one sleeps, that means he's under the control of *maya.*” (Conversation, Jagannātha Purī, January 26, 1977) This is why he insisted that his followers rise at the *brahma-muhurta* hour, well before dawn, and seek comfort instead in the early-morning chanting of the holy names. “If you want to follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu, there is no question of sleeping in the morning." (Conversation, Aligarh, India, October 9, 1976) Even worse than the grogginess of superfluous sleep is the oblivion of drug and alcohol abuse. These are even more effective at neutralizing pain, but this ameliorative effect is short-lived. As Śrīla Prabhupāda explained: This taking shelter of intoxication is no use to get oneself free from anxieties. It is a drug. It is oblivion. For some time we forget everything, but again when you come to your consciousness the same anxieties and same things are there. So this will not help you. (Lecture, New York, January 1, 1967) Moreover, intoxicants retard our spiritual advancement by dragging our consciousness downward: In the mode of ignorance, people become mad. Being distressed by their circumstances, they take shelter of intoxication, and thus they sink further into ignorance. Their future in life is very dark. (*Gita* 14.17, Purport) Of course, drug and alcohol addiction can also have catastrophic side-effects on one’s health and relationships. Again, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s alternative recommendation was to become “intoxicated by Caitanya Mahāprabhu's gift, the Hare Kṛṣṇa *maha-mantra.*” (*Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi* 9.48, Purport) He explained that immersion in ecstatic chanting is the best refuge because “*kirtana-rasa* is the safest situation within this material world.” (*Songs of the Vaisnava Ācāryas,* Foreword) *Pleasurable Distractions* True shelter must not only block out what assails us, but must also give us a little diversion in its stead. This is where food and sex come in. In the United States, it is commonplace to speak of “comfort food.” Additionally, eating disorders often involve a progression from negative emotions to overindulgence. Thus, whether by choice or compulsion, many people turn to familiar foods—often ones high in fat and calories—when life gets stressful. They do this, not because they are hungry, but because eating soothes them and provides some pleasure amid the pain. Whereas eating nearly always has some therapeutic effect (just ask my wife about the difference in my mood before and after I’ve had lunch), this effect is meant to be incidental; when we eat primarily to induce some emotional change rather than to obtain nourishment, we can wreak havoc on our bodies. Fortunately for the members of ISKCON (and as anyone who has attended a Sunday Feast program well knows), Śrīla Prabhupāda taught the transformation, rather than the restriction, of eating. Food that has been offered to the Deity and thus become spiritualized is as good as God: We can associate with Kṛṣṇa in so many ways by chanting His holy name, by hearing His qualities and pastimes, by seeing His beautiful form in *arca* Deity, by eating His *prasada*. . . . All these different items are identified with Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth. (Letter, August 18, 1970) By eating only Kṛṣṇa’s **prasada*,* therefore, we end up taking shelter, not of food, but rather of the Lord Himself. Far from fostering gluttony, the great *acarya* Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains that this kind of eating will actually help us control our tongues. Moreover, whereas ordinary food can never really comfort us, Lord Kṛṣṇa guarantees that His *prasada* will dissipate all of our miseries. (*Gita* 2.65) Sex is an even more potent palliative than food. In the right circumstances, it is an important part of family relationships; in the wrong ones, it can become an unwholesome addiction—seemingly satisfying at first, but ultimately leaving one emotionally hollow, if not physically diseased. Hence, Śrīla Prabhupāda warned against using intimate relations with the opposite sex as a source of comfort. *(Bhag.* 4.27.4, Purport) Instead, he urged us to seek relief by redirecting our attention onto the romantic dalliances of Lord Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa exhibited this *rasa-līlā* dance . . . just to captivate the conditioned soul. Since they are very much attracted by sexology, they can enjoy the same life with Kṛṣṇa and thus become liberated from the material condition. . . . The pastimes and activities of Lord Kṛṣṇa are medicine for the conditioned souls. If they simply hear about Kṛṣṇa they become relieved from the material disease. They are addicted to material enjoyment and are accustomed to reading sex literature, but by hearing these transcendental pastimes of Kṛṣṇa with the *gopis,* they will be relieved from material contamination. (*Kṛṣṇa,* Chapter 33) There is no question of artificially renouncing eating, sleeping, mating, or defending. (Lord Kṛṣṇa actually warns against repression. *Gita* 3.33) Nor should we view these bodily activities as inherently incompatible with being a hundred percent dedicated to serving God. (Kṛṣṇa explains that a *yogi* need only regulate them, not reject them entirely. *Gita* 6.17) For most of us, they are a natural and unavoidable part of our day-to-day lives. As practicing devotees, however, we should move beyond depending on food, sleep, intoxicants, sex, and self-protective measures for emotional and physical shelter; instead, we should learn to turn invariably to Lord Kṛṣṇa—especially His name, but also His Deity, His pastimes, and even His food remnants—for escape and comfort when we are distressed. In fact, we must ultimately relinquish our reliance on every kind of material relief or distraction. For only when we have abandoned all material shelters and find our only recourse in transcendence will we be eligible to go back home, back to Godhead. *Navina Syama Dāsa is a disciple of His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami. His family lives in ISKCON's Rādhā Kalachandji community in Dallas, where he is an attorney with the United States Department of Labor and where his daughter attends TKG Academy.* ## Time for the Journey Back Home *by Purushottam Kumar* *Learning our true identity should inspire us to fully use our life to secure the best destination after our time in this body runs out.* It cannot be seen or touched or felt, but its existence is undeniable. Just like a tsunami wave, it has no emotions, but it entraps and swallows all. The high and the mighty, the poor and the meek, men and women, every being of this world has to bow to it and surrender to its dictum. Time—the mightiest of all—is unstoppable and unconquerable. The might of time has always been unchallenged and will remain so forever. Time annihilates everything and underlines the reality that in this world nothing is timeless but everything is temporary. That is why scholars, philosophers, and sages for eons have been urging people to purge their insatiable worldly desires and focus on things that are permanent and indestructible. Yudhisthira Mahārāja, who ruled about five thousand years ago, said that the most astonishing thing in this world is that people see that others are dying every moment but they never believe that one day they too will die. *Corporal Obsession* Suppose you are presented with a luxury car, say a Rolls Royce, with a warning that it contains a bomb that will definitely explode at some unrevealed time. Who would be drawn by the charm of owning such a luxurious suicide car? The unequivocal response would be, “No sane person would even look at it.” But all of us own such a vehicle and are obsessed by it. We call it our body, and we go overboard to display our fondness for it. Empirical evidence and intellectual introspection confirm that one day our body will decay and disappear, but still we aren’t able to look beyond it. Without qualms, everyone agrees that life is as temporary as a bubble in the ocean. But we shrug off any such discussion or contemplation, pretending that our bubble will never burst. We whip our imagination and make elaborate plans for our future. We spend time amassing wealth, enticing the opposite sex, and struggling hard to carve a niche for ourselves in society. We try hard to enjoy as hard as possible. As one corporate slogan puts it, "Work hard and party hard." But just as a whiff of delicate wind destroys a house of cards, powerful time shatters all our dreams and desires. *Bhagavad-gītā* (2.18) confirms the futility of the material body: “The material body of the indestructible, immeasurable, and eternal living entity is sure to come to an end.” Most of us do not muster the courage to think beyond this life, because we have no knowledge beyond it. However, a plethora of information is available in the Vedic literature that describes a life without miseries, fear, anxieties, and, most important, death. Vedic books are the words of God, so they are timeless, and the facts they state are eternal truths. This priceless literature does not just poignantly talk about the ephemeral body, but it reveals the secret that we do not become extinct with the extinction of the body. It further explicates that we are not this body but we are souls. *The Ageless Soul* Just as a car starts functioning and moving when the driver sits inside and operates it, our body becomes active once the soul enters it. When the driver leaves, the car stops. Similarly, when the soul leaves the body, the body stops functioning and drops dead. Kṛṣṇa defines a wise person as one who laments neither for the living nor for the dead (*Gita* 2.11). *Kṛṣṇa describes the attributes of the soul.* For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. . . . He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. . . . (*Gita* 2.20) The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. (2.23) As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. (2.22) The above revelation should be a wakeup call for all of us. As we now know that the soul is timeless and is never annihilated, we should channel all our energy to protect our eternal soul. Vedic books inform us that we originally resided happily in the spiritual world, but like spoiled brats we refused to appreciate the love and warmth of God and our fellow spiritual citizens, and so we were sent to this reformatory house, the material world. We are here because of our past misdeeds, but we have an opportunity to correct ourselves and reclaim the citizenship of the spiritual world. Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, isn’t like an insensitive jailer of this material world; He is our father and is ever ready to awaken our dormant love for Him. He eagerly wants us to reform and return to Him. *The Soul’s Journey* As uncontaminated rainwater gets sullied upon touching the ground, the intrinsically pure soul gets covered with impurities upon entering the material world. The soul’s subtle covering of mind, intelligence, and false ego decides the soul’s destiny. The first body the soul gets after leaving the spiritual world is that of a human being. In the human form of life the soul has the privilege to rectify mistakes and become utterly pure. If that happens, then the subtle coverings of the soul get removed and the soul travels back to the spiritual world. If the soul misuses the human form of life and instead of endeavoring for salvation resorts to sensual pleasure, then the soul gets entangled in this world and stays here until regaining its original purity. The soul occupies new bodies based on activities done and desires nurtured in the present life. Human beings who give in to animalistic propensities, like eating the flesh of animals, indulging in illicit sex, or remaining unclothed, acquire the body of a beast, an insect, a reptile, a bird, or a plant in the next life. But persons who perform good deeds, give charity, live a regulated life, are nonviolent, honest, and kindhearted, get promoted to heavenly planets, where there is tremendous scope for corporal pleasure. But even in the higher planets one is despondent, because the fright of old age, disease, death, and rebirth in lower species exists there too. *Returning to the Spiritual World* As long as the soul flits around the material world, it remains diseased. The only cure is to flush out the accumulated impurities of the heart, which have made us spiritually blind, and thus qualify to return to God’s kingdom. Being benevolent, God takes trouble to redeem the lost souls. To persuade us to return to His kingdom, He comes to this world in His original form as Lord Kṛṣṇa or Lord Caitanya and as incarnations such as Lord Rama, or He sends His messengers like Narada Muni, Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati Ṭhākura, and His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. Lord Kṛṣṇa and His representatives also leave behind spiritual literature like *Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhagavatam,* and *Īśopaniṣad,* which categorically explain the importance of leading a God-centered life. To understand the sublime message that echoes throughout these revealed books, we need to hear from self-realized spiritual teachers. The current age is Kali-yuga. The scriptures predicted that during this era irreligious activities would become prominent and ungodly people would occupy center stage. People living in this period are fickle, unlucky, unintelligent, and lazy in spiritual matters. But the era has one great boon: for spiritual advancement, people need only follow a very simple process, revealed by Lord Caitanya about five hundred years ago. He said that in this age the most potent way to re-spiritualize our lives is to chant the names of God, especially the *maha-mantra:* Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Chanting cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for millions of lifetimes. It also jogs our memory, thus helping us revive our original spiritual relationship with Kṛṣṇa. It’s a simple yet powerful process, and anyone can do it. To ensure our spiritual growth, we must accept favorable activities and reject unfavorable ones. * Chant the names of Kṛṣṇa diligently and hear them attentively. * Associate with likeminded, serious devotees. * Regularly read books that will take us closer to Kṛṣṇa. * Offer food first to Kṛṣṇa and then take it as His mercy. * Give up all forms of illicit sex, including pornography and movies that provoke sexual fantasies. Controlling sex desire is of the utmost importance for spiritual growth. Once the taste for devotional life sprouts, sex desire automatically vanishes. The tenth-century Vaisnava saint Yamunacarya wrote, "Since I have been engaged in the transcendental loving service of Kṛṣṇa, realizing ever-new pleasure in Him, whenever I think of sex pleasure, I spit at the thought, and my lips curl with distaste." * We should refrain from committing and encouraging violence. So we should not eat flesh, whether of beasts, birds, or fishes. * We should also not indulge in gambling or any form of intoxication. Following the above process will surely guarantee a bright future and help us transcend the material world, where there is danger at every step. If a train we're in catches fire, sooner or later the fire will consume us, regardless of which class we are seated in. Similarly whether we are rich or poor, successful or unsuccessful, death will devour us one day. So we should immediately take up the process of devotion to God before it becomes too late. No doubt mighty time in the form of death will apprehend us one day, and we should be ready. By holding Kṛṣṇa’s hand, we can cross over to our eternal home, where everyone is eagerly waiting to embrace us. *Purushottam Kumar is a member of the congregation of ISKCON Kolkata. He works in Tech Mahindra as an associate solution designer.* *Sehnsucht*: When Vocabulary Encourages Yearning for Kṛṣṇa *By Satyaraja Dāsa* *The more spiritually evolved we become, the more we long for life's "missing piece."* “Woooahhh! That’s it!" I said when I came across the German word *sehnsucht* (*ZEN-zookt*). "That sums it all up!” *Sehnsucht* means “longing,” “yearning,” or even “craving,” but it also carries implications of “intensely missing,” as when pining for something as if one's life depended on it. The word hearkens to the need a person feels when addicted to hard drugs, an addiction so intense one’s entire being calls out for it. The word also indicates the feeling that one’s life is unfinished or imperfect, that a piece of the puzzle is missing, and that one cannot go on without finding that missing piece. According to Wikipedia, It is sometimes felt as a longing *for* a far-off country, but not a particular earthly land which we can identify. Furthermore there is something in the experience which suggests this far-off country is very familiar and indicative of what we might otherwise call "home." In this sense it is a type of nostalgia, in the original sense of that word. At other times it may seem as a longing *for* a someone or even a something. But the majority of people who experience it are not conscious of what or who the longed *for* object may be, and the longing is of such profundity and intensity that the subject may immediately be only aware of the emotion itself and not cognizant that there is a something longed *for*. Christian author C. S. Lewis wrote that *sehnsucht* is an “insatiable longing” and saw it in terms of the quest for the Divine. One dictionary defines it like this: “The inconsolable longing in the human heart for we know not what; a yearning for a far, familiar, non-earthly land one can identify as one’s home.” The word *sehnsucht*,** then*,* deeply resonates with the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness*,* wherein we learn that in material life something is definitely missing but still people tend to push on*,* day after day*,* trying to make sense of it all. Those who are sensitive and spiritually mature intuit that something is wrong and that there is more to life than meets the eye. The more spiritually evolved we become*,* the more we long for that missing piece. In Kṛṣṇa consciousness*,* we know the missing piece to be Kṛṣṇa*,* or God; we also know the spiritual world to be the place we originally came from*,* the “non-earthly land one can identify as one’s home.” And even when one is in a spiritually perfected state, say our Kṛṣṇa conscious sages, intense yearning still exists, perhaps more so, but at this point it is on a more advanced platform: it is a specific longing for Kṛṣṇa in the mood of those who serve Him eternally in the spiritual world. Thus, in the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, intense spiritual desire exists in a sort of hierarchy, on two distinct levels, which for the purposes of this article I will call “*Sehnsucht* 1” and “*Sehnsucht* 2.” *Sehnsucht* 1 George Harrison opens his foreword to *Kṛṣṇa,* Śrīla Prabhupāda’s summary of the *Bhagavata Purana*’s Tenth Canto, with the following words: “Everybody is looking for KṚṢṆA. Some don’t realize that they are, but they are.” From a Vaisnava point of view, this is the underlying premise of *sehnsucht*. The simple fact is this: everyone is part of *Kṛṣṇa,* and when separated from Him, as we are in the material world, we feel that separation, perhaps not overtly but certainly deep down in the core of our being. We may not know exactly what it is, but we have a sense that our vision is covered, that something is obstructing our view of higher reality. Prabhupāda elaborates: “As living spiritual souls we are all originally Kṛṣṇa conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial, our consciousness is now polluted by the material atmosphere.” This means that Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even in the early stages, is a glimpse of something long forgotten. In this life we are easily covered by the illusory energy, known as *maya*. In that state we forget our real self-interest, which is service to Kṛṣṇa, and we suffer in the material world. As eternal souls we sense that our “birthright” is an ongoing life of bliss and knowledge, but our natural desire for self-preservation leads us to seek shelter in temporary, material solutions, which only bring us further misery. The strength of the material energy is such that the only way to get beyond it is by spiritual practice, which includes praying, daily chanting of God’s names, worship services—all of which are meant to invoke remembrance of Kṛṣṇa, or God. The idea is to absorb one’s senses in the Supreme—to see His form, to taste food and to smell incense offered to Him, to read about His pastimes, and mainly to hear the chanting of His names. These create a “wrap-around awareness” that engulfs practitioners in the spiritual world. And by being so engulfed, you remember who you really are. Prabhupāda often compared this to being cured of amnesia. In the conventional treatment of the disease, the patient is given a daily regimen of gradual exposure to his or her former life. Through sustained effort, it is hoped, the patient gradually remembers and becomes cured. This is called anamnesis—the reversal of amnesia. Similarly, through a daily regimen known as *sadhana*, spiritual practices connected to Kṛṣṇa, we become relieved of spiritual forgetfulness and gradually remember our real life in the spiritual world with Kṛṣṇa. But even prior to this, having attained a preliminary state of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one feels satisfied to have found the path of *bhakti* (devotion to Kṛṣṇa ) and reaches the culmination of “*Sehnsucht 1*.” *Sehnsucht* 2 After substantial spiritual progress on the path, one's longing persists, but in a different form. As Caitanya Mahāprabhu prays: > nayanam galad-asru-dharaya > vadanam gadgada-ruddhaya gira > pulakair nicitam vapuh kada > tava nama-grahane bhavisyati “O my Lord, when will my eyes be decorated with tears of love flowing constantly when I chant Your holy name? When will my voice choke up, and when will the hairs of my body stand on end at the recitation of Your name?” Showing by His own example how an advanced devotee prays, Caitanya Mahāprabhu is here yearning for certain divine symptoms known as *sattvika-bhavas*, or the ecstatic bodily transformations that occur when one develops love of God. *Caitanya-caritāmṛta* tells us that tears, pride, joy, fainting, madness, trembling, patience, humility, melancholy, perspiration, faltering of the voice, and standing of bodily hairs on end are natural symptoms of ecstatic love. They cause a devotee to dance spontaneously and "to float in the ocean of transcendental bliss." Thus, a fundamental yearning accompanies the process of enhanced Kṛṣṇa consciousness: one develops a taste for moving forward on the path and doesn’t let anything get in the way. This might be considered “Part A” of “*Sehnsucht* 2.” “Part B” emerges with *lobha*, or spiritual greed. This is the dawning of the highest level of *sehnsucht,* wherein one deeply craves love of God. After this, through strict practice and the mercy of pure devotees, one gradually becomes engrossed in such love, developing spiritual passion, known as *raga*. As this occurs, one remembers one’s eternal relationship with the Lord in the spiritual world, increasing one’s longing to an incalculable degree. This, in turn, leads to the attainment of the highest level, called *prema-bhakti*, which is pure love of God, the ultimate goal of life. The Perfection of Sehnsucht In the higher levels of *sehnsucht*,** one knows exactly what one is longing for. Caitanya Mahāprabhu calls out in desperation*,* > yugayitam nimesena > caksusa pravrisayitam > sunyayitam jagat sarvam > govinda-virahena me “O Govinda [Kṛṣṇa]! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.” Here, in the seventh verse of Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s *Śikṣāṣṭakam* prayers, we are allowed to witness the internal struggle of a soul nearing the highest levels of perfection. As Śrī Caitanya, in the previous verses of this prayer, has played the part of souls aspiring for perfection, here He shows a soul tasting the first stages of genuine Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or love of God. In this verse He elaborates on the theme of *viraha-bhakti*, or “devotion in separation.” This is the highest form of *sehnsucht*, and it deepens with the deepening of one's love for Kṛṣṇa. One who has reached some genuine modicum of accomplishment on the path of pure love of God feels both *sambhoga*, or “devotion in union,” and *vipralambha* (also known as *viraha-bhakti*), or “devotion in separation.” Separation is considered higher than union because it enhances the experience of union. Separation is thus the key ingredient for the intensity of one's devotion. For example, once when Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa were performing Their divine pastimes together, a large black bee flew into Their vicinity. Now, Kṛṣṇa is sometimes known as Madhusudana because He killed the demon known as Madhu. But a bumblebee is also Madhusudana because *madhu* also means “honey.” When Kṛṣṇa saw the bee, He jokingly said, “Rādhā, watch out! That bee might sting You!” Rādhārāṇī became frightened and ran into Kṛṣṇa’s arms. When She did this, Kṛṣṇa lovingly joked with Her again. “O Rādhā,” He said, “there is no longer any reason to fear. Madhusudana is already gone.” Of course, Kṛṣṇa was referring to the fact that the bee had left, but the mere thought that Kṛṣṇa might be gone gripped Rādhā in *vipralambha-bhava*, the loving mood of separation, even though She was right there in Kṛṣṇa’s arms. In this example of the intensity of love in separation, Rādhā appreciated Kṛṣṇa even more when She began to consider His absence. In this way, spiritual separation drives the devotee mad with love, and so Caitanya Mahāprabhu asks for relief: “O Govinda, please relieve my senses!” And in Kṛṣṇa consciousness the senses are ultimately relieved, at least to a point, because the ultimate form of *Sehnsucht* is resolved when one develops pure love for God. That is to say, for the devotee the missing piece of life, found in *Sehnsucht* 1, has long been achieved, and the desire to unite with Kṛṣṇa in loving relationship, as in *Sehnsucht* 2, also knows fruition, even if only when one advances on the path of *bhakti.* But the higher echelon of *Sehnsucht* 2 is a paradox of sweetness, known only by the most advanced devotees. In this exalted state, one inconceivably feels longing and satisfaction at the same time, the feeling culminating in a state of divine madness that brings the highest ecstasy as well as a form of sanity unknown in the material world. *Satyaraja Dāsa, a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda, is a BTG associate editor and founding editor of the* Journal of Vaishnava Studies. *He has written more than thirty books on Kṛṣṇa consciousness and lives near New York City.* ## e-Kṛṣṇa www.iskconcommunications.org is the website for the Office of Communications for the International Society of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness (ISKCON). The Office of Communications engages the world’s media to create and sustain a positive image for ISKCON and its members as a religious and cultural organization. The site is created to provide information about the goals of ISKCON and to serve as a conduit for journalists, writers, and media organizations seeking to learn about ISKCON or obtain comment for stories, articles, or news segments they may be creating. The About link on the toolbar gives background information about ISKCON, describing its place in the Gaudiya Vaisnava *sampradaya,* its basis in the Vedic literature, and the spiritual renaissance instigated by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu that led to the formation of ISKCON. In the About section there is also a description of Śrīla Prabhupāda's work as the founder/*acarya* of ISKCON, his place in the Vaisnava lineage, and his efforts to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness by his translation work and extensive travels. To give further insight into the Society, this section also presents the Seven Purposes of ISKCON. The News link connects to the section for ISKCON News, “the news agency for the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.” This section also contains links to other websites that provide reliable, balanced, and timely information of interest to devotees, friends, and people interested in ISKCON. Under Publications you will find a list of links to related ISKCON documents and journals that provide a deeper look into the world of Gaudiya Vaisnavism. The Media section provides links to the official ISKCON Media Kit and to a source for stock photos of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement that can be used in publications. The Media Kit is designed to provide accurate facts for journalists and media officers to use when presenting stories about ISKCON. This improves the consistency and integrity of reports about the Society. The stock photos have a similar purpose. They allow media officers and journalists to visually represent ISKCON appropriately in their work. The Contact section reveals a world map providing the contact details for ISKCON Communications Directors around the world. This makes it much easier for journalists and media officers to get in touch with ISKCON officers authorized to speak to the media on behalf of the Society. —Antony Brennan ## From the Editor *Magical Distractions* Adept **yogi*s* can attain *siddhis,* mystic powers, or what Śrīla Prabhupāda sometimes referred to as magic. These powers can distract the advancing *yogi*, forcing him to lose sight of the goal of God realization. Devotees on the path of *bhakti-yoga* consider mystic *siddhis* insignificant rewards. *The*y're material, not spiritual. As Śrīla Prabhupāda points out in *The* *Nectar of Devotion,* science often imitates the achievements of advanced **yogi*s*. For example, a *yogi* with the *aṇimā-siddhi* can enter a stone, but an engineer can drill through a mountain. The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Technology allows us to do things once considered impossible. A few centuries ago, who could have imagined nearly instantaneous communication with anyone anywhere in the world? Now, as technology progresses without stopping or even letting up, we move along with it, mostly oblivious of how much it is changing our world and our lives. For one thing, each of us seems to have more power today than any of the thousands of generations before us. Consider the *yogi* again. Another *siddhi,* called prapti-*siddhi,* allows a *yogi* to get anything from anywhere. Śrīla Prabhupāda told of a *yogi* who on demand delivered in an instant the fresh branch of a pomegranate tree, with attached fruit, from Afghanistan to Calcutta. FedEx is somewhat slower, but through the Internet anyone with enough money can quickly get practically anything from anywhere in the world. But increased power without increased knowledge is dangerous. The newly rich camel driver who drives his new car like his old camel—by stomping his foot—is in for trouble. In the midst of the rapid change around us, we need to stay philosophically grounded. We can ask, "Has anything really changed?" The philosophical view, as presented, for example, by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the *Bhagavad-gītā,* is that despite our progress in manipulating the material energy, the essential realities remain. The Internet and the smartphone haven't solved our greatest problem: we're all going to die. While our eyes are glued to our digital screens, time is stealing our limited stock of days. Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, "The material world is an illusory energy to deviate the living entities from the path of self-realization." Distraction from the real business of life has always been a problem; even the ancient Vedic sages speak of it. But these days we have more distractions than ever before. We can lose ourselves so deeply in the digital world that the solid world of bricks and bread and brothers and mothers disappears. Whether the distraction is the lure of the unlimited options of the Internet or the quarreling of neighbors in the village, the effect is the same: wasting time for no substantial benefit. By substantial I mean eternal. Reality is what endures beyond the ravages of time. If we pause to think about it, we can know intuitively what the Vedic literature teaches: we are the conscious self within, interfacing with the external world through bodies made of senses. We can also see that even though the bodies we had in infancy, childhood, and so on, are gone, we continue to exist. Therefore, Lord Kṛṣṇa’s teaching that we'll live on after death makes perfect sense. Instead of being fooled by magic tricks, whether by *yogis* or technologists, we should turn our attention to the eternal reality, described in detail in the venerable Vedic literature, the most relevant of which are available to us through Śrīla Prabhupāda's inspired presentations. —Nagaraja Dāsa ## Vedic Thoughts Real happiness must be appreciated by one's transcendental senses. Unless one is purified, the transcendental senses are not manifest; therefore to purify the senses one must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and engage the senses in the service of the Lord. Then there will be real happiness and liberation. His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 4.28.20, Purport Absolute knowledge is in the mode of goodness, knowledge based on duality is in the mode of passion, and foolish, materialistic knowledge is in the mode of ignorance. Knowledge based upon Me, however, is understood to be transcendental. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 11.25.24 The sound incarnation of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Soul [i.e., *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam*], enters into the heart of a self-realized devotee, sits on the lotus flower of his loving relationship, and thus cleanses the dust of material association, such as lust, anger, and hankering. Thus it acts like autumnal rains upon pools of muddy water. Mahārāja Pariksit *Śrīmad-Bhagavatam* 2.8.5 My dear king, when Kṛṣṇa’s devotees dance in *kirtana,* they destroy the inauspiciousness of the earth by the touch of their feet, of the directions by their glance, and of the higher planetary systems by their upraised arms. *Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya* 20.68 You should know, O best of *brahmanas,* that in each cycle of four ages the branches of the *Vedas* are thus organized by a different Vyasa. But Kṛṣṇa -dvaipayana Vyasa, know it well, is the Supreme Lord Narayana Himself. Who else on earth, O Maitreya, could be the author of the *Mahābhārata*? Parasara Muni *Skanda Purana* 3.4.4–5 O Visnu, Your name is completely transcendental. Thus it is self-manifest. Indeed, even without properly understanding the glories of chanting Your holy name, if we vibrate Your name with at least a small understanding of its glories—that is, if we simply repeat the syllables of Your holy name—gradually we shall understand it. *Rg Veda* 1.156.3 Compared to a person who is attached to chanting **japa*,* the person who performs loud chanting of the holy name of Śrī Hari is one hundred times better. This is because the person who chants *japa* purifies himself, whereas the person who chants the holy name loudly in *kirtana* purifies himself, all those who are with him, and everyone else who hears the holy vibration. Śrī Naradiya Quoted in *Caitanya-bhagavata, Adi-khanda* 16.283