Duryodhana internally rejoiced at his great luck but externally feigned disappointment and said he’d accept his fate. He gleefully returned home, thanking Arjuna for his ‘foolishness’. But as events unfolded later, Arjuna’s choice proved fateful, and Pandavas won the battle, largely due to Krishna’s timely intervention at practically every aspect of the war. Although Krishna…

First I saw fear and anger in their eyes. Then I saw they were greedy for food. Now this particular dog wanted only love. The third level – love- at which this dog approached had the most profound effect on me. I wondered how this dog didn’t want any food but only love. I realized…

“You may have many best friends but your dog has only one.” - Unknown Over a dozen dogs snarled, ready to gnaw into my flesh. They barked ferociously and I had only my bead bag to protect me. I felt helpless and suddenly from nowhere, an auto-rickshaw pulled up and I jumped in. It was…

A twenty-one-year-old boy was diagnosed with soft-tissue sarcoma, malignant cancer. The doctors said he wouldn’t survive more than a year. His father, a dear friend of mine, gave him Srila Prabhupada’s bhajans and classes, which the boy kept on his bedside and heard all the time. He often screamed in pain, yet confessed to all…

Let’s solve the root of all problems – Part 3 “Sometimes in life we make the mistake of hearing valuable information without listening.” – Angel Moreira After a class in Tokyo, Japan, on the sixteenth chapter of Bhagavad Gita where Krishna speaks about the demoniac nature, Srila Prabhupada paused and invited the audience to ask questions. There was a silence in…

“If you want to speak like the Gods, your ears must be open as the sky.” – Curtis Tyrone Jones As a son, I may be angry with my parents for the choices they made for me when I was a child. As a parent, I may be frustrated at my son now for disobeying me. As a spouse,…

“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” – Plutarch The swollen leg looked scary. “You are walking too much on these slippers; you need to get shoes” said one concerned friend. As my friend negotiated the pain on his right foot, he saw his left one swell alarmingly, in just ten hours. A few other well-intentioned but ill-informed friends…

“‘Whatever may come by Your mercy, let it come.’ That’s our philosophy. That’s our siddhanta. But if you know it’s going to rain, it’s better to take an umbrella.” – Srila Prabhupada (to Pradyumna, in Hyderabad) A devotee of Krishna uses everything in service of Krishna. Srila Rupa goswami has said: Anasaktasya visayan yatharam upayunjitah Nirbandha Krishna sambanda yukta vairagyam ucyate “That renunciation…

“A physician without a knowledge of astrology has no right to call himself a physician.” - Hippocrates (Greek physician, referred to as the ‘Father of Medicine’) How time humbles all of us. There was a time when I ridiculed astrologers and the science of astrology. One of my dear friends, Veda Murti Prabhu is an accomplished astrologer; yet I ignored his explanations.…

“Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?” - Garth Nix A king was desperate to know the daily activities of god. He asked his minister, but the loyal servant expressed ignorance of this esoteric subject. Furious, the king warned that he wants an answer within twenty four hours, failing which, the minister would be sent…

“Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?” - Garth Nix A king was desperate to know the daily activities of god. He asked his minister, but the loyal servant expressed ignorance of this esoteric subject. Furious, the king warned that he wants an answer within twenty four hours, failing which, the minister…

“This is the effect of bhakti-yoga. Even a child can take part, even a dog can take part, and even an animal can take part. And the vibration of that spiritual science as a sound will purify the whole atmosphere so that even there are so many small animals in the wall and the corner, they will be purified.” -…