My beginning association with Krishna devotees offered me an extended sequence of astonishments. It amazed me, for example, to discover that a group of enthusiasts encountered on sidewalks jumping and singing wildly to a pounding drum would be absorbed in a deep, comprehensive, and highly sophisticated theology. Another surprise revealed that this theology, filled with [...]
Entries from September 2008
September 23, 2008
Munchies for the Mind III
RECENT ADDITION TO THE DICTIONARY FOR KALI YUGA
truthiness (noun) Truth coming from the gut, not books; preferring to believe what you wish to believe, rather than what is known to be true.
Steven Colbert: “Truthiness is ‘What I say is right, and nothing anyone else says could possibly be true.’ It’s not only that I [...]
September 16, 2008
Power Part 3 (continued from last week)
In the last two postings we have been considering a letter Shrila Prabhupada wrote in 1972 concerning the nature of power. A devotee had written Prabhupada with misgivings about competition in activities of preaching. To this apparently simple and down-to-earth question, Prabhupada gave a reply that rose quickly to ultimate philosophical principles. Prabhupada’s presentation is [...]
September 10, 2008
Power Part 2 (continued from last week)
During the Christmas shopping season of 1972, the ISKCON temples in North America engaged, as usual, in a fiercely competitive book distribution marathon. Some aspects of that contest gave the president of the Chicago temple misgivings, which he placed before Shrila Prabhupada, his spiritual master and the founder-acharya of ISKCON. Prabhupada addressed Shri Govinda’s doubts [...]
September 2, 2008
Power Part 1
Were I to name the one human act most responsible for the wrongs in this world it would be, hands down, the abuse of power.
As far back as our history books can relate, the strong have exploited the weak. From time to time, the exploited, energized by resentment, rise up and overthrow their exploiters. In [...]
