Everyone

I was in Houston, Texas, for the premiere screening of the Hare Krishna! film, and during the question-and-answer session after the screening, an elderly woman in the front row raised her hand. I called on her.

The Bhagavad-gita teaches that we cannot avoid old age, disease, or death. When Srila Prabhupada brought Krishna consciousness to America in 1965, his young disciples accepted the truth of this teaching. And as time has passed and devotees have aged, this teaching has become more relevant. Gurudas, one of Prabhupada's earliest disciples, has spent his life in Krishna's service.

"Thus the knots of the heart and all misgivings are cut to pieces. The chain of fruitive actions, or karma, is terminated when one sees one's self and one's master." – Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.21

When Srila Prabhupada arrived in America in 1965, he first stayed at the home of Gopal and Sally Agarwal in Butler, Pennsylvania. After a month he traveled to New York, where he opened the first storefront temple. Then he went on to establish a temple in San Francisco.

I'm looking out my window at rounded mounds of snow piled against the tool shed. The winter British Columbia sky is gray, and pointy icicles are hanging from the edge of the roof. I'm warm and cozy inside our log cabin, and quite comfortable except for the swollen black eye I'm nursing. Let me tell you about the eye.

[Excerpted from Wise-Love: Bhakti and the Search for the Soul of Consciousness, by Pranada Comtois. Copyright by the author. Available from amazon.com. This concise handbook introduces bhakti-yoga to spiritual seekers and western yogis. We've retained the book's style for dealing with Sanskrit and other considerations.]

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Although many articles have been written about the Gita as a philosophical poem, exploring its meaning and theological implications, and although both devotees and nondevotees have written elaborate studies of Srila Prabhupada's translation, few articles deal with the text as a historical phenomenon, something that came to us after a long journey of commentary and explication.

Suta Goswami said: Arjuna, the celebrated friend of Lord Krishna, was grief-stricken because of his strong feeling of separation from Krishna, over and above all Maharaja Yudhishthira's speculative inquiries. – Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.15.1

[Excerpted from Swami in a Strange Land, by Joshua M. Greene (Yogeshvara Dasa). Copyright 2016 Joshua M. Greene. Available from the Krishna.com Store and Amazon.com. This excerpt retains the book's style for dealing with Sanskrit words and other considerations.]

I am victory and adventure.
– Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita, 10.36