When Srila Prabhupada left India in 1965 to travel to the United States, his mission was to teach. He was confident that people would welcome the philosophy of Krishna consciousness if they understood it. He didn’t demand blind following; he wanted people to hear an unadulterated presentation of Lord Krishna’s teachings and use their intelligence to judge its value.

In “Real Knowledge Changed My Life,” Vishakha Devi Dasi recalls how, unlike anything she had heard before, what she learned in her early encounters with Prabhupada’s teachings and his disciples clarified everything. Manu Dasa’s story, related in “Recovering from Childhood,” reveals his attraction to the application of the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, witnessed during his visits to the first London Hare Krishna temple.

Prabhupada’s lecture in this issue conveys knowledge every human being should aspire for: how to become completely free from suffering. The practices of Krishna consciousness can deliver that kind of freedom. It takes time, however, so as Arcana Siddhi Devi Dasi explains in “When Bad Is Good,” devotees live in the knowledge that all reversals are sent by Krishna, who knows exactly what we need to progress along the path back to Him and our eternal home.

Hare Krishna.—Nagaraja Dasa, Editor

Departments

Vrindavan Experience

Transcendental Competition

In Your Own Words

Letters

Krishna’s Pastimes: Reality, Not Allegory

Vedic Thoughts