November/December 2008

In this issue Indulekha Devi Dasi writes about the spiritual depth of India’s traditional art, dance, and music. Like much of India’s heritage, these all have roots in the spiritual culture described in the Vedic literature. These venerable books tell us that all forms of art find their perfection in the glorification of God.

The arts are only one of many categories of human enterprise the Vedic scriptures deal with exhaustively. More and more, ideas from India’s spiritual tradition are infiltrating the West. Unfortunately, important philosophical concepts, such as karma and dharma, often get blurred in translation. For example, the words karma and dharma are now part of the English lexicon, but they are often misused and ill defined. Authors Narada Rishi Dasa and Satyaraja Dasa draw from the Vedic scriptures to clarify the meanings of these words and their implications for our lives.

Similarly, Mukunda Mala Dasa writes about heaven, the goal of various religious traditions, but his insight gained from scriptural study inspires a troubling question: Is heaven worth the effort?

In “Taking Aim at the Supreme Target,” Mohini Radha Devi Dasi directs us, as Lord Krishna does, to a goal that surpasses heavenly happiness: pure love for God.

Hare Krishna.—Nagaraja Dasa, Editor

Departments

Finding a Guru

Namahatta.org

Sadaputa Dasa

Letters

No Mistakes in Nature

Vedic Thoughts