November/December 2010

Kirtana, chanting the names of God, is the central practice of the Krishna consciousness movement. Krishna devotees chant quietly on beads and sing loudly in temples and in public. Earlier this year, two hundred devotees boarded the Vagabond Spirit for a four-hour kirtana cruise in Sydney Harbour, the subject of this issue’s cover story.

The word kirtana is related to the word kirti, which means “fame.” Broadly speaking, kirtana means to make famous by any means possible. Because devotees want to introduce Krishna and His teachings to everyone, they focus much energy on distributing Krishna-related books. In “The Mission of Book Distribution,” Karuna Dharini Devi Dasi discusses some of the history and philosophy of book distribution by Srila Prabhupada’s followers over the past forty-plus years. In “Back on the Path Back Home,” Sai Bhupalam, a grateful recipient of one of Prabhupada’s books, tells his story of coming to Krishna.

People sometimes ridicule Krishna devotees for singing Hare Krishna in public, unaware of the deep philosophy behind the singing. In “The God Logic,” Abhij Toley explains why a genuine spiritual path like Krishna consciousness is just as logical and scientific as the modern scientific method.

Hare Krishna.—Nagaraja Dasa, Editor

Departments

ISKCON Prison Ministry

Indelible Desire

Aindra Dasa

In Your Own Words

Letters

Apatheism: A New Trend in Wishy-Washy Disbelief

Expansions of Illusion

Vedic Thoughts

In Memoriam