September/October 2022

WELCOME  In 1975, in response to a suggestion from an ISKCON life member, Srila Prabhupada requested the editors of this magazine to include an excerpt from Srimad-Bhagavatam in every issue. That policy has been followed ever since.

Prabhupada’s emphasis on the Bhagavatam was not arbitrary. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of Krishna in whose line Prabhupada descends, cited the authority of the Bhagavatam as the basis for His teachings, selecting it from among the numerous books in the vast library of Vedic literature. It is the ideal book to guide one’s life, and in this issue Vraja Vihari Dasa addresses that point in his article “Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Search for Fulfillment.”

The Vedic scriptures, including the Bhagavatam, can be understood to be sound in book form, and the books themselves as well as their teachers direct us to “hear” them regularly for spiritual progress. Vishakha Devi Dasi discusses the importance of such hearing in “The Power of Sound.”

A central teaching of the Bhagavatam is that each of us is an eternal soul with an innate devotional relationship with Krishna. In his “Founder’s Lecture,” Srila Prabhupada explains that those who use their human life to realize that relationship are the true Aryans, a historically misused term.

Hare Krishna. – Nagaraja Dasa, Editor

Departments

From the Editor

Q&A

Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out

Bhakti Wisdom