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Drew Lawrence

How did we come to be in the material world if our original position was living with God in the spiritual world? Why would we come down here to a place where there is birth, suffering, old age disease and death? The answer is that God gives us independence and free will always. He does not force us to do anything. When a child says to the father that he wants to do such and such, the father says no, you shouldn’t do it. It is not a good idea. But the child insists and wants to do it anyway. So the father relents and says okay, you can do it but you do so at your own risk. He gives permission because he loves his child. It is similar with God and we, His children, when we want to come down here to the material world and enjoy separately from Him. We like to think we know better.

Patricia Therese Wolff-Keaton 

Happiness is fleeting. I hate when people ask "are you happy" because it is ephemeral. Better to be content. Am I content? Not always, but I am working on it. I judge a religion by its followers. Srila Prabhupada's REAL disciples all work to make the world better in some way, to lift up the fallen, to spread that ephemeral happiness by sankirtana. Some of my fondest memories are sankirtana. Our religion is about IMPROVING ourselves. We will never be perfect in the material world. That is why we try to fix our mind on Krishna, to get to the spiritual world where we CAN be perfect, and happiness is NOT ephemeral. So, improve, be content, because God owns EVERYTHING. What you have is a gift. treasure it, and pass it along. I guess, I remember a lot of homeless in the temple on feast days. Who later became devotees. I honestly cannot see that happening today. And I am thinking of the middle "80s, even AFTER Srila Prabhupada's death. This outreach, however wa

"I CAME HERE TO TAKE THEIR SUFFERING", SAID PRABHUPADA

It was the beginning of 1977. Prabhupada was in Bombay temple. He was very sick. He had stopped all food intake – he was taking 1/4 a cup of orange juice per day. His body had only bones left – there was no flesh. And yet, he was insisting that he wanted to go to London. The doctors had given up responsibility. But as always, he was adamant

At this time, one Pancaratrika Pandit from Bangalore named Sampat Kumar Bhattacarya came to know about Srila Prabhupada’s situation. So, he took a flight from Bangalore to Bombay – which in those days was a huge thing for a Brahmin priest – and met Prabhupada, and asked for a private meeting. Generally, nobody was allowed a private meeting, but when he said that he specially came by flight from Bangalore to meet Srila Prabhupada, he was allowed a private meeting. So, everybody was asked to go out, and they talked.

The conversation was like this: Sampat Kumar: ‘Swamiji, I am feeling very pained