Waves of Devotion

Quandary IV: If the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the foundation of all Vaiṣṇava literature, why does it describe Krishna’s pastimes with the gopīs in so little detail?

Are the cultural forms that Śrīla Prabhupāda brought from India essential to the cultivation of krishna-bhakti?

Pradyumna was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Sanskrit editor and was affectionately known by him as “Paṇḍitajī.”

A friend recently shared with me an excerpt from a book he was reading on one of his favorite subjects: the realizations of the Greek Stoics.

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, Please accept my humble obeisances.

“You are so optimistic that you could be falling out of the Empire State Building and, at the 50th floor, say, ‘So far, so good.’”

I recently watched a podcast in which a devotee talked about ayahuasca as a legitimate means of elevating consciousness.

Kaniṣṭha, Madhyam, and Uttama Eating[1] The first and lowest stage of consciousness, which represents the karmic or selfish mind, is called anna-moya.

Misconception I: You Cannot Act for Mercy Mercy is undeserved kindness.

I like this definition of culture: those qualities of a society that make a favorable impression on the mind to enable people to relate, communicate, and learn effectively.

Today’s question: If one’s essential nature is fixed, isn’t it unfair that some souls — those whose intrinsic nature resembles the gopīs of Vrindavan — are destined for a higher, more pleasurable eternal existence than others?

Sometimes we see very senior Vaiṣṇavas — devotees who go back to the roots of ISKCON, with decades of steady service, and sādhana — still struggling in various ways in their twilight years of Krishna consciousness.

The title comes from an interview someone sent to me from the Easy Bhakti podcast by Chandrashekar Acharya dasa.[1] He was interviewing Yasodeva dasa, a successful preacher at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania.