Topic: Association (with devotees of Krishna)
Reading Complexity: Info
For anyone wanting to develop their full spiritual potential, Krishna consciousness, there's nothing that compares with associating with devotees of Krishna.
Plants grow best in fertile soil, and our natural spiritual consciousness grows when we keep company with spiritually minded persons. Krishna consciousness is contagious, and the more time we spend in the company of Krishna conscious...
Reading Complexity: Easy 
“So, tell me about yourself. Where are you from?” asked the chief resident in pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh medical center, where I was interviewing for a residency position.
My answer started off something like this, “My parents are from South India, and I was born and brought up here in the U.S.”
Although his question implied that the place one is from...
Reading Complexity: Easy
On August 18, 2002, my life took a fateful turn. A persistent leg-pain was diagnosed as being caused by malignant terminal breast cancer that had spread all over my body.
Till then my life had been more or less similar to that of most Indian Hindu housewives. I was born and brought up in Maharashtra, a province in Western India, in a cultured and pious family and had married a respectable school...
Reading Complexity: Easy
He sought enlightenment on an isolated beach through music, meditation, and marijuana, it came to him in a way he'd never expected.
Video of Sarvatma dasa chanting at the 2007 Ukraine kirtan festival.
Having had some mystical experiences as a teenager that convinced me of the existence of God, I left my native country, Argentina, for Salvador, capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia, famous for...
Reading Complexity: Easy
Up From The Ordinary
To gain fame and recognition, he wanted to become a pop music star. But he thought his ultimate perfection would come by merging into the "Supreme Oneness."
I was born and raised in Syracuse, a city in central New York state known for, if anything, its university. With my two older brothers—one two years older and the other thirteen years older—I was brought up in a lower...
Reading Complexity: Easy
From Punk to Monk
"I couldn't accept that I would be an engineer for the rest of my life, settle down, lead a steady life, grow old. I was bored. What was the point?"
I missed a chance to see Srila Prabhupada in 1969 when he spoke at Conway Hall in Red Lion Square, London. I happened to be there before his lecture, and I saw a number of devotees and many other people inside. I was curious to...
Reading Complexity: Easy
A prayer in Istanbul's Blue Mosque leads a young Christian to Lord Krishna.
John, a slight, fair-complexioned traveler who'd left home to broaden his perspective on life, found himself stranded in Istanbul. With nothing to do until money arrived from a friend, he'd gone to the magnificent Blue Mosque, an awe-inspiring monument with huge stained-glass windows, to offer a sincere prayer to God—the...
Reading Complexity: Easy
"Don't Leave...Live!"
A Peace Corps worker on assignment in India resolves to follow the transcendental call.
One hot smoggy day in the summer of 1968, I went for a walk in New York's Greenwich Village, browsing through the occult bookstores. As I stood inside one store, reading a small pocket copy of Bhagavad-gita, I saw an incredible sight: a group of young men and women in robes and saris,...
Reading Complexity: Easy
An lnformed Opinion
When her son joined the Hare Krishna movement, she didn't make any judgments without finding out for herself what it was all about.
NOTE: Mrs. Caprario de Tarres, of Uruguay, originally wrote the following article to counter attacks by anticult groups against the Hare Krishna devotees in that country. Her letter helped calm the criticism and enabled the devotees to freely...
Reading Complexity: Easy
Just as a person who desires to improve his tennis will seek out tennis experts and enthusiasts, so a person interested in spiritual life will want like-minded friends. But where do we find them? And even if we meet students of self-realization and God consciousness, does it mean we will automatically develop loving friendships with them? The scripture states, “Seek and you will find; knock and...
Reading Complexity: Easy
Can we make our children turn out the way we want?
Srila Prabhupada once said, “If you place a child in good association, he will act properly, and if you place him in bad association, he will act improperly. A child has no independence in that sense.… According to Vedic civilization, as soon as a child is four or five years old, he is sent to a gurukula, where he is disciplined.”
Anyone who has...
Reading Complexity: Medium 
Darkness envelops the large field, save for a stream of light emanating from a stage at one end. The glow reveals hundreds of young people waiting eagerly for the next act to appear. When the band finally strides onto the stage, donning guitars and wielding drumsticks, the crowd erupts in an exultant roar, hands punching the sky.
Here is a generation of kids who love rock music. They gaze up at...
Reading Complexity: Medium
To illustrate the supreme value of spiritual association, Srila Prabhupada writes, “As fire is kindled from wood by another fire, the divine consciousness of man can similarly be kindled by another divine grace. His Divine Grace the spiritual master can kindle the spiritual fire from the woodlike living entity by imparting proper spiritual messages injected through the receptive ear.” (Srimad-...
Reading Complexity: Medium
This is the first in a series of articles on offenses to be avoided by anyone trying to progress spiritually by chanting the names of the Lord. This article discusses the offense of blaspheming devotees who have dedicated their lives to spreading the holy names.
How to instantly win people’s hearts? Point out the good qualities of their children, or even their pets. How to make people dislike you...