By Satyanarayana Dasa: Many times I read that religion and politics should be kept separate. They should not be mixed. Here in India it is a common feeling of the educated gentry. Usually such people are afraid that if politicians subscribe to a particular religion, they will oppress followers of other religions. There have been examples of such oppression and atrocities in the past where a ruling party crushed or ostracized members of a religion not followed by them.
By Satyanarayana Dasa: When two people meet and talk with each other, the talk is often about a third person. Not seldom that person is being criticized. The act of criticizing seems to be a great source of pleasure for us. Sometimes it can become such a habit that we are not even aware of it. Why do we spend so much time focusing in a negative way on others?
By Satyanarayana Dasa: While traveling in the West and lecturing on the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most common questions asked by peace loving Western students is, “Why is Krishna preaching and almost forcing Arjuna to take up weapons against his own kinsmen while Arjuna shows no interest in it and argues against the ghastly warfare and its irreligious and immoral outcome?”
By Satyanarayana Dasa: According to Ayurveda, there are three vital bioenergies in relation to the constitution of the physical body, which are called doshas. They are vata, pitta and kapha. Here, we want to take a closer look at the function of vata. The word vata is derived from the Sanskrit root va, which means to blow, to go, or to move. Thus vata means that which blows around or moves. It denotes wind or air, but in Ayurveda it has a special meaning.
By Satyanarayana Dasa: It is common experience that to achieve something in the material world one has to work very hard. Based on this knowledge, it is very hard to believe that one can attain anything, spiritual or material, merely by chanting some sounds, even if they are identified as Holy Names.
By Satyanarayana Dasa: In his Bhagavata-sandarbha, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī establishes on the basis of various Vedic scriptures that the birth and actions of the Lord are transcendental and distinct from those of mortal beings. Jīva Gosvāmī furthermore verifies that Kṛṣṇa’s names are also spiritual. The Lord is called anāmā (lit. nameless), because He does not have material names.
Based on Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī’s Bhagavat Sandarbha. By Satyanarayana Dasa. The Lord has two types of energy: parā and aparā. Parā means distant, beyond, superior, and so on. The energy is called parā because it is superior to, or beyond, the material energy, which is thus called aparā, i.e. near or inferior. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Kṛṣṇa states that the living beings can be counted as parā, because of their conscious nature:
