by Satyanarayana Dasa: Below is an extract taken from the first chapter of Hitopadesha. I have selected the forty-first couplet from this chapter. This is the third write-up of a series of total three articles that have been published in series.“One’s intelligence is degraded by associating with uneducated people, remains the same by associating with equals, and is improved by associating with superiors.”

by Satyanarayana Dasa: About 1,500 years ago the King of Iran got hold of a book that contained the secret of how to raise the dead by means of rasayana, an elixir of life. The book explained the procedure to extract the elixir from herbs and trees growing on the high mountains of India. Eager to sample this elixir, the King sent his chief minister on a quest for the prescribed herbs and trees

by Satyanarayana Dasa: Below is an extract taken from the first chapter of Hitopadesha. I have selected the twenty-sixth couplet from this chapter. This is the second write-up of a series of total three articles that will be published in future.“If one does not attain any of the goals of religion, economic development, regulated sense-gratification, and liberation, one’s life is useless, like the milk-less nipples hanging from a goat’s neck.”