Madrid – Foreign Ministers of the 56 member states belonging to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will discuss the issue of Kazakhstan’s bid to chair the OSCE in 2009, at the group’s meeting of the Council of Ministers, held here on November 29-30.

Timothy Elliot's good luck may have just run out. The 55 year old scratched a Massachusetts state lottery scratch ticket and discovered that he'd won a hefty $1 million lottery prize. But it turns out that Elliott is a convicted bank robber and the terms of his probation quite specifically rain on his parade: he "may not gamble, purchase lottery tickets, or visit an establishment where gaming is conducted..."

Almost 100 people gathered in the ballroom at the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Salt Lake City to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights. Caru Dasa of Spanish Fork temple in Utah joined dignitaries and friends to celebrate the festival with the Governor and his wife Mary Kaye. Talks and puja were followed by a vegetarian dinner.

The Puri Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingh Deb is concerned that three Hindu pilgrims from Bali in Indonesia, were humiliated at the hands of a few Jagannath Temple priests, who on Wednesday drove the trio off the shrine suspecting them as non-Hindus, whose entry is prohibited in the temple.

An ad in the NY Times caught my attention. It runs for a full three pages in the Sept 25th issue, touting the glories of India's contributions to the world. There's a bold headline: Experience India In New York, announcing a series of cultural events and conferences. The ad has its token images of sitar players and Bharatnatyam dancers along with pictures of business execs in ties. The ad's real intent is not to introduce Indian culture to the West, but rather to broadcast how India is adapting to Western culture so magnificently.

In London, the weekend of Nov. 23rd-25th, the second or third annual Yoga Show took place: exhibits by many yoga groups and enterprises catering to today's yogis. Held in Olympia, an auditorium in Kensington, it offered Adi Guru Dasa and other householders the opportunity to arrange a Bhakti Yoga booth.

Parthasarathi Dasa is a U.S. soldier in Iraq. He preaches, he distributes Srila Prabhupada's books as well as prasadam, and recently he has organized the first Iraqi Ratha-yatra. This year he arranged Diwali and Govardhana puja, attracting 150 people.

Drutakarma Dasa's month-long lecture tour in Bulgaria has ended after traveling almost 1500km. He visited fourteen towns and lectured at the country's major universities. The tour was covered by the media and was accompanied by articles in major newspapers and interviews on radio and television, reaching millions of Bulgarians.

Researchers at the University of Texas have concluded that curcumin, the dye that lends turmeric its yellow color, can block the biological pathway to melanoma and other cancers.

Science, we are repeatedly told, is the most reliable form of knowledge about the world because it is based on testable hypotheses. Religion, by contrast, is based on faith. The problem with this neat separation into “non-overlapping magisteria,” as Stephen Jay Gould described science and religion, is that science has its own faith-based belief system.

Gore Vidal once said that to succeed is not enough – others must also be seen to fail. Now scientists have demonstrated the innate truth behind this maxim.

A study of the brain's "reward centre" has shown that men get the biggest buzz from a monetary prize when they know that it is a bigger award than that received by someone else.

Nature gave us the opportunity to realize God, but God-realization is meant for human being. The human being, if he does not realize God, he's simply engaged in animalistic way of life—eating, sleeping, mating—then nature will call, "All right, sir, again become animal." Punar mūṣiko bhava: "Again become a mouse."

You know this story? Punar mūṣiko bhava. There is a story. There is a very nice story. One rat, mouse, he came to a saintly person. Everyone comes to saintly person for some blessing, you see. Real blessing they don't want. Some material blessing. Real blessing, Kṛṣṇa, they don't want. If you give him some blessing that "You become very rich man and..." These... they'll be very much pleased.

So this mouse also came and begged the saintly person, "Sir, I am in difficulty. If you give me some blessing?"

"What is that?"

"The cat chases after me always. I'm very unhappy."

"So what do you want?"

"Now, if you make me a cat, then I can get relief from this."

"All right, you become cat." So he became cat.

So after few days, again he comes. "Sir, again I am in trouble."

"What is that?"

"The dog is chasing me." (laughter) Don't laugh, hear seriously. "Dog is chasing me."

"All right, then, what do you want?"

"Now, make me a tiger."

"All right, you become a tiger."

So when he became a tiger he was staring on the saintly person like this.

So he asked, "Why you are staring upon me? You want to eat me?"

"Yes."

So he again curses, punar mūṣiko bhava: "Again you become mouse. Again you become mouse."

So that is our position. We are advanced in civilization. Now we want to kill God. So we are again going to be uncivilized, to remain in the forest and to remain naked. Actually, they are practicing that: nature's life. So again they are going to be aborigines. And that is being practiced. They are going to the forest, they remain naked. So actually, punar mūṣiko bhava: "Again become mouse."

This story is an excerpt from a room conversation with Srila Prabhupada recorded on 16 July, 1968 in Montreal, Canada.

Expert means whatever he is doing, he must do it very nicely That's all. Suppose you are sweeping this room. You can do it very nicely, to your best knowledge. That is expert. The people will say, "Oh, you have very nicely done." Any work you do, do it very nicely. That is expert. Don't do it haphazardly. To your best talent, to your best capacity, try to finish it very nicely, whatever it may be.

You are entrusted with some work. Do it nicely. That is expert. If you think that you are unable to do that work, then whatever work you can do, you take. But do it nicely. That is expert. Don't imitate. "Oh, I have no capacity to work in that way, but I want to imitate. Oh, he is doing that. I shall do that." Don't do that. That is not expert. You take up what you can do very nicely and do it nicely.

We have so many works. Kṛṣṇa is not that He is static. He is dynamic force. Just like Arjuna, he was not a Vedantist, he was not a brāhmaṇa, he was not a sannyāsī. He was householder. He was military man. But he knew his business, how to do it nicely. So you do your business nicely. That is expert.

And when it is dovetailed in Kṛṣṇa, there is no gradation that this business is better and that business is lower because everything is for Kṛṣṇa. So that business becomes Kṛṣṇa. Do it nicely and Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. And that is your success.

Avyāpare suvyaparam yo naraḥ kartum icchati, sa-mulo hanyate 'khila pārthiva vānaraḥ. Expert.

There is a very nice story in Sanskrit. A monkey. A monkey... You might have some experience, that sawmen, who cut wood? Sawmen. So a sawman was cutting wood by the saw. So at the end of business it was half cut so he pulled down a, I mean to say, a plug so that next day he will come and he'll again begin sawing. So went away.

So one monkey came. So monkey sat down there and began to pull on the plug because monkey's business is simply mischievous. So he did not know that his plough and some portion of his thigh was within the hole and when he took out this plug it was, (claps) I mean to say, clipped, and he could not get out and died.

So the instruction is that... 'Khila pārthiva vānaraḥ, vyāpare suvyaparam. Avyāpara means a occupation, an occupation which is not fit for you. That is avyāpara. Avyāpara-suvyaparam. And one occupation which is not exactly fitting you, you do not know how to do it, so avyāpare suvyaparam yo kartu... If one wants to act in a business in which he is unable to do, then he is killed just like this fool monkey.

Avyāpare suvyaparam yo naraḥ kartum icchati, sa-mulo hanyate. That foolish person is killed just like this monkey. The monkey's business was not to imitate the sawman, but he wanted to imitate. The result was that he was killed. So that is not expertness.

Expertness is you just try to do which is easily performed by you. You don't accept anything heavy task because Kṛṣṇa does not want that you have to do this heavy task. Whatever you know, you just apply it. You dovetail it in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Kṛṣṇa does not say that you have to become like this, like that, like that, then you can serve Him. Does not say. Just like this cow. Just see. What does it know? He's an animal. You see? But the calf knows to brush his head and tongue like this, in love. It is doing and Kṛṣṇa accepting, "Yes." That is expert.

First of all find out what is easily done by you. Don't take anything which is not easily done by you. You find out what is your occupation, what you can very nicely and easily perform, and do it for Kṛṣṇa.