Sure the job market is tough right now. But, if you’re focused you can still be successful in finding the job that’s right for you. O Spiritual Warrior, your success will be in direct proportion to your ability to do two things: first, to meet the most pressing needs of a potential employer; and second your ability to utilize skills which give you an advantage over other applicants.

The New York Times has a great thing going. I mean besides being one of the most influential news sources in the world. They have this great feature where two of their regular columnists debate a topic. It’s called The Conversation, and recently Gail Collins and Ross Douthat debated cruelty to animals in discussing the case of fallen American football icon Michael Vick, who recently completed an eighteen month stint in federal prison for involvement in a dog fighting ring.

Among the many gifts the West appears intent on bestowing upon the rest of the world – such as TV, burger bars, pop music etc — democracy is perhaps top of the list. We cherish our democratic institutions and are prepared to endure great pain and difficulty, sacrificing our soldiers and heaps of cash, to ensure that voting is embraced in far flung places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Even, it seems, when they don’t really want it anyway.

You’ve probably seen the bumper sticker. Its message, "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty!", has a natural appeal, doesn’t it? But, you probably don't know the real story behind this message. According to 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant, the message this bumper sticker is promoting is unethical behavior, and that those who follow it should not be considered moral persons!

It is December of 1936. Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Dāsa, a forty-year-old pharmaceutical distributor then in Bombay on business, feels a sudden impulse to write a letter to his spiritual master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura.

It is December 9, 1968, thirty-two years later. The same disciple—now a renunciant and spiritual master himself—finds himself in the city of Los Angeles where he relates to a gathering of his own disciples the story of his 1936 letter. He is observing with them the “Disappearance Day” of his spiritual master.

Paternalism is based on the premise that it better to keep people, especially those people judged from a position of superiority to be vulnerable, in ignorance rather than given knowledge and the consequent rights and responsibilities. Not only is paternalism debilitating, but its effects can linger for decades. I’m living proof.

Sometimes – but only sometimes – I like to think my interfaith credentials are all in order. I mean, as a Vaishnava I regard all religions as paths towards the same supreme Godhead. Religion is one, but the ways we do it – and the outfits we do it in – are many.

God Himself says this in the Bhagavad-gita. (That’s not the Vaishnava God as distinct from the Christian or Jewish God, but the one and only original creator and supreme person.) God says that “All are on my path, and as they surrender to me, I reward them accordingly.” That always sounded pretty fair to me.

The consolidated city of New York comprises five boroughs (each a county): Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. Among these, the borough of Queens is blessed with The Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Mandir, which stands in the neighborhood of Richmond Hill.

Judging others is always tricky. Much of what we do, say, or believe is based not on objective truths, but rather on the relative value we place on a particular activity, thought or behavior. Yet, judgment or discrimination is a necessary function in our lives. So, perhaps the best way to judge someone or something is to evaluate the person or the activity in terms of the values or standards they set for themselves.

Spanning the cusp between the 15th and 16th centuries, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught and exemplified complete absorption in divine love through the chanting of the names of God. Mahāprabhu propagated a spiritual discipline that carries the guided practitioner through clearly demarcated stages, beginning with a tentative interest (adau śraddhā) and culminating in an extraordinary exultation of ecstatic spiritual emotions (prema).

How could the first living cell with DNA-based molecular biology have originated by spontaneous chemical processes on the pre-biotic earth? This has been the chicken and egg problem of life’s evolution from chemicals – Which came first, DNA or the protein molecule?

Self-righteousness is easy. Self-examination is a lot harder. Understanding the difference between the two makes a tremendous change in one’s ability to communicate his or her message to another person.

“Do I have to repeat myself young man?!!” Oh, how I hated it when my mother would say that. Not because she was being mean, rather because she was being right. It’s hard to hear someone when they’re right and you’re wrong. Most of the time she was correctly pointing out my selfish behavior, “Share with your brother ... don’t boss others around,” she would say.

A blogpost which referred to the recent music of popular Muslim musician Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, got me thinking about how music is viewed within India's religious traditions - especially my own - the Hare Krishna faith. If you've ever seen Hare Krishnas chanting in public, you can probably surmise our general attitude toward music! In particular, George Harrison's story reveals why modern music with instruments like guitars, pianos or sitars, is not considered strictly taboo in our tradition.

Not everyone sees with as careful an eye as Kennedy Fraser, the fashion writer for The New Yorker, whom I quoted in last week’s posting. She extolled the costume of the Krishna devotees, “whose apricot robes come into their own when they are not swathed in mufflers.” The notable word here is “apricot,” remarkable for its precision.

Here is what we know: karma is very difficult to understand. We all have experience of this fact. Krishna even advises in Bhagavad-gita that karma is so intricate that it’s better not to become too convinced that we will even understand it, better to just find our way out of the world of karma. But still, for purposes of helping others, we Hare Krishna devotees try to inform people of the correct understanding of karma.

Character matters, especially in a world where surety is fast becoming a thing of the past, in a communication age where according to Marshall McLuhan, “the medium is the message,” and philosophers of language are still pondering the question, "What is meaning?"

In the 1960s, psychologist Walter Mischel and others started a revealing study of four year old children at a preschool on the Stanford University campus. The four-year-olds were offered a proposal involving getting a marshmallow (a kind of sweet candy). If they could wait for about twenty minutes till the person giving the candy returned after doing a small task, they would get two candies. If they couldn’t wait till then, they would get only one candy – but they would get it instantly.

Knowledge of the three modes (guṇa-traya) proves to be fruitful on a variety of levels. The principles that offer insight into the working of individuals also illuminate the characteristics of entire cultures or civilizations.

Did you know the words laser, scuba, and radar aren’t technically words. They’re acronyms. Laser is an acronym for light amplification by the stimulated emission radiation. Scuba is an acronym for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. And, radar is an acronym for radio detection and ranging.