ISKCON NewsThe News Agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

The reincarnation theory claims that we get our characteristics from our own past-lives karma, whereas genetics asserts that we inherit our characteristics from our parents, which is what we actually observe in the many physical resemblances among parents and offspring. Don’t these observations disprove the reincarnation theory?

Practitioners in the Vaishnava tradition are encouraged to follow certain restrictions which aid their spiritual development. One such recommendation is to refrain from gambling. Many people I meet are often confused by that. Why is it so bad? Surely, a little flutter here and there can’t be harmful? After all, you have to be in it to win it.

On the early morning of January 20th, a rare and special Vaishnava was taken from this world. Shyamdas, world-renowned scholar, author and translator, kirtan leader and dear devotee of Krishna was killed in a motorcycle accident while in Goa, India.

During the flight I had a recurring bad feeling. Then, after waiting at the Delhi Airport Baggage Reclaim for one-hour, it was confirmed. KLM had lost my luggage! As the taxi pulled onto the busy highway the deeper meaning began to dawn on me. To truly enter the spiritual reality we have to leave all of our attachments behind.

Be it attempts to create artificial rains or create artificial life, modern technology frequently aims to bend nature to human will. This desire is essentially the desire to play God, because God is the controller of nature, not man.

A hidden jewel in Hindu culture and spirituality: a story of Lord Jagannatha, which may sound very surprising to Westerners, especially who had the experience of being denied entry to the famous Temple in Puri.

The present perverted culture of India allows rape and molestation of women to take place anywhere and everywhere in the nation.

The horrifying gang-rape of a young physiotherapy student in a private bus in Delhi has sparked outrage across India. Our female citizens definitely require much better security. We need a more vigilant police force, prompter help-lines, and stronger and swifter punishments for sexual assaulters. Yet will better security be enough?

Nowadays teachers use experiential learning to increase the students’ assimilation of the subject. Krishna uses the ultimate experiential learning method when he transforms a battlefield into a classroom where he speaks the Gita to Arjuna. Krishna uses a real-life experience, in fact, one of the most intense of real-life experiences: a battle.

The first question often asked about the Bhagavad-gita is why was it spoken on a battlefield? Despite a common view that religion is a major cause of war, in most people’s minds the two should remain separate. Religion or spirituality should result in peace not conflict.

Erasmus's book, "The Praise of Folly," published in Paris in 1512, was a masterful critique of the arrogance and pretension that characterized the religion of his day. Half a millennium later, it still speaks powerfully as an appeal for spiritual renewal.

Science has more monopoly on taste than McDonalds. Only knowledge burgeoning from the non-Vedic viewpoint satisfies. So the existence of God cannot be proven. Or can it?

When one thousand people in the United States were asked the question: “What factors brought you to your present religious belief and membership of your current religious community?” the overwhelming majority, 85%, responded that ‘my friend got me interested.’

I first learned of the tragic shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, while on my way to work. One of my fellow commuters shared whatever scant details were known at that time with the rest of the train car. There were gasps and exclamations, and then we all fell silent.

The trout is lured by the worm on the hook of the fisherman, the mouse by the cheese in the mouse-trap. A tragic irony of the struggle for existence is that living beings are often destroyed by what they desire.

Why would 'material' relationships seem more intimate and close than friendships amongst spiritualists? Surely spiritualists should be the best at connecting with others in a deep way.

Diaspora Hindus often reflect upon the degree to which they and their children have acculturated ("the process of adapting to the norms of the dominant culture") or assimilated ("adaptation status in which individuals absorb the culture of the dominant group while they reject the norms of the heritage culture").

In sports a backdoor victory is widely considered inglorious. If India wins a cricket series against Pakistan by deliberately scheduling the series when all the top Pak players are known to be exhausted or injured, then the Indian victory is viewed as insubstantial. The internal confrontation between our higher spiritual principles and our lower material attachments is like a sports match.

The child - now known to be a girl – will be third in line to the throne, although why this fact should be of interest to the world is a mystery to me. One of the most famous embryos in the history of the world was the child of Uttara and Abhimanyu, Pariksit by name. He was the grandson of the celebrated Arjuna – another royal – and even in the womb he was attacked.

Although the book includes a series of non sequiturs and a bit of irreverent humor (both characteristic of Achyutananda's uniquely creative thinking process), the text is brilliantly conceived and has much to offer the average reader.