WHENEVER I WENT to my best friend’s house, her great-grandmother, Mrs. Werble, would be perched in the same spot, staring at the television. Delighted to have a visitor, Mrs. Werble would insist I sit with her, and she’d ramble on about her past. I was her captive audience, and I would feel sad on seeing […]
Who or What is to Blame?
An investigation into the causes of suffering. DHARMA, religion personified, had taken on the form of a bull [as described in the pages of the Shrimad Bhagavatam 1th Canto]. Shaking in fear, he stood trembling on one leg, his other three legs broken. Kali, who personifies the present age of quarrel and hypocrisy, raised his […]
You Bet Your Life
For anyone interested in spiritual progress, gambling is more than just a harmless amusement. High’s convenience store is bustling with last-minute shoppers picking up odds and ends for a holiday dinner. Having run out of milk, I find myself in the crowded store, standing in a line that wraps around the food aisle. I resign […]
Hands Off My Pesto!
I walk into the kitchen, where my seventeen-year-old son and his friend are making a snack—using the pesto* I had painstakingly made the week before with fresh basil from our garden. I had picked a large stainless steel bowl full of aromatic leaves and had even been stung by a bee collecting nectar from the […]
Lost & Found: How I Came to Krishna consciousness
“If death led to a better life, would suicide be a shortcut?” I FELT UNCERTAIN of what to expect as I walked slowly to the counseling center. A secretary directed me to a room at the end of the hall. When I entered I recognized most of the faces. The atmosphere was serious and somber. […]
