All articles by Jayadvaita Swami

from Back to Godhead, March-April 1997   In more than twenty-five years of coming to India, I'd never seen the Taj Mahal—never had a desire to or a reason to. But when my mother came on her first-ever trip to India, how could she go back home to America and say she hadn't seen the Taj Mahal? So I brought her. And I confess to being pleased with her when she found the Taj "rather a disappointment." At first view, it was "breathtaking," she said. But the closer you get, the less impressive it looks. Though it majestically fills a picture postcard, really the place is fairly … [Read more...] about The Taj Mahal: Enduring Monument to Love

from Back to Godhead, March-April 1998   According to an Indian proverb, there’s nothing that a goat won’t eat and nothing that a madman won’t say. Madmen? Sometimes it seems like we’re living in a world of them, or at least a world of fools. The human impulse is to say something—anything. Something stupid, something contentious, something sweet, deceitful, smart, ridiculous, or empty. Big strings of words, amounting to nothing. It’s astonishing. Nearly as surprising: You can speak the most outrageous foolishness, and someone out there—most likely many someones—will for … [Read more...] about Nothing that a Goat Won’t Eat

from Back to Godhead, June 1989   In the ancient land of the Incas and the Aztecs, in the capital city of a country I’d rather not name, for many years an old man with a pushcart stood on the street outside our Hare Krishna temple selling bananas, oranges, apples, pineapples, and papayas. Now the fruits and the pushcart are gone, but the man is still there. And now he has a new occupation—changing dollars. He and nearly everyone else on the block. Roll down your car window. You’ll get the latest street-market exchange rate. And on the spot you can change your local money … [Read more...] about Moustaches and Moneybelts

from Back to Godhead, January-February 1995   The very word plague brings dread. We recall medieval images of the Black Death, scourging fourteenth-century Asia and Europe. We envision rampant rats and dying children. Late in 1994, as plague broke out in the Indian state of Gujarat, people fled in the hundreds of thousands. Neighboring countries sealed their borders. Airlines cancelled flights. Even doctors grabbed their stethoscopes and scrambled for their lives. Now, of course, life is back to normal. The outbreak has been quelled. We’re no longer in the fourteenth … [Read more...] about The Plague

from Back to Godhead, September-October 1997   So now we’re headed for Mars. Forget the moon. Mars is the place to go. But why? Hey, we’re exploring, we’re questing for knowledge, we’re searching for signs of life out there. It’s science—get it? So every twenty-six months between now and the year 2005 we’re going to send machines up there. And 2012 is the target date for landing the first man on Mars. But I have a question: What happened to the moon? When I was a kid, back in the sixties, the place to go was the moon. It was the same story: We were exploring, we … [Read more...] about Mars Bars: Why Mars? Why Indeed?

from Back to Godhead, January-February 1997   The people who’ve served cow flesh to billions, beneath golden arches around the world, have now come to the land where the cow is sacred. And they’re being ever so careful to be Indian. No Big Macs here, no indeed. No cow flesh, no pig fat, lest Hindus or Muslims be offended. In India, it’s the Maharaja Mac. The menu is full of veggies spiced just for the Indian palate, and the slaughter of choice is chickens and sheep. And trendy Indians, it seems, are lining up to swallow it. When the doors opened in Delhi in early October, … [Read more...] about Arch Enemy: Mc-Cow-Killer Comes to India