The two troubles that most commonly afflict the physical bodies of visitors to India are diarrhea and the common cold. Both are easy to avoid, and easy to recover from. Diarrhea How do you get it? By eating contaminated food, drinking bad water, or (the most usual way) eating more than you can digest. How to avoid it? Entirely forgo meat, eggs, poultry, and seafood. In tropical climates, they're harder to digest. And in India fishing, butchery, and handling of meat are done by people of a very low class. So--I'll spare you the details--with this stuff you always … [Read more...] about How to Stay Healthy in India
Noise-induced Hearing Loss
Noise-Induced Hearing Loss: What it is and what it may mean to you A preliminary report February 16, 1994 Though written especially for Hare Krishna devotees, this report--a nontechnical discussion of noise-induced hearing loss--should prove relevant for anyone in a noisy world. The report discusses what noise-induced hearing loss is, how it develops, and what to do about it. Last month an audiologist confirmed to me something I suspected: I have partially lost my hearing. One may lose one's hearing for many reasons—because of disease, or old age, … [Read more...] about Noise-induced Hearing Loss
Toward an Enlightened New World Order
from Back to Godhead, May-June 1991 “We’ve got a real kshatriya for a president!” an American Krishna devotee said to me, his face beaming. The Allies were trouncing whatever was left of the Iraqi armies, and George Bush was making it clear the Allies would keep striking till the Iraqis utterly surrendered. My devotee friend knew, of course, that George Bush could hardly match the valor and nobility of true kshatriyas like King Yudhisthira and King Pariksit. Still, Bush and his allies had waged a splendid war. Power, skill, drive, heroism—these are attributes of the … [Read more...] about Toward an Enlightened New World Order
Fighting in the Smog
from Back to Godhead, August-September 1992 [On April 29, 1992, a mostly white jury acquitted four Los Angeles police officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Thousands of people in Los Angeles, mainly young black and Latino males, joined in a “race riot,” with mass law-breaking, including looting, arson and murder. Fifty to sixty people were killed during the riots.] I left Los Angeles early on the morning of the riots. My departure was coincidental. I’d stayed in L.A. for two days, and now I was off to a meeting in Denver. So I missed … [Read more...] about Fighting in the Smog
Giving My Life for Noble Bilge
from Back to Godhead, May 1989 Lima, Peru: Several feet overhead against a gray-and-white marble wall on the departures side of the Jorge Chavez International Airport, foot-high black letters, all capitals, announce. “TENGO EL ORGULLO DE SER PERUANO.” That is, “I have the pride of being Peruvian.” Well, for crying out loud. what is there to be so proud of? I have the pride of belonging to a two-bit Latin American nation whose empire got wiped out four centuries ago. Now really! And why should I be so proud to be Peruvian rather than, say, Argentinean, or Chilean, or Colombian, … [Read more...] about Giving My Life for Noble Bilge
History and the Machinery of War
from Back to Godhead, January-February 1991 America and her allies have plunged into war with Iraq. As you read these words, the war may well be over, and the land of the Tigris and Euphrates, the ancient “cradle of civilization,” may by now be a bombed-out graveyard. In the newspapers, words blow around like sand in a Middle Eastern desert. Saddam Hussein is “a madman,” America “can’t tolerate aggression,” the “international community” demands that “the sovereignty of Kuwait” be restored. Meanwhile—more sand—Iraq calls for “peace, stability, and security in the … [Read more...] about History and the Machinery of War
How Much Are You Worth?
from Back to Godhead, Vol 13, # 11, 1978 “Thanks to inflation,” says a recent release from the Associated Press, “you are now worth 5½ times more than you were just a few years ago. “The calcium, magnesium, iron and other chemicals in an adult’s body were worth 98 cents in the early part of this decade; now they’re worth $5.60, according to Dr. Harry Monsen, a professor of anatomy at Illinois College of Medicine. ‘And the price will keep going up, just like it’s doing with cadavers and skeletons,’ he said. ‘We are caught in the inflation spiral.’ ” What we are caught … [Read more...] about How Much Are You Worth?
The Plague
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
Moustaches and Moneybelts
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
Nothing that a Goat Won’t Eat
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
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