On your order, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I write “philosophical and educational books,” and am presently working on an overview of your stated plans for your great ISKCON mission. Assembling this book involves researching and classifying quotes from the huge corpus of your published instructions. It is a task that requires diligence rather than creativity, insightfulness, or writing virtuosity. This will probably be the most important literary undertaking of my life, and for years I have been looking forward to getting...

Śrīla Prabhupāda, you are the glorious, incomparable paramahaṁsa whose preaching in the Western world was the only thing of any real importance that ever happened there. Of course, Vyāsa-pūjā offerings are meant for glorifying the guru as the representative and worshiper of Vyāsa. Yet we have learned from you that in the physical absence of the guru, he may be best worshiped by the continuation of his mission.

The article “Husband as Guru” presents much of what could be considered common-sense advice for husbands struggling to come to the human platform. However, some grave faults mar what otherwise might in some contexts have been valuable suggestions. By predicting “that some men will not agree with me (although I doubt any woman will disagree)” the author anticipatingly dismisses any opposition from males as being mere chauvinism. I am currently imprisoned in a male body, but it is not on...

In Kali-yuga, the present age of quarrel and hypocrisy, so many bad qualities prevail, but when we reached Nathdwara we found the quality of devotion to Kṛṣṇa still strong. Nathdwara is in the Indian state of Rajasthan, but most of the pilgrims who come here are from the state of Gujarat, whose border lies less than a hundred kilometers away. So the mood in Nathdwara is very much influenced by the Gujaratis.

In ascertaining the relationship between varnasrama and bhakti, devotees often quote Lord Caitanya’s rejecting varnasrama as external to bhakti: “Lord Caitanya indicated that the varnasrama-dharma was simply external (eho bahya). Lord Caitanya wanted to impress upon Ramananda Raya that simply by executing the duties of varnasrama-dharma one is not guaranteed liberation.” (SB 4.24.53 purport)

From time to time, the Indian press exposes some respected godman or sādhu for serious misbehaviour, such as sexual impropriety. For a renunciant sādhu, any sexual activity is an impropriety. In some cases, there are accusations of murder and sometimes in-fighting within the organizations of such sādhus...

Persons who strictly follow the orders of the spiritual master are useful in executing the will of the Supreme, whereas persons who deviate from the strict order of the spiritual master are useless.

Disputes over gender roles are, of course, not unique to ISKCON. For several decades, certain Christian denominations have been racked and rent by gender wars, and sections of Islam and Judaism have also been affected.