Giving a Spiritual Outlook
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you for wonderful articles like "Destiny and Endeavor" and "How Scared Should You Be?" published by you in the January/February issue. Also, the article written by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami, relating to the ideals of people in the Krsna consciousness movement, is commendable. He has very delicately addressed the challenges one faces in material life and the spiritual aspirations which need to be fulfilled.
I must admit that articles in BTG have constantly given its readers a spiritual outlook towards their lives. I congratulate you once again for the commendable job you are doing.
Dr. Arun Dhir
Via the Internet
Glorious Painting
Thank you for making such a magnificent and wonderful magazine! We are so grateful for the amazing work your writers, artists, graphic designers, and editors do for every single issue. We are also truly looking forward to the web site especially the promised screensaver (hope you have one for Mac too); we have been looking for one for a very long time.
Your March/April issue had a glorious picture on page 54, which we instantly fell in love with. Such a sweet and attractive presentation of our great and beautiful Lord!
Linda Liu & Martin Madsen
Hvide Sande, Denmark
Clarification of the Law of Karma
If a person committed murder in his previous birth, then in this birth he will be murdered. So God must arrange for someone to murder him. That's my understanding. But then that person will have to be murdered in his next life, and the cycle goes on and on. But why should that person suffer for carrying out God's will?
S. Venkata Subramanian
Chennai, India
OUR REPLY: God arranges that someone who wants to use his free will to kill someone gets to be used as the instrument to punish someone who killed in the past. Then God arranges that someone else who wants to use his free will to kill someone gets to be used as the instrument to punish the second killer, and so forth.
There are plenty of potential criminals, so finding a "volunteer" for the job is not a problem. Because God is omniscient and all-powerful, this is not an administrative challenge for Him.
The lesson is, of course, to engage not in fruitive activities but rather in devotional activities, which have no reaction and which burn up both our past pious and sinful reactions, leaving us with no karma and no more material bodies.
Brought to Tears
I've been reading Back to Godhead magazine ever since I bought my first one from a devotee during Mardi Gras in New Orleans twenty-nine years ago. Today I am writing to comment on the article entitled "My Mother's Transformation," by Indradyumna Swami, from the last issue. I found the article incredibly moving. I cried as I read the story, thinking how the mercy of Srila Prabhupada has saved so many fallen souls. Even a person who had no apparent interest in Krsna was liberated by the mercy of His pure devotee.
Bill Helminger
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Light in the Cell
As an inmate of the Wisconsin Correctional System, I have been very fortunate to become involved with the ISKCON Prison Ministry. I have been a recipient of Krsna's mercy by the association of His two servants Candrasekhara Dasa and Jagannivasa Dasa. Through their association and guidance, my old world and understanding have been shaken and turned upside down, leading me into the light of truth and bhakti. I humbly thank them for Srila Prabhupada's books and issues of BTG, which have been beneficial to me beyond their knowing.
In your January/February issue there was an article entitled "Where to Die?" by Sarvabhauma Dasa. I was so happy to read it, as this has been a question of mine for a very long time.
I always felt that I had to go someplace considered holy, like India, to find spiritual truths and realizations. Now I know that idea was part of the illusion I was stuck in. This article was just what I needed to read; it opened my eyes.
I still have a longing for India and a desire to seek out the holy places there, but for now I am able to do that right where I am, through the articles I read in BTG. I consider it a blessing to have come in contact with ISKCON and BTG magazine. You both have changed my life forever.
Kevin Cummings
Sturtevant, Wisconsin
Please write to us at: BTG, P.O. Box 430, Alachua, FL 32616, USA. E-mail: editors@pamho.net.