By Narasimha das

My next door neighbor came over the other day and gave me his latest National Geographic magazine. Just the day before, I had seen it on a magazine stand and resisted the urge to buy it. Normally I have no interest in this atheist rag, but this issue was about the May 31^st F5 monster tornado in Oklahoma this year (2013) and the death of Discovery Channel’s famous “storm chaser,” Tim Samaras, and his crew, which included his son Paul Samaras. I was born and raised in “Tornado Alley” and as a boy was fascinated to see tornadoes at a distance.

Tim Samaras had a cult following of storm chasers and was working for National Geographic on a grant for studying tornadoes and lightning. While he and his crew were gathering data on tornadoes with equipment invented by Samaras, they got sucked into a vortex with 300 mph winds. Their car was found the next day in a crumpled ball. It had been dropped like a ball of trash half a mile away. Witnesses saw it falling out of the sky.

The story mentioned other cases illustrating the power of large tornadoes. It is often noted that these storms seem to have a mind of their own and are unpredictable. I learned that India has tornadoes but they are rare everywhere in the world except Tornado Alley, or the US Midwest and Texas. This issue of NG glorified Samaras as a great researcher, explorer, investigator and inventor who devoted his life, at great risk, to unlocking the mystery of these great storms. Continue reading →

By: Narasimha das

Dear Srila Prabhupada,

Please accept millions of my prostrated obeisances at your most divine lotus feet. Please forgive my millions of offenses at your feet. My mind remains attached to matter in spite of all your good instructions.

You once wrote me and said, “Please study all of my books very thoroughly.”  I have tried to do that, although insufficiently to fully control my turbulent mind, which is harder to control than the wind. The only hope for me is full engagement in your transcendental service. Your mercy is the only hope for all conditioned souls. You are the real acharya for this age. You once wrote to leading preachers in ISKCON and asked, “What is the use of so many devotees if none of them are knowledgeable?” I hope to one day become your useful disciple.

The only way of success for all devotees is to hear from you constantly and understand your glories. Unfortunately, most ISKCON leaders have been neglecting to thoroughly teach new devotees that you are still present in your books, recordings, pictures, and murtis and thus as much available now as you were before. Many devotees who have joined ISKCON in recent years have been told they cannot accept you as their guru. There has been much confusion and chaos due to false ambitions to tap an influx of money and devotees who are attracted to you but not properly engaged in hearing you with rapt attention.  The so-called “guru issue” and other issues such as the “book changes issue”, could be immediately resolved if ISKCON leaders and all devotee would agree to hear from you with rapt attention and without ulterior motives. In fact, this is may be the only way human society can avoid world war three. Continue reading →