Global climate change and abnormal weather patterns have nothing to do with pollution. It is nature’s (i.e. the divine Goddess’) natural reaction to an increase in sinful activity in the world. As the level of sinful activity increases (abortions, killing animals especially cows, non-performance of sacrifice, improper moral conduct of humanity, etc.) the nature withholds her gifts in the form of proper climate, rain, and natural abundance.

Continue reading →

In North India the sadhus keep akhanda dhuni, which they worship three times a day and keep burning continuously. It is the same as nitya yagya (daily fire sacrifice).

Continue reading →

The universe exists independent of our perception of it. The eyes and senses are like the imperfect screens of a cell phone. Some model will have higher resolution and some lower, some are black and white, some are color, some can show photos in 3d, some can’t. Various phones can display the same image data but it will look completely different depending on the capacity of the device.

Continue reading →

Every so often echoes of the Vedic past can be detected in the most obscure of items. Such is the case with the simple ‘piggy bank’. Was this staple of childhood nostalgia just a cute animal chosen at random or is there a deeper hidden meaning? If you promise not to squeal we’ll give you the clues.

Continue reading →

This is a picture I took 15 years ago of a stone “coin” or tablet which was being kept at an ashram in the forests of Odisha. The sadhu who kept it said he used to find many of these in the river, but he lost all of them in the super cyclones of the 1970’s and 1990’s when the ashram was under water.

Continue reading →

Mazar-i-Sharif will probably be familiar to those who are old enough to remember the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. It was the first Taliban city to fall to the US army, and subsequently became famous for a prison uprising in which a CIA officer was killed and an American named John Walker Lindh was found fighting with the Taliban.

Continue reading →

In a previous article (The Vedic People of Scandinavia) we highlighted the very clear Vedic connections in Scandinavia. Without repeating those details, we know that the Aesir (Norse gods) are etymologically connected to the Vedic Asuras. But how did these traditions arrive in such a remote place? There is one highly controversial theory worth exploring.

Continue reading →

Sugar – we all crave it, from children to adults. We indulge in it, from sodas, cakes, and assorted candies, during times of sadness and times of celebration. But crystallized sugar, first invented in India, has a dark history, involving conquest, secret societies, and exploitation.

Continue reading →

Did you know that Mayapur was once the capital of the Eastern Empire of India, and that the king’s palace lies in ruins a short walk from ISKCON Mayapur?

Just behind Chand Kazi’s samadhi are the ruins known as Ballal Dhipi, which even today no one really knows much about. If you ask locals they have no idea what it is or what it was. Up until 1980 it was a giant earthen mound 30 feet high, covered in grass. No one knew what was underneath.

Continue reading →

This is an ancient Vetala deity worshipped in Goa at the village of Loliem, who is over 8 feet tall. Vetala are a type of mystical ghostly species of beings. A famous example of them occurs in the book Kathasaritsagara, in which a king tries to capture a Vetala, but each time the Vetala tells him a story with a riddle at the end. This occurs 25 times, and those 25 stories are the basis of much of the world’s folklore (Arabian nights, Panchatantra, etc.).

Continue reading →