Hope for this Suffering World

Hong Kong is a dazzling neon city which especially comes to life at night. Allured by its glitter, hordes of people come here from all over the world to enjoy their senses. It is a marketing Mecca where you can get anything you want except for genuine happiness. You can purchase an authentic Rolex watch or just outside on the street you can a Rolex copy watch that looks just like the real thing. Everywhere the city screams out, "Money, money, money." But the whole city and the whole material world, which it so graphically represents, are empty and hollow. There is no substance to them. They are all show and no go. Luckily there is some relief. There is an oasis in this vast desert. There is an ISKCON center in Hong Kong where you can connect with the Supreme Person, the source of all existence and realize your true identity as His eternal servant. As soon as you enter into Hong Kong's ISKCON center, you feel that you have entered into another world, a safe transcendental haven where life is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. And you know that there is now hope for this suffering material world.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Hong Kong Night Life

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: How to Recognize a Bona Fide Guru?

Dear Gurudeva,

In respect to finding a bona fide spiritual guide: How would I know or what would I look for that would tell me this person who is representing themselves as a bona fide spiritual guide who represents the Bhagavad-gita that they are indeed genuine, knowledgeable, accurate, intuitive, and correct on their interpretation of the Bhagavad-gita?

I understand that the version that A.C. Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada published is the correct version, but how do I know that the spiritual master has not twisted Srila Prabhupada's words with his own fertile imagination and is leading me astray?

Grim

Answer: He Presents Bhagavad-gita As It Is

The first point to be understood in this connection is that the bona fide spiritual master does not give his own interpretation of the Bhagavad-gita. He simply presents verbatim what was given by the previous acharyas without any addition or subtraction. This system of faithfully passing down what was given by the predecessor acharyas is know as the guru parampara system. It is an age old system coming from Krishna Himself and has existed since time immemorial.

So to discern the bona fide spiritual master all you have to do is scrutinizingly study Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita As It Is. If you will carefully and repeatedly study this greatest of all books, you will gradually gain a understanding of exactly what is meant by Lord Krishna in each an every verse. In this way, armed with crystal clear understanding you will able to easily recognize who is a bona fide transmitter of transcendental knowledge and who is not, who is a bona fide guru and who is not.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari