Reflections On Sacred Teachings Volume 2

Madhurya-Kadambini (Cloud Bank of Nectar), by the renowned Gaudiya Vaisnava acarya Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, is a short work, and it is a commentary on an even shorter work – just two verses that appear in Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu.

This sixth volume (Reflections On Sacred Teachings (Volume 6)) of commentary shines a spotlight on the central element of Vaisnava character–service to others–as described in ancient scriptures such as the Padma Purana and Narada-pancharatra and in medieval works such as Chaitanya-charitamrta and writing of the Gosvamis of Vrindavana.

Bhakti Caru Swami writes in the foreword: “Although these principles are not yet widely recognized in our society in their original form, our success lies in the implementation of these sacred instructions. They fully reveal the true essence and framework of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness. As we progress and mature, we must realize that ISKCON carries the responsibility to epitomize the ideals on which Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati created the Gaudiya Matha. In order to share these potent instructions with the community of devotees, I translated the original guidelines and printed them in Spiritual Connections, a magazine published for my disciples and friends.”

“Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed His disciples to write books on the science of Krsna, a task which those who follow Him have continued to carry out down to the present day. The elaborations and expositions on the philosophy taught by Lord Caitanya are in fact most voluminous, exacting and consistent due to the system of disciplic succession. Although Lord Caitanya was widely renowned as a scholar in His youth, He left only eight verses, called Siksastaka. These eight versed clearly reveal His mission and precepts.”

Sri Isopanisad is an ancient work. It is counted as the first of the 108 Upanisads, and is part of the Yajur Veda-among those literatures which are accepted by followers of the Vedic tradition to have come from God Himself at the time of creation. As such it is, one could say, about as foundational a text as one could hope to find, anywhere, dealing with the most primeval and fundamental concepts of reality as we know it, presented in a context that is both timeless, in that it comes from the person who put time into motion, and simultaneously eternal.

In these fifteen intimate essays, Melina Rudman explores the pain of loss and the joy of connection. She writes of gardening as a spiritual practice, one that has the power to ground us in the seasons and cycles of Nature.

In My Life of Ministry, Writing, Teaching, and Traveling: The Autobiography of an Old Mines Missionary, I present my life as a child growing up in a French village about sixty miles south of St. Louis in the middle of the twentieth century. After eighteen years of life in Old Mines, the oldest settlement in the state of Missouri, I moved to St. Louis for four years and then to St. Meinrad, Indiana, for four years where education opened my eyes to a world very much larger than my village of origin. Life continued for me after ordination as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in Springfield and Joplin, Missouri. Because my life is the thread stitching together this book, I have made it manageable by dividing it into four categories: ministry, writing, teaching, and travel. These categories contain the stories of others whose life threads of seventy years are woven into my lifetime tapestry. This is my autobiography—one of a missionary from Old Mines to the thirty-nine counties forming the southern third of the state of Missouri—composed during my seventieth year of life.

“In these soaring, open-hearted essays, Vanessa Zoltan writes with fierce brilliance about suffering, survival, and the kind of meaning in life that can withstand real scrutiny.”—John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars and The Anthropocene Reviewed A deeply felt exploration of the ways our favorite books can shape and heal us, from the host of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. Our favorite reads keep us company, give us hope, and help us find meaning in a chaotic world. In this fresh and relatable work, atheist chaplain Vanessa Zoltan blends memoir and personal growth as she grapples with the notions of family legacy and identity through the lens of her favorite novel, Jane Eyre. Informed by her training at the Harvard Divinity School and filtered through the pages of Jane Eyre as well as Little Women, Harry Potter, and The Great Gatsby, Zoltan explores topics ranging from the trauma she has inherited as the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors to finding hope, meaning, and even magic in our deeply fractured times. Brimming with a love of classic literature and the tenderness of self-reflection, the book also reveals simple techniques for reading any work as a sacred text--from Virginia Woolf to Anne of Green Gables to baseball scorecards. Whether you're an avowed "Eyrehead" or a voracious reader and pop culture fan, this deeply felt and inspiring book will light the way to a more intimate appreciation for whatever books you love to read.