Disease
The heroes of my youth were the great healers of humanity. While it’s true that in those days I could be seen with other American boys paying homage to the likes of Elvis Presley and Joe DiMaggio, I rendered them only lip service. My real—if somewhat secret—devotion was reserved for a pantheon of great medical pioneers like Edward Jenner, discoverer of the smallpox vaccination; Robert Koch, who identified the tuberculosis bacillus; and Ignaz Philipp Semmelweise, who crusaded to save women from childbirth infection by teaching doctors to disinfect their hands. I avidly studied the life stories of these saviors and dreamed of becoming like them by slaying some modern scourge—leukemia, say, or coronary thrombosis. In my eyes there was no higher calling than to wage war on behalf of humanity against disease and death. CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE »


FILM SCREENING/REVIEW: A screening and review of Nina Paley’s Animated feature film Sita Sings the Blues.
PODCAST: A beautiful recording of Bhaktivinode Thakur’s Mama Mana Mandire (In the Temple of My Heart) sung by the bhajan group Spiritual Skyliner.
ESSAY: In his paper The Nature of the Self: A Gaudiya Vaisnava Understanding Ravindra-svarupa dasa provides an introductory presentation on the nature of the self according to the followers of Sri Chaitanya.
PODCAST: An exceptional recording of Dravida dasa chanting the perennially famous Mukunda-mala-stotra of Kulasekhara Alvar.
BOOK PREVIEW: In the following excerpt from his forthcoming book, a translation and extensive commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga-sutras, Dr. Edwin Bryant examines the classical commentaries on a section of the text while providing his own insights.
PODCAST: Kirtan by As Kindred Spirits, from their CD Nectar of Devotion.
PODCAST: Prayers to Govardhan:The prayers of 16th century saint Raghunath das Goswami in glorification of the sacred Govardhan Hill. Chanting by Nityananda das.