Veda [antikvár]

ForewordThe first time I met His Divine Grace A. C. Bhalctivedanta Swami Prabhupâda was on a spring evening in 1975. I'd come to spend a few weeks in the country house given to him by George Harrison of the Beatles, and I'd been reading his books with interest for some months. His followers had been filling the gaps in my understanding, but I wanted to meet the spiritual master for myself. So when I heard he was coming to England I extended my visit.He was shorter in stature than I had imagined, yet his presence in a room was uncannily powerful. Dressed in light orange robes, with yellow clay markings on his forehead, and carrying the cloth-wrapped bamboo rods of a monk, he looked as if he'd been transported from an ancient world into the present day. He was 79 years old, yet he walked with the energy and alertness of one much younger. Although sensitive to every detail of his environment, he appeared to have his anchor set in an internal world, a spiritual dimension he described as "Krsna consciousness."After taking his seat, he put on his spectacles and read aloud a Sanskrit verse from the 5,ooo-year-old Bhagavad-gM. Some thoughtful moments passed, then he looked up and scanned the young faces of those who sat before him - including my own - and began to speak. Years of study and a lifetime of spiritual practice allowed him to articulate the Vedic knowledge with scholarly authority and a deep personal wisdom. He knew his subject becauseXI