Do the jivas fall from the spiritual world? Were we in Krsna Lila before falling in this material world, or have we just fallen here from the viraja river, and that’s our first taste of Krsna Consciousness? Have we ever met Krsna before?

To ask “how the souls fall into the material world” sounds like a perfectly bonafide question, something a visitor could make in a Sunday class. However, it became one of the most polemical topics inside our movement, evoking heated discussions and a few occasional fistfights. For the last 40+ years, books have been written, long discussions held, resolutions have been made by the GBC, and we are still far from a consensus.

How could such a simple question become the center of such fratricidal dispute?

Many speak about the importance of cow protection. Srila Prabhupada explains how cows are important for a progressive society, helping human beings to ascend to the mode of goodness. Once in Mayapur Srila Prabhupada commented how just having a few cows and letting them roam around in the property would bring auspiciousness. Cows are very calm and docile animals, to spend time with cows, brushing or feeding them is a perfect medicine to stress and depression. The milk they provide helps one to improve his health and develop the fine brain tissues needed to understand spiritual subjects. Bulls are very strong animals who can be used to plow the earth and produce grains. Before tractors were invented, bulls literally feed human society. Even the dung produced by them is useful, being simultaneously a perfect fuel and perfect fertilizer. We read in the Vedas that humanity prospered for thousands of years in a sustainable way by this symbiosis between humans and bovines. When we consider that God himself chooses to spend His time as a cowherd boy, things become even more clear.

Taking all of this into considerations, projects of cow protection, where devotees could take care of cows and live by selling ahinsa milk and other milk products seem to be a no-brainer. However, as easy as it may seem, we don’t see many successful projects of cow protection around. Many can’t maintain themselves at all, and most of the goshalas that are somehow successful are actually maintained by donations, and not by the milk produced by the cows. Why it’s so?

Apart from spiritual knowledge, the Vedas offer also a system of social organization called Varnasrama. Although frequently confused with the caste system prevalent in India until the past century, the Varnasrama is a completely different system, based on training and on respecting the natural tendencies of the individual.

In modern times we have a strong polarization between left and right political systems. On the left, we have a strong emphasis on individual rights, but less emphasis on collective rights, while on the left we have an emphasis on collective rights, including maintenance of social structures, but individual rights are frequently neglected. The varnasrama system offers a balance between the two sides, balancing the needs of the individual and the needs of the society, therefore it can be considered an ideal system. The problem is that varnashrama is very difficult to implement, and things can be seriously wrong if it is presented in an equivocal way. One can mess up his life without varnashrama, but he can mess up his life even more seriously with wrong or limited conception of varnashrama.

Depression and suicide are a problem not only in the general society but also amongst devotees. Although we have the opportunity of practicing Krsna Consciousness and having relationships with self-realized souls, we are still not free from the influence of the three modes.

One may have difficulties in his or her marriage, difficulties with other family members, traumas from the past that are difficult to heal, difficulties in spiritual life, difficulties in dealing with fellow devotees who may act in hostile or envious ways, and so on. The list can quickly become extensive.

What can we do in this situation? What to do if someone is pained enough to take his own life? What to do if we find ourselves in this situation at some point?

In a few passages of the Vedas, we find the idea of a Golden Age inside of the age of Kali, an oasis of happiness and spiritual realization in the midst of the iron age where we live.

According to Srila Prabhupada, such Golden Age is connected with the spread of the chanting of the Maha-Mantra. As more people adopt the process, the vibration of the holy names will affect the collective consciousness and help to turn the tide of materialism and open the path for a spiritual revolution.