A recent Pew Research Center post, drawing on a global Nature Communications study, maps out how religious engagement has diminished across generations in 111 countries between 2008 and 2023. The research identifies a consistent three-stage pattern—coined the Participation-Importance-Belonging (P-I-B) sequence—whereby religious decline tends to unfold first in reduced participation (such as worship services), then in lessening personal importance of religion, and finally in a decline in formal r
society (3)
One of Srila Prabhupada’s evening darshans at New Vrindaban in 1976 on the front lawn where Sankirtana Das and his wife now live.
In 1976, in New Vrindaban, I attended an evening darshan where Srila Prabhupada spoke about presenting the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita to companies and workplaces. One devotee asked, “Why would the companies invite us to do that?” Prabhupada replied, “Tell them that if they study the Bhagavad-gita, their work will improve.”
This was a time before motivational semi
For Srila Prabhupada, the term “Society, Friendship and Love,” was used to refer to the primary allurement which keeps us shackled in the material world of illusion and suffering. The following excerpt is indicative of his general usage of the term:
Persons who are conditioned in the society, friendship, and love, this is the attraction for material life. “Society, friendship and love,” they think, “divinely bestowed upon man.” But that, it is not divinely bestowed upon man. From spiritual poin