By Jayadvaita Swami
I was neutral, ambivalent and uncommitted about getting a vaccination for COVID-19. On one hand, the available vaccines have been well tested and shown highly effective. On the other hand, they have not had the benefit of long-term testing, the kind that goes on for years. We do not know how long their effectiveness will last, how effective they may be against variants, and what side effects might show up in the long term.
Apart from that, it seemed that if I came down with
By Bir Krishna Goswami
To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate that is the Question!
The answer to this question is not so simple. In this short essay I would like to present my thought processes.
First of all, I do not blindly accept any of the information that has been presented in the lay media either pro or con. In addition before making any decision especially decisions regarding health, I weigh different factors; especially the risk factors.
Everything we do in this world is risky. As we hear fr
By Bhakti Bhringa Govinda Swami
Many times in life we have heard the saying, “A single twig will break, but the bundle of twigs is strong.” For practicing devotees the connotation was that we always live, practice, and teach in the society of like-minded Vaisnavas. Then we will maintain spiritual strength. Yet, this past year has given us a new perspective on the simple understanding that in unity we remain strong and withstand weakness.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a once-in-a-century event
By Vaisesika Dasa
While getting vaccinated against COVID-19, I remembered these words from Āyurveda-śāstra: auṣadhi cintayet viṣṇum. When taking medicine, one must remember Viṣṇu because ultimately He is the active ingredient that makes any medicine potent.
More prominent in my mind, however, was my recollection of Śrīla Prabhupada’s mood when it came to vaccinations, or for that matter, his approach to life in general. Srila Prabhupada once nonchalantly commented “All right, let us have,” when
By Nrsimhananda Prabhu
At the age of 73 years, I am in the so-called “high risk category” for COVID-19 so I decided to get vaccinated.
My vaccination story, however, begins in the 1950s when I was a child and another virus was overtaking America and the world.
As a small boy, I saw scary magazine photos of young children lying inside riveted, cylindrical devices called “iron lungs” (now relics of the past). Polio, an infectious viral disease affecting the central nervous system, was crippling k
