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PREFACE                                              xxi

            my family (which was a large sample set in itself), who were
            consciously or unconsciously adhering to Vedic culture, and
            was impressed by their grace and simplicity, and the level
            of peacefulness in their life. I am indebted to them, for they
            showed me, by their practical example, the ideals of sacrifice,
            patience, and kindness that I had read about in the scriptures.

            I began to look more closely at cultures which were not
            practicing the values as given in the Vedas and studied the
            consequences of their not doing so. I observed that a startling
            number of women were confused and stressed. I examined my
            own life and my level of satisfaction before and after I had
            started to follow traditional culture. On scratching the surface
            of the happiness of the independent woman that I was, I found
            loneliness and insecurity, and a kind of brittle hardness that
            was frightening. On the other hand, when I surrendered to
            following the instructions of the Vedas and accepting a more
            submissive role, I felt I was more in touch with what it means
            to be a woman.

            After a few years of hearing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s lectures and
            reading his books, I gained an appreciation of Vedic culture
            which completely changed my worldview. To quote P. G.
            Wodehouse, I felt that the scales had fallen from my eyes! All
            my life I had been completely dismissive of even the vestiges
            of Vedic culture that I could see around me, considering them
            to be primitive traditions that must be given up to make way
            for modernity. And yet, through Śrīla Prabhupāda’s insight, I
            began to see that the culture was there to facilitate harmony
            between material and spiritual life. This understanding was
            further enhanced when I encountered the teachings of one
            of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples, Bhakti Vikāsa Swami, who
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