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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