you cannot use something if you cannot make it-vedic saying
April 23, 2022 in Articles by Damaghosa dasa
May 14 1975 Perth
Śrutakīrti: He’s drawing a big salary for studying. He’s getting a big research salary.
Paramahaṁsa: And he’s teaching others how to study the problems, but there’s no solution.
Amogha: They have no solution actually.
Prabhupāda: The solution is there. They won’t take it. Solution is there, that everyone produce your own food. There is so much land; utilize it. The solution is there. No. They want to sit down on the table, chair, in a very nice compartment, and making solution. They won’t go.
Amogha: He was saying that your solution was too simple. He said that people will not accept it because it is too simple.
Prabhupāda: That is his ignorance. They will say it is primitive. That is the only solution. According to the Vedic system, you cannot use anything which you cannot produce. Suppose this we are using, but according the Vedic system we should not use it because I cannot produce it. Then the whole solution is there. Nobody will manufacture this because there will be no customer. If I refuse this use of this machine, thinking that “I cannot produce it; I should not use it,” then where is the customer? The so-called industry will automatically stop, and he has to go to the village outlying.
Paramahaṁsa: Some of the orthodox hippies have this philosophy, and they reject all machines and things that they cannot make themselves.
Prabhupāda: That is natural. That is natural. It is good. But they are not led by good leader. Otherwise next alternative is this, that you have to give up this artificial way of civilization. Now this land is vacant. We can produce so much food grains if it is utilized. Fruits, flower, vegetables, grains—we can produce. This land is very good land for producing potato, watermelon, this. Very good land. But who is doing that? This is the suitable land for producing watermelon. And watermelon is such a nice thing, and potato. You boil potato and take watermelon, you have full nourishment are supplied. Very innocent and simple food.
Note-But as he said, they will not accept this method for living-It is TOO simple Now see Prabhupada’s analysis of why people, including devotees wont accept this simple living high thinking model….
May 12 1975 Perth
He says he just wished to meet you. Perhaps I should read a verse. Should I read a verse?
Prabhupāda: No. Our viewpoint is that in the material world, who has accepted this material body—anyone, but we specially take the human society—they require treatment, everyone. Everyone is mentally diseased, and therefore he is unhappy. Everyone. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahād-guṇa [SB 5.18.12]. Anyone who has no sense of God consciousness, he is diseased mentally. He requires treatment. The whole human society, especially at the present moment, they have given up God consciousness. They are not interested. That is their disease. And everyone requires treatment. So the whole Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the mass treatment of the materialistic persons who are mentally diseased. That is our proposition. It is… In India there was a case. A man committed murder, and he pleaded in the court that… His pleader, his lawyer, pleaded that he was mad at that time. We also accept unless one becomes mad, one cannot commit murder or suicide. So the civil surgeon was brought to give evidence whether this man is actually mad. The civil surgeon said that “So far my experience is concerned—I have treated so many persons—in my opinion everyone is mad. So if on account of madness one should be excused from the law, then it is Your Honor’s discretion, but so far I have studied, more or less, everyone is mad.” Similarly, our study is that unless one is mad, he cannot remain in this material world. So everyone is mentally diseased, and they are concocting their ideas, different ideas. And they are overlapping, my idea, your idea overlapping. Therefore there is clash, unhappiness, violence, individually, socially, familywise, nationwise. This is going on. Therefore everyone requires a treatment, psychiatrist’s treatment. And the best treatment is to induce a person to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Then everything will be all right. Otherwise, a person who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, or God conscious, he is basically a mad man and requires treatment. (pause) Ghostly haunted man… You have experienced ghostly haunted man?
Paramahaṁsa: In Woodsaw (?) there was a ghost. In St. Kilda the devotees used to think there was a ghost, but not a man who was called…
Prabhupāda: There is ghost. And sometimes ghost attacks a man. Because he has no material body, he wants to act through other’s body. So the man who is attacked, he forgets himself, and he speaks and walks according to the dictation of the ghost. That is called ghostly haunted man.
Śrutakīrti: What is the significance of… What is this?
Prabhupāda: He talks nonsense. Suppose his father comes before him, he calls him by ill names, like that. He talks nonsense. So anyone who is too much materially affected, he also talks nonsense. Anartha upāsamaṁ sākṣād bhakti-yogam adhokṣaje. The treatment is bhakti-yoga. That we are teaching. Without any exception, we accept everyone a patient for psychiatric treatment. He has this book?
Paramahaṁsa: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Then all other books we can show him.
Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, does the soul, the ghost, enter into the other man’s body? The soul is occupying one body, and the ghost, as another soul, does he enter that body? There’s two souls in the one body?
Prabhupāda: Not exactly enters, but he catches the body. But because the ghost has no gross body—he has got his subtle body, mind, intelligence, and ego—you cannot see him, how he has attacked that body. You cannot see the body of mind, intelligence. You know I have got my mind; I know you have got your mind. But you do not see my mind; I do not see your mind. So ghost is within the subtle body: mind, intelligence, and ego. So with that subtle body, he attacks the man, but you cannot see. He does not enter into him. The enter is the soul within the body. Therefore sometimes ghost is walking in the room. We cannot see. But he takes away something. We see that the thing is going away. (laughter) Because you cannot see his gross body. And because he hasn’t got gross body, he can move very swiftly. Now he is here; he can go ten miles away immediately. But there is ghost. And they attack specially woman.
Paramahaṁsa: Is that because the women are weaker?
Prabhupāda: No. Woman is attractive for any man, even in ghostly life. The other day, who was telling that a big poet of India, he said that “God’s most wonderful creation is woman’s body”?
Śrutakīrti: I think Brahmānanda Mahārāja mentioned? Acyutānanda.
Prabhupāda: So, everyone is attracted with the woman’s body. In your country I have seen the advertisement: “bottomless,” “topless…” That is the material attraction. Everyone is in this material world on account of attachment. And similarly, for woman, the man’s body is beautiful. So in this way both of them are attached to one another. That is the basic principle of material life. Yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham kaṇḍūyanena karayor iva duḥkha-duḥkham [SB 7.9.45]. They become attached. On account of sex life, they become more attached, and therefore both of them remain almost perpetually in this material world, and to satisfy different desires they transmigrate from one body to another. And on account of accepting this material body, there is always miserable condition. Therefore everyone requires the psychiatric treatment so that the mind may be transferred from matter to spirit soul. Then he will be cured. The disease is of the mind. Harāv abhaktasy kuto mahād-guṇa mano-rathena. Everyone is riding on the chariot of mind. And the mind is taking him here and there, here… And the yoga practice is also treatment. This is also yoga, bhakti-yoga, and this ordinary haṭha-yoga, that is also treatment of the mind. Treatment of mind means controlling the senses. Yoga indriya-samyamaḥ. Mind is the leader of the senses. So if the treatment of the mind is done properly, then the senses work properly. The example is the madman. Because the madman’s mind is not controlled, he is acting in a way—people say, “Here is a madman.” So everyone is more or less a madman in this material world, or, in other words, you can say anyone who is in the material world, he is a madman. He requires treatment. Just like anyone who is in the prison house, it is to be accepted that he is a criminal. Without any study, without any exception we can accept all the prisoners as criminals. [break] …gradually appreciate. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ [Cc. Antya 20.12]. This treatment is in the beginning just cleansing the mirror of the heart. That is the treatment. Just like a mirror, when it is overcast with dust, it requires cleansing. So the mental mirror is covered with material dust. So it has to be cleansed. That is the treatment. And when it is cleansed, you can see your real face in the mirror. Similarly, as soon as our heart disease, contaminated by the modes of material nature, is cleansed, you can understand what is your real position. That is the success of psychiatric treatment. One comes to know, “What I am.” Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: “I am spirit soul; I am not this body.” That is called brahma-bhūtaḥ stage. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā [Bg. 18.54]. He becomes immediately happy. And happiness means na śocati na kāṅkṣati: “He does not lament, neither he desires.” Our present disease is we hanker after things which we do not possess, and when that thing is lost, we lament. So hankering and lamenting. So when one is cleansed in the heart, he has no more hankering or desire. This is the symptom. And samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu: “Then he becomes equal to everyone.” Everyone means every living being, man and animal, trees, plants, lower or higher. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ [Bg. 5.18]. Then he enters into the sphere of devotional service. This is the symptom. Then he is perfectly in his original position. Then he is happy. Just like a diseased man. So long the disease is there, he is unhappy. And as soon as the disease is cured, he will be happy. So this material disease, as soon as it is cured, one becomes happy, because he is, by constitution, spiritual being. People have no knowledge even, his…, even about his spiritual identity. Therefore they are unhappy.
March 26 1975 Mayapura
What is that implication? Implication is that your sinful life will get you next body which is also sinful. And again you suffer. Suffering there is. As soon as you get material body, there is suffering. It may be a king’s body or it may be a cobbler’s body, it doesn’t matter, the suffering is there. But because these people are māyayāpahṛtajānā, they are accepting suffering as pleasure. This is called māyā. He’s suffering, but he is thinking it is a good pleasure. Just like the pig. He’s eating stool, and he’s thinking he’s enjoying life. This is called ignorant. He does not know that he’s suffering. Māyā has given his body to suffer, but even in the pig’s body, he’s thinking that is enjoying life. This is called māyā. Mohitaṁ nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam [Bg. 7.13]. This is called illusion. Illusion. Everyone in this material world, they are suffering in different grades. Just like in the prison house there are different grades of prisoner: first class, second class, third class. But first-class prisoner thinks they are enjoying life, that is ignorance. He should know that he’s in the prison house. In the prison house where is there enjoyment? It is all suffering. Maybe first-class suffering, (laughter) but it is suffering. So they are all in the darkness, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Nityānanda Prabhu appeared to dissipate, tamo-nudau, to dissipate this darkness of the whole human society. That is Their kindness. They are…
April 27 1966 NY
I will have to search out some work. Oh, that is botheration. Let me remain here.” Or even after the termination of the prison life, when he comes out, he commits again some criminal act so that he may be put again into the jail. He has been accustomed. Similarly, he does not take seriously the miseries of prison life. He is so accustomed that he does not take. That is ignorance. That is ignorance. Similarly, those who are in this material world under the shackles of material modes of nature, they have completely forgotten that we have got a spiritual life which is full of freedom, full of knowledge, full of bliss, and we can become exactly almost like God. These things they have forgotten. They think that “If, from the C-class prisoner’s life, I can become an A-class That is ignorance. That is ignorance.
Srila Prabhupada defines what is the mode of goodness….
Oct 20 1975 Johannesburg
Harikeśa: Well, only some people commit suicide. As far as I’m concerned, I’m very happy. I have my car, my air conditioner…
Prabhupāda: That means you are fool number one. That means you are fool number one. As soon as you say, “I am happy,” it is immediately proved that you are a rascal, fool number one.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But everyone is afraid of death. They don’t like the idea of dying. Put if off.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore, you cure that first of all; then prolong life that there will be no death. Then you prolong life is… Make some understand. Can go this side?
Harikeśa: So it’s not possible that anyone’s happy? There is no possibility of anyone being happy.
Prabhupāda: No. One who thinks he is happy, he is number one fool.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Everyone is searching after material happiness.
Prabhupāda: Yes. But there is no happiness.
Harikeśa: What about if one is in the mode of goodness? Maybe one or two…
Prabhupāda: Mode of goodness… If he thinks that he is happy, then he is fool. The mode of goodness means one must know that we cannot be happy here. That is mode of goodness. And if he thinks, “I am happy,” then he is not in mode of goodness. He’s in darkness.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So everyone at present is trying to become happy by this or that activity.
Prabhupāda: They are fools, rascals.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So if everyone accepts that there is no happiness at all to be found in this world…
Prabhupāda: Then they are intelligent.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Then what to do?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Tad-vijñānārtham… Therefore you go to guru. Go to Kṛṣṇa.
Devotee (1): Do I have to join your movement to be happy? Can I just take Kṛṣṇa consciousness outside your movement?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Devotee (1): So there is no possibility of me being Kṛṣṇa conscious outside your movement.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa consciousness can be developed with devotees. Alone it is difficult.
Devotee (1): If I start my own community outside the movement?
Prabhupāda: Yes. The community means many devotees.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So you were saying, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that if there is no happiness and one recognizes it, then he goes to guru.
Prabhupāda: Then he must… Just like Arjuna submitted to Kṛṣṇa because he was disturbed. So that is the point where one must approach a guru, how to become happy. That is intelligence. Athāto brahma jijñāsā: “Now inquire about real happiness.”
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So one who is looking for material happiness…
Prabhupāda: He’s a fool.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: …it is very difficult for them to approach guru.
Prabhupāda: He is a fool, rascal, blind. Where there is happiness not possible, he is trying to find out happiness. Therefore he is a fool. Which is not possible, if one tries for it, then he is fool.
Harikeśa: But I look around and I see everybody else enjoying.
Prabhupāda: Because you are fool, you are seeing like that. That is the proof that you are a fool.
Harikeśa: They all tell me what a great time…
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam [Bg. 8.15], and you are finding out happiness. Then how much fool you are. The best authority says that “This is a place of suffering,” and you are finding out happiness. So how much fool you are, it is very difficult to estimate. (laughter) Therefore Vedic knowledge is perfect. Now just like there is signboard, “No admission.” So who is the fool, create some trouble by entering into it? He’s a fool. If there is signboard, “There is no admission,” and if somebody enters to create some trouble, he is not a fool? So Kṛṣṇa says, “There is no happiness,” and if somebody searches happiness, he is not a fool? That is… Therefore Kṛṣṇa consciousness required, that he gets perfect knowledge from Kṛṣṇa. He has no trouble. Kṛṣṇa said, “There is no happiness,” and if somebody thinks, “All right, although Kṛṣṇa said, let me try for it,” then he is a fool.