Sept 1 1975 Vrndavana“
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) This is going on. They do not understand that this world is meant for suffering. We have discussed little in that topic with Śyāmasundara. Just like they invented the communistic idea. Does it mean the communists are not suffering? They are suffering more. They have no liberty. They have lost their liberty, the whole people. They are so much pressed by the government that there is no liberty at all. The younger generation, they cannot go out, so much suffering. I may live even in a big house, but if you say, “You cannot go out. Then you’ll be punished,” that idea will be suffering—”Oh, I cannot go out.”
Brahmānanda: We have one devotee. He escaped from Communist Hungary, and he was telling me all the story, how on the borders how much they keep the people from trying to escape. Even in Berlin, in Germany...
Prabhupāda: They shoot.
Brahmānanda: They have a system, automatic shooting, that if you cross a certain line, they have these rays of light, and if you break the ray of light, then automatically all machine guns start firing in the whole area. It’s all done…
Prabhupāda: This is their scientific advancement.
Brahmānanda: They’ve made such a nice place that they’re afraid the people will escape from it.
Prabhupāda: And they are thinking, “This system is for happiness.”
Brahmānanda: If it’s for happiness, then why prevent people from leaving?
Prabhupāda: “Why?”—that you are asking. They think it is happiness. That is called māyā. It is not happiness; still, if somebody is thinking happiness, that is called māyā.
Dhana�jaya: But even if they cross the line successfully, they’ll only suffer misery on the other side too.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Brahmānanda: Yes. This is another point.
Dhana�jaya: They’ll only suffer another kind of misery.
Prabhupāda: Hm. Yes.
Dhana�jaya: Capitalist misery.
Brahmānanda: Some boys, they escaped from one country, I think Rumania. And they came to our temple. They had heard about our movement, so they came to our temple. They stayed for a little while, but then they were wanting to leave. So they left, and immediately they were apprehended by the authorities in… I think it was in Sweden. And now they are put into camps, they cannot leave, they have to be processed, and practically they are again in jail. They have no freedom. They cannot get a job. They have no passport. It will take them years to get all the papers in order. They have to be investigated to see that they are not spies. So again they are still in the miserable condition.
Prabhupāda: So miserable condition… That is our conclusion, that either you remain this side or that side, it is miserable.
By mental concoction you think that “This is better than that.” Therefore Kṛṣṇa says frankly, sarva–dharmān parityajya [Bg. 18.66]. That is only shelter. Mām upetya kaunteya duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam nāpnuvanti [Bg. 8.15]. [break] …take Kṛṣṇa’s words as it is. Everything is there. He said, “This material world is duḥkhālayam; it is the place of suffering.” Industrialist, businessman, anyone, even ordinary man, actually everyone is suffering, but everyone is thinking, “I am happy.” [break]
Some Conclusions–We often hear Srila Prabhupada give the example of dry stool vs. wet stool, which is better? Some will say oh the dry stool is better, others will say no wet is better-but the bottom line-it is ALL stool.
Therefore if we find ourselves caught in this mental trap we still are in the grips of Maya devi dasi. Some devotees think- oh Hawaii is such a nice place to live, others will say no California is the best and some will say heck no Hungary in Europe is the best place to live.
I actually met this Hungarian devotee once (some 47 years ago) in Mayapura on one of the festival buses going somewhere and he told me the same story only with more gruesome details like being alone with nothing for 3 days and nights in the woods trying to say alive and avoid being shot with machine guns.
But what does the Supreme Lord say? He created it all and He says-No, its ALL a place of misery from the top of the universe to the bottom. Why is that? Because when our good or bad karma wears out, we still have to take another birth and go thru it all again and again and again.
Note-this may sound very negative but here is what the SB and Srila Prabhupada has to say…
SB 3.31—Endowed with right vision and strengthened by devotional service and a pessimistic attitude towards material identity, one should relegate his body to this illusory world through his reason. Thus one can be unconcerned with this material world.
PURPORT–It is sometimes misunderstood that if one has to associate with persons engaged in devotional service, he will not be able to solve the economic problem. To answer this argument, it is described here that one has to associate with liberated persons not directly, physically, but by understanding, through philosophy and logic, the problems of life. It is stated here, samyag-darśanayā buddhyā: one has to see perfectly, and by intelligence and yogic practice one has to renounce this world. That renunciation can be achieved by the process recommended in the Second Chapter of the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
The devotee’s intelligence is always in touch with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His attitude towards the material existence is one of detachment, for he knows perfectly well that this material world is a creation of illusory energy. Realizing himself to be part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, the devotee discharges his devotional service and is completely aloof from material action and reaction. Thus at the end he gives up his material body, or the material energy, and as pure soul he enters the kingdom of God.
BG 13.10 purport…Unless we have a pessimistic view of this material life, considering the distresses of birth, death, old age and disease, there is no impetus for our making advancement in spiritual life.
Chant and be happy
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das
ps-how many devotees read this article- because of the subject title???
what is more important the gunning or the messages contained within???