750525 - Arrival - Honolulu

Lectures by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 Listen to a 'Nectar Drop' created from this lecture

750525AR-HONOLULU - May 25, 1975 - 36:42 Minutes

Prabhupāda: . . . that this village we are maintaining, this Gaura-Nityānanda temple, that was the mission of Caitanya Mahāprabhu: pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma . . . (Caitanya-bhāgavata, Antya 4.126). No big plant? You are not growing?

Devotee: We have one, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Sarvatra pracāra haibe. So you are very humbly maintaining this temple. It is a great achievement for you. You will get blessings of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The glaring attraction of city, that is māyā. In the modern age people are more attracted by the city life, but we should know city life . . . not for the devotee; generally, people in general, they like city life, but that is māyā. Māyā means "which is not fact." We are thinking that this way we shall be happy, but that is not fact. This is called māyā. Mā-yā—"it is not." You are thinking that in this way you will be happy, but it is not. This is called māyā. One English poet also said, Cowper, that city is made by man but village is made by God.

So if you can stick to this village life and be satisfied whatever you produce . . . you can produce your necessities; there is no difficulty. If we keep cows and grow food grains, fruits, vegetables, then we can live very peacefully like that. There is no need of going to the city. That is the plan of God, Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa personally exhibited. Vṛndāvana is village; it is not city. We are trying to go to the village of Kṛṣṇa—Vṛndāvana. And He was Himself, although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He was taking care of the calves and cows when He was child, although Nanda Mahārāja was king, village king. King means he had many cows—nine hundred thousand cows. Formerly one was considered to be rich man if he possessed many cows: dhānyena dhanavān gavayā dhanavān. Now, artificially, they have made such a plan that if you can possess some papers written only—hundred dollars, five hundred dollars, fifty dollars—then you are rich.

But actually that is not wealth. When there is no food, you cannot eat this paper—it may be hundred dollars, five hundred dollars. But if you possess grains and cows, then you will never starve. The city people, they are getting supply from remote villages, and they have got money . . . money means paper. They are cheating. The whole process is cheating. There is no money, but they have made economic condition in such a clever way that we are accepting these papers as money. Real riches is actually the grains and milk. That is real riches. According to Vedic civilization it is said, dhānyena dhanavān gavayā dhanavān. Formerly, and still in Indian villages, suppose one man is going to give his daughter to a boy. So he will go and see how much grains he has got in store, how many cows he has got. Then yes, he is going to agree, like that. Nowadays they don’t go to see how much book balance he has got. That is not actual wealth. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is basically that we should not be attracted by the false thing. We should not be attracted by the false thing. The reality—vāstava vastu vedyaṁ atra (SB 1.1.2). Real reality, not false reality.

So I am very glad that you are living here. So kindly stick to this place and make an ideal island so that others may see also: plain living, high thinking. Produce your own food; keep cows, milk. If there is food grain and milk there is no necessities. And you can produce your cloth also if you produce cotton. And we are trying in Māyāpura to produce our own cloth. So we require our own cloth, own food, and time saved for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is required. That is actual civilization. This is not civilization; this is demonic civilization. So although you are all European and American, these things are practically . . . you are not accustomed. But if you develop this kind of civilization—plain living and high thinking—save time for advancing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is real profit of life. It is real profit.

pravṛttir eṣā bhūtānāṁ

nivṛttis tu mahā-phalāṁ

(Manu-saṁhitā)

We have come to this material world for sense gratification. This is pravṛtti. Pravṛtti means that is our natural propensity, inclination. We are simply making plans how to satisfy our senses. That is material life. Especially in the Western countries, their only plan is how to satisfy the senses. They have no other plan. But real life is to stop this line of civilization—nivṛtti. Nivṛtti means "stop." General propensity is sense gratification, but if you can stop this process of sense gratification, that is real life. That is real life. Nivṛttis tu mahā-phalām. Real life means if you stop the process of sense gratification, then you go back to home, back to Godhead, your real place. And if you increase your propensity for sense gratification, then you remain within the cycle of birth and death. There are 8,400,000 species of life. So we change our body from this body to that body, that body, that body, that body, and we do not know where it will end. It will go on and on, very risky. Now I may think, “I am American. I have got all facilities. I have got a skyscraper building; that's all right.” But are we going to live there forever? No. That is not possible. You will be kicked out. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham (BG 10.34): as death. "You rascal, you do not accept Me in your lifetime, but you . . ." Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu. He could not accept God during his lifetime, but when God came as death he could not resist; he had to surrender.

This is our position. Atheist class of men, in the beginning in their lifetime, they say, "What is God? We don’t care for God.” But when God comes as death they say, 'Yes, Sir, take me wherever You want." Finished. At that time you cannot say, “No, no, I don’t care for death.” But you must care. This is our position. And after death they do not know, they are so fools and rascals. After death their is life, they don't believe in. If they believe, then their whole plan is spoilt. But believe or not believe, there is. Just like this child: if you don’t believe, "No, no, this child will not change body," you may believe like that, but it will change. Similarly, I am old man. If I say, "No after-death. I have no," as I have changed my childhood body, youthhood to boyhood like that, again similarly I will change. These are very plain facts, but modern civilization, they are so fools and rascal, they cannot understand even this plain truth—tathā dehāntara-prāptir (BG 2.13). There is.

Now what kind of dehānta, change of body, that depends on you. You are preparing your own body; I am preparing my body. So that is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. You can prepare your next body in higher planets as demigods or you can prepare your next body within this planet. You can go to the Pitṛloka, and if you like you can go to Kṛṣṇa's abode. That depends on you. You make your choice. So the intelligent person will say that "What is the use of going to the higher planet or remaining here if I have to prepare my own body for the next life? Why not prepare my next life to associate with Kṛṣṇa?" This is intelligence. And what is the benefit of going to Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa says,

yad gatvā na nivartante

tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

(BG 15.6)

That if you go back to home, back to Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, then you haven’t got to come again and accept this temporary, material body and suffer. This whole thing is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Read very carefully. I have tried to explain.

So make your point like that we should not be attracted by the so-called material bodily comfortable life. This is also comfortable. Simply we imagine that city life, having many cars and many skyscraper buildings, big, big roads, that is comfortable. Comfortable means without anxiety. That is comfort. Real life is without anxiety. That is comfortable life. And if you are living, sleeping in a very high skyscraper building and full of anxieties, is that comfortable life? That is not comfortable life. Comfortable life means . . . Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has said that a comfortable, happy man is he who does not go out of his home and who is not a debtor. He is happy. But just see: in the city everybody is a debtor, and one has to go fifty miles, hundred miles for earning his livelihood. Is that comfortable? The bank is ready to give you money—"Purchase motorcar. Purchase this. Purchase this." And at the end of month after working hard when you get salary, the whole money is taken by the bank, again you have to work. So you are debtor and full of anxiety. Is that comfortable life? No, that is not comfortable life. Comfortable life means no anxiety. It was . . . Hiraṇyakaśipu asked his son, "What you have learned, my dear son? The best thing, please tell me." So he said that,

tat sādhu manye 'sura-varya dehināṁ

sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt

hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ

vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta

(SB 7.5.5)

He did not address his father as "father," but he addressed him as great asura—asura varya, "the best of the asuras." So, "I have learnt this, my dear great asura." "What is that?" "That people are full of anxiety on account of this material body." Anyone—either human being or animal or bird—anyone who has got this material body is full of anxiety. Even a sparrow, you will see, he is eating something, he is in anxiety. That is material life. So in order to stop this life of anxieties, Prahlāda Mahārāja said that he should give up this material world and take shelter of Hari. That is the best thing. These things are there. Harim āśrayeta, vanaṁ gato. Vanaṁ: we should go to the forest and take shelter of the lotus feet of Hari.

So Vṛndāvana is also forest. So create Vṛndāvana. Keep Kṛṣṇa here, cows here, calves here; produce your own food. It will become Vṛndāvana. This is Vṛndāvana. Where there is Kṛṣṇa, where there are cows, where there is agriculture, that is Vṛndāvana. See the life of Kṛṣṇa. He advised His father to worship Govardhana Hill. He said, "My dear father, Govardhana Hill is giving grass to our cows. Why you are arranging for the demigod worship, Indra? There is Govardhana-pūjā." So you should produce enough food grains, enough fodder for the cows, and live peacefully, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, make this life. At least one life we should do like that. It is very happy life.

So you have got this land; develop it. Don’t go away. Develop it. That is my instruction. Keep cows, as many cows as possible. You don’t require practice. Produce your own food, own milk—save time; chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is perfect. You don’t require technical education and this education, that education, wine, meat. This is rakṣasā civilization. This is not human civilization. Human civilization: peacefully living, saving time for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and then at the time of death you remember Kṛṣṇa. You are immediately delivered within a second, back to home, back to Godhead.

The spirit soul, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Just imagine what is the force of spirit. It is forceful more than the mind. Mind is so forceful, everyone has got experience. You are sitting here, you can go immediately to New York. You can go immediately Los Angeles, within a second, mind is so speedy. And the soul is still more speedy. So it is said, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti. If you become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, then . . . we have to give up this body, that is a fact. So Kṛṣṇa says after giving up this body, tyaktvā dehaṁ, you are not going to accept another material body. Immediately, within a second, you will go to spiritual world. This is a fact.

So why don’t you try for this? This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement—how to transfer the soul, within a second, to Kṛṣṇa by this spiritual practice. You see personally Kṛṣṇa face to face—play with Him, dance with Him. Very important movement. Don’t take it less seriously. And where is the difficulty? Simply you have to follow, because to follow rules and regulations means the withdrawing from material entanglement. If we go on increasing our material . . . then we become entangled. You have to withdraw.

vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā

man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ

(BG 4.10)

That is stated. (aside) Find out this verse, vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā. Kṛṣṇa is so kind that if you have got pinch of attraction for material enjoyment, He will give you, "All right, you enjoy. You enjoy." That means bondage. You have to remain in this material world.

Devotee:

vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā

man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ

bahavo jñāna-tapasā

(BG 4.10)

Prabhupāda: Bahavo jñāna-tapasā pūtā . . . then? Eh?

Devotee: Pūtā mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ.

Prabhupāda: Mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ. Vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā. Here we have got attraction, material, so we have to withdraw this attraction. How it will be possible? If we become more attracted to Kṛṣṇa, then this attraction will go away. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra syāt (SB 11.2.42). Bhakti means the more you realize Kṛṣṇa, the more you become detestful: "Ah, nonsense." This is test. One side increasing taste, the other side decreasing. This is the test. If we think that "I have got attraction on Kṛṣṇa and also the sense gratification," that means bogus. The test is how far I am detached to sense gratification. Then it means that you have increased your spiritual life. And Yāmunācārya says,

yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa-pādāravinde

nava-nava-dhāmany udyataṁ rantum āsīt

tad-avadhi bata nārī-saṅgame smaryamāne

bhavati mukha-vikāraḥ suṣṭhu niṣṭhīvanaṁ ca

(Śrī Yāmunācārya)

This is the test. Yāmunācārya, he was emperor. He said, "Since I have taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and I am enjoying Kṛṣṇa's association, since then, as soon as I think of sex, I spit on it." This is the test. This is test. Kṛṣṇa . . . how I am increasing my Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the test is how I am decreasing my sex attachment. This is test. A man is suffering from fever, that means how much he is becoming cured means how much he has decreased the degree of fever. This is the test. It is not that I have got 105-degrees fever and I am advancing and curing. That is not. This is the test, the vīta-rāga. You have got attachment for this material world, and the central point of attachment is sex. All man, birds, beast, everyone—test.

So vīta-rāga. Rāga means attachment. Vīta-rāga-bhaya. And soon as we conquer over this sense gratification, then we have no fear, bhaya. Krodhā: and there is no anger. Where anger is there, as soon as we are dissatisfied in the matter of sense gratification we become angry. So, vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā . . .

Devotee: Man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ (BG 4.10).

Prabhupāda: Ah. Man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ. How it is possible? If you simply think of Kṛṣṇa,

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare

Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ. And taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa: "I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet. Kindly save me from this entanglement." This is the process. Then what is the result? Bahavo—"many." Not that one or two persons. Many. Jñāna-tapasā. Jñāna means "knowledge," and tapasā—this is tapasā. My propensity is to enjoy sense gratification, and if I deny it, that is called tapasā, austerity. That is tapasā. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa (SB 6.1.13). Tapasā begins with celibacy, brahmacarya. That is tapasā. So jñāna-tapasā: then there will be knowledge and tapasā. Bahavo jñāna-tapasā pūtā mad-bhāvam . . .

Devotee: Āgatāḥ

Prabhupāda: Āgatāḥ (BG 4.10). Mad-bhāvam: there is another nature, that is spiritual nature. From this material nature we go to there. That is back to home, back to Godhead. So everything is there. Read thoroughly, produce your own food, live peacefully. What is the use of going to the city? Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, jaḍa-vidyā saba māyāra vaibhava tomāra bhajane bādhā. This material way of life, material advancement of material civilization, means giving advantage to māyā to increase her influence over us. That's all. Just like you see you have got cars, and there is vast scarcity—I heard somewhere the petrol was supplying, and when, say, a hundred cars were standing, and hang up the signboard, "No more petrol," one man was in the back side, he became so infuriated he immediately shot him. You know that? . . . (indistinct) . . . just see. Because his fault was there was no petrol, and he was hanging the signboard, and he was killed. Just see, māyā going on. He thought that "If I cannot drive my car one day, then my life will be spoilt. Kill this man." This is going on, māyā.

(break) . . . if I am checked in advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, anitya saṁsāre moha janamiyā jīva ke karaye gadha. The māyā’s glaring attraction may be increased, but it will be effective to keep me under her influence and make me an ass. Ass does not know; his interest is simply for grass. He is loaded with tons of cloth of the washer man. Similarly, if we do not get the real knowledge of life, we remain like an ass, and our life is spoilt. This is Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura saying, jīva ke karaye gāḍha. People will think that "We are advancing, and this man is calling we are becoming ass?" Yes, you are ass, because you do not know your real interest of life. You are an ass. You may have a very nice Rolls-Royce car, but you are nothing but an ass because you do not know your interest of life.

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ

durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

(SB 7.5.31)

The . . . you are blind, and who is encouraging you, he is also blind. So what is the result? Both of you fall down in the ditch. So be satisfied with this humble life in the village and be advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the real profit of life. Don’t be misled by the glaring, dazzling situation of the city. That is not worth it. (break) There is no difficulty. If you cooperate, everything will be all right. Don’t be anxious. (break)

In India 1945, I had my laboratory at my house. There was a young boy, my servant. He was so strong, very strong, twenty-two years, and very . . . black servant. So I asked him, "What do you eat?" He said, "I eat corn." He is poor man, cannot provide rice, but corn . . . corn is very good. And with milk, make sugar or churn the . . . what is called? What is called? Gūr?

Devotees: (make indistinct suggestions—butter, ghee, gūr)

Prabhupāda: Gūr? Yes, gūr is also nice. Gūr, it is better than, all vitamin values, better than sugar. Yes. You make juice, sugarcane, and boil it, and it becomes gūr. So you get gūr, you get this . . . fry this oats or corns, and mix with gūr and little milk—it will be very good for breakfast, very nutritious. In this way grow your food, and eat nicely, keep your health nicely. We don’t say that "Don’t eat, don’t sleep, don’t have sex, don’t defend." We don’t say that. But regulate. Regulate. You see? You eat, you sleep, have regulated sex and try to defend. That is necessary so long the body is there. But the more you decrease these propensities, that means you are advancing, and if you increase these propensities, then you are going to hell. Mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes (SB 5.5.2). If you follow the instruction of mahātmā, devotee, then your path of liberation will open. And if you follow the path of sense gratification, tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam (SB 5.5.2), then you are going to the darkness, or hell.

So these things are there. The human . . . we have explained in English, it is immortal treasure house, Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā. Utilize it and be satisfied. Don’t be restless. Simple living and high thinking, that is wanted. So, what is next? I am taking this . . . (break) (end)