760531 - Morning Walk - Honolulu

Morning Walks by Date, 1976

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

760531MW-HONOLULU - May 31, 1976 - 08:53 Minutes

Prabhupāda: . . . the authorities they . . .?

Śukadeva: What do they say?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śukadeva: It says that . . . (break) . . . possibility of an object staying in motion unless there is a person to move it. So therefore the conclusion is that these planets cannot stay in motion unless there is a supreme mover.

Prabhupāda: So he accepts God. (break)

Śukadeva: . . . the fact that there's no need to worship God, the fact that there's a need to worship man, because man is actually the center of the universe instead of God as the center of the universe.

Prabhupāda: Why do you fight? Why do you fight? Instead of worshiping, why do you fight?

Śukadeva: Simply that is human nature.

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Worship God by fighting?

Hari-śauri: Then it becomes a question of who's the best man.

Prabhupāda: God. But you don't fight with Him. But these rascals say worship man, but why does he fight with man? Another . . . (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Actually there was a boy sitting like that, and a shark came and bit off his leg while he was sitting there. (break)

Śukadeva: . . . they still think that . . .

Prabhupāda: Worship.

Śukadeva: They still think that man can decide his own future. He can decide how the universe was made. That's the basic philosophy now, that man is actually the center of the universe. He can decide and make anything that he wants. Initially there's no sense in worshiping God.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: There's another philosophy, though, called ecology, which is even more popular.

Prabhupāda: Cology?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Ecology. They say that man is part of the universe, and that we should take care of the environment because ultimately man will kill himself if he doesn't handle the environment properly.

Devotee: Air and water, things like this

Prabhupāda: What is the meaning?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The meaning is that people have exploited the atmosphere and the earth so badly in the last two hundred years especially, that, practically speaking, man is on the verge of self-destruction.

Hari-śauri: They're getting scared because they've put so much pollution in the atmosphere, into the water, into the earth, that now they're . . . everything's . . . it's reacting against them now.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In other words, they're seeing that they've become a problem.

Hari-śauri: I was telling you about that blob of garbage that was left out in the . . . that's headed towards the harbor in New York. For the last fifty years they've dumped all the garbage in the sea, and now it's collected together, and it's coming back into the shore. They think that in about fifteen years' time, if it travels at its present rate, it will be blocking the entire New York Harbor. So ecology means they have to try to find out ways and means of avoiding things like that. (break)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: . . . useless waste products. They've discovered new ways in science how to use things which can be used and used again and again. For example, newspapers, instead of throwing them away, they can recycle it and make new newspapers.

Gopavṛndapāla: They also say they were going to recycle their own urine even.

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Gopavṛndapāla: They also say they will even recycle their own urine and stool and use it over and over.

Prabhupāda: How?

Gopavṛndapāla: Like in the spaceship. When they go to the moon they recycle their own urine and drink it over again. (laughing)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the most popular philosophy is that . . . (indistinct) . . . ecology. (break)

Prabhupāda: Madman. (laughing)

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Man has created so many problems in the environment, so they don't think that the problem is man's way of doing things, or its heart. They simply consider if we can make some adjustments in the environment, then everything will go on very nicely.

Prabhupāda: They will try to make adjustments with material nature, but everything will be failure. (break) . . . hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā (BG 7.14). They'll never be able to adjust it. Punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām (SB 7.5.30), chewing the chewed. That's all. (break) . . . first of all adjustment to lie down in the skyscraper, and now they are coming to the ground. Why they have come to the ground? Punaḥ punaś carvita. Sometimes on the ground, sometimes the sky. (break) Reject and accept. They reject the stool and urine and then accept it. They do like that. (laughing) (break) Paper . . . (indistinct) . . . it is rejected. It cannot be utilized. In India still the system is they use metal; when it is broken, you can sell it. They take half price and supply new. They use metal pots, on this understanding that "When it is broken and old, we can exchange with new plates." And this kind of bowls you have to throw away. You cannot utilize.

Gopavṛndapāla: So they break very easily?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Gopavṛndapāla: These plates, the silverware and things that people use?

Prabhupāda: No, whatever . . . (indistinct) . . . silver is not half price. Silver, little less than new one. They purchase one rupee less. It was 200 rupees tolā, and the purchaser will take 190 tolā. In India they use . . . (indistinct) . . . bell metal, copper . . .

Hari-śauri: Aluminium is becoming very popular though now.

Prabhupāda: They don't use aluminium much. The . . . (indistinct) . . . is, if they have got excess money, they invest in metal—gold, silver, copper, bell metal . . . Immediate loan—you can mortgage the metal pots, the metal ornaments, you get money immediately. (break) . . . day in a year, that is a metal purchasing ceremony. Every family will purchase, according to his means, some metal pots once in a year. Dhantrayodasi. Means desire some funds. So if there's some extra money—not big, big men; middle-class storeman—they invest in metal purchase. There is a good business day, for the utensil-seller . . . you know Diwali? Diwali?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Just one day before Diwali.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. (break)

Prabhupāda: Huge quantity of metals. Everyone will purchase. (end)