730430 - Morning Walk - Los Angeles
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Devotee: (introducing recording) Prabhupāda's morning walk, April 30th, 1973, Los Angeles.
Prabhupāda: . . . things of value, they're disappearing. Just like formerly people used to have some dishes of valuable metals. Now it is plastic. This is the advancement.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes.
Prabhupāda: It's . . .
Svarūpa Dāmodara: (laughs) That's what they call.
Prabhupāda: Rascals, they are thinking it is advancement. And if he goes to sell the plastic plates, nobody will pay even cent. But one of those metal plate, if he's in difficulty, he can get some money. This is scientific advancement. Instead of gold coins, now there is papers: "I trust in God. We trust in God." Cheating, "We trust in God." Take hundred dollars. And what is the hundred dollars? The paper. "We trust in God." By the name of God, I give you. And it is scientific. That's all.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They call it convenience.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They call it convenience.
Prabhupāda: Yes, convenience means going to hell. That's all. It is very convenient to go to hell. (japa) Everything synthetic. Huh? Cotton is disappearing.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Everything's artificial.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Artificial.
Prabhupāda: Artificial. And the scientists, they are giving this clue, "Oh, now we have produced something very valuable. Take it."
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, when Dupont made the first nylon, it was a great . . . praised all over the, all over the world . . .
Prabhupāda: What for? What for?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Because they produced the synthetic fibers, nylons.
Prabhupāda: Useless. And big, big cars. They are charging thousands, thousands of dollars, but what it is? Tin car. As soon as the machine gone, nobody will pay for the tin even. Especially in this country, they are thrown away to the garbage. No value. (japa)
(pause)
In India, we have seen, still they are going on. People stock metal utensils. You know.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes, we use.
Prabhupāda: Never use this china clay. Never. No respectable gentleman will use china clay. Still. So if a poor family is in need of money, immediately he can take one Banarasi sārī, or some metal utensils to the pawn maker. He'll immediately offer some money: "Yes." So these are conveniences. Investment was in gold ornaments. Still we have seen that so many jewelry shop, silver dishes shop, ornament shop. Still. Every marriage, the father must give at least fifty tolās. I was not a rich man; still I had to give to my daughter fifty tolās of gold during marriage. Fifty tolās . . . two and a half tolās makes one ounce. So what is the value of fifty tolās?
Karandhara: Twenty-five ounces? Right now that's worth about $2,300.
Prabhupāda: Just see. So that is her stock. Strī-dhana. The husband cannot touch. Then it is criminal. So in case of need, she can convert the ornaments into money. Sometimes there is disagreement with the husband. So she has got some stock. The father gives some ornament. The father-in-law gives some ornament. The relatives also, during marriage, they present some ornaments. So if he . . . if she gets hundred tolās of gold, that means at least five hundred . . .?
Karandhara: Almost five thousand.
Prabhupāda: Oh, five thousand dollars. She has got some assets. That is called strī-dhana. Strī-dhana means "woman's property." Nobody can touch it. Only, according to Manu-saṁhitā law, strī-dhana . . . now they are changing. Strī-dhana, the son cannot touch, the husband cannot touch. Nobody can touch. But after her death, the daughters will share that money. Because formerly, the daughters could not get share of the father's state.
Only the dowry which is given by the father at the time of her marriage. That much. But she could not claim any state share. Therefore at the time of marriage, the dowry by ornaments, sārīs . . . hundred pieces of sārī, if one is rich man; all Banarasi sārī, costly. And woman's nature is that if she gets good ornaments, sārīs, good food, she's satisfied. She doesn't want anything. She'll never become faithless to her husband.
So these things are disappearing. Now rich man, rich man's wife, no ornament. All widower. Only the widows, they were without ornaments. Any woman who has got husband must have ornaments. Otherwise, insult. So individual liberty, individual prosperity, everything is disappearing by the scientific improvement. That's all. This is the net result. Now in your country, that . . . what is that? Draft board? Eh?
Karandhara: Draft board?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Calling young men to fight.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Drafting . . . the army?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Karandhara: They don't do it anymore.
Prabhupāda: Eh? They do not do it?
Prabhupāda: They stopped it.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because they saw, "Now we are producing more hippies for this . . . only for, on account of this."
Brahmānanda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So the, the material world itself is very temporary.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The material world itself is temporary. So the scientists still make it much more temporary?
Prabhupāda: Eh? Eh?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: By investing, by, by finding out the different ways of . . . they're called conveniences. So by producing these things makes much more comfortable.
Prabhupāda: Easier. Easier to die. They have invented the atomic. Very easy to kill. (japa)
(pause)
But in . . . despite all these disadvantages, if the scientists bring in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then that is success. It will be success. The sea, without waves, does not look well. Without waves, when the sea is calm and quiet, it does not look well. What do you think? Eh?
Karandhara: It does not look well?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now with waves it looks beautiful.
Karandhara: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So that is the property of the ocean.
Prabhupāda: No, everything has got some quality and beauty. Just like Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, nārīṇāṁ bhūṣaṇaṁ patiḥ, that woman, the personal beauty is not beauty. When she has got a husband, then she's beauty. How scientific it is. All these girls in your country, without husband, they're all morose, unhappy. They have no fixity of husband. Is it not?
Brahmānanda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. The woman population is greater everywhere, and if they have no husband, they're very sorry. I have studied in this country. They're very unhappy without husband. Therefore I introduced this marriage in our Society. Now in our Society see all the women with children, how happy they are.
Brahmānanda: Oh, yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. They have got Kṛṣṇa, they have got husband, they have got children. Now, happy they are. They're working hard for beauty of the home, for the temple. And now last night that Mukunda's cousin-sister came. How unhappy she is.
Brahmānanda: Yes. You could also see the child.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Brahmānanda: The difference between that child and our children.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Brahmānanda: You could see immediately.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Oh, that girl was Mukunda's . . .?
Prabhupāda: Cousin-sister. Without husband, woman is very, very unhappy. Therefore according to Vedic system the father has got a very responsible duty to get the daughter married. It is a responsibility of the father. In the absence of father—elder brother. Now the scientists have given them contraceptive. "Don't marry, and use contraceptive." This is scientific advancement. And the contraceptive-user of girls, they're never beautiful.
Natural beauty . . . natural beauty's lost. Did you mark it? Between a woman having natural children, her beauty's better than the girl using contraceptive. It is natural. As soon as you check natural system, you become in difficulty. The . . . still the system is current. Kṣatriyas, kings, when they are married . . . you have seen, Kṛṣṇa's father's marriage. So many women also were given.
Brahmānanda: Yes, in charity.
Prabhupāda: Because always women population is greater than the man. So those who are kings, they could maintain more than one wife. So not only one wife; another three dozen maidservant. They were freely mixing, the king. They got also children. But they were not, I mean to say, eligible for throne. Only the married wife's son. This is . . . this was the system. Just like Vidura. Vidura happened to be a son of such maidservant. So she had . . . he had no claim on the throne. Dāsī-putra. They were called dāsī-putra. They're maintained, just like in royal family, but they have no claim on the throne. (japa)
(pause)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: There are two scientists working on how to make . . .
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: How to make chemicals for contraceptive. One is in Stanford. His name is Carl Geraldsey. And one is in Harvard. His name is Corey, E. J. Corey. They are quite famous now.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They are very famous now.
Prabhupāda: Huh. Because they gave contraceptive?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. They are trying to make compounds, steroids.
Prabhupāda: Sterile. When all the scientists are not famous—notorious. They should be called notorious. Somebody has manufactured atomic weapon. Somebody has contraceptive. Somebody has synthetics. (laughs)
Brahmānanda: All rogues.
Prabhupāda: Scientist means they must do something mischievous. That's all.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Ultimately, they're saying that, "In the future, we'll make tablets, scientists will make tablets. Just taking one or two tablets, and they will be satisfied, their hunger." So food will be very simplified.
Prabhupāda: But the food value will be taken by him. "Instead of paying to the stores, you pay us. We give you tablet."
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They're dreaming so many things.
Prabhupāda: "Idle brain is a devils' workshop." Because they have no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, their brain is a workshop of the devil. That's all. Harer nāma harer nāma . . . (CC Adi 17.21).
(pause)
And without culture, men are becoming rogues and thieves, uncultured. The Communist movement. Atheistic . . . everywhere, nobody's happy. The government's duty should be . . . first duty should be that everyone is happy. That is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, during the time of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. Even there was no natural disturbances—no excessive heat, no excessive cold, no anxiety. People are dying now out of anxieties. They're becoming mad, committing suicide, drinking liquors more and more. Just for anxiety. When they cannot solve any big problem, "Bring bottle." Is it not?
Brahmānanda: Yes.
(pause)
Prabhupāda: (japa) Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21). This is the only solution.
(pause)
Now śāstra says, jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi (Padma Purāṇa). There are 900,000 forms of aquatics. So what the scientist says? How many there are?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They have no number. They cannot count it. When we say, then they'll say: "How do you know?"
Prabhupāda: We have got our process. You do not know. You admit. That is Vedic knowledge. Everything is there. If you want to know, you have to spend so much money to study how many forms are there. But we believe in the Vedas. We get immediately the correct knowledge. Now you cannot challenge it, because you do not know. Neither you can know by research work.
(pause)
Jalajā nava-lakṣāṇi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati. (referring to birds) The, actually the sea waves, bringing their food. The small fishes or . . .?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: When a wave comes, they run this way, and when the wave goes down, they run down.
Prabhupāda: When the waves bring the food, so immediately they capture. So there is no scarcity of food, even for the small birds. And we are in scarcity; the scientist is manufacturing tablet.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They're going to convert the wood, the big woods, to food also, by treating with the enzymes. That is one of the . . . (laughs)
Prabhupāda: Programs.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: The wood that grows big, big trees, they said, in a few years, then these will be converted to food by treating with enzymes.
Prabhupāda: That means there will be no food, natural food. That is stated in Bhāgavata. You don't . . . you'll not get these grains, sugar, milk. This will be stopped. You have to eat woods. Yes. (chuckles) By your advancement of civilization, you have to eat woods.
Brahmānanda: Like a termite.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
(pause)
(aside) Go home.
Harer nāma harer nāma harer nāma eva kevalam . . . (CC Adi 17.21).
(pause)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: At the moment, scientists are doing so many things. They're having so many hopes. So in about fifty years . . .
Prabhupāda: There will be so much advancement that there will be no grains, (laughing) no milk.
Karandhara: Many scientists and doctors now say you shouldn't drink milk, anyway.
Prabhupāda: Why?
Karandhara: They say it's unhealthy.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā? What is healthy? Meat?
Karandhara: Meat.
Prabhupāda: Do the scientists say like that?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: I'm not very sure. But they produce imitation milk, the milk produced from soya bean. That's available in the market. Many, in fact I find, many people do not buy the natural milk. They buy the imitation milk, milk produced from the bean, soya bean. They say that milk contains too much fat, so that makes them very fat. So they want to control their weight by taking the imitation milk, which contains less protein and . . .
Prabhupāda: Yes. Milk will disappear. Harer nāma . . . (CC Adi 17.21).
(pause)
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Prabhupāda, buffalo, buffalo milk is as good as cow's milk?
Prabhupāda: No. It contains more fat. Milk means cow's milk. If you want to derive milk profit, then it is cow's milk. Otherwise, every animal has got milk. And next to cow's milk is goat's milk. Goat. Buffalo milk is not so nice.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's difficult to digest.
Prabhupāda: No, they therefore mix with water.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: In Manipur we use mostly buffalo milk, because cow's milk is not very plenty. Very expensive also.
Prabhupāda: Everywhere. In India, cows are disappearing by slaughterhouse.
(pause)
(break) The scientists cannot make drinking water from seawater?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. They can make.
Brahmānanda: Very expensive, isn't it?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Yes. I think in Japan they get water from the ocean.
Brahmānanda: I don't know.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: It's a process. They remove the salt, and they use the water for drinking. But it is quite expensive.
Prabhupāda: Then what is the use? If people cannot provide it . . .?
Brahmānanda: It's not free. It's not provided freely.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: They'll say when the necessity arises, they'll do it.
Prabhupāda: (chuckles) All future.
Brahmānanda: "In the future." It's going to be a wonderful future.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: So, so long as the future is there, they have something to say. (laughter) (end)
- 1973 - Morning Walks
- 1973 - Lectures and Conversations
- 1973 - Lectures, Conversations and Letters
- 1973-04 - Lectures, Conversations and Letters
- Morning Walks - USA
- Morning Walks - USA, Los Angeles
- Lectures, Conversations and Letters - USA
- Lectures, Conversations and Letters - USA, Los Angeles
- 1973 - New Audio - Released in May 2015
- Audio Files 30.01 to 45.00 Minutes