My Dearest and Beloved Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada,
I want to know,
We have known that Shri Krishna in HIS childhood killed so many satan or demons. so, even if we still consider that few demons are still there, my question is how beautifully this universe in controlled by Shri Krishna?
I am eagerly waiting for the reply, Thank you very much in advance and again forgive me if i hurt any of my dearest Prabhujis.
My best regards ever,
Replies
But Srila Prabhupada, the living entities, the jivatma within the..., and the Paramatma within, why the living entities suffering even the Paramatma is directing the living entity within?
Expressions researched:
"But Srila Prabhupada, the living entities, the jivatma within the..., and the Paramatma within, why the living entities suffering even the Paramatma is directing the living entity within"
Contents
[hide]Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Karandhara: You once gave the example, Prabhupāda of the drunkards in New York.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Karandhara: If they just get a bottle of wine they are satisfied even though they are freezing and starving and have no place to stay.
Prabhupāda: Yes, they are satisfied. Real satisfaction will prevail when one knows God. That is real satisfaction. Bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram (BG 5.29). A devotee will see how by God's design the sea is working, how the sky is staying, how the sun is rising. He is satisfied, "Oh, how my Lord is great, how He has arranged." That is satisfaction
Svarūpa Dāmodara: But Śrīla Prabhupāda, the living entities, the jīvātmā within the..., and the Paramātmā within, why the living entities suffering even the Paramātmā is directing the living entity within?
Prabhupāda: That is not very difficult. Government is always with you, but why you are suffering, and why one is enjoying? Government is not partial. You have created your situation to suffer. That's all. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that "You surrender to Me. I will give you all protection." But you will not do. You must suffer. Suffering is there. As soon as you are disobedient to God, immediately suffering begins. That is māyā. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, "Now you give up all this nonsense business. Surrender to Me. I will give you all protection." That you will not do. Then you must suffer. That is the song:
That is our preaching, that "Why you are suffering? Just accept Kṛṣṇa; you will become happy." That is our preaching. So long you are under the clutches of... (end)
But why are we in the prison house?
Expressions researched:
"but why are we in the prison house"
Contents
[hide]Conversations and Morning Walks
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Nalinīkaṇṭha: Next one?
Prabhupāda: No, no, this verse.
Nalinīkaṇṭha:
Prabhupāda: Hmm. Now translation and purport, read.
Nalinīkaṇṭha: We just read that. Read again?
Prabhupāda: The purport you have read?
Nalinīkaṇṭha: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Oh, then next verse.
Nalinīkaṇṭha: No, I haven't read the purport.
Prabhupāda: Oh, purport read.
Nalinīkaṇṭha: "In the material world in any form of life there is some so-called happiness and so-called distress. No one invites distress in order to suffer, but still it comes. Similarly, even if we do not endeavor to obtain the advantages of material happiness, we shall obtain them automatically. This happiness and distress are obtainable in any form of life without endeavor. Thus there is no need to waste time and energy fighting against distress or working very hard for happiness. Our only business in the human form of life should be to revive our relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus become qualified to return home, back to Godhead. Material happiness and distress come as soon as we accept a material body, regardless of what form. We cannot avoid such happiness and distress under any circumstances. The best use of human form of life, therefore, lies in reviving our relationship with the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu."
Prabhupāda: So, is there any question about this statement?
Arnold Weiss: Yes. What originally caused us to lose our relationship with Lord Kṛṣṇa? I understand it is due to our desires, but how is this desire manifest?
Prabhupāda: Relationship is not lost. Just like you... Either you are in the prison house or you are in the kingdom of the state, your relationship with government is there. It does not mean that when you are put into the prison house to suffer, it does not mean you have lost relationship, is it that?
Arnold Weiss: Yes, but why are we in the prison house?
Prabhupāda: This is the cause: because you are criminal, you are put into the prison house, but the relationship continues.
Arnold Weiss: What have we done to make ourselves criminals?
Prabhupāda: What you have done, you are put into prison?
Arnold Weiss: No, but what have we done to make ourselves criminals? What criminal acts have we performed?
Prabhupāda: That you might have forgotten. Because your nature is to forget, you cannot immediately remember what you are doing exactly this time yesterday. That is your... You have forgotten, but suppose you, without any knowledge, you do something criminal. So you must be punished. You may not know. You cannot say in the court that "I did not know by committing this act I'll be punished." So you know or not know. You have done it; you must be punished. You may not know what you have done, but that does not mean you can avoid punishment.
Arnold Weiss: I understand that. It sounds reasonable to me. When we do this act for which we are punished, is it done in this life or done in some prior life?
Prabhupāda: This life or prior life, because you are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). You are eternal.
Arnold Weiss: Would the prior life have to be an animal life?
Prabhupāda: Yes, might be.
Arnold Weiss: Or could the prior life also be human life?
Prabhupāda: No, not necessarily. There are 8,400,000 different forms of life, and you are one of them now, as you, as soul, you are the same; the body is changed. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said in the Second Chapter that "Arjuna, you, Me and all these persons who are assembled here, they existed in their previous lives, they are now existing, and they'll continue to exist." So our life is eternal. That is the first instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This living entity, soul, is never born, neither he dies. It is simply change of body. Just like you just took this sweater. That means you are there, and you may give up the sweater again. So your body is changing like dress, but you are the same. So your... In previous... Just like now we are elderly gentleman, but we were a child. That's a fact. At that time the body was different. You are a young man; the body was different. And again you'll become old man like me, your body will be different. So in this life also we are experiencing going through different types of body. Similarly, after giving up this body, I'll have another body. Where is the difficulty to understand? Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati.
Has God put the suffering here for us to experience so that we will want to give up material lives and get closer to Him? Is it punishment?
Expressions researched:
"Has God put the suffering here for us to experience so that we will want to give up material lives and get closer to Him? Is it punishment"
Contents
[hide]Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Jyotirmayī: (If the) name of God is not material, how is it possible to pronounce it materially, with our material tongue?
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is possible, when you are purified.
Guest: Has God put the suffering here for us to experience so that we will want to give up material lives and get closer to Him? Is it punishment?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jyotirmayī: Is the God of love, does He punish man?
Prabhupāda: Yes. God has got two business. Maintenance and punishment. That is stated in Bhagavad-gītā, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). That the government has got the law to give protection to the obedient citizens, and to send the rascals to the prison house.
If Krsna is all-good, why does He send us to this world full of miseries?
Expressions researched:
"If Krsna is all-good, why does He send us to this world full of miseries"
Contents
[hide]Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Question: If Kṛṣṇa is all-good, why does He send us to this world full of miseries?
Prabhupāda: Just like the government is good, but why do you go to prison house? When you go to the prison house, it is not the government who puts you in the prison house. You have committed sinful activities. Therefore you are put into the prison house. It is the government's duty to manage whether a man should be put into prison house, whether a man should go to the university. But the difference of individual activities. Similarly, God does not want you to put into miserable condition. You put yourself in miserable condition, but God comes and He sends His representative, to give you relief, how to get out of that miserable condition. The conclusion is that Kṛṣṇa does put you in miserable condition, but He helps you get out from the miserable condition.
http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Category:Questions_On..._Reward,_Punishm...
http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Category:Questions_On..._Sin,_Morality,_...
YOU ARE BEHAVING LIKE A MATERIALIST NOW. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? DEVOTEES NEVER EXPECT SUCH QUESTIONS FROM YOU.
Lecture BG 2.46-62
Excerpt
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Purport: "The word muni means one who can agitate his mind in various ways for mental speculation without coming to a factual conclusion."
Prabhupāda: Mental speculators are called muni. There are so many munis. Go on.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "It is said that every muni has a different angle of vision, and unless one muni is different in view from another, he cannot be called a muni in the strict sense of the term. But a sthita-dhīr muni, the kind mentioned herein by the Lord is different from an ordinary muni. The sthita-dhīr muni is always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness for he has finished all his business with creative speculation. He is called praśānta-niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntara, or one who has surpassed the stage of mental speculation and has come to the conclusion that Lord Sir Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva, is everything. He is called a muni fixed in mind. Such a fully Kṛṣṇa conscious person is not at all disturbed by the onslaughts of the threefold miseries, those due to nature, to other beings, and to the frailties of one's own body. Such a muni accepts all misery as the mercy of the Lord, thinking himself only worthy of more trouble due to his past misdeeds, and sees that his miseries, by the grace of the Lord, are minimized to the lowest. Similarly, when he is happy, he gives credit to the Lord, thinking himself unworthy of that happiness. He realizes that it is due only to the Lord's grace that he is in such a comfortable condition and thus able to render better service to the Lord. And for the service of the Lord..."
Prabhupāda: You mark this. When there is miseries, a Kṛṣṇa conscious person takes the responsibility himself, and when there is happiness, it is due to Kṛṣṇa. But the materialistic person is just the opposite. When he is in miseries, he'll say, "Oh, God has put me into such miseries." And when he's happiness, his friend says, "Oh, you are now well-to-do." "Yes, you do not know how much I have worked hard." When he's happiness, he takes the credit for himself, and when he's in distress, he gives the discredit to Kṛṣṇa. "Oh, Kṛṣṇa has put me into such miserable..." But a Kṛṣṇa conscious person, when he's in distress, he'll say, "Yes, due to my misdeeds I should have suffered a hundred times more than this distress, but Kṛṣṇa is so kind, He has given me little. That's all." And when he's happiness, "Oh, it is all given by Kṛṣṇa. Therefore all the opulence should be utilized for Kṛṣṇa's service." This is the difference. He's asking, Arjuna is asking, what are the symptoms of Kṛṣṇa conscious person. Sthita-prajña. Sthita-prajña means steadfast in intelligence. So these are the difference. I have read one speech, Chicago speech by late Vivekananda Swami. He's talking to the audience that "You work so hard, why you give credit to God?" You see? If you find his Chicago speech, you'll see. Go on.
http://vanisource.org/wiki/Lecture_on_BG_2.46-62_--_Los_Angeles,_De...
HARE KRISHNA
JAI SRILA PRABHUPADA
PRABHU JI!
JAI ACHARYAS AND VAISHNAVAS
I THINK YOU ARE CONFUSED WITH PROBLEM OF EVIL. OUR SCRIPTURES GIVE SATISFYING ANSWERS. SRILA PRABHUPADA HAS ANSWERED IT MANY TIMES.
http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/forum/topics/why-lord-krishna-sends...
Lecture on SB 2.2.5 -- Los Angeles, December 2, 1968:
Prabhupāda: Full scale, yes.
Man: Then are not also the evil qualities in man existent in God too but...
Prabhupāda: Yes. The evil qualities... What you call evil, that quality is also there in God. But God, being absolute, there is no evil; everything is good. God is good. I'll give you an example. Just like the father is sometimes angry. The quality of anger is taken as bad quality. But if the father is sometimes angry on the father (son), that is not bad. That is for his good. Therefore... This is a crude example.
Lecture on SB 7.5.31 -- Mauritius, October 4, 1975:
Prabhupāda: He is preaching always. He is preaching always, "Do this like this." Just like Bhagavad-gītā is open to everyone. That is His preaching. But we are not accepting. That is our fault. Otherwise He is preaching always.
Guest (2): If man be part and parcel of God, how do you explain the evil deeds of man?
Prabhupāda: Because he likes to do that.
Guest (2): That means God also likes to do evil.
Prabhupāda: No. God gives simply facility. That's all.
So his question was, "Then what is this evil?" The evil is also God's creation. So I explained like this, that for God there is no good or evil; everything is good. So I gave him this example that good, or piety, that is God's frontage, and evil means God's back side. So taking this example, the chest or the back of my body, they are equal. It is not that when there is some pain on the back side I don't care for it; I simply take care of when there is pain in the chest. No. Although it is back side, it is as important as the front side. Then evil and good is also of the same importance? No. Evil... That I gave the example, that for God there is nothing evil. I gave another example. Just like the sun, there is no darkness. Anywhere of sun's body, there is no darkness. But for us there is light and darkness. Just like if you keep the sun back side, you will find darkness, a very long darkness, your shadow. And if you keep yourself in front, sun, there is no darkness. So it is my business; I create darkness. As soon as I change my position—instead of remaining in front of God, I keep God back side—then there is darkness. Otherwise there is no question of darkness. But in the sun as it is, there is no such darkness. Therefore God is all good. And for us, when we forget God, that is evil.
So God is all good. There is no good or evil. Apāpa-viddham. In the Īśopaniṣad you will find description, apāpa-viddham. Whatever God does, that is all good. But if we imitate God, then it is evil. That is the disease of material disease. Their other question was—the pilot was very intelligent man—that "How one can become peaceful?" So I gave him the reply from Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā it is said,
Who is going to steal while keeping one witness? Nobody's going, but court wants that who has seen that he has stolen. Anyway, Dr. Urquhart's argument was that "Who is the witness? I am suffering the reaction of my previous bad or evil activities, but who is the witness?" But at that time we were not so intelligent. We could not answer. But later on, when we were grown up and studied Bhagavad-gītā, then here, in the Bhagavad-gītā, we saw that upadraṣṭā. The Lord is upadraṣṭā, He is witness. Upadraṣṭā. Anumantā. Anumantā means ordering. You cannot do anything without being sanctioned by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. You have no power. Therefore we are, in all respect, we are dependent. That we have got very nice experience. This hand is moving, but if the power is withdrawn, I cannot move my hand. Therefore I am not independent to move my hand. So upadraṣṭā anumantā. We cannot do anything without being sanctioned by the Supreme Lord. There is an English word, that not even a grass moves without the sanction of the Lord. So that is a fact. So how one is doing nice thing and how one is doing evil things if He is the order giver? That is our independence. We can take sanction from the Lord. If we want to do something evil, I cannot do it without the sanction of the Supreme. Or even if I do something very nice, that also I cannot do without the sanction. So how the Lord gives such sanction? The sanction is like this: just like a child is crying to get something from the parent, and the parent, being disgusted, gives him something, "All right. Take it." Such kind of sanction. When we do something evil, the sanction is from the Lord, but it is not willing sanction. Against the will of the Lord. And when you do something in cooperation with the Lord, that is called bhakti. We are doing everything... In the material world we are doing everything, all nonsense for sense gratification.
Guest (5): Your Grace, all of us who are attached to a transcendental religion, I think we face a common problem, and I would like to hear you say how you see the answer to the problem: the problem ofevil. If I put it in these terms, that all energy, all reality, is from God, the spiritual and the material. And material is good when we use it towards God consciousness, use it properly. But the thing that makes a difference is ourselves, the way we consciously use things differently. And the trouble is that in this consciousness, this is how we come closest to God, our consciousness in itself. Now, some people would say that the source of evil is individual consciousness, our consciousness as persons. Others would have other ways of answering. I was wondering how you yourself would say.
Prabhupāda: Individual consciousness and the supreme consciousness, God and we... We are all also the same principle. God is also living being, we are also living being, but He is the supreme living being. That is stated in the Vedas. Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13). Nitya means eternal. God is eternal; we are also eternal. But because we have fallen down in this material existence, we have forgotten our eternity; we are changing body. We are thinking, "I am this body." This is our misgivings. But God does not fall down. He is eternal.
Philosophy Discussions
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because every living entity is part and parcel of God, although very minute portion, similarly proportionately, he has minute proportion of freedom of will. Not absolute. That is natural. Every man has got a little freedom of will, but it is not absolute. A man cannot will as he likes. That is not possible. Therefore it is said, "Man proposes; God disposes." Although the freedom of will is there, it is subordinate to the freedom of will of God. You cannot fulfill your desire unless it is sanctioned and approved by God.
Śyāmasundara: He says that the fact that there is more good than evil in this world justifies its creation.
Prabhupāda: Well, good and evil is according to his angle of vision. A devotee sees in this material world everything is good. Viśva pūrṇaṁ sukhaya. People are complaining they are in distressed condition, but a devotee sees that there is no distressed condition, that it is all happy condition, because he lives with Kṛṣṇa, he dovetails everything with Kṛṣṇa, he dovetails himself also with Kṛṣṇa. Therefore for him there is no misery.
Prabhupāda: God is absolute. For Him there is no evil. Absolute good. Otherwise He cannot be absolute. So what you think evil, to God it is good. Just like a father slaps a child and he cries. For the child it is evil, but for the father it is good. Father thinks, "I have done right. He is crying. He will not commit the mistake again." So this chastisement is just like sometimes Aravinda complains he thinks "I was unnecessarily chastised," but I say it is good. (laughter) The same thing. So whose opinion is to be taken?
Śyāmasundara: His idea is that God is limited.
Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. If God is limited, then He cannot be God.
Śyāmasundara: He says either God is limited in His goodness, in order to allow evil to exist...
Prabhupāda: No. He is unlimitedly good.
Śyāmasundara: Then He must be limited in His power, because He cannot stop evil from existing.
Prabhupāda: No. Evil works under His guidance. Good and evil, both are control] by Him. Therefore He is called supreme controller. He is not limited. The exact word used in Sanskrit is called ananta, unlimited. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam (Bs. 5.33). Ananta. Advaita, non-dual; acyuta, infallible; and ananta, unlimited.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: But what about the idea that God is evil?
Prabhupāda: He is evil also. He has got His evil also.
Devotee: But not according to our understanding.
Prabhupāda: Yes, but because He is absolute, either He is evil or good, He is God. That is absolute. You cannot say, "God is evil (indistinct) and now, therefore He is evil." No, He is good.
Śyāmasundara: Someone might raise the point, "Well, the man is hungry and he has no food, therefore in order to feel pleasure he must steal it and cause displeasure to someone else." But this Bentham says that there are four natural curves or preventions, preventative forces to keep people from egoistic over-indulgence. One is the physical consequences of over-indulgence. If I eat too much, I get sick. One is political, that I will be imprisoned if I transgress. I will be punished. One is moral, or popular opinion, the public will think badly of me if I over-indulge. And the fourth one is religious, that God will punish me if I am an evil-doer. These four preventions he says, keep us from over-indulging in pleasure.
Prabhupāda: But if there is some happiness, why there is no prevention. That is real happiness. There is no prevention, simply go on increasing.
Prabhupāda: God is good in all conditions, or God is good when Stuart Mill accepts? What is the position of God?
Śyāmasundara: He says that the presence of evil indicates that if God were everything, that He would be not so good.
Prabhupāda: Why? Therefore God has to depend on the free will or on the opinion of Mr. Mill? Is that? He says that God is not so good. God is good, but not so good because he does not approve all of His activities.
Śyāmasundara: He says that because there is evil present in the world, that this shows...
Prabhupāda: But he does not know what is evil, what is good. He should know what is created by God is good, even if it appears to be evil to us. That is conception of God. I may think it is evil, but it is good. I do not know how it is good—that is my fault. That is my fault. But it is good. If I put God under my discrimination, under my judgment, that He is not good. He is not God; He is dog. God cannot be under my judgment. God is good always.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore in the human society there is educational system. Man has to be made a right rational animal. Although he is animal, he has to be educated in nice way. That depends on education, system of education, but in that connection studying the whole world's education system, the Vedic education is perfect. Therefore every man should be educated as they are instructed in the Vedic literature and a summary of Vedic literature is Bhagavad-gītā. So every man should read it as it is without any unnecessary interpretation. That will make the man perfect educated.
Hayagrīva: Mill envisions God at war with evil, and man's role is in aiding or helping God in this war. He writes, "If providence, or God, is omnipotent, providence intends whatever happens and the fact of its happening proves that providence intended it. If so, everything which a human being can do, is predestined by providence, and is a fulfillment of its designs. But if, as is the more religious theory, providence intends not all which happens, but only what is good, then indeed man has it in his power by his voluntary actions to aid the intentions of providence."
Hayagrīva: This is the continuation of Mill. He writes, "Limited as, on this showing, the Divine power must be, by inscrutable and insurmountable obstacles due to the existence of evil." Mill concludes that the existence of evil in the universe, or what he considers to be evil, pain and death, excludes the existence of an omnipotent God. He sees man in a position to aid the intentions of providence by surmounting his evil instincts. So God is not all-powerful, infinite in His power. If He were, there would be no evil, according to Mill.
Prabhupāda: No. God, evil is created by God undoubtedly, but the, it was necessary on account of the human being as, misuse of his free will. God gives him good direction but when he is disobedient, then naturally the evil power is there to punish him. Therefore the evil is not created by God but still it is created. It is necessary. Just like the government constructs the prison house. So this prison house creation is not the government's intention. Government wants that university is sufficient, people may be educated and highly enlightened, but because some, not all, misuses the independence, little independence, he creates evil circumstances, and he is compulsorily put into the prison house. Similarly, we suffer on account of our own evil activities but God, being Supreme, He punishes us for our evil activities. For God there isn't... When we are under the protection of God, there is nothing evil, only good thing. There is no evil. So God does not create evil but man's evil activities obliges God to create an evil situation.
Hayagrīva: To create what?
Prabhupāda: Evil situation.
Prabhupāda: God has nothing to struggle. He is so powerful that He has nothing to do. That is the Vedic injunction. Na tasya kāryaṁ kāraṇaṁ ca vidyate. The Vedic description of God is like this, He has nothing to do. That is right because just like a big man, a big leader, a king, personally he has nothing to do. He has got so many servants, secretaries, ministers, soldiers, so why he has got to do anything? So he has nothing to do. That is described in the Veda, na tasya kāryaṁ kāraṇaṁ ca vidyate. There is nothing to do actually. Therefore we see Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa picture, the Supreme Lord He is playing on his flute and enjoying. That is ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12), that is Vedic description, that God is always enjoying, ānandamaya. He has nothing to do. So, because na tasya kāryaṁ kāraṇaṁ ca vidyate, he has nothing to do because, na tat ca samaḥ abhyadikaś ca dṛśyate, because nobody is greater than Him, nobody is equal to Him. Then how things are happening? Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). He has got multi-energies. The energies are acting and they are acting so nicely, svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca, and the, naturally it is happening, so systematic, so nice. Just like by God's order the sun has to rise early in the morning, exactly in the time. You watch your watch and you will find exactly in time there is sunrise and there is light, there is seasonal changes, everything in order. That is Godly arrangement. So He hasn't got to struggle, He hasn't got to fight but there is fight by His different agents to kill the evil element of the world.
Śyāmasundara: But practically, the practical aspect of religion, that it imparts new zest to life, that it produces psychological and material effects, like that. But he didn't believe that God was unlimited. That was his... He believed that God was somehow limited; because there is evil, because evil exists, that God is somehow limited.
Prabhupāda: He does not know that evil does not exist independently. He does not know. In our śāstras it says that evil is the back side of God. But it is not independent of God. But either back side or front side, it is God; therefore it is absolute. I cannot neglect my back side. I cannot say that "You can beat me on my back side. Go on, kick me." That I cannot say. The back side is as important as the front side. But comparatively it is explained that evil is back side, pāpa, sin. That is back side of God.
Hayagrīva: Concerning evil, James writes, "Evil is a disease, and worry over disease is itself an additional form of disease which only adds to the original complaint. Even repentance and remorse, affections which come in the character of ministers of good, may be but sickly and relaxing impulses. The best repentance is to up and act for righteousness and forget that you ever had relations with sin."
Prabhupāda: Yes. The final morality is... What in this portion?
Hayagrīva: He feels that evil is a disease first...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hayagrīva: ...but worry about evil is just an orig...
Prabhupāda: Another.
Prabhupāda: That situation... (indistinct) That situation means Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In practical life also we see that the soldier's killing, it is supported by the government. The same soldier killing for his personal satisfaction, he is condemned to death.
Śyāmasundara: He says that the greatest good is the elimination of the greatest evil or the fulfillment of man's greatest needs.
Prabhupāda: That's it. We follow that, that the highest objective, the ultimate objective is Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu. So becoming a Vaiṣṇava, the highest perfection of human life is achieved.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Then he'll be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, perfect consciousness. But they are thinking that "I am Kṛṣṇa. I am God." That is not Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Śyāmasundara: He says that the choice between good and bad is not made on theoretical grounds, but for reducing specific evils. In other words...
Prabhupāda: It is not theoretical that if you accept the universal form of God, then everything within the universe is part and parcel of that form. That is practical.
Śyāmasundara: So the choice between a good and a bad action should be practiced to reduce evil, not just theoretical. That's his idea. That's his point.
Prabhupāda: Yes. No theory. This is practical. Now, as a big machine, the screw is a part, so if every part works nicely, the machine goes nicely. So if we understand... Just like I think last night I was explaining mukha baho rūpa divya: the gigantic body, the brāhmaṇa class, they are the mouth. So one must do the duty of the mouth. The mouth speaks, vibrates and eats. So our proposition is to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and eat Kṛṣṇa prasādam. Then the mouth duty, the brāhmaṇa's duty, is performed. Similarly, the kṣatriya's duty—again we come to that varṇāśrama-dharma. So everyone is factually part and parcel of God and executes his prescribed duty, then it is perfect.
Prabhupāda: And this place wherein there is step by step danger, this is not God's place. That Kṛṣṇa also says. As soon as he understands Kṛṣṇa, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). He immediately becomes eligible to transfer to the spiritual world.
Śyāmasundara: So actually, we're removing people from danger, from evil, by making them Kṛṣṇa conscious.
Prabhupāda: Certainly.
Prabhupāda: So why was he fond of dog? Pessimism? He found some value in dog?
Śyāmasundara: He says that reality is blind and irrational and capricious, or whimsical, and that actually life is an evil situation.
Prabhupāda: So how he is to establish his philosophy if everything is whimsical, irrational? How he will convince others if he is irrational and irresponsible? How he will make progress in his philosophical proposition?
Prabhupāda: Mm.
Śyāmasundara: Yesterday we were discussing that Schopenhauer's idea that the world is basically an evil place. So he says that there are three means of salvation from this basically evil world. The first means he calls aesthetic salvation, or contemplation of higher ideas which transport us above passion, just like poetry, music, art. By contemplating these higher ideas, you become absent of desire. Desire drops away, and you become transported to a higher plane of not willing, above our will.
Prabhupāda: That is mentioned in Bhagavad-gītā. It is not a new thing. It is called paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59), and actually it is happening. Just like my students, so their former life and this life. They have given up their former abominable life because they have got better life, better thoughts, better philosophy, better eating, everything better. So mind can accommodate something. If you always fill up the mind with Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so there is no chance of the mind being filled up with any other nonsense. That is our philosophy.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Aesthetic with a—I mean to say—solid program. Because Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is all goodness. You find whatever the so-called philosophers will describe, we have got already there. Already there. If you say aesthetic salvation, this is aesthetic salvation. Śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira-mārjanādau **. To worship the Deity. And you cannot derive benefit unless the aesthetic sense is applied to the higher authority, with reverence and respect. That is wanted.
Śyāmasundara: So he sees the second type of salvation from this basically evil existence...
Prabhupāda: That salvation he prescribes in the beginning, that is temporary salvation.
Śyāmasundara: Yes. So this type of salvation called ethical salvation is permanent.
Śyāmasundara: He says that the working of the world is ethically evil. For instance, he observes that...
Prabhupāda: To some extent that is all right, because when you are in prison life, you will find evil. But that evil is good for you, so that you can learn some lesson, and when you are out of the prison you will not come again. That is the blessings of evil.
Śyāmasundara: The blessings of evil.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is explained by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, janme jana rage jana (Bengali). That a man is destined to be punished, he is put within the water. When he is almost on the point of suffocation, he is taken out. He feels how happy. He does not, "Oh, again I am down. Again I will be down." If I have happiness here, it is temporary relief. But if he is intelligent enough, then he will not do something which may put him into that unhappiness condition.
Śyāmasundara: He says that suicide is no escape from evil because the will is indestructible and eternal.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is a fact. He is putting himself in more. By suicide he becomes a ghost. That is more troublesome. Yes. Because the body given by God, he is killing. So from this body he has to accept another body. So unless that point comes, he has to remain a ghost. No body. Suppose I have to live in this body eighty years. I'll make suicide. So up to five years I have to remain a ghost, no body. Then it may be chance to get another body. This is wrong. Killing of any body, because na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So one can put this argument, that the soul is everlasting, so what if the body is killed? But that's all right, body is killed, but you cannot kill the body to hamper its progress.
Śyāmasundara: So he says because men are a combination of spiritual personality and material individuality, he says because of the spiritual personality we can know God, and because of the material individuality evil arises, because of the material body.
Prabhupāda: No. If we have no perfect knowledge of the individuality... Individuality does not mean always evil and good. Just like in Vṛndāvana, the gopīs, they have got individuality, but that individuality is for Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they are all one. The objective is one.
Śyāmasundara: He means more in the sense that because of this material body, this material position, that is where evil arises, by identifying with this material condition only. Their real nature is spiritual. Personality is spiritual.
Prabhupāda: Yes. It is contaminated. The varieties are there in the spiritual world. The same varieties when they are presented here with material contamination, it is called perverted. Just like the example in the Fifteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, ūrdhva-mūlam adhaḥ-śākham (BG 15.1), reflection on the bank of a river, reservoir of water, the tree is reflected, varieties are there. The trees or trunks, branches, twigs, flowers, everything is reflected, but they are all false. Real variety is there, on the bank of the river. Because it is reflection, it appears that everything is there in the perverted way, and then they are all false.
Prabhupāda: (indistinct) Tibetan Buddhism.
Nara-nārāyaṇa: Mystical understanding of good and evil forces, embodied good and evil forces, demonic forces, demonic persons. So that at the time of death the person is supposed to be floating for some time, and he can fall into the (indistinct) of demonic or be helped by good forces to achieve some liberation or higher birth.
Prabhupāda: I think in one sense they are accepting sattva-guṇa and tamo-guṇa.
Hayagrīva: In the atheistic Communism he says, "The goals of religion, deliverance from evil, reconciliation with God, rewards in the hereafter, and so on, turns into worldly promises about freedom from care for one's daily bread, the just distribution of material goods, universal prosperity in the future, and shorter working hours." In other words, material, worldly promises are given.
Prabhupāda: In the Communism?
Hayagrīva: In, in atheistic Com..., in Communism.
Prabhupāda: Yes. But they have no idea of spiritual life, neither they can understand that there is spirit with the soul, within the body. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). That they cannot understand.
Śyāmasundara: Much before him, about 150 years ago. He takes as the absolute first principle the self-consciousness or the evil(?), "I am", the awareness that I exist as an absolute a priori first principle.
Prabhupāda: That is Vedānta. We are studying what I am. That is Vedānta philosophy, to study what I am. And the answer is given by us, Vaiṣṇava philosophers, that you are eternal servant of God. This is Vedānta. Everyone is searching what I am, we are giving the answer: "You are eternal servant of God." Now let them refute this that he's not servant, he's absolute(?). Our answer is there. Athāto brahma jijñāsā, to inquire about Brahman, the spirit soul. What is this spirit soul, what I am. What is the supreme. So, Caitanya Mahāprabhu's answer is already there, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa (Cc. Madhya 20.108-109). The real identity of the living entity is that he's eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa.
the Vedic injunction then it is standard and confirmed.
Hayagrīva: Now duty, we get back to the same thing. He writes, "True atheism consists in refusing to obey the voice of one's conscience until one thinks one can foresee the success of one's actions, and thus elevating one's own judgment above that of God and in making oneself into God. He who wills to do evil in order to produce good is a godless person."
Prabhupāda: Now if you do not know what is God, then how you will verify your duty is nice, all-good? What is the order of God, who is God, then where is your duty? You simply manufacture your duty. So everyone can do that. So what do you mean by duty? Duty means the order given by some superior and you follow, you do it. That is duty. But if you have no superior order, if you have no conception who is the superior, what is his order, then where is your duty? Simply by mental imagination.
Prabhupāda: Godly, yes.
Hayagrīva: Insofar as man resembles God, he is ethical. Evil forces within man combat his efforts to attain this ultimate goal. Plato is not a determinist. He emphasized freedom of the will and insisted thatevil acts are due to man's failure to live up to his responsibility. They do not come from God, who is all-good.
Prabhupāda: Everything comes from God, but we have to make our choice. This ideal example: that the university comes from the government and the prison house also comes from the government, but the prison house is meant for the criminal and the university is meant for the highly learned scholar. The government spends money in both the departments to maintain it; therefore, so far government's recognition is concerned, it has to be maintained. But it is we, we make our selection whether go to the prison house or go to the university. That is, that little independence is there in every human being. We have to make our choice.
Hayagrīva: Concerning evil, Plotinus feels that matter is evil in the sense that it imprisons the soul, but the visible cosmos...
Prabhupāda: This is our conception. This Plotinus is all, all our, practically ninety percent our conception. This is the...
Hayagrīva: But the visible cosmos is beautiful, and the evil does not arise from the creator.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That the individual soul, being attracted by this illusory energy, he comes here for sense gratification. It is not by the desire of the Supreme One. By his personal desire. So God gives him freedom. So he begins the life from a very exalted position in this material world—sometimes like Brahma. But on account of material activities he becomes entangled, so much so that degradation from the exalted position like Lord Brahma, he comes to become a worm in the stool. Therefore we find so many species of life. The degradation and elevation is going on—sometimes elevated, sometimes degraded—and in this way they will..., individual soul is suffering. That is his suffering, material miserable condition. When he comes to understand that "This kind of degradation and elevation going on perpetually, this is my suffering," then at that time he becomes fortunate. Then he seeks after the Supreme One, Kṛṣṇa, and by the grace of Kṛṣṇa he gets bona fide spiritual master. So by the mercy of both the spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa, he gets the chance of being engaged in devotional service, and little effort and sincerity makes him perfect, and he goes back to home back to Godhead.
Hayagrīva: Plotinus accounts for the fall of the soul in this way. He says, "How is it that souls forget the divinity that begot them? This evil that has befallen them has its source in self-will, in being born, in becoming different and desiring to be independent."
Prabhupāda: Yes, that I have already explained, that...
Hayagrīva: "Once having tasted the pleasures of independence, they use their freedom to go any direction that leads away from their origin, and when they have gone a great distance, they even forget that they came from it."
Prabhupāda: That's a fact. More and more degraded. That I have already explained. He begins his life as Lord Brahmā and goes down as the worm in the stool. That is his degradation. And again, by nature's way, by evolution, he comes to the human form of life. That is a chance to understand that how he has fallen. And if he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then from this life he goes again back to Kṛṣṇa.
Hayagrīva: Continuation of Spinoza. Spinoza considered good and evil to relate only to man. They have no basis in God, who is beyond good and evil.
Prabhupāda: Right. But as everything is God, as Spinoza thinks that his... What is his position of bad? What is his conception?
Hayagrīva: That God is beyond good and...
Prabhupāda: God is beyond, but what is his position of evil? Evil is there, but he said that God has no evil. Then wherefrom the evil comes?
Hayagrīva: Seems inconsistent.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hayagrīva: He writes...
Prabhupāda: We, we say that God... Good and evil, they are also emanation from God. Evil is the back side and good is the front side.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hayagrīva: He says..., but he says, "This attempt to escape from evil has ended in flight from the battlefield." He doesn't advocate this for an Englishman. In a typically British manner he quotes Alfred Lord Tennyson. He says, "We are grown men and must play the man strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield."
Prabhupāda: Rascal, at last you die. (laughter) You do not like to yield, but the nature kicks on your face and says you must die. That he does not like.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything emanates from Him, so there is nothing separate from God. God includes everything. That is the conception of God. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). Everything has emanated from Him.
Hayagrīva: This is the final point. He says, "Concerning the existence of the evil..."
Prabhupāda: This description is very nice.
Hayagrīva: He goes through a lot of, a lot of speculation to arrive at the final point. Concerning the existence of evil and suffering in the world, he writes, "God is not responsible for the miseries endured in working out his providence, but rather...
Prabhupāda: That I have already explained. The miserable condition is created by us, and we suffer.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Haṁsadūta: (laughs) They're angry. "How can the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa purify the mind? It only closes it to everything else. Purity of the mind lies in knowing all evil and yet abstaining from it. The escapist attitude of the devotees of the movement is reflected in the reply of Adhikārī when he bypasses the question of India's poverty by giving irrelevant answers. The poverty of our country is known to all of us. I am not an atheist, but I find it difficult to digest the sentimentalism in the article."
Prabhupāda: What is that sentimentalism?
Haṁsadūta: I didn't read the article. That was in the... Which paper? I think this was in a Bombay paper. What paper is this?
Guest (1): This is Times of India.
Prabhupāda: Bombay.
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: No, no. We don't say, "Avoid war." But unnecessary war is avoided. Just like Kṛṣṇa induced Arjuna to fight. It was necessary. It was necessary.
Guest: To get rid of extra evil.
Prabhupāda: It was necessary. So nothing is avoided, but everything is utilized for proper purpose. Nothing is rejected. Nirbandhe kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. This is fact, that Kṛṣṇa never advocated that "Let there be stop of war." No. When there is necessity, absolute necessity, there may be war but for their good purpose, not by the whims of the politicians, no.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Because Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful. If you pray to Kṛṣṇa to become rich, Kṛṣṇa will make you rich.
Bob: But even if you do not live, even if you live an evil life you will still become rich?
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Bob: If somebody lives an evil life but prays to become rich, they may still become rich?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Prays to Kṛṣṇa, that is not evil.
Bob: All right, I... Oh, yeah.
Prabhupāda: (chuckling) Somehow or other, he prays to Kṛṣṇa, so you cannot say that He's evil.
Bob: Yeah.
Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk (BG 9.30). You have read it?
Bob: Yeah. I think, the Sanskrit I don't know, but the English maybe I do. Is it "Even if the most evil man prays to Me..."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So as soon as he begins to pray to Kṛṣṇa, that is not evil. Therefore He is all-attractive.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: That is his ignorance. How it can be material? The stone is also Kṛṣṇa's energy. Just like electricity energy is there everywhere. The electrician knows how to utilize it, how to take electricity. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is everywhere, even in the stone. The devotees know how to utilize stone to appreciate Kṛṣṇa. The devotees know. The rascal, they do not know. Because the devotee has no other view than Kṛṣṇa. Why stone should be without Kṛṣṇa? Here is Kṛṣṇa. That is real oneness. And the Māyāvādī philosopher they say oneness, but divide. This is stone, this is not Kṛṣṇa. Why second? Why you bring another thing?
Devotee: Good and bad, evil and...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Buddhist Monk (1): That's right. You are... One has to... (Sanskrit or Pali:) Śambhuḥ pāpas cākāraṇa, kuśalasya upasampada sac citto parayodapanam etaṁ buddham anuśāsana. (?) Abstain from the unwholesome, the source of all our problems and suffering, lobha, doṣa, moha. Kuśalasya upasampada. Practice the virtues, that is when the mind is rooted in alobha, that is nongreed, liberality, including hospitality; adoṣa, nonhatred, evil, all-loving kindness; amoha opanya (?) wisdom. And why? When one is on the noble, eight-fold path-right understanding, right thinking, right speech, right bodily action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration—there is that oozing joy and delight. And that is the finest substitute. Men, because of avidyā, have not tasted delight. Because of his weakness, they thought mokṣa,... (knock on door)
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Karandhara: Another very prominent... He's a psychiatrist and a theologian. His name is Menninger. So about ten years ago he wrote a book that the conception of sin and evil was unnecessary, and one should give up considering that some things are sins. Now he just wrote a book saying that he was wrong, that since he has promoted this theory everyone is degrading, and that the theory of sin and evilshould be maintained to keep the people in good order.
Prabhupāda: So these rascals will change every year their theology. So what is the value of their words? Childish. (break) ...changes, he is a rascal. That is our... We say, "Kṛṣṇa the Supreme." We never change it. And "Surrender is the only process." We shall never change it. In any circumstance we will not change it. That is the difference. And these rascals will change every year their opinion. They are rascals. (break) ...They are rascals. (break) Kṛṣṇa said that "I am the Supreme." So Arjuna accepted, the Supreme.
Karandhara: Well, another very prominent psychiatrist and theologian, about ten years ago he wrote a very famous book wherein he said that people should give up the idea of evil and sin because it is just an inhibition on the mind. But now he just wrote another book saying that he was wrong, and since people have given up the idea of sin and evil, the whole world has degraded to such a bad state that now, even though there may not be a God, they should still believe in evil just to keep things in order.
Prabhupāda: Then if there is no God, then who will judge what is evil and what is right? If there is no God? People are abiding the law, "Keep to the right, keep to the left," because they know, "Behind this order, there is government." If he does not keep the arrangement, then he will be punished. So as soon as you accept the principles of bad and good, then you have to accept God. Now, this kind of theologician, some years ago his opinion was something, and now his opinion is different.
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes. This is descriptive.
Girirāja: (reading) "And similar other evil spirits will cause persons to forget..."
Prabhupāda: Evil spirit everyone believes, every country. In London there are so many ghosts. When I was in John Lennon's house, so they complained, "In this one house, every night a ghost comes." You see? So I advised them "Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. It will go away." Then it actually so happened.
Girirāja: "...for other evil spirits who cause persons to forget their own existence and give trouble to the life air and the senses. Sometimes they appear in dreams and cause much perturbation. Sometimes they appear as old women and suck the blood of small children. But all such ghosts and evil spirits cannot remain where there is chanting of the holy name of God."
Prabhupāda: That's it. (break) ...Viṣṇu. That is the injunction. Of Viṣṇu. In the Pañjikā, you will find in the Bengali Pañjikā, when there is some auspicious sign, they have recommended, "Chant the name of Viṣṇu." Have you seen in the Pañjikā? Yes.
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: He said, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever."
Prabhupāda: Very nice prayer. Very nice prayer.
Nitāi:
"Men who are like dogs, hogs, camels and asses praise those men who never listen to the transcendental pastimes of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the deliverer from evils."
Prabhupāda: Yes. These electors are animals, and they elect animals. Just like Nixon. A big animal, and he was elected by other animals. And now there is struggle. (makes barking sound:) "Gow! Gow! Gow! Gow! Gow!" (laughter.) That's all. Is it not?
Puṣṭa-kṛṣṇa: It's true.
Prabhupāda: Therefore misuse of intelligence will cause his suffering. Now suppose a tiger kills an animal, and a man kills thousands of animals in a day in the slaughterhouse. Is he not sinful? (German)
Pṛthu: She says that this is the evil in mankind.
Prabhupāda: Therefore the conclusion is that the so-called intelligent man is simply misusing his intelligence. So when he misuses his intelligence he is less than the cats and dogs. Yes. (German) And then, after death, how he'll be in peace? (German) (break)
Pṛthu: She says that every man will get this peace, also the bad men.
Prabhupāda: Bad men also will get peace? (German)
Pṛthu: Yes.
Prabhupāda: "Birds of the same feather." (laughter)
Bishop Kelly: Oh, yes. Your Grace, there is one thing I wish to ask you. Do you believe in some sort of universal but inherent deficiency in human nature, in other words, that man irrespective of his environment, irrespective of where he comes from, that he has, he is prone to evil? In the Catholic church we call that original sin. Original sin is an inherited deficiency in which man is turned away from God rather than turned towards God, and that he holds within himself a seed of failure in..., spiritually, and also a seed of unreliability so that the very makeup of man demands the enlightening touch and the helping hand of God so that he may overcome his inherent and abiding deficiency. So we hold that that is the nature of things, that man... It's not just a good thing or an advisable thing that man reaches out to and for God, but it is a necessary thing, that God not merely is there to improve upon what you might say would be a natural goodness of man, but man has a natural deficiency he needs God to overcome. And as he overcomes, of course, he progresses further and he is enriched by God. But we hold that very clearly.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Mother: I believe that there's God in everybody, but why are some people so evil?
Prabhupāda: Because he does not care for the words of God.
Mother: But as I say, God is within all of us.
Prabhupāda: Yes. God is there. God says that "You don't do like that." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām... (BG 18.66). "You just surrender to Me." But he will not do that.
Mother: And yet people can be so evil.
Prabhupāda: Therefore God gives him chance, "All right, you enjoy as you like, and make your life risky. What can I do?"
Mother: But people know when they're doing evil, don't they?
Prabhupāda: Just like you have got children. You say, according to your knowledge, every children, "My dear children, you do." But it is not necessarily that they will abide by your order. Similarly, God gives the instruction that "You give up all this. You simply surrender to Me. I shall take charge you." But he does not do that. He wants to live independently. Therefore he is suffering.
Mother: But there's so much evil in the world.
Prabhupāda: Avil?
Gaṇeśa: Evil.
Mother: Evil.
Prabhupāda: Yes, this is evil. You don't try to carry out the orders of God, this is evil.
Mother: But what I'm trying to say is there's more evil in the world than goodness.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Unless there is evil, why you are in this material world? You have accepted evil. Therefore you are in this material world. And if you accept God, the good, then you are in the spiritual world. You don't accept God; you want evil. Therefore you are in the material world. Just like in the jail, prison house, who are they? They are all criminals. Similarly, every one of us who are within this material world, they are all criminals because they have disobeyed the order of God. In different status only, but they are all criminals. Because every one of them is subjected to the rules of nature: birth, death, old age, and disease. So your child is very intelligent. He has taken to this. Now you can do also the same thing, both mother and daughter.
Mother: But I mean a person knows when they're doing wrong. They know when they're doing evil.
Prabhupāda: No, they cannot understand. They are sometimes doing wrong thing as right thing. So many wrong things they are doing. One has to suffer. Nature will not excuse. (Pause)
Gaṇeśa: You have some more questions to ask Śrīla Prabhupāda? I think they have finished, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: Give them prasādam.
IN SIMPLE WORDS:
GOVERNMENT NEVER INTENDS TO MAKE PRISONS. BUT THERE ARE CRIMINALS WHO BREAK THE LAW. SIMILARLY, WE SOULS HAVE MISUSED OUR FREE WILL AND SO LORD HAS SENT US TO THIS WORLD. AFTER MANY LIVES WHEN ONE UNDERSTANDS THAT HAPPINESS IS POSSIBLE ONLY BY DEVOTION TO SUPREME LORD, HE/SHE SURRENDERS. IT HAPPENS TO A SOUL WHO HAS ATTAINED MERCY OF GURU AND KRSNA. WE ARE IN PRISON BUT WE HAVE FORGOTTEN IT. THEREFORE, THERE ARE GURU, SADHU AND SASTRA TO REMIND US OF SPIRITUAL WORLD- OUR HOME.
Devotee:
"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."
Prabhupāda: Now the material nature has gone, three modes goodness, passion and ignorance, and mixture. So we are association with the modes of material nature and according to that nature we are manufacturing our next body. This is the... So in the material world we are infecting several types of quality of the nature. Not everyone is on the same quality. Just like these boys, they are being trained up under certain quality, they're not going to the restaurant, they are not going to the liquor shop, they're not smoking, they're not eating meat, they are no illicit sex, they are being trained up, this is a quality. And another man is going to the liquor shop, to the brothel, so many other things. They're not of the same quality.
Nitāi:
"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."
Prabhupāda: Purport.
Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, modern philosophy is teaching that the forces of greed and lust and these things are greater than man, that actually... This concept that we are eternal, full of knowledge and bliss, they cannot accept that or understand that. They're thinking that the powers of evil are much greater, and we're just controlled by these things.
Prabhupāda: Therefore they are fools. When a man's lusty desire is very strong, he commits, what is called, rape, and he becomes complicated in criminal activities. Kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ. Why one is forced to do that? The cause is lusty desires, anger, greediness. So we are thinking we are master of this material world, but actually you are servant of these desires, kāma, krodha, lobha, mohaḥ. And that is māyā. He is acting as servant, but he's thinking, "I am master." That is māyā, which is not the fact. Just like yesterday we were discussing that the women, they are acting as instrument of men, and they are thinking, "We have equal rights." A man is utilizing her for his own purpose, and she is thinking "I am equal."
Prabhupāda: This is knowledge. Etaj jñānam. The items prescribed by Kṛṣṇa, that is knowledge. And everything is no knowledge. Translation, you read.
Satsvarūpa: "Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people, accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge,..."
Prabhupāda: This is knowledge, path of knowledge.
Prabhupāda: That is wanted.
Indian man (1): Our Prabhupāda is kind enough to make so many swans like us to remove away all the evils of the world.
Prabhupāda: (aside) Jaya. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes people ask that "If God is so great, then why doesn't He just come and destroy all the evil?"
Prabhupāda: Because you have to suffer. You are rascal. You must suffer. Therefore evil must be there.
Brahmānanda: Why doesn't He force us to be good?
Prabhupāda: Just like if the criminals and thieves say, "Why government has created this prisonhouse?" Is it very good argument? It is for you, rascal. You are criminal. You must suffer. Why it is to be abolished? Otherwise who will suffer? It is for your suffering.
Brahmānanda: Why are we evil? Why doesn't God makes us good?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Brahmānanda: Why are we evil?
Prabhupāda: No, God says that "You become devotee of Me." You do not become. That is your fault. Therefore you must... Just like government does not say that you become criminal. Government says, "You become educated. You become high-court judge, become big officer." Why you become criminal, pickpocket? Does government give any education for becoming pickpocket? Hm? Is there any institution how to steal, how to become pickpocket? (laughter) Then why do you become? Just see. (break) ...eatables you can collect, and I shall show you how to cook in the cooker. One boy. You also see, because nobody will go there.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Acyutānanda: ...when they do something for their sense gratification, but to sacrifice—"Oh, Kṛṣṇa has to tell me. Kṛṣṇa wills it." Then they don't... They say, "Why did Kṛṣṇa create evil?" Then there is a very peculiar question that comes sometimes: "If Kṛṣṇa knows that we were going to fall down, why didn't He save us?" or something like that.
Prabhupāda: He's saving you.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Rāmeśvara: And then the materialist says, "If Kṛṣṇa is all good, then how is there any evil?"
Prabhupāda: Evil is you.
Rāmeśvara: But everything comes from Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything comes from.... Yes. If.... You have created a situation. So for your satisfaction, Kṛṣṇa has given you the chance, but that is evil, what you have created.
Prabhupāda: Now first of all, let us accept that the basic principle is the soul. Now whether he is innocent or evil, that we shall consider later on. First of all, the basic power is the spirit soul. First of all we have to understand that the spirit soul is there always, although we are changing bodies. This first principle has to be.... But they do not understand. This education is lacking.
Jayādvaita: It's in the list of items of knowledge, "The perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease."
Prabhupāda: Yes. And the cure, medicine, is also given: tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9). If you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then.... Everyone has to give up this body, but a person who is in thorough knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, then he, after giving up this body, he does not accept any more material body. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma (BG 4.9). Find out his verse.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:
"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."
Prabhupāda: Purport.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Purport. "This verse is very important for an understanding of how the living entities transmigrate from one body to another. It is explained in the Second Chapter that..."
Prabhupāda: This is transmigration. As soon as the situation... He is to accept a dog's body. Now a dog is having sex, and the mixture of the two secretions creates a favorable situation, and the living entity is there, and he gets a dog's body. This is the truth. He is destined to get a dog's body. So he's taking the opportunity that "Here is a suitable... " Nature is bringing him. If here it is refused, then he'll go to another place. Therefore contraceptive method is sinful, going against the law of... The situation is created for getting the body by another living entity, but he is transgressing. Then he'll be punished. So many subtle things are there.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:
"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."
Prabhupāda: We are practically seeing it, that material nature... Some infection, this is also material nature, and if you are infected with some contaminous disease, you must suffer. They practically see it. The nature will work. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ. As soon as we are in this material world... I am living entity, spirit soul, and because I am in this material world, I have accepted this material body under the regulation of the material laws.
Svarūpa Dāmodara:
"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species." How does the contaminated ego or contaminated consciousness differ from false ego?
Prabhupāda: Hmm? That is contaminated ego, false ego.
Prabhupāda: Ah, yes.
Interviewer: Right? I mean that this life is an evil prison.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, now you have understood. This is not a desirable life, to live in the jail, conditioned.
Prabhupāda: That is the editor's.
Pradyumna: Yes, this is the editor's. "In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa intervenes to save humanity from evil forces. The Purāṇas personify earth, the mother, as groaning under a similar burden to supplicate God for relief." Then heading, "Solution and cure to world's ills. To Baba's devotees, the avatāra has similarly come to provide both the solution and the cure to a world living in terror of a nuclear holocaust. The false dichotomies created by Western thought between God and man, puruṣa and deva, simply do not exist in the Indian scriptures, which prescribe..."
Prabhupāda: What is that?
Pradyumna: "The dichotomies."
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Original hara. Just like lata. The lata, when you address lata, it is late. Similarly, when you address hara, the sambodhana is hare. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Guest (2): Sambodhana is to remove the evil, remove the bad part isn't it?
Prabhupāda: No, no. Where is bad? There is no bad.
Rāmeśvara: One girl. And they're vicious, very hateful. Because they are constantly being told that we are evil.
Prabhupāda: Nitāi has gone there to do it? (chuckles) No.
Rāmeśvara: No. I think... Last I heard he was still in Vṛndāvana area.
Prabhupāda: If he is in Vṛndāvana, that is good for him.
Rāmeśvara: He is crazy.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Then you are thief. Then thief can also say like that, "For my good I can steal."
Rāmeśvara: "It is the lesser of evils."
Prabhupāda: That's all right. But God does not allow.
Rāmeśvara: Yes, actually there is... I was just told. There is one movie now which is breaking all the records for attendance. It is called "The Omen," and it is about a prophecy in the Bible called the Antichrist. This idea is that the Devil comes from hell to the planet earth, and he impregnates one woman, and then his son is born. So the son is called Antichrist, son of the Devil. And he is very powerful with mystic power, very evil, and he takes over the whole world. So there's a movie now about this, and it's breaking all the sales records. And in the movie they have all sorts of ghastly things happening. This is what people like to see. They like to be scared. Horror movies are also very popular. People go to the movie, and they come out, and they have nightmares for a week. It is so frightening with special effects, and that is... They are paying money to be frightened.
Prabhupāda: While sometimes the movies that are demonstrated in the plane, I close my eyes. I do not like to see them because that impression carries. It is a very disturbing fact to me.
Ādi-keśava: Sometimes in their propaganda these deprogrammers they complain about our sannyāsīs the most. They say, "Because they are saying everything in the material world is evil, so therefore they are the worst."
Prabhupāda: Yes, it is worst. Because I am spirit soul, I am now imprisoned with this material body. It is my unnatural state, and I am eternal, and because I have accepted this material body I have to undergo birth, death, old age and disease. So that is my effort, how to get out of this material body and remain in my original spiritual identity. That is our whole propaganda. We think material atmosphere is our imprisonment, suffering. Material body means suffering. Otherwise I am eternal, blissful, full with knowledge. That is my position.
Dr. Sharma: Yes, I did. The commentations of Professor Trieste(?) is very interesting. But I liked one particular aspect of it. But the West has been almost ridiculing the evils of praising (indistinct) animal cult(?). For example it is ordinary or else it is extraordinary. There is a lot of difference in the (indistinct).
Prabhupāda: They do not know the value of the animals.
Śatadhanya:
"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species."
Prabhupāda: Is it clear?
Correspondence
1947 to 1965 Correspondence
If systematic and principled direction is given to this daily prayer meetings following the footprints of Mahatmaji, then we can help all concerned in subduing their evil propensities which are the causes of disruption in the human society at large. When spiritual instincts, which are inherent qualities in every living being, are kindled by such daily prayer meetings, it is then only the people in general develop the qualities of the gods and the Trust Board of Mahatma Gandhi Fund should not miss this lesson of Mahatmaji's practical life. Such qualities being developed people in general will give up the habit of imitating others but they will live and act freely boldly and rightly like Mahatma Gandhi and that will bring real freedom of life individually or collectively.
1972 Correspondence
You have completed your examinations well, so Krishna has blessed you with good intelligence, now employ that gift by Krishna by serving Him only, then your life will be complete and you will be always really happy. If you are always remembering Him by your activities and seeing Krishna everywhere, even in the heart of the demonic persons, then anger will never overcome you, being purified of all false pride. But occasionally if there is good reason, you may have to become angry just to chastise the evil-doers and blasphemers. We have seen that Lord Caitanya once nearly killed Jagai and Madhai for their offenses to His devotee, so, like that, if there is offensive behavior to the pure devotees you may become like Nrsimhadeva and punish them severely.