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The modern world was suffering, Prabhupada explained, from the misconception of thinking the body to be the self. The body, however, was not the self, and thus could not provide the happiness that one hankered after. His logic was bold. "Suppose you are twenty years old. That means you have already lost twenty years of your total duration of life. So twenty years you have already lost, or you have already died up to the amount of twenty years. I am seventy-six years. That means I have also died up to the amount of seventy-six years. So the age is increasing, that is a false idea. The age is decreasing. Somebody says that: 'You are seventy-six years old. Oh, you have so much increased.' I'm not increased. Practically I have decreased the duration of life. The duration of life is limited. It is already destined. According to our past activities, we have got a body whose duration of life is already fixed up. The standard of happiness and distress, that is also fixed up. You cannot change it. Suppose one has got one hundred years to live. Nowadays, nobody lives for one hundred years. Utmost, eighty years or ninety years, very rarely. My grandmother lived for ninety-six years. My father lived for eighty-four years. I do not know how long I shall live, but still I am living. But the duration of life in this age is gradually decreasing.
"You are all students of the university. But there is no science how you can increase the duration of life or how you can stop death. That is not possible. Birth, death, old age and disease -- these are the four problems of our life."
Prabhupada reminded the students that in this or any other university or educational institution, there was no department to find out about the soul. To get this information, he suggested, one should turn to the Bhagavad-gita. "The Krsna consciousness movement is teaching the importance of the soul. What is the soul? What are the needs of the soul? Why is the soul entrapped within the material body? How can the soul be liberated? And after liberation, what is the function of the soul? These are the questions we are dealing with, and they are very nicely answered in the preliminary spiritual study, Bhagavad-gita. For higher study, graduate study, we have the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Our only request is that you do not neglect the subject matter, this science. Try to understand the soul."
Prabhupada gave more daring reasoning. "At the present moment, no science professor can explain that thing which is present in the living body, but missing from a dead body. Actually, according to the Vedic literature, the body is always dead, but as long as the soul is in the body, the body appears to be living. As long as you are wearing your coat, it appears to be alive -- it moves. The coat has no life, but because your body moves, the coat also moves and sings along. Similarly, the body itself is moving because the soul within it is moving. As soon as the soul goes out of the body, the body does not move and we call it 'dead'. But, actually, the body is always dead."
The simplest method for understanding the soul, Srila Prabhupada concluded, was the one recommended in the Vedic literature -- to chant the Hare Krsna mantra. Then, our intelligence or consciousness would be cleansed and we would be able to understand that we are not the body, but a spirit soul. Then we become free from the blazing fire of material existence.
"This morning our Hanuman Prasada Goswami told me that more and more young people are committing suicide. Why? Why are young people feeling such frustration and confusion in spite of so much education? In your Western countries there is no question of poverty. You are all well-to-do. I have extensively travelled all over America and Europe, Australia, and have come to your country, New Zealand, and as far as material necessities are concerned, you are all well-to-do. So why this frustration, as our sannyasi reported to me?"
Prabhupada's voice became insistent as he appealed with great compassion. "But actually, there is no cause for frustration -- there is very good cause for jubilation. Why? Because of the Krsna consciousness movement. Don't be frustrated. Try to understand the Krsna consciousness movement, how it is scientific, how it is authorised, how it goes back to ancient Vedic times, how it is accepted by great acaryas, stalwart learned scholars, and how it is highly regarded by leading men all over the world.
"So our request is that you young people do not feel confused and frustrated. Those who are taking to Krsna consciousness are mostly young people. Ask them how hopeful they are now, how jubilant they are. So I ask all of you young boys and girls, the flowers of your country: Please don't feel frustrated and confused. There is nice hope in Krsna consciousness. My only request is that you try to understand this philosophy and science and become happy. That is my request. Thank you very much. Hare Krsna."
Prabhupada's lecture was shorter than usual. After another kirtana, he left the campus.
Richard Naismith: That was my first meeting with Srila Prabhupada, and the memory of it always remained with me. But it wasn't until later, many years after I had become Srila Prabhupada's disciple, and received the name Raghubhir dasa, that it dawned on me how significant that first so-called chance encounter was. I learnt that the thing which causes bhakti, devotional service, to take root in the heart is contact with a pure devotee.
It struck me deeply how out of his pure desire to give Krsna consciousness to others, Prabhupada had come such a long distance to such a remote part of the world, New Zealand. He had come to the university just to give Krsna consciousness to the students, and I happened to be one of them. What amazing good fortune! Although I could not follow his lecture, just on the basis of that first contact, I was eventually fortunate enough to take up Krsna consciousness.
- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu
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