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Amogha had done well in arranging the evening guest. Justin Murphy -- a well-groomed man in his early thirties, wearing a business suit and tie -- appeared bright and alert. Justin was a geographer, and worked as a Scientific Services Officer for the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation).

Justin began the conversation by describing to Prabhupada some of the goals of his organisation: to protect and preserve Australia's diverse flora and fauna; to improve agricultural production and forestry, and to make life and opportunities better for the people in general. He frankly admitted, though, how modern man had created many, many problems -- some practically irreversible.

"We have become, to an extent, slaves to twentieth century civilisation. Our predecessors, the Aborigines, were in fact much better at maintaining and conserving the Central Australian landscapes than any Australians since European colonisation. They lived in almost perfect harmony with their environment for thousands of years. In a little over one hundred years, European man has done irreparable damage to not only the vegetation but also the soils of arid Australia.

"It's damage that will probably never ever be repaired because the environment is so delicate in Central Australia that as soon as our cloven-footed animals, our sheep and our cattle, for example, are brought into the arid areas, they eat, they trample, they remove vegetation. This loosens the soil; the soil is very thin. It's very infertile, and it blows away. And virtually all you have left is rock, and nothing grows, of course, on rock.

"In Perth, since European settlement, we've removed forests, cut down trees, tilled the soil, and we've changed the natural order of things. Rabbits, introduced by Europeans have been an ecological disaster. And of course, although Australia is very rich in many natural resources, it's quite poor in water. Even though water is so basic for life, in Perth we've done an excellent job in ruining it! The water is becoming more and more salty. So our organisation is trying to do research and strike a balance between benefiting the people and the environment."

Justin's intelligent demeanour prompted Srila Prabhupada to present the Vedic solution to ecological problems. Prabhupada selected a verse from Bhagavad-gita and directed Amogha to read it aloud.

"All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by the performance of yajna, sacrifice, and yajna is born of prescribed duties."

Amogha also read Prabhupada's purport to the verse, which shed light on the problems that Justin had noted. "Food grains or vegetables are factually eatables. The human being eats different kinds of food grains, vegetables, fruits, etc., and the animals eat the refuse of the food grains and vegetables, grass, plants, and so on. Human beings who are accustomed to eating meat and flesh must also depend on the production of vegetation in order to eat the animals. Therefore, ultimately, we have to depend on the production of the field and not on the production of big factories.

"The field production is due to sufficient rain from the sky, and such rains are controlled by demigods like Indra, the Sun, the Moon, and they are all servants of the Lord. The Lord can be satisfied by sacrifices; therefore, one who cannot perform them will find himself in scarcity -- that is the law of nature. Yajna, specifically the sankirtana-yajna prescribed for this age, must be therefore performed to save us at least from a scarcity of food."

Justin was listening carefully. "Must we all perform yajna?" he asked.

"Yes," Prabhupada replied. "But it is not a very difficult job. We can sit together family-wise, community-wise, or in the office, in the factory, we can sit down together and glorify the Lord. Is this a very difficult job?"

Justin: You make it sound very, very simple of course.

Prabhupada: Yes, then why don't you accept it?

Justin: Well, I for one might. But

Prabhupada: No, no, I am not talking about you.

Justin: No, no, sure, certainly, but imagine the man, as we have to consider, the men, the thousands of them on their tractors, at their bulldozers, hacking down natural forest -- there are so many people in Australia who would not have time. They are too busy making money.

Prabhupada: But what you will do with money? If there is no grain, then will you eat money?

Justin laughed. "Certainly not."

"So," Prabhupada continued, "the general plan is that you must have sufficient water. And that water must fall down from the cloud, not by your system you pump out water from the sea and utilise."

Justin agreed. "No, sure, we can't do that. We can't do that."

"Yes. Therefore you must have pure water. And that water is manufactured or supplied through God's machine, not your machine."

"Certainly not," said Justin. "And I wouldn't presume to suggest in any way that that was the case."

Cont'd


- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu