His Divine Grace is Here to Hound Us
A favourable news article appeared in The Age, reporting on the previous day's arrival press conference. Its headline read "His Divine Grace is Here to Hound Us", and displayed a large, smiling picture of Srila Prabhupada. It was an accurate report on the airport interview, particularly on his comments about what he called "the dog's mentality".
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement is here to save us from a dog's life, for unless we cultivate some spiritual knowledge, warns H.D.G., we are left with the "dog's mentality". By this, he means a life in which people are conscious only of the needs of their bodies -- eating, sleeping, sex.
"The defect of modern civilisation," he said at Tullamarine yesterday, "is that everyone thinks of his body, which is only a lump of matter. The person is the living pulse within the body. But we are giving more value to the lump of matter without any knowledge of the living pulse."
His Divine Grace said, the "dog mentality" was a barrier to knowing God -- and a barrier to peace.
"As a dog is thinking 'I am a dog', you are thinking that 'I'm an American' or 'I'm an Australian' or 'I'm an Indian' -- that is gross ignorance. The dog is barking at things in the street and you are barking at things in the United Nations.' His Divine Grace flew into Melbourne from Bombay yesterday to give a week of lectures at the Hare Krishna headquarters in South Melbourne. Judging by the spiritual fervour of his airport welcome by about seventy-five devotees, the guru's message had got through.
Prabhupada was happy with the article, especially the accurate rendition of his "no-holds-barred" statements about the United Nations. He asked Pusta Krsna to make photocopies.
- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu
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