Hare Krsna
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
This exchange between His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and some of his disciples took place on October 18, 1975, during a morning walk in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Disciple: Srila Prabhupada, people sometimes criticize by saying, "Your Vedic culture was most solidly established in India. And India is now considered relatively poor and unfortunate. So why should we respect the Vedic culture?"
Srila Prabhupada: The thing is, when you Westerners went to India you curbed down the original Vedic culture. The people in India could not take to your rascal Western culture, and thanks to you they have lost their own culture. This is India's bad luck. The British did not teach them how to actually take up the Western culture, but they killed the Eastern culture. You understand?
Disciple: Yes.
Srila Prabhupada: Now India has no position. She cannot take to the Western culture fully, and she has lost her own culture. This is India's bad luck. The British never taught Indians how to become actually Westernized. No. They did not give them sufficient education. Especially in the beginning, the British were against giving the Indians higher education. They wanted some clerks to conduct their affairs -- some third-class, fourth-class men for their mercantile and government bureaucracies.
"Educated" meant ABCD. That's all. "Let the Indians know ABCD, then take fifty, sixty rupees' salary, go home to their little neighborhoods outside the city and return the next day on the train. Let them work hard in our city and get just enough money to maintain themselves."
Nothing more. No money, no education, no real knowledge of industry. The Indian people were not taught properly. In America, for instance, I see the factories, and the arrangement is so nice. But go to those Indian factories -- it is hell. Hell. Simply hell. The Britishers exploited the Indians, and the mercantile class of India -- they have learned simply how to exploit.
Disciple: Exploit their own people.
Srila Prabhupada: That's all. Formerly, the Manchester people were exploiting the Indians. And now the Ahmedabad people -- they have learned how to exploit. And the government is satisfied, because the exploiters pay taxes: "Never mind. The workers may go on suffering." This is going on. And the Indian people have lost their own culture. They have been taught how to drink alcohol, how to eat flesh.
Aside from all this, Indians cannot work as hard as Westerners. The hot climate does not allow it. India's climate is good for living peacefully, not working so hard, and instead engaging the brain in spiritual advancement. That is India's gift. Her people are not meant for hard work.
Actually, hard work is not required for anyone. This is animal civilization -- simply to work very hard. If a man works hard like an animal, then what is the difference between the man and an animal? Here in the Western countries the climate is more suitable for heavy industry, and as one would expect, the people are being taught to work very hard like animals, and they do that. Therefore, materially they have become so-called advanced, to the point that spiritually they are committing suicide. Is it not?
Disciple: This is true.
Srila Prabhupada: Materially advanced, spiritually suicidal. Am I right or wrong?
Disciple: Right, Srila Prabhupada. Another dimension also comes to mind. In your commentary on Srimad-Bhagavatam you write that if people want to increase their material advancement, then they should also increase their sex lives.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Without sex one cannot be materially enthusiastic. And if you stop sex, then you become spiritually advanced. This is the secret. If you stop sex, then you will become spiritually advanced, and if you indulge in sex, then you will become materially enthusiastic. That is the difference between Western and Eastern culture. The whole Eastern culture is based on stopping sex, and here in the Western countries on how to increase sex. The people here are eating meat, eggs, drinking wine. These things increase sex desire. And as soon as you get a very satisfactory sex life, you become enthusiastic to work hard. Therefore for karmis, or those seeking material advancement, marriage is necessary, because without sex they cannot work. And for those seeking spiritual advancement, sex is prohibited.
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