SRILA PRABHUPADA'S
"PROTECT A COW"
SANCTUARY & FARM TRUST
in Port Royal, Pennsylvania
Please visit the Krishna Consciousness Weblog, revealing the true history of the Krishna Consciousness movement, stressing the teachings of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura and Prabhupada's teachings of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura.
Please visit the Prabhupada Weblog for discussions about the instructions of the Spiritual Master
Spiritual consciousness is, it is stated in the Vedas, isavasyam idam sarvam: "Everything belongs to God." The food belongs to God, the mine belongs to God, the ocean belongs to God, the land belongs to God, the air belongs to God, and whatever we find here... This is a combination of these five elements: earth, air, water, fire. That's all. So everything belongs to God. We also belong to God. So we should feel obliged to God that He has given so much for our maintenance. (break) ...fruits, flowers, vegetables, land, ocean, mine, jewels. So we can use it as much as we require. We cannot collect it and keep it in stock for my future son, grandson, this son, that son. No. This is Krsna consciousness. It is actually perfect communism.
The Communists are thinking in terms of the human being, and that also within the state, but a Krsna conscious person, he is thinking in terms of all living beings. Vidya-vinaya-sampanne brahmane gavi hastini, suni caiva sva-pake ca. In the Bhagavata it is stated that a householder, before taking his lunch, he should invite on the street, "Sir, if anyone is still hungry, please come at my place. There is still food. You can take it." And he should see that in the household even the lizard he is not hungry. Even there is a snake, he is not hungry.
Back to Godead Magazine 1944 VOLUME 1 Article 3 Part 3
That there is a great and urgent need of a literature like this is keenly felt by the leaders of all countries and the following statements will help much in the procedure.
Some time back a bold statement by the Metropolitan of India in the form of Moral and Spiritual Re-armament movement, was published in the Hindusthan Standard, in which the reverend Bishop declared that "INDIA GUIDED BY GOD CAN LEAD THE WORLD BACK TO SANITY."
The President of the United States of America in a message to the Senate stated that "the underlying strength of the world consists in the moral fibre of citizens. A programme therefore of moral re-armament for the world cannot fail, to lessen the dangers of armed conflict. Such moral re-armament, to be most highly effective, must receive support on a world wide basis."
The Ex-president of the United States of America Mr. Herbert Hoover sent a message in a citizen's meeting in New York which included the following words. "What the world needs today is to return to sanity and moral spiritual ideals. At the present moment, nothing so concerns mankind."
Some 236 members of the British House of Commons jointly affirmed that spiritual principles which are common heritage of all people, are more fundamental than any political or economic issue. They also strongly affirmed that there is urgent need to acknowledge the sovereign authority of God in home and nation to establish that liberty which rests on the Christian responsibility to all one's fellowmen and to build a national life based on usefulness, unity and faith.
Sir Stafford Cripps the Lord Privy Seal of Britain in a meeting of Christians sometimes in the month of September 1942, said that the Kingdom of God would be accomplished through the Divine Power of love and he declared that "the tasks before us are, first so to conduct ourselves as individual Christian that in spite of the difficulties of our surroundings, we may work towards the establishment of the Kingdom of God throughout our country and the world and second, so to influence and change our social-economic and political environments as to encourage both ourselves and others to take to the Christian way of life."
Abhay Charan De, {Srila Prabhupada} Editor and Founder.
771108rc.vrn Conversations Prabhupada: And therefore I say, (laughs) don't keep me locked up. You do your duty as I have trained you and let me be free and if money required, he'll come and take and go back again as he ...
771108rc.vrn Conversations Lokanatha: Are not. As we go towards the Himalaya it gets cold otherwise up to Delhi and Chandigarh same climate as it is here now. As soon as we go out into the mountains, it's very cold. Shivering. As we came to the place, wherever we went the same climate. Same as Vrndavana. It's a good climate. Prabhupada: So you come at four, have kirtana (?). (break) I wish that you GBC manage very nicely and consider I am dead and let me try to travel all the tirthasthana. Without any responsibility. If I become recovered from this malady I shall come back and then I shall die in, what is it when the dead body is there, let them bring to Mayapura and Vrndavana. I am thinking in this way. Bring little medicine and no medicine, little milk, and travel one place to another and if there is death, what is the lamentation? My age is ripe. In the open air and bullock cart or during daytime, eh? Or you can say semi-suicide, although living what consider me dead for the time. You manage and nowadays there is in India ample sunshine. So during daytime I shall travel and nighttime you make a camp under a tree. In this way let me travel all the tirthas. I am thinking in this way. What is your opinion? Bhavananda: Srila Prabhupada, we promise that we'll manage everything to the best of our ability. Prabhupada: No, no, you are managing, I know, but you are all important men and unnecessarily you are bound up. You cannot go. So Lokanatha party has got some experience and let me go. In India the climate is now good. If I recover, it is very good. You know. So what is the wrong? If I die, then the body will be brought either in Vrndavana or Mayapura, that's all. And if I live, it will be a great end of a life. You are all experienced. Jayapataka: As much as you have trained us, Srila Prabhupada, that is only how much we are experienced. We don't want that you be burdened any more with material management problems but... Prabhupada: No, not from that point of view. What is the use of lying down here?
The unmanifested forces of time are so powerful that they reduce all matter to oblivion in due course. In Kali-yuga, the last millennium of a round of four millenniums, the power of all material objects deteriorates by the influence of time.In this age the duration of the material body of the people in general is much reduced, and so is the memory. The action of matter has also not so much incentive. The land does not produce food grains in the same proportions as it did in other ages. The cow does not give as much milk as it used to give formerly. The production of vegetables and fruits is less than before. As such, all living beings, both men and animals, do not have sumptuous, nourishing food. Due to want of so many necessities of life, naturally the duration of life is reduced, the memory is short, intelligence is meager, mutual dealings are full of hypocrisy and so on. The great sage Vyasadeva could see this by his transcendental vision. As an astrologer can see the future fate of a man, or an astronomer can foretell the solar and lunar eclipses, those liberated souls who can see through the scriptures can foretell the future of all mankind. They can see this due to their sharp vision of spiritual attainment.
Back to Godead Magazine 1944 VOLUME 1 Article 3 Part 4
The horrors of the war are pinching every one and all in the world and a statement of Mr. Windel Wilkie after his return from Russia, will tell the story of all other countries in the world. He stated that "Five million Russians have been killed, wounded or missing. At least sixty million Russians are slaves in the Russian territories controlled by Hitler. Food in Russia this winter will be scarce, perhaps worse than scarce. Fuel will be little known this winter in millions of Russian homes. Clothing except for the army and for essential war workers has nearly gone. Many vital medical supplies just do not exist."
What is true for the Russian people is also true for other people, as we Indians are feeling the same scarcity, the same want and the same disgust.
The disgust of the war is well summarized by the Foreign Secretary of Britain Mr. Anthony Eden who said that "this time we have to finish the job properly. We will not tolerate this business every twenty years. When the job is finished we must see that they cannot start it again. That is the will of the nation and the united nation."
The Archbishop of Canterbury in his recent broadcast in London said, "In every quarter of earth men long to be delivered from the curse of War and to find in a world which has regained its peace, respite from the harshness and bitterness of the world they have known till now. But so often they want the Kingdom of Heaven without its King. The kingdom of God without God. And they cannot have it."
"OUR RESOLVE MUST BE BACK TO GOD. We make plans for the future for peace amongst the nation and for civil security at home. That is quite right enough and it would be wrong to neglect it. But all our plans will come to ship-wreck on the rock of human selfishness unless we turn to God. BACK TO GOD, that is the chief need of England and of every nation."
Abhay Charan De, {Srila Prabhupada} Editor and Founder.
771108rc.vrn Conversations Jayapataka: Krsna-lila, Mahaprabhu-lila. Prabhupada: And gradually you go to Mayapura. Is someone here? Tamala Krsna: Yes, Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada: I... Bhavananda: He has heard everything. (poison whispers conspiracy) Prabhupada: Mm. Jayapataka: By you going to the holy places, you will purify the holy places. Prabhupada: There are two things, life or death. So if I die where is the wrong? And if there is death, that is natural. Jayapataka: For you Srila Prabhupada, to be alive or to die is no different because you are in the transcendental position, but for us when you leave the body then we are bereft of your association. So for us it is very unfortunate. Prabhupada: Then live by my words, by my training. Mm. (pause) So you like this idea? Mm? Hamsaduta: I liked it.
SB 1.16.20 P How Pariksit Received the Age of Kali
With the progress of the age of Kali, four things particularly, namely the duration of life, mercy, the power of recollection, and moral or religious principles will gradually diminish. Since Dharma, or the principles of religion, would be lost in the proportion of three out of four, the symbolic bull was standing on one leg only. When three fourths of the population of the whole world become irreligious, the situation is converted into hell for the animals. In the age of Kali, godless civilizations will create so many so-called religious societies in which the Personality of Godhead will be directly or indirectly defied. And thus faithless societies of men will make the world uninhabitable for the saner section of people. There are gradations of human beings in terms of proportionate faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The first-class faithful men are the Vaisnavas and the brahmanas, then the ksatriyas, then the vaisyas, then the sudras, then the mlecchas, the yavanas and at last the candalas. The degradation of the human instinct begins from the mlecchas, and the candala state of life is the last word in human degradation. All the above terms mentioned in the Vedic literatures are never meant for any particular community or birth. They are different qualifications of human beings in general. There is no question of birthright or community. One can acquire the respective qualifications by one's own efforts, and thus the son of a Vaisnava can become a mleccha, or the son of a candala can become more than a brahmana, all in terms of their association and intimate relation with the Supreme Lord.
Back to Godead Magazine 1944 VOLUME 1 Article 3 Part 5
In another meeting the same philosopher pointed out, "We have to defeat tyranny in the realm of thought and create a will for world peace. Instruments for training the mind and educating human nature should be used to develop a proper social outlook without which institutional machinery was of little use."
These psychological movements of the leaders of all countries-combined with the orders of my Divine Master Sri Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada has led me to venture to start a paper under the above name and style "BACK TO GODHEAD" which implies all the words that we may intend to say in this connection.
India has been politically subjugated so to say for the last one thousand years but very few have been able to exploit her spiritual resources up till now which are measured unlimited by the spiritual masters. Politically India may ask all so-called foreigners to quit the shores of India but spiritually she did never ask any body to do so nor she will do so even now. She will rather invite all the so-called foreigners to come and exploit the spiritual resources of India's advancement and this transcendental exploitation will not only enhance the glory of India but will also enrich the glory of the whole world for unity, faith and humanity.
Prabhupada: Who is it? Adri-dharana: It's Hamsaduta Maharaja. Prabhupada: Oh. (pause) Most places you beg from the local place and subsist, otherwise purchase. Jayapataka: You are very famous, Srila Prabhupada, wherever you go there will be crowds of people to have your darsana. Prabhupada: So they will see me, I have no objection. I want little milk from them, that's all. (pause) So far my presence is required (for) management, I think I have bequeathed, properly you can manage. Hm. It is to be admitted failure, the so-called medical treatment, failure. (pause) Jayapataka: I'll be back to say that you defy all medical laws. Sometimes you become very weak and sometimes you become immediately strong. (pause) Giriraja: I think this is a good idea. Prabhupada: Who is this? Devotee: Giriraja. Prabhupada: Oh. Giriraja: Because, I mean, I don't have any faith in the doctors or their treatments because they're never working and ultimately it depends on Krsna and Krsna is everywhere. He can exercise His will in any condition and you know, as you say, that if you go out and if you recover then it's very good. And even otherwise, I mean if that is the decision of Lord Krsna, then this is a very glorious way. (pause) Prabhupada: All seriously consider this submission and let me go. (end)
SB 1.16.20 P How Pariksit Received the Age of Kali
The meat-eaters are generally called mlecchas. But all meat-eaters are not mlecchas. Those who accept meat in terms of scriptural injunctions are not mlecchas, but those who accept meat without restriction are called mlecchas. Beef is forbidden in the scriptures, and the bulls and cows are offered special protection by followers of the Vedas. But in this age of Kali, people will exploit the body of the bull and the cow as they like, and thus they will invite sufferings of various types.
The people of this age will not perform any sacrifice. The mleccha population will care very little for performances of sacrifices, although performance of sacrifice is essential for persons who are materially engaged in sense enjoyment. In the Bhagavad-gita performance of sacrifices is strongly recommended (Bg. 3.14-16).
Back to Godead Magazine 1944 VOLUME 1 Article 3 Part 6
And lately Sir Francis Younghusband while speaking at World Congress of Faiths said that, "that now religion is everywhere attacked brutally, we, look to India the very home of religion for a sign." Sir Francis pleaded that India, by her example might show the world how religion can be the most potent of all uniting forces in the conduct of human affairs."
Sir Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan the great Hindu philosopher addressing a crowded public meeting in Calcutta recently, observed:
"At a time like this when there is poverty, malnutrition of body and mind, when many people do not know what it is to have a cooked meal, or to lie on soft bed, when millions of homes turn into homes of hunger and prisoners of poverty, religious men will have to address themselves to the task of removing them."
"Today the world was noisier, more controversial and violent. There was more hope and more uncertainty, more aspirations and more frustration. And the years that intervened (from the last war) showed the bankruptcy of any spiritual value. The Versailles Treaty, the League of Nations, and the Disarmament Conference failed because they had not the back ground of public opinion to sustain them. This war, when it would be won, would prove to be the breeding ground of other wars if the peace was not saved. It could happen only if powerful nations ceased to take pride and glory in their possessions which were based on labour and tribute of other weaker nations. This perhaps was what Sir Harcourt Butler meant when he said that the principles of Hinduism contained the essential elements for the saving of world civilizations."
Bhavananda: We should begin the parikrama in Vrndavana. Prabhupada: Yes. Bhavananda: Because quite honestly, Srila Prabhupada, I think most of us are very worried. If you go off down the road and send us all back to our different assignments, we would not be able to serve with our full attention, knowing that our beloved father and spiritual guide was in such weak condition. So if we begin in Vrndavana, we're all here now, we can see so that we know what arrangements to make for the future when you want to leave. Prabhupada: Hm. You make me flat. (break) Jayapataka: We heard that Your Divine Grace had a dream that a kaviraja of the Ramanuja-sampradaya would treat you and bring you back to strength, and this kaviraja says that in a very short time, following the treatment, you would regain your strength. Although he hasn't got all of the medicines yet, but within a day or two they'll all be prepared, and he says within fifteen days you should be quite improved in strength. So far, he seems to have been quite sincere. Prabhupada: No, no, he's sincere. I'll drink milk. Whatever strength is obtainable, there will be. Jayapataka: Like to follow the same treatment, only while traveling. Hamsaduta: So we should meet and make a program for going around Vrndavana. Prabhupada: Yes. Hamsaduta: You want to begin tomorrow morning? Prabhupada: Yes. Devotee (1): If Prabhupada travels in a van it would be very bumpy. He should have a big bus. Hamsaduta: Let's discuss it. Prabhupada: Bus? Devotee (1): A big bus. Prabhupada: No, no, bus will be not good. Bullock cart.
SB 1.16.20 P How Pariksit Received the Age of Kali
The living beings are created by the creator Brahma, and just to maintain the created living being progressively towards the path back to Godhead, the system of performing sacrifice is also created by him. The system is that living beings live on the produce of grains and vegetables, and by eating such foodstuff they get vital power of the body in the shape of blood and semen, and from blood and semen one living being is able to create other living beings. But the production of grains, grass, etc. becomes possible by rain, and this rain is made to shower properly by performance of recommended sacrifices. Such sacrifices are directed by the rites of the Vedas, namely Sama, Yajur, Rg and Atharva. In the Manu-smrti it is recommended that by offerings of sacrifice on the altar of the fire, the sun-god is pleased. When the sun-god is pleased, he properly collects water from the sea, and thus sufficient clouds collect on the horizon and rains fall. After sufficient rains fall, there is sufficient production of grains for men and all animals, and thus there is energy in the living being for progressive activity. The mlecchas, however, make plans to install slaughterhouses for killing bulls and cows along with other animals, thinking that they will prosper by increasing the number of factories and live on animal food without caring for performance of sacrifices and production of grains. But they must know that even for the animals they must produce grass and vegetables, otherwise the animals cannot live. And to produce grass for the animals, they require sufficient rains. Therefore they have to depend ultimately on the mercy of the demigods like the sun-god, Indra and Candra, and such demigods must be satisfied by performances of sacrifice.
Back to Godead Magazine 1944 VOLUME 1 Article 3 Part 7
It may not be out of place to mention herein that His Divine Grace Sri Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswaty Goswami Prabhupada, just before his departure from this mortal world, wrote me a letter from Puri dated the 3rd December, 1936 directing me towards my duty in fulfilling His mission in the world for propagating the religion of Divine Love as propounded by Lord Chaitanya. In course of writing that letter, He wrote the following lines amongst other things.
"I am fully confident that you can explain in English our thoughts and arguments to the people who are not conversant with the languages of other members."
"This will do much good to yourself as well as your audience."
"I have every hope that you can turn yourself a very good English preacher if you serve the mission to inculcate the novel impression to the people in general and philosophers of modern age and religiosity."
And when I was consulting my well wishers and friends who are able to help me in this great adventure, all of them encouraged me in this connection. His Grace Sripad Bhakti Saranga Goswami Moharaj the Preacher-in-charge for the Western countries appointed by His Divine Grace who has recently returned from London preaching work to his headquarter, very kindly sent his blessing from Sri Nityananda Gaudiya Math in his letter dated the 15-3-43 in the following words amongst other things:-
"I know that His Divine Grace used to admire your intelligence and it was His earnest desire that the world outside be benefitted through your writings in English."