Prabhupada On Tour — Mauritius

Subtitles

[01:46]: We are very pleased to have you in among us,
[01:51]: and we welcome you on behalf of the people of Mauritius, to this island,
[01:55]: and we hope you enjoy your fourth stay here.
[01:59]: Swamiji, how long are you going to stay here?
[02:03]: The program is one week.
[02:07]: Have you got any special programs, for lectures or…?
[02:13]: I do not know what they’ve arranged. But my secretary says that it will be one week.
[02:21]: Have you had any idea of Mauritius before you came here?
[02:24]: My idea is to preach Krishna Consciousness, because for want of this knowledge
[02:35]: our mission of human life is failing all over the world.
[02:43]: Therefore, I am trying to introduce this Krishna Consciousness all over the world
[02:53]: without any distinction of caste, creed, color.
[02:57]: God is for everyone. And we have forgotten our relationship with God.
[03:04]: Therefore, we are suffering in so many ways.
[03:09]: And His instruction is there in the Bhagavad-gita, if we follow, then we become happy.
[03:19]: …and they have progressed how to die quickly.
[03:21]: This is the progress. At any moment he can die. As soon as he on the car,
[03:29]: 70 miles speed, that means taking the risk of dying at any moment.
[03:35]: This is the progress.
[03:46]: Formerly people were going in bullock cart or horse carriage
[03:48]: from one village to another. That was primitive. Now we can go hundred miles
[03:53]: away from home for earning money and taking risk to die at any moment.
[04:01]: That is progress. Is it not?
[04:06]: Oh, yes.
[04:15]: Formerly they were satisfied by tilling the ground, getting food grains.
[04:20]: Now they have started factories. At the cost of thousands of men’s labor,
[04:29]: some director is getting money and enjoying life. That is progress.
[04:41]: And these rascals, laborers, they are thinking that “These men are getting the profit,
[04:49]: cream of this business. We are working. Why not take ourselves?” That is Communism.
[05:01]: …And by taking, when he is cured he will find, “Oh, it is very sweet.”
[05:06]: So then he has to recognize there is some problem living in this material world.
[05:15]: No. He does not find any happiness on account of his too much materialistic mind.
[05:22]: That is the disease. That is the disease. So it has to be cured by this bhakti-yoga.
[05:30]: So in the bhakti-yoga, in the beginning, it will taste bitter.
[05:35]: Therefore they do not come. But if they take to bhakti-yoga, then the material disease
[05:42]: will be cured and they will find it is very sweet…
[06:40]: Ksatriya means one who gives protection from being hurt, ksat. Ksat means hurting.
[06:48]: So suppose if I unnecessarily hurt you, then it is the duty of the government
[06:55]: to give you protection. So unless I am also punished by violence, I cannot…,
[07:05]: He cannot give you protection. So this is also necessary.
[07:10]: Therefore in the society there must be ksatriya.
[07:14]: The brahmanas should be learned; they should give instruction, advice.
[07:18]: The ksatriyas should give protection; the vaisyas should produce, economic development;
[07:25]: and rest, they should assist-sudras, that’s all. This…
[07:32]: …comes from many lamps.
[07:35]: Does your preaching consist only from the Gita?
[07:39]: Yes, that is the supreme light. There are degrees of light.
[07:46]: There is sunlight and there is this light. You cannot compare this light with the sunlight.
[07:52]: Light comes from everywhere but that does not mean that the sunlight and this light is the same.
[07:59]: First of all you understand this. Your question was light.
[08:04]: Fist of all you understand there are degrees of light.
[08:06]: You cannot say this light and the sunlight is the same.
[08:21]: That is your business to study.
[08:27]: But we give you the idea that light comes from everywhere.
[08:32]: There is one glowworm. That light is also light and the sunlight is also light.
[08:38]: You cannot think that the glowworm’s light and the sunlight is the same.
[08:42]: Now it is your business to see which is glowworm light and which is sunlight,
[08:49]: that is your business.
[08:54]: …connected with certain imperialistic countries.
[08:59]: Let them say all nonsense. What can I say?
[09:02]: Every nonsense will speak something nonsense, how can I check it?
[09:07]: There are so many nonsense’s, therefore we are trying to
[09:15]: make these nonsense into human beings. That is our program.
[09:19]: So long as he is a nonsense he will go on speaking nonsense. What can I do?
[09:32]: Yes. It is in the third chapter of twelfth canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam.
[09:40]: Have you got all the Bhagavatams, Twelfth Canto? So you can note it.
[09:50]: There are many things. Dampate rati eva he.
[09:58]: Simply one can understand what is the difference between the dead body and the living body.
[10:07]: Living body means there is the soul, and dead body means there is no more soul.
[10:25]: janma karma me divyam yo janati tattvatah tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti kaunteya
[10:31]: The solution is there. You try to understand Krsna.
[10:35]: Then you will have not to accept any more material body. Simple thing.
[11:08]: He is greater than the greatest, smaller than the smallest.
[11:26]: isvara sarva bhutanam hrd dese arjuna tisthati
[11:33]: You’ll find at night a small insect,
[11:38]: He has got all the framework…
[12:06]: Krishna is within the atom, that is Krishna.
[12:31]: Knowledge, philosophy, logic. You want to study Krishna? So many books.
[12:48]: You cannot finish even in your life. We have already published 60 books.
[13:01]: Brahman and Parabrahman, Krishna is Parabrahman,
[13:11]: We are all brahman. But Krishna is Parabrahman.
[13:21]: Do you think, Swamiji, that man can become perfect?
[13:25]: Oh yes, that is the chance of a human being.
[13:29]: Therefore in the human society there is school, college, education, culture,
[13:34]: not in the animal society, because they can be made into perfect, not the animals.
[13:48]: So if they are denied proper education, that is the greatest harm.
[13:53]: They got the opportunity, and the authorities are not giving them their opportunity.
[14:00]: No, but do you mean the perfectness is to become God or to become the man? Then I want…
[14:10]: You can not become God.
[14:13]: What does perfectness mean?
[14:15]: Perfect means to become godly.
[14:26]: Can you be interested directly in politics?
[14:34]: Why not? Krsna… Krsna was in politics. So He instructed Arjuna to fight.
[14:43]: This is politic – for the good cause…
[14:57]: The Supreme Person, Bhagavan said, “My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you?
[15:05]: They are not at all befitting a man who knows the progressive values of life.
[15:10]: They do not lead to higher planets, but to infamy.”
[15:14]: And purport?
[15:16]: Purport. “Krsna and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are identical.
[15:22]: Therefore Lord Krsna is referred to as Bhagavan throughout the Gita.
[15:26]: Bhagavan is the ultimate in the Absolute Truth.
[15:30]: Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding, namely Brahman,
[15:37]: or the impersonal, all-pervasive spirit; Paramatma, or the localized aspect
[15:43]: of the Supreme within the heart of all living entities; and Bhagavan,
[15:47]: or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krsna.
[15:51]: In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, this conception of the Absolute Truth is explained thus:
[15:57]: vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam yaj jnanam advayam brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabhyate
[16:07]: ‘The Absolute Truth is realized in three phases of understanding by the knower
[16:12]: of the Absolute Truth, and all of them are identical.
[16:16]: Such phases of the Absolute Truth are expressed as Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan.’
[16:27]: These three divine aspects can be explained by the example of the sun,
[16:32]: which also has three different aspects, namely…
[16:35]: Because the body is born in America, therefore he is thinking, “American.”
[16:44]: The body is born in India, therefore he is thinking, “Indian.”
[16:49]: The body is born in Hindu family, therefore he is thinking, “Hindu.”
[16:55]: So this is the real…
[17:02]: There can not be any civilization. So this Krishna consciousness movement means
[17:10]: we are trying to eradicate this conception of life. Bodily conception of life.
[17:21]: The animals, an animal, he is also thinking, “I am dog,” “I am cat,” “I am cow,” “I am ass.”
[17:36]: On account of this bodily concept of life.
[17:41]: And if we, human beings, remain in that bodily concept of life,
[17:49]: then we are no better than the animals.
[17:56]: …we also depend. So if we remain engaged only on the principles of four demands of body,
[18:07]: then we remain animals. Our extra education required that: “I am not this body,
[18:18]: I am spirit soul.” And there is necessity of the soul.
[18:25]: If you don’t come to this platform, then we remain animals.
[18:33]: …Striving for peace in the world. Is it one of your goals?
[18:39]: Yes. Everyone is striving for peace in the world,
[18:42]: I have already referred to the United Nations organization. They are also trying for
[18:49]: peace of the world but one must know the right way, how to bring peace in the world.
[19:16]: The war is also necessary. When there are demons, they should be punished.
[19:22]: But we must know who is demon and who is not demon.
[19:28]: Just like any good state, just like our Indian state,
[19:38]: accepting that we attained our independence by Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent movement,
[19:51]: but do you think that India is keeping non-violent?
[19:56]: …That one can offer to me with love and devotion a flower, leaf.
[20:03]: In this way he mentions vegetarian items. He never says offer me meat.
[20:09]: So a bhakta, or devotee, he eats prasadam, which means the remnants of the offering to Krsna.
[20:20]: So he offers Krsna very nice things of halava, and rasgula, and sandesh,
[20:28]: and puri, kachoris, and so many samosas, so many nice things.
[20:37]: Neither do we find the necessity to slaughter the animal and eat the flesh.
[20:46]: We don’t find need for that although we have ourselves been brought up in such a culture,
[20:53]: we find after taking to this process, that we lose our taste for these things.
[21:00]: We no longer require, in fact we even shun it.
[21:03]: If someone should offer something with meat we will reject it immediately.
[21:08]: We do not take any means in the airplane.
[21:12]: We take our meals with us and we pay for that, first class.
[21:19]: But, still we do not. They offer and give us some fruit, that’s all.
[21:24]: Coming here on Air India, the stewardess was very surprised why we had so much of the
[21:31]: elaborate meals prepared, but we don’t take these things.
[21:40]: Nobody is interested in spiritual life. Therefore no customer is coming,
[21:46]: we go to sell our books there.
[21:49]: Have you had a significant impact on the American society?
[22:00]: The values that you preach, have they influenced Americans to a certain degree?
[22:04]: Oh yes. You can go in America, any city, and everyone will know ‘Hare Krsna.’
[22:11]: No, that’s not what I mean. What I mean is have Americans started to become
[22:17]: less violent for or have they started to become less egotistical…
[22:22]: Well, not unless they follow our movement. Those who have followed our movement,
[22:27]: But those who have followed our movement, recently there was one study that was
[22:30]: published by a very eminent sociologist in America, from the University of California,
[22:36]: the Union Theological Center. He stated in that book that,
[22:41]: “The members of this movement, formerly they were drug addicted hippies.
[22:45]: And now they have become servants of Krsna and humanity. Loving servants.
[22:51]: So, he has given proof through intensive interviews that one who follows,
[23:01]: joins this movement, he dramatically his life becomes changed.
[23:06]: He is a big professor, and his books are being sold in higher circles. Professor Judah.
[23:17]: One’s life perfect and successful.
[23:38]: I do not know anyone’s movement. We are pushing our movement
[23:44]: on the basis of Bhagavad-gita, Krishna’s movement.
[23:49]: Therefore, we are named, Krishna Consciousness.
[23:52]: So if you know about the Bhagavad-gita, then talk on that, don’t bring anyone else.
[24:08]: I want to know why you are creating a class of sannyasis like these people?
[24:24]: This is your ignorance, you do not know what is sadharma.
[24:30]: Sadharma according to Bhagavad-gita, sadharma means varnashram dharma.
[24:37]: Four varnas and four ashrams. Brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra.
[24:48]: There are four varnas.
[24:50]: And four asramas means brahmachari, ghrhastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa.
[24:59]: So, our Indian culture means varnashrama dharma.
[25:16]: It is a systematic way of social and spiritual life, this varnashrama dharma.
[25:23]: So, unless one comes to this system of life, he’s not a human being, he’s animal.
[25:32]: Our primary form of income is through the sale of books.
[25:35]: Srila Prabhupada has written almost sixty books. four hundred pages each.
[25:44]: These books are published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust which has headquarters in
[25:50]: Los Angeles, London and Bombay and New York.
[26:09]: So the amount of literature is quite large. First of all we have our
[26:15]: “Back to Godhead” magazine, a monthly magazine that is
[26:19]: now being published one million copies per month.
[26:29]: What is the sale per month?
[26:32]: The sales are approximately $250,000 per month.
[26:36]: Approximately between 3:00 and 3:30 in the morning and we take morning bath and we put
[26:44]: tilak on the body, twelve different places, then we have Mangal Aroti, we worship the Deity.
[26:55]: Here we have the Deity of Gaura Nitai, our other temples we have Radha-Krishna.
[27:03]: After Mangal-Aroti then we perform the japa meditation
[27:10]: and we chant at least 16 rounds on the japa beads daily.
[27:19]: That takes approximately two hours of time. The we have our classes,
[27:26]: we have classes in Srimad-Bhagavatam, which is twelve cantos in length, 18,000 verses,
[27:35]: and which has been given by Srila Prabhupada with very elaborate purports for each verse.
[27:40]: So each day one verse is very carefully studied and analyzed and understood.
[27:49]: Then we have our prasadam. We are vegetarians, we do not take any meat, fish or eggs.
[27:58]: And then afterwards we have our morning duties, we have so many different activities, our work.
[28:08]: In this way the day is spent up until approximately ten o’clock at night when we take our rest.
[28:24]: We have our Gurukul school in Dallas where we have the children of our householders.
[28:34]: The children are sent there at the age of five and there they are taught
[28:41]: in the association of other children, these principles of Krishna consciousness.
[28:45]: They are trained, they are trained in English and Sanskrit.
[28:49]: They are trained in cleanliness, as brahmins, to be the leaders of the society.
[28:57]: This is the present need of the modern civilization, that there is no brahmin class.
[29:03]: And by brahmin class we don’t mean those who are born brahmins,
[29:08]: but those who are qualified as brahmins.
[29:10]: At the present moment “brahmin” simply means that one has been born a brahmin.
[29:15]: But that doesn’t make one a qualified brahmin.
[29:18]: Just like if my father is a high-court judge, that doesn’t mean that I am a high-court judge.
[29:25]: I also have to go to the university and take training and be recognized by the bar.
[29:32]: So at the present moment there is no institution that is actually training brahmins.
[29:40]: And without the brahmins, the brahmins are meant to be leaders of society,
[29:44]: as Srila Prabhupada mentioned the Varnasrama system,
[29:47]: the leaders of that Varnasrama system are the brahmanas.
[29:51]: And now we see in the modern civilization that there is no one who is…
[29:55]: Thank you very much swamiji. Your stay will be very fruitful
[30:02]: after a long and arduous work you have been doing all over the world…
[30:07]: I want to see the leading men of this place because if they understand the importance
[30:17]: of this movement then my mission will be successful.
[30:20]: You will have the opportunity of seeing.
[30:27]: In the Bhagavad-gita it is said the leaders, whatever they do,
[30:32]: the ordinary, common man follows. So if the leading men of Mauritius,
[30:42]: if they understand the importance of this movement,
[30:44]: then I am sure it will be very much beneficial for everyone.
[30:52]: So thank you very much swamiji, on behalf of the people of Mauritius,
[30:56]: we are very grateful to you.
[31:12]: The whole world is under the bodily concept of life.
[31:20]: Even big, big nations, just like your Prime Minister has gone to the United Nations.
[31:31]: There are many big, big men in the United Nations, they will speak,
[31:44]: and they’re speaking for the last thirty years.
[31:50]: The United Nations is formed, but they could not find any solution of the
[31:58]: problems of life. Because the basic principle they are losing, they do not know.
[32:11]: Everyone of them is thinking of the bodily platform.
[32:19]: I am Indian, I am American, I am German, I am English man, like that.
[32:33]: Therefore there is no solution because the basic principle is wrong.
[32:42]: Unless we understand what is the wrong of the active principle of the body,
[33:00]: the problems cannot be solved.
[33:05]: Just like you cannot diagnose the disease simply by symptomatic treatment he can not make the…
[33:16]: …no gambling, no intoxication, this is materialistic way of life.
[33:24]: Otherwise, what is the difference between this life and that life?
[33:32]: So, if we stick to the materialistic way of life it will be very, very difficult
[33:42]: to understand this Krishna Consciousness movement.
[33:54]: Why, adanta gobhir, adanta gobhir means uncontrolled, uncontrolled,
[34:04]: our senses are uncontrolled.
[34:10]: This morning, when I was walking on the beach, we found so many things,
[34:20]: the capsule of the coca-cola, cigarette box, and so many other things.
[34:30]: So, what is the necessity of this coca-cola?
[34:37]: We don’t try all these things in our society, we don’t drink coca-cola,
[34:43]: we don’t drink Pepsi cola, we don’t smoke,
[34:47]: so many things which are selling in the market in huge quantities, by advertisement,
[34:55]: by victimizing the poor customer, but they are called unnecessary.
[35:05]: There is no need of such things. But because the senses cannot be controlled,
[35:13]: they’re making big business. Unnecessarily.
[35:20]: So we have to control the senses. If we really want spiritual life,
[35:30]: if we really want to be free from these material shackles,
[35:36]: then we have to learn how to control the senses. That is morality.