720614 - Lecture SB 02.03.19 - Los Angeles

Lectures by Date, 1972

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

720614SB-LOS ANGELES - June 14, 1972 - 45:27 Minutes

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Page 151, text number 19. (leads chanting of verse) (Prabhupāda and devotees repeat)

śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ

saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ

na yat-karṇa-pathopeto

jātu nāma gadāgrajaḥ

(SB 2.3.19)

Prabhupāda: (corrects devotees' pronunciation) That's all.

Pradyumna:

śva—a dog; viṭ-varāha—the village hog who eats stool; uṣṭra—the camel; kharaiḥ—and by the asses; saṁstutaḥ—perfectly praised; puruṣaḥ—a person; paśuḥ—animal; na—never; yat—of him; karṇa—ear; patha—path; upetaḥ—reached; jātu—at any time; nāma—the holy name; gadāgrajaḥ—Lord Kṛṣṇa, the deliverer from all evils.

Translation: "Men who are like dogs, hogs, camels and asses praise those men who never listen to the transcendental pastimes of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the deliverer from evils."

Prabhupāda: Hm so, one who does not listen to the glories of the Lord . . . because the human life, this life is meant for learning how to engage our senses in the service of the Lord. That is the mission of human life. In other lives the senses are engaged for sense gratification. And in the human life, when we have got developed consciousness, at that time the senses are meant for being engaged in the service of the Lord. So ear is the most important sense, because our spiritual enlightenment begins from this sense, hearing. Na yat-karṇa-pathopetaḥ. Karṇa-patha means aural reception.

So one has to go to hear from the realized person, guru, spiritual master. That is the meaning. Śruti. Śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12). One has to approach a spiritual master, śrotriyam, who has also heard from a spiritual master. This . . . our knowledge is by hearing, śruti. Therefore Vedas are called śruti. Śruti means this is not experimental knowledge. This knowledge is acquired by hearing. That's all. If you have got nice receptive power through the ear, then your life can be successful. You don't require to use any other sense. This one sense will make you correct.

Therefore those who are not taking advantage of this facility of hearing . . . he may be a very big man in the estimation of persons who are like dogs, asses, camel and such nice animals. You can say: "Oh, here is a big man, and . . . Mr. Such-and-such, such a great politician, great scientist, great . . . so we must praise." But the Bhāgavata says: "Whether he has given any aural reception about Kṛṣṇa, that is the test." No. He has no knowledge about Kṛṣṇa. Then he must be praised by persons who are like camel, asses, dogs, hogs. That means, "No human being will praise him." If he is voted or praised, the vote must be coming from the asses, dogs, hogs, like that. That is going on.

Asses, hogs, dogs, camels, they are giving vote. How they can select? These animals, any animal, they do not know which person is perfect and should be selected as leader. They do not know. Śūdras. Śūdras, animals, the same thing. So people are being educated like dogs, hogs, camels and asses. So how they can expect any real happiness? That is not possible. The test should be . . . public, general public, they may be like cats, dogs, hogs naturally, because they have no sufficient education. Not they are expected to be highly educated, general mass of people. But if arrangement is made to give them chance of hearing Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, then they will be very big men, perfect men.

That should be the policy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. We should accept the general mass of people no better than dogs, hogs. You see in your country, dog is best friend. Because he is a dog, therefore he has chosen the best friend, dog. And cow, mother, giving milk and actually drinking—"Send her to the slaughterhouse." Just see. Is it not a animal? He is making friendship with dog and sending mother to the slaughterhouse. What is your answer? This is my charge against your country. What is your answer?

Devotee: They are . . . (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: Yes. They are such foolish persons, they are making friendship with dog, which has no value except creating some offense. The dog's business is, you are not offender, still it will offend, "Gow! Gow! Gow!" (laughter) "Oh, I have not entered your house. Why you are barking?" No, it is his business. He will disturb you. He'll come. We have experience. Unnecessarily they come. At least, make a show of, to attack. That means offending. If . . . suppose you are passing on the road, and if I come with a stick, "Why you have come here?" is it not offense? All right, if I trespass in your house, you can attack me with a stick. Or no, in your country one can kill. You see? Such a nice mentality. But men are also like that. They deserve to be killed. This is going on. So the animal society. You cannot believe a man, just like animal cannot believe another animal. This is . . .

So it is very rightly written, śva-viḍ-varāha uṣṭra khara. Śva-viḍ-varāha uṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ. The general mass of people is no better than these animals, and they are voting to select their leader. So whom they will vote? Another paśu, another animal. Because they have no choice. They are animals, and how they can select a man? A man means karṇa-pathopetaḥ, one who is hearing about Kṛṣṇa. He is man. Otherwise, all animals. Now, you say, how this charge can be refuted by you? Bhāgavata says: "He is not a man." Na yat-karṇa-pathopeta jātu nāma gadāgrajaḥ. He may be in the form of a man, but if he has not heard about Kṛṣṇa, if he has not given aural reception to kṛṣṇa-kathā, then he is paśu, animal. And what kind of animal? Dog, hog, camel, asses. Why these nice animals have been selected? That is described.

Now you can read the purport.

Pradyumna: "The general mass of people, unless they are trained systematically for a higher standard of life in spiritual values, are no better than the animal, and in this verse they have been particularly put on the level of the dogs, hogs, camels and asses. Modern university education practically prepares one to acquire a doggish mentality to accept the service of a greater master."

"Like the dogs, after finishing the so-called education, the so-called educated person move from door to door with applications for some service, and mostly they are driven away, informed of no vacancy. As the dogs are negligible animals and serve their master faithfully for bits of bread, similarly one serves a master without sufficient rewards. Persons who have no discrimination in the matter of foodstuff and who eat all sorts of rubbish are compared with the hogs. Hogs are very much attached to eating stool. So the stool is a kind of foodstuff for a particular type of animal. And even the stones are eatables . . ."

Prabhupāda: This is very important. Why hog has been selected? The hog has no discrimination. He is prepared to eat even stool. Therefore hog is selected. So people are now eating anything, everything. So we have heard that in Korea they eat cats, snakes, dogs. In other places also seen—anything. They have no discrimination. No discrimination. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. One living entity is the source of vital strength for another living entity. That is law.

Just like we are vegetarians. We are vegetarian. We are also eating some . . . not killing, but eating. We are taking fruit. That means we are not killing the tree. We are taking grains. We are not killing the cow. We are eating milk, but we are not eating . . . drinking the blood. Milk is nothing but blood of cow. But we know the art, how to drink the blood of cow without killing. That is civilization. That is civilization. Medically, they say the cow's blood or bull's blood is very effective, and that is accepted. But you must know the art.

It is the arrangement of God that cow's milk . . . cow's own milk, she does not drink. She eats grass. That means God's arrangement is like that, that "Let the human being drink the milk of cow, and the cow may eat grass." Because they haven't got good brain. Foodstuffs should be given, nice foodstuff given, should be given to the particular person for developing nice brain. Milk is a foodstuff which can develop your finer tissues of the brain so that you can understand higher philosophy. And if you become blunt, and you eat meat by killing any animal, then how you will understand? The finer tissues given in the human form of life for understanding spiritual things . . . you cannot.

Vinā paśughnāt. Therefore Parīkṣit Mahārāja says, vinā paśughnāt. Nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt, uttamaśloka-guṇānuvādāt (SB 10.1.4). Uttamaśloka, Kṛṣṇa, guṇānuvādāt, glorifying His activities, who can be bereft of this opportunity, vinā paśughnāt, unless he is a animal-killer? Unless he is animal-killer, nobody will deny to hear about Kṛṣṇa. Because the animal-killers, they have lost their brain. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mercy is so great that even who has lost his brain, he can be revived by hearing Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's . . . ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). Yes, in this age everyone is fallen. But he can be, I mean to say, elevated to the position of nice brain. How? By paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. Simply by chanting.

So in this age everyone is blunt-headed, animal-killer. They cannot understand what is kṛṣṇa-kathā, what is spiritual life. We see actually: they are not at all interested. They feel disturbance: "What these people are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa?" They cannot make any solution of the problems. Just like Atreya Ṛṣi was speaking that government is embarrassed how to solve the question of intoxication, LSD-taking. They could not. Huge amount they are spending. But here is the remedy, they will not take. Why? Paśughnāt, killing, animal-killers. So animal-killer cannot take it. Vinā paśughnāt (SB 10.1.4). Vinā means without. Unless one is animal-killer, he cannot give up this opportunity of hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we forbid, "No meat-eating." This is the qualification. Unless you stop meat-eating, you cannot understand. Blunt head.

So the hog has been especially mentioned because he has no discrimination of food. Our Ramakrishna Mission, they say, "What is there in food? Whatever you like, you can eat. It has nothing to do with spiritual life." Nonsense. You see? Āhāra, śuddha āhāra. Even George Bernard Shaw, he wrote one book that "You are what you eat." Actually, that is so. Why there are so many varieties of foodstuff? Because there are varieties of men. Those who are meat-eaters, if you give them so many varieties of fruits and sandeśa and rasagullā, he won't like it. He won't like it. If before the hog you put nice, first-class halavā, "No, sir. Stool. Give me stool." Therefore hog. All right.

One who has no discrimination of foodstuff, he is going to be hog next life. That is the punishment by nature. One who are loitering in the street naked, they are going to have next life tree, "Stand up naked for ten thousand of years. That's all right." But they are enjoying. They're showing beauty by naked, nakedness. But nature will not tolerate. Prakṛteḥ . . . daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā . . . (BG 7.14). There is nature. They do not consider how one living entity has got the body of a tree, how one living entity has got the body of a hog, how one living entity has got the body of a demigod, how one has got the body of a Vaiṣṇava. They do not know. They do not know. The education is so cramped, they do not even consider that these are . . . they say, Darwin's theory, "Developing the body."

So the education is going on in that way. This is our position. You should take advantage of the scientific knowledge given by Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīmad-bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṇam (SB 12.13.18). Amalaṁ purāṇam, spotless education, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Therefore, in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra (SB 1.1.2). Atra śrīmad-bhāgavata. "In this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, cheating type of religious system is kicked out." Kicked out. In religion where there is no discrimination of foodstuff, what is that religion? What is that religion? This is fanaticism. That is not religion. Religion is to understand God. And one cannot understand God, the purest of all pure, unless one is pure.

Next? Hog?

Pradyumna: "And even the stones are eatables for a particular type of animal or bird. But the human being is not meant for eating everything and anything, save grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, sugar, etc. Animal food is not meant for the human being. For chewing solid food the human being has a particular type of teeth meant for cutting fruits and vegetables. The human being is endowed with two canine teeth as a concession . . ."

Prabhupāda: Our teeth is just like . . . you take fruits, you can easily cut. But if you take meat . . . (gesticulates) Like this. That is not natural. Unnaturally. But you take fruit, immediately you cut, and . . . so that is discrimination that, "We have to take some food, but what kind of food we shall take?" So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is that you take only kṛṣṇa-prasādam. That's all. You save yourself. Even if I cannot discriminate, Kṛṣṇa's prasādam I'll take, it is transcendental, I don't require any discrimination. Don't require. Kṛṣṇa-prasādam. And Kṛṣṇa says, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). We offer Kṛṣṇa foodstuff, what He wants. Kṛṣṇa is God. He can take anything. He can eat the whole world. And eating the whole world means all animals, all men, all everything, vegetable, not vegetable. Everything goes in His . . . just like Yaśodā-mā saw within the mouth of the whole universe.

So Kṛṣṇa can take everything. But He does not take, because He is . . . appears to educate us. Therefore He is giving very importance cow-keeping, tending the cows, personally. Personally taking, protect cow. He is stealing butter, showing us that "These things should be stolen. If you have no money, then you steal and eat." (laughter) You see? These things are eatable. You see? Produce huge quantity of milk, and make so many preparation out of it, and become healthy. This is the instruction Kṛṣṇa is giving. Otherwise, what Kṛṣṇa business, He has got to do some such business? No. He is teaching us. Even the urine of cow is valuable. Stool of cow is valuable. Kṛṣṇa, in His . . . while He is crawling on the yard, He captures the tail of a calf and he drags Him, and He is smeared with all stools and urine of the cows, Kṛṣṇa enjoys. He is showing that even the stool and urine of cow is valuable, what to speak of its milk. Cow is so important. Personally, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is teaching us.

And He is ordering in the Bhagavad-gītā, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). He is mentioning especially vegetable, grains, fruits. But not that everyone can offer Kṛṣṇa all these things. No. He says, yo me bhaktyā prayacchati. He does not accept anything from the hand of a nondevotee. Therefore the non-initiated student cannot offer food. He doesn't accept. He says especially, yo me bhaktyā prayacchati: he must be devotee.

He is not hungry, that He has come to your temple to eat. No. He is giving food to all the living entities. Eko bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That one Kṛṣṇa is giving all the necessities of life to all the living entities. So what we can offer? We cannot offer anything. Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. Still, He is very kind. He comes before you as you can handle Him, as you can dress Him, as you can wash Him, you can touch His lotus feet. Kṛṣṇa is giving you chance. It is very difficult to approach Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He has appeared in your temple and He is accepting. According to the rules and regulation, if you offer, He will accept.

This is the process of Deity worship. If you have no such feelings that, "Here is Kṛṣṇa personally present, and He has given me the chance in a way by which I can approach Him," and if I think, "He is stone. He is wood. I can do anything; He cannot speak," then he will worship only stone and wood, not Kṛṣṇa. Not Kṛṣṇa. If you are not fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, if you do not know who is He, then your effect will be touching the stone and wood of . . . that's all.

So every one of you must be very careful that, "Here is Kṛṣṇa personally present." Not that wood and stone, as atheists think. Atheist will think, "Oh, they are worshiping a wood, a stone statue." Because they have their ideas, worshiping of great men. They make also statue, but place them in the open air, and their worship is by the stools of crows, worshiping. So if . . . the crows take it a place of passing stool on the head of your leader. (laughter) That is their method of worship. They are respecting president George Washington, keeping a statue and honoring him with the stool of crows. You see? This is their intelligence. This is their intelligence.

And our Indian people are also imitating. I have seen one statue of Sir Asutosh Mukherjee. He was a very respectable man. Or Gandhi. The whole year, the crows passed stool on the face. It becomes covered with stool. And the day of their anniversary the municipal washing brush, street, they brush over the . . . in the morning. (laughter) They brush over the . . . because they do . . . no gentlemen will go, they have to call some sweeper. So he will brush the face of Sir Asutosh Mukherjee and wash, and then in the evening, big garland. In the morning it was washed with municipal brush, and in the evening there is big garland.

So people have become so . . . therefore they are compared with these dogs, asses, camels. They have no intelligence. We are worshiping Deity. Shall we allow like that? That is worship. But this is a fictitious thing, and they are thinking, "We are honoring Sir Asutosh Mukherjee" or "President Jawaharlal Nehru," like that. Such foolish persons. If I know that "This is Sir Asutosh Mukherjee," how I can allow his mouth to be washed by the municipal brush? No. They know it is stone. It is stone.

Therefore it has been forbidden, arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ (Padma Purāṇa). If anyone, the Deity in the temple, thinks śilādhīḥ, stone and wood; vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ, if anyone considers a Vaiṣṇava under certain particular race or caste; guruṣu nara-matiḥ, if one considers guru as ordinary human being, then he is hellish. These are forbidden. We should know the arcā-vigraha, the worshipable Deity, Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, present. He is not wood and stone, but because we cannot touch except wood and stone, therefore He has appeared as wood and stone. He is not wood and stone; He is all-powerful.

So to show me favor . . . if somebody says, "Here is Kṛṣṇa standing," but I have no eyes to see Kṛṣṇa . . . spirit, I cannot see even your spirit, my spirit. Spirit is there, but I have no eyes to see the spirit, what to speak of touching. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, although He is spirit . . . in connection with Him, He is stone also. Because everything is Kṛṣṇa. Everything is product of Kṛṣṇa, energy. So we are not worshiping stone. We are worshiping Kṛṣṇa in a form which is tangible for us. That's all. Not that Kṛṣṇa is stone. Kṛṣṇa is stone also, because stone is nothing but Kṛṣṇa's energy.

So in this way you should understand what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Don't remain foolish. Perfect knowledge. Perfect knowledge. Yasmin vijñāte sarvam idaṁ vijñātaṁ bhavati (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.3): simply if you understand Kṛṣṇa, everything will be known to you. And if you actually understand Kṛṣṇa, then your life is successful—immediately you are eligible to go back to home, back to Godhead. Immediately. (break) Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9): "Such man who has understood Me rightly, he is no more coming back to accept this temporary material body. He comes to Me."

So try to understand Kṛṣṇa. And the beginning is karṇa-patha, these holes of the ear. Lend your ears to hear from the devotee. That's all. Na yat-karṇa-pathopetaḥ. It is not that you have to pass M.A.C., D.H.C. No. Simply lend your ear, "Oh, let us hear about Kṛṣṇa." Then everything is all right. Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ (SB 10.14.3). Kṛṣṇa is unconquerable, but if you simply hear about Him in your position, śruti-gatām, through the aural reception, you will conquer Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa's name is Ajita. Nobody can conquer Kṛṣṇa. But if you simply hear about Kṛṣṇa, time will come, you will conquer Kṛṣṇa, like the gopīs. They conquered Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa was within the hand, or the grip, of the gopīs.

Kṛṣṇa could not go away even an inch from Vṛndāvana (break) on account of the gopīs. What was their education? They were village girls. Not even (break) brāhmin. Uneducated girls, village girls, but they conquered Kṛṣṇa. So this aural reception is so great.

Read little more.

Pradyumna: "The human being is endowed with two canine teeth as a concession for such persons who will eat animal food at any cost. It is known to everyone that one man's food is another man's poison. Human beings are expected to accept the remnants of food offered to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and the Lord accepts foodstuff from the categories of leaves, flowers, fruits, etc." (BG 9.26)

"No animal food is offered to the Lord, as prescribed by Vedic scriptures. Therefore, a human being is meant to eat a particular type of food and should not imitate the animals to derive so-called vitamin values. Therefore, a person who has no discrimination in regard to eating is compared with the hogs. The camel is a kind of animal which takes pleasure in eating (break) thorns. Similarly, a (break) who wants to enjoy family life or the worldly life of (break) enjoyment is compared to the camel. Materialistic life is full of thorns. So one should live only by the prescribed method of Vedic regulations, (break) just to make the best use of a bad bargain. Life in the . . ."

Prabhupāda: Is it not materialistic way of life, he's lying down on thorns? Is it not like that? (break) So, the so-called materialistic way of life, tātala saikate vāri-bindu-sama suta-mita-ramaṇi-samāje (Śrīla Vidyāpati Ṭhākura), (break) . . . society, friendship and love (break) even learn so-called, it is simply full of thorns. That's all. But the camel likes that thorns.

Therefore those who do not understand what is the value of materialistic way of life, they are just like camel. Camel is eating thorn and cutting the tongue, and blood is coming out—it is mixed with thorn—he is thinking that it is very nice food. Actually, he is tasting his own blood, and he is thinking, "Thorn is very nice." Similarly, those who are materialistic person, working day and night very hard, eating his own blood, and he's thinking is very happy life. That's all. Therefore they are camels.

That's all right. Have kīrtana.

Devotees: Jaya. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (obeisances) (end)