KRISHNA CONSCIOUS COMMUNISM

[Guest guest]

"Similarly, one is intoxicated by thinking, "I am very rich, I am very

educated and beautiful, and I have taken birth in an aristocratic family

in a great nation." That's all right, but how long will these

advantages exist? . . .

 

"Kuntidevi says that those who are intoxicated in this way cannot

feelingly address the Lord. They cannot feelingly say, jaya

radha-madhava: "All glories to Radha and Krsna!" They have lost their

spiritual feeling. They cannot feelingly address the Lord, because they

do not have knowledge. "Oh, God is for the poor man," they think. "The

poor do not have sufficient food. Let them go to the church and pray, 'O

God, give us our daily bread.' But I have enough bread. Why should I go

to church?" This is their opinion.

 

"Nowadays, therefore, because we are in a time of economic prosperity,

no one is interested in going to the churches or temples. "What is this

nonsense?" people think. "Why should I go to the church to ask for

bread? We shall develop our economic condition, and then there will be a

sufficient supply of bread." In Communist countries this mentality is

especially prevalent. The Communists make propaganda in the villages by

asking people to go to church and pray for bread. So the innocent people

pray as usual, "O God, give us our daily bread." When the people come

out of the church, the Communists ask, "Have you gotten bread?"

"No, sir," they reply.

"All right," the Communists say, "Ask us."

Then the people say, "O Communist friends, give us bread."

 

"The Communist friends, of course, have brought a whole truckload of

bread, and they say, "Take as much as you like. Now, who is better - the

Communists or your God?"

 

"Because the people are not very intelligent, they reply, "Oh, you are

better." They don't have the intelligence to inquire, "You rascals,

wherefrom have you brought this bread? Have you manufactured it in your

factory? Can your factory manufacture grains?" Because they are sudras

(people who have very little intelligence), they don't ask these

questions. A brahmana, however, one who is advanced in intelligence [ie.

Srila Prabhupada, the best Brahmana] will immediately inquire, "You

rascals, wherefrom have you brought this bread? You cannot manufacture

bread. You have simply taken the wheat given by God and transformed it,

bt this does not mean that it has become your property."

 

Simply transforming one thing into something else does not make the

final product one's own property. For example, if I give a carpenter

some wood, some tools, and a salary and he makes me a very beautiful

closet, to whom will the closet belong - to the carpenter or to me, the

person who has supplied the ingredients? The carpenter cannot say,

"Because I have transformed this wood into such a nice closet, it is

mine." Similarly, we should say to atheistic men like the Communists,

"Who is supplying the ingredients for your bread, you rascal? It is all

coming from Krsna. In Bhagavad-gita Krsna says, 'The elements of this

material creation are all My property.' You have not created the sea,

the land, the sky, the fire, or the air. These are not your creations.

You may mix and transform theses material things. You may take earth

from the land and water from the sea, mix them and put them in a fire to

make bricks, and then you may pile up all these bricks to make a

skyscaper and claim that the skyscraper is yours. But where did you get

the ingredients for the skyscraper, you rascal? You have stolen the

property of God, and now you are claiming that it is your property."

This is knowledge.

 

"Unfortunately, those who are intoxicated cannot understand this. They

think, " We have taken this land from the Red Indians, and now it is our

property." They do not know that they are thieves. The Bhagavad-gita

clearly says that one who takes the property of God and claims it as his

own is a thief (stena eva sah).

 

"The devotees of Krsna, therefore, have their own form of communism.

According to KRSNA CONSCIOUS COMMUNISM, everything belongs to God. Just

as the Russian and Chinese Communists think that everything belongs to

the state, we think that everything belongs to God. This is merely an

extension of the same philosophy, and to understand it one simply needs

a little intelligence. Why should one think that this state belongs only

to a small number of people? In fact this is all the property of God,

and every living entity has a right to use this property because every

living being is a child of God, who is the supreme father. In

Bhagavad-gita (14.4), Lord Krsna says, sarva yonisu kaunteya . . . aham

bija-pradah pita: "I am the seed-giving father of all living entities.

In whatever forms they may live, all living entities are My sons."

 

"We living entities are all sons of God, but we have forgotten this, and

therefore we are fighting. In a happy family, all the sons know,

"Father is supplying food to us all. We are brothers, so why should we

fight?" Similarly, if we become God conscious, Krsna conscious, the

fighting in the world will come to an end. "I am American," "I am

Indian," "I am Russian," "I am Chinese" - all these nonsensical

designations will be finished. The Krsna consciousness movement is so

purifying that as soon as people become Krsna conscious their political

and national fighting will immediately be over, because they will come

to their real consciousness and understand that everything belongs to

God. The children in a family all have the right to accept privileges

from the father. Similarly, if everyone is part and parcel of God, if

everyone is a child of God, then everyone has the right to use the

property of the father. That right does not belong only to the human

beings; rather, according to Bhagavad-gita, that right belongs to all

living entities, regardless of whether they are in the bodies of human

beings, animals, trees, birds, beasts, insects, or whatever. That is

Krsna consciousness.

 

"In Krsna consciousness we do not think, "My brother is good, and I am

good, but all others are bad." This is the kind of narrow, crippled

consciousness we reject. Rather, in Krsna consciousness we look equally

toward all living entities. As stated in Bhagavad-gita (5.18) :

 

'The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a

learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater

[outcaste]'

 

"One who is pandit, one who is learned, sees all living entities to be

on an equal level. Therefore, because a Vaisnava, or devotee, is

learned, he is compassionate, . . . and he can work in such a way as to

actually benefit humanity . . .

 

Those who are learned (panditah) do not discriminate. They do not say,

"This is an animal, so it should be sent to the slaughterhouse so that a

man may eat it." No . . .

"A Vaisnava tries to elevate all living beings to a platform of Krsna

consciousness. . .

 

"Therefore Kuntidevi says, tvam akincana-gocaram, indicating that to be

free from the intoxication caused by high birth, opulence, education,

and beauty is a good qualification.

 

"Nonetheless, when one becomes Krsna conscious, these same material

assets can be used for the service of Krsna. For example, the Americans

who have joined the Krsna consciousness movement were materially

intoxicated before they became devotees, but now that their intoxication

is over, their material assets have become spiritual assets that may be

helpful in furthering the service of Krsna. For example, when these

American devotees go to India, the Indian people are surprised to see

that Americans have become so mad after God. Many Indians strive to

imitate the materialistic life of the West, but when they see Americans

dancing in Krsna consciousness, then they realize that this is actually

worthy of being followed . . .

 

"The Krsna consciousness movement therefore offers a great opportunity

to the people of the West. They have an overabundance of the zeros of

materialistic life, and IF they simply add Krsna their life will become

sublimely valuable."

 

- TOQK pp. 55-59 by HDG Srila Prabhupada Deva KI JAYA !!!

 

sanat das