Remembering Srila Prabhupada - And in Hell, There Are No

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And in Hell, There Are No Newspapers!

 

 

As a young brahmacari in a young ISKCON movement,

Tamala Krsna asked Srila Prabhupada, "What is it like

in the spiritual word, in Krsnaloka?"

Prabhupada replied, "There are no draft boards there."

The devotees laughed at Prabhupada's witty pertinence.

Srila Prabhupada then told a story about a Christian

missionary preaching among coal miners. The missionary

began a fire-and-brimstone speech by telling the

miners that a sinful person would have to go to hell

and could only be saved if he surrendered to Jesus

Christ.

On hearing the name Jesus Christ, one of the miners

asked, "What is his number?" Since everyone in the

mining company was assigned a number, the miners could

not imagine Jesus Christ being anyone other than a

mine worker.

The missionary tried again, by describing the misery

of hell.

"Hell," he said, "is very dark and damp."

The miners looked back at the missionary without

concern. His description of hell sounded just like the

mine, which they already knew. Then the missionary

understood that he was preaching to people with a very

limited conception of reality, so he would have to

address their actual experience.

"And in hell," he said, "there are no newspapers!"

"Oh, horrible! Very frightening!" the miners

exclaimed.

Srila Prabhupada's joke made the devotees laugh, and

they also appreciated that a preacher has to think

carefully when addressing an audience and speak

according to time, place, and circumstance. But

personally, for Tamala Krsna and the other young men,

it was also a great relief to think that there was a

spiritual world where they would not be in anxiety

about being drafted into the army.

 

Tamala Krsna Goswami, interview; Bhurijana dasa,

interview.

 

- From the Prabhupada Nectar by HH Satsvarupa dasa

Goswami Maharaj

 

 

 

 

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