Remembering Srila Prabhupada - Tells Short Stories

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Prabhupada Tells Short Stories

 

 

"We have become first class imitator," Prabhupada told

the devotees during a Bhagavatam class in Vrndavana in

1976. Then he told a story.

 

It was 1914. World War I was in progress and the high

court judges in Calcutta were on their tiffin hour.

 

"Mr. Mukerjee," an English judge, said to Ashutosa

Mukerjee, "now the Germans are coming. What are you

going to do?"

 

"We shall offer our respects to them and invite them

to do as they will," replied Mr. Mukerjee. The answer

startled the Englishman.

 

"Why do I say that? You have simply taught us how to

be slaves."

 

Prabhupada then explained how before Gandhi, the

people of India thought that to have an advanced

civilization, they had to imitate the English fashion.

"But we should not make that a fashion," Prabhupada

said. "Guru is not a fashion. Who requires guru?

Tasmad gurum prapadyeta jijnasuh sreya uttamam -- he

requires a guru. Jijnasa. Athatho brahma-jijnasa --

that is human life. One who is interested in inquiring

about the Brahman requires a guru. One who has no

business for understanding Brahman, but simply to make

a fashion that 'I have a guru' -- that is useless. It

has no value. One must be inquisitive to understand

this spiritual science. He requires a guru. Jijnasa

means inquisitive."

 

 

 

Srila Prabhupada was on a morning walk in Tehran when

he heard a lamb crying.

 

"Why the lamb is crying? They do not give the lamb

something to eat?" Prabhupada asked. A devotee then

made a guess.

 

"No, I always hear this sound somewhere. They keep the

lambs for killing."

 

Prabhupada then explained that such killing meant that

the people were living like animals, and he told a

story.

 

A lamb was once drinking water from the side of a

lake. Across the water was a tiger. The tiger

challenged the lamb: "Why are you muddying the lake?"

The lamb replied that he was not muddying the lake,

but the tiger quarreled with the lamb and then killed

it. Prabhupada then said that people in animal

consciousness look for faults in others and create

quarrels in order to kill. Then he quoted an English

proverb: "Give the dog a bad name and hang it." In

this way Prabhupada criticized material consciousness.

 

 

 

Prabhupada once told a story to illustrate the

ksatriya spirit. Jasovanta Singh was commanding

general under Emperor Aurangzeb. In a battle,

Jasovanta Singh met defeat, so he returned home to his

palace. But the palace gate was closed. He sent a

message to his queen informing her that he had

returned home and asking why she had closed the gate.

Upon hearing the message, the queen replied, "Who has

returned home? Jasovanta Singh? No, no, it cannot be

he. Jasovanta Singh would not return home after being

defeated. He would either conquer or give up his life.

The person at the door must be a pretender." So

saying, she refused to open the door.

 

Lecture in Vrndavana, September 30, 1976; lecture in

Tehran, August 10, 1976; morning walk in London,

September 3, 1973. This story reminds us that

Prabhupada has described the meat-eaters as being

"envious" of the animals. Sometimes we are puzzled to

think why Prabhupada considered human beings to be

envious of animals. Certainly they have no pity for

the animals since they kill them, but envious?

 

>From a linguistic point of view, some interesting

research has been done on this matter by Dravida dasa.

He said that according to old usage, the word envious

once meant "malicious." This meaning was common usage

during the time Prabhupada learned English. This usage

is still listed in the dictionary, although it is not

so much current. Even in the current usage, however,

we see that the meat-eater does not allow the innocent

animal to live in peace. He is therefore envious of

the fact that the animals exist within God's graces,

not disobeying the laws of nature, and he kills them

out of malice or envy.

 

 

- From the Prabhupada Nectar by HH Satsvarupa dasa

Goswami Maharaj

 

 

 

 

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