Remembering Srila Prabhupada - We have now become mad after sense

[Guest guest]

November 28th, 1975

 

Srila Prabhupada attended a morning program at the Jorbagh Colony organized by

Mr. Susil Ansal, the son-in-law of the owner of the Tiger Lock Company, Mr. S.

K. Saigal. Jorbagh is a fairly prestigious neighborhood next to Lodi Gardens,

one of New Delhi's historical landmarks. The program was held at the local

community hall -- a large, ugly, concrete building, featureless and uninviting,

with a cavernous interior reminiscent of a school hall.

 

A small but interested audience gathered to hear Srila Prabhupada deliver an

excellent lecture from the Fifth Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam on King

Rsabhadeva's instructions to His one hundred sons. As always, whether speaking

to one man or ten thousand, Prabhupada's speech was earnest and grave. He

applied himself fully to the great task of cutting through the clouds of

illusion that keep every living being firmly bound up in material existence.

 

Srila Prabhupada explained that our real problem is this body. "Nunam pramattah

kurute vikarma yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti. We have now become mad after sense

gratification. Mattah means mad, and when the prefix pra is added it means

sufficiently mad. Not only mad, but sufficiently mad, and we are engaged in

activities which are forbidden ... this is called vikarma."

 

He explained that the knowledge to free oneself from this madness depends upon

which authority one accepts. One can accept the atheistic views of

materialistic scientists, which are based on nothing more than mere

speculation. Or one may accept sastric knowledge, which is practical,

authoritative, and accepted by all the great thinkers and saintly persons.

 

Challenging those who accept the views of the scientists, Prabhupada cited an

example from sastra that describes the moon as farther way from earth than the

sun. According to the Bhagavatam it's some 1,600,000 miles higher than the sun.

 

Scientists say that the sun is 93,000,000 miles away from earth, he said,

which, if we accept, means that the moon is almost 95,000,000 miles distant.

"So," he asked, "how could the astronauts have journeyed there in only four

days? "You may say that you have not practically experimented; but what you

have experimented? You also hear from others. You believe that they have gone

to the moon planet. You have not gone. You have heard from somebody in the

newspaper, that's all. That is your authority.

 

"So if you can believe in the newspaper, then I cannot believe in sastra? It is

a different source of knowledge, but one takes one source, another takes

another source. Our source of knowledge is Krsna, or Krsna's disciples. This is

the source of knowledge -- avaroha-pantha, knowledge coming from higher

authorities."

 

Prabhupada gave a concise conclusion, frankly telling his sophisticated and

somewhat Westernized audience what their real business in life is. "You have to

accept this process of austerity by which you purify your existence. Then you

will get deathless life, eternal. This is science. This Bhagavata literature,

this Vedic literature, is giving you information how you can revive your

original, eternal life.

 

"That is the business of human life; not to become mad like hogs and dogs and

simply work very hard, 'Where is stool?' and eat it and get some strength and

then enjoy senses. This is not life. "In the human form of life if we do not

purify our existence, if we do not realize God, if we do not understand what is

my relationship with God, then we are simply wasting time living like cats and

dogs. These things should be stopped. And our Krsna consciousness movement is

meant for stopping this rascal civilization and giving you life. Thank you very

much. Hare Krsna."

 

 

- From the "A Transcendental Diary Vol 1" by HG Hari Sauri dasa Prabhuji

 

 

 

 

 

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