Remembering Srila Prabhupada - Laksahira

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December 5th, 1975

 

Prabhupada read out the verse: "sukham aindriyakam daitya deha-yogena dehinam/

sarvatra labhyate daivad yatha duhkham ayatnatah." (SB 7.6.3)

 

Sometimes speaking with his eyes closed in complete concentration and sometimes

opening them, surveying his audience, he propounded the ancient philosophy of

the Srimad-Bhagavatam in the modern context. He quoted other Sanskrit verses

profusely, cross-referencing each point with other works, such as the

Bhagavad-gita and the Puranas or the Upanisads. His explanations are always

clear and potent. Srila Prabhupada is amazingly skilled at conveying the most

profound and complex philosophical concepts in a way that anyone can easily

understand and apply. Having grasped the very essence of life, its meaning and

purpose, he can present it for the understanding of both ordinary people and

intellectuals.

 

Punctuating his lecture with analogies and vivid practical examples, he told a

story to illustrate that the sense of material enjoyment is the same for all

living beings, whether dog, hog, or human being. "There was a prostitute called

Laksahira, whose charge was one lakh of pieces of diamond. It doesn't matter, a

big diamond or a small diamond; that was her charge. So one man was suffering

from leprosy, and he was assisted by his wife, a very faithful wife. So still

he was morose. The wife asked the husband, 'Why you are morose? I am giving you

so much service. You are leper, you cannot move. I take you on a basket and

carry you. Still you feel unhappy?'

 

"So he admitted, 'Yes.'

 

" 'Oh, what is the cause?'

 

" 'I want to go to the prostitute Laksahira.'

 

"Just see! He is leper, a poor man, and he is aspiring to have a prostitute who

charges one hundred thousand pieces of diamond. So anyway, she was a faithful

wife. She wanted to satisfy her husband. Some way or another she arranged. Then

when the leper was at the house of the prostitute, the prostitute gave him very

nice dishes of food, but everything in two dishes; everything -- one in the

golden pot and one in the iron pot.

 

"So while he was eating, he asked the prostitute, 'Why you have given me in two

pots?'

 

" 'Because I want to know whether you will feel different taste in different

pots.'

 

"So he said, 'No. I don't find any difference of taste. The soup in the golden

pot, the soup in the iron pot, the taste is the same.'

 

" 'Then why you have come here?'"

 

In the same way, Prabhupada explained about distress. "If a man is a

millionaire he still suffers the same distress from typhoid fever as a poor

man. Happiness and unhappiness are the same in different pots. This is

knowledge."

 

>From these simple stories he derived a profound conclusion. "This is

foolishness. The whole world is going on like that. They are simply trying to

taste the same thing in different pot. That's all. They are not detestful, 'No

sir, I have tasted enough.' That is called vairagya-vidya -- no more tasting.

'It is all the same, either I take in this pot or in that pot.' Therefore it is

said, sukham aindriyakam, the sense pleasure, whether you enjoy as a dog or a

human being or a demigod or as a European or as an American or an Indian -- the

taste is the same. This is very important. You cannot have a better taste.

Better taste is only Krsna consciousness. It doesn't matter in which pot I am

in at the present moment. Ahaituky apratihata. You can taste Krsna

consciousness without any hesitation, without any check, without any

hindrance."

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

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