As soon as we manufacture something that is sense gratification

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Hari-sauri, a grhastha, inquired whether artificially accepting the

renounced order could actually be indulging in another form of sense

gratification.

"As soon as we manufacture something," Prabhupada replied, "that is sense

gratification. When we think, "I want to fulfill my desire, that's all,'

that is sense gratification. It may be that I sit down under a tree or I sit

down in a palace -- the basic principle is sense gratification. The other

day I was talking about hira-cora and kira-cora. Hira means "diamond,' and

kira means "cucumber.' One is thinking, "I shall steal one cucumber,' and

another thinks, "If I steal, I shall steal the diamond.' But the stealing

propensity is there. One may think that "I am only stealing a cucumber, and

it is not very dangerous,' but in the eyes of the law both of them are

criminal. So if we manufacture a concoction -- "Yes, I have got a stealing

propensity, but I'll not steal a diamond, I'll steal kira' -- that is only

mental concoction. But he is a thief."

Jayapataka Swami: "So is grhastha life in Krsna consciousness allowing us to

steal kira?"

Prabhupada: "Yes, kira-cora. The prostitute hunter is hira-cora, and the

householder is kira-cora. That's all."

Again Hari-sauri inquired whether artificial renunciation was sense

gratification. There were different views among the disciples, and they

wanted Prabhupada to make it very clear, so that one party could not take a

quote from Prabhupada and claim it was universal.

"Renunciation is not artificial," said Prabhupada. "It is a process. We have

to give up this sense gratification. So go through a process to turn. Like

sometimes in a health club there is artificial swimming, is it not?

Artificial swimming is not actual swimming, but it is to practice."

Dayananda: "But sometimes people who renounce, they become very proud. What

is that?"

Prabhupada continued to reply that renunciation had to be actually

practiced. "Everyone must attend the mangala-arati," he said. "One must

attend this. Otherwise, no prasadam. If you are too sick, then also you

should not eat. There should not be sleeping at the time of mangala-arati

because he says he's sick, then at the time of prasadam, voracious eating."

If the devotees were looking for Prabhupada to make an absolute distinction

between grhastha and sannyasi, it was not there. He emphasized, rather, the

actual quality and the practice of the individual devotee.

 

>>> Ref. VedaBase => SPL 49: India: Unifying ISKCON