Why They Are Running So Fast?

[suchandra]

Looks like Prabhupada's lectures were ahead of time and presently more up to date than ever - speed is ruling.

"We are running so fast for going to hell. This is our position, because we do not know what is the destination."

"[...]The dog is also running, and a man is also running. But a man thinks he is very much civilized because he is running on motorcar. Both of them are running, but a man has got a particular type of body by which he can prepare a vehicle or cycle, and he can run on. He is thinking that “I am running in greater speed than the dog; therefore I am civilized. This is the modern mentality. He does not know that what is the difference between running on fifty miles speed or five miles speed or five thousand miles speed or five millions miles of speed. The space is unlimited.

Whatever speed you discover, it is still insufficient. Still insufficient.

 

So this is not life, that “Because I can run in more speed than the dog, therefore I am civilized.”

 

panthās tu koti-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo

vāyor athāpi manaso muni-pungavānām

so ’py asti yat-prapada-sīmny avicintya-tattve

govindam ādi-purusam tam aham bhajāmi

[bs 5.34]

 

Our speed… What for speed? Because we want to go to certain destination, that is his speed. So the real destination is Govinda, Vishnu. And na te viduh svārtha-gatim hi vishnu. They are running in different speed, but they do not know what is the destination. Our one big poet in our country, Rabindranath Tagore, he wrote an article—I read it—when he was in London. So in your country, western countries, the motorcars and the…, they run in high speed.

So Rabindranath Tagore, he was poet. He was thinking that “These Englishmen’s is country so small, and they are running on so great speed they will fall in the ocean.” He remarked like that. Why they are running so fast? So similarly, we are running so fast for going to hell. This is our position, because we do not know what is the destination. If I do not know what is the destination and try to drive my car in full speed, then what will be the result? The result will be disaster. We must know why we are running. Running means just like the river is running in great tide, flowing, but the destination is the sea. When the river comes to the sea, then its destination gone. So similarly, we must know what is the destination. The destination is Vishnu, God. We are part and parcel of God. We are… Somehow or other, we are fallen in this material world. Therefore our destination of life will be to go back to home, back to Godhead. That is our destination. There is no other destination. So our Krishna consciousness movement is teaching that “You fix up your goal of life.” And what is that goal of life? “Back to home, back to Godhead.

You are going this side, opposite side, toward the side of hell. That is not your destination. You go this side, back to Godhead.” That is our propaganda.

 

by Drdha Vrata dasa http://www.drdhaarts.com/

 

So we have not manufactured this; this is the standard. Just like Krishna says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇam [bg. 18.66] “Why you are unnecessarily running just like dog?” That street dog, we have seen just now on the beach, he has no master.

So sometimes he is running this way, sometimes this running way, and he saw us. He knows—after all, he is a living being—that “There are some Vaishnavas. So let me go with them if they will give us shelter.” That is the purpose. He was coming. You were making, “Hut!” But he wanted some master, because a dog without master, his position is very precarious. Without master… So we are all servant. Every one of us, we are all servants of māyā. Māyā means we are servant of our desires. We are servant of our different desires. Somebody is thinking, “I shall be happy in this way”; somebody is thinking, “I shall be happy in this way.” In this way we have got different desires, and we are servant of the desires. So servant of desire means just like the street dog. He is also desiring:

“If these gentleman will accept me as his dog?” But he is going there, and he is driven away: “Hut! Hut!” He is going to some house, moving his tail, “My dear sir, will you give me some food?” “No, no.

Go away.” We are also going also: “My dear sir, will you give me some service?” “No vacancy. Get out.” This is our position. Hana māyāra dāsa kori nāna abhilāsa. Because we are constitutionally servant of God, but we have given up that service, we have now become the servant of māyā. Therefore our life is frustrated, because you do not know “What is my actual position.” Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya krishna dāsa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109]. Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s teaching, that “Why you are going door to door like a dog: ‘Will you give me some food, give me some duty? I am prepared to serve you,’ and refusing, nāna abhilāsa, and desiring again and again, this way, that way?” But I do not know what is my real destination, how I shall be happy. That information is given by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that “You are suffering in this way for a permanent service to become happy. Why you are going here and there? You are servant of Krishna. Go there.

Then you will be happy.”

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.45 - Laguna Beach, July 26, 1975