Remembering Srila Prabhupada - 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 GoswamiPlease Chant: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

And Be Happy