PRĀYAŚCITTA

Prabhupāda: One of our relatives, long, long ago,

he happened to be, as my grandmother..., my
cousin's, oh, grandfather. He went to England in
those old days and he became a parsiyas(?) doctor,
very... When he came home
the brāhmaṇas prescribed that "You went to
England, so you have to make this prāyaścitta and
this and so many prescriptions, and unless you
follow the prāyaścitta you cannot live at home.
Then your family will be extricated." So when these
things were presented to him he said, "Then I am
going out of home." His mother and father,
everyone requested that... (Hindi) [break]
Haṁsadūta: "Patel Pola(?) of Chicago had
observed that he was a construction worker doing
a śūdra's work. It would not become necessary to
allot the three lower castes to the foreign converts
according to their professions. This will not be an
easy task. Talking of profession reminds me of a still
graver problem—that of the occupation or
profession of the white sādhus. If I am not
mistaken, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement would
turn out legions of new white sādhus in the West
whose only aim in life would be to propitiate their
Lord Kṛṣṇa. They would be steeped in the bhakti-
rasa and would not soil their hands with doing any
work for such a mundane thing as earning a living."
Prabhupāda: They are not doing anything.
Actually they are not doing anything. They are
preaching only.
Guest (1) (Indian man): No, but he says that
legions of sādhus, such white men, persons from
West, become sādhus, then who will do this job of
earning a living?
Prabhupāda: Why he is crying? If he is hungry, let
him come here. We shall provide him. Why he is
crying for that? What business he has got to cry,
"What will they do?" What they will, that they know.
Why he is crying? What is his business for crying for
this future? If he is hungry, let him come and we
shall provide him. This is not... That is a childish
conception. "If everybody becomes sādhu, then
what will be the nature of the society?" That is,
never becomes. That never becomes. To
become sādhu and to become a Vaiṣṇava is not so
easy thing. These idle questions, why they publish? I
do not know. This is idle question. It never becomes.
Lord Kṛṣṇa personally says that "You simply
surrender unto Me." How many have surrendered
till now? Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that
"You give up everything and surrender unto Me." So
how many have done that? So this is a rascal
question, "If everyone surrenders, then what will
happen to the world?" But that will never happen. It
is very difficult to surrender. That he does not know.
(Hindi) It is not expected that everyone
become sādhu. To become sādhu is not so easy
thing, especially this nature of sādhu, pure. How
many are there? We have given the prescription that
"Give up this, give up this." How many have given
up this? So that is not possible, but still, these
nonsense questions are raised.
Haṁsadūta: Should I go on?
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Haṁsadūta: "As in India, so in the West..."
Prabhupāda: This class of question is answered...,
no, criticized... (Hindi) There was a big market,
because in the village there is haṭṭa every weekly. So
in the village one old woman, she saw, "Oh, how I
shall provide all these men at night? Where they will
sleep? So many guests has come. What can I do?"
She began to cry. So her son said, "Mother, you
don't bother. They will go away." "No, no. How can I
provide?" So in the evening he brought the mother:
"Now see." So when she saw that, nobody is there.
Theoretically, she began to cry, "Where shall I
provide all, so many guests?" And this class of
question is like that. Simply on theoretical they are
asking.
Haṁsadūta: It goes on.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Haṁsadūta: "As in India, so in the West
the sādhus will have to live on alms given by others
and will have to forego many of..."
Prabhupāda: He does not know what is sādhu. He
is not sādhu. He is gṛhastha. I have got many
professors, engineers. So they are Kṛṣṇa-bhaktas.
Are they not sādhus? The rascal does not know;
that sādhu means beggar, he knows. Arjuna became
a sādhu. He was a beggar? So he does not know
what is sādhu. Sadhu's description is
given, bhajate mām ananya...
Guest (1): This particular letter is written by a
woman. It is unnecessarily pushing the...
Prabhupāda: So it should be replied properly, that
"You do not know what is sādhu. You do not know
what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Why do you bother
yourself?" Just like one, this Jain paper has
published that "Swami Bhaktivedantaji says that
'Kṛṣṇa is everything; Hinduism is nothing.' " So
anyone who says Kṛṣṇa is everything, he is
not Hindu. Just see. Such foolishness. Go on.
Haṁsadūta: So... "The sādhus will have to live on
alms given by others and will have to forego many of
their luxurious personal needs. The coming years
are therefore going to create for Uncle Sam a
national problem of magnitude..."
Prabhupāda: You, already problem.
Haṁsadūta: "...the like of which he has not seen
before."
Prabhupāda: What...? What they are doing for the
hippies? In U.S.A. they have thousands of hippies.
They are doing nothing. That problem is already
there. Go on.
Haṁsadūta: "It will create a national problem of a
magnitude the like of which he has not seen before.
In fact, Western society is in for a great jolt.
A. Karim Saikh.(?)" Then two more letters.
Prabhupāda: But the old woman's crying.
Haṁsadūta: Do you want to hear the next letter?
This is the second letter. "I do not see why you
devoted two full pages to the article on
'Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa,' November 8th. Wearing a
plain white sari, applying sandal paste on the
forehead and wearing nose-rings do not transform
one. Churning milk gopī fashion is no way to attain
spiritual bliss. The statements made by the devotees
of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement reflect an attitude of
escapism."
Prabhupāda: Hm. Anyway, we are getting
publicity.
Haṁsadūta: (laughs) They're angry. "How can the
chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa purify the mind? It only
closes it to everything else. Purity of the mind lies in
knowing all evil and yet abstaining from it. The
escapist attitude of the devotees of the movement is
reflected in the reply of Adhikārī when he bypasses
the question of India's poverty by giving irrelevant
answers. The poverty of our country is known to all
of us. I am not an atheist, but I find it difficult to
digest the sentimentalism in the article."
Prabhupāda: What is that sentimentalism?
Haṁsadūta: I didn't read the article. That was in
the... Which paper? I think this was in a Bombay
paper. What paper is this?
Guest (1): This is Times of India.
Prabhupāda: Bombay.
Guest (1): It is published from Bombay and Delhi
both.
Haṁsadūta: Yes. I think in Bombay there was a
large article.
Prabhupāda: What about? Favorable or
unfavorable?
Haṁsadūta: It was an interview with the devotees,
if I remember, with Gurudāsa.
Guest (1): The article, original article, was quite
favorable. It was all praiseworthy and all that. That
is why these two letters say that author of that
article is unnecessarily being sentimental and this
and that.
Rebatinandan: That was the Sunday edition of
Times of India.
Haṁsadūta: November 8th.
Revatīnandan: The magazine section. Two page
particle with nice pictures. You liked it very much.
Prabhupāda: Oh, oh, yes, yes. I remember. She is
envious, that "Why two page advertisement,
publicity has been..." That's all.
Haṁsadūta: There's another letter. It says,
"Your leading article on the Kṛṣṇa cult makes
interesting reading. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupāda, the Indian founder of the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness, ISKCON, and his
American disciples repeatedly told K.R. Sundarajan,
the author of the article in the Times Weekly,
November 8th, 1970, during their brief stay in
Bombay that theirs was not strictly
a Hindu movement. They explained to him
that Kṛṣṇa was above all religions, the universal
teacher, the supreme man, the purification of the
Absolute Truth. If it is so, then why can't they go to
Pakistan and China for chanting of Kṛṣṇa's name
and ask them to vacate aggression? The soil of this
land where the great master was born..."
Prabhupāda: Now, now, we have to serve the
political, politicians. Eh? Because they cannot do, so
they are asking us.
Haṁsadūta: To do.
Prabhupāda: Such a nonsense. So we have to help
these rascal politicians. You write that, that "Do you
mean to say that Kṛṣṇa consciousness means
business is to serve the rascal politicians? We are
going every country and when we find time we shall
go to Pakistan."
Guest (1): Not for vacating the aggression, but
for...
Prabhupāda: "Not for helping the politicians who
are very much eager to join Pakistan. Our joining is
different. Even in India we have got so many
enemies like you who are
criticizing Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So there
are rascals everywhere, either in Pakistan or India.
So we are not satisfy the rascals. We are meant for
intelligent persons." Write that, like that.
Guest (1): (Hindi)
Prabhupāda: Yes? Then? Who is it? Anything
more?
Haṁsadūta: I think that's it. [break]
Prabhupāda: But we have to do in such a way that
I may not be in inconvenience. Take something. All
right. Bring something; take one piece. That's all.
Finished. You were drinking before?
Devotee: Yes, I was...
Prabhupāda: So you don't feel any inconvenience?
Devotee: No.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. You were smoking also?
Devotee: No.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. Our students, they have
very quickly given up the four principles of sinful
activity. And that is actually surprising to all these
so-called sannyāsīs also. They are surprised. They
cannot give up tea-drinking, smoking. Still, they are
passing on as spiritually advanced. They are still
servant of smoking and tea and they have become
God. Just see the fun. "Nārāyaṇa." They address one
another, "Nārāyaṇa. (laughter) You are Nārāyaṇa. I
am Nārāyaṇa. There is no trouble because you
are Nārāyaṇa." So begin. [break] Others not, your
father.
Child: My grandfather.
Prabhupāda: So aśakti...? (end)