April 10 1974 Bombay
Prabhupāda: Anna-vastra, anna-vastra-dhana. Charity means to give in charity anna and vastra and cows. [break] …give in charity some paper, one hundred rupees. (laughs) Another cheating. And he is also satisfied, “One hundred rupees.” What is this one hundred? It is a paper, a piece of paper. [break] …earned, black market, white market. Because when one does business, he has to do it, but it should be purified. I have seen the Marwaris, they do that. Although when earning money, they don’t care, they do anything, but they give in charity. [break] …purify the body by taking bath, similarly, the wealth is purified by the charity process, giving it to the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas. Just like Rūpa Gosvāmī. He accumulated much wealth. He brought in a big boat, all gold coins. So… So he distributed fifty percent to the brāhmaṇa and Vaiṣṇava and twenty-five percent he gave to the relatives, and twenty-five percent he kept for his personal emergency. This is example shown by Rūpa Gosvāmī. [break] Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam [Bg. 18.44]. So where is that vaiśya, giving protection to the cows? Although they were village men, they were very rich. That is the old Vedic civilization. Now you go to the village—all poor. The cows are skinny, people have no home, no nice cloth. This is the position. And we are still advanced, advanced. They are proud of “advanced.” And here is the… Just hear the description of the village, with cows only. So how much fallen we have become, we can just imagine.
