Hare Krsna-below, in this room conversation, Srila Prabhupada talks about the Gita Nagari farm (report) which was very productive at that time (whats is like today?)
He talks about his Scottish churches college days, the professors, also about the medical profession in America and some testimony is given by devotees with personal experience with corrupt doctors. How the English made the railways and therefore moved the villagers away from local production to sell their produce in the cities, How Krsna represents and cares for the cows with His flute and Balarama the food production with His plow, how the doctors in NY wanted to do “tests” on Srila Prabhuapdas brain, how deprogrammers in America were using “shock therapy” to de program devotees and others, the climate of government sanction in some of these matters, and more……very interesting conversation.
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das
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Feb 15 1977 Mayapur room conversations
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Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually I brought you a very nice report which I think you may like to keep and show to visitors. It’s notarized, all about the production at that farm. So if anyone wants to see what…
Prabhupāda: Pennsylvania.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. And it’s a notarized report, giving everything, the value of the farm as well as the production for one year. So I can give it to Satsvarūpa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. What is that? Read. Light is not sufficient.
Hari-śauri: Get that torch in the back.
Prabhupāda: Torch?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: I originally composed this for Mahāṁśa Swami, but I thought I would bring a copy for your… You know, so when guests come. Should I read it?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: “ISKCON farm report: Port Royal, Pennsylvania, report for year 1976. ISKCON Incorporated of New York owns a prime farm in Juanita County of Pennsylvania. The land is nearly four hundred acres in size, valued at around five hundred dollars per acre, or two hundred thousand dollars. In addition the buildings on the property consist of the following: barn worth $40,000; outbuildings worth $10,000; calf barn $25,000; equipment $50,000; residential building $45,000; guesthouse and public kitchen and prasāda pavilion $75,000; and silos $20,000. Total, including land, $465,000. The purpose of this land is to produce foodstuffs to meet all the needs of the farm community as well as the needs of our temples in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. Another purpose is to demonstrate the principle of cow protection, as we are strict vegetarians and do not believe in slaughtering cows. Our herd of cows is Brown Swiss, and they are rated amongst the top one percent of dairy cow herds in the United States. All of the cows are pedigreed. Our farm holds fifty milk cows and fifty young cows, heifers. The milk cows milk an average of 40 kilos of milk per day in their first month of lactation and average 25 kilos per day over the whole year. We have 140 acres of crop land and 30 acres of pasture, the balance being woods, primarily hardwood, which is excellent for fuel. On our land we grow not only all the food for the residents but also for the cows. The following is the yield for 1976: corn-200 tons, soybeans-10 tons, barley-10 tons, oats-10 tons…”
Prabhupāda: What do you do with the soybeans?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The soybeans are ground and given to the cows.
Brahmānanda: In the winter.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In the wintertime. This way…
Prabhupāda: They’re very nutritious.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very nutritious. The cows give more milk according to how much nutritious foods you give them.
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So much of this, what we produce, is given for the cows, because the cows cannot graze year round. Because for about four or five months there’s too cold weather. Four months. So they have to have stock of food. “Oats-10 tons, wheat-10 tons.” The wheat is… You tasted the cāpāṭi.
Brahmānanda: Excellent.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Very tasty.
Brahmānanda: Nearby there’s a mill, and they grind the wheat fresh.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Brahmānanda: Near to our farm is a mill where they grind the wheat fresh.
Prabhupāda: Our mill?
Brahmānanda: No.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We are going to get one now. It is not difficult to have a mill. “Hay-45 tons.”
Prabhupāda: In India the practice was hand grind daily. The women will do that. That’s exercise for them, and they keep their body fit and beautiful.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oxen can also grind, I think. Can oxen also?
Prabhupāda: No, there is no need oxen. Individually, small grinding-chapki(?). And in the morning they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and grind. (sings) Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare… This is very nice process. Whatever they require for the day, they grind fresh. Very nice system. And actually, by this exercise, they keep their body beautiful.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Keeps them well engaged.
Prabhupāda: And engagement. Yaśodāmāyi was doing that, even she is the queen of Nanda Mahārāja, what to speak of other women. Churning milk, grinding the wheat, this is their household. We have got that picture. Full engagement. Otherwise gossiping…
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Trouble.
Prabhupāda: Trouble. And whisping for laugh. That’s all. (laughs) Whisping or whispering?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Whispering.
Prabhupāda: (chuckling) “Idle brain, devil’s workshop.” Then?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: “In the year 1976 we cultivated 5 acres of vegetables, including 24 tons of potatoes. We also have 25 beehives, which produce 100 pounds of honey per hive. There is also a fruit orchard with a 150 trees, including apples, pears, peaches, and plum trees. Lastly, we are fortunate…”
Prabhupāda: Those fruits are nice fruits.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: “Lastly we are fortunate to have two natural pure water mountain springs running continuously all year. The water is being bottled and then distributed.” And we take that water to New York.
Prabhupāda: Very digestive.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. And water sells now for a dollar a gallon now in New York. A good market.
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: “So we at ISKCON farm look forward to an even more bountiful harvest in the year 1977. This is subscribed and sworn before me by a notary public.” So it is official report.
Prabhupāda: Very good report. It is worth seeing, worth considering our… If we develop our farms in India on this basis, it will be very nice. We have got greater land. You have got 450 acres; we have got 600. No? Now it requires development.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mahāṁśa was calling for this because he said that by showing this… He wants to get a big grant of money.
Prabhupāda: They simply want money. That’s all. Money will only be supplied. Let them show some work.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Paramānanda may be able to come to help there.
Prabhupāda: Yes, to give them direction. It will be very nice. If Paramānanda comes, we can invest money without any hesitation. He has got experience.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Well, I’ll certainly… When Ādi-keśava comes here, I’ll be talking to him about this point. He may be able to come in the winter time.
Prabhupāda: Similarly, we can develop farm here also. Farm development is Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Kṛṣṇa is tending cows, and Balarāma is plowing. Therefore the plow and flute, flute for tending cows and plow for agriculture-Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. In Africa also you have got good opportunity for these farm projects.
Brahmānanda: Yes. Actually one of our members in Mombassa, he wanted to buy us a farm. Unfortunately Cyavana rejected it. Anyway, he went and bought the farm for eighty thousand, and now he’s developed it, and it’s a wonderful farm. We went there for a program. It’s very productive. He has one manager, an Indian manager, and the Africans do all the work. He has cows and mangoes, growing vegetables. He’s very thankful to us because we helped…
Prabhupāda: Gave the idea.
Brahmānanda: Yes. But he’s our good friend and supporter. He will help us in Mombassa very much.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Farm project is very nice. Kṛṣṇa gives. Kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāva-jam [Bg. 18.44]. This is economic problem solved. And brāhmaṇa, brain problem solved, and kṣatriya, protection problem solved, and śūdra, labor problem solved. Four things combined together, live peacefully, happily. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Introduce this farm project. In America there is enough scope. So much land is lying vacant. And if there are jungles, cut the jungles; use the wood. Just like our Virginia. Big, big jungles. You cut the woods, you get ground, open field, and utilize the logs for house-making. Food, shelter, everything there. In Africa, everywhere, the nature’s way. Pūrṇam idam [Īśopaniṣad, Invocation]. Everything, complete arrangement by Kṛṣṇa. We have to little work. Śarīra-yātrāpi ca te na prasiddhyed akarmaṇaḥ. If you sit idly, then you’ll starve. Otherwise everything is there. You work little and get your all necessities. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That one person, God, He’s supplying everyone whatever necessities. You have to simply work little. That is material world. In the material world you have to work. And in the spiritual world there is no question, work. Whatever you require, you desire, everything is there. Cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa [Bs. 5.29]. You get everything as soon as you desire it. You haven’t got to work. That is spiritual world. In material world, to get your necessities you have to work. You get this flower, little working. You grow the seeds, put little water, and it will be… And in spiritual world, as soon as you desire, “I want this flower,” it is ready. There also māyā is working. Māyā means energy, Kṛṣṇa’s energy. Here also energy is working. Bījo ‘haṁ sarva-bhūtānām [Bg 7.10]. Kṛṣṇa is preparing the seed. You have to work little. You cannot prepare the seed. That is in Kṛṣṇa’s hand. You cannot prepare the seed in your so-called rascals’ laboratory. That is not. Is it possible.? Hm? Why now they are so much proud with their scientific knowledge? Our Svarūpa Dāmodara is convinced this so-called scientific knowledge is bogus.
Brahmānanda: He is in Bombay now. We saw him. Girirāja wants to arrange some lectures for him at the schools and colleges.
Prabhupāda: You shall combine a few Ph.D., D.H.C., to challenge these so-called scientists all over the world. Amongst the scientists, if you speak of God, they will deride. He’ll reject you. Is it not?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: To some extent, yes. But…
Prabhupāda: No. It is prohibited to speak of God among the scientists.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But in India, if he speaks in India to the scientists, they will receive it much more readily.
Prabhupāda: Hm. In Western countries they have no brain.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, cow dung.
Prabhupāda: Cow dung. Cow dung, no. Man’s dung. (laughter) Cow dung is pure. Man’s dung. In our youthful ages we used to say, dadang dang.(?) Our one professor, Mr. Cameron, English professor, he was Scotsman. In our I.A. class or B.A. class he was… So that time Patel’s Bin(?), intercaste marriage… We were young man. We were supporting. So before the professor’s coming in the blackboard we wrote, “Dadang dang Patel’s Bin dang,” (?)and like that, in Bengali. So Professor Cameron came. He saw, “The boys, they have written something.” So he simply read it, remained silent. Then he began his teaching. Then when the hour is over, he erased the blackboard, and he wrote. He wrote in this way-jakhan tomār biye pas korbe, takhan tomār biye kote pade.(?) He wrote it and read it. So the purport is that tomār jana…. “When you’ll pass your B.A. examination, then you’ll be allowed to marry. Now you don’t talk of this Patel’s…” So we clapped him, and (laughs) it was very nice. Mr. Cameron.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He was a good professor? He was a good man?
Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. All these… We had all Scottish professors and one English professor. He was Mr. Warren. Otherwise, Mr. Scrimgeour, Mr. Cameron, Dr. Urquhart. We had all European professors.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They were a little strict. They were strict?
Prabhupāda: No, they were very good gentlemen. Dr. Urquhart was a godly man. He was so nice.
Satsvarūpa: Isn’t he the one who said the woman’s brain is thirty-two…
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. I remember. He told, the woman’s brain, thirty-four ounce, man’s brain, up to sixty-four ounce. He told. I remember. He was very saintly man, Dr. Urquhart. And before that there was one principal. He’s Watt, Mr. Watt. He was the roughest man. He’d fight with the students like guṇḍā, Mr. Watt. But he was very good manager, principal.
Satsvarūpa: Did they try to make you Christian? Like that?
Prabhupāda: No. There was Bible class, compulsory, half an hour, from one to half past one.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No Bhagavad-gītā.
Prabhupāda: Huh? No. They used to supply yearly one Bible, very nice.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Free. But no one became a Christian.
Prabhupāda: (laughs) No one. In India, in those days… [break] …all the Jains. Jains… [break]
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Only vaiśya community.
Prabhupāda: Some were, not all. And the Muhammadans, the could not convert any gentleman to Muhammadanism. Maybe one or two, say. Very… And similarly, Christian also. No high-class man became Christian. One or two. That is for some other purpose. Just like in Scottish Churches College, the Christian Indians were given more preference. There was one Mr. Raya. He would not speak in Bengali. Even if some Bengali student would like to talk with him Bengali, he would answer in English. (laughs) He was so sharp. (Bengali) (Hindi) You understand Hindi any of you? There is a song in the Howrah Bridge, pontoon bridge. So when this Howrah Bridge…, not this bridge. Up to 1900… When my daughter was married, in 1941, up to that time there was a bridge connecting Howrah and Calcutta, pontoon bridge. That we were seeing from childhood, from our birth. So this was an astonishment in India. They wrote song, (Hindi), that “How wonderful bridge this sāheb company…,” because India was being governed by East Indian Company… After mutiny, Queen Victoria took charge. Otherwise the British government was known as Company Raja Sahib, East India Company. So the East India Company, they constructed this temple, er, bridge. So there is a song, (Hindi), like that. So this East India Company… Therefore this railway was known, “East India Railway.” That is the first beginning of railway, from Calcutta to Burdwan, beginning of Ind… There was no railway in India.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: When was the railway first built?
Prabhupāda: Oh, I think about 1928, long ago, because about twenty years ago there was centenary, hundred years. So the local produce was not exported. Everything was cheap in the village because you have to consume. Whatever is produced in the village you have to consume. And these Britishers, they introduced railway and drew everything in the village to the town. And they would not sell in the village because they would get good price in the city. Otherwise in the village, everything was very cheap, very, very cheap-milk, vegetables, rice, dāl, everything. And the Britishers, they had no food. They have got only the potato. In England what they produce? No food. So everything was exported. Their policy was to supply manufactured goods and take raw materials from India. So they supplied cotton goods. They saw that all Indians are using cotton cloth. Iron they introduced. They introduced railway line, all iron, the carriage, the wheel, the road. Everything was… In this way they became prosperous. And the Indian people, they saw… They were educated because they are fond of going to pilgrimage by walking. They would go… Suppose from here, Navadvīpa, one has to go to Vṛndāvana. He would make his will, because he does not know whether he’ll come back or not. Long distance, thousand miles, you have to go by, on leg. They used to go. So they were advertised that “No. Now you’ll have not to walk. The Company, they’re making very easy going railway.” So they received it, “Oh! (Hindi)” (laughs) But their idea was to draw all the raw materials from villages and send it to England.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: But they advertised, “Now you can go…”
Prabhupāda: “Now you can go to tīrtha by nice railway.”
Brahmānanda: British Railway.
Satsvarūpa: Company.
Prabhupāda: And they thought, “Oh, how beneficial the English, British Company. They’re giving us so much facility.” And English education, they wanted to conduct their office affairs. They required some clerk. They did not want any highly educated. “Work here—ABCD—that’s all. ‘Yes, no, very good.’ Bas.” (laughs) So… And as soon as you learn “Yes, no, very good,” you get fifty rupees’ salary. So they gave up living in… That time fifty rupees is now five thousand. Yes. So they all entered school, English education—”ABCD, yes, no, very good. Bas.” And this is British policy. Otherwise India was very happy.
Hari-śauri: Śrīla Prabhupāda? Do you want anything tonight?
Prabhupāda: No.
Hari-śauri: Chānā?
Prabhupāda: No. Here is something here.
Hari-śauri: Rasagullā, yes.
Prabhupāda: If I require, I’ll take. So Gandhi discovered, and the discovery was there Surendranath Ban… That they’re exploiting us, so noncooperate. They are ruling over us by our cooperation, so let us noncooperate.” But that is a foolish policy. Poverty-stricken country, how they can noncooperate? That was not successful, but this program, Subhash Bose’s tit-for-tat, military, that was successful. They’re keeping our men as soldiers and police, and by their strength they’re ruling over India. And Subhash Bose made a plan—the soldiers and police will noncooperate. They’ll join his INA. And when they began to join Indian National Army, these intelligent Britishers could understand, “Now it is no more possible. With whose cooperation, we shall kick?” Then they made a friendly settlement. Friendly means “Divide it so that they’ll perpetually fight, and let us go.”
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: It seems like that division was simply spiteful.
Prabhupāda: That is politics.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: There was no purpose to it.
Prabhupāda: No.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What could England gain from the separation?
Prabhupāda: Gain means they are now finished. They have gained this. They have no prestige, no money.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What was their gain from dividing India and Pakistan?
Prabhupāda: Oh, that, that is enviousness.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Just spiteful enviousness.
Prabhupāda: Enviousness. Just like, you like…, who has done something wrong to you, you like to do some wrong, harm.
Hari-śauri: That was Churchill? Churchill’s policy?
Prabhupāda: At that time not Churchill. Attlee, Attlee was Prime Minister.
Brahmānanda: In Africa, Nehru, he was instructing the African leaders also how to get…
Prabhupāda: Freedom.
Brahmānanda: Freedom. So they all allowed the Indian example. So the British, they were very resentful against the Indians.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now British making “Drive away. Drive away the Indians.”
Brahmānanda: They became the leaders of the independence.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even now they are still resentful.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Even now they’re trying to drive them out of England.
Prabhupāda: Eh? Oh, yes. They’re offering some compensation, that “Take some money and go away.” Indians are prosperous in England.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Wherever they go, they are prosperous. In America now…
Prabhupāda: In South Africa also.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: In America they are afraid because the doctors, a huge percentage of the American doctors are Indians.
Brahmānanda: Now they have stopped. No more Indian doctors in America.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They won’t give any more doctor degrees to Indians, because they’re taking over the whole medical profession.
Prabhupāda: In England also, they prefer Indian medical men.
Hari-śauri: They’ve done that already. The whole medical profession runs on Indians.
Prabhupāda: They prefer. Public likes Indian medical men because they take more care.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: They’re more intelligent ’cause they know about the soul. They care about the person more.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I know. In England they like Indian doctors. And last time, when I was in London, the Civil Surgeon, he was a Bengali. This Aurobindo’s father, he was a medical practitioner. Aurobindo was born in London. He was English-born, yes. His father, Dr. Monmohan Ghosh, he was medical man there. So although he was British-born, he became enemy of the British. (drinks medicine?) Very bad medicine. (laughs)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That means good. I know when I was going to get that operation I didn’t want to go to America. I would rather have gotten it here, even though the machines may not have been so modern, the fact that the Indian doctors were here was more reassurance than the Americans. They are very…
Prabhupāda: Careless.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, one girl now… There’s a devotee named Madhusūdana. You may remember one of your disciples. His name is Madhusūdana. Anyway, his cousin has joined us in New York. So this boy, he’s married to a girl who was the chief nurse for the biggest neurosurgeon in America, who operated on Kennedy, a very big man. So she told us something about the medical profession, some examples. She said the American doctors are extremely cruel.
Prabhupāda: Cruel they must be. They’re eating meat, rākṣasas.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: She was describing that one time they were all looking at this x-ray of one of the patients who had had severe pain. And inside the x-ray they saw that during the operation they had left the scissors and scalpel in the man’s body. And all the doctors were standing there laughing, as if it was a big joke. They thought it was a big joke. For a long time the patient had had much pain in the side, and he did not know why. Then they took x-ray, and they found a scissors and a scalpel left inside, and the doctors thought it was a big joke.
Prabhupāda: Then again operated.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, another operation. Then another thing they were describing that there was a patient who was dying. There was no chance of his recovery, but still, in order to get… The man was a big man. So the television was covering because he was an important political figure. So the doctor performed a big brain operation, even though there was no purpose whatsoever, so that he could get advertised on the television as a very important doctor. And at one point he said, “Now bring in the television,” and he cut the man’s head and did a whole operation for no purpose at all. The person died anyway. But he was given advertisement that he was the most important surgeon. And they talk amongst themselves. She knew all this.
Prabhupāda: They were arranging my brain operation.
Brahmānanda: In New York. They threatened us that it must be done, that you must stay in the hospital. The refused that you should leave the hospital, and they wanted to take all these tests, spine…, put needles in the spine.
Hari-śauri: I read a story when we were in the U.S. about one doctor there. They took him to court, and they described how in order to get money, he was doing a very specialized operation on the spine. And he would tell people, for any reason at all, he would tell them that they must have this operation even when it wasn’t necessary. And he was taking at the same time eight amphetamines every day to keep himself going. And he made so many mistakes, and all these people after the operations, they would come and they were paralyzed, or one man, his skin became so sensitive that he couldn’t wear a shirt or anything because it was too painful, and another person would be crippled in another way from his mistakes that he made. And he was doing it simply on the basis to get more money. And at the same time he was living in a $100,000 house and maintaining big, big cars and like that. Then when they investigated him, they found out all these things.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The whole profession is crooked. She told that they have a cure for cancer. There’s a cure for cancer. It comes from a natural herb available in South America. But the American Medical Association has forbidden the importation of this herb, because if they import it, then all of their cancer work is finished. And they’re making billions of dollars doing cancer research. So they won’t allow this herb to be imported. It has no bad effect, but they will not allow its importation. So one of our devotees, Jayānanda, you know he has cancer now.
Prabhupāda: Ācchā?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. Oh, he has very severe case of cancer.
Brahmānanda: They say he will die from this.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: All over his body these nodule protrusions have come, big lumps growing out, cancerous growths. After Ratha-yātrā this happened. So he went into the hospital, and they nearly killed him in the hospital. Practically they killed him. They put so many tests on him that he was nearly dead. He lost fifty, sixty pounds, he was practically dead. Then when I heard, I got him out of the hospital. There’s no purpose. I could understand they didn’t know what they were doing. They were just testing. So then he went… He’s now in Tijuana, Mexico, and since taking this medicine all of the growths have gone away. Now, how long he will live, that is another matter. But immediately all of these symptoms, outward symptoms, they’re gone simply by taking this medical…
Prabhupāda: Herbs.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes, this special medicine. But this is illegal. You have to go outside the United States. Even though they know about it, they won’t allow it to come in because then they will lose so much money. This girl who joined us, she was telling the most horrible things. She said they’re all… She had to quit the profession because she could not stand to be doing this kind of work with these people, the so-called doctors. They were so cruel and cheaters.
Brahmānanda: When Gargamuni took you out of the hospital they threatened that now you will not recover, and now it is our responsibility, what we are doing. The tried to force us.
Prabhupāda: I could understand that. Therefore I said, “No, I am quite…” (laughs) They were arranging for my brain operation, very dangerous.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: This brain thing now, another thing they have done. One of the things they do now in the hospitals is they give this shock treatment on the brain.
Brahmānanda: They put electricity into the brain.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The deprogrammers are using this. They call it “psychological readjustment,” and they put electrical wires…
Prabhupāda: Yes, they put some machine in my head.
Brahmānanda: Well, that was for testing the brain waves. But this way, they put electric current into the brain…
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And burn part of the brain, destroy the brain. One girl in our temple in New York, her father is the owner of Financed Foods, which is a very big food market chain like A P supermarkets, very big, and her father owns it. So she… When she was young or before joining, she was a hippie. So her father didn’t like that she was a hippie, so he had her put in the mental institution, and for 120 days in a row every day they gave her these shock treatments, and now she cannot remember hardly anything. When we talk to her she is just like, almost like a vegetable. I mean to say she cannot function as a normal person because her brain has been destroyed. Her father was trying to make her normal. Still, she has become a devotee. Now her father has again called her, telling her that he wants to have her go to the hospital to make her more “sane.” He’s destroyed his daughter, but he doesn’t see that. I don’t know if I told you about the person in Texas. Did I tell that story?
Hari-śauri: No.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No? Recently, about a month ago… This will give you an indication of the nature of how many people are becoming in America, and especially the authorities are becoming very unjust. One man had a son in Texas and the boy was smoking marijuana. He was smoking for about a month or two. So for two weeks, when his father came to know, his father was telling him, “You should stop this smoking of marijuana,” but the boy continued to smoke it. So one night the father came into the boy’s room, took out a gun and shot his brains, killed him.
Prabhupāda: Killed him?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Killed his own son because he was smoking marijuana. He couldn’t stand that the boy was smoking marijuana. Then after killing him he went to the police and turned himself in. So he came before the judge, woman judge, and he said that “I could not help it. This boy is my son, and look what he was doing. It is abominable. I had to kill him.” And the judge said, “Yes, I can understand your feelings. It was intolerable.” And she let the man go without one day jail sentence. No reprimand even. So this is the thing that is starting to happen now, that they are lobbying in the Congress in the United States to pass laws that if someone is abnormal, then the parents should have the right to commit him to psychological treatments. Even the child may be fifty years old and the parent may be seventy years old, if the parents think that child is not sane, then they have the right to get the child committed. So this is being passed in a couple of states, and already in California…
Prabhupāda: This is very dangerous.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One of our devotees in California was kidnapped out of the airport. She was distributing books in the airport in San Francisco, and because the court gave an order to the parents that “For thirty days you can take your daughter and commit her,” so they have brought her to Arizona, where they have a special center set up for deprogramming, legal psychological tests. So for thirty days they ran these… They did some… We don’t know what’s going on there, some horrible things. Now the girl has sent a letter, and it showed that she is no longer in a devotional attitude. She said, “I’m very glad that I was rescued. Otherwise I would have been made to collect money all my life for your society, and now I’m saved from this.”
Prabhupāda: She had been dictated to write like that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, yes. But probably they did some brain thing to her.
Prabhupāda: That is brainwash.
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Some Conclusions—This all happened some 40 years ago, and things have not gotten better– but much worse.For devotees today the safest position to be– is living in the rural areas on farms where they grow their food supply and in that way are not dependent upon city life at all. Everybody hears the news these days, so much war and fighting among nations-Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, the list goes on. Drug abuse everywhere, from the common man on the streets up to politicians and others, homelessness, large corporations taking over things, etc
So if one can heed the message given to us by Srila Prabhupada our ever well wisher, then we should take his advice and get out of the cities and find a way to live in the countryside, chant the Holy Names and go back to Godhead.
Iskcon in the greater part of the world, is finished as a pure preaching organization at least for the moment, itself becoming so corrupt, starting with its leaders. So with this scenario to see, -cities decaying, fighting going on everywhere, drugs, homelessness, corruption rampant in govt, why not take Srila Prabhuapdas advice and move to the country?
We have a nice book coming out soon which will detail our journey from city to country.
Hare Krsna,
Damaghosa das