May 3 1976 fiji conversations
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It’s become the fashion of world…
Prabhupāda: Fashion? Your fashion, kick on the face! No fashion! (devotees laugh) It is a science. It is not the question of fashion, a false faith, belief. These are all rascals. Science is science. Two plus two equal to four. That’s all. There is no question of “I have no faith in this. I say five!” That will not be accepted. Two plus two equal to four. It is neither five nor three. If that truth is there, then there is faith. “God is this, and sometimes God is this”—that is no understanding of God. You must have clear understanding of God.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What is the quality of a person who is actually faithful?
Prabhupāda: He’s accepting eagerly Bhagavad-gītā if he’s really follower of God. Because there is nothing extraordinary in the Bhagavad-gītā. It is the words actually for God to speak. You may call Kṛṣṇa or otherwise, but…. Just like sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam [Bg. 18.66]. This can be said by God only. Otherwise who can say that “You give up everything; surrender unto Me”? It can be said by God only. Either you talk of Hindu or Muslim, but ask one that “If God says, ‘You surrender unto…,’ will you refuse?” Let him become Muslim or Christian. So nobody can refuse the order of God. That is faithfulness.
Guru-kṛpā: Śrīla Prabhupāda, why are there so many pseudo religions then?
Prabhupāda: There is no religion! This is the only religion.
Guru-kṛpā: Then why do they mingle at all? Why do they even get involved?
Prabhupāda: Therefore we say that one who has no faith in God, he’s a rascal, miscreant.
Guru-kṛpā: But they pretend.
Prabhupāda: Pretend? Kick them! Why you should accept pretension? Then you are a fool also. You say “pretend,” and still, you have to talk about them. That means you are also faithless. Why should you talk about the pretension? Pretension is pretension. That is faithlessness. Sometimes they pretend honest, but he’s a thief. What is this philosophy? Thief is thief. That’s all. [break] …thoroughly the science of God. That is Bhagavad-gītā. The words which is spoken in the Bhagavad-gītā, that can be spoken only by God. Nobody else can speak like that. Who can say? Who has the right to say that “You surrender unto Me”? Nobody has right. Only God can say. That is God. [break]
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Enviousness is caused by sense gratification.
Prabhupāda: Hmm?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Enviousness is caused by sense gratification.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: And in the Fifteenth Chapter of the Seventh Canto, in one verse you mention that enviousness can be given up if one gives up the tendency to sense gratification.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So we see sometimes that the Māyāvādīs, they have perhaps given up the affairs of this world, but still, they remain envious, inimical towards Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Then?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So, how…
Prabhupāda: What he has given up? (laughter) What he has given up? You say he has given up; what he has given up? “I have given up everything, but I remain proprietor.” What is this, given up? There is not, no “given up.” The contradiction’s there. One who has given up, what he has given up? He has not given up his personality. Then what he has given up? In Bengali it says that rasamba sataya chaibe tyāga,(?) (indistinct) that “In the room, whatever is there, it is yours. But I lock it, I keep the key.” (laughter) (Bengali) “I have given up.” What you have given up? You have kept the keys. So we have to accept that he’s given up? This is another foolishness. [break] So the first question will be, “You rascal, what you have got in your possession that you are giving up? If you have something, then you can give up. What you have got, first of all tell me. You haven’t got anything. Even this body is not yours. As soon as God will kick you, you have to go out. Then what is yours? You say ‘I have given up.’ What you can give up? Nothing is yours.” That is rascaldom: “I have given up everything; I kept the key.” From here, for a few days we are walking. And while going, if I say, “Now this land I give you,” where your land? Where you possess this land? This is like that. What you can give up? What is yours? You have nothing. This is nonsense. “I have given up.” First of all, prove what you have got. If you haven’t got anything, then what is to give up? This is all nonsense.
Īśāvāsyam idam sarvam [Īśo mantra 1]. Everything God’s property. So there is no question of giving up. Because everything belongs…. I also belong to God. My body, my mind, everything is given by God. Where you get this mind? Where you get this body? It is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: bhūmir āpaḥ analaḥ vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva, prakṛtir me aṣṭadhā. He claims, “It is My property. What you have got? And you are also My part and parcel. So why you are…?” This is all nonsense, that “I give up.” What you can give up? You cannot give up, you cannot enjoy. That is your position. If you enjoy, you are a thief. And if you say, “I have given up,” you are a false. Therefore sarva-dharmān parityajya [Bg. 18.66]. Somebody is thinking “I am giving up, and now I’ve taken laṅgoṭā, (?)(indistinct) I have become sannyāsī.” And whose laṅgoṭā it is? You have got still the laṅgoṭā.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The…? The…?
Prabhupāda: Laṅgoṭā means the loincloth. So what is it you have given up? And you cannot give up your body. This is made, this kṣitir ap-tejo-marud-vyoma, (indistinct) these five elements, they’re also Kṛṣṇa’s. You have got mind. Oh, that belongs to Kṛṣṇa. What you have got that you’ll give up? You have stolen everything. You don’t accept the real proprietor, and you are thinking, “I am the proprietor.” That is your fault. That is miscreant. Stena eva sa ucyate [Bg. 3.12]. It is said there. Read Bhagavad-gītā carefully, that everyone is a thief. Stena eva sa ucyate. All thiefs, rogues, rascals. That is the substance. If one does not accept God, the Supreme, and does not surrender, he is miscreant, mūḍha. Mūḍha. He does not know what does he possess, and he’s thinking, “I am giving up.” What you are giving up? You do not possess anything. A mūḍha, falsely thinking that “I am giving up.” What you have got? Nobody can give up, nobody can enjoy. This is real knowledge. Jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa: [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109] “I am servant of Kṛṣṇa. Everything possessed by Kṛṣṇa. So I’ll simply try to offer Kṛṣṇa whatever is there for His…” Just like nokara (indistinct), servant, in a house, he’s trying to satisfy the master. But the things does not belong to him. The things belongs to the master. But if he serves very nicely, master becomes pleased, “Oh, he is very faithful servant. Perfect.” Faithful means he knows that “Everything belongs to master, and everything should be utilized for master’s pleasure, not for my pleasure.” Then he’s a thief, he’s a bad servant.
Some Conclusions–Who but Krsna-God can say-“surrender to me”? No sane person can dare say such a thing. Prabhupada goes on the expose the mayavadis position or anyone who also dares to say “I have given up all the things in this world”. We dont own anything, not even the air we are breathing right now. Krsna claims it all as He states in His Bhagavad Gita which is a stand alone scripture in the world and nothing even comes close to it by comparison.
These conversations devotees had with Srila Prabhupada over the years are priceless and we can learn much from each and every one of them.
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das