Aug 14 1971 London conversations
Prabhupāda: Irritated… If your mind is in peace… If you are not indulging in intoxication, gambling, illicit sex, then your mind will not be irritated. How a gambler can be in peaceful mind? That is not possible. How a drunkard can be in peaceful mind? Agitation is for them who are simply engaged in sinful life. Those who are not engaged in sinful life, naturally they are peaceful. Their mind is not agitated. Vegetarians are naturally peaceful. Just see between a dog and a cow. (laughter). Dog unnecessarily will talk: “Gow! Gow! Gow! Gow!” (makes barking sound) without any fault. “Why you are here? Why you are here? Why you are here?” That is dog‘s qualification. A cow, so useful animal, it will never agitate. The dog has no use, but still he’s the best friend. (laughter) And cow, actually giving us milk, sending to the slaughterhouse. Just see. This is human civilization. A dog is worshiped, and a cow is slaughtered. Do you think it is civilization? Do you think? Can you support this?
Guest (1): Well, I had a friend who was a vegetarian…
Prabhupāda: No, apart from this, these two animals. One is dog, and another is cow. So dog is worshiped and cow is sent to the slaughterhouse. What kind of civilization it is? Huh?
Haṁsadūta: Animal.
Prabhupāda: Less than! Cow is supporting the whole society with milk. Every morning, without milk, we cannot live. The child, without milk, cannot live. She should be treated as mother. And they are being sent to the slaughterhouse. And still, they are thinking of becoming free from sinful life. Can anyone kill his own mother? “Oh, mother is old and useless. Let her be killed. Burden.” Is that very gratitude for the mother by the son?
Note-today my wife heard and told me a new statistic-the people in the USA feed their cats and dogs so much meat, if added up it would put them [the cat and dog people] as the 5th largest country in the world as meateaters!) What about the karma just for this one activity, what to speak of eating meat themselves?
Revatīnandana: They do that. As soon as the cow is too old to give milk, immediately slaughterhouse. I was talking to one man, he was a cowherdsman here in England. He said he couldn’t stand it. He said a nice cow, she would get old, she couldn’t give milk anymore, immediately slaughterhouse. Just like that. The most disgusting thing.
(Note-all the dairymen do the same thing around here too-we, my wife and I, are the few out here in the country that grows our own food-most of the “farmers” go to the stores and buy their food)
Prabhupāda: (people coming in) Oh. You come forward. Give him seat. Śivānanda, you come… You can sit there. Yes. So the God consciousness can be awakened if you stop sinful activities. Otherwise, it is impossible. You go on preaching for millions of years; there will be no God consciousness. There will be no God consciousness. That is the… in Bhagavad-gītā. (people sitting down) Why? You can come here, this side.
Haṁsadūta: You can sit here.
Prabhupāda: Yeṣāṁ tv anta–gataṁ pāpaṁ [Bg. 7.28]. One who has finished sinful activities, he can be engaged in God consciousness. One who is engaged in sinful activities, he cannot. Devil citing scripture. A devīl cannot cite scripture. Angel can cite scripture. And according to our ācāryas, Sanātana Gosvāmī, he says that “Don’t hear scriptures from the devīl.” Avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁ pūtaṁ hari–kathāmṛtaṁ śravaṇaṁ naiva kartavyam.” If a devīl’s preaching about God, don’t hear.” If you say, “God is pure, so let me hear about God. It doesn’t matter whether he is devīl or angel. It doesn’t matter.” No. The argument is sarpocchiṣṭaṁ payo yathā. Just like milk is very nourishing food, but if it is touched by the lips, by the tongue of a serpent, it becomes poison. Sarpocchiṣṭaṁ payo yathā. You cannot bring the milk which is touched by the serpent’s tongue. So we should receive knowledge of God, message of God, from a person who is not a devīl. Then it will be effective. Otherwise, it will act as poison. Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s principle is āpani ācari prabhu jīveri śikṣāya. He first of all behaves himself, and then he preaches. So if the preacher is sinful, how he can deliver other sinful men by his so-called preaching. That is not possible. He must be pure, he must be sinless. Then his preaching will be effective. But in all conditions, if we, with faith and love we chant the holy name of God, we shall become gradually purified. There is no, I mean to say, cause of anxiety. Anyone who will chant this holy name, he’ll be purified.
Some Conclusions-Just see the madness is this kali yuga. In the above few paragraphs Srila Prabhupada explains two basic points. The cow is such a useful animal as everyone drinks her milk, yet they send her to the slaughterhouse when milk production is done and then they keep spending millions on cat an dog meat for their pets. Even sending them to their “pet hospitals” when sick. Just see….and we , the Hare Krsnas, are crazy people??
And his second and most important point-this same wonderful milk which everyone drinks, if it is touched by the lips of a serpent or snake, it immediately becomes untouchable for drinking purposes. Same thing for those who teach religious principles. If they are sinful, which we find out ultimately many if not most are, then whatever we hear from these people is the same as drinking milk that has touched the lips of a snake !!! This statement may be a lot to swallow for many devotees-but hey, that is what the sastra says…..
It is called kali yuga because –it is characterized by hypocrisy and quarrel. The only way out from this dilemma is to chant Hare Krsna mantra without offense and associate with those who do the same without personal motivations. For the most part that would be Srila Prabhupada thru his vani.
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das