Thursday, March 20, 2014

Vote for the Hare Krishnas


November 13, 1976


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Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 
Prabhupada: ...devotion, activities. Who can take more care than the father and the mother? So you combine together, make a batch of good character, ideal character in the whole world. There is no ideal character. Everyone is drunkard and meat-eater or woman-hunter. What is the civilization? Hog civilization. [break] ...civilization. Work hard, get some money, and spend it for intoxication, illicit sex. This is civilization. Is it not? They have no idea how to make civilized.Devotee (1): I was hearing that before I left England there was some trouble in Scotland over the rules about the bars and drinking. And now they want to make a rule, a law, that the children can be allowed into the bars under their parents... They make it a big social...
Prabhupada: They allow the children sit down. They take soda water and the father-mother drinking. I have seen it. They are learning from the father and mother from the begin...
Hari-sauri: My father used to... Every Sunday they used to go to the pub, and then for Sunday afternoon, as a special treat, they would all get..., we'd be given a glass of beer.
Prabhupada: Just see. Father-mother take... Because they think it is civilization. Elderly boys, the father mother tell, "What is the wrong, illicit sex? Take woman, take car. Enjoy life." I have seen it. They know, "This is life. Why...?" Therefore they say, "Brainwash. This Swamiji is controlling their minds and brainwashing." That is their charge. Wash, ne. The brain should be operated, surgical to take out all rubbish things from the... It is called membrane?
Pradyumna: Cerebrum?
Prabhupada: Cereb?
Hari-sauri: Cerebral.
Prabhupada: Cere... Not... It is all gobar. Take out. (pause) Ne, make khicudi.
Devotee: Puspanna rice?
Prabhupada: Little, little.
Devotee: Always keep it simple, puris, one, and one other thing?
Prabhupada: No, one kind. Either puri or puspanna or khicudi, like that. You cannot make.
Devotee: Tonight I made sabji and puri.
Prabhupada: Yes. That is easiest, puri and sabji. Similarly, khicudi and sabji, puspanna and chutney, like that. Temple means feeding them with prasadam. In Bombay the Sunday feast going on?
Surabhi: We don't have so much facility to feed them because there's only the temple floor so there's always a big crowd and we have to do two shifts. So sometimes...
Prabhupada: When it will be complete, more facility.
Surabhi: Oh, yes, then it will be... Everything...
Prabhupada: Take prasadam, see drama, read books, chant Hare Krsna. Bas. And if you like, you can live with us. So where is the difficulty? Anandamayo 'bhyasat (Vedanta-sutra 1.1.12). Ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhavitabhis tabhir ya eva nija-rupataya [Bs. 5.37]. (pause) That American politician has predicted that "This Hare Krsna movement, within ten years, they will capture our government." (laughs) So do it actually. Then it will be very nice. It is not... Simply take the people in your favor; the government is yours. That they are afraid of. The young boys, they are taking Hare Krsna movement seriously, so the government can be changed in their favor. After all, it is democracy. So you can do it. You become president. You become senator. In America it is possible. And if America accepts... What about this new president? Or... Formerly I heard about him that he is religious man.
Surabhi: His mother is... She was working in India.
Prabhupada: Oh.
Surabhi: So she's very favorable towards India. She was some type of social worker.
Prabhupada: His mother? Oh. Then at least he has got some good thinking.
Surabhi: He said... There's a movie star in Bombay, and he is, he's a friend of this Carter. So Jagat Purusa is going to approach him. He's a very good friend of..., because his mother, she was working in India and she knew this family. So they have a lot of friends in India.
Prabhupada: At least let them understand the philosophy. Balavanta may see and explain the philosophy.
Jagadisa: Balavanta knows him.
Pradyumna: Did Balavanta meet him?
Jagadisa: I think so. Balavanta... There was one man, a black man who was running for mayor at the same time that Balavanta was, for Atlanta. And that black man dropped out of the race and supported Balavanta.
Prabhupada: He's a black man.
Jagadisa: Yes. Then, later on, that man he was appointed Lieutenant Governor under Carter. So Carter and this man are close, and through this man Carter knows about Balavanta and the movement.
Prabhupada: You have written one letter?
Jagadisa: Yes.
Prabhupada: Balavanta is very intelligent boy. He can do that. Bring that spring water, little. You can type this?
Jagadisa: On your letterhead?
Prabhupada: Hm, yes.
Jagadisa: Srila Prabhupada, one of the students is just about fifteen, and he's been initiated now for a year and I'd like to recommend him for second initiation. [break]
Prabhupada: ...good hope for preaching in China. I have received letter from Trivikrama Maharaja. What she is doing, Carter's mother, here? He's in India?
Jagadisa: Not anymore.
Prabhupada: Oh.
Jagadisa: She must have been a missionary.
Hari-sauri: Part of the Peace Corps or something?
Jagadisa: Oh, that's it. She worked in the Peace Corps.
Prabhupada: Peace port?
Jagadisa: Peace Corps.
Prabhupada: What is that?
Jagadisa: That's an American organization. It sends out people all over the world to help the...
Hari-sauri: Like a social worker's organization.
Devotee: Like when they have earthquakes and hurricanes in countries, the Peace Corps will go there and they will do all the nursing and doctoring and helping people get homes...
Prabhupada: So unless there is earthquake, they will not work.
Jagadisa: No, that's not the Peace Corps.
Pradyumna: They send Peace Corps... Tejas was in Peace Corps. Tejas was in the Peace Corps. He was sent to India. In Telegu Nagara he was helping with agriculture. He would go to some village, underdeveloped. He would teach them how to plant nicely, fertilize, different things.
Hari-sauri: He knows about that?
Pradyumna: Yes, he knows all about agriculture.
Hari-sauri: Why don't we send him to Hyderabad?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Pradyumna: He worked there for about...
Prabhupada: Let him go to Hyderabad.
Pradyumna: He knows all about agriculture.
Prabhupada: Mm.
Hari-sauri: And he speaks the language too.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Pradyumna: It was Kennedy's idea, the Peace Corps. Kennedy started. They started it because many young men did not want to go in the Army, but Army was forcible. So they said, "If you go in the Peace Corps, then you don't have to go in the war corps; you don't have to go in Army." So many people took that: "Oh, we'll go in the Peace Corps. We'll go as an alternative."
Prabhupada: Good idea.
Surabhi: It has lost its popularity now.
Prabhupada: Eh?
Surabhi: It is not very popular now.
Prabhupada: Why?
Surabhi: In fact, in India they have ordered to leave practically.
Prabhupada: Hm?
Surabhi: They say they had some connection with the CIA.
Prabhupada: That is politics.
Surabhi: Yes, but...
Prabhupada: He was a politician. That you cannot blame. Politics require all these things. A politician cannot be a saintly person. That is not possible. For politics he has to do so many things. That is necessary. Just like Arjuna wanted to be a nonviolent. Immediately it was condemned by Krsna, "What is this nonsense? You are a military man. Nonviolent." And similarly, politicians, they require all this. Businessman must deal in black market. It is inevitable. Otherwise he cannot improve. Because the world is bad, you, if you become honest, then you cannot make pros..., cannot become prosperous. Sate sartham samacaret.(?) Brahmana's dealing must be very straight and honest. They are not meant for politics or business. They are for transcendental knowledge. Krsna conscious person should be all-inclusive. He must be a politician, he must be a brahmana, he must be a ksatriya, he must be a sudra -- everything. All-inclusive. Because he is transcendental. In otherwise he is neither a brahmana, neither a sudra, neither a... Yes. Naham vipro na ca nara-patir na yatir va. Neither of these. In other side he is everything. That is Krsna conscious. As Krsna is sometimes cowherd boy, politician, sometimes dancing with, artist -- He is everything, not one-sided. So all food is finished?
Devotee: Yes, Prabhupada.
Prabhupada: All vegetable also.
Devotee: All vegetable, all puris.
Prabhupada: That's nice. [break] ...Hindi book or English book?
Devotee: Hm?
Prabhupada: You sold English book or Hindi book?
Devotee: Hindi magazine.
Prabhupada: Magazine only.
Devotee: Yes, everyone took magazines.
Prabhupada: Very good.
Devotee: I think there were some other books also. I didn't check that.
Prabhupada: Something he must take, he will read, understand our philosophy. [break] ...Carter is good.
Surabhi: Yes, I got a letter from Dharmadhyaksa in Surat two months ago. He was invited to the White House after our... He had an exhibition at Vancouver, that habitat. So it was a world conference of solution to life, living. So he was invited. He met some of the officials there. He was invited to Washington, but he had to wait for Carter to become the President because then it would be fifty percent more favorable because they had a relationship. There these people... Then he said there's a great chance they will help us in India. So he is going to go there and speak with the...
Prabhupada: In India.
Surabhi: No, Washington, D.C. That's in America. They invited one of our devotees there to discuss this Mayapura and all this social type of... Dharmadhyaksa. He's writing for that Back to Godhead magazine. He worked with Gurudasa together.
Prabhupada: His article, one is there?
Hari-sauri: Yes, "Simple Living High Thinking." You saw that.
Prabhupada: So he met him.
Surabhi: Not Carter. He met the government officials who were representing the United States Government at that exhibition, and they were very favorable. They were one of the most favorable, he said, the United states.
Prabhupada: Yes, our "plain living, high thinking" is very nice idea.
Hari-sauri: Actually it's the only practical solution.
Jagadisa: Mr. Carter is a farmer, peanut farmer.
Prabhupada: Oh.
Jagadisa: That's how he gained his money.
Surabhi: He's the biggest peanut farmer in America. (laughs)
Pradyumna: He started out in the military, he was in the Navy. Then afterwards... His father had a peanut farm, and then his father became sick, so then he gave up his Navy thing. He came back to take care of the family. Then he began that peanut business. Now he doesn't have to do it any more because now he has made millions. He is wealthy man, very wealthy. [break]
Prabhupada: ...capture American government. Then all world will follow. As they are known as Communists, we should be known as Hare Krsnas. We are already known as such, Hare Krsnas. Keep that name. People at least chant Hare Krsna.
Jagadisa: Hare Krsna Party.
Prabhupada: It is already well advertised all over the world. So keep this name, Hare Krsnas. "Vote for Hare Krsnas." Anywhere you live, you chant Hare Krsna. All right, you can go. (end)
 
>>> Ref. VedaBase => Room Conversation -- November 13, 1976, Vrndavana
© 2001 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.

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