Āsakti means attachment, love. Mayy āsakta-manāḥ. Mind attached to Kṛṣṇa in love. Yogaṁ yuñjan mad-āśrayaḥ. And performing the bhakti-yoga, mad-āśrayaḥ, under the disciplinary action by a bona fide spiritual master, mad-āśrayaḥ. Asaṁśayaṁ samagraṁ māṁ: "Then he can understand without any doubt and fully what I am." That means one who has not understood Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he has not found the yoga properly. And why? That is mad-āśrayaḥ, he does not follow the disciplic succession. Mad āśrayaḥ. And in the beginning, in Fourth Chapter it is said, evaṁ paramparā-prāptam (BG 4.2). So these foolish persons, they do not follow all these principles; therefore they cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. Anyone... We say... It may appear to be very strong word but that's a fact.
Foolish persons (Conv and Letters)
Conversations and Morning Walks
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
1971 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: So far I am personally experienced, in our childhood there were not so many problems. Now India is faced with so many problems on account of imitating Western civilization.
Guest: Not simply because of the increased population?
Prabhupāda: There is no question of increased population. This is, I say always, this is foolishness.
Guest: That's foolish?
Prabhupāda: Yes. When you say "increase of population," it is a proposal of foolish persons.
Guest: Oh, so someone, someone who's foolish...
Prabhupāda: No. Even the... Just like the birds and beast, they are also increasing their population. Yes. If you find one hole in the room, millions of ants will come out. So who is giving their food? There are millions of elephants in the forest. Who is giving their food? There are millions and trillions... There are 8,400,000 species of life. Out of that, eight million species are other than human being, and 400,000 species human being. Out of that, civilized persons are very few. And all the problems are in the civilized, so-called civilized population.
1972 Conversations and Morning Walks
Bob: So what is on earth, though, is not māyā. It is...
Prabhupāda: māyā means energy.
Bob: It means energy.
Prabhupāda: Yes. māyā, another meaning: illusion. So foolish persons, the energy is accepted as the energetic. That is māyā. Just like sunshine. Sunshine enters your room. Sunshine is the energy of the sun. But because the sunshine has entered in your room you cannot say the sun has entered. If sun enters, then your room and yourself, everything will be finished immediately. (laughter) You'll not have the leisure to understand that sun has entered.
Prabhupāda: If the chance comes as soon as the necessity is there, then we have to admit immediately God.
Śyāmasundara: Yes. Oh.
Prabhupāda: Because in the Bhagavad-gītā we hear, mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanam that God is in everyone's heart as Supersoul. Now, I am thinking of getting something. So God knows immediately that "He wants to have this," so He gives me the necessary thing which appears to me as chance, without knowing God. The things are supplied by God because He is giving me all facilities to enjoy this material world to my heart's content by supplying all the ingredients. That is the material condition. So these foolish persons are taking as chance, but it is not chance. God is omnipotent. As soon as He understands that I want this, He gives me some facility so that I get it. So it is not chance. It is by arrangement of superior authority. But because they are atheists, they have no sense of God consciousness, they are taking as chance, that necessity creates that chance; automatically it is coming. Not automatically. Chance does not mean automatically. I cannot see something, but all of a sudden falls... Just like I am hungry, I want some food. So Kṛṣṇa knows it that you want some... Some way or other, the food comes to me. So it is the arrangement of Kṛṣṇa, but I see it is chance: "I was hungry and by chance the food has come." That is my less intelligence. It is not chance; it is plain. Otherwise you cannot adjust the meaning of chance in that way, that as soon as there is necessity, immediately the opportune chance comes before us.
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Why I am taking so much trouble? They are so foolish persons. Therefore Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, anitya saṁsāre moha janamiyā jīvake karaye gādhā. This so-called scientific education means people become more attracted with this temporary world and he works very hard, just like an ass. Ass, the example of ass is because the ass does not know what is his interest, but works very hard. Therefore ass example is given. Ass, he carries the washerman's cloth, tons, but not a single cloth belongs to him. He is naked. And still he is working. He does not know, "Why I am working for the washerman, carrying so much load?" That sense he hasn't got. He thinks that "Washerman gives me to eat some grasses." Although grasses are all over. That is ass. That is ass. So these scientific research workers, they are asses. He does not know that "I shall live for thirty years. So what is the use of my research work?" But intelligent man will say, "Let me utilize this thirty years to prepare for my next life." That is intelligence. But they. But they have no idea of the next life.
Prabhupāda: So brahma-jijñāsā is not for everyone. Brahma-jijñāsā. And for brahma-jijñāsā one should make a guru, not for any material welfare. If I get some money, if some guru gives me some money, some gold, I think he is Bhagavān. Because I am attached to this gold and material things. That is not śreyas. But people like that. If somebody by miracles give you some money, some gold, they think, "Oh, here is God. Here is God, here is God." But that is not śreyas. And if gold is the standard of happiness, then... There are many persons, Birlas and others, they possess huge stock of gold. Does it mean that they will not die? They will not suffer from disease? But foolish persons, they think, "If I get some gold, then I'll be happy." And that is foolishness. Nothing material will make you happy. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, real happiness means to approach Him.
Yaśomatīnandana: Prabhupāda, is it true that if a person is very sinful, he reduces some years from his life? If a person is very, very sinful, extremely sinful, then he reduces some...
Prabhupāda: Reduce or increase, what is the profit?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: We see the practical example. If you are alcoholic...
Prabhupāda: Even if you reduce or increase, suppose you are to live for hundred years, if you make it hundred and ten, so what is your profit? And if you are to live for hundred years, reduce time ten years, so what is the profit? You cannot live here, that is a fact, reduce or increase. This is all nonsense. What is increase? The trees, they have more longer period, increased the period, of life. Is, that kind of living is very profitable? What for increasing? To suffering? Your life is already suffering. Why you are covering this body? You cannot stand here, open body. That is suffering. You are trying to save yourself from the suffering. This is life, struggle for existence. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati (BG 15.7). Simply struggle. So if you increase your life for struggling again, then what is the profit? This is... The rascals, they do not understand. Even if you increase, what profit you will get? Your life is all suffering. So the foolish persons, they cannot understand. The real problem is how to stop your suffering, reduce or increase, it doesn't matter. But that you cannot do. You'll have to die. This is your suffering. Nobody wants to die. You have to become old man. Suppose an old man, suffering from so many diseases, and he increases his life. What is the profit there?
Yaśomatīnandana: That is what they do by heart transplant.
Prabhupāda: This is all nonsense. Stop death; then it is an achievement. That's all. Stop disease, that is achievement. But that you cannot do. What is the profit reducing, and increasing or decreasing?
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
We are created as being controlled. So instead of aspiring to become controller, if we remain controlled, that is our natural position. But some rascals, they are trying to become controller, "I am... By meditation I have become God." But if you are a God, then how you have become dog? This is going on. The cheating, the so-called swamis. Do they not say, "I am God?" Do they not say? "I am God. You are God. Everyone God."
Guest (2): No, some... Some might say that, but...
Prabhupāda: But some of them, I am talking, the some of them. Some of them are not all foolish. Some of them are foolish. So these foolish persons, they say that "I am God. You are God. Everyone is God." That is foolishness. We are not God. We are part and parcel of God, qualitatively one. But we are not the Supreme Being. We are living being but not Supreme Being.
Guest (2): God is inside us.
Prabhupāda: God is inside, outside, everywhere.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: This world is full of problems. I have said. If you go this way, sense gratification, then you will have only problem. And if you go this way, towards God, there will be no problem. Because nature will put forward so many obstacles if you go. Because this is not the way of life, human life. Animal life, that is another thing. But they do not know. But human life, he is given the opportunity to go towards God, but he does not take this opportunity. He goes towards animal. Then there will be problem. Nature will not excuse. "So you are given the opportunity, and you are again becoming animal? You must suffer." This is nature's way. Therefore they are suffering problems. So many directors, so many government, the problem cannot be solved. That is nature's way. These foolish persons, they should know how nature is working.
Australian devotee 3: In the western society, Śrīla Prabhupāda, people who are displaying a very bad sinful reaction in their birth are put away in institutions so they cannot be seen by the general mass of people.
Prabhupāda: Hmm? What is that?
Śrutakīrti: He's saying people that are suffering very greatly in this life—they have so many mental disorders or physical disorders—they put them in institutions so that no one can see them.
Prabhupāda: No one can see them. That means they are not suffering? (laughter) Just see how foolish persons.
Bahulāśva: We were telling him that although everything is changing, he was still existing.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now, existing, but why you are in change? That is the question. "I am existing," that we say, but we are trying to solve the problem of changing. But this changing is not very happy, to die and again accept another body and remain to, in the womb of the mother to develop that body in an airtight condition. So why these foolish persons do not take it as very miserable? And with the risk of being killed by the mother. Nowadays their abortion and killing. So is it very nice life, that you die and you enter into the mother's womb to develop another body? And that also not secure. Is that very nice life? (break) Write many articles on this subject matter and prove them that "You are all fools." (break) ...major problem, they have left aside.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Rāmeśvara: His philosophy is that Jesus Christ was crucified before he got himself married and had some children—"Therefore I am Jesus Christ again, coming to make children. I am the new Messiaḥ."
Prabhupāda: This rascal is.... And foolish persons are accepting him. How.... No, they are doing that. They are sanctioning homosex, sanctioning abortion. They've lost, Christianity and all.... (japa) This is Beverly Hills? No. Rancho Park.
Rāmeśvara: This is nearby. (break) Today, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the biggest magazine in the West United States is coming to try to get your interview at 10 o'clock, 10:30 this morning, something like that. It's called Los Angeles Magazine. It's for the West United States.
Prabhupāda: (break) And if we don't believe that they have gone to moon planet, they will reject us. They will immediately take as "Oh, these people are crazy." Even if you give sufficient reason or argument, they will not take it. That is their obstinacy.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The moon is actually illuminating.
Prabhupāda: Why it does not illuminate?
Hari-śauri: They only say it reflects the sunlight.
Prabhupāda: Kick their face with shoes. That is the only reward for them. And foolish persons accepting. Just like sun is illuminating. It doesn't require illumination from any other planet. Similarly, if earth is also illuminating, why does it require moonlight in darkness? This common sense does not come into the brain of these rascals who believe that?
Hari-śauri: They put their scientific reasoning to explain the different things.
Prabhupāda: What is their scientific reasoning? Talking like fools and rascals? If something is illuminating, why extra illumination required to illuminate.
Hari-śauri: There was one article in the Blitz where they quoted him saying, God is man and man is God.
Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: He said he is the incarnation for this age.
Prabhupāda: And where is the evidence? Anyone can say, "I am incarnation." (laughter) Any rascal can say.
Mr. Malhotra: Anyone can say. (laughing)
Prabhupāda: What is the proof? Just like this Ramakrishna, he was an illiterate priest, and at the time of his death he said to Vivekananda, that I am Kṛṣṇa, I am Lord Rāma, and he accepted. He accepted. (Hindi conversation) Let him create one motorcar. Why he's asking, "Please sir, give me car." That's all. He is such a great man; bogus. People are foolish persons, they are deviated by these bogus rascals. That is going on.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Thank you. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So if you want to give education, take it from the very beginning, ABCD, and present nicely so that people may..., can take advantage.
Guest (1): We have that līlā also, Bāla-līlā. The children chant...
Prabhupāda: Bāla-līlā also will not be understood. They will think, "What is this?" That is stated in the Śrīmad... Itthaṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena, māyāśritānāṁ nara-dārakena. Māyāśritānām. They'll not.... They'll: "What is this nonsense? A boy is playing, and they are worshiping Him?" That's it. These people will take like that, that "What is that? A boy is playing with some cows and calves, and these foolish persons are worshiping." They will take it.
Prabhupāda: Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ei rūpe brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān (CC Madhya 19.151). This information is obtained by the most fortunate person. What is the use of wandering in this way?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: That verse was in the purport. You quoted it there also.
Prabhupāda: That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's gift. Foolish persons are trying to improve. So what is that improvement? The same struggle for existence.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. I use that "survival of the fittest," I said, "But who is fit?"
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What you had said the other... And then I told them, "The four-legged..."
Prabhupāda: Four-legged dog race.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dog race.
Prabhupāda: It is a great poison. Only fortunate person, they can understand what is the value of Kṛṣṇa, only fortunate.
Correspondence
1969 Correspondence
Wherever you remain you chant Hare Krishna regularly, and your example may be followed by others. The world needs this benefit, and when you return to India there are so many ways you can convince your parents that to take to Krishna Consciousness does not mean one has to give up his worldly affairs. I know in India there are many foolish persons who think that by reading Bhagavad-gita one is apt to renounce this world. This is completely foolishness. Arjuna was a family man, a soldier, and he was directly taught the principles of Bhagavad-gita, but he never renounced the world nor the battlefield. I do not know why there are certain crazy men who think like that, that if a man becomes devotee, he will have no more interest in worldly affairs.
1970 Correspondence
Regarding "Devi Chandan", we have no use for it. It has got no place in our Vaisnava worship. So far the demigods are concerned, we Vaisnavas have nothing against them, so they may be offered all respects as part and parcel servitors of the Supreme Lord Krsna. The foolish persons may worship the Demigods as Supreme, but we see only that they are agents of the Lord and as such we may offer them our humble respects.
| Page Title: | Foolish persons (Conv and Letters) |
| Compiler: | Alakananda, Kanupriya, Matea |
| Created: | 17 of Mar, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=16, Let=2 |
| No. of Quotes: | 18 |