Guest (4): Your Grace? I don't understand how it can be all right for a person to lie, even if he is a shopkeeper or a diplomat.
Prabhupāda: But you cannot do business without speaking lies; you have to do it. What can be done?
Guest (4): You can do business without speaking lies—you just don't make so much money.
Prabhupāda: That is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā. What is that? Sa-doṣam api na tyajet (BG 18.48). Even your profession is infected with so many faults, you don't agree, don't give it up. He's giving the example: the fire is so nice, purify, still there is smoke. So in the material world, whatever you do, there will be some fault. If you want faultless action, that is not possible. Therefore we cannot give up your occupational duty even there are some faults. Sa-doṣam api na tyajet.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:
- śreyān sva-dharmo viguṇaḥ
- para-dharmāt svanuṣṭhitāt
- svabhāva-niyataṁ karma
- kurvan nāpnoti kilbiṣam
- (BG 18.47)
"It is better to engage in one's own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly."
Prabhupāda: No, another, sa-doṣam api na tyajet (BG 18.48).
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sa-doṣam api na tyajet.
Prabhupāda: Hm, what is that verse?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Saha-jaṁ karma kaunteya.
Prabhupāda: Ah, saha-jaṁ karma kaunteya. You are carpenter, do it. Don't try to become a goldsmith, because you cannot do that. Remain a carpenter.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa:
- sa-doṣam api na tyajet
- sarvārambhā hi doṣeṇa
- dhūmenāgnir ivāvṛtāḥ
- (BG 18.48)
Prabhupāda: Anything you do, there is some fault. Even fire, there is smoke. Better in a particular type of occupation in which you are expert, do that, but with the result you serve Kṛṣṇa.
Dr. Sharma: Swamiji, it says also that having come to the material world—I have forgotten the verse—you cannot be without action, He says to Arjuna.
Prabhupāda: Material world means you must act, then you can live. Otherwise you will die.
Dr. Sharma: Also since every action has some fault, we will be always doing some fault.
Prabhupāda: Yes, so in spite of fault, you must act.
Dr. Sharma: There are two choices, either to surrender to God...
Prabhupāda: Surrender to God, there is no fault. That is the highest faultless action. And so long you do not surrender, anything we do there is fault. Anything you eat... That is stated:
- yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo
- mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ
- bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā
- ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt
- (BG 3.13)
Even if you prepare vegetable, not meat, still you are sinful. It is not that those who are meat-eaters, they are only sinful, and you are eating vegetable, you are not sinful, no. Anything you cook for yourself without being offered to the Deity or Kṛṣṇa, you are sinful. Bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt. Now, pacanti, you may do whatever you like to eat, but if it is not prasādam, then you are sinful. It is not the question of... Sometimes they mistake the vegetable is good, meat is not good. May be, comparative. But either vegetable or meat, if you simply cook it for your tongue's satisfaction, then it is sinful. And if you offer to Kṛṣṇa, maybe only little patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam (BG 9.26), not very gorgeous, palatable dishes, and if you eat that, then bhuñjate, again. Yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ, he becomes free from all sinful actions. As there is sin in cutting the throat of an animal, similarly, there is sin in destroying a vegetable. Maybe more or less sinful. But it is sinful.