If my mother would not have been little strict, I would not have gotten any education. My father was very lenient. So she used to force me. One man would take me to school

Expressions researched:
"My father was lenient" |"My father was very lenient" |"he was very lenient. So mother had to be little strict for my education"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Perhaps if my mother would not have been little strict, I would not have gotten any education. My father was very lenient. So she used to force me. One man would take me to school. Actually, children do not want to go to school. They want to play.

Lecture on BG 2.14 -- Germany, June 21, 1974:

I know one friend in Allahabad. He was very rich man. So he was only fifty-four years old. So he was requesting, crying, doctor, "Doctor, can you give me at least four years to live? I had a plan. I wanted to finish it." What the doctor can do? "That is not possible, sir. You must get out." But these foolish people, they do not know. But we have to tolerate. We have to tolerate. That is advised here, that "Because you have got this material body, you have to tolerate, to live within the womb of the mother." Then come out. Then I cannot speak. Suppose I am a little baby, and some worm is biting me. I cannot say "Mother"—because at time I cannot speak—"something is biting on my back." I am crying, and mother is thinking that "The child is hungry. Give him milk." (laughter) Just see how much this... I want something, and I am given something else. That is a fact. Why the child is crying? He is feeling uncomfortable. Then, in this way, I grow. Then I do not want to go to school. I am forced to go to school. Yes. At least, I was like that. (laughter) I never wanted to go to school. And my father was very kind. "So all right. Why you are not going to school?" I would say, "I will go tomorrow." "All right." But my mother was very careful. Perhaps if my mother would not have been little strict, I would not have gotten any education. My father was very lenient. So she used to force me. One man would take me to school. Actually, children do not want to go to school. They want to play. Against the will of the children, he has to go to school. Then there is examination, not only going to school. So you study the life. From the beginning of this body within the womb of the mother, it is simply troublesome. Against my will so many distresses are there.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

My mother kept a special man to drag me to the school. At that time, there was no system like in your country, school buses. One had to go to school on foot. So my father was very lenient. I was not going to school.

Lecture on SB 3.25.13 -- Los Angeles, November 10, 1968:

Śreyaḥ and preyaḥ, there are two things. One is called preyaḥ. Preyaḥ means immediately pleasing. And śreyaḥ means ultimately benefit, benediction. Generally, conditioned souls, they are attracted with immediate pleasing things. Just like children. They are attracted by playthings more than education. They do not like to go to school. They like to play the whole day. In my childhood also, I was very naughty boy, and I was not going to school. And my mother kept a special man to drag me to the school. At that time, there was no system like in your country, school buses. One had to go to school on foot. So my father was very lenient. I was not going to school. Preyaḥ, pleasing. Children like to play. Similarly, there are two paths, śreyaḥ and preyaḥ. So śreyaḥ means... Preyaḥ means sense gratification. We have got our senses, material senses, and we want to satisfy them without consideration, the sequence, the bad results of sense gratification.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

In my childhood I was not willing to go to the schools. My mother forced, by force she used to... My father was lenient and my mother kept a special man that, "Your duty is to take him by force to the school."

Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: Mūḍha. There is no education, there is no check, therefore people remain duṣkṛtina, sinful, mūḍha, rascal, lowest of the men, narādhama, and their so-called education has no value, there is no real knowledge, therefore they are suffering. Why the government keeps police department? To check these sinful activities. But they do not know what is sinful activity. They are allowed to continue sinful activity.

Dayānanda: They judge everything on the basis of what is good for humanity

Prabhupāda: But they do not know what is good because they are uneducated rascals. What do they know what is good for humanity?

Dayānanda: Whatever gives pleasure to the greatest number of people.

Prabhupāda: Pleasure... So that is child. The child also feels pleasure with something. But it is the duty of the parent to train him to the right point of view. The child takes pleasure playing the whole day. But the father does not allow him. If you leave, let the child seeks his own pleasure, then you are spoiling him. Then there is no need of becoming your father, guardian, let him be spoiled by his whimsical pleasure. There is no need of training, schooling, colleges. There is no need. In my childhood I was not willing to go to the schools. My mother forced, by force she used to... My father was lenient and my mother kept a special man, yamadhara(?), that, "Your duty is to take him by force to the school." Yes. My father, my mother would complain that "Your boy did not go to school." "Oh, he did not go to school?" And I was sure he was very affectionate. "Why?" "No, I shall go tomorrow." Then father, "All right, he will go tomorrow, that's all right." But that tomorrow will never come. This is my practical. My mother forced me. So I thought, "It is pleasure. Why shall I go to school? Let me play whole day." But it is the duty of the guardian to see that this is not pleasure, this is spoiling. A child may think something pleasure, but the guardian should not think that this is pleasure. This is spoiling him. Otherwise why the guardians are required? Why government is needed, why king is needed, why father is needed, why guru is needed? Just to guide. Therefore whatever you think whimsically it is pleasure, the guru, the father, the king, the government, they should guide—"No, it is not pleasure, it is ruining. You should take like this." If the guru and father and the government, they are themselves rascals and fools, how they will guide? And that is the position. General public, they require guidance, but the guides themselves are rascals and fools, cheaters, bluffers.

My father was very lenient. So mother had to be little strict for my education.

Room Conversation About Blitz News Clipping -- August 21, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: My father never chastised me.

Hari-śauri: I think you said your mother was always very strict.

Prabhupāda: Because he was very lenient. So mother had to be little strict for my education.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

My father was very lenient. My mother forced me. She kept one man especially to drag me to the school. So force is required.

Morning Walk -- February 1, 1977, Bhuvanesvara:

Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, just like that story with the scissors, how can we force the scientists to accept Kṛṣṇa and the Bhagavad-gītā. How can we force the scientists to accept Bhagavad-gītā? The problem seems to be...

Prabhupāda: No, if it is a fact, you can force, if it is a fact. And if it is not fact, then it is obstinacy. If it is reality, you can force, just like the father forces the child, "Go to school." Because he knows without education his life will be frustrated, so he can force. I was forced. I was not going to school. Yes. My mother forced. My father was very lenient. My mother forced me. She kept one man especially to drag me to the school. So force is required.

Gurukṛpā: But that is the authority. Your parents were your authority.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Gurukṛpā: But they don't accept us as authority. They say, "I'm equal to you. Actually..."

Prabhupāda: That is another foolishness, another foolishness. Father-mother, natural guardian, they can force.