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In India, women or even men, those who are in the village life . . . well, I don't say all, but most of them, they obey these things right from the very childhood itself

Expressions researched:
"in India, women or even men, those who are in the village life . . . well, I don't say all, but most of them, they obey these things right from the very childhood itself"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

These things normally we say in India, women or even men, those who are in the village life . . . well, I don't say all, but most of them, they obey these things right from the very childhood itself.

Prabhupāda: Do you understand it or not? Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ. One who is not a devotee of God, he has no good qualification. You may propose that, "I am so much good, I am this, I am that," but it is all bogus thing. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ (SB 5.18.12). He's simply concocting on the mind. And so far a devotee's concerned, even you find some defect in him, he's sādhu. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ. Api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (BG 9.30). Now I find some defective state— śāstrad bhavati dharmātmā. Kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā. These defects will be out very soon. Don't bother. But because he is devotee, he's sādhu.

Indian man (4): So you mean to say, prabhu, truthfulness and honesty will come after chanting, chanting, chanting.

Prabhupāda: But those who are not devotees, there is no truthfulness at all. Here he has begun truthfulness. But one who is not a devotee, he has no question of truthfulness. He's simply concocting in the mind. Manorathena. And because he's on the mental platform, he'll do all bad things.

Indian man (4): Therefore devotee must try to be honest and truthfulness.

Prabhupāda: Devotee becomes automatically. If he sticks to the devotional principles, he'll become good very soon. Just like he has stopped . . . devotee means, just like we say, no illicit sex, no drinking or intoxication, no meat-eating. So he has adopted this, and chanting. That is perfect.

Indian man (4): Prabhu, these things normally we say in India, women or even men, those who are in the village life . . . well, I don't say all, but most of them, they obey these things right from the very childhood itself. So . . .

Prabhupāda: We are jumping to the village.

Indian (4): Well village is a little bit pure life, you know, but in the cities of course people get involved too much in . . .

Prabhupāda: Pure life, village—doesn't matter village or city. If you become devotee, then pure life. It is not that because one is living in city, therefore he's polluted; one is living in village, no. That is not. Unless one becomes devotee, there is no question of becoming good.

Indian man (1): Prabhupāda, there's a very important question in my mind all the time, that how a Godbrother should treat the Godbrother with great . . . (indistinct) . . . to produce more love of Godhead and to . . . (indistinct) . . . in them?

Prabhupāda: You show example. If other Godbrother is not treating you well, you treat him well. Then it will be right. Why you should deviate that, "This Godbrother is not treating me well, so I shall do also"? Āpani ācari' prabhu jīvera. You treat well. You show the example how to treat his Godbrother. (break) . . . Mahāprabhu's teaching,

tṛṇād api sunīcena
taror api sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ
(CC Adi 17.31)

So who is treating me good or bad, I don't want to bother about it. Let me become humbler than the grass, tolerant than the tree, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. Haribol. (break)

Prabhupāda: . . . nice garden, but if anyone wants to live here, the government will not allow. (laughter) "Go to the mill."

Indian man (1): Prabhupāda, a devotee, very often after chanting, why do they develop very, very high . . . I see a lot of devotees, they falls down back to the māyā. What is the reason?

Prabhupāda: He is not devotee. He's pretending to be devotee. One who is devotee never falls down. There are so many false devotees. He falls down.

Devotee (2): Prabhupāda? In 3.4 Bhāgavatam Lord Kapiladeva speaks about the feeling of loss, the conditioned soul in the material world when he's identifying with matter.

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Devotee (2): Kapiladeva speaks about the feeling of being lost. Is that what the psychologists say is craziness?

Prabhupāda: What is that?

Puṣṭa-Kṛṣṇa: The feeling of being lost. Kapiladeva's instructions? He wants to know if the identification with matter is the same thing as craziness.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Mūḍha. (Sanskrit) What is that verse? (Sanskrit) Everyone is working under illusion of māyā until he comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Indian man (5): Śrīla Prabhupāda, is it better for the gṛhasthas to be self-supporting and living outside the temple?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Indian man (5): Is it better for the gṛhasthas to be self-supporting and living outside the temple? Like somebody working all day and following the regulative principles?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Temple is meant for rendering service to the Lord. So if anyone is rendering service to the Lord, he can live. But not for sense gratification. Those gṛhasthas who still have desire for sense gratification, they may live outside.

Indian man (5): What about the gṛhastha's duty toward his family, like looking after his family and children? In India, like when you have a daughter you have to get her married and . . .

Prabhupāda: Yes, when you have accepted family life, you must be responsible to carry out. Not that I become family man, and all of a sudden I give up everything. No, that is not wanted. But if one is actually advanced, he can give up everything. He has no more duty.

Indian man (5): But the question comes up that you have given a vow against fire at the time of marriage that the husband will look after the wife and the family. Then how does that fit in when you leave the family all of a sudden? Is there not a responsibility to . . .

Prabhupāda: No no. Not all of a sudden. All of a sudden . . . generally you have to discharge the duties of family life, and at the ripe age, when everything is settled up, then you give up the family.

Indian man (5): So is it right that all the responsibility should be cleared up before . . .

Prabhupāda: You cannot clear up all the responsibility. Therefore up to fiftieth year. After that, whatever is done, that's all. (Sanskrit) But our philosophy is there is no question of giving up this or taking up that. Simply take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Wherever you remain, it doesn't matter—either in family life or in the forest.

Indian man (5): In the vānaprastha āśrama, after fifty years of age, what is the duty? Is it to live in the temple, or devote most of time to Kṛṣṇa, or where the wife comes in then?

Prabhupāda: Temple you should live always. Even if in family life, you must come to the temple. Temple worship is for everyone.

Indian man (4): Śrīla Prabhupāda, you wrote a lot of books, and I'm very concerned about the books. A lot of devotees, they never read the books, but they're doing the chanting. It will progress them without reading the books? Because they're the most important . . .

Prabhupāda: But suppose one is illiterate, how he'll read? How he'll read if one is illiterate? That means he has no chance, because he's illiterate? Chanting is sufficient.

Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda? Is it possible for people in the most animalistic conditions of life such as the Eskimos, who need meat to survive—is it possible for these people to become purified?

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Kirāta-hūṇāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśā ābhīra-śumbhā yavanāḥ khasādayaḥ, śudhyanti (SB 2.4.18). They can be purified, by the guidance of the spiritual master.

Jayādvaita: You've already proved that, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. (laughter)

Devotee (4): We're worse than Eskimos.

Devotee (3): Śrīla Prabhupāda? Regarding that answer you gave that somebody falls into māyā that he's pretending to be a devotee? What about the verse in the Bhāgavatam that says if a devotee falls down that he's not to be considered as the fruitive workers or the karmīs, etcetera?

Prabhupāda: Falls down means again when he revives, he'll begin from that point where he fell down.

Page Title:In India, women or even men, those who are in the village life . . . well, I don't say all, but most of them, they obey these things right from the very childhood itself
Compiler:SharmisthaK
Created:2022-09-09, 12:21:35
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1